Biden Signs 17 Executive Actions on Day 1

By Yuval Rosenberg

Quote of the Day

“This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and
unity is the path forward.”

– President Biden, calling for unity in his
inaugural address. “We must end this uncivil war that pits red
against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal,”
Biden said. Read his full speech
here, or watch it
here.

Biden Signs a Slew of Executive Actions on Day 1, With Promise
of More to Come

President Biden signed a flurry of executive orders just hours
after taking the oath of office on Wednesday, hastening to enact
his agenda to address the coronavirus pandemic and to reverse Trump
administration policies in areas such as immigration, racial equity
and climate change.

Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, also issued a memo to freeze
new regulations and review any that the Trump administration tried
to finalize in its last days.

Biden’s team reportedly
boasted that the 15 executive actions and two
directives to agencies far surpassed the number of actions his four
predecessors took on their first days in office.

And Biden plans more actions over the next 10 days. “According
to guidance shared with Capitol Hill, he plans to issue
administrative actions relating to the coronavirus on Thursday and
economic relief on Friday,” The Washington Post
reported. “A ‘Buy American’ action will come
Monday, and an order addressing racial equity issues will follow
Tuesday. He will announce actions on climate change on Jan. 27,
health care on Jan. 28, immigration on Jan. 29, and international
affairs and national security on Feb. 1.”

The combination of executive orders, memoranda, directives and
letters Biden signed Wednesday include:

* Launching a “100 Days Masking Challenge,” asking the
American public to do “their patriotic duty” by wearing face masks
and instituting a mask mandate requiring face coverings and
physical distancing on federal property and by federal employees
and contractors.

* Creating the position of federal Covid-19 Response
Coordinator, reporting directly to the president. To fill the
position, Biden has chosen
Jeff Zients, a former director of the National
Economic Council in the Obama administration who is best known for
his role in fixing the HealthCare.gov website after its disastrous
rollout.

* Reversing the Trump administration’s move to withdraw from the
World Health Organization, which the Biden transition team called
“an entity that is critical to coordinating the international
response to COVID-19, advancing preparedness for future epidemics
and pandemics, and improving the health of all people.”

* Reestablishing the National Security Council’s global
health security team, which was disbanded under Trump.

* Asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
other agencies to extend federal eviction and foreclosure
moratoriums until at least March 31 and calling on Congress to
provide more assistance to renters.

* Asking the Department of Education to extend the pause on
interest and payments for federal student loans until at least
September 30.

* Terminating the national emergency declaration Trump used to
divert federal funds toward construction of border barriers.
Biden’s proclamation pauses wall construction projects “to allow a
close review of the legality of the funding and contracting methods
used, and to determine the best way to redirect funds that were
diverted by the prior Administration to fund wall construction,”
his transition team said.

* Repealing the Trump administration’s interior
immigration enforcement order that sought to strip federal funds
from so-called "sanctuary cities.”

The Economy Biden Inherits in 3 Charts

President Joe Biden inherits an economy suffering from the
effects of a pandemic that’s still causing enormous pain throughout
the country.

While the economy has made a comeback in some areas since its
lowest point last spring, there are still major problems the new
president needs to confront. “We’re in a catastrophic health and
economic crisis,” Austan Goolsbee, who chaired President Obama’s
Council of Economic Advisers,
told Marketplace Wednesday. “We’re still as bad by
some measures as the lowest point of the Great Recession.”

Many economists say the prospects for recovery are reasonably
good — as long as the new administration can get a handle on the
pandemic. “There remains a tremendous amount of underlying strength
in the U.S. economy,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who led President George
W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, told Marketplace. “If we
can sustain those who’ve been out of work with the relief that
we’ve seen Congress pass and deal with the virus, there’s a good
platform to jump off from.”

Biden has proposed a massive relief package totaling $1.9
trillion to help households and businesses stay afloat in what
could be the peak of the Covid-19 crisis. Here are three key areas
that show just how far the economy still has to go.

Employment: The economy is down nearly 10 million jobs
compared to where it was at the start of the crisis. Employment
fell by more than 22 million in the spring as large swaths of the
economy shut down in response to the pandemic. About 12.3 million
jobs have been regained — an impressive number, but one that leaves
millions still out of work, with losses concentrated in depressed
industries including restaurants, entertainment and travel.

The unemployment rate has fallen much faster than expected,
holding steady at 6.7% in December. But the millions of workers who
have dropped out of the workforce don’t show up in the official
unemployment rate, suggesting the problem is much worse than the
headline number indicates. In December, payrolls shrank again,
bringing seven months of job growth to an end.

Job losses could continue in January, economists say, but most
expect to see a significant turnaround after that, driven by the
combined effect of the $900 billion stimulus package signed into
law in December and the slow but steady return to normalcy caused
by mass vaccinations. State and local governments account for some
13% of the workforce, and further cuts by governments facing budget
pandemic-related pressures could slow the recovery, economists
warn.

The question for Biden is how many of the job losses are
permanent, and how long it will take for the economy to create
enough new jobs to absorb the millions of people who are looking
for work.

GDP: After falling like a stone in the spring,
the economy bounced back at a record pace in the third quarter. But
growth is expected to have slowed considerably in the fourth
quarter, bending the curve away from the v-shaped recovery some
economists had hoped to see.

The $900 billion stimulus package currently in effect is
expected to help boost the economy’s growth rate and prevent it
from slipping into a potential double-dip recession. Biden’s
proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus package would amplify that effect
considerably. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics,
projects a growth rate of 8% in 2021 in the unlikely event that
Biden’s full plan passes, with employment returning to pre-pandemic
levels in 2022.

More realistically, Zandi expects to see a smaller
package worth about $750 billion — enough to push the growth rate
to 5% for the year.

Covid-19 cases: It may not be a conventional
economic measure, but the Covid-19 case count may be the single
most important factor in determining the economy’s course over the
next year.

Biden is taking direct aim at the issue, with one of
his first executive orders calling for the use of face masks on all
federal property (see below) — a marked shift from the previous
administration, in which face masks were seen with skepticism if
not suspicion. Biden has also pledged to oversee 100 million Covid
vaccine shots in his first 100 days, a lofty target but one that
suggests that the new administration intends to take every step it
can to slow the spread of the disease.

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