and House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, April 28, 2021.
Health care Biden strongly campaigned for the presidency on the
public option, a policy that, if enacted into law, would have offered Americans a choice between maintaining their private healthcare insurance or buying into Medicare. The idea was viewed as a compromise between the progressive and moderate flanks of the
Democratic Party. The Biden campaign described the public option as a "plan to protect and build on
ObamaCare". However, shortly before taking office in January 2021, Biden's team abruptly dropped the proposal, frustrating many online progressives who already viewed the public option healthcare proposal as a failure to fight the status quo. The Biden administration rescinded work requirements for
Medicaid recipients. The administration opened a special enrollment period for the
Affordable Care Act as well as extending the normal enrollment period, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration provided larger premium subsidies. In August 2022, President Biden signed into law the
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The law allocates $64 billion for a three-year expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies originally expanded under the
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and $265 billion for prescription drug price reform to lower prices, including providing Medicare the authority to negotiate the prices for certain drugs with pharmaceutical companies. That same month, Biden signed into law the
Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, which expands federal health care access, services, and funding for veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during their service, including toxic smoke from
burn pits.
Opioid epidemic Drug overdoses killed 106,699 in the United States in 2021. Opioids were involved in 80,411
overdose deaths in 2021, up from around 10,000 in 1999. In June 2023, U.S. federal prosecutors announced criminal indictments of
fentanyl precursor producers in China. In October 2023,
OFAC sanctioned a China-based network of fentanyl manufacturers and distributors. In 2023, the Biden administration announced a crackdown on
Mexican drug cartels smuggling fentanyl into the United States.
Rahul Gupta led White House efforts to combat the
opioid epidemic.
COVID-19 pandemic On January 20, 2021, his first day as president, Biden implemented a
federal mask mandate, requiring the use of masks and social distancing in all federal buildings, on federal lands, and by federal employees and contractors. On January 21, the administration released a 200-page document titled "National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness". That same day, Biden invoked the
Defense Production Act to speed up the vaccination process and ensure the availability of glass vials, syringes, and other vaccine supplies at the federal level. In justifying his use of the act, Biden said: "And when I say wartime, people kind of look at me like 'wartime?' Well, as I said last night, 400,000 Americans have died. That's more than have died in all of World War II. 400,000. This is a wartime undertaking." Biden established the
White House COVID-19 Response Team, a
White House Office dedicated to coordinating a unified federal government response. According to a report by
Reuters, in mid-2021 the Biden administration ended a military-run
propaganda campaign to spread disinformation about the
Sinovac Chinese COVID-19 vaccine which had begun in 2020 during the Trump administration. The campaign was described as "payback" for
COVID-19 disinformation by China directed against the U.S. Primarily targeting people in the
Philippines, the campaign used fake social media accounts to spread disinformation, including that the Sinovac vaccine contained pork-derived ingredients and was therefore
haram under
Islamic law. In order to meet his vaccination goal of a hundred million shots in his first 100 days in office, Biden signed an executive order increasing needed supplies. Biden signed an order on January 21 that directed
FEMA to offer full reimbursements to states for the cost of using their own National Guard personnel and emergency supplies such as
Personal Protective Equipment in schools. On January 24, 2021, Biden reinstated a travel ban imposed by President Trump on
Brazil,
United Kingdom,
Ireland,
South Africa, and 26 other European countries. The travel ban prevents non-U.S. citizens living in the prospective countries from entering the U.S. Biden implemented a face mask requirement on nearly all forms of public transportation and inside of transportation hubs; previously, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had recommended that such a policy be enacted but it was blocked by the Trump administration, under which the CDC issued strong, albeit non-binding recommendations for mask use in these settings. In mid-March 2021, Biden dismissed a request by the
European Union to export unused COVID-19 vaccines from
AstraZeneca out of the U.S. even though the manufacturer endorsed it and vowed to resupply the doses. The rationale for this decision, which contributed to low European vaccination rates, was that the U.S. had to be "over-supplied and over-prepared", according to White House press secretary
Jen Psaki. Whereas the U.S. exported no vaccines, the European Union exported 77 million doses to the world from December 2020 to March 2021. Eventually, the U.S. reversed course and gave vaccine doses from AstraZeneca to Mexico, Canada, and Japan by the end of March. On May 6, 2021, the Biden administration announced that it supports waiving patent protections on existing COVID-19 vaccines so that other countries can produce generic variants, after weeks of pressure from the international community. On May 7, French president
Emmanuel Macron called on the U.S. "to put an end to export bans not only on vaccines but on vaccine ingredients, which prevent production." On May 26, 2021, Biden ordered
U.S. intelligence agencies to increase their
investigations into the origin of the virus, after reports that researchers at the
Wuhan Institute of Virology became ill a month before the pandemic began. In July 2021, amid a slowing of
the COVID-19 vaccination rate in the country and the spread of the
SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, Biden said that the U.S. has "a pandemic for those who haven't gotten the vaccination" and that it was therefore "gigantically important" for Americans to be vaccinated, touting the vaccines' effectiveness against hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19. He also criticized the prevalence of
COVID-19 misinformation on social media, saying it was "killing people". Despite months of vaccine availability and incentives, by September many Americans continued to
resist vaccination amid rising cases in several states, hampering prospects towards
herd immunity. On September 9, Biden stated, "We've been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us." That day he issued an executive order directing businesses with more than 100 employees to require vaccination of their workers or weekly testing, affecting about 80 million Americans. The order also required the roughly 17 million employees of health facilities receiving federal Medicare or Medicaid to be vaccinated. Many Republicans asserted Biden's order was an unconstitutional overreach of federal authority, and some Republican governors said they would sue to block it. The Biden administration responded to the global spread of the
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in December 2021 by advocating response by the states instead of the federal government. Throughout the surge, the Biden administration has been criticized for a lack of
COVID-19 tests, exacerbating the spread of the Omicron variant. When questioned about the apparent shortage of tests,
Jen Psaki replied, "Should we just send one to every American? Then what happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost and what happens after that?", causing backlash. The Biden administration responded by promising an increased supply of at-home tests later in 2022. In the midst of an all-time high of new COVID-19 cases, the
Centers for Disease Control revised their guidelines, recommending five days of quarantine rather than ten without requiring a negative COVID-19 test. This move was criticized by health experts who worry that without
rapid testing, COVID-positive people may unknowingly spread COVID-19 in workplaces under the recommended CDC guidelines. Others criticize the CDC for implementing this change after lobbying by
Delta Air Lines, leading to social media backlash against the federal government.
