Presidency of Garrett Walker

whitehouse.gov

The **presidency of Garrett Walker** began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021, when he became the 47th president of the United States. Walker, a Democrat from Colorado who previously served as the 43rd governor of the state, took office following his victory in the 2020 presidential election over Republican David Rivera. He was inaugurated alongside Conrad Dalton as vice president.

## 2020 presidential election

*Main article: 2020 United States presidential election*

*Further information: 2020 United States elections, Garrett Walker 2020 presidential campaign*

Walker announced his candidacy for president of the United States in May 2019 at a campaign-style rally in Denver. His election as the 43rd governor of Colorado and subsequent reelection by a landslide margin in 2018 with high approval prompted impressions that Walker would be a front-running contender for the Democratic nomination in 2020. Some prominent Democrats declined to contend the nomination against Walker, though others did, including U.S. senator Catherine Durant. Walker won all early primaries and caucuses, though the primary became slightly more competitive when Durant won several contests. Durant's loss in the North Carolina primary ended her campaign and she endorsed Walker, who became the presumptive nominee, for the election. Walker selected California governor Conrad Dalton as his running mate, and they were nominated at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Shortly after midnight on November 4, Walker was projected to have defeated Republican governor of Florida David Rivera and thus was elected as the 47th president of the United States with 364 of the total 538 electoral votes, and 86,924,617 popular votes versus Rivera's 174 electoral votes and 76,234,798 popular votes.

## Transition period and inauguration

### Presidential transition

The transition period began when the General Services Administration issued the letter of ascertainment on November 4 which granted Walker's team access to federal resources for an orderly and peaceful transfer of power. He met with outgoing U.S. President Tom Kirkman, who declined to run for reelection due to the circumstances of the death of his wife, at the White House on November 6. Kirkman, who endorsed Walker in the election and campaigned for him on several occasions, pledged an orderly transition. The two held a meeting for nearly two and a half hours to discuss all major domestic and national security issues.

### Inauguration

 File:Inauguration of Garrett Walker.png
*Main article: Inauguration of Garrett Walker*

Walker was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States at 12:00 PM EST (17:00 UTC) on January 20, 2021, on the West Front of the United States Capitol. He was sworn in by Chief Justice of the United States Peter Koemann on his personal bible and the Lincoln Bible, completing the oath of office at 11:59 AM EST, one minute before the legal start of his term.

#### Address

 File:Walker inaugural address.png
Walker's inaugural address was focused on themes of unity and highlighting shared commonalities. Rather than laying out a political agenda, he spoke on bipartisanship and cooperation. His speech overall was characterized as a memorable presidential address rather than politically-motivated. He called for an end to differing ideological cultures by the embracing of a shared American culture enshrined through the values highlighted by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. While calling out opposing, raging ideological cultures, he also proclaimed that every action taken would impact the "future generations of American leadership," and that fostering education and growth would be a priority. Walker also spoke in favor of a national policy that put the United States and its interests first above all else by reinforcing alliances abroad but refocusing attention on the domestic sector, calling for an end to international interventionism. He asked all Americans to "always act consciously in defending democracy, individual liberty, and equal rights and justice for all," later referencing John F. Kennedy's famous quote, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," from his inaugural address.

## Administration

### Staff

 File:Walker with Cabinet.png
*Main article: Executive Office appointments by Garrett Walker*

Shortly after winning the 2020 presidential election, Walker made a series of appointments to his Executive Office. He selected Linda Vasquez as White House Chief of Staff, James Haskell as National Security Advisor, Seth Grayson as White House Press Secretary, Sam Wilcox as White House Director of Political Affairs, and Aaron Shore as a senior advisor to the president.

### Cabinet

*Main article: Cabinet of Garrett Walker*

Shortly after winning the election, Walker selected U.S. senator Catherine Durant, his primary opponent for the nomination, as secretary of state. Besides Durant, he considered U.S. Representative Frank Underwood for the position, though he ultimately felt the continuation of his term in Congress would be more beneficial. Walker also selected John Hartley as secretary of the treasury, James Murphy as secretary of defense, and Christopher Collins as attorney general. In national security, he selected Cynthia Panabaker as secretary of homeland security and Alan Hunley as director of National Intelligence.

Walker also politically diversified his Cabinet, selecting members of the opposing Republican Party. He picked William Gadot, the Republican father of U.S. Representative Alma Gadot Reinhardt and a longtime personal friend, as secretary of health and human services.

