In his first two months in office, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14019,  transforming the federal government into a get-out-the-vote machine for Democrats. 

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump rescinded the order, putting an end to the constitutionally suspect directive that election integrity watchdogs referred to as “Bidenbucks.”

But without congressional action, the next leftist leading the executive branch could easily bring back Bidenbucks and eviscerate the foundation of election integrity. 

“I think the way that this gets solved going forward is Congress has to enact a law to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” David Craig, legal director for the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), told The Federalist in an interview. “That is the final development that will forever fence off an administration from trying this in the future.” 

FGA has been on the front lines in the battle against Biden’s so-called “Promoting Access to Voting” order for the better part of the past four years. The foundation sued the Biden Department of Justice in April 2022 in federal court after multiple federal agencies shrugged off Freedom of Information Act requests for documents and communications tied to the executive order. 

Craig said the DOJ has stonewalled the lawsuit for years, but the foundation expects to receive the requested documents “in the short term.” 

“With this administration taking a different approach from the previous administration, I would say we’re optimistic,” the attorney said. 

Federalized ‘Zuckbucks’

As The Federalist has reported, Biden’s fiat instructed federal agencies to assist in a nationwide voter registration promotion campaign. While it was sold as a democracy-strengthening initiative, the politically tainted campaign was created by far-left activists and carried out with the support of leftist nonprofits. The documents that the Biden administration begrudgingly turned over to the FGA and other election integrity groups exposed a concerted effort to use  taxpayer money to turn out traditionally left-leaning voters. 

The sweeping executive order was dubbed “Bidenbucks” because of its similarities to “Zuckbucks,” the hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into the local administration of the 2020 elections by Meta/Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The Chicago-based Center for Tech and Civic Life, a leftist organization led by former President Barack Obama team veterans, handed out election administration grants under the cover of Covid. The brunt of the grants went to Democrat-led cities in swing states to turn out left-leaning voters. 

‘Voter Registration Pitch’

Bidenbucks sparked multiple legal challenges, including a federal complaint from attorneys general in nine states. Biden’s executive order, according to the lawsuit, “sought to  convert the federal bureaucracy into a voter registration organization and to turn every interaction between a federal bureaucrat and a member of the public into a voter registration pitch.”

“That exceeds any authority executive entities have under federal law, violates the Constitution, threatens States’ attempt to regulate voter registration, and thus ultimately undermines the voter registration systems set up by the States,” the AGs alleged. 

Following Trump’s executive order ending Bidenbucks, the states voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit, a spokesman for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told The Federalist. Montana, Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, North Dakota, and Oklahoma all signed off on the agreement, according to a notice filed on Jan. 27 in the U.S. District Court in Wichita, Kansas.

So now it’s up to Congress. 

Blocking Bidenbucks for Good

The Republican-controlled House has tried. In 2023, the House Administration Committee passed the Promoting Free and Fair Elections Act, which would “limit the involvement of Federal agencies in voter registration activities.” The bill would block federal agencies from entering into agreements with nongovernmental organizations to conduct registration drives or voter mobilization activities. 

“Voting is one of our most sacred rights as American citizens, and it must be protected,” Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), co-chair of the Election Integrity Caucus, said in 2022 when she and Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) first introduced the bill. The legislation has stalled in both houses.

Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., chairman of the House Administration Committee, told The Federalist he is looking forward to working with President Trump and the administration on election security measures. 

“The Biden Administration’s partisan efforts to weaponize federal agencies in an attempt to tip the scales in our elections needed to come to an end,” Steil said. “I am thankful to President Trump for putting a stop to that deeply partisan activity.”