Cancer research , February 2, 2022. Biden gave a speech at the
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on September 12, 2022, the 60th anniversary of Kennedy's
We Choose to Go to the Moon speech, promoting his administration's revival of the
Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot, including the new
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
Economy The New Republic praised Biden's economic record in July 2024, highlighting record low unemployment leading to a growth in wages at the lower end of the wage distribution as workers had more bargaining power. However, overall
real median full-time wages stagnated throughout his time in office. The wealthiest 0.1% of Americans further expanded their share of
household wealth from 13.2% to 13.8%, While inflation was painful, it has returned near its pre-pandemic rate and was similar to peer countries, though the U.S. economy has grown faster than its peers. The expansion of the
Affordable Care Act, the
child tax credit, $1400
stimulus checks, and the expansion of
SNAP benefits boosted balance sheets for low and middle-income Americans.
Build Back Better Plan The
Build Back Better Plan was a proposed framework of public investment in social, infrastructural, and environmental programs. It was eventually divided into three parts. The American Rescue Plan was focused on
COVID-19 pandemic relief, and was passed and signed into law in March 2021 as the
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The second part called for investment in infrastructure and addressing
climate change, and was called the American Jobs Plan. Elements of the American Jobs Plan were the basis for the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law in November 2021. The third part, the American Families Plan, proposed investment in social policies, such as paid
parental leave. The American Families Plan was merged with elements of the American Jobs Plan to form the
Build Back Better Act, introduced in September 2021. This passed the
House of Representatives, but failed to pass the
Senate. Continued negotiations led to a new proposal, the
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which included proposals addressing climate change, healthcare, and tax reform proposals while excluding Build Back Better's social safety net proposals. This was passed and signed into law in August 2022.
Consumer price reductions The administration also pursued lower drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices it pays and capping the price of
insulin. Biden took antitrust more seriously than presidents in recent memory, as seen by the work of
Lina Khan at the
FTC,
Prescription medication The
Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law on August 16, 2022, authorizes the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to directly negotiate a maximum fair price with drug manufacturers for specific expensive drugs under
Medicare Part D, slashing out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries covered by Medicare, whilst reducing government expenditure by upwards of $100 billion over ten years, and raising revenue from rebates from manufacturers who raise prices faster than the rate of inflation, effectively penalizing
price gouging. The first series of ten drugs to be selected by the CMS for price negotiation were
Januvia, which was reduced from a 30-day price of $527 to $113, a number of drugs manufactured by
Novo Nordisk, from $495 to $119,
Farxiga, from $556 to $178.50,
Enbrel, from $7,106 to $2,355,
Jardiance, from $573 to $197,
Stelara, from $13,836 to $4,695,
Xarelto, from $517 to $197,
Eliquis, from $521 to $231,
Entresto, from $628 to $295, and
Imbruvica, from $14,934 to $9,319. This series first went into effect on January 1, 2026. The CMS announced the second slate of fifteen drugs to be negotiated downwards in price on January 17, 2025. This slate includes
Ozempic,
Rybelsus and
Wegovy, all manufactured by Novo Nordisk, each negotiated down from a 30-day price of $959 to $274,
Trelegy Ellipta, from $654 to $175,
Xtandi, from $13,480 to $7,004,
Pomalyst, from $21,744 to $8,650,
Ofev, from $12,622 to $6,350,
Ibrance, $15,741 to $7,871,
Linzess, from $539 to $136,
Calquence, from $14,228 to $8,600,
Austedo and
Austedo XR, from $6,623 to $4,093,
Breo Ellipta, from $397 to $67,
Xifaxan, from $2,696 to $1,000,
Vraylar, from $1,376 to $770,
Tradjenta, from $688 to $78,
Janumet and
Janumet XR, from $526 to $80, and
Otezla and
Otezla XR, from $4,722 to $1,650. These negotiations are scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2027. In total, coverage of the selected prescription drugs account for approximately 36% of all Medicare Part B and Part D annual expenditures, and reducing their prices would permit large reductions in government expenditure, not just cost-of-living reductions for Medicare recipients. The original version of the Act had a provision that penalized drug price increases that exceeded the rate of inflation for privately-insured beneficiaries, but was struck from the Act by the
Parliamentarian of the United States Senate due to not being a budget-related provision eligible to be passed via
budget reconciliation.