In January 2021, Walker announced his Cabinet structure. He elevated the director of National Intelligence as the chief intelligence official in the Cabinet. He removed the director of the Central Intelligence Agency as a principal advisor, instead selecting the office as a secondary advisor with the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, making up foreign and domestic intelligence.

### National Security Council

*Further information: United States National Security Council*

Walker elevated U.S. Army General Max Braegher as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and accepted the retirement of U.S. Navy Admiral Michael Chernow. He selected ADM Joe Hoenig as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs and GEN Ted Brockhart as the chief of staff of the Army. Walker selected the director of the Central Intelligence Agency as an additional participant in the council with representation in the Principals Committee while the director of National Intelligence was granted participation in both the National Security Council and Cabinet.

## Judicial appointments

*Further information: List of federal judges appointed by Garrett Walker*

Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Willard Erickson, have prioritized the confirmation of Walker's judicial nominees. By his second month in office, eight individuals had been confirmed and assumed office. Walker has prioritized centrism as a primary factor in consideration of nominees. His appointees have further shifted the judiciary to the center. Most of the individuals that he has appointed are unaffiliated with a political party, though they are mostly considered liberal on the court in terms of philosophy. Walker believes in forward thinking individuals for the courts and supports judicial reform. He rejects originalism and textualism, believing the Constitution should be interpreted by applying its principles to individual circumstances.

### Supreme Court nominations

*Main article: List of Supreme Court nominations by Garrett Walker*

Walker has made one nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States thus far into his presidency. He selected Appeals Court judge Michelle Moretti to replace a retiring justice on the bench. Moretti was confirmed 78-22 along a bipartisan-line vote.

## Domestic affairs

### Agriculture

Walker repealed some tariffs on imported materials from only Western countries for domestic farms, such as machinery and parts, lowering the cost of the goods. He has provided up to $80 million in subsidies to American farmers developing increased domestic production rates, as well as those that are developing biofuels.

### Banking reform and consumer protection

Risky practices by major financial institutions is considered a cause for the 2007-08 financial crisis and Great Recession. The administration of Cornelius Moss focused on job creation measures to respond to the crisis, leading towards economic growth, while the Richmond administration focused on the imposition of stronger regulation on the financial sectors. The lack of safeguards for consumers, however, is widely viewed as a key contributor to the severity of the market crash during the 2017 constitutional crisis. Walker overhauled the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), refocusing it as an independent agency in the U.S. government dedicated solely to consumer protection in the financial market. He repealed multiple regulations imposed by Richmond in the bureau, though he kept the rule allowing aggrieved consumers to pursue class action lawsuits against banks under certain circumstances. He signed the Regulatory Relief Act of 2022 into law, which lowered the threshold for banks deemed too important to the financial system to let fail from a capital requirement of $250 billion to $75 billion, greatly benefiting smaller banks.

### Economy

*See also: Economic policy of the Garrett Walker administration*

 **2021** | 4.4%

Walker's economic policies have centered on job expansion, balancing the federal budget, increasing domestic manufacturing, and cutting taxes for the middle class. He has pursued or intensified centrist Democrat economic policy positions that benefited the working class while simultaneously promoting business growth. Unemployment has reached the lowest level in 50 years under the Walker administration. Major tax reform and budget balancing caused the minimized deficit by the Kirkman administration to plummet.

Hours after his inauguration on January 20, 2021, Walker signed an executive order that directed the federal government's approach for economic development to small businesses. Five days later, he signed an order that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour before signing an additional order calling for the federal minimum wage to be raised to the same amount.

#### Taxation

Walker proposed sweeping federal tax overhaul in September 2021, the American Tax Reform Act. The bill raised the corporate federal tax rate from 25%, set by the Tax Reform Act of 2017, to 28%, in order to supplement middle class tax breaks. Simultaneously, the bill cut the individual federal tax rate by reducing it from 38% to 36%, although the cuts would later have to be renewed. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill would substantially assist working class Americans, with most income groups making under $80,000 a year seeing a notable tax break. Additionally, the bill eliminated numerous loopholes around tax payments.

