Probably the most active fields of Biden’s focus are domestic policy; which is filled with advancing racial equity, spending trillions of dollars, and trying to advance his voting rights and infrastructure agenda. With some successes and an equal number of failures, Biden’s domestic policy is one of the most impactful parts of his Presidency so far.
President Biden stopped the use of privately owned prisons for incarceration. This essentially meant that prisoners would be housed in Federal facilities and not private prisons.
Early in Biden's Presidency, a power outage occurred in Texas. A deep freeze stopped a windmill plant that shut down power for many communities. However, President Biden still pushes the idea of using windmills and is a supporter of the energy source.
Biden has revoked many of Trump's economic policies including an apprenticeship and anti-poverty policy. Donald Trump made an effort to deregulate many industries that were negatively impacted during the Obama Presidency. Biden quickly undid those changes and is likely to reproduce the regulations that existed during Obama's Presidency. In his first day in office, Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline. This has led to the quick rise in gas prices. The President has also put in place various transportation and trucking policies to fight climate change that will also negatively impact the energy sector.
One of the most confusing Executive Orders made by President Biden is his order to allow transgender athletes to play in women's sports. While most Americans are trying to propel LGBTQ+ rights, this is not a way to do it. First of all, women and men do not play in professional sports with each other. The reason why? It is because men are biologically stronger than women it’s why you don't see women swimming with men or men having a boxing match with women. Just imagine if Arnold Schwarzenegger put on some pink lipstick and said he was a female and then began professionally boxing against women in women’s boxing matches! It would be a complete destruction of the entire sport and there would be a public outrage! Thankfully, Schwarzenegger is not transgender, but you can apply the idea in your head just to help you understand how outrageous this Executive Order is. Some may say that it is offensive to say a transgender person is still of a gender. But, the truth is: God created us male and female. Nothing you change will ever make a difference. Biologically, you’re still a male. So, this policy to allow transgender athletes has led certain women's sports competitions to be broken. There are a few instances across the country of males playing in women's sports where they always win, receive medals, and break the records that women for years have been working hard to achieve. Biden's policy to support the rights of transgender individuals, just took one away from a woman. In time to come, more 'athletes' will realize the opportunity they have to win easy medals. You are going to see more men play in women's sports and it will completely break the whole point of women’s professional sports. Another bad occurrence that can happen because of this policy is that women can fail to qualify against other men. It has happened a few times so far, but in the future, women's sports competitions could be dominated by transgender men.
Biden created the Gender Policy Council in March. Essentially, the council is tasked with coordinating the Federal government to enforce gender equity, prevent systemic biases and discrimination and support of LGBTQ+ rights. It also aims to increase the labor force with women and to support gender equity, decrease wealth gaps, promote gender equity leadership, promote expanded access to health care for sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to combat gender stereotypes in education. The council also wants to empower girls, and prevent gun violence. Biden also wants to create a Federal workforce environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, or sexual orientation.
Biden has made several attempts to modernize voting. Biden ordered that vote.gov be updated and has ordered the Departments of government to educate the American people on their right to vote. However, Biden has also politicized voting rights. At first, President Biden said that he would not end the Senate filibuster, but in December, he quickly changed that. For about 2 days Biden went on a mission to end the filibuster and to instate the Democrat’s voting rights legislation. Biden has repeatedly called Georgia's and other Republican states’ new election laws "Jim Crow." And “Jim Crow 2.0.” However, much of these provisions are present in Biden's home state of Delaware and there is no criticism of his own state. President Biden also thinks that Voter ID laws hinder black Americans from voting. This however, this is false. In 2012, more black Americans voted than white Americans and the country had the traditional Voter ID laws as it does now. Biden also wants mail-in balloting without any signature checks or validation. This provision is dangerous since individuals could be able to duplicate or modify votes without anyone knowing about it. Another item Biden wants for voting rights is automatic registration. Essentially, any individual who has any kind of legal document like a driver's license; bank statement, etc., would automatically be registered to vote. He continued his voting rights comments until the Senate failed to pass the voting rights and filibuster legislation. Two Senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema of the Democrat party voted against both bills, stopping the removal of the Senate filibuster, and effectively ending the Democrat’s voting rights legislation.
In March, Biden created a commission to look into possible changes to the Supreme Court. This coupled with an effort by Democrats in Congress to "unpack" the courts by adding four new Supreme Court justices who would be appointed by Biden to nullify Trump's three appointments (though Democrats in Congress just a few years earlier held that the Supreme Court should only have 9 justices, using the slogan '#WENEEDNINE') their stance quickly changed, yet their efforts to "unpack" the Supreme Court failed when Biden's commission came back with a negative on adding new justices.
Before he was President, Biden visited with George Floyd's family numerous times. On April 20th, 2021, Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts against him. Biden said that the verdict was a step forward for America.
