 US President-elect Joe Biden (Photo: AFP/VNA) |
Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff, wrote in a memo released Saturday that the orders will focus on the quartet of “the COVID-19 crisis, the resulting economic crisis, the climate crisis, and a racial equity crisis.” He said the orders will be accompanied by a “robust” legislative agenda, adding that these executive actions will deliver relief to the millions of Americans that are struggling in the face of these crises.
Biden also plans on asking the Education Department to extend the federal hiatus on student loan payments and interest on federal student loans, rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and undoing the Trump administration’s travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries.
On the same day, President-elect Joe Biden nominated US foreign policy veteran Wendy Sherman, a key negotiator of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, to be the No. 2 official at the State Department.
Biden also nominated Victoria Nuland, a retired career foreign service officer who was the top US diplomat for Europe, NATO ambassador and State Department spokeswoman, to be Under Secretary for Political Affairs, effectively the third-ranking US diplomat.