Politics - News Analysis

President-Elect Biden to Immediately Sign Executive Orders Reversing Trump’s Policies

Well, isn’t this wonderful news this Sunday morning.

President-elect Joe Biden (God, I love saying that) is prepared to issue a series of executive orders after taking office next year that would reverse some of Donald Trump’s most noteworthy policies, including his controversial “Muslim ban,” his crackdown on DREAMers, and his withdrawal from the Paris climate accords and the World Health Organization, according to The Washington Post.

Biden’s advisers have spent “months quietly working on how best to implement his agenda, with hundreds of transition officials preparing to get to work inside various federal agencies,” the Post writes. “They have assembled a book filled with his campaign commitments to help guide their early decisions.”

In another display of how stark a contrast Biden plans to draw with 45, the president-elect also reportedly plans to announce a robust, 12-member coronavirus task force as soon as Monday. The task force, which could begin meeting within days, will be co-chaired by former surgeon general Vivek H. Murthy and David Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner.

While Biden’s sweeping erasure of his predecessor’s efforts in office would be remarkable, the president-elect will likely have few other options for implementing major policies, since the looming possibility of a Republican-controlled Senate would present an obstacle for his administration to pass substantial legislation.

“In the old days, the mandate meant that the other side would be more amenable, or feeling they had an impetus to work,” Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., Jr. explained to the Post. “I’m not sure that applies any longer.”

Biden would also institute new ethics guidelines at the White House, and he has pledged to sign an executive order the first day in office saying that no member of his administration could influence any Justice Department investigations.

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