After entering office, US President Joe Biden has signed more than three dozen executive actions. They deal with the coronavirus pandemic, immigration, equal rights, climate crisis and the economy. Many in the Republican Party have expressed their opposition to this. Biden has responded: “There’s a lot of talk, with good reason, about the number of executive orders that I have signed. I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy.”
Biden is undoing harmful policies made by former President Trump such as the Muslim Ban, which is discriminatory, no argument about it, just like banning Trans individuals from the military. These are some of Biden’s most notable actions so far:
1. He passed an executive order on protecting federal workforce and requiring mask-wearing.
2. US rejoined the World Health Organization, and sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, revoking the United States’ former intention to leave the W.H.O amid the pandemic.
3. He extended protections for federal workers, and put federal agencies on a path to ensure a $15 minimum wage for employees.
4. The U.S. rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, a global deal to reduce carbon emissions.
5. He made a proclamation on ending discriminatory bans to enter the US- this includes the Muslim ban, which impeded foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
6. He established a task force to reunite the families that American authorities had separated at the border between Jan. 20, 2017, and Jan. 20, 2021.
7. All qualified Americans are now allowed to serve in the military- this ends the Pentagon’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.
8. An executive order was passed on reforming the prison system to end the use of privately operated detention facilities. This stops the Justice Department from renewing contracts with private prisons that have targeted Black and Brown communities.