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"Vice President Joe Biden visit to Israel March 2016" by U.S. Embassy Jerusalem is licensed under CC BY 2.0; Image has been cropped and tinted
The Biden Administration
The Biden Administration
Everything Biden has done or plans to do about COVID-19, the economy, immigration, and more
As President Biden begins his first year in office, he faces intimidating challenges. The country is polarized, the economy is struggling, and a massive pandemic plagues the nation. Many of his first-year challenges will be tied closely to the COVID-19 pandemic, but other items on his to-do list include restoring the environment, reforming the immigration system, addressing issues of systemic racism, and alleviating the student loan crisis.
"Vice President Joe Biden visit to Israel March 2016" by U.S. Embassy Jerusalem is licensed under CC BY 2.0
In Biden’s Inaugural Address, he focused on smoothing the rift between Democrats and Republicans and unifying the country. He pledged to be honest, admit his own mistakes, and prevent misinformation from spreading further. Acknowledging those who didn’t support him, Biden promised to be a “President for all Americans.” But he does have an ambitious agenda: in total, he signed 2 executive actions and 15 executive orders all on his first day, far more than Trump, Clinton, and Obama’s first-day actions combined. Here's everything that Biden has done or promises to do during his time in office.
COVID-19
With a global pandemic sweeping the nation, Biden has a lot to handle. Here is how Biden plans to address the issue.
In order to prevent community transmission, Biden has pledged to instate free COVID-19 testing. He and his medical advisors- Dr. Fauci being among them- are mainly working on ways to detect people who are infected but show no symptoms. Biden hopes that this will be achieved with free rapid testing and a strengthening of federal coordination of testing. He also plans to push the development of at-home tests, which would help testing to become more efficient and practical.
Biden also seeks to appoint a board of qualified advisors to shape his COVID-19 policy. He has appointed 13 officials to the board, which is co-chaired by former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler, former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and Yale associate professor of medicine and epidemiology Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. Biden has promised to promote diversity in his government, and of this newly formed board, half of the members are women or people of color. President Biden has also officially announced his pandemic briefings will be delivered only by top health professionals and scientists. His coronavirus team gave their first briefing on January 27th. Biden said that through this board, he hopes to restore the public’s trust in government and give accurate information about COVID-19.
Biden believes that an ideal solution to COVID-19 should come from a partnership between the federal government and the states. To that end, he has been working with individual governors to create a unified policy that will more effectively halt the virus's spread. Biden has promised governors that he will provide the resources they need to stop the virus, including funding increases. He has already signed an executive order requiring Americans to wear masks on buses and trains and other transportation as well as in all federal buildings. But he also wants all states to enforce a mask mandate, which 39 (including DC and Puerto Rico) have done as of January 25th.
The COVID-19 vaccine has finally been administered to certain sections of the population, but President Biden has pledged to enact a more effective distribution plan. Biden plans to distribute 100 million vaccines (or 50 million actual vaccine doses, because every person needs to be vaccinated twice) in his first 100 days in office. These first 100 million doses will go to healthcare workers first, then the elderly, and then children. But while these 50 million doses will be a good start for Biden's vaccine administration plan, he will still have a long way to go after his first 100 days- there are 328 million people living in the United States.
The Economy
Not only has COVID affected our state and schools, it has also affected the national economy. Unemployment rates are staggering and small businesses are struggling- so what is Biden’s plan?
In April of 2020, 14.4% of Americans were out of work. This was the highest unemployment rate recorded during the pandemic, and while unemployment has decreased since, it still remains higher than normal. To address this issue, Biden plans to focus on short-term compensation, otherwise known as work sharing, to help people remain employed. Rather than lose their job, people will work for fewer hours and the federal government will help make up the difference in wages. To help accomplish this goal, Biden wants the federal government to provide permanent, 100% financing for short-term unemployment compensation. He has also encouraged states to institute their own short-term compensation initiatives, which 27, including Florida, have. Currently, most states have limits on the amount of work hour reductions that are permissible (e.g., 40% - 60%) to qualify for short-term compensation. Biden wants that cap moved to 80%. Biden also plans to extend insurance and short-term compensations automatically, depending on economic and public health conditions.
In order to create more jobs in the future, Biden has pledged to invest $400 billion into manufacturing and $300 billion into research and development- a move which would create an estimated five million jobs. Also, Biden wants to give COVID-19 relief to parents and will therefore give them a tax credit of $3,000 per child age 6 to 17 years old and $3,600 dollars per child under 6, which could be collected in monthly payments. This would help low-income families that have been struggling with COVID.
