By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Joe Biden, an experienced Washington hand, is hitting the ground running with a team that will transition him into the Oval Office seamlessly, with priority on stemming the carnage of coronavirus that has taken 243,771 American lives.
His transition team has announced the group of public health experts that will make up his coronavirus advisory board.
“The pandemic is getting significantly more worrisome all across the country. I want everyone to know on day one, we’re going to put our plan to control this virus into action,” the United States President-elect said.
Biden disclosed during the campaign that he will speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, before taking office.
Restoring America’s global status
He has pledged to reassert American leadership role on the global stage through a series of day-one executive actions that would mark a drastic turn from Donald Trump’s policies, per reporting by CNN.
He is also poised to enact a series of executive actions that would undo many of Trump’s foreign policy actions and seek to rapidly return the U.S. to its status at the end of former President Barack Obama’s administration four years earlier.
Asked about the actions Biden will take on his first day in office, Biden campaign adviser Symone Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that he is “going to make good on his promises” made on the campaign trail.
Biden repeatedly promised on his first day in office to rejoin the Paris climate accord, a landmark international deal to combat climate change that Trump exited in 2017.
He has also said he would rejoin the World Health Organisation (WTO), which Trump moved to withdraw from this year.
According to CNN, both actions underscore a major difference between Biden and Trump: Biden has long believed in the multilateral organisations and pacts that Trump distrusts.
Biden has also said he will repeal Trump’s ban on travel from some Muslim-majority countries and reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.
DACA allows “dreamers” – undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children – to remain in the country.
Need for executive orders
The outcome of the election – with Republicans still holding a narrow Senate majority, though Democrats would gain control of the chamber if they win what could be two Senate runoffs in Georgia in early January – underscores the difficulty Biden will have winning legislative victories.
This heightens the importance of his administration’s executive actions.
The transition team Biden assembled has quietly been preparing since Labor Day, and has ramped up its activities in recent weeks – including launching a website and social media accounts Sunday.
The Biden-Harris transition Twitter account tweeted that the incoming administration will take on the “most urgent” challenges facing the nation, listing, “protecting and preserving our nation’s health, renewing our opportunity to succeed, advancing racial equity, and fighting the climate crisis.”
Reforming the government
Biden listed a number of other priorities on the campaign trail and in the policies his campaign released throughout the primary and in the general election, including addressing systemic racism, climate change and expanding protections for union employees.
He has pledged to take steps to reform the government, including expanding on and codifying into law an ethics pledge instituted by Obama’s administration that addresses lobbying issues and also “any improper or inappropriate influence from personal, financial, and other interests.”
He also promised to reinstate guidance instituted during Obama’s administration that would restore transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity.
