The Biden Administration’s Successes

Rejoined The World Health Organization ⧉

• In one of his first acts as president, Biden signed letters retracting his predecessor’s decision to withdraw from WHO. He also appointed Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, to represent the United States on the world body’s executive committee.

Suspended new leases for oil & natural gas development on federal land ⧉

• Biden directed the secretary of the Interior Department to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters, and begin a thorough review of existing permits for fossil fuel development.

Extends fair housing protections to include LGBTQ Americans ⧉

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that LGBTQ people are protected from housing discrimination by federal law.

Raised Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors and Federal Employees to $15 ⧉

• Nearly 70,000 federal workers immediately started earning $15 an hour, and 300,000 employees of federal contractors received a raise to $15 an hour reflected in their paychecks over the course of the year.

PAWS Act, allowing VA to pay for service dogs for veterans ⧉

• A five-year pilot program to provide canine training to eligible veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as an element of a complementary and integrative health program.

Accelerated Access to Critical Therapies for ALS ⧉

• Required the FDA to publish and implement a 5-year action plan to foster drug development and facilitate access to investigational drugs for ALS and other rare neurodegenerative diseases.

Added measles to list of quarantinable diseases ⧉

• The action makes measles one of the diseases for which federal health authorities have the authority to issue quarantine orders requiring people who have been diagnosed with measles or exposed to it to self-isolate to protect public health

Banned the pesticide chlorpyrifos, linked to neurological damage in young children ⧉

• Chlorpyrifos has been connected to developmental problems in young children exposed early in life as well as those exposed in utero.

Reverses Trump’s Anti-Trans Shelter Rule ⧉

• Biden administration withdraws Trump-era proposal to allow homeless shelters to discriminate against transgender people.

Ended Federal Contracts With Private Prisons ⧉

• In January 2021, he issued an executive order to phase out the federal criminal system’s use of for-profit prisons. This was an important step toward stemming the flow of federal money to corporations that lock people up for profit.

Restored access to healthcare.gov ⧉

• Biden: “There’s nothing new that we are doing here other than restoring the Affordable Care Act and restoring Medicaid to the way it was before Trump became president.”

Distributed $1.5 Billion to Strengthen School Meal Program ⧉

• Provided up to $1.5 billion to states and school districts to help school meal program operators deal with the challenges of supply chain disruptions brought on by the pandemic.

Suspended oil and gas leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ⧉

• The decision blocked oil and gas drilling in one of the largest tracts of undeveloped wilderness in the United States. (In 2023, all remaining leases were canceled)

Student Loan Forgiveness ⧉

• Round One: Cancels $1 Billion in student Loan Debt
• Round Two: Cancels another $1.3 billion in student loan debt
• Round Three: Cancels another $500 Million In Student Loan Debt (6/16/21)
• Round Four: Erases student debt for students with disabilities – ($5.8 Billion)
• Round Five: $1.1 billion in student debt for 115,000 ITT students

Banned goods made by Uyghur slave labor ⧉

• New rules imposed by Congress require Xinjiang exporters to US to prove products were not made by forced labour.

Formed new Indo-Pacific alliance with UK, Australia allowing for greater sharing of defense capabilities ⧉

• The security partnership among Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, known as AUKUS, is aimed at promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Ordered 76 distinct actions to increase competition, reduce monopolies, and provide eliminate laws the unfairly treat workers ⧉

• Eliminated non-compete clauses
• Stopped businesses from collaborating to reduce wages/benefits
• Stopped big tech companies purchasing competitors to unfairly compete with small businesses
• Importation of prescription drugs from Canada and increase support for generics
• Hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter
• Required airlines to refund consumer fees when bags are late or Wi-Fi doesn’t work
• Cracked down on railroads and ocean shipping to reduce costs of transporting goods

Made sexual harassment in the military a crime ⧉

• Sexual harassment was formally added to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Killed ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi ⧉

• Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, died when he detonated an explosive device during a U.S. military operation that aimed to kill or capture him

Limited the release of mercury from coal-burning power plants ⧉

• EPA is strengthening and updating the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for coal-fired power plants, achieving important hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions reductions and ensuring that the standards reflect the latest advancement in pollution control technologies. 

