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Joe Biden shortly after his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday, signed 17 executive orders.
Nine of the executive orders reversed some controversial policies introduced by his predecessor, Donald Trump, while the remaining borders on the new policies of his administration.
See the 17 executive orders signed by Bien below;
1. Mask/Coronavirus
Biden signed an executive order appointing Jeffrey D. Zients as the official COVID-19 response coordinator who will report to the president, in an effort to “aggressively” gear up the nation’s response to the pandemic. The order also restores the directorate for global health security and biodefence at the National Security Council, a group Trump had disbanded.
Though it is not a national mask mandate, which would most likely fall to a legal challenge, Biden is requiring social distancing and the wearing of masks on all federal property and by all federal employees. He is also starting a “100 days masking challenge” urging all Americans to wear masks and state and local officials to implement public measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
2. WHO
The president also reinstated ties with the World Health Organization after the Trump administration chose to withdraw US’ membership and funding last year. Dr. Anthony Fauci will be the head of the US delegation to the organization’s executive board and will jump into the role with a meeting this week.
3. COVID-19 response
This order creates the position of COVID-19 Response Coordinator who will report directly to Biden and manage efforts to produce and distribute vaccines and medical equipment.
4. Nationwide moratorium
This order extends the moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures until at least March 31.
5. Student loan
This extends extends the freeze placed on student loan debt collection to September 30.
6. Climate change
Chief among executive orders that begin to tackle the issue of climate change, Biden has signed a letter to re-enter the United States in the Paris climate accords, which it will officially rejoin 30 days from now. In 2019, Trump formally notified the United Nations that the United States would withdraw from the coalition of nearly 200 countries working to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.
7. Keystone XL pipeline
Biden began the reversal of a slew of the Trump administration’s environmental policies, including revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline; reversing the rollbacks to vehicle emissions standards; undoing decisions to slash the size of several national monuments; enforcing a temporary moratorium on oil and natural gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and re-establishing a working group on the social costs of greenhouse gasses.
8. Racial equality
It rescinds the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission, directs agencies to review their actions to ensure racial equity.
9. Gender equality
This prevents workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
10. Census
Another executive order revokes the Trump administration’s plan to exclude non-citizens from the census count.
11. Immigration
Another order overturns a Trump executive order that pushed aggressive efforts to find and deport unauthorized immigrants. An order also blocks the deportation of Liberians who have been living in the United States
12. Ban on Muslim countries
In a blow to one of his predecessor’s earliest actions to limit immigration, Biden ended the so-called Muslim ban, which blocked travel to the United States from several predominantly Muslim and African countries. He has directed the State Department to restart visa processing for individuals from the affected countries and to develop ways to address the harm caused to those who were prevented from coming to the United States because of the ban.
13. Immigration
Biden’s issued new guidance to officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a subsidiary of the Department of Homeland Security, that oversees immigration-related arrests and detention. That executive order will put an explicit stop to the Trump administration’s family separation policy.
14. US -Mexico border wall
Biden halted the construction Trump’s wall along the US-Mexico border by revoking the national emergency declaration the former president issued in 2018 to siphon money away from other Pentagon projects.
This halts construction of the border wall by terminating the national emergency declaration used to fund it.
15. Deportation
With an executive order, Biden has bolstered the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme that protects deportation of immigrants brought to the United States as children, often called Dreamers. Trump sought for years to end the programme, known as DACA. The order also calls on Congress to enact legislation providing permanent status and a path to citizenship for those immigrants.
16. Ethics
This requires executive branch appointees to sign an ethics pledge barring them from acting in personal interest and requiring them to uphold the independence of the Department of Justice.
17. Regulation
It directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director to develop recommendations to modernize regulatory review and undo Trump’s regulatory approval process.