PRESIDENT Joe Biden has given a great start to his four year tenure as the head of the United States of America by announcing a massive programme which not only rolls back some of the racial and anti-people policies of the Trump regime, but also includes a few pro-people policies which are of immediate importance to the common American people.

For the underprivileged Americans, the Biden announcement of more relief to the unemployed along with the $ 1400 stimulus as also freezing the payment of educational loans along with interest and principal, are major measures which the Left in the Democratic Party led by Bernie Sanders have been demanding. Apart, Biden decisions contain stay on evictions.

President Joe Biden signed a blizzard of executive orders Wednesday on the coronavirus, immigration and climate change - launching a 10-day cascade of directives reversing the policies of his GOP predecessor as Democrats pushed for even more prompt legislative action. The measures were sweeping for a first day in office but the Democrats said that the situation was such domestically that there was no scope for waiting and the President acted with every sense of emergency.

President urged Americans to don face coverings for 100 days while reviving a global health unit in the National Security Council - allowed to go dormant during the Trump administration - to oversee pandemic preparedness and response. Biden also began to reverse several steps taken by former president Donald Trump by embracing the World Health Organisation, revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and rejoining the Paris climate agreement.

Biden, who entered the White House amidst unprecedented crisis, said he wants to move quickly to address the country’s big, urgent problems with a spirit of unity and national purpose. The pandemic has killed 400,000 Americans, the economy has shed millions of jobs and just two weeks ago, thousands of rioters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the November 3 elections.

The way the new Biden administration organised the inauguration ceremony conveyed the message of racial harmony and the feeling that the American democracy is finally rooting for its holistic character which is the essence of the American constitution. The four years of Trump rule was an aberration and Biden has got the mandate

to run a unified nation which will move towards Left of former President Obama in terms of policy implementation.

Most of the 17 directives that Biden signed Wednesday had been hinted previously by Biden or staff members. Taken together with the two legislative plans he has sent to Congress - coronavirus relief and an immigration overhaul - the orders highlight Biden’s immediate priorities, while sending a message that his administration plans to reengage on the global stage. In fact, 15 executive actions and two additional agency directives issued on the first day were far more than what Trump did on his inaugural day in 2017.

White House officials have emphasised the need for Congress to approve his larger relief package, which would extend unemployment benefits; dole out an

additional $1,400 in stimulus payments for millions of Americans; and devote tens of billions of dollars to economic needs such as rental, housing and food assistance, among other measures.

Further, Biden asked the Education Department to consider extending a freeze on both interest and principal payments for federal student loans until September 30, while requesting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extend a moratorium on evictions that expires after this month to at least through March.

He also asked three key agencies - the Department of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development - to extend foreclosure moratoriums for federally backed mortgages under their purview through at least the end of March. This is intended to give time to the affected people and the administration so that the intervening period is used to work out suitable policy in the interest of the concerned people.

On immigration, Biden signed an order repealing the ban on travel from several majority-Muslim nations, while nullifying the Trump administration’s directive that attempted to exclude the counting of noncitizens from the U.S. census. This helps the Democratic Party in establishing its non-discriminatory attitude to the religious minorities and facilitating the process of restoring confidence of the Muslims who were feeling threatened during Trump era.

Another action called on the Department of Homeland Security to continue an Obama-era initiative protecting “dreamers” from deportation and issuing them work permits as long as they qualified under the requirements laid out when the programme, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, began in 2012. Biden also will end the national emergency over the border that Trump declared as a way to circumvent Congress when lawmakers would not grant him funding for his wall. This action will be of relief to thousands of immigrants including those from India.

On climate change, Biden signed an order revoking the permit, issued by the Trump administration, that allowed for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and to rejoin the Paris climate accord. The United States will officially be part of the 189-country climate agreement

in 30 days.

The coming executive actions will revoke the ban on transgender people from serving in the military, as well as reversing the so-called global gag rule that blocks U.S. aid to organisations abroad that perform abortions or offer counselling on the procedure. The Biden victory was hailed by the LGBTQ community and many of the elected Congress members of the Democratic Party are active supporters of the gays. They expect more affirmative action by the Biden regime in support of their demands.

The test of the Biden regime will be in terms of foreign policy, especially in relation to Cuba, Venezuela and other countries of Latin America. The Sanders group in Democratic Party is now very powerful in the policy making committee of the Party. Sanders played a vital role in working on the domestic programme. His medicare for all will be taken up as one of the coming agenda. To what extent, the Left asserts in the policy committee in respect of foreign policy, will determine the course of future action by the Biden administration. For the Sanders group, the battle has started well but many more are still left to be done. (IPA)