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BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

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Sneak peek… Biden’s first month: We got our hands on a document detailing a number Joe Biden’s early plans. Everything in every administration is subject to change — even in a Biden administration, which will be much more normal than Donald Trump’s.

But this is a relatively exhaustive list of what’s in the mix. Of course, this is a marked change from the Trump administration, which, at least of late, had few legislative plans long or short term.

This plan also allows the Biden administration to score some points by reversing Trump’s policies while the new president staffs up and waits for the Democratic-run Congress to pass a new Covid-relief bill.

Inauguration and four crises

Covid-19: Issue mask mandate EO, create White House office for Covid, and rejoin WHO … Climate: Issue climate “rollback” EO, which includes revoking Keystone Pipeline permit and rejoining Paris Climate Agreement … Economy: Extend eviction and foreclosure moratorium and student loan forbearance. … Equity: Rescind Trump federal workforce EO, repeal Muslim travel ban, “pause” construction on the border wall while cutting off money, rescind the Trump ban on transgender military service and deferred enforced departure for Liberians, move forward on DACA, issue racial equality EO, rescind Trump Census EO. … Government process: Issue ethics EO and “freeze” Trump regulations for review.

Covid

Biden will sign a supply chain EO to invoke the Defense Production Act …  He will sign an EO fully reimbursing states for using the National Guard for Covid-19 … He’ll sign a “Safe Travel EO,” which will mandate mask-wearing on some modes of public transportation (“airports, aircraft, trains, public maritime vessels, intercity buses, and all forms of public transportation”) … Biden will direct agencies to “strengthen efforts to combat COVID-19 globally and strengthen global pandemic preparedness” … 

He’ll create a “Pandemic Test Board” and direct “HHS to support states’ efforts to deploy public health personnel to combat COVID-19” … Biden will boost “pandemic related data collection and transparency” with an EO  … He’ll sign an EO directing “actions to support research into novel COVID-19 treatment, secure an adequate supply, and promote equitable distribution.”

Economic relief

Biden will issue an economic relief EO, which will direct “agency action on Medicaid; Pell grants; SNAP; and unemployment insurance” … He’ll sign a federal workplace EO to restore “collective bargaining rights to federal employees" and it will "initiates action to roll back Trump administration’s Schedule F EO” … Biden will issue a “Buy American EO” aimed at directing “agencies to strengthen requirements for procuring goods and services from sources that will support U.S. businesses and workers.”

Equity

Biden will create a “policing commission and reinstates Obama-Biden policies governing the transfer of military-style equipment to local law enforcement” … Biden will sign a prison EO to “take steps to improve prison conditions and begin to eliminate the use of private [prisons]” … Biden will sign a memorandum directing “agencies to strengthen engagement with tribal governments” … 

Biden will sign a memorandum to direct “HUD to take steps to promote equitable housing politics” … He’ll sign an EO to disavow “discrimination against the AAPI community, particularly in light of rhetoric around the COVID-19 pandemic” … And he’ll sign a DOJ prosecutorial and sentencing EO, and a voting rights/civil rights EO.

Climate

Biden will sign an “Omnibus Domestic and International Climate EO​: initiates series of regulatory actions to combat climate change domestically and elevates climate change as a national security priority” … He’ll sign a “Scientific Integrity PM​: Directs science and evidence-based decision-making in federal agencies” … Biden will release a “PCAST Executive Order:​ re-establishes Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology” … And he’ll announce the Climate Leaders’ Summit, hosted by the United States on April 22. 

Health Care

Biden will rescind the Mexico City Policy and review the Title X domestic gag rule. That will disavow “the ‘Geneva Declaration’ (a multilateral anti-abortion declaration signed by the Trump Administration), and organizations that provide counseling about abortion” … He’ll sign an EO that will take “steps to strengthen Medicaid and initiate an open enrollment period under the ACA.”

