As we close in on 100 days of President Joe Biden’s presidency, we are going to highlight all the executive orders he’s signed and legislation that has passed through congress, Along with some of the key breaking news surrounding the Biden Administration.
Since taking office on January 20th, President Biden has signed 40 executive orders. Many of these executive orders would address the Pandemic, immigration and reversing President Trump era policies. When looking at the 2 previous presidents, President Trump only signed 36 executive orders and President Obama signed 34 around this time period. 23 out of the 40 executive orders are reversing President Trump era policies.
After inauguration day President Biden signed 9 executive orders. The first executive order was a reversal of President Trump’s. In the Executive order President Biden directs OMB to develop recommendations on modernizing regulatory review. This removes President Trump’s approval process.
The next executive order President Biden signed that day was an executive order that requires the executive branch appointees to sign an ethics pledge, barring them from acting with a personal interest in mind. This executive order also requires them to uphold the policies of the Justice Department.
The next executive order deals with immigration and another reversal of a Trump era policy. This order undoes the increase of immigration enforcement within the United States.
Moving away from immigration, the next executive order is a reversal from President Trump’s executive order in the 2020 census. In the executive order it requires non-citizens to be included in the census and appointments of congressional representatives.
The next executive order deals with equality. It prevents discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation or gendar idenity.
The next executive order signed by president Biden reversed more of President Trump’s policies. The first one rescinds the Trump administration’s 1776 commission and requires agencies to review their actions to insure racial equity.
The next executive order deals with the environment and is a reversal of a President Trump policy. It stops the Keystone XL pipeline and directs agencies to review and reverse more than 100 actions from President Trump that dealt with the environment.
The next executive order was the rejoining of the Paris Climate Accord, which took 30 days to rejoin after President Trump had pulled the United states out of the agreement originally. .
The next executive order President Biden signed was to establish a COVID-19 response coordinator. This coordinator is responsible for reporting to President Biden. Furthermore, the coordinator is responsible for producing and distributing vaccines as well as medical supplies.
The next executive order is a reversal of President Trump pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization (WHO). The order also puts Dr. Anthony Fauci in charge of the WHO delegation.
The final executive order President Biden signed on January 20th was an executive order that started the “100 day mask challenge”. The executive order is asking Americans to wear a mask for 100 days and to social distance. The executive order requires masks to be worn in government buildings, government land and government contractors. The order also urges states to do the same for the on state properties.
The next day President Biden signed 8 more executive orders that also dealt with the pandemic. The first created the Covid-19 equality task force. This executive order is meant to create equitable pandemic response and recovery.
The next executive order deals with the Pandemic as well. It requires the wearing of a mask in all airports and on certain modes of transportation. This includes many trains, planes, maritime vessels, and intercity busses. Along with this, international travelers must show a negative Covid-19 test prior coming into the United States.
We are continuing the trend of executive orders dealing with the pandemic. This one directs the Education Department and HHS to provide guidance for safely reopening and operating schools. Childcare and higher level institutions also fall into this category.
Staying on the topic of Covid-19 once again, This executive order extends data collecting of collections and production sharing for Covid-19 analysis.
The topic remains the same, as this executive order establishes a preclinical program to boost development of therapeutics in response to pandemic threats.
Another executive order he signed that day creates the pandemic testing board to expand the United States testing capacity.
The final executive order President Biden signed that day, just like the rest of the day, dealt with Covid-19. This executive order deals with accelerating the delivery and production of vaccination supplies, along with PPE and Covid-19 tests.
The next day, President Biden signed two more executive orders, both dealing with the economy. The first calls for those struggling to afford food or people that missed out on stimulus checks or are unemployed to get assistance.
The other order he signed that day allows state workers to have bargaining power. The executive order also lays the groundwork for federal workers to make $15 an hour. This executive order is a reversal of an executive order President Trump had in place.
