BI Word
VOLUME I, ISSUE 4
FEBRUARY, 2021
President Biden’s First One Hundred Days
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By Thad Worth
here has been much debate and discussion about what President Biden will do during his first 100 days in office. The first 100 days are symbolic, as is typical when a new administration sets out the plans for its agenda over the next four years. Biden will likely have to find a middle ground due to a split Senate. People are watching to see if President Biden gets his agenda through the Senate, or if his bills will die before they can reach his desk. During his campaign, Biden made several promises, such as stopping the Keystone XL pipeline and a federal mask mandate. With a flurry of executive orders, Biden made these promises reality. In 2015, President Obama vetoed a bill for the Keystone XL pipeline saying that the Executive Branch should decide what would happen to the pipeline. President Trump reversed this decision, but environmental groups took the pipeline’s owner- TC Energy- to court, stalling its construction. Due to this, the pipeline was not built by the time Biden signed his executive order. Biden has also signed an executive order requiring a mask to be worn on federal land. Many people have been calling for a federal mask mandate for months, which requires that masks be worn when in public. While a President can require masks to be worn on federal
land, he cannot require people to wear a mask elsewhere. States, however, can make it mandatory to wear a mask. So far, the Biden administration has steadily increased the number of vaccines that are produced and distributed. Almost 10.5 million vaccines are being distributed weekly now. According to whitehouse.gov, this is a 22% percent increase since January 20th, when Biden took office. This exceeds the administration’s goal of 100 millions vaccines administered in 100 days. Another order that has caused a considerable amount of disagreement, allows transgender individuals to use the bathroom, lockeroom, and sports team that fits their gender identity. There is debate among schools and colleges whether or not to allow transgender individuals, especially transgender women (those born male who later identify as females) to do so. While it may seem that we could have a repeat of the last four years with political division, strife, and uncertainty, we can pray and ask God to guide us and our leaders to help us become a more perfect Union.
Source: ABC News Source: The Associated Press