In his inaugural address, President Biden called for an end to partisan rancor saying “politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire destroying everything in his path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war.”

One of President Biden’s top priorities is achieving equity and an end to systemic racism through his policies and his new government. He aims to implement that agenda by working to deliver criminal justice reform, equal access to healthcare, education, and housing, and restoring Federal respect for Tribal sovereignty. This includes rolling back several of former President Trump’s initiatives. President Biden faces several roadblocks to achieving his goals thanks to Democrats’ razor-thin margins in Congress. Even the changes he can implement through executive orders may not be evident for some time.

What we know:

• Biden plans to reintroduce diversity training across federal agencies and contractors after Trump had put a halt to the program.
• Biden will direct every federal agency to review its operations for potentially discriminatory policies and develop a plan to address those disparities within 200 days. The directive doesn’t include specific parameters on how that would work.
• The government will create a new “equitable data working group” to assess federal data, often used in allocating resources, to ensure it accurately reflects diversity in America. The Administration also will ensure the U.S. Census has time to complete an accurate nationwide count to ensure federal resources are “efficiently and fairly distributed.”
• Biden will direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to more equitably allocate federal resources to support communities of color and other marginalized groups. The order doesn’t include financial metrics. OMB manages the federal budget, coordinates interagency operations, and reviews policies to ensure they’re in line with the president’s goals.
• The Administration will direct all agencies to take all lawful steps to adopt rules reflecting recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings to protect LGBTQ rights, which would mean rescinding certain Trump-era rules limiting such protections.
• Biden will order an immediate halt to border wall construction and rescission of anti-immigrant policies. The Administration will also move to protect Dreamers – children of undocumented immigrants under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – in addition to ending the travel ban on majority-Muslim countries.

President Biden’s Build Back Better plan aims to improve racial equity by empowering Black, Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native American small businesses. The plan would bolster minority-owned small business opportunities, reform “opportunity zones,” infest in affordable housing and homeownership, and expanding access to resources for entrepreneurs of color.

President Biden’s racial equity plan would devote $30 billion — 10% of his $300 billion research and development portion of his stimulus proposal — to a new small business opportunity fund.

The housing plan includes an up-to-$15,000 refundable tax credit for first-time homebuyers to combat racial inequality in housing markets. It also includes funding to construct 1.5 million homes and public housing units, and would eliminate discriminatory housing regulations.

The plan also provides student debt relief and would eliminate tuition costs for public colleges and universities, and private historically Black schools and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), for families with incomes under $125,000.

President Biden’s Plan aims to:

• Spur Public-Private Investment through a New Small Business Opportunity Plan
• Reform Opportunity Zones
• Make Historic Commitments to Equalizing Federal Procurement
• Makes Bold Investments in Homeownership and Access to Affordable Housing for Black, Brown, and Native Families
• Achieve Equity in Management, Training, and Higher Education Opportunities Connected to the Jobs of the Future
• Boost Retirement Security and Financial Wealth for Black, Brown, and Native Families
• Ensure Workers of Color Are Compensated Fairly and Treated With Dignity
• Ensure Equity in Biden’s Bold Infrastructure and Clean Energy Investments
• Support Second Chances for Economic Success
• Strengthen the Federal Reserve’s Focus on Racial Economic Gaps
• Promote Diversity and Accountability in Leadership Across Key Positions in All Federal Agencies
• Build a 21st Century Care Infrastructure
• Address Longstanding Inequities in Agriculture

Becker’s Federal Lobbying Team will continue to monitor these developments as they evolve and will share with you as soon as information becomes available.

While many of President Biden’s plans can be accomplished through executive orders, those requiring congressional approval will be met with slim Democratic majorities. Below are his current goals:

Climate & Energy

• Ban new oil and gas permits on public land and water.
• Rejoin the Paris Climate Accords.
• End the Keystone XL Pipeline project.
• Make the U.S. electricity system carbon-neutral by 2035 through carbon capture and solar and wind energy.
• Make the U.S. economy reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through tougher fuel efficiency standards.

Education & Child/Elder Care

• Forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt per student.
• Raise Social Security benefits for people over 78, with low income, and for widows and widowers.
• Guarantee twelve weeks of paid family leave, equaling 2/3 of pay up to $4,000.
• Make two years of community college tuition-free to all, and all public colleges and universities tuition-free to students whose families make below $125,000.

Guns

• Create federal grants to encourage states to adopt “red flag” laws.
• Require more FBI criminal background checks lasting up to ten days, exempting only private sales between close family members.
• Reimpose the semiautomatic weapons ban and high-capacity magazines.

Health Care

• Eliminate the earning cap on ACA tax credits subsidizing the purchase of healthcare insurance.
• Lower the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60.
• Create a public option.

Immigration

• End the current travel ban from majority-Muslim countries.
• Redirect funds for border wall construction to higher-tech border enforcement.
• Raise the refugee admittance cap by 18,000 to 125,000.
• Increase the current 140,000 annual cap on work visas.
• Restore protections against deportations of 660,000 Dreamers.
• Create a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Tariffs & Trade

• Reevaluate tariffs on Chinese goods while working with allies to move China to change its economic practices.
• Work with labor and environmental groups when engaging in trade negotiations.

