US President Joe Biden signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, after his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States, US, on 20 January 2021. Reuters/Tom Brenner
By Reuters Staff | Reuters
WASHINGTON, DC, 21 January 2021
US President Joe Biden signed 15 executive actions shortly after being sworn on Wednesday, undoing policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, and making his first moves on the pandemic and climate change.
Signing several actions in front of reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, Biden said there was “no time to waste” in issuing the executive orders, memorandums and directives.
“Some of the executive actions I’m going to be signing today are going to help change the course of the COVID crisis, we’re going to combat climate change in a way that we haven’t done so far and advance racial equity and support other underserved communities” said Biden. “These are just all starting points”.
Aides said the actions the Democratic president signed included a mask mandate on federal property and for federal employees, an order to establish a new White House office coordinating the response to the coronavirus, and halting the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
Biden signed a document to begin the process of re-entering the Paris climate accord and issued a sweeping order tackling climate change, including revoking the presidential permit granted to the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Among a raft of orders addressing immigration, Biden revoked Trump’s emergency declaration that helped fund the construction of a border wall and ended a travel ban on some majority-Muslim countries.
The Day One plans were just the start of a flurry of executive actions Biden would take soon after entering office, said his press secretary, Jen Psaki.
“In the coming days and weeks, we will be announcing additional executive actions that confront these challenges and deliver on the president-elect’s promises to the American people,” Psaki said.
Further actions would include revoking the ban on military service by transgender Americans, and reversing a policy that blocks US funding for programmes overseas linked to abortion.
On the economic front, Biden asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend a moratorium on evictions until the end of March, and the Department of Education to suspend student loan payments until the end of September.
What a relief? The whole world breathed a sigh of relief as Joe Biden was sworn in as the next President of the US. All the allies of the US are more confident that they have a stable and experienced President who knows how to deal with people with respect and courtesy.
The US is a force for good despite many unpalatable things it has done to the first people of America, the devastating atom bombs it dropped on Japan and raining down of bombs in “Indo-China” to agent orange infamy that has devastated the region.
I am of the opinion that the four hundred thousand deaths the US has had so far from the Chinese virus must be the karmic result of such wanton killing and destruction.
Even the CCP is heaving a sigh of relief! Trump has truly been a bull in the China shop. The man has no morals and no sense of responsibility for himself or his nation. He has no patriotism. He has assaulted democracy and wreaked havoc in his nation in order to hold on to power.
The people who follow him are living in a phantasy world devoid of reality. They have been drugged by Trump’s lies. It’s hard to believe people can be brainwashed to such an extent.
He claimed he would remove the swamp from Washington but instead he became the toad in the swamp. His four years in office has been a train wreck and now that the toad has been flushed out, everyone can breath a whiff of fresh air of hope with the new administration in place.
It will be no easy task but I am very hopeful and confident that jogging Joe will bring the true America we are used to be familiar with since the time of John F Kennedy.
Trump claimed to make America great but instead he destroyed America’s democracy and its standing in the world. The world is a happier place by getting rid of a psychopath!