The Biden Administration So Far

It has been a little over a week since Biden’s inauguration. The Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ticket was one that many people, Democrats and Republicans alike, shared reservations on. However, in the time since he’s been sworn into office, Biden has already made great strides in restoring dignity and compassion to the office of the President of the United States. Currently, he approved 17 executive actions, 15 of which are executive orders, to reverse some of the most damaging policies of the Trump administration. Here is a breakdown of the biggest changes enacted by the Biden administration and expected to be completed within the first 100 days of him being in office.

Possibly the greatest difference between the Trump and Biden administration is Biden’s response to COVID-19, which is seen as the most immediate concern of 2021. Biden has issued a mask mandate, requiring everyone on federal property to wear a mask. He has formed several COVID-19 response teams to deal with better vaccine distribution, access, and the control of the spread. To help with this, one such team will be leading the 100-day mask challenge as an initiative to encourage Americans to wear masks. This will be led by the designated COVID-19 Response Coordinator. Another team will be responsible for achieving Biden’s main goal which is to have 100 million vaccines administered by Biden’s 100th day in office. In addition, the US has also stopped any and all efforts to pull out from the World Health Organization (WHO), and furthered America’s position in the organization through Dr. Fauci. Moreover, Biden has addressed growing problems with the nation’s national healthcare system by revoking the court case to end ObamaCare and stopped all travel between the US and countries with the new Covid strains.

However, Biden has also taken to tackling the economic ramifications of the virus. Biden is currently attempting to get the Senate to pass his $1.9 trillion dollar stimulus plan to get the US economy back on track. However, this has met resistance from even the most liberal of Republican senators and congressmen, which indicates the upwards battle he will have to face to get it enacted. As of now, he has been able to halt all evictions until March 31 of this year, something that aims to reduce the increasing homelessness problem facing almost every major American city. Another key issue which Biden has tackled is pausing all student loan payments. This is something that has been on the Democratic ticket since the crisis started in the 1990s, which has gained increasing popularity among Leftists. Specifically those in the so-called, “Squad” like Ilhan Omar and Bernie Sanders.

The next biggest-ticket item which Biden has focused on is addressing the ever-increasingly worrisome climate crisis. Since entering office Biden has rejoined the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, stopped all federal funding to fossil fuel drilling in coastal areas of the US, stopped the building of the XL Keystone Pipeline, and created a National Climate Task Force to combat global warming. The new task force in combination with the reinstated Office of Science and Technology will be dedicated to helping build clean infrastructure projects, reduce emissions, and ensure that each brief issue by the Whitehouse has been fact-checked through the scientific process.

Another wide-scale change enacted by the Biden-Harris administration regards reverting Trump’s attempt to reduce social justice and equality. In an executive order last week they ended the Muslim travel ban, a travel ban that restricted citizens from 7 Muslim majority countries from entering the US. Biden has also overturned the law that prevented the military from refusing Trans people, and placed a nationwide ban on workplace discrimination made on the basis of sexual identity or orientation. They have also stopped all federal contracts with private prison owners in an attempt to end private prisons from profiting off of mass incarceration. This was something of great importance to Black Lives Matter supporters and will help end the industrial prison complex. The last biggest change implemented by the current administration was to help respect reproductive rights by allowing federal funds to aid foreign non-profits that promote abortions.

Written by: Leela H.

Visual by: Liz C.

Edited by: Happy J.

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LeBlanc, Paul. “Biden Has Signed 42 Executive Actions since Taking Office. Here's What Each

Does.” CNN, Cable News Network, 29 Jan. 2021, edition.cnn.com/2021/01/29/politics/biden-executive-orders-climate-health-care-coronavirus-immigration/index.html.