Pledging to overturn the Trump era policies, President-elect Joe Biden plans to sign a number of executive orders, including rejoining the 2016 Paris climate accord and ending the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries
Donald Trump left the White House for the last time as head of the government on Wednesday, hours before Biden was to be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.
Kamal Harris will make history as the first woman to be vice president of the United States at a time when political divisions run deep across the country.
She is the first-ever African-American and South Asian to be elected to the high office, which also invests her with powers to break the vote gridlock in the Senate.
“President-elect Biden will take action — not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration — but also to start moving our country forward,” incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain wrote in a memo released Saturday.
Trump had suspended entry to the United States of travelers from seven majority Muslim nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, for 90 days soon after moving to the White House.
“We face four overlapping and compounding crises: the Covid-19 crisis, the resulting economic crisis, the climate crisis, and a racial equity crisis,” Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, wrote. “All of these crises demand urgent action. In his first 10 days in office, President-elect Biden will take decisive action to address these four crises, prevent other urgent and irreversible harms, and restore America’s place in the world.”
Other major steps will include the launch of a “100 masking challenge” that will mandate masks on federal property and interstate travel, extend the pause on repayment of and interest on student loans, continue restrictions on evictions and foreclosures; all related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden will be inaugurated on January 20 amid unprecedented security with more than 25,000 National Guard troops deployed in Washington DC in the wake of the storming of the US Capitol on January 6. FBI has warned of “armed protests” in days leading up to the inauguration.
