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Joe Biden plans to immediately sign a series of sweeping executive orders once taking office in January, reversing several of Donald Trump’s key policies and reinstating programs the president has ended.
Near the top of Biden’s list is rejecting Trump’s policies regarding immigration, those close to his campaign told The Washington Post in a report published Sunday morning. These day one priorities include repealing a travel ban from a handful of Muslim-majority countries and restoring the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
During Trump’s four years, he ended DACA, which was an Obama-era program that allowed ‘dreamers’, or those brought to the U.S. illegally as children, to stay in the country.
People familiar with Biden’s plans also say he plans to rejoin the U.S. in the Paris Climate Accords, which focuses on reducing the world’s gas emissions, and reenter the World Health Organization, which Trump withdrew from in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden plans to begin setting up his own coronavirus task force on Monday, which will be co-chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler. The new group could begin meeting within days to set forward a new strategy for dealing with the pandemic.
The plans for radical and quick changes as soon as he enters office shows the vastly different priorities between Trump and Biden.
Those close to the former vice president and his campaign say that a president Biden may rely more on executive actions than he initially hoped, especially if Democrats fail to flip the Senate blue in two Georgia runoff elections scheduled for January 5.
If Republicans hold onto the Senate by both incumbent Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue winning their respective Georgia races, it will set Biden up for a lame duck presidency where most of his actions will likely be conducted through executive orders.
Through executive orders, Biden will be able to reorient federal agencies and repeal and implement regulations. Without the Senate on his side, however, he won’t be able to get through some key legislation he has promised throughout his campaign or have appointments and nominations approved, including cabinet officials and judges.
‘The policy team, the transition policy teams, are focusing now very much on executive power,’ a Biden ally, who has been in touch with his team, told The Post. ‘I expect that to be freely used in a Biden administration at this point, if the Senate becomes a roadblock.’
One option his team is discussing is appointing Cabinet members in an acting capacity, a tactic Trump also used to get officials to work without need for a lengthy confirmation process.
‘Just by virtue of the calendar and how many positions are filled, that’s always a possibility,’ the individual said. ‘Because the Senate moves so slowly now, so much more slowly than it used to.’
The former vice president officially declared victory on Saturday after he became the projected winner in Pennsylvania, giving him the Electoral College votes needed to break the threshold of 270.
Biden has also vowed to send a bill to Congress that would repeal liability protections for gun manufacturers and close background check loopholes in an effort to increase gun control legislation.
This would be a large feat to get through if he didn’t have the Senate on his side.
Biden would also have trouble repealing the GOP tax cuts from 2017 if Republicans held the Senate.
