President Joe Biden will reportedly sign two executive orders Friday aimed at addressing the U.S. economy devastated by COVID-19.
The first order will expand food stamp access to more American families with children who typically relied on school meals and the other will begin the process of raising the minimum wage for all federal workers to $15 per hour. The second order also strikes down three previous orders from President Donald Trump that had blocked federal employees’ bargaining power and other worker protections, according to Reuters.
The orders are only Biden’s most recent in a string of executive actions Biden has signed since Inauguration Day on Wednesday. Biden has taken steps to both curb the previous actions from Trump and instituting his own strategy in combatting the pandemic. (RELATED: #BidenErasedWomen Trends After Biden Executive Order Sets The Stage For Rolling Out Trans Protections)
US President Joe Biden speaks about the Covid-19 response as US Vice President Kamala Harris (L) looks on before signing executive orders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2021. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden signed another executive order Wednesday banning political appointees from taking lobbying positions within two years of leaving government. The order requires members of the Biden administration to take a pledge saying as much.
“I recognize that this pledge is part of a broader ethics in government plan designed to restore and maintain public trust in government, and I commit myself to conduct consistent with that plan. I commit to decision-making on the merits and exclusively in the public interest, without regard to private gain or personal benefit,” the executive order’s new pledge states. (RELATED: Biden Begins His Presidency By Signing Executive Orders)
“I commit to the ethical choices of post-Government employment that do not raise the appearance that I have used my Government service for private gain, including by using confidential information acquired and relationships established for the benefit of future clients.”
The order came just one day after Trump revoked his own version of the order on Tuesday. Trump had signed a 5-year ban on lobbying from political appointees days after taking office in 2017. He revoked that ban hours before leaving office Tuesday evening.