Even before the pandemic emerged, countless college graduates across the country were struggling with their student loan debt. COVID-19 has only further exacerbated this pressing issue. Biden plans to forgive $10,000 per person in student loan debt, which would serve to wipe out student debt for 15 million Americans. He has also pledged to work to make public colleges free for families whose income is less than $125,000 a year, thereby preventing student debt from accumulating in the future.
Another problem in the lives of many Americans is minimum wage. Right now, the national minimum wage is set to $7.25 an hour (despite some states having higher state minimum wages). Biden promises to raise the national minimum wage to $15, and has implored future presidents to frequently adjust the minimum wage for inflation and the increasing cost of living.
To help small businesses that will be affected by the minimum wage increase, he will also guarantee that small businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get relief. The tax requirements for these businesses will be lower, and they will receive additional support from the federal government. Big businesses, on the other hand, will have to pay more in taxes, as Biden plans to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.
In recent years, progressives have fought to increase taxes on the mega-rich. Biden plans to enact a number of policies that would raise taxes on individuals with income above $400,000. This allows the US government to gain more money from taxes, revitalizing the economy. Estimates indicate that over a span of 10 years, Biden’s plan will bring in between $2.4 and $4 trillion in taxes.
Biden wants to increase family leave so that parents can spend more time with their infants. He supports a plan to increase paid family and medical leave to 12 weeks.
Last but not least, Biden has championed the idea of increasing Social Security’s minimum benefit for low earners to 125% of the federal poverty line ($1,301 per month), which would help Americans who can barely afford a meal a day.
The Environment/Climate Change
Many people believe climate change to be one of the most pressing issues of our generation. President Biden has promised to make countering climate change a priority, pledging to eliminate carbon from the U.S. Power Sector by 2035 and get the United States to zero carbon emissions by 2050.
As part of his plan to address climate change, President Biden revoked a presidential permit held by the "Keystone XL" pipeline, a controversial project designed to carry oil from Canada to the American Gulf Coast.
This decision was contentious. Those who criticized the move argued that killing the pipeline would sacrifice countless jobs, an especially dangerous action during the economy-crashing pandemic. However, supporters of the executive action argued that new projects to support fossil fuels don't have a place in the green-energy movement of today.
On his first day in office, Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement. The agreement's purpose is to subdue global warming, ensuring that the global increase in temperature does not exceed two degrees Celsius. This agreement works on an ambitious five-year cycle of climate action. Now that the United States has reentered the agreement, Eritrea, Iraq, South Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Turkey are the only countries missing. In another effort to reduce the effects of climate change, Biden is planning to hold a world climate summit. At this summit, he will encourage leaders of the major carbon-emitting nations to join the US in making more ambitious commitments to emission reductions. Biden also wants to create enforceable international agreements to reduce global shipping and aviation emissions.
During his campaign, Biden promised that he would halt mining and oil drilling on federal lands. He has since put this idea into action, ordering sweeping actions to pause drilling. The administration has issued a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on public lands.
Democrats and Republicans are very split on the issue of fossil fuel extraction, and President Biden wants to find a middle ground. While he calls for prohibiting new oil and gas projects on federal lands, he will not support a ban on fracking, which would cost American jobs. However, some have speculated that he may support such a ban later in his term.
Because of his environmentalist policies, Biden is going to be faced with a challenge: finding jobs for people who currently work at oil drilling companies. He says that he will protect workers affected by the transition to cleaner energy sources, such as coal miners and power plant workers, as well as invest in their communities. They will receive pensions and health benefits, he promises, and will have the opportunity to find a job in clean energy.
Another goal he has set for himself is to ensure that the US achieves a 100% clean energy economy and reaches net zero emissions by 2050. To do this, he plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by implementing new fuel economy standards. This means that he will try to get rid of heavy-pollution vehicles. He will replace them with solar/electrical cars and trucks that will supply jobs to Americans and at the same time avoid harming the environment. In order to achieve net zero admissions, Biden will also set aggressive limits on methane pollution for oil and gas producers.
Healthcare
The United States is one of the only developed countries without universal healthcare, but some have argued that expanding healthcare coverage across the country could be more expensive than it's worth. One of the most controversial issues in politics today, healthcare will pose a challenge for Biden. So what is his plan?
