Biden plans 10-day blitz to reverse key Trump policies
Officials brace for protests at state capitol buildings
President-elect Joe Biden will deliver an appeal to national unity when he is sworn in Wednesday and plans immediate moves to combat the coronavirus pandemic and undo some of President Donald Trump’s most controversial policies, his incoming chief of staff said yesterday.
Biden intends a series of executive actions in his first hours after his inauguration, an opening salvo in what is shaping up as a 10-day blitz of steps to reorient the country without waiting for Congress, aide Ron Klain said.
Message of unity
Klain told CNN’s State of the Union that Biden, in his inaugural address to the nation, will deliver “a message of moving this country forward. A message of unity. A message of getting things done.’’
“These executive actions will deliver relief to the millions of Americans that are struggling
in the face of these crises,’’ Klain said in the memo.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials battened down statehouses in anticipation of potentially violent protests by Trump supporters who believe the baseless claim that electoral
fraud robbed the president of a second term. More than a dozen states have activated National Guard troops to help secure their capitol buildings following an FBI warning of armed protests.
President-elect Joe Biden, inheriting a collection of crises unlike any in generations, plans to open his administration with dozens of executive directives on top of expansive legislative proposals in a 10-day blitz meant to signal a turning point for a nation reeling from disease, economic turmoil, racial strife and now the aftermath of the assault on the Capitol.
Biden’s team has developed a raft of decrees that he can issue on his own authority after the inauguration on Wednesday to begin reversing President Donald Trump’s most hotly disputed policies. Advisers hope the flurry of action, without waiting for Congress, will establish a sense of momentum for the new president even as the Senate puts his predecessor on trial.
Flurry of orders
On his first day in office alone, Biden intends a flurry of executive orders that will be partly substantive and partly symbolic. They include rescinding the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, rejoining the Paris climate change accord, extending pandemicrelated limits on evictions and student loan payments, issuing a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel and ordering agencies to figure out how to reunite children separated from families after crossing the border, according to a memo circulated on Saturday by Ron Klain, his incoming White House chief of staff, and obtained by The New York Times.
The blueprint of executive action comes after Biden announced that he will push Congress to pass a $1.9 trillion (Dh6.9 trillion) package of economic stimulus and pandemic relief, signalling a willingness to be aggressive on policy issues and confronting Republicans from the start to take their lead from him.
Immigration legislation
He also plans to send sweeping immigration legislation on his first day in office providing a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people living in the country illegally. Along with his promise to vaccinate 100 million Americans for the coronavirus in his first 100 days, it is an expansive set of priorities for a new president that could be a defining test of his dealmaking abilities and command of the federal government.
For Biden, an energetic debut could be critical to moving the country beyond the endless dramas surrounding Trump. In the 75 days since his election, Biden has provided hints of what kind of president he hopes to be — focused on the big issues, resistant to the louder voices in his own party and uninterested in engaging in the Twitter-driven, minute-by-minute political combat that characterised the last four years and helped lead to the deadly mob assault on the Capitol. But in a city that has become an armed camp since the January 6 attack, with inaugural festivities curtailed because of both the coronavirus and the threat of domestic terrorism, Biden cannot count on much of a honeymoon.
Ideological divisions
While privately many Republicans will be relieved at his ascension after the combustible Trump, the troubles awaiting Biden are so daunting that even a veteran of a half-century in politics may struggle to get a grip on the ship of state. And even if the partisan enmities of the Trump era ebb somewhat, there remain deep ideological divisions on the substance of Biden’s policies — on taxation, government spending, immigration, health care and other issues — that will challenge much of his agenda on Capitol Hill.
“You have a public health crisis, an economic challenge of huge proportions, racial, ethnic strife and political polarisation on steroids,” said Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor who served as a top adviser to Presidents Barack Obama and
Orders include rescinding the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, rejoining the Paris climate change accord, issuing a mask mandate for federal property.
Bill Clinton. “These challenges require big, broad strokes. The challenge is whether there’s a partner on the other side to deal with them.”
Damage control
Biden’s transition has been unlike that of any other new president, and so will the early days of his administration. The usual spirit of change and optimism that surrounds a newly elected president has been overshadowed by a defeated president who has refused to concede either the election or the spotlight.
In his memo to Biden’s senior staff on Saturday, Klain underscored the urgency of the overlapping crises and the need for the new president to act quickly to “reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration.”
While other presidents issued executive actions right after taking office, Biden plans to enact a dozen on Inauguration Day alone, including the travel ban reversal, the mask mandate and the return to the Paris accord.
On Biden’s second day in office, he will sign executive actions related to the coronavirus pandemic aimed at helping schools and businesses to reopen safely, expand testing, protect workers and clarify public health standards.
Economic relief
On his third day, he will direct his Cabinet agencies to “take immediate action to deliver economic relief to working families,” Klain wrote in the memo.
Congress has been largely gridlocked for years, and even with Democrats controlling both the House and the Senate, Biden faces an uphill climb after this initial burst of executive actions.