Day One Agenda
The Day One Agenda: Highlights
Laws already on the books give a president great discretionary power for constructive change—without abusing executive authority.
Evan Vucci/AP Photo
Introducing the Executive Action Tracker
The Prospect is monitoring 77 significant executive actions that Biden can implement without further legislation from Congress. Read more
Victor Juhasz
Biden’s Actual Day One Agenda
The executive actions the incoming president plans to take over the next several days are a bit underweight. Read more
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo
Reanimated Corpse of Antonin Scalia Tries to Stop Student Debt Cancellation
Almost every citation in an Education Department analysis on why debt cancellation would be illegal comes from the late conservative jurist. Read more
Michael Conroy/AP Photo
How Biden Can End Trump’s Macabre Execution Spree
The president-elect opposes capital punishment. If he can’t persuade Congress to abolish it, he can still commute the sentences of the federal prisoners on death row. Read more
South Korea Defense Ministry via AP
It’s Time to End the Korean War
Seventy years into the conflict, Biden can resolve the original forever war. Read more
Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
Nuclear Weapons Are Out of Control. But Biden Can Make the World Safer.
A nuclear policy for the middle class Read more
Victor Juhasz
Joe Biden Is Unhappy About the Day One Agenda
But those are the breaks when you’re president; people will want you to exercise your power for the general good. Read more
Keith Srakocic/AP Photo
The Day One Agenda for Corporate Taxes
Even without Congress, President-elect Biden’s regulatory agencies can fix a lot of problems with the corporate tax code. Read more
Steve Helber/AP Photo
Biden Can Give Us Free College Without Congress. But Will He?
A new report explains how President Biden can use existing executive authority to make free college a reality. Read more
Ron Edmonds/AP Photo
Biden Can End the War on Terror on Day One
Presidents have relied on outdated authorizations for two decades. The president-elect must end this practice. Read more
Victor Juhasz
TPS for All
President Biden could offer Temporary Protected Status to all immigrants who come from countries suffering from the pandemic. Read more
Scott G. Winterton/The Deseret News via AP
Biden Could Shut Down Oil and Gas Leasing on Federal Lands
That’s just one of many authorities available to the Interior Department on day one. Read more
John Locher/AP Photo
Biden on the Farm
The new president can remake agricultural and food policy even if Congress refuses to do anything about them. Read more
Steven Senne/AP Photo
How Biden Can Raise Some Wages Even if Congress Won’t
There’s a lot he and his Labor Department can do, no matter what Congress may or may not enact. Read more
Victor Juhasz
Rethinking the Poverty Measure
The Biden administration can on its own authority change the poverty calculation, and with it, challenge the narrative of who is poor and why. Read more
Seth Wenig/AP Photo
Six Stupid Arguments Against Forgiving Student Loan Debt
Analyzing the reasons not to cancel student debt only strengthens the case to do so. Read more
Victor Juhasz
How Biden Can Close Guantanamo Once and for All
Obama’s failed attempt to shutter the facility left us with some instructive lessons. Read more
Victor Juhasz
Use the President’s Contracting Power to Improve Workers’ Lives
Biden needs to go well beyond repealing Trump’s bad executive orders—he has the power to assure that workers paid by federal contracts are a national model. Read more
Richard Vogel/AP Photo
Biden at the Cannabis Crossroads
The president-elect’s moves toward federal marijuana liberalization don’t add up to legalization—and there will be tougher issues on the drug policy front ahead. Read more
Mary Altaffer/AP Photo
Joe Biden’s Four-Year Plan
It’s deceptively simple: help as many people as you can, as quickly and as transparently as you can. Read more
Joshua L. Jones/Athens Banner-Herald via AP
What a Biden Labor Board Could Do
Although even getting a Democratic majority on the National Labor Relations Board is no sure thing. Read more
⏩ David Dayen Shares How Biden Could Fix Health Care on Rising Up with Sonali
Watch Prospect executive editor David Dayen speak with Sonali Kolhatkar about the Day One Agenda, specifically, how Joe Biden could fix health care all on his own. Read more
Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
How Biden Could Give Everyone Medicare on His Own
Okay—he won’t, but the creative application of existing laws that would allow it reflects exactly how a Biden administration needs to be thinking. Read more
Thomas Wells/The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP
Unsanitized: Student Debt Cancellation Now an Anti-Austerity Measure
Plus, Moderna has great news on its vaccine. This is The COVID-19 Daily Report for November 16, 2020. Read more
John Amis/AP Photo
The True Cost of Carbon
The Biden administration can show its seriousness in the fight against climate change by laying out the high cost of continuing to burn the planet. Read more
⏩ David Dayen Discusses the Day One Agenda on The Majority Report
Watch Prospect executive editor David Dayen discuss the Day One Agenda on The Majority Report With Sam Seder. Read more
Victor Juhasz
The Day One Agenda: Now More Than Ever
The election result brings new prominence to executive actions. But in reality, it was always going to be a necessary facet of a Democratic presidency. Read more
Victor Juhasz
The Day One Agenda
The Next Administration: Using Presidential Power for Good Read more
Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
The 277 Policies for Which Biden Need Not Ask Permission
As president, Joe Biden could take action on hundreds of policies without having to go through Congress. The Biden-Sanders unity task force provides a road map. Read more
Victor Juhasz
Cancel Student Debt—Almost All of It
An obscure, decades-old provision called “compromise and settlement” authority could allow the Department of Education to opt out of collecting trillions in debt. Read more
John Duricka/AP Photo
Force Drug Companies to Lower Prices
Presidents have two powerful sticks that could weaken the pharmaceutical industry’s power to rake in astronomical profits. Read more
Rich Sugg/The Kansas City Star/AP Photo
Create a Public Option for Simple Banking
Under current authority, the post office can expand its financial services options. A major postal workers union even has it in their bargaining contract. Read more
Victor Juhasz
Aggressively Address the Climate Crisis
Existing laws give the executive branch the power to transform the energy sector. Read more
Victor Juhasz
Overhaul the Business of Wall Street
Remaking the financial system does not require any new laws. Read more
NewsBase/AP Photo
Unleash the Existing Anti-Monopoly Arsenal
Corporate power can be neutralized if federal agencies simply used the prodigious authority they’ve been granted. Read more
Victor Juhasz
Make Marijuana Effectively Legal
By rescheduling cannabis as a less dangerous narcotic, the next president can upend the drug war and the damaging effects on communities of color. Read more
J. David Ake/AP Photo
Create a More Progressive Tax Policy
Congress writes the laws, but the IRS interprets them, and they can do so in ways that make the system more fair. Read more
Victor Juhasz
Wait a Minute, Could John Roberts Block All of This?
How the Supreme Court might frustrate the effort to use statutory authority to advance a progressive agenda, and why the next president should follow through anyway Read more
