Amateur Hour In The Trump Administration: Posted Executive Orders Don't Match Actual Text

Are there people in the Trump Administration who think nobody is going to check their work? President Trump signs executive orders which go into the federal register. The White House posts the executive orders on the White House website.

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They should match.

But in what is another example of incompetence by this administration, the text on the White House website is different of that from the ones filed with the federal register. The USA Today has details:

By law, the Federal Register version is the legally controlling language. But it can often take several days for the order to be published, meaning that the public must often rely on what the White House puts out — and that’s sometimes inaccurate. For example:

► The controversial travel ban executive order suspended the Visa Interview Waiver Program and required the secretary of State to enforce a section of the Immigration and Naturalization Act requiring an in-person interview for everyone seeking a non-immigrant visa. But the White House version of the order referred to that provision as 8 U.S.C. 1222, which requires a physical and mental examination — not 8 U.S.C. 1202, which requires an interview.

► An executive order on ethical standards for administration appointees, as it appears on the White House website, refers to”section 207 of title 28” of the U.S. Code. As the nonprofit news site Pro Publica reported last week, that section does not exist. The Federal Register correctly cited section 207 of title 18, which does exist.

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There is no excuse for this kind if sloppiness, especially when the signing of these executive orders is turned into a public ceremony.

Transparency advocates said the discrepancies raise unnecessary concerns about Trump’s executive actions. “These last-minute edits suggest the Trump White House needs to revisit their vetting, sign-off, and publication processes for executive orders,” said John Wonderlich, executive director of the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.

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