President Biden’s First Week in Office

By: Katherine Anderson

2020 was quite the election year. With a heated political climate and a global pandemic raging, our nation went out (and stayed in) to vote. Democratic Elect Joe Biden had over 81 million votes and 306 electoral votes, with President Donald Trump coming in with 74 million votes and 232 electoral votes, a reverse margin of the 2016 election. President-Elect Joe Biden was inaugurated at noon on January 22nd, Former President Trump not present, becoming the first President in history to not be present at the inauguration of his successor. Here is what President Joe Biden did in his first week of the presidency.

Let’s start off with the President’s steps to combat COVID-19. Biden promised a plan while campaigning, and in his first week, followed through on that plan, encouraging Americans to ‘mask up’, promising to increase vaccine distribution, and planning to establish a ‘coronavirus response team’. He also issued an executive order for the Department of Health to work with state, local, tribal, and territorial leaders to implement requirements for masking and other safety measures.

Next, President Biden focused on economic relief, revealing the plan for a $1.9 trillion relief package in the days leading up to inauguration. This includes a $1,400 stimulus check for qualifying Americans, extended unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs during the pandemic, and extending nationwide restrictions on evictions and foreclosures. Biden also launched a $700 billion campaign, called Buy America, to encourage the government to buy more American made products. The administration has stated that this campaign was created to help stimulate our economy which has struggled during the pandemic.

Among other things, he has extended the student loan relief, laid out a plan to raise the minimum wage, and encouraged the government to do everything that they could to help the citizens in need because of the pandemic.

On the human rights front, Biden took steps in both the immigration policies and the Human Rights Advancement policies. Biden had said since the election that he would focus heavily on immigration and human rights in his first days in office, and he did. With immigration, he reinstated DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), signed an order that includes undoccumented immigrants in the census, and revoked an order put in place by former President Trump that cracked down on communities that shielded undoccumented immigrants from deportation. Biden also signed orders to stop the construction of Trump’s wall, and revoked the alleged Muslim travel-ban.

He also advanced in the human rights field, tackling the issue of housing descimination, and revoking the transgender military ban put in place by the Trump Administration. He also signed orders to reform the incarceration system and reduce private prisons, reaffirm the government’s commitment to continue communication with tribal governments, and fight xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Biden also took steps to advance our student loan and tax systems. As mentioned before, Biden kept his promise to pause federal student loan payments until September 31 with no accrual, but has yet to detail his pledge to forgive a #10,000 of borrowers’ federal student loans.

In our tax systems, Biden had yet to uphold his promise to draw back ‘The Trump tax cut for the super-wealthy, cut the unjustified loopholes in our tax code and use that money to invest in America’s future’.

And last but not least, Biden made waves on the climate change front. On his first day in office, Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, an international treaty focused on greenhouse gas emissions, and other environment related policy, reversing the Trump Administration’s decision to back out of the treaty in 2017. Biden also revoked the U.S.’s permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline which was set to pass through the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana, and the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Biden also signed a series of orders to focus on a series of climate and environmental related measures to pay attention to infrastructure needs and prioritize scientific research.

President Biden had promised many things for his first 100 days, so we will continue to look to the news and stay updated on the bills and orders that President Biden will sign and pass to continue to better our nation as a whole.

_Sources