Gave $7 billion in frozen Afghanistan funds to compensate 9/11 victims ⧉

• Freed $7 billion in Afghan assets now frozen in the U.S., splitting the money between humanitarian aid for poverty-stricken Afghanistan and a fund for Sept. 11 victims still seeking relief for the terror attacks that killed thousands and shocked the world.

Ended forced arbitration in sexual assault cases in the workplace ⧉

• “Forced arbitration shielded perpetrators and silenced survivors, enabled employers to sweep episodes of sexual assault and harassment under the rug, and kept survivors from knowing if others have experienced the same thing,” Biden said before he signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021.

Ended asylum restrictions for children traveling alone ⧉

• The Biden administration ended asylum restrictions for children traveling alone. The CDC said that “expulsion of unaccompanied noncitizen children is not warranted to protect the public health.”

Reinstated California authority to set pollution standards for cars ⧉

• The Biden administration restored California’s authority to set its own tailpipe pollution standards for cars, reversing a Trump administration policy and likely ushering in stricter emissions standards for new passenger vehicles nationwide.

Reauthorizes and strengthens the Violence Against Women Act ⧉

• The landmark law is aimed at protecting and supporting survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.

Made lynching a federal crime ⧉

• After more than a century of efforts by civil rights leaders to make lynching a federal crime, President Joe Biden on March 29, 2022 signed into law historic anti-lynching legislation.

Required federal dollars spent on infrastructure to use materials made in America ⧉

• New guidance requires that the material purchased — whether it’s for a bridge, a highway, a water pipe or broadband internet — be produced in the U.S.

Established a national registry of police officers who are fired for misconduct ⧉

• Established a national police registry for officers fired due to misconduct, and requires that all federal law enforcement agencies regularly submit records such as substantiated complaints and disciplinary actions to the database. 

$265 million for South Florida reservoir, key component of Everglades restoration ⧉

• The EAA reservoir is the single most important project for benefiting multiple parts of the Everglades. When complete, the reservoir will enable clean water to be sent south from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades, reducing harmful discharges to estuaries in the east and west.

Student Loan Debt Cancellation – Round 6 & 7 ⧉

• $11.8 billion additional debt cancelled, bringing the total debt relief to $31 billion.

 Reignited the Cancer Moonshot ⧉

• The Cancer Moonshot is mobilizing efforts toward achieving two clear goals that the President and First Lady set: To prevent more than 4 million cancer deaths by 2047 and to improve the experience of people who are touched by cancer.

Prevented states from banning Mifepristone ⧉

• Mifepristone is a medication used to end early pregnancy that has FDA approval.

Oversaw effort to admit Finland and Sweden to NATO ⧉

• Signed NATO accession protocols for Finland and Sweden, moving the defense alliance closer to adding two wealthy, militarily advanced members amid Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine.

Killed Al Qaeda leader and 9/11 architect Al-Zawahiri with no civilian casualties ⧉

• Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the perpetrators of the 9-11 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, was killed by U.S. drone missiles in Afghanistan’s capital.

$1.66 billion in grants to transit agencies, territories, and states to invest in 150 bus fleets and facilities ⧉

• “With today’s awards, we’re helping communities across America – in cities, suburbs, and rural areas alike – purchase more than 1,800 new buses, and most of them are zero-emission,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Expunged student loan defaults ⧉

• The Biden administration moved to expunge the defaults of millions of federal student loan borrowers who fell behind on payments before the pandemic, as the White House formally unveiled a four-month extension of the pause on monthly loan payments and interest.

Restored environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects ⧉

• Restored federal regulations that require rigorous environmental review of major infrastructure projects such as highways, pipelines and oil wells — including likely impacts on climate change and nearby communities.

Required all federal Law enforcement officers to wear body cameras ⧉

• Federal officers and agents must wear cameras that are activated during activities such as arrests and searches. Agencies must allow for “the expedited public release” of footage in which federal personnel are involved in incidents resulting in bodily harm or death.