On January 25th President Biden signed 2 executive orders. The first one is a reversal on President Trump’s policy on not allowing transgenders to enlist in the military.
The other executive order he signed that day was dealing with the economy. It strengthens buy American rules by closing loopholes and reducing waivers.
On January 26, he signed an executive order which directs the Attorney General to no longer renew contracts with private prisons.
On January 27th the president signed an executive order forming the President’s council of advisors on science and technology.
He would then go on to sign an order which made climate change a key part in the country’s foreign policy and national security. It also made clear the prioritization of climate change within the country as well.
The next day, January 28, he signed an order that looked to open a special enrollment period for those seeking health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. This enrollment period did open up, and its window was set for February 15 to May 15, however, it was later extended and will be open until August 15. This executive order also called for relevant agencies on the matter to examine policies, practices, regulations, barriers, etc, that make it unnecessarily difficult for uninsured Americans to receive coverage from the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.
Moving along to February 2, the president signed an order that laid the framework out for the US to begin working with countries in central America to improve conditions that led to migration, as well as to make it easier and safer for those seeking asylum to do so. It was a promise to repair the system of asylum here in the US and a promise to establish a line of direct communication between the US and those countries in central America dealing with corruption and dangerous circumstances in hopes that improvements could be made.
On that same day another was signed. The purpose for this order was to establish a task force that would work to identify and unify families who had been separated at the US-Mexico border between the dates of January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021. While performing this mission, the task force would provide reports with recommendations and progress in an effort to prevent separation of that level from ever happening again.
Continuing with the theme of immigration, the next signing deals with new Americans and their integration into society in the US. It called for the creation of a domestic policy council, whose goal would be to get the ball rolling more quickly on state and local integration and inclusion efforts for immigrants and especially refugees. It also called on the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Attorney General to review policies, regulations, etc, that act as barriers to immigrant inclusion and integration. They will be asked to submit reports with their findings and recommendations later.
This same topic of immigration continued two days later, on February 4. This executive order focused on the strengthening of the process for those seeking to migrate to the US to do so. It looked to make the process easier, more fair, and with less of a delay. It also called to make sure that the process remained secure, as it is still important to protect the US itself.
Switching gears a little bit we move to February 10, where president Biden signed an executive order that declared a national emergency to deal with the problem in Burma, that problem being that the democratic government had been overthrown by military personnel from that country. It put sanctions on those military leaders who took part in the events. However, it did not apply to the people of Burma themselves.
Changing focus once again, we continue on to February 14, where president Biden signed an order that is meant to help strengthen faith-based and other community-driven organizations that aim to help low-income and under-served Americans. It also hopes that by strengthening these organizations, it will help push for efforts to do the same around the world.
On February 17, president Biden signed an executive order that counteracted an executive order from the Trump administration. The order in question was one that looked to expand apprenticeships and workforce development programs and to eliminate programs of this type that were considered to be ineffective. President Biden’s executive order abolished any agencies or partnerships that formed as a result of the former order.
Moving forward by a week to February 24, president Biden signed an executive order that called for an improvement of the country’s supply chains. It stated that strengthening these supply chains was critical to maintaining the country’s economic prosperity and national security. It also noted the Biden administration’s confidence that strengthening these supply chains would be a great source for creating new jobs.
Also on February 24, an executive order was signed that revoked numerous Trump administration executive orders, most of which were focused on review and analysis of work and economy-based programs and their effectiveness.
Moving into March, the 7th to be exact, the president signed an order that looked to expand access and education to voting throughout the country. The order notes the importance of voting and how it is the right of every American citizen to participate in elections, no matter who they are. From this order, agencies would be asked to partner with state and local election officials to ensure the protection of voting rights and to take down any barriers that might exist for some who want to vote.
The next day, March 8, the president signed an order that focused on fighting for gender equality. Specifically, it fights for the empowerment of women. It created a gender policy council in the White House, the goal being to help spread education about gender equality and gender identity and to combat gender stereotypes. The council also exists to fight things like sexual harassment, wage gaps, and more.
