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On the morning of January 20, 2021, Joe Biden will be sworn in as president of the United States at the inauguration ceremony in front of the Capitol, in Washington, and from the afternoon he will begin his government activity. Like all presidents at the beginning of his term, Biden also intends to enact strong and symbolic measures from day one, and the first days of his administration are expected to be characterized by the signing of many executive orders, that is, measures. presidential leaders to direct policy. federal government and do not need congressional approval.
Biden may be making more use of executive orders than his predecessors, for two reasons: First, he has promised to rescind dozens of measures taken by Donald Trump in numerous executive order areas. The second is that Biden could be the first president since 1988 to start his first term without a majority in both the House and the Senate (in the House the majority is Democrats, in the Senate Republican, although the two parties could reach a point balance after the two ballots in Georgia in January). This means that while his predecessors managed to push through ambitious measures in his first years in office (Barack Obama’s health care reform, Donald Trump’s tax cut), Biden will have to seek compromise solutions and, in the meantime, rely on executive orders. : This, we repeat, provided that the Democrats in Georgia win two Senate seats, reaching parity; in that case, the casting vote goes to Kamala Harris, the vice president.
– Read also: What will the next American Congress be like?
Biden’s transition team website cites four new government “priorities”: COVID-19, economic recovery, racial equality, and climate change. In addition, the American media, using in part the statements made by Biden in recent months and in part sources within the transition team, have drawn up a more specific list of measures that the new president could take in the first days.
COVID-19
Speaking of the coronavirus crisis, according to the US media, Biden could already set up a working group of experts today and announce some measures that he will introduce in January to contain the contagion. According to New York Times, Biden could invoke the Defense Production Act, a law passed during the Korean War that allows the president to order factories to produce certain goods necessary for national defense: it seems like an exaggerated emergency measure, but in reality the law is has used quite freely. by almost all presidents for many purposes (police supplies, rebuilding after a natural disaster) and could also be used against coronavirus, to increase the supply of lung ventilators and other medical devices.
Biden also said during the campaign that he intends to make the use of masks mandatory at the federal level. Again according to New York Times, his advisers have concluded that he does not have the powers to do so, so he will simply ask state governors to toughen the rules. However, you could sign an executive order to enforce the use of masks on all federal properties.
Finally, Biden has promised that he will cancel the United States’ departure from the World Health Organization (WHO), which Trump decided last year. It won’t be difficult: the United States is still in the notice period and has until April to withdraw the exit request.
– Read also: Dates from here to Joe Biden’s inauguration
Weather
A little more complicated, but not so much, will be to re-enter the Paris Agreement on climate, from which the United States officially left on November 5. To get back to the deal, Biden will only need the approval of the House, which has a Democratic majority. Biden intends to return to the deal immediately.
Today, the Trump Administration officially abandoned the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden administration will join it. https://t.co/L8UJimS6v2
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 5, 2020
Biden also made it clear that he intends to restore all environmental protection regulations established by Obama and canceled by Trump. The outgoing president, in fact, at the beginning of his term had annulled about a hundred measures that imposed rules on the use and extraction of fossil fuels, especially coal, and established strict limits on emissions in many sectors. Trump also approved exemptions and preferential treatments for the construction of new oil and gas pipelines and had encouraged the exploration of new fields. Trump had also withdrawn the “national monument” status of some parks and reserves, to favor the exploration and exploitation of fields: Biden intends to restore all these protections.
– Read also: Joe Biden’s speech after the victory
Return the international order
In a radio interview in July, Biden promised that on his first day in office he would call all NATO allies to say: “We are back and you can count on us again.” The gesture is symbolic, but important because the Trump administration has been skeptical – to put it mildly – of NATO, and Trump has repeatedly seemed poised to disprove Article 5 of the Atlantic Alliance Treaty, establishing the obligation of defense. mutual between member countries in case of attack.
Biden intends to cancel with an executive order the so-called “travel ban,” which is Trump’s ban on entry into the United States on citizens of Muslim-majority countries in Africa and Asia. The ban has been challenged several times in court and is now in effect in a slightly softer version, which imposes very restrictive measures on the entry of citizens not only from Muslim countries, but also from Venezuela and North Korea.
In the same executive order that instituted the travel ban, Trump had also cut the number of refugees allowed into the United States by more than half, from 110,000 a year to 50,000. Biden has promised to return this threshold to the levels of the Obama administration.
– Read also: What will Trump do now?
Protect Americans
Earlier in his administration, Trump sought to eliminate DACA, the Obama-era program that had provided protection to 700,000 minors who entered the United States illegally as children and faced deportation. However, the Supreme Court prevented Trump from canceling the program and Biden promised to strengthen it further. He also promised to create a task force to track the parents of hundreds of children separated from their families due to the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Biden also intends to launch a plan to protect the homeless.
Biden also intends to restore Obama’s signed and removed executive orders that protected transgender students in schools and allowed them to use restrooms, locker rooms, and choose sports activities based on their gender identity.
The new president also intends to restore an ethical regulation once again desired by Obama, which prohibits public officials from receiving gifts from lobbyists and prevents them from joining lobbyists in the two years after leaving government employment. . Biden could also institute new ethical rules, such as one that prevents members of the administration from interfering with Department of Justice investigations.
A traditional executive order
Finally, Biden, like all presidents from Reagan to today, is expected to reverse his predecessor’s decision on the so-called “global gag rule” – a rule that prohibits the provision of international aid to organizations that practice or even merely mention the abortion. Ronald Reagan imposed it for the first time and since then it has been canceled by all Democratic presidents and restored by all Republicans.
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