What are the 17 executive orders signed by newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden?
A couple of months ago, I did a posting explaining the role of executive orders in the American political system and suggesting that, once in the Oval Office, Joe Biden would enact a slew of such orders to undo some of the worst features of the Trump presidency.
So it has proved to be. But what have these 17 executive orders done? In summary:
Mandate federal employees and contractors to wear masks
Re-enter the World Trade Organisation
Restructure the federal government’s Covid-19 response
Extend moratorium on home eviction and foreclosure
Extend freeze on student loan repayments
Rejoin the Paris climate accord
Restore environmental regulations
Root out systemic racism in federal government programmes and and institutions
Restore counting of non-citizens in US census
Preserve and fortifying protections for Dreamers
Reverse the travel bad on 13 Muslim-majority countries
Repeal of Trump executive order on interior enforcement
Stop construction of the wall on the US-Mexico border
Defer enforced departure for Liberians
Prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation
Mandate an ethics pledge for executive branch appointees
Restore regulatory actions by the government curbed by Trump
You can find more information on these 17 executive orders here.