Last Updated on January 20, 2021
In the first hours of his presidency, President Joe Biden is set to issue a flurry of executive orders that target the reversal of a large number of significant policies and directives put into place under President Trump.
Mr. Biden will sign a total of 17 executive actions and orders Wednesday afternoon after the inauguration, that will restore a many Obama-era policies and end what the Biden team labeled “the gravest damages” of the Trump administration.
“He wants to roll up his sleeves and get to work as quickly as possible,” Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. She added that in an effort to “move the country forward” much of that work will be to reverse and terminate the actions of his predecessor.
Biden to sign 17 executive orders on first day in office, reversing numerous Trump policies
Biden will reverse the 2017 EO suspending entry into the U.S. from the nations of Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, NK and Venezuela.
What do u think?https://t.co/pTby1dEdtI
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) January 20, 2021
End of the Wall
The President will issue an order immediately terminating funding for border wall construction along the US-Mexico border, a primary Trump campaign promise. Biden’s administration will order an “immediate pause” in wall construction and will “determine the best way to redirect funds that were diverted by the prior administration to fund wall construction.”
Immigration Enforcement
President Biden will order the revocation of Trump era aggressive immigration enforcement. The Biden team said that replacing the Trump policies on immigration enforcement will be “civil immigration enforcement policies that best protect the American people” and that are “in line with our values and priorities.”
DACA
Mr. Biden will “preserve and fortify” the Obama-era initiative known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This program allows people whose parent(s) brought them into the United States illegally as children to request deferred immigration enforcement and work authorization for a renewal period of two years.
President-elect Biden will propose a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people, about 11 million people. The plan would provide an 8-year path to naturalization.
It comes after President Trump tried (but failed) to end DACA, which protects 650,000 people from deportation. pic.twitter.com/2cXC6DDYNc
— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 19, 2021
The ‘Muslim Ban’
In 2017, during the dominance of ISIS in portions of the Middle East, President Trump signed an order suspending travel to the United States by the counties where ISIS was prevalent, including Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Iran, all predominantly Muslim countries. Democrats, ever playing politics in the court of public opinion, branded it a “Muslim Ban,” rather than honestly identifying it as a policy to protect the nation from another 9/11 at the hand of ISIS.
President Biden will sign an executive order to end Mr. Trump’s “Muslim ban,” which Jake Sullivan, incoming White House national security adviser, said was rooted in “religious animus and xenophobia.”
The reversal will repeal Mr. Trump’s order and green-light the State Department to begin visa processing for affected countries in order to “restore fairness and remedy the harms caused by the bans.”
The Census
The President will sign an executive order to repeal the Trump administration’s policy of excluding non-citizens from the census. This will affect the apportionment of congressional representatives in several states.
Re-Engaging the WHO
Mr. Biden will re-engage with the World Health Organization. President Trump withdrew support for the organization after its inept management of the COVID pandemic and its politically motivated cover of Chinese malfeasance in the crisis.
A statement from a Biden administration spokesperson said the administration will “work with the WHO and our partners to strengthen and reform the organization, support the COVID-19 health and humanitarian response, and advance global health and security.”
Dr. Fauci would lead the Biden administration’s delegation at the WHO Executive Board meeting this week.
Biden will end construction on Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall, end the ban on travel from some Muslim-majority countries, rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization and revoke the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. https://t.co/gjSTJ1rMtH
— WEAR ABC 3 (@weartv) January 20, 2021
The Paris Climate Change Agreement
As he was oft to state during the campaign, President Biden will execute the re-engagement of the United States to the job-killing Paris Climate Accord. The agreement is a global pact crafted during the Obama administration to combat climate change.
Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate adviser – who oversaw the release of millions of gallons of heavy-metal wastewater into a scenic Colorado river in 2015, said the move will be an “important step for the US to regain and strengthen its leadership opportunities,” adding that Mr. Biden made it “abundantly clear” that climate change “poses an existential threat.”
The Environment
The President is set to order a massive roll-back of President Trump’s environmental policies – including the revocation of his presidential proclamations and other orders that McCarthy claims “do not serve the US national interest.”
McCarthy said the order will also revoke all permits granted to the Keystone XL Pipeline, another “promise” Mr. Biden made during the campaign and a move that will cost tens of thousands of jobs.
The Mask Challenge
Paying lip-service to a practice that has proven to be wholly ineffective, Mr. Biden will continue to advance the false narrative that masks are effective against the transmission of the COVID virus by launching a “100-day masking challenge.”
This order will require the wearing of masks and mandatory physical distancing in all federal buildings, on all federal lands, and by federal employees and contractors.
Affordable Housing
Mr. Biden will also extend the moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures for those effected by the “unprecedented housing affordability crisis” brought on by the COVID pandemic through March 31, 2021.
Education
Biden is also expected to request – and will all but certainly be granted – an immediate extension of the “pause” on interest and principal payment of federal student loans from the Department of Education until September 30, 2021.
Brian Deese, Biden’s Director of the National Economic Council, said the President “supports Congress acting immediately to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt per person.”
“These are emergency measures that will help make sure no American is put in the place to make the decision to pay their student loans or put food on the table,” Deese said.
Biden instructs Education Department to extend pause on federal student loan payments through September https://t.co/rokCwqZlSS
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 20, 2021
Racial and Social Justice
Mr. Biden will sign an executive order to “define equity as the consistent and systemic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals” including individuals who “belong to underserved communities such as Black, Latino, Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and other persons of color; LGBTQ+ persons; people with disabilities religious minorities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise affected by persistent poverty or inequality.”
Susan Rice, the incoming White House domestic policy adviser, said the President will direct federal agencies to “equitably allocate federal resources to empower and invest in communities of color and other underserved communities” and to facilitate better delivery of government benefits to make sure families “can access opportunity.”
Mr. Biden will also issue an executive order prohibiting workplace discrimination based of sexual orientation and gender identity. The order will direct agencies to make sure federal anti-discrimination laws prohibit such discrimination.
‘Ethics Pledge’
President Biden will also sign an executive order to “restore and maintain public trust and government.” This order will require every Executive Branch appointee to sign the “ethics pledge,” which will “ensure” that employees act in the interest of the American people and not for personal gain.
Re-Regulation
Mr. Biden will issue a memo withdrawing the Trump administration’s streamlining of the regulatory process in an effort to “remove those needless obstacles to regulating in the public’s interest.”
Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff, is set to issue a regulatory freeze memo that will pause any new regulations from advancing into practice in order to give the Biden administration an opportunity to review any regulations the Trump administration advanced in its last days.
And There’s More
Psaki told reporters to watch for more executive orders to be forthcoming in the coming days and weeks. She said the President will be “announcing additional executive actions that confront these challenges and deliver on the president-elect’s promises to the American people, including revoking the ban on military service by transgender Americans, and reversing the Mexico City policy.”
The Mexico City policy is a pro-life policy – as well as a fiscally responsible policy in that it limits the use of taxpayer dollars for domestic initiatives in foreign countries – that forbids the use of US taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in foreign countries.
