In the quiet Georgetown neighborhood of Washington City, a dozen fat black cars pulled up in front of the pink facade of trendy Call Your Mother sandwich shop. It was the presidential column, who arrived after taking Joe Biden to his Sunday mass and stopping on the way back to the White House to pick up a cream cheese-filled sesame cone for the commander-in-chief who went to the window. With that stop, on his fifth day at the White House, Joe Biden equaled his predecessor’s record for visits to city restaurants. During his four-year presidency, it was only known that Donald Trump was going to an establishment in the capital, and he went to the grill of his own hotel. Of course, it is not that the White House has no option but to block a crossing through Georgetown in order to satisfy any craving for a cheap bagel from the most powerful person in the world. But the visit on Sunday is an example of what Joe Biden’s first week in the White House was: an effort, on all fronts, to break free from his predecessor’s model and bury his legacy as soon as possible.
The promised transition to his political rivals will have to wait. So far, in his first week in office, President Biden has pushed the executive to reverse the most controversial policies of his predecessor and, in an overwhelming tsunami of decrees, from executive orders to more vague memoranda, charted the new course from the start . and without going through the Capitol. In addition to the sizeable legislative package he has sent to Congress to help an economy hit by the health crisis, worth $ 1.9 trillion to be debated by lawmakers, Joe Biden signed at least 37 executive measures in his first week. In the first three days alone, up to 30 of those, 10 of which are explicit Trump policy withdrawals. It’s a record number for a president’s first week. Beyond bagels and dietary changes, these are some of the most pertinent decisions the president made in the first seven days.
Corona pandemic
Biden has signed more than 10 orders related to the response to the health crisis. He ordered the establishment of a Diagnostic Testing Board dedicated to increasing the availability of tests across the country. He instructed the Education and Health Departments to draw up guidelines for the reopening of schools. He announced the return of the United States to the WHO. He mandated the mandatory nature of protective masks on federal property and later, through another executive order, on public transportation. Created the figure of the coordinator of the response to Covid. He restored Covid’s travel restrictions from Europe and Brazil, which Trump had lifted a few days before departure, and demanded that travelers arrive in the country. HYPERLINK “https://elpais.com/sociedad/2021-01-26 / united- states-requires-a-negative-test-of-covid-19-to-travelers-arriving-by-plane.html ” t” _blank “give a negative test of covid-19 and keep mandatory quarantine.
Environment
On his first day at the White House, he fulfilled his electoral pledge to return to the Paris climate accord, which Trump left in 2017 citing costs to taxpayers. It blocked construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the United States, controversial in part because it traverses indigenous land. And it has announced that HYPERLINK “https://elpais.com/clima-y-medio-ambiente/2021-01-26/biden-se-propone-acabar-con-el-fracking-en-terrenos-federales.html ” t” _blank “will sign orders to ban fracking, or hydraulic drilling, in areas owned by the federal government, and will communicate with the various federal agencies to determine how extensive the denial should be with respect to the new contracts to extract crude oil and gas on federal soil.
Equality and racism
He ordered his government’s departments to conduct evaluations of their agencies and use resources to “promote equality for all”. He signed another injunction extending federal protections from discrimination to members of the LGBTQ community. The second week bombardment of executive orders began with the lifting of the veto of transsexuals in the military. He signed executive orders to stop the Justice Department from hiring private prisons, a step towards fairness in the prison system, and to combat racial discrimination in the housing market. He also signed off on measures against discrimination against Asian-Americans and to strengthen ties between the government and Native American tribes. And from that first week on, he ended the veto that Trump had imposed on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Migration
Through ambitious legislative initiatives and a new succession of executive decisions, President Biden has sought to mark HYPERLINK from week one “https://elpais.com/internacional/elecciones-usa/2021-01-20/un-plan-para-destejer -the-migratory-legacy-of-trump.html ” t” _blank “a 180 degree turn in immigration policy, making it clear that the United States will be a host country again. On the same day he took power, he ordered the construction of the wall on the border with Mexico to be halted, Trump’s star pledge. He has ordered the inclusion of undocumented persons in the census that the government prepares every ten years and from which Trump wanted to exclude them. He has repealed Trump’s policies against communities protecting undocumented immigrants from deportation. He sent an immigration reform to Congress that offers options to regularize their situation to the 11 million undocumented migrants estimated to be living in the United States and who are considering immediate permanent residence for dreamers, “https://elpais.com/internacional / elections- usa / 2021-01-23 / the-dreamers-caress-their-sleep.html ” t” _blank “the nearly 700,000 young people who illegally crossed the border with their parents when they were underage. The president also signed an executive order asking his administration to take all steps to preserve and strengthen DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the program that protects Dreamers from deportation and that Trump wanted to remove.