Joe wields powerful pen on his first day
Wasting no time, President Biden signed a flurry of 15 executive orders within hours of his inauguration Wednesday to roll back some of his predecessor’s most controversial policies while enacting a string of new ones to fight the coronavirus pandemic, address climate change and reform the U.S. immigration system.
Here’s a distillation of the executive actions Biden inked:
MASKS: Biden is mandating the use of face masks and social distancing in all federal buildings, on all federal lands and by all federal employees and contractors.
“There’s no time to start like today,” Biden said while seated behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office for the first time as president.
In a sharp departure from former President Donald Trump, Biden wore a mask himself while signing the orders.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Also on the coronavirus front, Biden issued an order reversing Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization. Trump cut ties with the international health group in September over unsubstantiated allegations that it was working with China to cover up the origins of COVID-19.
STUDENT LOANS/HOUSING FORECLOSURES: Biden signed several other decrees that extend coronavirus-related moratoriums on federal student loan payments and housing foreclosures — an initial drip of relief as he begins lobbying Congress to enact his more sweeping $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus package.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Moving on from the virus, Biden issued orders to rejoin the Paris climate accord — which Trump dragged the U.S. out of in November — and revoke the ex-president’s permit for construction of the Keystone XL oil and gas pipeline through the Midwest. Also on climate, Biden included actions requiring reviews of a variety of Trump policies aimed at watering down protections for federal lands and loosening regulations for fossil fuel emissions.
BORDER WALL FINANCING: Effective immediately, the new president squashed a national emergency declaration that allowed Trump to divert billions of dollars in taxpayer cash to bankroll the construction of the southern border wall that he for years claimed Mexico would pay for. The same order froze all new construction of border wall, pending a review of how taxpayer money is being spent on the project.
MUSLIM TRAVEL BAN: Biden put an immediate end to Trump’s travel ban barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.
DACA: He also ordered his cabinet to work to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects hundreds of thousands of people who came to the U.S. as young children from deportation. President Barack Obama first introduced DACA in 2012.
IMMIGRATION: Biden squashed a Trump order that deemed all of the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. priorities for deportation proceedings. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security will conduct a review of enforcement priorities.
CENSUS: Trump’s failed attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from the U.S. census was also rescinded, with Biden ordering a return to the policy that all individuals, regardless of status, be counted.
CITIZENSHIP: Finally, Biden issued an order that doesn’t have any immediate results, but proposes legislation that would grant green cards and a path to citizenship for all undocumented people in the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2021. Republicans in Congress have already balked at this proposal, though Biden prides himself on being able to achieve bipartisan compromises.