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WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden, on just his third day on the job, ordered help for hungry Americans on Friday (January 22) in a rush to lift the country out of its multi-pronged coronavirus pandemic crisis.
The latest orders that boosted food aid and accelerated stimulus payments were modest in scale, but reinforced Biden’s message that he wants to act decisively against the coronavirus and related economic fallout.
It’s a task he’s trying to accomplish as his administration is confirmed, with Secretary of Defense candidate Lloyd Austin winning Senate approval on Friday, and preparing for the upheaval of Donald Trump’s impending impeachment.
Top lawmakers said the case against Trump, charged with inciting his supporters to storm Congress on January 6, would move from the House of Representatives to the Senate on Monday, triggering a trial shortly thereafter.
“There will be a trial in the United States Senate and a vote will be taken as to whether the president is convicted,” said Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat.
This is likely to seriously complicate Biden’s opening term in office, but the White House says it wants Congress to act on COVID-19 urgently anyway.
“The American people cannot afford to wait,” Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters.
“So many are hanging by a thread. They need help and we are committed to doing everything we can to provide that help as quickly as possible.”
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EXECUTIVE ORDER TRACKING
The new administration has brought in a calmer style after the stormy Trump era, but Biden’s cascade of executive orders from the moment he entered the White House on Wednesday is making a lot of noise.
The first day saw the 78-year-old Democrat sign 17 shares, the second day he signed 10, and later on Friday he was expected to reach for the box of ceremonial pens to sign two more.
The sheer number of orders has covered major issues on the campaign agenda, including the political hot potato of immigration reform.
Here, Biden extended protections against deportation for so-called “Dreamers,” children of illegal immigrants who have grown up in the country.
But the offensive is overwhelmingly aimed at a COVID-19 pandemic that the new president described Thursday as a wartime-level catastrophe, and the current death toll of more than 400,000 is likely to hit half a million next. month.
In addition to ordering the use of masks on trains, planes and airports, Biden said Thursday that people coming to the United States will have to self-quarantine upon arrival.
At the same time, it is trying to reactivate and expand a faltering vaccination program. Only 16.5 million vaccines have been administered to Americans and Biden requests 100 million injections in 100 days.
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KEY TO THE ROLE OF THE CONGRESS
With unemployment rising by another 1.3 million applications last week, Biden argues that recovery from the initially catastrophic downturn in the US economy after the pandemic that first struck last year is hesitant.
“It takes much, much more,” Deese said.
Biden’s flagship policy is a $ 1.9 trillion economic rescue package that he outlined last week.
But Congress, which has already passed two huge financial aid bills, is reluctant. The president’s Democratic Party has only a small majority in the House and a minimal lead in the Senate.
Biden is also confident that Congress will hurry up and pass his cabinet nominations.
On Wednesday, a first key security figure, the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, was confirmed. Austin’s confirmation by the Senate on Friday makes him the first African-American to lead the Pentagon.
Tony Blinken for secretary of state and Janet Yellen for secretary of the Treasury appeared to be on their way to confirmation on Friday or next week.
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HUNGRY AMERICANS
However, much of Friday the White House will focus on promoting Biden’s last two orders. Biden was scheduled to speak at the signing ceremony and his press secretary Jen Psaki was scheduled to brief reporters.
The Commerce Department reported in mid-December that 13.7 percent of adults live in homes where they sometimes or often don’t have enough to eat.
Hunger is becoming a particular threat for millions of poorer children who depended on the meals served by schools, now closed due to COVID-19.
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Biden’s Friday orders increase an existing payment, giving a family with three children an additional $ 100 every two months to supplement grocery purchases.
Other measures include asking the Treasury Department to step on the gas and get stimulus payments of up to $ 600 per person that were already approved by Trump more quickly.
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