President Biden’s First 17 Executive Actions Geared To Undo Trump’s Orders

Washington, DC – Newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden was expected to sign 17 executive actions in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

President Biden has vowed to roll back most of the executive orders signed by former President Donald Trump and was expected to begin that process after his inauguration on Jan. 20, CBS News reported.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that some of the 17 executive actions – 15 of which are executive orders – which President Biden planned to take were designed to ease financial pressure on Americans as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

He is also expected to target and undo former President Trump’s orders surrounding the environment, U.S. immigration, the census, and regulatory changes, CBS News reported.

“In the coming days and weeks we will be announcing additional executive actions that confront these challenges and deliver on the President-elect’s promises to the American people, including revoking the ban on military service by transgender Americans, and reversing the Mexico City policy,” Psaki said in a statement.

President Biden will launch a “100 Day Masking Challenge” that initiates nationwide mask and social-distancing requirements for federal buildings and on federal land for federal employees and government contractors, CBS News reported.

He has also vowed to restructure the U.S. response to the pandemic and rejoin the World Health Organization (WHO).

The new President is also expected to re-implement and extend the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures on federally-back mortgages, CBS News reported.

The current pause on student loans will be extended until Sept. 30, but advisors said President Biden also intended to keep his promise to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt, although it will take longer as it must be approved by Congress.

President Biden has already announced his intent to have the United States rejoin the Paris Climate agreement and to close down the Keystone XL pipeline, CBS News reported.

Gina McCarthy, advisor to President Biden for climate issues, said the new administration planned to discard or redo more than 100 “harmful” Presidential proclamations, memoranda, and permits signed by the previous administration that the new White House has deemed bad for the environment.

President Biden also planned to revoke land development permissions granted by former President Trump at the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine national monuments in New England and at the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, according to CBS News.

The new administration’s outline of executive orders said President Biden would also “consider revising vehicle fuel economic and emissions standards” and create federal working groups to address a plan for greenhouse gases.

President Biden’s administration said that it will have every federal agency review its equity and have the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) analyze when federal funds have been equitably distributed in communities of color and other places of need, CBS News reported.

Susan Rice, the new White House domestic policy advisor, said they planned to disband President Trump’s “harmful” 18-member 1776 Commission that was created to study whether the American education system was teaching to a liberal agenda rather than actual U.S. history.

President Biden also planned to reverse former President Trump’s July 2020 order than left illegal immigrants out of the U.S. Census count for the purpose of allocating federal funds, CBS News reported.

He has promised to broaden federal protections against sex discrimination for LGBTQ employees.

President Biden will keep his promise to grant permanent U.S. citizenship to almost a million illegal immigrants currently registered in the “Dreamers” program on the first day of his presidency, CBS News reported.

He will also end travel bans and instructed the U.S. State Department to restart visa applications from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Nigeria, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, and Tanzania.

The new administration has vowed to change the way U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) works and “set civil immigration enforcement policies that best protect the American people and are in line with our values and priorities,” according to CBS News.

He has also promised to immediately put an end to the emergency declaration that allowed former President Trump to divert money to build a wall along the U.S. southern border.

President Biden was expected to order White House Chief of Staff Ron Klein to freeze any last-minute regulatory orders made by former President Trump in his final days in office, CBS News reported.

And the new President planned to sign an executive order tasking his administration with creating an executive brand ethics doctrine that all appointees will be required to sign promising “to uphold the independence of the Department of Justice.”