Biden Day Three – Additional EOs to Deliver Economic Relief for American Families and Businesses Amid the COVID-19 Crises

President Biden signed two executive orders (EO) today to address the economic toll of the pandemic. Among other provisions, the EOs include expanding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to address food insecurity, accelerating financial assistance to eligible Americans, ensuring worker protections, and beginning the process to require that everyone working for the federal government get a minimum wage of $15 an hour. The following is a brief summary and link to each EO signed today as well as a link to the talking points accompanying the directives:

1. Executive Order on Economic Relief Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic –
   1. Directs all executive departments and agencies to identify actions they can take within existing authorities to address the current economic crisis resulting from the pandemic. Agencies should specifically consider actions that facilitate better use of data and other means to improve access to, reduce unnecessary barriers to, and improve coordination among programs funded in whole or in part by the Federal Government.
   2. Directs agencies to prioritize actions that provide the greatest relief to individuals, families, and small businesses; and to State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments.
2. Executive Order – Protecting and Empowering Federal Workers and Contractors –
   1. Restores collective bargaining power and worker protections by revoking Trump Executive Orders 13836, 13837, and 13839. It goes further to direct agencies to bargain over permissible, non-mandatory subjects of bargaining when contracts are up for negotiation so that workers have a greater voice in their working conditions.
   2. Eliminates Schedule F, which undermines the foundations of the civil service. Its existence threatens the critical protections of career employees and provides a pathway to burrow political appointees into the civil service.
   3. Promotes a $15 minimum wage. The Executive Order directs the Office of Personnel Management to develop recommendations to pay more federal employees at least $15 per hour.

Talking Points: January 22 Executive Orders – Economic Relief | The White House

Fact Sheet: President Biden’s New Executive Actions Deliver Economic Relief for American Families and Businesses Amid the COVID-19 Crises | The White House