Biden signed an Executive Order in April that set priorities for his Administration to enforce policy that empowers individuals to unionize and work for a better workplace environment. The order created the Worker Organizing and Empowerment Task Force. However, the order revoked two Executive Orders made by President Trump called: Establishing the President's National Council for the American Worker and Continuing the President's National Council for the American Worker and the American Workforce Advisory Board.
Like most Democrats running for President in 2020, Biden jumped on the bandwagon and endorsed making the minimum wage $15 an hour. Although Biden cannot make a minimum wage increase for the private sector, he can instate it on the Federal government. Biden signed an order to increase the Federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The new pay will be in effect by May 30th, 2022.
President Biden addressed a Joint-Session of Congress on April 28th, 2021 and highlighted that the United States has its first female Vice President. Biden has a few firsts for having black individuals in key offices. Kamala Harris is the first black Vice President, and Lloyd Austin is the first black Secretary of Defense.
On May 10th, a critical pipeline for the U.S was hacked. The Colonial Pipeline was taken offline by a Russian hacking group. This pipeline supplies 45% of the East Coast with fuel. Gas prices soared in affected areas and shortages occurred. Biden denied that Russia was responsible for the ransomware attack, but the FBI already confirmed that the group DarkSide, which is a Russian hacking group, was responsible for the attack. In response to the pipeline attack, the Department of Transportation issued an emergency declaration that temporarily revoked certain restrictions set to promote green energy and climate initiatives so that the industry could work efficiently to supply the East Coast with their fuel needs. In a miscalculated press briefing, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm spoke about the Colonial Pipeline hacking and wide-range fuel shortages where she made a remark saying that if drivers were driving electric cars they wouldn't be have to worry about fuel shortages. This immediately brought criticism of the Biden Administration for trying to promote electric cars during an infrastructure crisis, especially since electric cars aren’t readily available in the market yet. The crisis ended when the Colonial Pipeline went back online after the company payed $5 million dollars in cryptocurrency to DarkSide (with assistance from the FBI). After the pipeline attack, the FBI was able to recover $2.3 million in cryptocurrency. In response to the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, Biden signed an Executive Order aimed at improving the nation's cybersecurity.
When the media began covering increasing hate crimes against Asian Americans, Biden signed an Anti-Asian Hate Crime Bill to address the rising violence and made several speeches to show his support for Asian Americans.
In coordination with the government’s new policies on racial equity, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave the Department of State the authority to fly Black Lives Matter flags at facilities and embassies. He has also allowed individuals to engage in Black Lives Matter activities at these facilities.
Executive Order 14031 Advancing Equity, Justice, and Opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders set forth a policy of racial equity amongst these populations. The order said that America was anti-Asian, xenophobic, racist, and held nativist views that were deeply rooted into the nation. The order established the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. It also created the position of Deputy Assistant to the President and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Liaison. The order set a government goal to eliminate anti-Asian hate and enforce racial equity for Asian-Americans.
President Biden signed an Executive Order Protecting Americans' Sensitive Data from Foreign Adversaries which revoked an order made by President Trump that prepared to block access to TikTok and ByteDance services in the United States or at least transfer ownership of those services to Oracle or some other American company. Trump tried to do this since ByteDance is associated with the Communist Chinese Party. As it is, Biden stopped any actions that might have taken place against TikTok's parent company with regards to its ties to China. Biden did order the Commerce Department to look into the Chinese-TikTok connection, but so far, nothing has come of it. TikTok is now the most visited website in the United States and the U.S Army even uses TikTok celebrities for recruitment campaigns.
President Biden signed a Congressional bill that created a new national holiday called Juneteenth.
On June 25th, 2021, Biden signed Executive Order 14035 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce. This order sets forth equity in the hiring process for Federal employees, it also tells the government to support LGBTQ+ preferences such as: gender association, public showing of sexual orientation, and pronoun classes. Also, programs will be created within the Department of Defense to include gender equity and LGBTQ+ in their operations.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow Texas to ban 6-week abortions. President Biden called the decision "unconstitutional" and "against women's rights."
President Biden issued Executive Order 14040 which declassified certain documents related to the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Biden increased Historically Black Colleges and Universities funding.
Speculation that President Biden would use VA funding for illegal immigrants or other government spending began to surface. Some reports of the VA cutting service members benefits by using unfair tactics to not report an individual's injury or severity of health complication have surfaced. However, nothing on this has been proven. There is a report that has not been proven that alleges President Biden said to Senator Bernie Sanders that ‘veterans don't deserve much of anything and that they choose a job and retire at age 30’ and asking "why should they get a handout?" Adding, "They have at least 40 years of work left in them. No one else gets to retire at 30 and ride the gravy train for the rest of their lives on the taxpayer’s dime. Well, besides us of course."
President Biden signed an Executive Order called White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics which revoked an Executive Order made by President Trump to pursue similar goals without the racial equity policy. This new order institutes racial equity within advancing Hispanic education and the economy.
On September 30th, Joe Biden signed a bill to avert a government shutdown. At this point in time, President Biden's Build Back Better bill stalled in Congress as Senator Joe Manchin refused to vote for the bill.