Taxes

• Return the top federal income tax rate to 39.6% for individuals making at least $400,000.
• Raise the corporate income tax rate to 28% from 21%.
• Impose a minimum 15% annual tax on profits U.S. companies report to investors.
• Enact a payroll tax of 12.4% on wages above $400,000 to fund the Social Security system.
• Tax capital gains as ordinary income.

Other Domestic Policies

• Extend civil rights protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• Extend the right to unionize to all federal and state government workers.
• Increase the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2026.
• Spend $50 billion in the first year on infrastructure.

Foreign Relations

• Revoke exit from the World Health Organization.
• Rejoin the Iran Nuclear Deal.

To read the full list of Day One Executive Actions, please click here.

To read the full list of proposed Agency Actions, please click here.

Becker’s Federal Lobbying Team will continue to monitor these developments as they evolve and will share with you as soon as information becomes available.

President-elect Biden released his COVID response and relief plan last night, a $1.9 trillion package to meet immediate needs that will be followed by a more expansive infrastructure and recovery bill. We do not have all of the details yet, but following are the key items that we understand will be included.

Consideration of this package should take place soon after his Jan 20 swearing in. NOTE: This is a proposed framework, not legislative language, so there will be some unanswered questions until a form of this hits the floor and we can drill down further.

Direct Payments to Individuals

• Sends another $1,400 per person to eligible recipients. This money would be in addition to the $600 payments that were approved by Congress in December — for a total of $2,000
• Would also include households with mixed immigration status, after the first round of $1,200 checks left out the spouses of undocumented immigrants who do not have Social Security Numbers

Aid for States, Locals, Transit & Schools

• Provides $350 billion to state, local and territorial governments (note that we have not yet seen a distribution formula)
• Send $20 billion to the hardest-hit public transit agencies.
• Provides an additional $170 billion to K-12 schools, colleges and universities to help them reopen and operate safely or to facilitate remote learning

Unemployment Aid

• Increase the federal boost the jobless receive to $400 a week, from the $300 weekly enhancement contained in Congress’ relief package from December, and extend the payments through September (earlier package only extended through March)
• Applies to those in the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program who have exhausted their regular state jobless payments and in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides benefits to the self-employed, independent contractors, gig workers and certain people affected by the pandemic.

Rental Assistance & Eviction Moratorium

• Provide $25 billion in rental assistance for low- and moderate-income households who have lost jobs during the pandemic. That’s in addition to the $25 billion lawmakers provided in December.
• Another $5 billion would be set aside to help struggling renters to pay their utility bills.
• Provides $5 billion to help states and localities assist those at risk of experiencing homelessness.
• Would extend the federal eviction moratorium, set to expire at the end of January, to September 30, as well as allow people with federally-guaranteed mortgages to apply for forbearance until September 30.

Hunger Relief

• Extends the 15% increase in food stamp benefits through September, instead of having it expire in June.
• Invests another $3 billion to help women, infants and children secure food, and give US territories $1 billion in nutrition assistance

Child Care and Child Tax Credits

• Creates a $25 billion emergency fund and add $15 billion to an existing grant program to help child care providers, including family child care homes, to pay for rent, utilities, and payroll
• Expands the child care tax credit for one year so that families will get back as much as half of their spending on child care for children under age 13

Temporary Increase to Tax Credits

• Boosts the Child Tax Credit to $3,600 for children under age 6 and $3,000 for those between ages 6 and 17 for a year and make it fully refundable
• Raises the maximum Earned Income Tax Credit for a year to close to $1,500 for childless adults, increase the income limit for the credit to about $21,000 and expand the age range of eligibility to cover older workers

Restoration of Emergency Paid Leave

• Would reinstate the paid sick and family leave benefits that expired at the end of December until September 30 and extends the benefit to workers employed at businesses with more than 500 employees and less than 50, as well as federal workers who were excluded from the original program
• People who are sick or quarantining, or caring for a child whose school is closed, will receive 14 weeks of paid leave and the government will reimburse employers with fewer than 500 workers for the full cost of providing the leave

More Assistance for Small Businesses

• Provides $15 billion to create a new grant program for small business owners, separate from the existing Paycheck Protection Program
• Makes a $35 billion investment in some state, local, tribal, and non-profit financing programs that make low-interest loans and provide venture capital to entrepreneurs

Vaccination & Testing

• Invests $20 billion in a national vaccination program, including launching community vaccination centers around the country and mobile units in hard-to-reach areas.
• Invests $50 billion in testing, providing funds to purchase rapid tests, expand lab capacity and help schools implement regular testing to support reopening
• Hires 100,000 public health workers, nearly tripling the community health workforce

Becker’s Federal Lobbying Team will continue to monitor these developments as they evolve and will share with you as soon as information becomes available.