Devoted $2.1 billion to strengthen US food supply chain ⧉

• New funding to bolster food supply chains, including initiatives to expand small- and midsized processing plants. Funds will also be used to finance new infrastructure such as cold storage facilities and to assist farmers shifting to organic production.

Allocated funds to federal agencies to counter 300-plus anti-LGBTQ laws by state lawmakers this year alone ⧉

• Issued an executive order to stymie what what his administration calls discriminatory legislative attacks on the LGBTQ community by Republican-controlled states, declaring before a signing ceremony packed with activists, “pride is back at the White House.”

Protected Access to Reproductive Health Care Services ⧉

• Two weeks after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, this executive order protected access to medication abortion, ensured emergency medical care, protected access to contraception and launched outreach and public education efforts

21 Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence ⧉

• Along with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, mentioned above, these additional 21 actions were issued to reduce gun violence.

Ends Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy ⧉

• The Department of Homeland Security ended a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.

Reunited 400 migrant families separated under Trump ⧉

• More than 5,000 families were separated under Trump’s 2018 “zero tolerance” policy and a 2017 pilot program and advocates estimate over 1,000 remain separated. Because the Trump administration did not keep records of which children were separated and where they were sent, the task force and lawyers working on behalf of separated families have had a difficult time identifying families to offer them the chance of reunification.

Brokers joint US/Mexico infrastructure project – Mexico to pay $1.5 billion for US border security and processing ⧉

• Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says his government will spend $1.5bn (£1.26bn) on modernising his country’s border with the US.

Black unemployment rate lower under Biden than any other administration (4.7%) ⧉

• Compared to black unemployment under Trump was 2nd worst number in history, reaching over 16%.

Created 14 million jobs since he took office ⧉

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the American economy added 353,000 jobs in January (2024), bringing the total jobs created under President Biden to 14.8 million. The unemployment rate held at its steady, low rate of 3.7 percent. This continues a two-year trend of a jobless rate under four percent, the longest stretch in more than 50 years.

Vaccines for tetanus, whooping cough, and shingles (costing up to $200) are now free for seniors on Medicare ⧉

• President Biden’s lower cost prescription drug law, the Inflation Reduction Act, is helping millions of seniors and families save money on health care costs and prescription drugs. The law took on Big Pharma to finally allow Medicare to directly negotiate with participating drug companies for the prices of covered prescription drugs, caps the cost of insulin at $35 for seniors, and makes recommended vaccines free for Medicare Part D enrollees.

$197 million for 100 communities across our nation to invest in wildfire resilience ⧉

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is investing $197 million in 100 project proposals benefiting 22 states and seven tribes, as part of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program.

Added 800,000 jobs in manufacturing in last two years ⧉

• Official statistics from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics show that manufacturing employment has risen by 789,000 since Biden took office in January 2021. That qualifies as “close to 800,000.” The first three-quarters of those job gains represented a return to pre-recession levels. But historical post-recession patterns show that it’s rare for manufacturing jobs to bounce back at all.

Eliminated US stockpile of chemical weapons ⧉

• “For more than 30 years, the United States has worked tirelessly to eliminate our chemical weapons stockpile. Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile—bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons.”

Launched “Saving on a Valuable Education” (SAVE) ⧉

• The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan is the newest income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. Like other IDR plans, the SAVE Plan calculates your monthly payment amount based on your income and family size.

Restored power of states and tribes to review projects to protect waterways ⧉

• The rule, which took effect in November 2023, reverses a Trump-era action that limited the ability of states and tribes to review pipelines, dams and other federally regulated projects within their borders. The Environmental Protection Agency says the new regulation will empower local authorities to protect rivers and streams while supporting infrastructure projects that create jobs.

Commits $200 million to reintroduce salmon in Columbia River ⧉

• Dams had blocked salmon’s passage, driving them toward extinction and violating tribal fishing rights. The money will fully fund Native tribes’ plans to bring fish back to the region.

Updated federal prevailing wage for first time in decades, raising wages by thousands of dollars ⧉

• Ensures investments in America lead to jobs where construction workers are paid fairly, including the 84% of who don’t have a college degree. The rule, which advances President Biden’s Executive Order 14008, will mean thousands of extra dollars per year in workers’ pockets.

