The president’s latest batch of executive orders takes steps to promote racial equity.
President Biden signed executive orders on Tuesday to end Justice Department contracts with private prisons and increase the government’s enforcement of a law meant to combat discrimination in the housing market, part of the new administration’s continued focus on racial equity. Mr. Biden also signed orders that make it the federal government’s policy to “condemn and denounce” discrimination against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, who have faced harassment since the coronavirus pandemic spread from China to the United States and to strengthen relationships between the government and Native American tribes. The moves are incremental pieces of Mr. Biden’s broader push for racial equity — an initiative that is expected to be a centerpiece of his administration and that follow an executive order last week directing federal agencies to review policies to root out systemic racism. The government effort is led by Susan E. Rice, who runs the Domestic Policy Council. “I’m not promising we can end it tomorrow, but I promise you, we’re going to continue to make progress to eliminate systemic racism,” Mr. Biden said before signing the orders. He added that “every branch of the White House and the federal government is going to be part of that effort.” The orders are an escalating repudiation of President Donald J. Trump’s policies and attitudes toward race relations. In separate executive orders last week, Mr. Biden overturned a Trump administration ban on diversity training in federal agencies and disbanded a Trump-created historical commission that issued a report aiming to put a more positive spin on the nation’s founders, who were slaveholders. In a conference call with reporters, a senior White House official described the Trump administration’s “heinous” Muslim ban and said certain minority groups were treated with a “profound level of disrespect from political leaders and the White House.” During a news conference on Tuesday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, blamed the Trump administration for exacerbating racial inequities when it came to health.