Immigration

Biden will sign four EOs: One on regional migration and the border, which will direct “creation of strategies to address root causes of migration from Central America and expand opportunities for legal migration, while taking steps to restore the U.S. asylum system by rescinding numerous Trump Administration policies” … Another will establish “the principles that will guide the Administration’s implementation of the U.S. Refugee Admission Program (USRAP) and directs a series of actions to enhance USRAP’s capacity to fairly, efficiently, and security process refugee applications” … 

Another Biden EO will create a “task force to reunify families separated by the Trump Administration’s Immigration policies.” … The last will direct “immediate review of the Public Charge Rule and other actions to remove barriers and restore trust in the legal immigration system, including improving the naturalization process.”

February: Restoring America’s Place in the World

Biden will sign an EO to direct agencies to “recruit and retain employees to confront 21st Century challenges, including through reskilling, professional development, and possible reserve corps to fill mission-critical gaps” … He will sign a “forever wars” executive order, which will initiate a “review of CT operations and options to [responsibly] reduce such operations; reinstates transparency measures on civilian casualties; reinstates the policy of closing GITMO; initiates a process to migrate substantial use of force operations to Title 10” … He will sign a memorandum to strengthen U.S. efforts to promote human rights of LGBTQ people overseas … He’ll hold an NSC meeting at the State Department.

INAUGURATION DAY

What to expect today, next week

Two hours and forty minutes. From 11:21 a.m. to 2 p.m. A ceremonial mask layered with an N-95. An invocation, a pledge of allegiance, a national anthem by Lady Gaga, music by Jennifer Lopez and a poem by the poet laureate. That’s Joe Biden’s inauguration in the era of Covid. Many lawmakers are outright skipping the day.

But that’s all pomp. By noon today, Biden will be president of the United States, and there are two things that you should focus on.

1) Biden is issuing 17 executive orders: Read about them here. He is also asking agencies to review Trump rulemaking — details on that here. Here is the WaPo’s Seung Min Kim on the E.O.s

2) This is equally important. We are now hearing that the House next week may pass new legislation to provide money for vaccines and direct payments for individuals and families. Team Biden wants to put some points on the board, and the House Democratic leadership appears to be in sync with them. 

This is a recognition of two realities. No. 1: Biden’s large-scale Covid package is unlikely to get through Congress until March. And No. 2: Early legislative victories are important for Biden in an all-Democratic D.C.

PARDONS GALORE

Trump pardons, grants clemency to 73

NYT’S Maggie Haberman, Ken Vogel, Eric Lipton and Mike Schmidt: “ President Trump used his final hours in office to wipe away convictions and prison sentences for a roster of corrupt politicians and business executives and bestow pardons on allies like Stephen K. Bannon, his former chief strategist, and Elliott Broidy, one of his top fund-raisers in 2016. … 

“Among others receiving pardons from Mr. Trump were three prominent Republicans who had served in the House before their convictions. They were Rick Renzi, who was sentenced in 2013 to three years in jail in association with a bribery scheme involving an Arizona land swap deal; Robert Hayes of North Carolina, who pleaded guilty in 2019 to lying to the F.B.I.; and Randall “Duke” Cunningham of California, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to taking $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors. 

“Mr. Trump commuted the sentence of Kwame M. Kilpatrick, a Democrat and former Detroit mayor who was convicted in 2013 for using his office to enrich himself and his family through shakedowns, kickbacks and bid-rigging schemes.

“And Mr. Trump commuted the sentence of William T. Walters, a wealthy sports gambler. A jury convicted Mr. Walters in 2017 on charges related to his role in an insider-trading scheme, and he was sentenced to five years in prison. … 

“Two rappers were granted clemency. One was Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., known as Lil Wayne, who pleaded guilty in December to having illegally possessed a gold-plated .45-caliber Glock handgun and ammunition as a felon. The other was Bill Kapri, known as Kodak Black, who was sentenced in 2019 to nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to lying on background paperwork while trying to buy guns.

