Barely on the job, Biden signs executive actions
Newly sworn-in U.S. President Joe Biden had barely set foot in the White House before he got straight to work - signing more than a dozen executive actions on Wednesday addressing the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and racial inequality and undoing some of his predecessor's most high profile policies.
"And, i thought, with the state of the nation today, it's no time to waste."
Among the actions, he started the process of rejoining the Paris climate accord, and canceled the presidential permit granted for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.
He moved to end a travel ban Trump put in place on some majority-Muslim countries and called upon his administration to strengthen the DACA program for immigrants brought to the United States as children.
Biden also ordered the wearing of masks and social distancing in all federal buildings and on all federal lands and moved to end a national emergency declaration that was the basis for diverting some federal funds to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
While former President Donald Trump broke with tradition by skipping the inauguration, leaving early Wednesday morning for Palm Beach - he did stick to one modern-day ritual… leaving behind a letter for his successor.
Without going into detail, Biden cast the letter in a positive light, saying he didn't want to say more until he'd spoken with Trump directly.
"The president wrote a very generous letter. Because it was private, I won't talk about it until I talk to him. But it was generous."
