NJ Gov. Murphy's Executive Order On Trump's "Beautiful Budget Bill" Highlights Failure To Respond To Trump's Deregulatory Dismantling

Gov. Casts A Blanket Of Secrecy Over Impacts Of Trump Budget Cuts

• Diverts Attention From Trump And EPA Deregulatory Dismantling

• A Classic Case Of Too Little, Too Late

Aside from joining other States in filing a few single issue lawsuits against Trump's abuses of power, NJ Gov. Murphy has done nothing to respond to or prevent harms from Trump's radical assault on the federal government, from US EPA's "historic" deregulation, and from Trump's Project 2025 driven plan to "dismantle the administrative State".

Nothing.

But last week, NJ Gov. Murphy did issue Executive Order No. 393 which directed State agencies to evaluate the impacts of Trump's budget bill on NJ:

1. All State agencies shall immediately review the OBBBA for the purposes of assessing its impacts on their budgets, operations, and programs, including services provided to New Jersey residents, and of developing recommended measures to protect the State’s finances and its residents’ interests from the effects of the OBBBA.

The Governor gave State agencies more than two full months, a ridiculous amount of time, to conduct that assessment and submit legislative recommendations by October 1, 2025.

He gave even more time, until November 15, 2025, to submit executive branch recommendations.

In an outrageous move, the Governor explicitly exempted the State Agency assessments and recommendations from the Open Public Records Act (OPRA):

6. Any reports, records, recommendations, or other information created pursuant to this Order shall constitute advisory, consultative, and deliberative materials for the Governor’s review and shall be deemed to be confidential, non-public, and not subject to the Open Public Records Act, P.L.1963, c.73, as amended and supplemented.

This is the exact OPPOSITE of what is needed to inform the public and generate public opposition to the radical Trump regime.

The impacts of Trump's budget cuts on NJ and its residents is critically important information and it is simply unacceptable that the Governor deemed this information some kind of State secret.

The narrow focus of the Gov.'s Executive Order - which is limited to Trump's budget - highlights his lack of action on Trump and EPA's deregulatory dismantling.

We've been calling for some kind of strategy from the Murphy DEP, the Governor, and the Legislature for months now. (Last week, we filed a regulatory petition to DEP to block Trump EPA rollbacks, so they will have to respond).

When will the Gov. respond to Trump's absolutely insane environmental dismantling?

Perhaps now, after the Trump EPA's announcement to rescind the EPA's "Endangerment Finding", which is the scientific and legal basis for regulation greenhouse gas emissions.

To his credit, in the first policy related whereas clause, the Gov.'s EO highlights Trump's attack on clean energy:

WHEREAS, the OBBBA will harm hard-working American families, our nation’s children and future generations, and our efforts to deliver an affordable clean-energy future

The Gov. also focuses on renewable energy and clean air:

WHEREAS, Americans want lower electricity bills and cleaner air;

WHEREAS, the OBBBA eliminates tax savings and incentives for American families who choose to purchase electric vehicles, to make their homes more efficient, or to lower their bills by installing solar panels or joining community solar projects, all while bailing out polluting fossil fuel industries; and

WHEREAS, eliminating tax credits for solar energy projects will suppress the development of these critical clean energy resources, hindering efforts to bring online necessary new electric capacity in response to rising demand and further raising electricity prices for New Jersey residents, as well as depriving New Jersey of valuable employment and economic development benefits the solar industry has brought to the State;

Clean air? How's that?

No mention of Project 2025's agenda to "dismantle the administrative State". No mention of Trump's deregulatory Executive Orders or Clean Air Act exemptions. No mention of EPA's bragging about "historical" deregulation.

Instead, in true Wall Street Neoliberal fashion, the Gov.'s focus is limited to financial issues - not even a mention of regulation or greenhouse gas emissions.

Similarly, even within the financial realm, the Order implies that Trump alone is responsible, which diverts attention from the real underlying causes of the current price spike in electricity prices and monthly bills (instead, see this and this for an explanation).

By blaming Trump, the Gov. also diverts attention from his own policy failures on off shore wind, solar, electric vehicles, building electrification, and DEP’s inability to regulate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

So we repeat: When will this Gov. respond to Trump's absolutely insane environmental dismantling?

In closing, on reflection, perhaps I mischaracterized the Gov.'s narrow focus to budget, instead of policy and regulatory issues.

The Gov. did find time to issue Executive Order No. 361 which Establishes an Advisory Commission on Advancing LGBTQIA+ Youth Equity and Inclusion in Schools.

Professor Nancy Fraser aptly described all that as "Progressive Neoliberalism":

Progressive neoliberalism developed in the United States over the last three decades and was ratified with Bill Clinton’s election in 1992. Clinton was the principal engineer and standard-bearer of the “New Democrats,” the U.S. equivalent of Tony Blair’s “New Labor.” In place of the New Deal coalition of unionized manufacturing workers, African Americans, and the urban middle classes, he forged a new alliance of entrepreneurs, suburbanites, new social movements, and youth, all proclaiming their modern, progressive bona fides by embracing diversity, multiculturalism, and women’s rights. Even as it endorsed such progressive notions, the Clinton administration courted Wall Street. Turning the economy over to Goldman Sachs, it deregulated the banking system and negotiated the free-trade agreements that accelerated deindustrialization. What fell by the wayside was the Rust Belt—once the stronghold of New Deal social democracy, and now the region that delivered the electoral college to Donald Trump. That region, along with newer industrial centers in the South, took a major hit as runaway financialization unfolded over the course of the last two decades. Continued by his successors, including Barack Obama, Clinton’s policies degraded the living conditions of all working people, but especially those employed in industrial production. In short, Clintonism bears a heavy share of responsibility for the weakening of unions, the decline of real wages, the increasing precarity of work, and the rise of the two–earner family in place of the defunct family wage.

Fraser made similar points in a subsequent essay:

It fell, accordingly, to the “New Democrats” to contribute the essential ingredient: a progressive politics of recognition. Drawing on progressive forces from civil society, they diffused a recognition ethos that was superficially egalitarian and emancipatory. At the core of this ethos were ideals of “diversity,” women’s “empowerment,” and LGBTQ rights; post-racialism, multiculturalism, and environmentalism. These ideals were interpreted in a specific, limited way that was fully compatible with the Goldman Sachsification of the U.S. economy. Protecting the environment meant carbon trading. Promoting home ownership meant subprime loans bundled together and resold as mortgage-backed securities. Equality meant meritocracy.

Word.