With a lead in key states as of Friday morning, it looks like Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden might be heading to the White House, but Republicans might retain control of the Senate ― which would make it impossible for Democrats to pass ambitious legislation.
There are some big things a President Biden could do on his own, however, such as reversing a series of cuts to food and disability benefits that President Donald Trump’s administration has been trying to enact through regulations.
“If we have a Biden administration, I’m very excited to go back and look at things the Trump administration did, or proposed, and have a chance to revise a lot of that,” said Bethany Lilly, director of income policy at The Arc, a community organization that advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Trump’s Social Security Administration has proposed more frequent reviews of whether Social Security disability recipients are still disabled after they’ve already been approved for benefits, as well as overhauling the eligibility process to make it more difficult to qualify for benefits if an applicant can sit at a desk part time. Neither rule has been finalized.
“If a new administration comes in and it hasn’t been finalized, they can effectively just put a stop to it,” Lilly said. “I would expect the Biden administration to do so.”
Another rule, one that the Trump administration did finalize earlier this year, said a claimant’s inability to speak English is no longer a factor in whether the government awards benefits or decides they could get some sort of low-wage job in spite of their age and health problems. Undoing that rule would likely require another regulation, which can take a long time but is a process that the administration controls.
The administration has also unilaterally said states could impose limits on health benefits for the unemployed, changed immigration rules to disallow green cards to immigrants who use safety net programs, and suggested it would alter the annual calculation of poverty thresholds so that fewer people would be eligible for various benefits over time. | 