{"id":19956,"date":"2017-01-21T04:47:13","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T04:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=19956"},"modified":"2017-01-21T04:49:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T04:49:30","slug":"trump-begins-with-action-on-obamacare-regulation-freeze-and-confirmations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/trump-begins-with-action-on-obamacare-regulation-freeze-and-confirmations.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump begins with action on Obamacare, regulation freeze and confirmations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trump begins with action on Obamacare, regulation freeze and confirmations<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

President Trump spent the evening of his first day in office ordering all federal departments and agencies to find ways to ease the economic burden of President Obama’s health care plan as Congress works to repeal and replace it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vice President Pence swore in Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus ordered government agencies to freeze any regulations that haven’t already been published.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Thank you, it’s a great day,” Trump said after the signings in the Oval Office, before leaving for a set of inaugural balls.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first-day executive actions served to signal a marked departure from the policies of the Obama administration but provided little indication of the direction Trump would chart.<\/span><\/p>\n

The executive order, titled “Minimizing The Economic Burden Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal,” directed the administration to show maximum flexibility in applying the law to states, hospitals, health insurers, patients and, notably, medical device manufacturers.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the order was couched in language like “to the maximum extent permitted by law,” leaving the particulars to legal interpretation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The regulatory freeze memo was almost word-for-word identical to a similar memo sent by President Barack Obama’s chief of staff on the first day of his presidency. And that one, in turn, was based on previous memos by Presidents George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. It ordered all agencies to hold off on publishing any regulation until Trump’s Cabinet members are confirmed and can sign off on them. The White House may make exceptions for “health, safety, financial, or national security matters.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump made no specific policy proposals during his inaugural address. So for most of the day, something as basic as the content of the White House website became an important signal to interest groups about what issues would take priority in the Trump administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Policy proposals on Trump’s revamped website ranged from increased cyber warfare capabilities to changing the terms of trade deals with other nations, issues the New York businessman discussed on the campaign trail.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also notable: There are pages on the website for the release of White House visitor\u2019s logs, ethics pledge waivers, financial disclosures and staff salaries, suggesting that some Obama-era transparency initiatives may remain in place.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the White House \u201cWe the People\u201d petition site also apparently survived the transition, with the first petition a plea for Trump to release his tax returns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump’s staff posted a variety of proposals ranging from an “American First Foreign Policy” to killing Obama’s climate action plan \u2014 plans largely echoing his campaign website.<\/span><\/p>\n

“For too long, we\u2019ve been held back by burdensome regulations on our energy industry. President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule,” reads the top issue brief on the new president’s White House website.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the top issues on the Obama website were \u201cCivil Rights,\u201d \u201cClimate Change,\u201d \u201cEconomy\u201d and \u201cEducation,\u201d Trump\u2019s site features different issues with more Trump-themed names: \u201cAmerica First Energy Plan,\u201d \u201cAmerica First Foreign Policy,\u201d \u201cBringing Back Jobs and Growth\u201d and \u201cMaking Our Military Strong Again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Various organizations expressed concern that, in wiping the Obama White House website nearly clean, the Trump team eliminated sections devoted to such issues as climate change, gay rights and civil rights in general.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The Department of Labor\u2019s crucial report on worker rights has also disappeared,\u201d said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. \u201cIf President Trump truly believes in uniting the country, now is the time to make clear whether he will be an ally to the LGBTQ community in our struggle for full equality.”<\/span><\/p>\n

After the inauguration ceremony, Trump went inside the U.S. Capitol, chatted with lawmakers and signed documents that included formal nominations of Cabinet members and a waiver that allows Mattis to become secretary of Defense. The new president also signed a proclamation declaring a “national day of patriotism,” said the new press secretary, Sean Spicer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump later issued his first formal statement as president, thanking the Senate for confirming Mattis and Kelly, and added: “I call on members of the Senate to fulfill their constitutional obligation and swiftly confirm the remainder of my highly qualified cabinet nominees, so that we can get to work on behalf of the American people without further delay.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump also resumed tweeting within an hour of his swearing-in.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We will bring back our jobs,” he said during a post-inaugural tweet storm. “We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth \u2014 and we will bring back our dreams!”<\/span><\/p>\n

The new administration’s first executive action, within an hour of Trump’s inaugural address, involved canceling Obama-backed cuts in mortgage premiums. The Obama policy would have saved home buyers hundreds of dollars a year in mortgage fees on government-backed mortgages, but Republicans in Congress have expressed concern that the cuts to premiums could leave the mortgage insurance fund without sufficient reserves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Civil rights groups also criticized an opening move of the Department of Justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within hours of Trump\u2019s inauguration, the DOJ asked a federal district court in Texas to delay a hearing scheduled for next Tuesday on whether the state\u2019s voter ID law was enacted with a discriminatory purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

Civil rights groups opposed to the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions as Trump\u2019s attorney general have warned that the new administration could reverse Obama\u2019s measures on key voting rights issues and viewed the 30-day delay request as an early example.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnly hours after inauguration and we are already seeing signs that this new administration intends to delay important litigation or shift its position in critical cases,\u201d said Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers\u2019 Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. \u201cThis is not a good sign of things to come.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After an inaugural address saying that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” Trump had lunch with members of Congress and led the inaugural parade to his new home at the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the day, Trump staff members began trickling into the West Wing, looking for their offices and trying to figure out how the phones and computers work. They included aides who bolstered Trump’s remarkable run to the presidency: advisers Steve Bannon, Hope Hicks, and Kellyanne Conway, as well as Spicer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2017\/01\/20\/donald-trump-first-day-barack-obama-white-house\/96829932\/<\/span><\/div>\n

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