Biden acts on coronavirus, climate change and immigration on first day in office
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden signed a slew of executive orders to combat the coronavirus, tackle climate change and reverse his predecessor Donald Trump’s immigration policies on his first day in office.
Seeking a head start in arresting the pandemic that has taken 400,000 lives and millions of jobs, Mr Biden signed an order requiring masks to be worn on federal property.
He also signed an order to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, signalling that former president Trump’s drive to promote fossil fuels was over, as well as another geared towards under-served communities.
“With the state of the nation today, there’s no time to waste,” said Mr Biden in the Oval Office, following a scaled down inaugural parade in Washington DC after he took his oath of office at the Capitol.
“Some of the executive actions I’m going to be signing today are going to help change the course of the Covid crisis. And we’re going to combat climate change in a way that we haven’t done so far, and advance racial equity and support other under-served communities,” he told reporters.
Wednesday’s (Jan 20) executive actions were just “starting points”, said Mr Biden, adding that legislation would also be needed for a lot of his policies.
Mr Biden will reportedly also sign orders to rejoin the World Health Organisation, and provide relief to Americans hit by the pandemic by extending moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures and federal student loan payments.
On immigration, he plans to reverse Mr Trump’s travel ban for Muslim-majority countries and stop construction of the US-Mexico border wall.
He will also cancel the permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, among other actions to strengthen environmental protections.
The President is planning to sign a total of 17 executive orders and memorandums on Wednesday, far more than his recent predecessors, US media reported. Mr Trump signed one executive order on his first day in office, and Mr Barack Obama signed none.
But Mr Biden is also running behind in terms of Cabinet posts. None of his nominees have been confirmed by the Senate, which had been slow to schedule hearings in the wake of Mr Trump’s insistent false claims that the election was rigged against him, and because control of the Senate was decided only on Jan 5.
In contrast, Mr Trump had two Cabinet posts filled by the time he took office, while Mr Obama had six.
The White House announced on Wednesday it was appointing career public servants to temporarily lead their agencies while Mr Biden’s picks await Senate confirmation.
Over at the Capitol, Vice President Kamala Harris swore in three new Democratic senators: her successor Alex Padilla, who was appointed to fill the California seat she vacated after winning the 2020 election, and two Georgia Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
Mr Warnock and Mr Ossoff’s victories in this month’s runoff races handed de facto control of the Senate to the Democratic Party for the first time in a decade.
Republicans and Democrats now have 50 senators each, but Ms Harris, who is the president of the Senate, will get to cast the deciding vote in case of any ties.
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