WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
After replacing Donald Trump, the real work begins for US President Joe Biden.
Who else has Biden appointed to his Cabinet? How many executive orders, and what kinds of directives, has the chief executive signed? On a personal level, how is First Lady Jill Biden, as well as their grandchildren, adjusting to the White House?
The first 100 days, as we know, are important for any president – and the coming days will show us why.
Bookmark and refresh this page for the latest updates – including articles, photos, and videos – on Biden’s first 100 days in office.
LATEST UPDATES
Biden considers executive actions on guns, calls on Congress to pass weapons ban
US President Joe Biden urged Congress to swiftly pass gun control laws and may take action on his own to stop mass violence, the White House said on Tuesday, March 23, a day after the second deadly mass shooting in a week.
The Democrat called on the Senate to approve two bills passed by the House of Representatives on March 11 that would broaden background checks on gun buyers. He also called for a ban on assault-style weapons.
“I don’t need to wait another minute – let alone an hour – to take common-sense steps that will save the lives in the future, and I urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” Biden said at the White House on Tuesday.
Biden, Harris condemn US racism, sexism in blunt language
President Joe Biden took aim on Sunday, March 21, at the “ugly poisons” of “systemic racism and white supremacy” that he said had long plagued the United States, and vowed to change the laws that enabled continued discrimination.
In blunt language, the Democratic president said the country faced problems with racism, xenophobia, and nativism.
Biden’s statement followed similar sentiments from Vice President Kamala Harris, who detailed in Atlanta on Friday the US history of discrimination against Asian Americans.
Biden restores climate change page to EPA website, reversing Trump
The US Environmental Protection Agency restored a page containing key climate change information to its public website on Thursday, March 18, four years after the Trump administration had removed it as part of a strategy to downplay global warming threats.
The move reflects the massive gulf between Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican ex-President Donald Trump on climate change that is likely to result in sweeping policy changes in the coming years to tamp down on planet-warming emissions from vehicles, power plants, and industry.
US Senate confirms Becerra as top federal health official
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was confirmed by the US Senate as secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday, March 18, clearing the way for him to take the helm of the sprawling department as the United States battles the COVID-19 pandemic.
Becerra won confirmation to join President Joe Biden’s Cabinet on a party-line 50-49 vote.
Becerra, who served in the US House of Representatives for 26 years and was a member of Democratic leadership, will oversee an expansion of the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as “Obamacare.”
‘It takes one to know one,’ Putin retorts after Biden says he thinks he is a killer
President Vladimir Putin retorted on Thursday, March 18, that it takes one to know one after US President Joe Biden said he thought the Russian leader was a killer and already poor relations between Moscow and Washington sank to a new post-Cold War low.
Putin was speaking on television after Joe Biden, in an ABC News interview that prompted Russia to recall its Washington ambassador for consultations a day earlier, said “I do” when asked if he believed Putin was a killer.
Read more here.
Several US states sue Biden administration for revoking permit for Keystone XL pipeline
Texas and several other US states have sued the administration of President Joe Biden over his decision to revoke a key permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement late on Wednesday, March 17.
The lawsuit states that Biden does not have the unilateral authority to change energy policy that the US Congress has set, Paxton said.
Biden revoked a permit for the pipeline which would transport 830,000 barrels a day of carbon-intensive heavy crude from Canada’s Alberta to Nebraska. It was part of a flurry of executive orders aimed at curbing climate change.
US facing biggest migrant surge in 20 years – Homeland Security
The United States is facing the biggest surge of migrants at its southwestern border in 20 years, the homeland security secretary said on Tuesday, March 16, as the Biden administration races to handle an influx of children trying to cross the US-Mexico border alone.
The number of attempted border crossings by people from Central America and Mexico has steadily increased since April 2020 and most single adults and families are being turned away, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
Poverty, violence, and corruption in the Mexico and the Northern Triangle – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – have led people to seek a better life in the United States for years, and there have been surges in the past.
Promising people vaccine shots and cash payments, Biden kicks off stimulus tour
With a promise of “shots in arms and money in pockets,” President Joe Biden on Monday, March 15, kicked off a week of promotion and travel to herald and explain the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill he signed into law last week to help the country move past the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden and a slate of advocates including Vice President Kamala Harris and first lady Jill Biden are being deployed to various states and to television this week as part of what the White House is calling the “Help Is Here Tour” to tout measures that include a $1,400 check for most US households.
“Help is here, and hope is here, in real and tangible ways,” Biden said in remarks from the White House.