On January 2o, the clock began on the first 100 days of the Biden administration. Whereas there might be 1,360 extra days to comply with, the interval between January and the tip of April is when the path and forcefulness of the brand new president’s preliminary insurance policies might be judged. How will he change regulation? What can he push by means of Congress? What first steps will his new appointees take?
President Biden has indicated he’s open to considering massive. So earlier than the realities of a divided Congress and ever-sclerotic tempo of change turn out to be obvious as soon as once more, we’ve checked out main coverage areas to examined how the brand new administration would possibly strategy them—and the massive ideas it would think about throughout points like environmental safety, public transit, synthetic intelligence, and employee pay.
Learn all of the tales within the collection. New tales will publish every day this week:
Tips on how to rebuild the damaged EPA after Trump trashed it
Definitely, the most important problem Biden at present faces is reigning within the COVID-19 pandemic: working to suppress the illness whereas rolling out 100 million vaccinations, and concurrently pushing by means of Congress a stimulus invoice sufficiently big to assist folks whose lives and companies have been destroyed by the cratered financial system. Biden additionally has to organize our nation for a restoration as soon as sufficient photographs are in folks’s arms—but when we’re truly going to “construct again higher,” the virus can’t be the one factor on the administration’s agenda for that restoration to be really transformative.
A complete restoration would require assist for U.S. staff past stimulus {dollars}. As a $15 minimal wage appears to be stalled in Congress, what can Biden to lift wages to get the financial system flowing once more? Cities need assistance, too: What is going to the administration do to revive our devastated public transit techniques, which is able to have to be operating easily as soon as folks return to work?
The Trump administration rolled again numerous environmental laws, however a brand new head of the EPA can work to rapidly rebuild the company’s capability. The potential new secretary is a relative unknown: What strikes would possibly he make? And as local weather change turns into a deeper focus of the White Home than it ever has earlier than, what if the administration tried a brand new strategy, homing in on one of the under-the-radar local weather points: our garments? Equally, harsh immigration insurance policies—from ICE’s household separation to the Muslim Ban to the whole cut-off of refugees—outlined the final administration. How straightforward will it’s for Biden to place in a extra immigrant-friendly system?
Biden can even must look to issues on the horizon. The pandemic uncovered an ossified public well being infrastructure, however he can revitalize it by specializing in well being innovation. And he can put together for different looming threats: AI would possibly seem to be a minor challenge at present, however scientists are making advances day-after-day, and we don’t even know what issues it might current sooner or later. Can this administration pioneer a framework to control the business?
As these 100 million vaccines dominate the headlines, there’s large alternative to make use of the restoration from this disaster as a transformative second throughout many sectors. Will Biden be prepared—and ready—to grab it?
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