Republicans wanted to further the individual tax cuts, originally enacted under the administration of George W. Bush, as a complete expansion. Walker and the Democrats wanted to extend the cuts to taxpayers making $330,000 or less yearly, while Congressional Republicans believed the cut should include top earners. Rather than passing the original proposal through Democratic majorities in Congress, Walker compromised with Republicans on a bipartisan bill. He agreed to extend the cuts to taxpayers making $400,000 or less annually, and the House of Representatives and Senate subsequently passed the proposal by a large bipartisan margin. Walker signed the bill into federal law in December 2021.

#### Budget, deficit, and debt

 **2021** | -$0.563

Federal government debt grew substantially during the Great Recession while government revenues dropped. Spending cuts by the Moss administration partially addressed the spiked national debt, though it continued to increase through the Kirkman administration when it slightly stabilized following bipartisan negotiations with Congress. The federal budget deficit decreased from $565 billion in 2020, when Kirkman left office, to $563 billion in 2021, due in part to minor spending cuts enacted in Walker's first budget.

Walker established a commission to investigate efforts to lower the national debt and budget deficit in January 2022. The commission published its reports in April, finding that reduced spending in healthcare, specifically Medicare, Medicaid, and scaling back of employer-provided health insurance, would produce the best result in lowering the debt. Walker disbanded the commission after it published its findings and used the opportunity to further justify his healthcare plan, which would universalize coverage under a conjoint public and private system, eliminating the required need for separate Medicare, Medicaid, and employer-provided health insurance.

#### Domestic manufacturing

Walker signed an executive order on January 22, 2021, his second full day in office, which directed federal resources towards domestic manufacturing in addition to small businesses as the primary source for job creation. The order also strengthened methods to promote domestic manufacturing. Part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 included a notable increase in investments towards domestic manufacturing development. According to experts, the administration's agenda on manufacturing would particularly harm markets in China with the severe loss in American business. Walker signed several additional orders over the course of his first year in office on the issue, including action to expand and require domestically-manufactured materials for certain projects.

#### Trade

The Walker administration has continued tariffs imposed on China for certain goods, such as solar panels, wind turbines, and other parts for renewable energy. He maintained higher prices on oil and natural gas exports to the country, which is the largest producer of fossil fuels in the world. Retaliatory hikes in prices on imports to the U.S. were avoided and would not be harmful after Walker directed domestic energy companies to increase production, as part of his separate energy agenda. Walker signed an executive order "Ensuring the Future is Made in America" on January 24, 2021, which prioritized the federal government's approach to domestic manufacturing and additionally addressed trade. The order withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, signed by the Richmond administration but not yet ratified, and directed the executive branch to maintain current free trade agreements with allies that are in force.

### Education

Walker appointed Anthony Mamula as his secretary of education. His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate with a bipartisan majority. U.S. Representative Frank Underwood introduced an education reform bill days after Walker's inauguration, which resulted in the 2021 American Federation of Teachers protests and later turned violent with an attack on his house. Walker condemned the violence but downplayed the bill and refused to comment on it, indicating he might veto it if it passed. In his first address to the U.S. Congress a month later, Walker publicly called for comprehensive education reform. He said that any proposal must include measures to fix, finance, and maintain public education in the United States.

### Electoral reform

Walker has advocated for the Twenty-eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which repeals the Electoral College as an actual body of electors and rededicates it as a system of points awarded to the winner of a state in a presidential election using the same process as is used on election night. The Amendment removes the need for state legislators to select electors and removes the ceremonial role of Congress in certifying the election, leaving the ultimate results directly to the popular vote. The system upholds the Electoral College in its primary function while removing the need for actual electors to cast ballots based on the results from the popular vote.

### Energy

The Walker administration's energy plan combines usage of fossil fuels, renewable energy, and biofuels to achieve energy independence with the ultimate goal of eventually reaching net zero energy imports. Domestic energy production has boomed under the administration, with a national average of $2.15 a gallon since Walker assumed office. He repealed tariffs on parts and components for solar panels while directing new panels to be manufactured primarily in the United States, causing the production of solar power to nearly triple by his second year. Walker also moved new wind turbines towards manufacturing in the U.S. with domestic and imported parts, causing its prices to drop.

Hours after assuming office, Walker signed an executive order that solidified the permits on all existing oil and natural gas pipelines and other infrastructure. The order simultaneously directed new federal resources towards renewable energy by ensuring all new energy projects are renewable. New oil and gas drilling leases were exempt from the requirement. Walker stated his intention to continue production of oil and gas at full capacity for primarily transportation and heating services, while he sought to drastically increase the percentage of electricity produced from renewable energy. He also ordered that newly constructed factories must run on clean natural gas or renewable resources while existing fossil fuel factories would be converted separately. In April 2021, Walker signed an executive order directing oil and gas companies to increase their production at domestic plants to full drilling capacity in accordance with separate environmental guidelines. Reliance on foreign energy imports subsequently decreased through the widespread use of domestic fossil and renewable energy sources.

