WASHINGTON — Joe Biden has given himself an imposing to-do list for his earliest days as president and many promises to keep over the longer haul.
Overshadowing everything at the very start is Biden’s effort to win congressional approval of a $1.9 trillion plan to combat the coronavirus and the economic misery it has caused.
But climate change, immigration, health care and more will be competing for attention — and dollars. Altogether Biden has laid out an ambitious if not always detailed set of plans and promises across the range of public policy.
Drawn from a review of his campaign statements and a recent memo from Ron Klain, who’ll be his chief of staff, here’s a sampling of measures to expect right away, around the corner and beyond:
WEDNESDAY, after the inauguration, mostly by executive action:
— Declaration that the U.S. is rejoining Paris climate accord.
— Declaration that the U.S. is rejoining World Health Organization.
— Ethical standards for his administration and an order prohibiting interference in the operations of the Justice Department from other parts of government.
— Start of a process to restore 100 public health and environmental rules that the Obama administration created and President Donald Trump eliminated or weakened.
— Start of a process to rejoin the deal restraining Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
— Executive action to end travel restrictions on people from a variety of Muslim-majority countries.
— Executive action to protect from deportation people who came to the country illegally as children.
— Executive action to make masks mandatory on federal property and when travelling out of state. Others will be asked to wear masks for 100 days.
— Steps to extend pandemic-era restrictions on evictions and foreclosures.
— Legislation to go to Congress proposing to repeal liability protections for gun manufacturers and tightening some other aspects of gun control.
— Immigration legislation to go to Congress as part of an effort to offer a path to citizenship for 11 million people in the U.S. illegally and to codify protections for people who came illegally as children.
— Education Department to be asked to extend the existing pause on student loan payments and interest for millions with student debt.
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THURSDAY
— Executive action laying out new steps to expand virus testing, protect workers and set new public health standards.
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FRIDAY
— Directive to agencies to take unspecified immediate action to deliver economic relief from the pandemic.
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BY FEB. 1
— Executive actions to strengthen “buy American” provisions.
— Executive actions to address climate change.
— First steps to expand access to health care, for low-income women, women of color and other segments of the population.
— First steps to reunite families still separated at the Mexican border.
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BEYOND (some may be tried sooner)
— Ensure 100 million vaccines have been given before the end of his first 100 days.
— Ensure 100 federally supported vaccination centers are up and running in his first month.
— Expand use of the Defense Production Act to direct the manufacture of critical pandemic supplies.
— Win passage of a $2 trillion climate package to get the U.S. to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
— Seek passage of a “Medicare-like public option” to compete alongside private insurance markets for working-age Americans; increase existing premium subsidies.
— Eliminate certain corporate tax cuts where possible, by executive action, while doubling the levies U.S. firms pay on foreign profits.
— Make a plan within 100 days to end homelessness.
— Expand legal immigration slots.
— Freeze deportations for 100 days, then restore the Obama-era principle of deporting foreigners who are seen as posing a national security threat or who have committed crimes in addition to the crime of illegal entry, thereby pulling back the broad deportation policy of the Trump years.
— Halt financing of further construction of the wall along the Mexican border.
— Within 100 days, establish a police oversight commission to combat institutional racism by then.
— Reinstate federal guidance, issued by Obama and revoked by Trump, to protect transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity.
— Ensure taxes are not raised on anyone making under $400,000.
— Restore Obama-era rules on campus sexual misconduct and a policy that aimed to cut federal money to for-profit colleges that left students with heavy debt they can’t pay back.
— Support legislation to make two years of community college free and to make public colleges free for families with incomes below $125,000, with no repayment of student loans required for people who make less than $25,000 a year and, for others, no repayment rate above 5% of discretionary income.
— Support increasing the national minimum wage to $15.
— Try to win passage of a plan to spend $700 billion boosting manufacturing and research and development.
— Establish a commission to study expanding the Supreme Court.
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