Trump signs few laws in first 100 days as he pushes to expand executive power
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has leaned heavily on executive power to remake the federal government at the outset of his new administration, largely leaving Congress on the sidelines.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has leaned heavily on executive power to remake the federal government at the outset of his new administration, largely leaving Congress on the sidelines.
Instead of relying on members of the Republican-controlled House and Senate to pass laws to give him new authorities, Trump has sought to bypass Congress by invoking or repurposing existing laws to carry out his agenda since taking office in January. And he’s received widespread support from his party on Capitol Hill, with Democrats mostly powerless to rein him in.
Trump has so far signed just five bills into law — fewer than any president in the first 100 days of an administration since at least Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s, according to an NBC News analysis of data in the congressional record. By this time during his first term, Trump had signed 30 bills into law. In their first 100 days, Barack Obama had enacted 14 bills and Joe Biden had signed 11.
“He hasn’t signed many bills into law because the agenda of the first 100 days has not been a legislative agenda at all,” said William Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington. “Clearly the administration, before it took office, planned a whirlwind of activity for the first 100 days at a pace that was compatible only with executive action. And this is part of an effort not only to overwhelm doubters and opponents through shock and awe tactics, but also to permanently expand executive power.”
“I would say that that is the most fundamental institutional objective of Donald Trump and his administration,” he said.
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