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 On January 14, 2021, Biden revealed a $1.9 trillion
stimulus bill, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The plan includes $1 trillion in direct aid, including $1,400 per-person checks, for working Americans, and would provide for direct housing and nutrition assistance, expanding access to safe and reliable childcare and affordable healthcare, increasing the minimum wage, extending unemployment insurance, and giving families with kids and childless workers an emergency boost this year. In her first press briefing, press secretary Psaki said the plan was likely to change as negotiations continued, with the provision to increase the minimum wage later being excluded from the relief plan. Biden signed the Plan into law on March 11, 2021, passing through both chambers of Congress with a
party-line vote. The plan invokes the
Defense Production Act of 1950 to ensure the production of
personal protective equipment, glass vials, syringes, and other supplies exceeds the demand. The federal government would identify communities that have been hit hardest by COVID-19, and ensure the vaccine does not reach them at an unfair pace. It is considered to be the third part of Biden's "Build Back Better" agenda (the first being the
American Rescue Plan and the second being the
American Jobs Plan). The bill was effectively merged with climate change and other provisions that didn't make it into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, for a total $3.5 trillion
Build Back Better Act. However, the bill did not have Republican support, and Democrats struggled to win the support of Senator
Joe Manchin of West Virginia to pass it on a
party-line vote through
budget reconciliation, even as the price was lowered to $2.2 trillion. After the bill ultimately failed to match his envisioned cost, Manchin publicly rejected it, dooming its passage.
Labor On January 22, 2021, Biden signed an executive order that removed schedule F, overturning a number of Trump's policies that limited the
collective bargaining power of federal unions. Biden's executive order also promotes a $15
minimum wage for federal workers and repeals three of Trump's executive orders which made the employee discipline process stricter and restricted union representatives' access to office space. As well as promoting a $15 minimum wage, Biden's executive order increases the amount of money going to the families of children who are missing meals because of school closures due to the pandemic by 15%. The repealing of Trump's three executive orders comes as the orders were used to transfer civil servants and career scientists and replace them with employees friendly to the Trump administration. On inauguration day 2021, Biden fired pro-business
Peter Robb, then general counsel of the
National Labor Relations Board, replacing him with pro-union
Jennifer Abruzzo in February 2021. Biden's NLRB has pursued action against
Starbucks' and
Amazon's alleged anti-union activities. On August 24, 2023, the NLRB reinstated
Obama-era policies regarding union elections, speeding up the timeline by removing restrictions such as resolving
litigation before holding an election. In late 2022, Biden signed a bill forcing an agreement between union workers and rail companies in order to prevent a strike, earning him criticism from progressives and rail workers. Afterwards, Biden pressured the rail companies to offer
paid sick leave to workers, which had been a key demand in the original planned strike. More than 60% of rail workers had sick leave agreements in June 2023. On the
2023 United Auto Workers strike, Biden repeated union leader
Shawn Fain's motto "record profits, record contracts" and expressed support for the workers in negotiations. Biden assigned two White House officials to aid in negotiation efforts, senior adviser
Gene Sperling and
acting Labor Secretary Julie Su. On September 26, Biden joined striking UAW workers on the
picket line in Michigan, becoming the first president to do so. Biden became the first US president to run for election with a
unionized campaign staff for his
2024 election run. The Biden administration helped to resolve the
2024 United States port strike.
2022 United States railroad labor dispute The rise of
precision scheduled railroading is controversial has led to longer and more irregular working hours, tighter schedules, longer trains, supply chain delays, higher frequency of train
derailments, depreciated safety standards, staffing and budget cuts, increased workloads per employee, and cuts to railroad infrastructure maintenance. Additionally,
BNSF Railway adopted a new attendance policy called "Hi-Viz", which unions alleged penalized taking sick time-off and incentivized coming to work while ill. These policies eliminate any free time which workers have, requiring them to be effectively on-call for weeks at a time. The embattled management philosophy had been under dispute between a coalition of twelve railroad labor unions representing over 115,000 railroad workers, known as the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition, and the National Carriers Conference Committee, collating six Class I rail carriers bargaining together,
Union Pacific,
Norfolk Southern,
CSX,
BNSF,
Kansas City Southern Railway, and
Canadian National, while
Amtrak and
Canadian Pacific bargained separately, with pay raises, paid sick leave, labor protections and better working conditions on the table. Negotiations extended for more than two years, wending from 2019 and through early 2022, with very little progress made, and ultimately reached an impasse, with workers in the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen voting to authorize a strike later that year, and the
International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers threatening a strike in turn. The Board issued a report one month later, starting a 30-day cooling off period that prevents any strikes or lockouts, and recommending "annual wage increases of between 4% and 7% through 2024" in addition to retroactive pay increases, one extra paid day off, and five $1,000 annual bonuses. However, while ten unions accepted the terms of the deal, some considered it to be insufficient and prepared to strike anyway. Near the end of the cool-off period, Biden and
Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh engaged in twenty consecutive hours of talks with union leader and railroad representatives in the
Department of Labor. These negotiations resulted in an updated deal, including a 24% increase in wages from 2020 through 2024, necessitating an automatic average payout of $11,000 to encompass retroactive wage hikes, a five-year $5,000 bonus, a cap on monthly health care contributions, more flexible schedules, like unpaid time off for medical appointments and exemptions from attendance policies for hospitalizations and surgical procedures, as well as the ability for unions to negotiate more regular schedules for engineers and conductors in future contracts. However, the deal only provided one day of paid sick leave, to the dismay of union leaders and workers, who desired fifteen days, and as a result strike fears still loomed from holdout unions. Congressional Democratic leaders wished not to intervene in further negotiations, not even to extend the cool-off period, with House Majority Leader