At a speech, President Biden expressed his interest to create an environmental job corps. The idea has been surfaced by Bill Nye when he visited the White House and is a part of the stalled Build Back Better legislation.
On October 11th, Biden signed an Executive Order titled White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Native Americans and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities. The order essentially copies two previous orders but tailors to the Native American community.
During President Biden's campaign, he promised to give free college tuition to Americans. However, this promise quickly faded as he removed the free college provisions from his agenda with regards to Build Back Better.
Executive Order 14050, White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans revoked President Obama's similar initiative but instead replaces them with racial equity policies. The order says that the United States has systemic issues which cause blacks to have less of a chance to succeed. The order also created a policy where the Department of Education must pursue racial equity for black Americans.
President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill on November 15th, activating $1.2T of Congressional spending to upgrade infrastructure, fund new welfare policies, and to invest in water system upgrades and expansions to internet services.
During Biden's first year in office, crime surged in big cities across the United States. The Biden Administration was not responsible for the crime wave but could have demanded that the Democratic leaders of the affected cities do something about the crime as their own policies have led to the releasing of criminals who recommit crimes. One such individual drove into a Wisconsin Christmas parade and killed five individuals. The criminal had been charged with crimes before, but kept getting released and is just one example of many individuals who keep getting released and go unprosecuted that finally end up doing a homicide, or something that ends up killing people.
Biden signed the Secure Equipment Act on November 11th. The new law will combat Chinese technologies that are unsafe for use. It also allows the Federal Communications Commission to investigate electronic equipment insecurities.
Biden signed an Executive Order that creates new government services and simplifies complex filing. The order demands less bureaucracy from Federal services and to make documents more accessible with less waiting time. The order will encourage the government to modernize its technology and make use of internet capabilities to bring government services online. This includes a new online passport renewal service and services to pay bills and taxes. The order includes a new service under the WIC program for online purchases, expansions to workers comp and expands Medicare features on HHS resources. There will also be a student repayment portal called StudentAid.gov which will be created, and even a new digital platform for the VA. The order establishes a mission to reduce airport wait times through security changes, and will improve data sharing between Federal and State governments. Finally, the order updates USA.gov under a "Federal Front Door" plan.
With regards to employment lapses when changing Federal contractors on a contract, Biden signed an order which allows employees to transition to a new Federal contractor or at least work until the new employment force can replace the outgoing one. This order essentially prevents workforce displacement in Federal contracting when changing between companies.
7. Climate Change and Natural Disasters
President Biden has made climate change a central focus of his Presidency. Biden joined the Paris Climate Accords on his first day in office. Since then, Biden has signed many Executive Orders which will mandate the Federal government to make changes to its application and uses of resources and enforce regulations in order to set an example to combat the ‘climate crisis.’
Biden's Executive Order called Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad set his Administration's policy for combatting the climate crisis, and defining the issue thereof. Executive Order 14027 created the Climate Change Support Office within the Department of State. Another order called Climate-Related Financial Risk set the Federal government to a goal of having net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and gave Economic Advisors the task of creating an economic strategy for enforcing climate change policies and mitigating the financial risks to Federal programs and services. The order also ensures that the government will work to limit average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and adapting to impacts of climate change. Biden authorized the Federal government to invest in public and private entities who work to fulfill the new goals set forth by the President. Finally, the order prepares the Federal government for any potential financial risk these policies may impose once enforced.
Hurricane Enri made landfall on August 22nd, 2021. A second hurricane, Ida, made landfall as a category 4 storm on August 29th, 2021.
President Biden signed an Executive Order aimed at empowering the electric car industry to begin ramping up production of technologies to produce economical electric cars. Biden has made it a focus of his Administration to encourage the automobile industry to switch to electric car manufacturing. Biden has been seen at GM factories and has even driven new electric cars which have been released for sale. The electric car industry has made significant progress in the past two years. Multiple electric cars are now available in the world market. However, the cars are not readily accessible to middle-class markets, and still cost too much to own.
President Biden signed an Executive Order that aims to provide 40% of benefits from Federal investments to a Justice 40 initiative which will provide investments to climate change and clean energy projects. He also initiated a proclamation to pursue climate infrastructure.
On December 8th, Biden signed an Executive Order setting goals for the Federal government to fight climate change. Some of the goals in the order are: a carbon-free car fleet for the Federal government by the end of 2027, a zero-emission fleet strategy for optimization of carbon-free vehicles, and a reduction in waste at government facilities. The order also establishes the Office of the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer.
On December 13th, tornadoes devastated communities across 8 different states in a path that stretched 200 miles. President Biden said that the tornadoes were the effect of "global warming." However, the phrase "global warming" has not been used since then-Vice President Al Gore as the term was retired by the 2000's when evidence disproved the global warming hypothesis. In response, the Democrat party quickly shifted to "climate change" where they could win the conversation both ways in that the climate got colder, or warmer. While visiting a community that was impacted in Kentucky, Biden said that the government would provide relief to the communities affected.