Chapter 2, Part 4 — Executive Office of the President of the United States
Day 7 of reading and sharing my notes on Project 2025 (the long title is Mandate for Leadership 2024: The Conservative Promise, in case you're searching for it). Here's my approach and why I’m doing this.
SUMMARY
We're finishing up Chapter 2 (Executive Office of the President of the United States) of Section 1 (Taking the Reins of Government), written by Russ Vought. I summarized his bio earlier.
This section is on the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The CEQ administers the National Environmental Policy Act.
OUTSIDE SUMMARY
According to the Environmental Protection Agency's website, the National Environmental Policy Act was passed in 1970. It "requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions." That covers permitting, federal land management, and constructing highways, among other things.
SUMMARY
Vought says the CEQ "also coordinates environmental policy across the federal government." He says the president should have the CEQ "rewrites its regulations implementing NEPA ..." and ban the use of "cumulative impact analysis."
MY OPINION
Why wouldn't you want cumulative impact analysis? Isn't the whole point to see how the impacts of a project would accumulate?
SUMMARY
Vought says "This effort should incorporate new learning and more aggressive reform options ... with the overall goal of streamlining the process to build on the Supreme Court ruling that 'CEQ's interpretation of NEPA is entitled to substantial deference.'"
MY OPINION
This doesn't seem like a conservative view to me. No one is asking what the original intent of the act was and if the executive branch has a responsibility to that intent.
SUMMARY
"It should frame the new regulations to limit the scope for judicial review of agency NEPA analysis and judicial remedies ..."
MY OPINION
I wonder what the details of that would be. I understand not making things so murky that everything has to be decided by the courts, but circumventing the legal process seems like trying to avoid checks and balances.
SUMMARY
Vought says the president should make the executive director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council an EOP appointee and should issue an executive order "to create a unified process for major infrastructure projects that includes giving project proponents more control of any regulatory clocks."
MY OPINION
Why should proponents have control of the regulatory clocks? That seems to mean rushing projects through without properly assessing their environmental impacts (which are more than just climate change. That would include things like clean water.)
SUMMARY
**-Vought says the president should issue an executive order "abolishing the existing Office of Domestic Climate Policy." Instead, there would be a senior advisor to coordinate environmental policy that would report to the president's Chief of Staff. And the president "should eliminate the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) ... and by executive order should end the use of SCC analysis."
He concludes this section:
"Finally, the President should work with Congress to establish a sweeping modernization of the entire permitting system across all departments and agencies that is aimed at reducing litigation risk and giving agencies the authority to establish programmatic, general, and provisional permits."
MY OPINION
It's no surprise that conservatives want to get rid of environmental regulations, but even many conservatives acknowledge that climate change is a threat. This seems to roll back decades of work on that front.
SUMMARY
Vought moves on to a section on the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Vought says the president's top priority must be to address the fentanyl crisis. He advocates for prevention as well as effective treatment and reducing the availability of illegal drugs in the U.S. "Disrupting the flow of drugs across our borders and into our communities is of paramount importance ..." He says the ONDCP should consult with border enforcement.
Vought says that the head of the ONDCP should be a political appointee, not a career professional. Here's his reason: "... it is vital that the ONDCP Director ensure ... that these grant programs are funding the President's drug control priorities and not woke nonprofits with leftist policy agendas."
MY OPINION
Once again, I wish they would come out and say what the woke, leftist agenda they're trying to avoid is because without a definition, I don't know if I agree or not. Generally I think it's good to have people with a lot of background in charge rather than people who are appointed because they did someone a favor or will just be yes men or women. I think it's important to have people push back, no matter who is in charge.
SUMMARY
New section on the Gender Policy Council (GPC).
Vought advocates for abolishing the GPC and every policy "produced on behalf of or related to the establishment or promotion of the Gender Policy Council and its subsidiary issues. Abolishing the Gender Policy Council would eliminate central promotion of abortion ('health services'); comprehensive sexuality education ('education'); and the new woke gender ideology, which has as a principal tenet 'gender affirming care' and 'sex-change' surgeries on minors."
MY OPINION
Okay, there's a lot here. I know this will upset people, but I think you can have differing opinions about how we care for trans youth (and youth who are just trying to figure out who they are) without being transphobic. There are other ways to give gender-affirming care than "sex-change surgeries on minors," like puberty blockers while they figure things out. Like a lot of things, I think the government should generally stay out of it and let youth, their doctors, and, in most cases, their families make these decisions.
And I know wonderful people on both sides of the abortion debate.
But there's a baby with the bathwater argument here, no matter where you stand on the debatable stuff. I don't want to go back to a world without sexuality education. It's essential for young people to get accurate information. We can argue about what should and shouldn't be included, but young people have a right to know how their bodies work. And there's a lot more to women's health services than abortion.
SUMMARY
Vought says instead, the president should create a new roll with the rank of "Special Assistant to the President or higher" to lead the president's policies "on issues related to life and family in cooperation with the Domestic Policy Council." This would promote "life and family in the United States."
MY OPINION
What about single people? Or people who can't/don't want to have kids?
SUMMARY
The last section in this chapter is on the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
MY OPINION
The role of the vice president in a second Trump term is especially interesting in light of Project 2025, considering that JD Vance has ties to The Heritage Foundation, even writing the foreword for the foundation president's book. And from his public comments, his ideas seem particularly aligned with Project 2025 from my reading thus far.
SUMMARY
"The OVP is another one of the levers that the President should use to execute his agenda."
MY OPINION
If I were vice president, I would be insulted.
SUMMARY
Vought says the vice president is unique because the VP is elected and has "his or her own economic advisers, domestic policy and national security staff, and daily intelligence briefings." Vought says the VP should be involved in policy making and have a good staff that can advise well. He mentions that the "the Vice Presidency can act as a training ground for presidential office."
He says historically the VP has been given certain initiatives. "However, OVP officials should be fully integrated into each and every process from the start of a new Administration and not have to wait to be invited to join various meetings or working groups on an ad hoc basis."
"To the extent that he or she desires, a Vice President can have a direct role in shaping Administration policy. A Vice President who regularly attends meetings and disperses staff across the interagency and policy councils is a Vice President whose voice will be heard."
MY OPINION
I find it interesting that the first paragraph talks about the president using the vice president, but the rest of the section is about how the vice president can shape their office and influence the president. Hmm.
All right, that's the end of that chapter. Next time we'll start Chapter 3, "Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy. It's written by Donald Devine, Dennis Dean Kirk, and Paul Dans (the Project 2025 director who was recently forced out).