Authorizes biggest pay raise for troops in more than two decades ⧉

• The House passed a defense policy bill that authorized the biggest pay raise for troops in more than two decades, overcoming objections from some conservatives concerned the measure did not do enough to restrict the Pentagon’s diversity initiatives, abortion travel policy and gender-affirming health care for transgender service members.

World’s best post-pandemic recovery ⧉

• The United States has had the strongest economic recovery, measured by GDP. Most notably, this growth comes in the wake of the United States fully regaining all pre-pandemic GDP losses in 2021, as well as surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

Invested $11 billion for renewable energy in rural areas ⧉

• Funding is available through two programs (Empowering Rural America & Powering Affordable Clean Energy) under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which makes the nation’s largest-ever investment in combatting the climate crisis.

Required utilities to remove perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS) from drinking water ⧉

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the first-ever national standard to address PFAS contamination in drinking water. EPA will require public water systems to monitor for six PFAS chemicals, notify the public if the levels of these PFAS exceed the proposed regulatory standards, and take action to reduce the level of PFAS in the water supply.

Rail companies grant paid sick days after administration pressure in win for unions ⧉

• After being roundly criticized for not offering paid sick days, the leading rail companies – BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific – have granted many of their 93,000 workers four paid sick days a year through labor negotiations, with an option of taking three more paid sick days from personal days.

The Inflation Reduction Act will provide one million solar and wind jobs by 2035 ⧉

• The IRA could induce demand for approximately 1.3 million additional jobs related to utility-scale solar and 250,000 wind related jobs in 2035, relative to the level of employment in these sectors without passage of IRA(and assuming no change in domestic content shares for wind and solar components absent IRA).This includes domestic demand for an additional 800,000jobs in solar manufacturing and 55,000 additional jobs in wind manufacturing by 2035.

Created Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument ⧉

• Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument will conserve nearly 1 million acres of public lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park. The new monument protects thousands of cultural and sacred sites that are precious to Tribal Nations in the Southwest.

Canceled oil and gas leases in Alaskan wildlife refuge ⧉

• In an aggressive move that angered Republicans, the Biden administration canceled the seven remaining oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday, overturning sales held in the Trump administration’s waning days, and proposed stronger protections against development on vast swaths of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Creates new office of gun violence prevention ⧉

• The Office of Gun Violence Prevention builds on historic actions taken by President Biden to end gun violence in our country: including signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant legislative action in nearly 30 years aimed at doing so, and taking more meaningful executive action than any other president to make our schools, churches, grocery stores, and communities safer.

Eliminates co-payments, enrollment fees and monthly premiums for WWII veterans ⧉

• Under this expansion, all WWII Veterans who served between Dec. 7, 1941, and Dec. 31, 1946, are now eligible for VA health care, regardless of their length of service or financial status. These Veterans will not have to pay inpatient or outpatient copays, enrollment fees, or monthly premiums.

Pardons thousands who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands ⧉

• Pardoned thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia in the latest round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system.

$1 Billion to replace the Blatnik Bridge connecting WI – MN ⧉

• Wisconsin and Minnesota will receive more than $1.05 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to replace the Blatnik Bridge.

Rescinded Trump-era “Denial of Care” rule ⧉

• The Biden administration issued a new rule rescinding much of a Trump-era rule that invited any health care worker – including doctors, nurses, EMTs, administrators, janitors and clerical staff – to deny medical treatment, information and services to patients because of personal religious or moral beliefs.

Implemented new rule that cuts credit card late fees $32 to $8 ⧉

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule to cut excessive credit card late fees by closing a loophole exploited by large card issuers.

$1.5B to restart Michigan nuclear power plant ⧉

• Holtec International acquired the 800-megawatt Palisades plant in 2022 with plans to dismantle it. But now the emphasis is on restarting it by late 2025, following support from the state of Michigan and the Biden administration.

US oil production hit all-time high ⧉

• The United States produced more crude oil than any nation at any time, according to our International Energy Statistics, for the past six years in a row. Crude oil production in the United States, including condensate, averaged 12.9 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2023, breaking the previous U.S. and global record of 12.3 million b/d, set in 2019.

