Before being elected president, Joe Biden vowed to achieve a lot in his first 100 days in office.
We gathered a few of those goals here, two days after the 2020 election’s winner was announced.
As we reach his presidency’s 100-day mark and ahead of his first speech at a congressional joint session on Wednesday, Biden made a lot of progress on COVID-19, and Americans overwhelmingly approve of the job he’s doing handling the coronavirus pandemic and economy.
However, it’s a different storey about immigration, which polls show is the greatest weakness of the president at this stage. H has also made attempts on social rights, the climate, and a more multilateral approach to foreign policy. But so far he couldn’t do anything he set out to do.
Here’s where Biden stands on most of what he promised (jump down to the graphic subject details):
COVID 19
Assemble coronavirus task force:
This was done, and the task force continues daily briefings, normally three days a week, not involving the president. His task force focused on equity in a way never achieved under Trump administration.
Push for urgent legislation on coronavirus:
This is Biden’s signature achievement so far, signing a $1.9 trillion relief bill that passed along party lines. It included money for direct transfers, increased unemployment insurance and rental assistance, but did not include all Biden needed, especially raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Under the Senate rules for using compromise, the wage hike was considered ineligible, a mechanism that Democrats used as an end-run around Republican opposition. There was also no $10,000 per person in student loan forgiveness (other options are still being talked about on that front).
Release vaccine delivery plan:
The transition published this. To date, more than 40% of the population has received at least one vaccine dose, and more than 27% are completely vaccinated. For his treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden won high marks in surveys, but there are still inequities in which vaccines could be accessed.
Enter the World Health Organization and be next to Dr. Anthony Fauci: DONE
These steps were taken early on. Fauci announced that the U.S. will remain in the WHO, but added that the U.S. would seek “to improve and reform” the organisation. The WHO was the target of strong criticism of what it saw as failures to prevent the pandemic from spreading.
Economics
Return Trump’s corporate tax cut: NOT ACHIEVED
Biden hasn’t been able to do this yet, but he aims to roll back most of what Trump did by enacting corporate tax increases to pay for his $2 trillion infrastructure initiative. Reportedly, tax hikes on rich people will pay the forthcoming American Families Plan.
Environmental
Organize “Climate World Summit”:
Last week, Biden hosted a virtual international climate summit, encouraging countries to follow the United States’ lead in minimizing their contributions to global warming.
Make the U.S. an international climate change leader:
This is one of Biden’s murkier promises—and more demanding. The rest of the world, Europe in particular, has seen the U.S. withdraw and enter several international climate agreements and is skeptical of whether any climate commitments started by Biden would survive in the current political atmosphere.
Still, the administration has released an ambitious carbon reduction strategy over the next decade, and if approved, the infrastructure proposal will offer unparalleled boosts to renewable energy efforts.
Racial equity
Extended Voting Rights Act: NOT ACHIEVED
A comprehensive voting bill passed the House, but Republicans have universally opposed it, leaving their fate in U.S. limbo. Senate—and contributing to revived Democratic debates regarding scrapping legislative filibuster. Republicans contend that the federal government should leave state voting rights issues and election administration.
But, after the 2020 presidential election and the unfounded accusations of widespread fraud by former President Donald Trump, several GOP-led states are taking action to curb voting rights. For example, Georgia’s newly passed legislation was the target of corporate boycotts and the reason for Major League Baseball moved its All-Star Game from Atlanta.
Institute National Police Supervisory Commission: DROPPED
This month, the White House announced it was shelving the commission, saying it “wouldn’t be the most efficient way to deliver on our top priority in this area, which is to sign into law the George Floyd Justice in Police Act.” The bill passed by the House, but not the Senate, would reform such police procedures and prohibit chokeholds.
The day after the culpable verdict of Derek Chauvin for George Floyd’s murder, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Minneapolis Police Department would begin an investigation into alleged patterns of profiling and unnecessary use of force. It’s the Biden presidency’s first investigation of its sort.
Push Congress to pass the SAFE Justice Act:
The Safe, Accountable, Fair, and Effective Justice Act was a bipartisan piece of legislation introduced by Virginia’s Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott and now Minnesota’s Republican Rep. Jason Lewis. It will take measures to change punishment and probation, including reducing the use of mandatory-minimum sentencing for non-violent offences and instituting recurrence-driven policies.
First introduced in 2017, but never got a vote. At this point, Congress has not taken any action on the proposal, but Congressional aides with knowledge of the legislative drive say they expect it to be introduced as soon as next month and believe it will have bipartisan and bicameral support. They see it as a compliment to the George Floyd Justice in Police Act, which is not about sentencing and probation, or what happens to people after serving their time.
Immigration
Introduce legislation that would illegally and particularly for those illegally brought to the U.S. as children offer citizenship a path: DONE
Biden’s first act as president was to sign the law. But the prospects for a substantive congress reform are poor. Democrats on Capitol Hill formally presented Biden’s wide-ranging agenda in the House in February, but little came of a proposed substantive reform to this point due to strong Republican opposition. That keeps leaving millions in the country illegally and others searching for limbo.
