Biden makes last-minute bid to safeguard green jobs program from Trump cuts

With the Biden administration now in its waning hours, details are emerging about the lengths to which the president and his allies have gone in an effort to “Trump-proof” a host of liberal pet projects and policy initiatives.

In particular, Biden has sought to safeguard a green jobs program known as the American Climate Corps (ACC), an initiative championed by the far left, from potential cuts by the incoming Trump administration, doing so by winding it down without axing the positions within its purview, as the Daily Caller explains.

Winding down, but not disappearing

The outlet outlines the fact that the Biden administration has been working to phase out the entity known as the ACC, a public works project initially created via executive order in 2023.

The ACC is known as a program designed to hire and train individuals interested in working on climate change-related projects while receiving payment at the same time.

However, by bringing the current iteration of the program to a conclusion, the administration hopes to thwart any Trump administration attempts to cut funding for the roughly 15,000 jobs the endeavor encompasses.

Key to the effort, according to the Caller, is to eliminate the word “climate” from the program's moniker, in that it could attract the attention efficiency hunters and cost cutters in the next administration.

The key to the strategy, however, is that even if the ACC itself goes away, those employed under its auspices will retain their roles, largely because many of the programs linked to it received their funding from other agencies and departments, such as Commerce, Interior, Labor, Energy, as well as the EPA and AmeriCorps, a fact which could pose an obstacle to Trump team defunding efforts.

Detractors weigh in on ACC

Republicans have long been critics of the ACC, and likely are not fans of Biden's clandestine attempt to keep it around after his departure.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had especially biting words for the program back in 2021, when he described it as “pure socialist wish fulfillment” with little benefit for the country.

“A waste of taxpayer dollars, echoing the same pitfalls as the proposed National Climate Bank,” is how Jason Isaac of the American Energy institute explained the ACC.

Isaac went on to argue that the ACC and similar programs “distort free markets, prioritize optics over measurable results, and provide no environmental benefits. Instead of solving real problems like energy reliability and affordability, these initiatives misdirect resources that could otherwise drive innovation and economic prosperity.”

Steve Milloy of the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute opined that because Biden created the ACC via executive fiat, Trump should reverse it the very same way, something the incoming president likely hopes to do with many of the moves the current president has made during the last gasp of his administration, all in the seeming hope of undermining his successor.