In a recent development, Bryan Steil, Chairman of the House Administration Committee, has dispatched letters to fourteen agencies of the Trump administration.
The letters are part of an ongoing probe into the Biden administration's use of taxpayer money to fuel a get-out-the-vote operation designed to bolster Democratic candidates.
Barely two months into his presidency, Joe Biden issued an executive order that required federal agencies to register and mobilize voters. The objective, as Ben Weingarten elucidated in The Federalist, was to augment election participation among minority groups that typically lean Democratic. The order called for agencies to collaborate with "nonpartisan third-party organizations to provide voter registration services on agency premises."
Weingarten further highlighted that an analysis by Demos, now deleted but archived, suggested that the order's full implementation could result in 3.5 million new or updated voter registrations annually. This is a significant number, considering that recent presidential elections have been decided by a few thousand votes in select states.
"Federal funds should not have been used to influence our elections," Steil asserted in a statement initially obtained by The Federalist. "We had hoped the Biden administration would be transparent and cooperate with our investigation by turning over their strategic plans, but that was not the case."
The letters, first obtained by The Federalist, were dispatched to a range of agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Interior, Justice, Labor, Transportation, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, State, Treasury, and Agriculture.
The letters requested each agency to furnish "all documents that address any plan to implement" the Biden order, "all documents that support or describe the use of appropriated funds to implement" the order, and other documents related to partnerships or programs that were created as a result of Bidens order.
Steil's investigation into the so-called Bidenbucks began in May 2024 when he sought documents related to the agencies' work. However, the agencies did not provide the strategic plans. Subsequently, Steil issued subpoenas to fifteen Biden Administration agencies, once again requesting any strategic plans related to Bidens order and any third-party communications that took place as a result of the order.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump promptly rescinded Bidens executive order. David Craig, Legal Director of the Foundation for Government Accountability, told The Federalist that while rescinding Bidens order was the right move, the order has substantial tentacles across government which will take an effort from the new administration to uproot.
These Bidenbucks were used to transform federal, supposedly non-partisan agencies into get-out-the-vote machines. However, these efforts disproportionately advantaged Democrats and Democrat goals.
A memo from The Heritage Foundations Oversight Project revealed a July 2021 listening session between the Department of Justice and leftist activists to discuss how to implement Bidens taxpayer-funded get-out-the-vote scheme. The Oversight Project found that every participant whose party affiliation or political donation history could be identified by the Oversight Project was identified as a Democrat except for one Green Party member.
As reported by Weingarten, Terry Minnis of Asian Americans Advancing Justice suggested during the session that agencies develop multi-lingual voting materials and that voter registration info [be made] mandatory at naturalization ceremonies.
The Federalists Matt Kittle reported that the U.S. Department of Agricultures Food and Nutrition Service the agency that provides meals in K-12 schools was involved in a left-wing groups efforts to get voting-age students in Milwaukee Public Schools to the polls.
Kittle also reported that in New Mexico and Kansas, the Interior Departments Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schemed to use students in bureau-operated American Indian K-12 schools to carry voter registration cards home to their parents, a move that may have violated the Hatch Act, which bars executive branch employees from overt political activities on the job.
A subsequent investigation by the House Committee on Small Business found that Small Business Association (SBA) Bidenbucks voter registration events held in Michigan took place mainly in Democratic strongholds. Michigan is a key swing state. Despite claims that the SBAs Bidenbucks efforts were bipartisan, Minnesota Rep. Pete Stauber pointed out that roughly 91% of Michigan voters are registered to vote, with small business owners more likely to vote than the general population.
Stauber questioned, If the purpose of the executive order is to register voters on a nonpartisan basis, why didnt the SBA enter into an MOU with states that have lower voter registration than Michigan?
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