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Joe Biden will sign a series of executive orders in his early days in office, in an attempt to reverse the damage done at home and abroad by Donald Trump, whom the Democrat will replace as president on Wednesday.
Biden, 78, has already made plans to send an immigration bill and a Covid stimulus and relief package to a new Democratic-controlled Congress. On Friday, he said he would shake up the delivery of vaccines against Covid-19, mired in chaos under Trump’s command.
According to a memo from chief of staff Ron Klain released on Saturday, Biden plans to return the US to the Paris climate agreements and the nuclear deal with Iran, to overturn Trump’s travel ban against some Muslim-majority countries, to restrict evictions and foreclosures under the pandemic and institute a masking mandate on federal property.
President Biden will have Democratic control of both houses of Congress, albeit by a small margin in the House and by the vote of Kamala Harris as vice president in a 50-50 Senate. But the Senate’s business, including confirmation of the nominees for Biden’s office, will soon be dominated by Trump’s impeachment trial.
On Sunday, Klain told CNN’s State of the Union: “It is important for the Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty, but also to fulfill its constitutional duty to advance these nominations, in the urgent action that the country needs.
“During the last time President Trump was tried, the Senate was able to hold confirmation hearings for nominees in the morning [and] was able to do other business. I hope that Senate leaders on a bipartisan basis will find a way to advance all of their responsibilities. This impeachment trial is one of them, but putting people in the government and taking action against the coronavirus is another one of those responsibilities ”.
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