Critical actions that the federal government will enforce in 2020

By: Yewon Lee

As of January 24th, 2021, the new President of the United States, Joe Biden has worked on about thirty executive orders. Below is a highlight of some of the critical actions that the federal government will enforce this year and their impacts:

Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement

  • What is in the Paris Climate Accord?

    • Countries pledge to a goal of keeping emission volumes down which will help meet the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius above average pre-industrial temperatures.

  • What does the agreement mean for the US and other countries?

    • The agreement essentially sets a precedent for the future of reducing net emissions to 0 within thirty years from now.

    • Reentering the agreement shows American cooperation and attention to a global issue that affects people regardless of geographical location and will continue to be a major issue in the future.

Establishment of a Testing Board

  • What is the board’s goal and actions to be taken?

    • The board essentially was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and for future emergencies in national biological threats. They are aiming to increase the volume of testing and make testing much more accessible to the public. 

  • What are some specific points made in the Executive Order?

    • Increasing assistance from the federal government in states and territories that are identified to have low accessibility to testing

    • Work with the Treasury and Health and Human Services to allow COVID testing for free in people who do not have health insurance

    • To learn more, see here. 

Terminating the National Emergency in the Southern Border

  • What was the national emergency declared in 2019?

    • Essentially, former President Trump had used his presidential power from the National Emergencies Act to move money to build the wall at the Mexico-US border. 

  • What has President Biden done to reverse that?

    • The President has the power to also terminate emergencies so that the funding will no longer be provided from the federal government to build a border wall.

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