Nancy Pelosi remarking that "[they would] rather see negotiations prevail so there’s no need for any actions from Congress," But with freight railroads refusing to budge on paid sick leave, and pressures from the fallout of a potential strike growing, Biden called for his party to capitulate and agree to instate the deal from September, which they ultimately did, though House Democrats attempted to simultaneously pass an amended version with seven days of paid sick leave, which was blocked by the Senate due to a lack of Republican support. The bill was signed into law on December 2, 2022. Afterwards, Biden administration officials, including
Pete Buttigieg, Marty Walsh and Biden himself, continued to lobby railroad companies to accede to unions' demands for paid sick leave. The Railroad Department Director of
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Alphonse Russo, thanked the Biden administration for its help in the negotiations. The percentage of workers with access to paid sick leave increased from barely above 0% before the deal, to approximately 60% of the railroad workforce,
Antitrust law enforcement Federal agencies under the Biden administration enforced antitrust laws more vigorously than seen in previous administrations ever since the
Chicago school of economics supplanted the structuralist thought of the early 20th century. This shift was embodied by the administration's embrace of the
New Brandeis school of antitrust enforcement, represented by Biden's appointment of
Lina Khan as the
Chair of the
Federal Trade Commission,
Jonathan Kanter to serve as the
Assistant Attorney General for the
United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division of the
United States Department of Justice, and
Tim Wu to serve as the Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy on the President's
National Economic Council, among others. Biden signed
Executive Order 14036 on July 9, 2021, directing federal agencies to cooperatively engage a seventy-two point "whole-of-government" plan impounding aggressive enforcement of antitrust legislation and jurisprudence to defeat domestic market consolidation and the creation of monopolies or
cartels across multiple industries, which he believes will foster competition and innovation, decrease costs, combat exploitative pricing, increase consumer flexibility and buying power, and allow workers to better negotiate for fairer wages or working conditions, or seek higher-paying jobs in the event of impasse. The
executive order accordingly created a White House Competition Council, which would "coordinate, promote, and advance Federal Government efforts to address overconcentration, monopolization, and unfair competition in or directly affecting the American economy." The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission adopted a more hardline stance on large mergers, reflected in the updated agency guidelines issued in late 2023. The FTC took action against at least thirty-eight mergers between June 2021 and November 2023, with the FTC authorizing staff to file an administrative complaint or seek a
preliminary injunction in federal court to halt the progress of these mergers. In half of these mergers, the parties involved abandoned their plans after the FTC issued its complaint. In one, the parties structurally modified the terms of the merger and sold off numerous assets in order to comply with existing antitrust legislation in response to the threat of litigation. In another, the parties agreed to a consent order prohibiting them from engaging in the conduct alleged by the FTC. Another fourteen mergers beyond these were abandoned during the FTC's investigation, and with another fourteen, the FTC ordered a series of divestitures to prevent the mergers from resulting in harm to the markets. The Federal Trade Commission brought to trial four times as many billion-dollar merger challenges between 2021 and late 2024 than it did in the period between 2017 and 2021, and 2008 and 2017. A significantly larger proportion of merger challenges between 2021 and late 2024 ended in the merge attempt being abandoned compared to the 2017-21 interval and 2016 by a factor of nearly three, exceeding the total number of abandoned mergers of the preceding decade.
Banking After the
Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023, Biden expressed opposition to a
bailout that was borne by taxpayers. He also claimed that the
partial roll-back of
Dodd-Frank regulations contributed to the bank failures.
Domestic manufacturing Biden signed an executive order intended to support domestic manufacturers by increasing a federal preference for purchasing goods made wholly or partly in the U.S. Using the broad term "Made in America laws", the executive order's stated goal is to strengthen "all statutes, regulations, rules, and Executive Orders relating to Federal financial assistance awards or Federal procurement, including those that refer to 'Buy America' or '
Buy American.'" On August 9, 2022, Biden actively promoted and signed into law the
CHIPS and Science Act, which authorized $52 billion for domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing. On August 16, 2022, Biden signed the
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law, which included provisions to support the domestic production of solar panels, wind turbines, and other infrastructure. Due to incentives from the CHIPS and Science Act,
Micron Technology will invest billions in new semiconductor manufacturing in
New York.
Trade In 2021
The Wall Street Journal reported that instead of negotiating access to Chinese markets for large American financial-service firms and pharmaceutical companies, the Biden administration might focus on trade policies that boost exports or domestic jobs.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the administration wants a "worker-centered trade policy".
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo aggressively enforced trade rules to combat unfair practices by China. In March 2021, in her first interview since taking office, U.S. Trade Representative Tai told
The Wall Street Journal the U.S. would not lift tariffs on Chinese imports (implemented under the Trump administration as urged by
Peter Navarro) in the near future, despite lobbying efforts from "free traders" including former
U.S. Secretary of Treasury Hank Paulson and the
Business Roundtable, a big-business group in the U.S., that pressed for tariff repeal. In 2021, the U.S. suspended its diplomatic trade engagement with
Myanmar after a rise in violence perpetrated by the
Burmese military against anti-
coup protesters. In May 2024, the Biden administration raised
tariffs on Chinese imports, including a doubling for
solar cells; tripling for
lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries; and increases for steel, aluminum, and medical equipment. This marks the first time that critical minerals, including
rare earth magnets—key components in electric and hybrid vehicles—have been specifically included in the tariffs. China produces and refines over 90 percent of the world's
rare earth material. The tariff increases will be phased in over a period of three years.
