Today, Explained - Biden’s latest 13 actions (in 13 minutes)

Episode Date: January 30, 2021

And whether or not any of it will last beyond his presidency. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Joe Biden has been president for what, like 10 days? And the biggest story in the United States is about a video game store at the mall. I'm not saying there's causation, just correlation maybe. But while the nation's eyes turn to GameStop and perhaps all the potential work the stock market could do to be best, President Biden has still been very, very busy. Here we go again. Last week, we ran through Biden's first 17 executive actions

with a bunch of Vox reporters and friend of the show Harvey Shapiro. Just after that, Biden signed a dozen or so more actions relating to how the U.S. manages the pandemic. And since then, an additional 13 that run the gamut. So what do you think, Harvey? Stick to the 13? Stop wasting our time, Sean. Rum. Whatever. 13 minutes on the clock. Number one, Obamacare. With Vox's Dylan Scott, a really nice guy. So this week, President Biden signed an executive order that is meant to shore up the Affordable Care Act, which had come under attack during the Trump administration. And that executive order does two important things. One is it creates a special enrollment period on healthcare.gov, which is the federal

health insurance marketplace that most of the country uses, that will last from February 15th to May 15th. So anybody who is uninsured can log on to healthcare.gov, put in their information, and find out if they qualify for financial assistance and what health insurance plans they can sign up for in their area. That is a step that the Trump administration was not willing to take during COVID-19. that we're in a medical emergency and that a lot of people have lost their jobs and with their jobs, their health insurance during this crisis. The Biden administration is trying to send a signal to people like, hey, here's a new opportunity to sign up for health insurance. And they're planning to put about a $50 million ad blitz behind that special enrollment period. The second piece of that executive order directs federal agencies to take a look at regulations and other waivers and other programs that were set up under the Trump administration affecting the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. They single out Medicaid work requirements specifically as something that

the federal agencies should review. They should figure out, you know, is this going to lead to people losing health coverage or facing higher costs? And really what it is, is a way to start the process of reviewing those Trump policies and potentially going about trying to undo them. Now, actually undoing them requires a lot of paperwork. There's a long rulemaking process that goes into rolling back regulations. But what Biden is doing is sending a signal, it's time to start that process, and we need to figure out which of these policies maybe should stay and which of them need to go. Number two, a travel ban. We're talking about Biden, right?

People coming from the United Kingdom, from Ireland, from Brazil, and from South Africa, if you've been in one of those countries within the last 14 days before you're trying to enter the United States, you're not allowed to come anymore. The reason for this is some of these new coronavirus variants that we have started to see pop up. One of them emerged in the United Kingdom. One of them has come out of South Africa. And they've started to be detected elsewhere across the world, including in the United Kingdom. One of them has come out of South Africa. And they've started to be detected elsewhere across the world, including in the United States.

Number three, the climate. With Vox's Lily Pike. So one of the key actions here is that he is pausing all new leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands. Another key initiative here is that he intends to conserve 30% of land by 2030. That's up from just 12% today. Another key theme of this executive order is how he will use climate policy to address injustice. He intends to have his administration direct 40% of the benefits of all new investment in clean energy and infrastructure to disadvantaged communities. He also, in this executive order, wants to make sure that climate policy creates jobs. One of the ways he's doing this is setting up a working group to help communities that are currently centered on fossil fuels

to ensure that they're receiving investment in good green jobs during this energy transition away from fossil fuels. He's also going to make sure that when the U.S. government buys cars and electricity, that it's coming from clean sources and that those technologies are American-made. Number four, scientific integrity. Same lady. So in this executive order, Biden is basically sending the message that science will once again be central to the government's decision-making. You can see this as a direct rebuttal to the Trump era. Trump often attacked the use of science in decision making. I think one

example of this is that Trump's EPA limited the use of scientific studies in decision making. So with this executive order, Biden is sending the message to all the agencies that all of their rulemaking needs to be based on science and there will be a review of their work to ensure that's actually happening. Number five, the small council. How small? Eight minutes on the clock. So in this order, Biden reestablishes PCAST, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Trump set up PCAST, but it took him three years to do so. So in this order, Biden dismantles Trump's PCAST and sets up his own group of advisors on science and technology. He gets to choose up to 26 advisors, and they will be responsible for helping him make scientific decisions on everything from health to climate change.