“Others on the list included: Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 66, a major Democratic donor and eye doctor who ran a series of clinics in Florida that fraudulently told Medicare patients that they had eye diseases and then performed medically unnecessary tests and procedures, falsely billing the federal government at least $42 million, according to prosecutors. His remaining prison sentence was commuted. 

“Ken Kurson, a friend and associate of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was arrested late last year on cyberstalking charges involving several individuals, including a friend whom Mr. Kurson blamed for the deterioration of his marriage. He was pardoned. … 

“Sholam Weiss, who was sentenced to more than 800 years in prison in 2000 for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering related to a huge insurance fraud scheme. His remaining sentence was commuted.”

Full list, from the White House

MOMENTS

Joe Biden’s big day:

8 a.m.: Donald Trump leaves for Palm Beach

8:45 a.m.: Biden will head to church with members of the Hill leadership at St. Matthew 

10:30 a.m.: Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, VP-elect Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff arrive at the Capitol

11:15 a.m.: Swearing-in ceremony

1:40 p.m.: Biden and Harris will review military troops

2:25 p.m.: Biden and Harris will go to Arlington to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

3:15 p.m.: Biden and Haris will go to the White House

5:15 p.m.: Biden will sign executive orders

5:45 p.m.: Biden will swear in presidential appointees in a virtual ceremony

7 p.m.: Press Secretary Jen Psaki will brief in the briefing room

8:48 p.m.: Biden will speak at an inaugural event

9:55 p.m.: Biden and the first lady will appear on the Blue Room Balcony

CLIP FILE

NYT: “‘This Kettle Is Set to Boil’: New Evidence Points to Riot Conspiracy,” by Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman and Neil MacFarquhar …

… “Joe Biden’s Long Road to the Presidency,” by Tanner Curtis, Antonio de Luca, Thomas Kaplan and Umi Syam … 

… “Justice Dept. Ends Stock Trade Inquiry Into Richard Burr Without Charges,” by Nick Fandos and Katie Benner … 

… "Melania Trump’s Legacy: Missteps, Mystery and, in the End, Absence," by Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman

WaPo: “Uncertainty reigns in Senate as Schumer pushes fast agenda and McConnell calls out Trump,” by Mike DeBonis and Paul Kane …

… “Hours before leaving office, Trump undoes one of the only measures he took to ‘drain the swamp’” by Josh Dawsey: “President Trump rescinded an executive order early Wednesday morning that had limited federal administration officials from lobbying the government or working for foreign countries after they leave their posts, undoing one of the few measures he had instituted to fulfill his 2016 campaign promise to ‘drain the swamp.’ Trump had signed the now-reversed executive order with much fanfare in an Oval Office ceremony in January 2017.

“The order required executive branch appointees to sign a pledge that they would never work as registered foreign lobbyists, and it banned them from lobbying the federal agencies where they worked for five years after leaving the government.”

WSJ: “Justice Department Seeks to Limit Scope of Landmark LGBT Rights Decision,” by Sadie Gurman and Jess Bravin: “The Justice Department has issued a memo that aims to limit the impact of a landmark Supreme Court ruling protecting gay and transgender people in the workplace, a last-ditch attempt from the Trump administration to hinder policy shifts expected as President-elect Joe Biden begins assembling new leadership at the agency.

WSJ Editorial Board: “Policy aside, if Mr. Biden really wants to unite the country he will have to reach out to the 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump. One way to do it would be to speak out against the burgeoning progressive desire to punish, black list, and censor the political opposition. Americans will be listening to his Inaugural Address for such a constructive signal.”

AP: “DC on lockdown and on edge before Biden’s inauguration,” by James Laporta, Lolita C. Baldor and Michael Balsamo

POLITICO: “Republicans take on Biden’s Cabinet, but without the Trumpian fury,” by Marianne LeVine and Andrew Desiderio

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