Infrastructure As a part of the Build Back Better Plan, the Biden administration aimed for massive spending on the nation's infrastructure on the order of $2 trillion. Several of the physical infrastructure provisions featured in the proposal were included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Biden signed the Act into law on November 15, 2021. This final version included approximately $1.2 trillion in spending, with $550 billion being newly authorized spending on top of what
Congress was planning to authorize regularly. The bill included $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging. As of March 2024, seven charging stations with a total of 38 spots for charging vehicles had been built. impacts of climate change on food, energy and home insurance prices, as well as the size of
government debt and deficits. In the midst of recovery from COVID-19, inflation rose to the highest rate in forty years peaking at 9.1% in 2022, with many other major global economies reaching similar level. Biden stated during his first
State of the Union Address on March 1, 2022, that addressing inflation was his "top priority", while touting an anti-inflation plan that he said would address ocean shipping costs and prescription drug prices. The
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in increases in food and energy prices. At the end of 2023, the
U.S. Census Bureau found that without housing inflation, inflation would have been just 1.8%, instead of 3.2%. Katy O'Donnell of
Politico argued that housing shortages, caused by artificial scarcity driven by
NIMBYism, had been the single-biggest contributor to inflation.
Freddie Mac estimated that the housing shortage surged 52% between 2018 and 2020. Most economists surveyed by the
WSJ in July 2024 found that inflation would be worse under a second Trump administration compared to a second Biden term, due in part to tariffs, a crack down on illegal immigration, and larger deficits.
Taxation Biden changed the practice of
IRS agents disproportionately auditing lower-income Americans. Finance officials from 130 countries agreed on July 1, 2021, to plans for a new international taxation policy. All the major economies agreed to pass national laws that would require corporations to pay at least 15% income tax in the countries they operate. This new policy would end the practice of locating world headquarters in small countries with very low taxation rates. Governments hope to recoup some of the lost revenue, estimated at $100 billion to $240 billion each year. The new system was promoted by the Biden administration and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (
OECD). Secretary-General
Mathias Cormann of the OECD said: "This historic package will ensure that large multinational companies pay their fair share of tax everywhere."
Energy, environment, and climate visit the Harris County Emergency Operations Center in Houston after the
2021 Texas power crisis, February 2021.
General During his first week in office, Biden established the position of
White House National Climate Advisor, appointing
environmental health and
air quality expert
Gina McCarthy to the role. Biden also created the position of
U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, appointing former secretary of state
John Kerry. On January 20, 2021, Biden signed an executive order rejoining the U.S. to the
Paris Agreement. With the U.S. rejoining the agreement, countries responsible for two-thirds of the global
greenhouse gas emissions would make pledges of becoming carbon neutral, while without United States it is only half. On the same day, Biden also issued an executive order that cancelled the construction of the
Keystone XL pipeline, an extension of the
Keystone Pipeline. The pipeline was heavily criticized by environmental and Native American activists and groups. This order also directed agencies to review and reverse more than 100 actions made by Trump on the environment. In August 2022, Biden signed the
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law, a domestic spending bill born out of continued negotiations on the Build Back Better Act after its collapse that fulfilled some of its initial provisions. The bill included significant federal investment in domestic clean energy production, combating climate change, and healthcare; it aims to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 40% from peak 2005 levels by 2030, included a three-year extension of
Affordable Care Act subsidies, and empowered Medicare to begin negotiating lower prescription drug costs for the first time. In April 2024 Biden delivered $20 billion to eight environmental
NGOs. The aim is to reduce the country's emissions by 40 million tonnes per year with the money, while giving 70% of the benefits to low income communities. In the same month, the
American Climate Corps is expected to begin function with several hundred members. The tasks will probably be "things like installing solar panels, restoring vulnerable habitats, and fire hazard prevention." Biden plans increase the number of participants to 20,000 during the first year and then 50,000 more will be added each year by 2031. However, this plan is opposed by Republicans. In May 2024, the administration announced guidelines around carbon markets. They push for increased verifiability from suppliers and transparency from buyers. The guidelines are not binding or enforceable. In November 2024, the Biden administration withheld federal funding from
Climate Justice Alliance, a move which CJA and
The Intercept connected to its support for a ceasefire in Gaza and other progressive policy issues that had made it a target of Republican scrutiny.