Number six, federal workers. With Vox's Emily Stewart. Biden recently signed an executive order on protecting federal workers that does a few things. One big thing is that it starts a process on requiring federal contractors to pay their workers at least $15 as a minimum wage. It also revoked some of Trump's executive orders that made it easier to fire federal employees and limit union activity. The federal government is a big employer in the United States. In fact, it's the biggest employer in the United States. So that's going to affect a lot of people. Number seven, made in

America. Just like me. The president also recently signed an executive order to buy American, which basically is aimed at boosting American manufacturing through federal procurement processes. It deals with requirements for purchasing products and services that are from U.S. workers, and it closes some loopholes that companies use to offshore production and jobs, so they basically say stuff is made here when it's not entirely true. Number eight. Dude, I'm getting Pop-Tarts for doing this. Just let me get my 15-minute break.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, my beat. Quick break so Harvey can go do, like, a TikTok dance or whatever. Very funny. Well, maybe I'll dance to Today, today, explain. and go do like a TikTok dance or whatever. Very funny. Well, maybe I'll dance to Today. Today Explained. Today. Today Explained.

It's Today Explained. But also maybe not. So, yeah. Support for Today Explained comes from Aura. Aura believes that sharing pictures is a great way to keep up with family, and Aura says it's never been easier thanks to their digital picture frames. They were named the number one digital photo frame by Wirecutter. Aura frames make it easy to share unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame.

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Okay. Chop, chop, muchacho. Number eight, HUD. Who? HUD. No, I'm Harvey, but here's Vox's Lizzo. On the efforts that he has already introduced to promote racial equity, Joe Biden actually has a new package of four measures aimed at achieving that same goal.

The first of these measures is acknowledging discriminatory housing practices that have hurt people of color for years, including redlining and mortgage discrimination. And it's trying to roll back Trump practices that exacerbated that issue. So there was a rule that the Trump administration actually put forward that made it tougher for people to file housing discrimination claims. And Biden wants his agency to effectively undo that and roll it back. Number nine, prisons. Still we. The second of these measures is one that would end the federal government's use of private prisons. And the reason behind this is that there has been research that shows that private prisons are more harmful to both inmates and correctional officers.

Many experts in the space have said that this is a good start, but that it feels more symbolic at this time and that they'd like to see him take more efforts that address public prisons as well. It only ends the federal government's relationship with those prisons. Currently, there are 14,000 people who are inmates in these prisons, so it would only apply to those people and not necessarily state relationships with those same institutions. Number 10, respect for tribal sovereignty. It's the Lizzo Show, everybody. The third of these relates to tribal sovereignty and acknowledging Native American tribes' ability to have self-governance, which is something that's been long established, but that was really brushed aside during the Trump administration in terms of protections for Native lands and respect

for these relationships. And what Biden's measure does is calls on federal agencies to evaluate tribal governments' needs when they are developing policies and for them to appoint a point person that will be a liaison to work with tribal governments as they develop different issue areas. Number 11, discrimination. You are so beautiful, Thule. And then the fourth of these measures is intended to condemn the racism that Asian Americans have faced during the pandemic and to really mark a stark shift away from the way that the Trump administration talked about the pandemic and its use of racist terms like China virus and

Kung flu. What Biden is asking is for federal agencies to not provide documentation that promotes racism. So stripping out terms like that from the types of communications they use. And he's asked the Department of Justice to collect data about incidents of potential hate crimes or harassment, and to provide guidance on how different local governments, too, can do the same. Number 12, Who Can Serve? With Caitlin Burns. Careful you don't burn yourself. You're running out of time, promise firm.

Two minutes left. What this executive order essentially does is reverse the Trump policy, which ostensibly banned trans people from serving in the military. The Trump administration tried to make the argument that it was not a ban on trans people serving because they built a carve-out within the rule for trans people to serve within their, quote, biological sex role. So they said, we're not actually banning trans people from serving, we're just banning them from serving and being openly trans at the same time. So this is essentially resetting the clock back to the Obama era. This is important to some trans people because the military traditionally has been an easy way for Americans to escape poverty. And of course, trans people are one of the most impoverished communities in the country. It's assumed, it's been estimated that the U.S. military is perhaps

the world's largest employer of trans people. That's taking into account people who are serving openly and who are closeted at the same time. Trans people have an unusually high rate of commitment to service in the armed forces. Rolling back this rule just opens up more opportunities for trans people to both serve their country and, you know, take advantage of an employment system that is open to, you know, most other Americans. And finally, in the nick of time, number 13. Reproductive health with Vox's Anna North.

Basically, this memorandum does two main things. The first thing it does is it revokes the Mexico City policy, which reproductive health groups also call the global gag rule. This is a rule that bars groups abroad that get U.S. family planning funds from providing, referring for, or even talking about abortion. It's kind of a political light switch. It started with President Reagan, and then every Democratic president turns it off, every Republican president turns it back on. But President Trump actually expanded it, so it applied not just to family planning money, but all health money.

