After becoming the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden has already committed to 17 executive actions and 15 executive orders in his first month of the presidency.

Biden has been in office for almost a month, working on new policies such as the COVID-19 relief package, providing more vaccines and abolishing a Trump administration law that banned transgenders from joining the military.  

“Franklin Roosevelt set the standard following his inauguration in 1933 with getting dozens of bills passed through Congress within the first three months and change,” said Mack Shelley, chair of Iowa State’s political science department.

The time frame of the first 100 days has been used to calibrate presidential success.

“For many newly inaugurated presidents, it’s essential to strike early before the other party can consolidate its opposition or before public opinion begins to shift away from the president’s agenda or some new crisis diverts the administration in other directions,” Shelley said.

There are a few major policies the Biden administration can accomplish in the first 100 days, one of the biggest being able to prioritize COVID-19.

To help prevent any further spread of COVID-19, the American people will be asked to make up for 100 days, calling it the “100 days making challenge.” Everyone will be required to wear masks and social distance in all federal buildings and on federal lands.

“The faster we can get the population vaccinated, the faster we can hopefully put a lot behind us, as long as people are willing to keep wearing their masks and social distancing seriously for the foreseeable future,” said Zack Bonner, a lecturer for the department of political science at Iowa State.

The Biden administration team set a goal of providing 150 million vaccinations in the first 100 days, not including the full vaccination (both shots).

The COVID-19 relief package, which is set to help individuals with direct payments, aid for smaller businesses and ramping up production of personal protective equipment (PPE), could easily be the most impactful policy Biden can enforce immediately, Bonner said. The state of Iowa received a 16 percent increase in PPE.

Biden has begun to reverse a fair amount of Trump administration actions and lay out new policies of his own.

Biden recently reversed a Trump administration law that bans transgender Americans from joining the military.

The White House released a statement Jan. 20 titled “Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.”

The statement reads, “Transgender service members will no longer be subject to the possibility of discharge or separation on the basis of gender identity, President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service and that American’s strength is found in its diversity.”

President Biden also took to his official Twitter page to further confirm that he overturned the legislation, four years after Trump announced the ban.

“Today, I repealed the discriminatory ban on transgender people serving in the military,” Biden said. “It’s simple: America is safer when everyone qualified to serve can do so openly and with pride.”

According to Biden’s transition team, here are some more executive orders that will be taken into action:

• Plan to ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend the federal eviction moratorium until at least June 30 and ask to provide more rental assistance. Ask the Department of Agriculture, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to think about “extending foreclosure moratoriums for federally guaranteed mortgages and continue applications for forbearance for federally guaranteed mortgages until at least March 31.”

• Work on reversing Trump administration orders that excluded undocumented immigrants from the census counts.
  

• End the restriction on entry into the United States of people from mainly Muslim and African nations.

• Review actions that were taken during the Trump administration that were harmful to public health, damaging to the environment and not in the public’s interest.

• Plans to stop construction of the border wall by demolishing the national emergency declaration that was used by President Donald Trump to continue funding.

The full list made by Biden’s administration team can be found here.