More executive orders from the tyrant...

Trump to sign executive orders on drilling, cybersecurity and a rural America task force

By ANDREW RESTUCCIA

President Donald Trump will sign a series of executive orders this week on offshore drilling, cybersecurity, veterans affairs and agriculture, according to sources familiar with the administration’s plans.

The orders come in the run-up to the president’s 100th day in office. By Friday, Trump will have signed 32 executive orders, the most signed by a president in the first 100 days since World War II, according to the White House.

One order will mark the administration’s first steps this week toward expanding oil and gas drilling in waters off the U.S. coast.

The order will call for a “review of the locations available for offshore oil and gas exploration and of certain regulations governing offshore oil and gas exploration,” the White House said.

Former President Barack Obama put large portions of the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic and dozens of underwater canyons off the East Coast permanently off limits for drilling during his final weeks in office. His administration had previously shelved plans that would have opened up other parts of East Coast and Arctic waters to oil exploration in the coming years.

Some advocates for offshore drilling have also called for opening up the Pacific Coast for new drilling for the first time in decades, and lifting the prohibition on exploration in the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, a move that's long been opposed by politicians from both parties in Florida.

Trump will also sign an executive order calling on the Interior Department to review previous monument designations under the Antiquities Act. Republicans have criticized Obama for designating more than two dozen national monuments during his time in office. Once an area becomes a national monument, it is largely off limits to drilling, fishing and mining.

A third executive order will establish a Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection in the Department of Veterans Affairs. The office will help the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to discipline or terminate VA managers or employees who fail to carry out their duties in helping our veterans.”

A fourth order will set up an an interagency task force to “examine the concerns of rural America and suggest legislative and regulatory changes to address them.”

Axios first reported details of the executive orders.

Trump is also expected to sign his long-awaited executive order on cybersecurity later this week, but with a major portion removed, according to multiple people familiar with the White House’s plans.

The directive, which could come on Friday, will kick off reviews of each federal agency’s digital defenses and direct agency heads to adopt specific cyber standards.

But the presidential fiat — which has undergone numerous revisions since an early version leaked in January — will no longer contain a section on modernizing federal IT systems, according to these sources.

Instead, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will oversee the development of a separate executive order focusing on a federal IT overhaul, said a former official with insight into the administration's strategy.