Each time a new party wins the White House, the administrative state changes gears. Democratic presidents try to undo everything Republicans accomplished, and vice versa. And since Congress has delegated vast swaths of policymaking to the executive branch — environmental regulations, labor rules, etc. — these changes can be immensely consequential.
A somewhat amusing side effect of this process is the tradition of “midnight regulations”: In a frantic rush between an election and a new administration from the other party, the old president and his minions rush to finalize everything they possibly can, cutting whatever corners need to be cut. This creates some extra work for the next guy to undo, which can take a while, because the official rulemaking process can be a pain. The Trump administration undertook this task with a special zeal, leaving Biden and Co. with a tangled knot of new regulations to deal with.
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