President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris plan to address issues on the minds of many Americans right now, including the pandemic, health care and foreign affairs, during their administration to move America in a positive direction.

Biden was elected as a senator from Delaware in 1972. While a senator, he focused on issues of foreign affairs and criminal justice. In 2007, Biden became former President Barack Obama’s running mate and served two terms in the Oval Office beside him.

Harris has served as a senator of California since 2017. Before the Senate, Harris worked as California’s attorney general. She, too, has expertise in foreign affairs and criminal justice having been on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on the Budget, according to Harris’ campaign website. 

Harris will be the first female, Black and South Asian vice president in American history. She is breaking down barriers for women who will without a doubt prosper after her. Ms. Magazine, an American feminist publication, cited Harris’ struggles as a marginalized individual as the main reason that she “embodies the fight for equality.” 

Both Biden and Harris have had impressive careers on their own, and now they will work tirelessly in the Oval Office to help America regain its dignity. They have extensive plans for the most prevalent issues facing our nation today, like health care, COVID-19 relief, climate change, the economy and foreign affairs. 

Biden and Harris have a plan to tame COVID-19, the issue that citizens were most concerned about this election. Their plan ensures more organized testing, taking federal responsibility, providing citizens with all information possible and investing $25 billion into vaccine research, according to Biden’s official campaign website. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has left the economy in disarray and more than 14 million people unemployed, according to the Pew Research Center. The president-elect intends to build back the economy and job market by providing aid to essential workers and small business owners to guarantee their financial security. He also wants to extend unemployment insurance to those who lost jobs due to COVID-19, according to Biden’s official campaign website. 

One of Biden and Harris’ more prominent vows is to improve America’s environmental initiatives. It became evident that the Biden administration will be persistent on this topic when President Donald Trump announced Nov. 3 that the U.S. had officially withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, a pact created by the United Nations and signed by 196 countries pledging to lower the global temperature as well as support each other to mitigate the effects of climate change, according to ABC News. Biden tweeted in response to this news to reassure his constituents that he would rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement once he is inaugurated in January.

“Today, the Trump administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement,” Biden tweeted Nov. 3. “And in exactly 77 days, a Biden administration will rejoin it.”

Health care has also been a major focus of the Biden campaign, since Biden helped develop and market the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to Americans during the Obama administration. Biden has promised to build upon the already existing ACA without doing away with private insurance, according to his official campaign website. 

The majority of Americans are moving toward support of either a single-payer health care system or a mixture of public and private options for the country. A Sept. 29 Pew Research Center poll of about 11,000 U.S. adults asked them who is responsible for providing health care to Americans. The researchers found that 36% were in support of a single-payer system and 26% wanted a mix of options.

Based on both Biden and Harris’ past experiences in foreign affairs, their presidency is bound to expand the country’s involvement in positive alliances and immigration. America has become a laughingstock globally. America’s 2020 international approval rating is the lowest it has been in 20 years, according to the Pew Research Center. Biden and Harris will rebuild our image.

Biden’s campaign website also displays the president-elect’s plan to reinstate America’s appreciation of immigrants by reasserting “America’s commitment to asylum seekers and refugees.” They also plan to reverse the Trump administration’s family separation policies. 

Biden has repeatedly said that he will be a president not just for those who voted for him, but for all Americans. Biden and Harris’ administration will reconstruct America’s global reputation. Their historically significant first term will not be wasted, and they will attempt to unify a polarized and divided nation.