Oil, gas extraction and transportation On January 21, 2021, the Biden administration issued a 60-day ban on oil and gas leases and permits on federal land and waters. On January 27, 2021, Biden signed a number of executive orders aimed at
combating climate change, one of them setting climate change as a key consideration for U.S. national security and foreign policy. In an attempt to encourage U.S. membership to the
Kigali Amendment, an international agreement aimed to reduce the production of
hydrofluorocarbons, Biden's executive order directed the
U.S. Department of State to submit the Kigali Amendment to the Senate. in April 2021, held
virtually because of the
COVID-19 pandemic In March 2021, 21 Republican
state attorneys general of 21 states sued the Biden administration for revoking the Keystone XL pipeline permit. The suit claims Biden's executive order exceeded his authority. In May 2021, the EPA rolled back a Trump administration rule that prohibited the EPA from using certain studies. The previous rule, which made it more difficult to use major scientific studies to justify pollution reduction policies, had already been invalidated by a federal court. On June 1, 2021, Secretary of the Interior
Deb Haaland suspended all oil and gas drilling leases in Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, pending further review of their environmental impacts. In January 2021, Biden had issued a 60-day ban on oil and gas leases and permits on federal land and waters. A group of Republican
state attorneys general successfully obtained a decision in federal court to lift the moratorium. The Biden administration appealed the decision but agreed to continue with the sales, and in September 2021 held the largest federal gas and oil lease auction in U.S. history, selling leases to extract 1.7 million
acres in the Gulf of Mexico. The areas that were purchased by oil companies can be expected to produce around 4.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.12 billion barrels of oil over the next 50 years. The administration has also proposed another round of gas and oil lease sales in 2022, in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and other western states. The Biden administration supported the
Line 3 pipeline, which transports oil from Canada's
oil sands region. In November 2021, a closely watched Interior Department report on federal oil and gas lease policy, ordered by Biden, was completed. The report recommended increasing the 12.5% federal royalty rate for oil and gas drilling, which had not been raised by a century, and was significantly lower than rates charged for leasing on state and private land. The report also recommended an increase in the bond rates that drilling companies are required to pay for future cleanup efforts before beginning extraction at new sites, and recommended that leases be focused on sites with "moderate to high potential" for production in proximity to existing fossil-fuel infrastructure.
Environmental science In May 2021, the EPA rolled back a Trump administration rule that prohibited the EPA from using certain studies.
Nature conservation The U.S. is part of the
30 by 30 initiative which aims to preserve 30% of the global land and sea territory by 2030. For the U.S. to accomplish its part, Biden launched a campaign called "America the Beautiful". The campaign seeks to work in cooperation with
indigenous people and farmers, as well as better serve disadvantaged communities. In November 2021, Biden promised to end and reverse
deforestation and
land degradation by 2030, joining more than 100 other global leaders in the
COP26 climate summit's first major agreement. According to a report from the
Center for American Progress during the first 3 years of his presidency Biden broke several records in
conservation, which is "a proven defense against the changing climate". In 2023 alone he turned 12.5 million acres into
protected areas and made 200 agreements with indigenous people about co-management of the protected areas. He advanced a proposal to ban logging in
old growth forests from 2025 which is also important for the climate.
Electoral and ethical reform In response to what Biden describes as the growing influence of special interests and
gerrymandering in elections, he has pledged to seek electoral and government ethics reforms. Biden supported the
For the People Act and the
John Lewis Voting Rights Act. In January 2022, he endorsed a change to
senate filibuster rules after they both failed to invoke
cloture. However, the rules change failed when two Democratic senators joined Senate Republicans in opposing it. Known for his generally bipartisan tone, Biden avoided directly referring to his predecessor during his first year in office. Beginning in 2022, Biden condemned Trump and
Trumpism in stronger terms; he likened the "MAGA philosophy" to "semi-fascism" and, in
a 2022 speech outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, said the "extreme ideology" of Trump, and a Republican Party dominated by him, "threatens the very foundation of our republic." Biden specifically condemned Trump and "MAGA Republicans" for promoting authoritarian leaders, using violent rhetoric, refusing to disavow
political violence, and refusing to acknowledge election losses. Biden suggested that the
2022 United States elections could be illegitimate if federal laws are not passed to combat enacted voter-suppression legislation from state legislatures. After the
attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, Biden called for reforms to the 1887
Electoral Count Act to clarify the roles of Congress and the vice president in certifying electoral votes. The
Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 raised the threshold for objections to electoral votes, clarified that the vice president cannot decertify electoral votes, and modified the process for which electors are certified. It was included as part of the
2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Housing Due to ongoing decreases in housing affordability exacerbated by the pandemic, inflation, and snarls in the global supply chain, Biden launched the
Housing Supply Action Plan on May 16, 2022, to increase housing supply and construction through executive initiatives, administrative deregulation and funding from the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Due to the statutory limits upon federal intervention in housing policy, the plan relied heavily upon partnerships with willing municipal governments and the private sector to reform
zoning and permitting laws and secure construction supply, issuing financial incentives to municipal governments for cooperation with the plan, issuing financial support to renters, landlords and first-time homeowners, and disincentivizing large institutional investors from acquiring government-owned or funded home properties. Biden also called upon Congress to pass an Unlocking Possibilities Program to allow
HUD to issue grants to states and localities to help reform permitting for affordable housing, as well as further mortgage assistance for first-time homebuyers. Through the
Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration secured over $25 billion to invest in a variety of programs and tax credits that incentivize renovations and energy efficiency in housing through five federal agencies (
HUD,
IRS,
DOE,
DOT,
EPA).