### Environment and climate

*See also: Environmental policy of the Garrett Walker administration*

Walker's environmental policy is centered around action to combat climate change and protect domestic natural resources. He imposed carbon capture rules in certain areas of energy production as a means to cap and limit greenhouse gas emissions. Walker implemented a moratorium on new coal fired power plants, siting their harmful impacts on the environment. He continued offshore oil and gas drilling in accordance with the administration's environmental and energy guidelines.

Conservation of natural resources is a primary guideline of the administration's policy. Walker has taken action to maintain and expand pollution standards, especially around residential areas and in national parks, forests, and reserves. The Department of the Interior has policed cases against polluters, filing several lawsuits to enforce environmental protection rules. Walker also increased the federal budget for the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, allowing for better resources to ensure clean environments and drinking water. He has also sought to provide states with more funding for local environmental protection policies and agencies.

### Immigration

*Further information: Immigration policy of the Garrett Walker administration*

Walker made immigration a central issue of his campaign for president. He highlighted that illegal immigration is a federal crime that should be addressed. Unlawful population has grown significantly in the United States since 2007. In response, Walker's third executive order signed hours after he assumed office on January 20, 2021, strengthened border patrol and immigration enforcement agencies. Fulfilling a campaign promise, the order provided initial evaluations and procedures to renovate the existing barrier on the Mexico-United States border in order to modernize it and prevent certain illegal crossings. In response to the 2021 US southern border crisis, Walker signed an executive order declaring it as a national and humanitarian emergency, and he temporarily paused all immigration into the U.S. for the Department of Homeland Security to review and upgrade the processing system. Immigration reopened 30 days after the order was signed, though the national emergency remained in effect. To help prevent overflow, the administration reduced the number of refugees taken in for 2021 while the system underwent reform. Walker vowed to return refugee levels to their previous level after his immigration reform programs were complete. Illegal population in the U.S. dropped from 10.9 million in 2021 to 8.3 million in 2022, the single largest drop in years. In August 2021, House Progressive Democrats filed a lawsuit against the Walker administration, claiming it had overreached its executive power on immigration. A federal judge threw out the lawsuit, calling it baseless and "lacking justifiable evidence."

#### Executive policies

In January 2021, Walker introduced a comprehensive immigration proposal that would address the eleven million undocumented individuals residing in the U.S. Under the plan, the Department of Homeland Security would conduct a nationwide crackdown on illegal populations. Identified individuals residing illegally with no criminal record would be given an opportunity to apply for citizenship within 30 days of government notice, or face deportation. Identified individuals residing illegally with a criminal record would receive an automatic notice of deportation. Walker rescinded the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), stating the program would be "unnecessary" once his immigration reform was achieved. Despite its containment, DACA remained in force during the enactment of Walker's programs until it was blocked by a federal judge from Texas in June 2021. The ruling was appealed, and the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the program was unconstitutional in May 2022. Walker accepted the ruling and again reiterated that it would be unnecessary with his plans.

During the 2021 US southern border crisis, Walker used the opportunity to take several executive steps. His administration solidified, but limited, the numbers of persons granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS). He made it illegal for asylum seekers and spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the United States without citizenship in an effort to reduce the number of undocumented individuals passing through the system. The administration also upheld the visa diversity lottery but placed limitations on its usage, especially regarding foreign work and labor.

#### Asylum seekers

*See also: Advanced Asylum Review Act*

Walker proposed the Advanced Asylum Review Policy in June 2021 shortly after the blocking of DACA by a federal judge. Under the policy, all individuals from Europe, Asia, and Africa seeking an asylum in the United States must remain in their country of origin while their request is being processed. Individuals seeking asylum from Central and South America were to wait in Mexico pending their cases. Walker enacted preliminary procedures for the policy through an executive order. He signed the Advanced Asylum Review Act into federal law, which enacted all parts of the policy. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), illegal residency among asylum seekers plummeted following the enactment of the law. Several progressive-led lawsuits have taken aim at the law to challenge its constitutionality, though it has consistently been upheld.