On Dec. 18th, 2000, the electoral college elected President Bush, ending any debate. On Dec. 19th, Clinton went to the UN to push for tougher sanctions on the Taliban unless they handed over Osama Bin Laden within 30 days. On Dec. 20th, the UN reluctantly issued the threat...effective Jan. 19, 2001 - President Bush's inaugeration eve.
Other Clinton gifts left for the new President...last minute regs. putting ANWR essentially off limits, President Clinton signed the
"Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000" (the "Act") on December 21, 2000..."record funding" - 5 years worth, killed the program created by Congress in 1999 to allow imports of low-cost prescription drugs, repeal of the tough new ethics rules regarding lobbying he imposed on senior White House staff and other high-level administration appointees when he came into office,
signed us up for the ICC, changed arsenic level regs. for drinking water, added 30,000 pages of new federal regulations, awarded $1 billion in grants "to help more than 200,000 homeless people find shelter",
relaxed export controls on military grade computers, appointed 21 of his own Dems. to protect our nation from cybersecurity threats- including Gore advisor Jack Quinn and Wellington Webb (these guys were in place on 9-11), designated more than 5.6 million acres of federal land as national monuments,
Just three weeks before his scheduled return to private life, Clinton instructed White House domestic policy aide Bruce Reed and economic chief Gene Sperling to "keep coming up with new ideas," according to Reed.
One morning at the nub end of Bill Clinton's presidency, Clinton chief of staff John Podesta walked into a senior staff meeting in the Roosevelt Room waving a copy of USA Today. Holding the paper aloft, Podesta read the headline out loud, "Clinton actions annoy Bush." The article detailed the new rules and Executive Orders the outgoing President was issuing in his final days, actions aimed in equal measure at locking in Clinton's legacy (in areas like environmental protection) and bedeviling his successor. "What's Bush so annoyed about?" Podesta asked with a devilish smile. "He's got four years to try to undo all the stuff we've done." Link.
"We laid a few traps," chirps a happy Clinton aide.....