Immigration On January 20, 2021, the day Biden was inaugurated, he halted the construction of the
U.S.–Mexico barrier The same day, Biden sent a memorandum to the
U.S. Department of State reinstating Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians. On January 20, Biden proposed the
U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 which would enact broad changes to the immigration system. It would provide an eight-year potential pathway for citizenship to eleven million immigrants living in the U.S. without a permanent legal status. The bill would also make it easier for certain foreign workers to stay in the U.S. In addition, it would deliver record budget allocations for the
Department of Homeland Security to secure the border and $4 billion to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to combat the root causes of their emigration. If passed, it would also replace the word "alien" with "noncitizen" in
U.S. immigration law.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin called the bill "aspirational" and it was widely expected not to pass both houses of Congress without significant revision. On January 22,
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration for violating Biden's written pledge to cooperatively work with the state of Texas. A federal judge in Texas subsequently issued a temporary restraining order barring the Biden administration from enforcing its moratorium, citing the lack of "any concrete, reasonable justification for a 100-day pause on deportations." On January 22, 2021, Biden had a call with
Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. On the call, Biden and López Obrador spoke about immigration, where Biden spoke of reducing
immigration from Mexico to the U.S. by targeting what Biden deemed as root causes. According to an
Associated Press report, López Obrador noted that Biden pledged $4 billion to "help development in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — nations whose hardships have spawned tides of migration through Mexico toward the United States." According to a 2021
Politico report, Republicans expected prior to Biden taking office that there would be a border surge at the start of 2021 (due to seasonal patterns and regional crises) and coordinated to make it a central issue in the lead-up to the 2022 mid-term elections. The number of migrants arriving in the U.S. from Central America had been rising since April 2020 due to ongoing violence, natural disasters, food insecurity, and poverty in the region. In February 2021, the
U.S. Border Patrol reported a 61% increase in encounters with unaccompanied children from the month before, the largest one-month percentage increase in encounters with unaccompanied children since
U.S. Customs and Border Protection began recording data in 2010. Biden instructed the
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to focus on violent offenders of immigration laws rather than all offenders of immigration laws. In February 2021, it was reported that DHS agents who had been empowered by Trump to enact his anti-immigration policies were resisting and defying Biden's immigration policies. meets with State Department Special Envoy for the Northern Triangle, Ricardo Zúñiga, and other officials on the surge of migrants from Central America, March 2021.On March 24, 2021, Biden tasked Vice President Harris to reduce the number of
unaccompanied minors and adult
asylum seekers. She is also tasked with leading the negotiations with
Mexico,
Honduras,
Guatemala, and
El Salvador. The number of migrant families and unaccompanied children entering the U.S. from across the Southwest border steeply declined in August, September, and October 2021. On June 1, 2021, the DHS officially terminated the
Trump-era "
Remain in Mexico" policy, which mandated that all
asylum seekers from Central America were to wait in Mexico pending their court cases; however, a health order from March 2020 allowed the border authorities to send migrants back for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic have remained in place. However, on August 14, 2021, a federal judge in Texas ordered the Biden administration to reimplement the policy; the
Supreme Court placed a pause on the ruling to give the administration time for arguments. On August 24, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration must comply with the lower court's ruling to reinstate the policy. In fiscal year 2022, over one million
immigrants (most of whom entered through
family reunification) were granted
legal residence, up from 707,000 in 2020. Up until 2022 during Biden's presidency, the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States steadily rose. On October 5, 2023, Biden's administration said it will add sections to a border wall to stave off record migrant crossings from Mexico, carrying forward a signature policy of former president Donald Trump. One of Biden's first actions after taking office in January 2021 was to issue a proclamation pledging that "no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall" as well as a review of all resources that had already been committed. The administration said Thursday's action did not deviate from Biden's proclamation because money that was allocated during Trump's term in 2019 had to be spent now. President Biden pledged to welcome 125,000
refugees in 2024. The Biden administration considered accepting
Palestinian refugees from the
Gaza Strip. On March 29, 2024, in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by lawyers representing detained migrant children, the Biden administration argued in front of a federal court that it had no responsibility to feed and house migrant children that were waiting in Border Patrol camps along the U.S.-Mexico border. This argument was rejected by Judge Dolly M. Gee, who ordered the administration to "expeditiously" house all detained migrant children. On June 4, 2024, President Biden issued a new executive order granting immigration officials the authority to deport certain asylum seekers without processing their claims. This measure targets migrants who enter the United States "without permission and against the law," making it easier for authorities to deport them. Under the new order, if migrants express fear of returning to their home countries, they may be given an interview with an asylum officer. However, agents are no longer required to ask migrants if they have such fears. As part of the new action, the Biden administration announced the closure of the
South Texas Family Residential Center, the largest immigrant detention center in the United States. The primary reason cited for this decision was the high cost of operating the facility.
2024 bipartisan border bill Separation of church and state Biden, a practicing Catholic, has taken a public position of dissent against the Church's position opposing free-choice in the abortion issue. This has raised the question of whether his public office might allow him to influence the outcomes of current debates with the Church concerning abortion. The Vatican has taken a mediating position concerning Biden's dissent by allowing him to take
Communion in Rome while visiting the Pope. On January 25, 2021, Biden signed an executive order that lifted the
ban on transgender military service members. This reversed a memorandum imposed by Trump. The Biden administration sought to put
Harriet Tubman on the
twenty-dollar bill. This effort followed that of the
Obama administration, which was blocked by
Steven Mnuchin. Press secretary Psaki said it was important that
U.S. money and notes reflect the "history and diversity" of the country and that putting Tubman on the twenty-dollar bill would do so. On January 20, 2021, the Biden administration issued an Executive Order entitled Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government increasing the federal government's anti-bias enforcement against government contractors. The intent is heightened investigations and audits by the
Department of Justice as well as more detailed follow-up inquiries with government contractors, with an emphasis on combatting pay discrimination. Also in January, Biden directed the U.S. Department of Justice to reduce their usage of
private prisons and ordered the attorney general to not renew contracts with private prisons, citing the need to "reduce profit-based incentives" for the incarceration of racial minorities. Three days after the
Atlanta spa shootings that killed 8 people, including 6 Asian women, Biden and Vice President Harris travelled to
Atlanta. They spoke to Asian American and Pacific Islander advocates and leaders and condemned sexism, and racism against Asian Americans. Biden made
Juneteenth (June 19) a federal holiday in 2021, celebrating the end of slavery in the U.S. In March 2022, Biden signed the
Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law. With the enactment of that legislation,
lynching was made a federal
hate crime for the first time in American history. In October 2022,
Biden pardoned all past federal marijuana possession charges and announced an inquiry into whether
cannabis should be removed from Schedule I of the
Controlled Substances Act. In December 2022, Biden signed the
Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act which was the first standalone cannabis-related bill ever passed by the United States Congress. In January 2025, Biden declared the lapsed
Equal Rights Amendment ratified as the "28th Amendment" to the
constitution. However, the declaration has no formal effect and the
National Archives has said they do not intend to certify the amendment as part of the constitution, citing "established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions."
