A glimpse into Joe Biden’s first 50 days as president reveals a tentative nation on the cusp of much-awaited change.
President Joe Biden launched an ambitious plan for his first months in office after a year of surging COVID-19 cases, economic turmoil, and extreme political and social unrest across the United States. He has taken swift action to fulfill several of his initial promises for his 100-day milestone, with many of his first orders of business aimed at providing coronavirus relief, tackling immigration reform, and reducing the country’s carbon footprint. In the meantime, a polarized nation watches closely as he enacts policies and legislation certain to bring big changes to all 50 states in the coming months.
COVID-19
Only 50 days into his presidency, Biden faces nearly 30 million COVID-19 cases in the United States following a full year of lockdowns and regulations. His first monumental initiative is aimed at providing relief to the nation via mask mandates and vaccination rollouts. In order to boost a fragile economy, Congress recently passed Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package, which includes direct payments of $1,400 to eligible citizens as well as massive funding for vaccine distribution and billions allocated to schools, colleges, and universities preparing to reopen.
Photo from Instagram @joebidenBiden’s vaccination plan will increase weekly shipments of vaccines across the nation to 10 million doses from the previous 8.6 million. The federal government also purchased 200 million additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which will allow the entire American public to receive two doses of the vaccine by the end of summer. In one of Biden’s first acts as president, he also halted the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization, patching up international relations with the goal of equitably distributing the COVID-19 vaccine across the globe.
Immigration
Biden also kept his promise to deliver a comprehensive reform bill to Congress aimed at revising deportation criteria and offering an 8-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Biden’s immigration legislation also seeks to provide protection for children who were brought to the United States illegally. On his first day in office, President Biden revoked his predecessor’s controversial travel ban which virtually blocked immigration from predominantly Muslim-majority countries. Biden’s plans for immigration are progressive and inclusive, but they have been heavily criticized throughout his campaign and during his first months as president.
At the start of February, he signed an executive order establishing an interagency task force responsible for reuniting separated migrant families at the border, but Biden faces a slow process of reunification after inheriting a heavily criticized family separation crisis from the Trump administration. Though his first 50 days have focused heavily on preserving and fortifying protections for immigrants, Biden has much more work to do in order to fully deliver on many of his campaign promises centered on immigration reform in the United States.
Photo by Rochelle Brown on UnsplashClimate
Perhaps one of the most daunting challenges faced by the Biden administration is the climate crisis, which Biden initially vowed to make an essential element of foreign policy. On his first day in office, Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, blocked oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and reviewed Trump-era rules on the environment. He also rejoined the Paris Climate Accord and later issued an executive order halting new oil and gas leases on federal land and offshore seas.
Despite initiating a global climate envoy and appointing climate experts to his cabinet, the immediate priorities of the Biden administration have disappointed climate scientists around the world. Since the 2021 inauguration, the White House has fallen silent on many climate issues, raising no objections to an energy bill passed by the Mexican Senate favoring the use of fossil fuels and generating more pollution that would contravene the nation’s commitments to the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement. In order to reach his goal of making the United States carbon neutral by 2050, Biden has a lot of work left to do to reverse detrimental rollbacks from the Trump administration and to make the U.S. a productive leader in the urgent fight against climate change.
Economy
President Biden’s economic plan has received high marks from voters and economists across the nation eager to get back on track after an economic crisis prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 11th, Biden won his first substantial economic victory by signing the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to support American citizens and businesses affected by the coronavirus, and his upcoming plans suggest more stability for the nation, though likely at a hefty cost. Biden has also hinted at a potential endeavor to forgive student loan debt, an agenda already in progress after his extension of an existing pause on student loan payments and interest for millions of Americans with student loan debt.
President Biden also plans to strengthen “buy American” measures to make American products more competitive and boost the nation’s economy. The Biden administration seeks to invest $1.3 trillion in infrastructure over the next ten years as well as $4 trillion on clean energy in the next four years. As mounting federal debt looms over the U.S. Treasury Department, Biden looks ahead to an expensive but necessary future of financial relief for millions across America.
Despite a promising list of expected changes throughout his presidential term, the prospect of Biden’s America relies on years of resolution and reformation following a heavily divisive period in American history. His first 50 days in office set the tone for what is still to come, but many Americans worry that his ambitious plans to rebuild a desperate country may not fully come to fruition. As he bears the brunt of his predecessor’s comprehensive efforts to dismantle essential policies and legislation, President Biden seeks to uphold the values of a once united nation to mend the wounds of our immediate past and to move onward toward a brighter future.
