WASHINGTON  — In less than a month, there will be a new presidential administration, but in the meantime, President Joe Biden is keeping busy and exercising his veto power on labor and judiciary issues.

What You Need To Know

  • As his term winds down, President Joe Biden has been busy exercising his executive authority 

  • The president signed an executive order ahead of the Christmas holiday giving most civilian federal employees a pay raise 

  • He vetoed a bill that would have added 66 federal district judgeships across the country

  • Biden needs to decide on the fate of Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel 

Biden must also decide on a foreign investment in the U.S. that could have wider national security implications.

Federal workers aren’t just getting an extra day off this Christmas Eve. Biden signed an executive order ahead of the Christmas holiday giving most civilian federal employees an average 2% pay raise starting in the new year. The massive defense policy bill also includes a pay increase for members. 

After clearing both chambers of Congress, Biden signed off on the National Defense Authorization Act. It includes a 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members, as well as an 4.5% percent increase for others. 

Biden still signed the defense legislation despite his opposition to its restrictions on transgender medical treatment for children of service members. 

He exercised his veto power on other issues this week, though. The president delivered on his threat to reject a bill that would have added 66 federal district judgeships across the country.

The bill would have expanded the number of trial court judges in a way that staggered over the course of more than a decade. 

The Democrat-controlled Senate passed the bill in the summer, while the Republican-led House passed it only after Donald Trump was elected president.

In a statement, Biden said: “The House of Representative’s hurried action fails to resolve key questions in the legislation, especially regarding how the new judgeships are allocated, and neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate explored fully how the work of senior status judges and magistrate judges affects the need for new judgeships.” 

Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, a key sponsor, called the veto a misguided decision.  

There’s also another opportunity for Biden to block a deal — it’s over foreign investments in the U.S. Biden has to decide the fate of Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel. 

A panel of top government agency officials notified the president that it could not come to a consensus on whether the purchase poses a possible national security risk. 

Both companies have maintained there’s no threat and that the deal would strengthen the American steel industry. 

There’s been backlash, especially from the steelworkers unions. Both Biden and Trump have signaled they’ll stop the acquisition.