LGBT rights The
United States Department of Agriculture unveiled efforts in 2022 to prevent
anti-LGBT discrimination in food programs, including
school lunch programs, resulting in 20 lawsuits from 20 Republican
attorneys general. In December 2022, Biden signed the
Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed the
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), required states to recognize other states' marriage certificates for
LGBT Americans, and ensured some religious liberties. The bill came from a push from Democrats to codify same-sex marriage after the
Dobbs decision, particularly
Clarence Thomas's push to reconsider other
precedents. In January 2023, the Biden administration released an "evidence agenda" for
LGBTQI+ Americans to learn about "their experiences engaging with federal agencies and the disparities they face in their daily lives," as well as documenting how many LGBT people live in the United States.
Abortion In December 2021, the Biden administration ended a long-standing restriction on sales of abortion pills through the mail. This decision came amidst legal cases and Supreme Court decisions that jeopardized abortion access in the United States. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned
Roe v. Wade and
Planned Parenthood v. Casey on June 24, 2022, in ''
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization,'' Biden addressed the nation in the Cross Hall of the White House. He mentioned that "it's a sad day ... for the country" and "with Roe gone, ... The health and life of women in this nation are now at risk." to allow abortions on federal land, with White House press secretary
Karine Jean-Pierre saying, "in states where abortion is now illegal, women and providers who are not federal employees, as you look at the federal land, could be potentially – be prosecuted." During a press conference at the
2022 Madrid NATO Summit, Biden expressed support for providing an exception to the filibuster to codify
Roe v. Wade. Criminal justice and crime rates The Biden administration rescinded a Trump administration policy that curtailed the use of
consent decrees that had been used by previous administrations in their investigations of misconduct in police departments. Biden proposed in his fiscal 2022 budget to more than double funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program, which helps state and local governments to hire law enforcement officers. Despite perceptions, notably by Republicans and conservative media, of a "crime crisis" of soaring violent crime under Biden, FBI data indicated the violent crime rate had declined significantly during the president's first two years in office, after a spike in 2020 during the
COVID pandemic. By 2022, the violent crime rate was near a 50-year low, and preliminary data released in early 2024 indicated continuing declines in 2023. As of July 1, 2024, violent crime was down and homicides were on pace to drop to 2015 levels by the end of the year.
Pardons and commutations Biden issued more individual pardons and commutations than any other president. In December 2023, he pardoned Americans for cannabis use or possession on federal lands regardless of whether they had been charged or prosecuted. In December 2024, in the largest single-day clemency act in history, Biden granted clemency to about 1,500 nonviolent felons in
home confinement who had previously been released from prison. The act generated controversy, as it included felons such as
Michael Conahan, a judge involved in the
kids for cash kickback scandal, and
Rita Crundwell, a comptroller responsible for the single largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. Also in December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on
federal death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. On December 1, 2024, Biden
issued a "full and unconditional" pardon to his son
Hunter that covered all federal offenses between that day and 2014, going back on his June 2024 pledge not to do so. In a statement announcing the pardon, Biden said he believed his son was "selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted". On his last day in office, Biden issued pardons for five family members, including
his brother James, and others targeted for retribution by his successor. They included the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Mark Milley, former
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director
Anthony Fauci, and members and participants in the
House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Biden said the pardons were pre-emptive to protect the individuals against politically motivated vengeance by the incoming Trump administration and should not be seen as an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. After the
Robb Elementary School shooting on May 24, 2022, President Biden addressed the nation. The next week, he again called on Congress to pass an assault weapons and high-capacity magazine ban, as well as
red flag laws and other legislation. As a result of the shooting, the
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was eventually passed by Congress and signed into law. It marked the first federal gun safety law to have been enacted in 30 years. After the
Colorado Springs nightclub shooting, Biden called again for an assault weapons ban.
Space policy The Biden administration reversed the Trump administration's method of using the
National Space Council to coordinate commercial, civil, and military space policies, instead using the
National Security Council to issue national security memoranda instead of the Space Council's space policy directives. The Biden administration renewed the National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Harris, "to assist the president in generating national space policies, strategies, and synchronizing America's space activities." Harris held meetings with the leaders of five countries to discuss
international cooperation on space issues. The administration also emphasized the role of NASA in studying
climate change. Biden appointed
Bill Nelson, an astronaut and former U.S. senator, to the post of
NASA administrator. Nelson was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in April 2021. In April 2021, as part of his first annual budget request, Biden proposed a $24.8 billion budget for NASA in 2022, a $1.5 billion increase on what Congress allocated to 2021. The proposal includes funding for the Artemis program for a new crewed
Moon landing mission. There is a new emphasis on combating climate change and investing in
STEM education.
Surveillance In 2024, Biden reauthorized
Section 702. ==Foreign affairs==