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\In How Government Built America, Sidney A. Shapiro and Joseph P. Tomain offer a sweeping account of the role of government in building the United States. Readers will encounter a tour de force of U.S. history that includes topics as diverse as the regulation of early taverns; founding-era debates over bureaucracy; Andrew Jackson’s spoils system; the post office; the Civil War; monopolies and the Gilded Age; immigration, tenements, and slums; populism and muckrakers; Keynesianism and the New Deal; nuclear power development and the space race; the civil rights movement; the Vietnam War; Rachel Carson and Earth Day; Ralph Nader and consumer protection; the War on Poverty; Alfred Kahn, President Jimmy Carter and deregulation; Reaganomics; the Affordable Care Act; governmental outsourcing; the judiciary’s evolving role in government; January 6; COVID-19 and Anthony Fauci; and climate change and the Inflation Reduction Act.

We thank Shelley Welton for her generous comments about our book and for the two issues she raises about our argument that American history is a story of how the mix of government and markets has been based on respect for equality, liberty, fairness, and the common good. We appreciate the opportunity to engage in a dialogue on those issues.

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under the questionable leadership of Elon Musk, has quickly become the signature initiative of the second Trump administration. Since Inauguration Day, personnel associated with DOGE have fanned out to virtually every executive branch agency, systematically dismantling them from within by hacking their IT infrastructure, firing thousands of staff, and even attempting to shut down entire agencies. To help congressional leaders, concerned policymakers, and citizens understand the various ways that DOGE’s actions may be unlawful, the Center has established the Unmasking DOGE tool that catalogues the numerous legal infirmities that underlie both DOGE as an institution and the specific actions it is seeking to carry out.

Since our last update (March 10), we have crossed two important milestones regarding Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions: President Trump signed the first two resolutions into law, and the overall number of CRA resolutions introduced in Congress reached 60.

Government has always been an essential part of American history, and this remains true today. Yet, as President Trump prepares, once again, to do his best to dismantle the administrative state, American history reveals why these efforts will ultimately fail. To appreciate that history, and what it means as the country moves into the Trump administration, we summarize key findings of our book.

While President Trump finds “tariff” one of the most beautiful words in the English language, I myself prefer “anti-backsliding.” Back in January, Trump told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to roll back efficiency standards on everything from light bulbs to shower heads. Some news outlets viewed this as an accomplished task, with headlines like “Trump Rolls Back Energy Standard.” But, as it turned out, not only was it not a done deal, it was also legally impossible. The reason: an anti-backsliding provision.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) efforts to regulate carbon emissions from power plants have had a tortuous history, and we’re about to go through another round, with a rule from a Democratic administration being repealed and replaced by a Trump rule. The last time this happened, the Trump EPA said that its interpretation of the statute required an extraordinarily narrow substitute rule. Because of intervening legal changes, it won’t find it as easy to make that argument this time. In the end, the Trump substitute rule will undoubtedly be weak but not as weak as last time.

As of Monday, March 10, legislators have introduced 57 Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions, including several that were introduced before the specified time cutoffs. We have continued to see some movement around some of the resolutions.

It is no coincidence that since taking office on Martin Luther King Day, the Trump administration’s most aggressive actions have targeted historically marginalized groups. In fact, the many blatantly illegal, unconstitutional, and bizarre actions we saw during the first month of Trump 2.0 — during which we also observed National Black History Month — are specifically harmful to Black Americans.