US President Biden Signs 15 Executive Orders, Reverses Trump's Key Orders

The 46th United States President Joe Biden has signed 15 executive orders on his first day in office. These orders are reversing some of the key foreign policies and national security decisions taken by his predecessor Donald Trump.

The executive orders included rejoining the Paris climate accord, revoking travel ban from Muslim majority countries, stopping America's withdrawal from the World Health Organisation and halting the immediate construction of Mexico border wall.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office as he signed the first set of executive orders on Wednesday, President Biden said, "I'm proud of today's executive actions, and I'm going to start by keeping the promises I made to the American people. A long way to go. These are just executive actions. They are important, but we're going to need legislation for a lot of the things we're going to do."

The president said he will be signing a number of executive orders over the next several days of the week.

He also stressed on working on the growing Covid crisis in the country, along with the economic crisis, and climate crisis, racial equity issues.

The first executive order signed by Biden comes with a 100-day mask challenge, asking Americans to wear a mask for 100 days. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told the media that Biden issued a mask mandate that will require people to wear a mask for visiting federal land, federal buildings or using certain modes of public transportation.

Speaking about the executive order reversing former president Trump's decision to withdraw from the World Health Organisation, Psaki said the order would go on to strengthen their efforts to get the pandemic under control by improving global health.

Biden officially appointed a Covid-19 response coordinator as he had previously announced. This team would work to create a nationwide response to the coronavirus pandemic. He also re-established the national security team responsible for global health, security and bio-defence.

Further, taking cognizance of the unprecedented housing affordability crisis triggered by the pandemic, the president asked relevant agencies to extend nationwide suspensions on evictions and foreclosures. The president has also asked the education department to extend the pause on federal student loan payments and interest, Psaki said.

Psaki also mentioned that rejoining the Paris climate agreement puts the US in a position to exercise global leadership in advancing the objectives of said agreement. Biden has also rolled back several regulatory reversals done by the previous administration to protect public health and the environment.

The second broad executive order protects nation's treasures by reviewing the boundaries for several national monuments, places a temporary moratorium on all oil and natural gas leasing in the Arctic national wildlife refuge and re-establishes the inter-agency working group on the social cost of greenhouse gases.

In his efforts to deal with racial inequity in the country, US President Biden has also launched orders to root out systemic racism from federal programs and institutions. Biden has directed the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General to take appropriate actions to fortify Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). DACA provides temporary relief from deportation to dreamers, young people who were brought to the United States as children.

"The president also put an end to the Muslim ban, a policy rooted in religious animus and xenophobia. He sent a proclamation effective immediately halting further funding construction of the previous administration's border wall and terminating the so-called national emergency use to wastefully divert billions for wall construction," she said.

Biden sent an immigration bill (the US Citizenship Act of 2021) to Congress to modernize the immigration system.

Speaking to the reporters Biden said that these orders are merely the start of a complete overhaul of the country's crises. "We are going to, in the process of rebuilding the economy, do what I said throughout the campaign and while running: rebuild the backbone of the country, the middle class. And so, there's going to be a lot of focus on that. I think some of the things we're going to be doing are we're going to be are bold and vital, and there's no time to start like today," he said.

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