For the better part of his term, Joe Biden’s aides and senior staff have erected ever-higher walls and tighter controls over access to the president. This raises serious questions about the influence of unelected officials within the Biden administration and of his political allies on the outside.
Is there any American who doesn’t believe that staff and unofficial advisers are collectively acting as the "president?” Happily, and with only a few weeks remaining in the Biden presidency, this concern will soon be behind us.
However, President Biden — or whoever is actually in charge at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — is still in a position to make several significant decisions before he leaves office. One need only look at the pardon of his son Hunter or his veto of a significant judicial expansion bill to see that the powers of the Biden presidency will only cease when his successor inhabits the Oval Office.
Another major policy decision that was just announced on Friday to block the proposed deal between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel illustrates this point.
The nearly $15 billion transaction, which would secure thousands of American jobs and inject billions into our economy, has been the subject of significant and unusual political wrangling. The review process under the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) — an interagency panel which screens business deals between U.S. firms and foreign investors for national security concerns — has also been corrupted in recent years by the Biden administration.
While such deliberations are supposed to be free from political influence, that is not what has happened under President Biden. In fact, despite the fact that CFIUS failed to reach any consensus regarding potential national security risks surrounding the deal, President Biden decided to block it anyway, making it abundantly clear that it was purely a political decision.
It is well known in Washington that Cleveland Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves (who stands to benefit most from President Biden’s actions) and United Steelworkers President Dave McCall have both been lobbying hard behind the scenes for a rejection of the deal.
They argue there is some national security concern. However, the president’s own Justice, State, Defense and Treasury departments have all said otherwise. By allowing these outside voices to influence his decision — a move that reeks of crony capitalism — Biden has tainted the CFIUS process.
According to recent reporting from The Wall Street Journal, Biden’s senior staff has spent much of the last four years operating behind closed doors and driving major policy decisions. White House insiders have even said that Biden has had infrequent interactions with the very members of the panel who are supposed to be informing this decision.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who chairs CFIUS, has had an arm’s length relationship with the president. Even Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — who also sits on the panel — has said his access to Biden has become "increasingly rare in the past two years.”
If the president did not meet directly with those who reviewed the deal, who did? Either way, it appears that the Biden White House staff have been meddling in the process for months.
Reports have emerged, for example, that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has been one of the main roadblocks surrounding the deal.
This raises concerns in light of her apparently close connections to Cleveland Cliffs, a competing bidder for U.S. Steel. Such potential conflicts of interest are unacceptable and further bolster the case of why Biden should have stayed out of the matter.
The American people deserve better. Oversight and accountability are the foundations of good governance, and Congress must step in to ensure that such consequential decisions are made through proper channels, with appropriate input from all relevant parties.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has thus far done great work over the past two years holding the Biden White House accountable. By investigating this matter before the next president takes charge, Congress would build upon that strong track record.
Americans elected a president to oversee major economic and national security decisions, and it is critical that we have clarity, transparency, and decisiveness in the Oval Office. With billions of dollars, thousands of American jobs, and the legitimacy of the CFIUS process at stake, the American public deserves to know that such consequential decisions were made through proper channels, with appropriate input from relevant officials, and under clear presidential oversight.
Fortunately, this national nightmare is nearly over. President-elect Trump is about to take office and once again drain the swamp of the backroom deals and political cronyism that characterized the Biden administration. Hopefully he will be able to use his savvy negotiating skills to secure a deal that is untainted by the questions surrounding the Biden administration and that supports American economic interests.
Michael Patrick Flanagan represented the 5th District of Illinois in the historic 104th Congress. He sat on the Committees on the Judiciary, Government Reform and Oversight, and Veterans’ Affairs. Prior to his Congressional Service, Michael was commissioned in the United States Army Field Artillery. After leaving Congress, Michael and his firm, Flanagan Consulting LLC, have represented both large and small corporations, organizations, and associations. In 2009, Michael took a sabbatical from his lobbying business and entered public service again with the United States Department of State in Iraq as the Senior Rule of Law Advisor on the Maysan Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Maysan, Iraq. For his work, Michael was awarded the Man of the Year by the Iraqi Courts, the Civilian Service Medal by the US Army and was also given the Individual Distinguished Honor Award. Michael is currently a consultant in Washington, D.C. and Texas. For more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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