You could argue that three White House announcements Thursday indicate that Joe Biden and his team around him are finishing strong, working hard up until their final minute in office, running through the tape, as sprinters say.

Or you could argue that with a bit more than a month left in this presidency and the country getting ready to celebrate the holiday season, the Biden administration is belatedly getting around to long-ignored items on its to-do list, checking boxes so they won’t get criticized for never addressing certain problems.

Thursday, the Biden administration released its first-ever “National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate” and also announced the establishment two China-focused initiatives,  a “Countering Economic Coercion Task Force” and a separate “China Censorship Monitor and Action Group.”

Now, it’s possible that the incoming Trump team will love these ideas and want to continue what the Biden team started in its closing months. It’s not a bad idea to have an “interagency effort” to “address the effects of any efforts by the People’s Republic of China to censor or intimidate, in the United States or in any of its possessions or territories, any United States person, including a United States company that conducts business in the PRC, exercising its freedom of speech.” Similarly, it’s easy to see the Trump administration wanting an “integrated United States government strategy to respond to and deter coercive economic practices by countries of concern, including the People’s Republic of China.”

But the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission turned in its report on China’s censorship practices back in February. And the House of Representatives held hearings about China’s coercive economic practices back in May 2023. Where have you guys been? Why is Biden asking for a unified executive branch response to these problems a week after moving boxes have arrived in the West Wing?

There’s something a little absurd about the Biden team unveiling “short, medium, and long-term actions that will protect individuals and communities from bias, discrimination, and hatred” with 38 days left in Biden’s presidency. You guys are the short term.

I imagine the DOGE is likely to look warily at any federal government project announced in the closing weeks of the Biden administration.