On his very first day in office, President Biden re-established connections between the United States and the World Health Organization (WHO). President Trump had threatened to cut ties with this organization late in his term, and the break was expected to be finalized in July of 2021. Trump believed that the WHO was too slow to react to the COVID-19 pandemic and that their solutions and responses were too "China-centric." By repairing the US's relationship with the WHO, Biden signaled a significant change in American foreign policy, but one that was expected when he took office.
Biden also wants to keep and build on Obamacare. While other candidates were actively trying to change the Affordable Care Act, Biden thinks that we are better off retaining the program and improving on it.
He plans to make medical care more affordable and accessible for Americans. In order to achieve this goal, Biden plans to increase the value of tax credits for working Americans to lower premiums. He plans to negotiate prices and rates with hospitals and reduce how much patients have to pay. However, specific details on this plan, such as how it would be administered and how people would sign up for it, have not yet been finalized.
Right now, Medicare is a public healthcare plan that protects all Americans age 65 and older. It has many parts and can get complicated, but it is also a popular program that guarantees at least some health care access for older Americans. Biden wants to lower the minimum age to 60 so that more older Americans could take advantage of the program. This age requirement reduction is predicted to help almost 23 million Americans get access to medical care, but it will also increase Medicare's cost on the government.
Biden also plans to make reforms on prescription drugs. He hopes to lower the cost on these drugs so that more people will have access to them. First, he wants to repeal an exception that allows drug companies to avoid negotiating with Medicare over drug prices. Biden will also limit price increases that are caused by inflation. He will also allow American patients to buy drugs from other countries and will work to improve the supply of quality generic drugs.
As the healthcare system stands right now, a patient who gets into a car crash and receives emergency treatment could be charged out of pocket if the hospital doesn't take their insurance. Biden plans to make it illegal for healthcare providers to charge a patient who has insurance, even if the hospital doesn't take that insurance, it the patient didn't have any control over the care they received, such as in an emergency treatment.
Criminal and Social Justice:
This year, there has been a lot of discussion about problems regarding criminal justice. Biden's criminal justice and racial equality plan will aim to reduce the amount of people in jail as well as create more racial equality in the justice system.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, one in five incarcerated people is locked up due to nonviolent drug offenses. Biden and his supporters believe that sending drug addicts to jail is more harmful than helpful. They should instead be sent to places that can give the help they need to stop using drugs. He will use his power of clemency, or pardon, to achieve this goal.
Death penalty is another controversial issue that comes up in discussion of the justice system. While capital punishment is rarely implemented, President Biden believes that it should not be permitted at all. While he may not be able to halt the death penalty entirely, he will work to end the federal government's use of it and sponsor its decline in the states. Back when he was a senator, Biden pushed for this idea, sponsoring a bill against death penalty and fighting for death row prisoners to receive good lawyers.
Some activists believe that the police force acts with racial bias. Biden plans to address this problem in the government by reviving the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, which was created by former President Obama while Biden was the Vice President. This service is designed to "police the police," ensuring that departments don't act with racial bias. Apart from police reforms, Biden has other plans to help communities of color. First and foremost, he will invest in Black businesses and entrepreneurs. In doing so, he will be able to reduce income gaps between white and Black people and expand African American access to high quality education. Biden will also act to ensure safe drinking water for all communities, including communities of color, and will enforce voting protections throughout the United States.
Another strong principle held by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, his vice president, is equal rights among men and women. They have both pledged to work to “enshrine gender equality” in the Constitution as its 28th amendment, which they hope to achieve through the passing Equal Rights Amendment. Another thing he will do to ensure gender equality is make sure all women have access to high-quality, affordable child care.
Last but not least, Biden wants to establish more regulations for gun owners. He has pledged to work to ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and buy back all the ones that have already been made. These are the weapons that are most commonly used in school/mass shootings, and halting their production may help to reduce shootings.
Biden will also require background checks for all guns bought in the United States and will put the country on a path that will eventually lead to all guns being "smart guns." Smart guns are guns that can only be shot if your fingerprint matches the one registered. Therefore, minors will be less likely to be able to accidentally shoot someone with their parent’s gun and criminals will not be able to steal guns. According to The Washington Post, 37% of gun accidents in the United States could be avoided if all guns were smart guns.
Some people believe that educators should have guns to protect their students in case of an emergency. Biden opposes this idea, and will prohibit the use of federal funds to arm or train educators to discharge firearms. This means that private schools could fund this project, but the government will take no part in it.
Last but not least, he will require all gun owners and vendors to signal whether their weapon has been lost or stolen, which would allow the federal government to alert people nearby.
