Biden has pledged to rejoin and resume contributions to the World Health Organization, rejoin the Paris climate deal "on day one" and may attempt to extend the New Start arms control agreement with Russia. He has also said he wants to return the U. Biden has a reputation as a moderate and his party has stayed united through the election cycle, but within it there are many divides that are likely to reemerge when voting ends.
The starkest split is between centrists and the progressives, and there's little doubt a President Biden would come under pressure to enact some radical changes to U. How willing Biden would be to use up capital before the midterm elections to enact long-held Democratic dreams is unclear, but options he could pursue include granting statehood to Washington D. He has said that he will set up a bipartisan commission to examine reform of the Supreme Court, which many in his party would like him to expand to counter the new conservative majority.
Climate change policy became an increasingly prominent part of the Biden message as the campaign entered the closing stages, and many of his policies are likely to have a green tint. He has also said he wants the U. A president is both the legislative leader and the head of state, the equivalent of a British prime minister and the queen in one.
The trappings of the office make the office. Americans need to see Biden invested with the presidency, much as a Prince of Wales becomes the king by assuming the robes and powers of his office in a ceremony. The inaugural ceremony on Jan. The inaugural address gives him the opportunity to demonstrate his presidential capacity, to unite partisans as one people, and display himself as their leader. The Founders understood the human need for political ceremony at times of transition.
George Washington learned of his first election to the presidency on April 14, and soon left his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia for the then-capital of New York City.
In Trenton, New Jersey, for example , 13 young women, dressed in white, walked before him, strewing flowers from baskets as he rode underneath a magnificent floral arch. Washington was no longer a gentleman farmer nor even a general. He was about to become the president and these sorts of rituals marked the way.
If Biden is to establish his symbolic legitimacy as a rightful president of the United States, he will need a ceremony displaying that legitimacy, one that looks and sounds like those of his predecessors.
This will be hard in a pandemic, as the campaign showed. Correction : When he became vice-president, Gerald Ford was minority leader, not speaker of the House. By providing your email, you agree to the Quartz Privacy Policy. Skip to navigation Skip to content. Discover Membership. Editions Quartz. More from Quartz About Quartz. Follow Quartz. These are some of our most ambitious editorial projects. By Annalisa Merelli Senior reporter. Sign me up.
Access plans are taking shape. But even with these partnerships, it will take time to adequately expand global manufacturing. Biden has committed to continue supporting coronavirus-vaccine research, and has pledged that an eventual vaccine will be priced fairly by the federal government.
In the longer term, researchers hope that a Biden administration will build up US public-health infrastructure to better prepare for future crises. Trump has moved to pull the United States out of the Paris climate treaty, rolled back a suite of regulations intended to reduce greenhouse-gas regulations and called global warming a hoax.
In contrast, Biden is now campaigning on the most aggressive climate platform ever advanced by a US presidential nominee in the general election. The question facing Biden and his team, if they win in November, is how to make it happen. Kamala Harris, a senator from California, is Biden's running mate in the US presidential election. Biden has said he will have the United States rejoin the Paris climate accord, making the country an active partner of the more than nations that have committed to limiting global warming to 1.
He would also appoint climate-friendly leadership at the Environmental Protection Agency and quickly move to restore — or even bolster — climate and environmental regulations rolled back under Trump over the past four years. It could take a few years to finalize those changes, but Biden could do so with existing authority under federal law. The first big opportunity to advance climate legislation through Congress would probably come in the form of an economic stimulus plan to revive the US economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
But whether the legislation makes it through depends on whether the Democrats take back the Senate and maintain their majority in the House of Representatives during the upcoming election. Democrats currently hold 45 seats in the Senate, and getting to 60 would be tough, so senior Democrats are considering getting rid of the rule if their party wins in November. As well as tackling the pandemic and climate change, a President Biden would have the opportunity to develop other science priorities for his administration.
This process typically includes tapping experts to coordinate science policy and establishing research focuses for the White House. The actual job of doling out science funding is left to Congress. These advisers will be crucial because although Biden and Harris generally support science and its role in crafting public policy, neither has worked extensively on science issues. If Biden is elected, he should choose a science adviser as quickly as possible to start developing and implementing whatever research priorities do emerge, says Michael Lubell, a physicist and science-policy expert at the City College of New York.
Droegemeier and the Trump administration have focused on, among other things, initiatives in artificial intelligence and quantum science, areas that are seen as necessary to keep the United States competitive with China.
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