Make the Deferred Childhood Arrivals Action or DACA permanent: IT’S COMPLICATED
On his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order strengthening DACA, but the policy remains under pressure. A Texas federal judge who previously said he thought DACA was unconstitutional is expected to decide on the program’s legality shortly. But Capitol Hill also has many attempts to pass legislation to secure and/or extend DACA-like rights for immigrants illegally brought to the U.S. as minors.
Stop family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border:
During his presidency, Trump’s highly criticized family separation policies were effectively stopped, and Biden signed an executive order condemning the policy. The present administration is making attempts to reunite separate families under the Trump administration, but in reality, families continue to separate on the Mexican side of the border, where parents take children from tent camps alone. This has contributed to an uptick in unaccompanied minors across the U.S.-Mexico border, and the administration has struggled with a post-Trump boom.
Sign an executive order creating a border task force to reunite separate children and parents: DONE
Feb. 2 was completed. The executive order established a task force to help recognise separated children from parents and reunite families. By early April, however, no family members were reunited.
End Trump’s executive order banning Muslim-majority travellers:
One of Biden’s first decisions since taking office was to sign a decree lifting the traveler ban from many majority-Muslim countries.
Stop the Migrant Security Protocols of Trump administration and the scheme of “metering” asylum cases:
On his first day in office, Biden had Homeland Security Department suspend new enrollments in a program that forced tens of thousands of migrants to wait in Mexico for asylum hearings in U.S. courts. A few weeks later, the administration began allowing asylum-seekers into the U.S. programme.
Biden vowed to end “metering,” the practice of regular limitation on how many migrants may request asylum. But so far, the administration has proceeded to limit asylum seekers through two other measures: a “non-essential” travel ban and a Trump-era finding under “Title 42 of the U.S. Code that someone “who might otherwise be introduced into a congregation environment in a Land Port of Entry (POE)” posed a public health danger,” reported David Bier of the Cato Institute. How or not the Biden administration will approach or end future attempts is uncertain.
Continuing construction of a wall along the southern U.S. border: IT ‘S COMPLICATED
The wall was another of Biden’s first issues to fix. On his first day, the president signed a proclamation to this effect, revoking Trump’s emergency statement that had helped finance a border wall. Also, Biden’s $1.5 trillion budget plan didn’t call for funds to construct the border wall.
Biden’s order had a 60-day review. But his proposals don’t seem as concrete now. It’s been over a month since the two-month evaluation period, but the White House says the review is continuing. The Biden government was also interested in winning the Trump administration’s eminent domain cases. And Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reportedly told employees that when Biden took office, some border wall construction would start plugging “gaps” left from construction.
It’s another example of Biden attempting to find a simple and cogent solution to immigration, in addition to waffling on removing Trump’s refugee cap.
Increase government oversight of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, calling for “inhumane treatment accountability” for personnel: TAKE THAT
Though his $1.5 trillion budget proposal did not include wall funding, it called for increased funding to investigate immigration agents suspected of “white supremacy.”
In a more “humane” policy, ICE and CBP were ordered to drop the words “illegal,” “alien” and “assimilation” last week. “Illegal” should be “undocumented;” noncitizen “or” migrant “should be used instead of” alien; ” “assimilation” should be replaced by “integration.” In February, the administration gave agents new instructions to prioritise immigrant arrests that are threats to national security and public security.
Foreign policy
Pledge to “pick up Donald Trump’s broken foreign policy”: I’m COMPLICATED
Under Trump, US views plunged among the country’s closest allies. Biden turned U.S. foreign policy back to a more multilateral position and transferred control back to diplomacy and the State Department. At February’s Munich Security Conference, Biden said, “America is back.” That was received largely favorably by America’s allies in Europe, but France and Germany fought back, noting in particular that they had to separate themselves from the United States, that the U.S. could not always be counted on, and that “interests would not always align.”
Biden has set a date for withdrawing all U.S. forces from Afghanistan: Sept. 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “We went to Afghanistan because of a terrible 20-year-old attack,” Biden said this month. “That can’t justify why we should stay in 2021. We were attacked; with simple objectives, we went to fight. We’ve accomplished those goals. Bin Laden is dead and al-Qaeda degraded in Afghanistan, and it’s time to finish this war forever. “
Trump also managed to bring U.S. forces out of Afghanistan, and by May 1 this year his administration had reached an agreement to withdraw troops, which Biden said would be “tough” to accomplish. There has been a mixed reaction to Biden’s decision, particularly because withdrawal comes with no conditions—for the foreseeable future, it is America’s war, but there is concern about tracking militants in Afghanistan.
Global Summit: NOT ACHIEVED
Beyond 100 days, Biden wants to “host a global Democracy Summit to revive the Free World nations’ spirit and common intent.” The idea is to gather democratic countries to find ways to fight corruption, authoritarianism, and violations of human rights. Biden wants to stage the summit in the coming months, and Trump has already made a roundabout call for corruption and authoritarianism in Russia and focused on human rights abusses in China. That, however, triggered a flare-up in tensions last month during the first big US-China chairmanship talks.
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