President Biden’s Day One Agenda
President Joe Biden signs executive orders in the Oval Office earlier this month. Source.
Following a historic inauguration amid unprecedented circumstances, President Joe Biden spent a portion of Wednesday afternoon enacting key legislative items via executive action. Of the 17 executive actions signed on Wednesday, nine were direct reversals of Trump administration policies. In the days since the inauguration, President Biden has increased the number of executive orders and actions to 30. The administration explained that the swiftness of these actions was necessary to reverse Trump’s actions which have caused “the greatest damage.”
The first 17 executive orders outline key agenda items for Biden: a mask mandate on federal property, launching a 100-day Masking Challenge, rejoining the WHO, extending the nationwide moratorium on evictions, rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline, ending Trump’s 1776 Commission, strengthening DACA, stopping border wall construction, and creating several review processes for Trump-era actions concerning the environment. Many of these day one actions fulfilled promises made by President Biden on the campaign trail and provide an outline of the administration’s focus in the first 100 days. Press Secretary Jen Psaki explained this week that these initial actions were only part of a series of executive orders to undo more of President Trump’s policies.
President Biden’s Administration laid out their goals for the coming weeks and months with each day centered on individual agenda items. On his first full day in office, Biden focused on the COVID-19 pandemic while Friday highlighted economic relief. The theme of next week will be “Buying American” with an accompanying order expected on Monday to strengthen requirements for the purchasing of goods from U.S. companies by the government. The month of February will concentrate on “restoring America’s place in the world.”
Among the additional executive orders signed this week, 14 were dedicated to combating COVID-19 and five aimed at enacting another of President Biden’s key policies, immigration reform. Within the first 100 days, Biden is expected to introduce an overhaul of America’s immigration laws. The President’s legislative proposal sent to Congress this week includes a heavy focus on identifying root causes of migration from Central America and establishing an eight-year pathway to citizenship. Biden’s heightened attention on immigration is in contrast with President Obama whose deportation policies were criticized by many Democrats and immigration activists.
The Administration’s primary focus on the COVID-19 pandemic is also a significant reversal of the Trump administration which sought to downplay the pandemic. The White House website explains that Biden’s executive orders will “launch an all-of-government effort to provide equitable emergency economic relief to working families, communities, and small businesses across the nation.” It is evident within the first few days of the Biden Presidency that much of what Donald Trump controversially accomplished over the last four years will be reversed and that the challenge of the new administration will be fighting the pandemic and ensuring that America rebuilds its partnerships which may have been damaged under the previous Administration.