Launched $11 billion on semiconductor-related research and development ⧉

• As part of the implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act and the President’s Investing in America agenda, these investments advance U.S. leadership in semiconductor R&D, cut down on the time and cost of commercializing new technologies, bolster U.S. national security, and connect and support workers in securing good semiconductor jobs. 

Finalized ban on ongoing uses of asbestos ⧉

• The action marks a major milestone for chemical safety after more than three decades of inadequate protections and serious delays during the previous administration to implement the 2016 amendments.

Restored threatened species protections dropped by Trump ⧉

• The Biden administration restored rules to protect imperiled species and shield their habitat from destruction after the measures were rolled back under former President Donald Trump.

Domestic manufacturing up 279% since Biden took office ⧉

• Since democrats passed the CHIPS and IRA bills, manufacturing spending and investment has grown faster than anytime in recent history.

America’s economy growing at double the rate of all other G7 countries ⧉

• The IMF released new forecasts showing that “the US is on track to grow at double the rate of any other G7 country this year.” And a new Wall Street Journal survey of economists found that the U.S. economy is “expected to keep powering higher”—as one economist put it, the U.S. economy is “the envy of the world.”

Extended rule requiring overtime pay to workers making under $58,000 annually ⧉

• The Biden-Harris administration announced a final rule that expands overtime protections for millions of the nation’s lower-paid salaried workers by increasing the salary thresholds required to exempt a salaried bona fide executive, administrative or professional employee from federal overtime pay requirements.

Reinstated net neutrality ⧉

• On April 25, 2024, the Commission adopted a Declaratory Ruling, Order, Report and Order, and Order on Reconsideration (Order) restoring Net Neutrality and bringing back a national standard for broadband reliability, security, and consumer protection.

Extended Medicaid postpartum coverage from two months to 12 months ⧉

• 46 states now offer 12 months of postpartum coverage – up from only 3 states in 2021.

Free online tax filing program piloted this year made permanent ⧉

• “The clear message is that many taxpayers across the nation want the IRS to provide more than one no-cost option for filing electronically,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “So, starting with the 2025 filing season, the IRS will make Direct File a permanent option for filing federal tax returns.”

Biden to Pardon US Service Members Convicted Because They Were Gay ⧉

• President Joe Biden pardoned potentially thousands of former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex, saying Wednesday that he is “righting an historic wrong” to clear the way for them to regain lost benefits.

Average hourly earnings up 22.28% since February 2020, surpassing the rate of inflation ⧉

• The average hourly earnings of all workers are up 22.28% since February 2020 while inflation is up 20.82% during that same time.

Added Title IX protections for LGBT students ⧉ ⧉

• OCR enforces civil rights laws to protect all students from unlawful discrimination and harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, and age. This includes students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, asexual, intersex, nonbinary, or identify their sexual orientation or gender identity in other ways (LGBTQI+). (Currently not enforced in Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming due to ongoing court cases)

Required airlines to give cash refunds for canceled and significantly delayed flights ⧉

• The Department of Transportation’s new rule requires airlines to provide customers with automatic cash refunds promptly after an airline cancels or significantly changes a customer’s flight, significantly delay their checked bag return or fail to provide them with any extra services they purchased.

Canadian Solar, one of the largest solar manufacturing companies in the world coming back to the US ⧉

• In 2023, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, Canadian Solar announced it would build its first solar module plant in Mesquite, Texas, and a solar cell plant in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The Texas factory started operating in late 2023, while the Indiana one is still in the works.

Prohibiting medical debt from being reported on credit reports ⧉

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today proposed a rule that would remove medical bills from most credit reports, increase privacy protections, help to increase credit scores and loan approvals, and prevent debt collectors from using the credit reporting system to coerce people to pay.

Enacted plan to end Parkinson’s disease ⧉

• On Tuesday, July 2, 2024, the President signed into law H.R. 2365, the “Dr. Emmanuel Bilirakis and Honorable Jennifer Wexton National Plan to End Parkinson’s Act,” which requires the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and evaluate progress on a government-wide plan to address Parkinson’s and related diseases, and to require the convening of a Parkinson’s advisory committee.