So even organizations working on diseases like malaria or tuberculosis abroad were affected. The second thing that the memorandum does is a little more complicated, and it has to do with a domestic version of this rule, what some people call the domestic gag rule. In addition to the Mexico City policy, the Trump administration introduced a rule barring healthcare providers in the U.S. that get federal family planning funds under Title 10, which is this big government program for underserved and low-income Americans. It basically barred those providers from providing or referring for abortion. So if you get Title X money, you can't do abortions, you can't even refer someone out to get the procedure. That ended up meaning that Planned Parenthood and a lot of

other groups ended up exiting the program and some clinics closed as a result. And since Title X went through the federal rulemaking process rather than being something that's just enacted by the president, what Biden is doing with this memorandum is he's telling the Department of Health and Human went through the federal rulemaking process rather than being something that's just enacted by the president. What Biden is doing with this memorandum is he's telling the Department of Health and Human Services to review the rule with an eye to potentially rescinding it. So this is something he promised to get rid of this rule, but he's not exactly doing it with a stroke of the pen. He's saying to HHS, like, can you take a look at this

and see if it needs to be gotten rid of. All right, Harvey, thanks again. Cut the music, dad. Cut the music. Come on. What's up? Isn't this today explained? What's going on here? Is Biden just going to keep signing stuff? Isn't Congress supposed to do stuff? Do your job, Sean. You know what, Harvey? You're right. I know. Let's ask Vox's Herman Lopez. I mean, we all know the constitutional system. It's supposed to be that the legislation is passed by Congress, and then the president can sign that legislation, veto the legislation, and so he has influence there. The thing, though, is that America's political system over the past few decades has gotten increasingly dysfunctional, as in it's very hard to get anything through a very, very polarized Congress.

And so what we saw at the end of the Obama years was, like, Obama had spent a lot of time trying to pass all sorts of legislation that he ran two campaigns on. It just really did not seem to get through Congress, even big bills that were advertised as like bipartisan budget deals and that kind of thing, bipartisan immigration deals, they just did not seem to get through Congress. So Obama at that point started ratcheting up how many executive actions he did. And that back then did get a lot of criticism from Republicans, conservatives who just didn't like that the president was doing this thing. And Trump got a lot of criticism for Republicans, conservatives, who just didn't like that the president was doing this thing. And Trump got a lot of criticism for this too when he did it. Is Biden getting heat already?

Yeah, you're already seeing some of it. I mean, the New York Times editorial board criticized Biden for this. This seems to be just a constant thing in American politics where people are uneasy with the president taking what they look at as unilateral action. I should say, though, what Biden's doing is not illegal. Like, the president does have these powers. They're given to him by the laws that Congress passes. Now, some of them might end up being struck down by courts.

They're going to go to litigation, especially as Biden gets more aggressive on issues like climate change. I would expect there to be, be like big legal battles over that. Same thing with immigration. Is there a chance that it all just gets reversed by the next president? It is, of course, entirely possible the next president just decides to flip a switch on all this stuff and just go the other way. I mean, some of the actions, actually a lot of the actions that Biden has taken here are really just reversing much of what Trump did. The thinking, though, is once you implement some of these executive actions, it's going to be

harder, and especially if they prove popular, it's going to be harder to walk back some of them. And you're already seeing stuff like, for example, Biden has a pledge for the economy to just pollute less, like go to zero carbon emissions. And you're already seeing car companies line up behind that. I mean, car companies have to plan years ahead. But these actions are generally vulnerable to getting repealed by the next president. That is true. It's just a question of how many exactly can be overturned. So if Biden wants to affect lasting change on all of these policy fronts, be it the environment, be it healthcare, be it racial justice, the economy, he's going to need to pass legislation through Congress.

Yeah. And in fact, Biden's people have told reporters repeatedly now, and I've been through a bunch of these executive action calls by now, and they have emphasized time and time again, that they would love Congress to do a bunch of these things through legislation. They're still pushing for some of their agenda in terms of like the economic stimulus bill instead of a COVID plan, all that stuff that he ran on. They would love for that to be done through bills. But given that Congress is, particularly the Senate, is a 50-50 split, that it's highly polarized, that even some of the moderate Democrats are skeptical of some of the bigger things that Biden ran on. This is him trying to do what he can facing those realities.

Thanks, Herman. Thanks, Harvey. Are you going to thank me? Nope. Great. Thanks as well to Anna North, Caitlin Burns, Lee Zou, Emily Stewart, Lily Pike, and Dylan Scott. Harvey comes to us courtesy of Afim Shapiro, our engineer. If you want to be his agent, get in line. The rest of the Today Explained team includes Amina Alsadi, Muj Zaydi, Will Reed, Halima Shah, and Noam Hassenfeld.

Big help this week from Jillian Weinberger. Cecilia Lay is our fact checker. Music from Breakmaster Cylinder and Noam Hassenfeld. Big help this week from Jillian Weinberger. Cecilia Lay is our fact checker. Music from Breakmaster Cylinder and Noam. Liz Kelly Nelson is Vox's editorial director of podcasts. And Golda Arthur was our supervising producer. She's off to explore Canada, as so many have recently considered doing. We will miss you, Golda.

Thank you for everything. Today Explained is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. I did it for the Pop-Tarts.