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CityLab: Why Trump wants a department of Public Welfare

CityLab, June 22, 2018: Why Trump wants a department of Public Welfare

 

The Trump administration is making good on a pledge to remap the entire executive branch, announcing a sweeping plan on Thursday that would reorder federal agencies. A draft proposal that circulated widely this week would eliminate some cabinet-level agencies and consolidate others, privatize the nation’s mortgage securities market, and introduce a new federal agency with the word “welfare” in its name.

The White House’s plans are so broad—and the changes to public assistance programs so focused—that it could be considered an effort to undo the New Deal with a single org chart.

The proposal follows a presidential executive order from March 2017 authorizing Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to launch a comprehensive investigation of the executive branch and issue recommendations for reform. Implementing this plan, which would require congressional action at almost every step, is a project that could consume an entire administration. The most dramatic fix would combine the Departments of Education and Labor into a single unit.

But the Department of Education and the Workforce might not be Mulvaney’s most far-reaching tweak to the executive branch. The White House’s proposal reimagines everything from infrastructure to food stamps—sometimes in ways that threaten their viability.

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