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Joe Biden will sign some executive orders on Friday aimed at providing immediate relief to U.S. families struggling with the economic toll of the Covid-19 pandemic and expanding security protections for federal workers.
The first action is aimed at food insecurity by expanding nutrition programs for low-income families and children. The order will also seek to clarify a rule to ensure that unemployed Americans will still be eligible for unemployment insurance if they turn down work to endanger their health.
The second order aims to extend protection to federal workers by restoring collective bargaining rights and promoting a federal minimum wage of $ 15. To do so, Biden will instruct agencies to review federal workers earning less than $ 15 an hour and develop recommendations to increase their wages.
“The American people can not afford to wait,” Brian Deese, Biden’s biggest economic adviser, said in a call to reporters. “So many people are hanging on to a wire, they need help and we are committed to doing everything in our power to provide the help as quickly as possible.”
The latest executive action comes one day after a Labor Department report showed unemployment claims remained at historically high levels, while 900,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week. The figures reflect the extent of the economic challenges Biden inherited amid the coronavirus revival this winter.
Friday’s actions are part of a flash of executive orders and prescriptions that Biden has taken since accepting the president.
Hours after his inauguration, Biden signed an executive order extending a federal suspension of evictions in late March, a move that would protect millions of Americans struggling to pay rents amid the pandemic. He also instructed federal agencies to extend their moratorium on the ban on federal guarantee bonds and asked the education department to extend the freezing point of federal student loans until the end of September.
On Thursday, he unveiled a ‘wartime’ national Covid-19 strategy aimed at growing vaccine production, creating guidelines for reopening schools and businesses and setting new requirements for wearing masks.
Biden has long argued that economic recovery has been linked to the fight against the coronavirus, a completely different approach to its predecessor that urged countries to lift restrictions, even as infections increased.
At the heart of Biden’s plan to alleviate the economic crises is a $ 1.9-ton emergency package called the U.S. bailout plan, which includes $ 1,400 direct payments to Americans, an extension of the temporarily increased unemployment benefits and billions of dollars a national vaccination program.
Republicans are already objecting to the cost of the legislation, raising doubts about whether Biden will be able to draw dual support as he had hoped. Several Republicans doubt the need for an additional stimulus package after accepting a $ 900 billion coronavirus account.
Deese stressed that the president’s unilateral ordinances provide only emergency relief and are not a substitute for congressional action.
“These actions are concrete and will provide immediate support to families who are being hit hard,” he said. “It’s not enough, and much, much more is needed.”