Immigration
Immigration is one of the most divisive issues in the United States. Almost everybody can agree that the immigration system is flawed, but ideas about what the flaws are and how to solve them are radically different. Some people believe that the immigration system should be more restrictive, while others believe it should be looser. Biden plans to counter Trump policies that obstruct pathways to immigration and institute his own pro-immigration policies in an act he calls the US Citizen Plan of 2021.
The most significant part of the act is Biden's proposed "8-year-path" to citizenship. It would allow all undocumented immigrants coming to the US from January 1st 2021 to immediately apply for temporary legal status. After five years of passing all their background checks and paying taxes, they would then be allowed to get green cards, allowing them to permanently live and work in the US. And after another three years in the US, they will finally be allowed to get their citizenship.
This may seem like a long process, but it actually represents a much faster path to citizenship than ever seen before. It can take decades for someone to become an official citizen of the United States, and this plan will accelerate that process. This bill would also protect undocumented immigrants from violence in their workplace and rejections from jobs.
"Asylum" is the protection granted to immigrants that have left their home country because of political persecution. People often use this to enter the United States, but during Trump’s presidency, this protection became difficult to get. Biden plans to ease Trump-era restrictions, expediting the asylum application process at ports of entry.
Another thing that the US Citizen Plan 2021 bill will do is establish a $4 billion program to assist El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in mitigating poverty, crime and other conditions. This would hopefully decrease the number of immigrants that flood into the US due to issues in these home countries.
In a move that signaled a break in Trump-era immigration policies, Biden replaced James McHenry, the official who oversaw the United States' system of immigration courts during the Trump Administration. Jean King will soon take over as acting Director.
One of the most infamous and controversial Trump-era policies was an executive order entitled "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States." Referred to as the "Muslim ban" by critics or the "travel ban" by supporters, the order established an immigration ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries. On his first day in office, Biden reversed this ban, again allowing immigration to the United States from these countries.
And on one issue, Biden and Trump can agree: there have been several thousands of cases of illegal goods smuggled across the border. Biden plans to curb this issue by building on Trump's funding for immigration enforcement by authorizing record budget allocations to the Department of Homeland Security, with an emphasis on investing in screening technologies for drug smuggling and other forms of criminal activity.
Education
President Biden's wife, Jill, has been a teacher for years, and educational issues are important to both Bidens. Biden's first reform in the education system will be increasing funding for teachers. Biden wants to increase their salary, especially in low income schools. He also wants teachers to continue their education so that they know to teach their students about the most recent information in their subject. Biden will allocate raises to all teachers that take mentoring programs and pursue certificates in high-demand focus areas.
Biden also plans to fund mental health programs in schools, doubling the amount of mental health workers available to help students when they're struggling. Biden also plans to allocate more funding to school buildings by incorporating these facilities into federal infrastructure spending programs, allowing communities to make repairs and implement new technologies for energy efficiency.
"Special Session: Hilde Schwab, Jill Biden, Johann N. Schneider-Ammann" by World Economic Forum is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; Image has been cropped
In order to reduce inequality in the education system, Biden plans to eliminate funding gaps between schools by increasing the amount of funding that is allocated to "Title I" schools, or schools with a heavy concentration of low-income students. Second, he will support diversity in schools by granting funding to schools that establish measures to ensure diversity.
Finally, over a span of 10 years, Biden plans to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is designed to help families of children with disabilities or other special needs that often struggle to find the support they need. While this act was passed in 1975, it never fully realized its potential due to lack of funding. By providing it the resources that it needs, Biden hopes to enable the act to help special needs and disabled children in need of good educations.
Biden sure has a lot on his schedule! The newly elected president will face considerable challenges throughout his term. Biden's final goal, however, is to "Unite America," alleviating political polarization and bringing the nation together as one. So whether the issue is healthcare, the environment, or racial justice, Biden has promised to accommodate different opinions and take all perspectives into account. He has already put into action countless initiatives designed to improve life for Americans. Only time will tell whether these initiatives will remain and whether Biden will achieve his ultimate goal of bringing Americans together.
This is Jamie’s second year at Edgewood and her first year on The Edge team. When she is not writing stories for The Edge, Jamie enjoys going on adventures, traveling and crafting. This year, she hopes to improve her interviewing skills.
This is Alicia's second year at Edgewood and first year on the Edge staff. She loves writing, debating, and bettering Brevard. She hopes to educate and entertain the members of her community.
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