This election was the first time I voted and I’m sure you can guess who I voted for… good ole’ Joe Biden. Biden has only been in office for a little over a month and it seems as if he’s really gotten a lot done in the little time he’s been commander in chief. Let’s take a look at what he’s gotten done.
First, I want to start with his first day in office, because he got the ball rolling pretty quickly. On his first day, Biden joined the Paris Agreement, which is an international pact that aims at stopping emissions that cause global warming. Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact claiming that it was too costly for taxpayers. On his first day, he also created an executive order that promotes racial equity by ordering his government to “conduct equity assessment of its agencies and reallocate resources to advance equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved…” Biden also made many other executive orders on day one that include the COVID-19 response, immigration enforcement, mask-wearing, and most notably the executive order to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would cut through Indigenous lands. I really could go on for a while because Biden signed many executive orders on his first day. Although, if you’re reading this and think that these executive orders are new or extraordinary, you’re wrong. Presidents usually sign and create many executive orders on their first days to undo anything they believe was wrong from the last presidency. In Biden’s case, he also needed to act swiftly due to the severity of the pandemic. I know, that’s a lot of information and that was just his first day.
As for his first month in office, I’m going to highlight a few things that I think are important that have happened during the Biden presidency. Firstly and most importantly, his COVID-19 response has been refreshing for America. Not only does he believe scientists but, he gives them a platform to speak. He allows Dr. Fauci to hold press briefings that help inform the public of how the US is handling the pandemic. He signed an executive order that requires people to wear masks on federal property and modes of transportation. He also rejoined the World Health Organization and finalized the deal for 200 million doses of the vaccine, which will give the United States enough vaccines to cover every American adult. This is extremely exciting and such good news after a year of uncertainty and death.
Secondly, he has been working to fix immigration policy and reunite families. He signed an executive order on legal immigration which calls for a review of Trump’s rule that made it “harder for poorer immigrants to obtain permanent residency in the United States.” He created a task force headed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help reunite families who were separated at the border and also sent an immigration reform bill to lawmakers which provides an eight-year pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, which would benefit approximately 645,000 people.
Thirdly, Biden created a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan which allows for $1,400 per person, $400 weekly bonus checks and possibly increasing the minimum wage to $15. The package also includes a restaurant rescue fund, money for reopening schools, and funding for state and local governments. The bill is still in Congress being drafted by the House of Representatives and will be voted on soon.
I think that Biden has done a pretty good job in office so far. It can’t be easy taking over the presidency in the midst of a deadly pandemic but, it seems that America is finally going in the right direction. I know that Biden won’t deliver every single one of his promises but, it’s up to us, the people that voted for him, to hold him and his cabinet accountable for the things he doesn’t do.