On April 1, the president signed an order that revoked a Trump administration order which had declared a national emergency against the International Criminal Court, (ICC). It had placed sanctions against the court and its officials and had suspended any entry into the US of an ICC official as an immigrant or non-immigrant. President Biden’s order ends this national emergency, ends the sanctions, and ends the entry suspension.
On April 9, an executive order was signed that created a commission to study Supreme Court issues such as term limits, number of justices on the court, the nomination process for justices, and more. The commission is made up of 36 members. If you want to learn about these members, you can actually read about them in one of our past articles.
On April 15, an order was signed which declared a national emergency in regards to Russia, as it had been shown that they did in fact interfere in the last election and performed a large-scale cyber attack on major American networks. This placed sanctions on all who were involved in the attack.
Finally, on April 27, president Biden signed an executive order that raises the minimum wage for federal contractors and tipped employees working on federal contracts to $15. This will begin taking effect in January, 2022, and agencies must implement the change by March of 2022 at the latest.
On March 11, president Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law. This rescue plan was a $1.9 trillion package to assist in relief from Covid-19 in many different fields across the country. It included money for the people in the form of stimulus checks, money to assist in the safe reopening of schools, money to help in the survival of small businesses, and much much more. At the time of writing, over 160 million stimulus checks have been sent to the American people.
One piece of legislation that is being built piece by piece is the American Jobs plan, which was put forward by the president. This 2.3 trillion-dollar plan is meant to modernize the US and give major upgrades to the country’s roads, bridges, childcare system, public transportation, broadband internet, and more. The other major goal of this plan is to create millions of jobs across the United States. As of now, the bill is still being put together, and it is unknown what changes might occur with this bill or whether it will be bipartisan. The general consensus in both Congress and the White House seems to be that they want this plan to be passed by the summer of this year.
Last night in his joint session with congress, President Biden talked about police reform, immigration, gun safety, foreign policy, the pandemic, and the American Families Plan. Specifically looking at the American Families plan, it includes free pre-k schooling and free 2 year community college. On average, this plan is expected to save families 13,000 dollars a year.
President Biden has been faced with a difficult border crisis. Last month they were experiencing a large number of children crossing the border that were then not being sent back as a result of the Biden Administration’s policy. On top of dealing with the large number of children crossing the border, they needed to put Covid protocols into place, which required border control and the White House to find new locations to put children before they found sponsor homes. The Biden administration also had to deal with allegations of sexual harassment in the facilities, which are currently under investigation.
President Biden has been pushing hard for the improvement of the country’s healthcare system, expressing that more people should be able to have healthcare coverage. With that in mind, as discussed earlier, he extended the special enrollment period for people who wanted to sign up for marketplace coverage through the Affordable Care Act. This special enrollment period originally was set to go from February 15 to May 15, but it was later extended, so now the enrollment period will last until August 15 of this year. This enrollment period has allowed people to find health insurance with extremely low premiums and even opened up access to those who might have been in too high of an income bracket before. The next goal for the president in this regard is to make the benefits from the Affordable Care act permanent, rather than having them end in August.
One of president Biden’s more recent focuses has been the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. While he was on the campaign trail, he had made a promise to do just that. He said that the full withdrawal will not happen immediately, but is pushing to have it done by September 11. President Biden is currently facing a May 1 deadline with the Taliban for the withdrawal of troops, and violence may escalate if it isn’t fulfilled. However, that is something to pay attention to a little bit down the road.
President Biden has had 21 out of 23 cabinet members confirmed by the Senate since taking office. The President has received, for the most part, bipartisan support in the Senate in regards to confirmations, resulting in only one withdrawing from consideration. Neera Tanden withdrew from the OMB. Republicans and some Democrats did not like her outspoken language that was used on Twitter. The administration did say they would find Tanden a different position in the OMB where she didn’t need confirmation.
