President Joe Biden signs his first executive order in the White House Oval Office on January 20, 2021, in Washington. | Courtesy CNN
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is acting quickly to dismantle Donald Trump’s legacy on his first day in office, signing a series of executive actions that reverse the course on immigration, climate change, racial equality and the treatment of the pandemic of the coronavirus.
The new president signed the orders just hours after taking the oath of office at the Capitol, moving quickly from his reduced inauguration ceremony to the promulgation of his agenda. With the stroke of a pen, Biden ordered the suspension of the construction of the Trump wall on the border between the United States and Mexico, ended the travel ban in some Muslim-majority countries, declared his intention to re-join the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization and revoked approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, advisers said.
The 15 executive actions, and two guidelines, amount to an attempt to roll back the last four years of federal policies with impressive speed. Only two recent presidents signed executive acts on their first day in office – and each signed just one. But Biden, facing the debilitating coronavirus pandemic, a battered economy and a divided electorate, intends to demonstrate a sense of urgency and competence that he claims to have lost under his Republican predecessor.
“There is no time to start like today,” Biden said in his first comments to reporters as president.
Biden wore a mask when signing orders in the Oval Office – a marked change from Trump, who rarely wore a facial cover in public and never during events in the Oval Office. But precautions against viruses in the building are now needed. Among the executive actions signed on Wednesday, was the one that required masks and physical distance in federal assets and by federal officials. Biden’s order also extended the federal eviction freeze to help those struggling with the pandemic’s economic downturn, created a new federal office to coordinate a national response to the virus, and restored the White House National Security Council’s board to security. and defense of global health, an office its predecessor had closed.
The actions reflected the new president’s main political priority – controlling a debilitating pandemic. In his inaugural address, Biden paused for what he called his first act as president – a moment of silent prayer for the victims of the country’s worst public health crisis in more than a century.
He declared that he would “move forward quickly and urgently” in the coming weeks. “For we have a lot to do this winter of significant dangers and possibilities – a lot to repair, a lot to restore, a lot to heal, a lot to build and a lot to gain,” he said in the speech.
But Biden’s executive action blitz went beyond the pandemic. He looked at Trump’s environmental record, calling for a review of all regulations and executive actions that are considered harmful to the environment or public health, advisers said on Tuesday as they anticipated the measures.
Another order instructs federal agencies to prioritize racial equality and review policies that reinforce systemic racism. Biden also revoked a Trump order that sought to illegally exclude people in the U.S. from the numbers used to allocate seats in Congress between states and ordered federal officials to make an ethical promise that commits them to uphold the independence of the Justice Department.
The president also revoked the newly published report by Trump’s “1776 Commission”, which promotes “patriotic education”.
These and other measures will be followed by dozens of others over the next 10 days, said the president’s aides, while Biden seeks to redirect the country without having to pass a Democratic-controlled Senate by the narrow margin and which will soon turn to trial impeachment of Trump, who is accused by the House of inciting the Capitol insurrection.
Republicans have signaled that Biden will face fierce opposition in some parts of his agenda.
One of his orders aims to strengthen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, a signature effort by the Obama administration that provided protection against deportation and a path for citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants. This is part of a broader immigration plan that Biden sent to Congress on Wednesday that would provide an eight-year path to citizenship for about 11 million people living in the U.S. without legal status.
The plan would lead to “a permanent cycle of illegal immigration and amnesty that would harm American workers and the millions of legal immigrants who are working in the legal immigration process,” said Chris Hartline, a spokesman for the Senatorial Republican National Committee.
Even this family criticism seemed like a return to the normalcy that Biden promised after years of disturbing and overheated policies. Following tradition, Biden started his day by attending church with Congressional Democratic and Republican leaders. His press secretary Jen Psaki gave a press conference to reporters, a practice that the Trump White House has abandoned in the past two months of the presidency. Psaki said he intended to restore regular briefings as part of the White House’s commitment to transparency.
“I have deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy and for the role that you all play,” she said.
Biden took other steps to try to signal his priorities and set the tone in his White House. Taking the oath on dozens of political nominees in a virtual ceremony, he declared that he expected “honesty and decency” from everything that worked for his administration and would fire anyone who showed disrespect to others “on the spot”.
“Everyone has the right to human decency and dignity,” said Biden. “This has been sorely lacking for the past four years.”