It has been 100 days since President Joe Biden was sworn into office. Since then, he has achieved several promises and broken others, but this period has shown his overall values and priorities as President. 

With COVID-19 being President Biden’s number one priority since taking office, he has kept his promises by assembling a coronavirus task force, pushing for immediate legislation, releasing a vaccine distribution plan, and rejoining the WHO. Biden has successfully decreased the number of Covid cases by 73%, decreased the number of deaths by 75%, and allowed over 142 million Americans to receive at least one dose of the Covid vaccine. Recently, progressive lawmakers in Congress, healthcare groups, and even Nancy Pelosi have been pressuring President Biden to support waiving vaccine patents at the World Trade Organization because it would help lower-income countries vaccinate their citizens and save lives.

For the economy, Biden has not yet reversed former President Trump’s corporate tax cut as promised, but he has signed 11 bills into law, including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that brought relief to millions across the country (85% of Americans received a stimulus check). Biden signed 42 executive orders, the most since Harry Truman, including revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and banning evictions during the pandemic. He’s also undone 62 of Trump’s 219 executive orders and issued a proclamation that discontinued funding to the border wall and a 60-day review of projects. Plus, in July, families will start to get a $3,600 tax credit per child under the age of 18. 

For the environment, Biden re-entered the Paris Climate Agreement and recently held a summit where he revealed that the U.S. will cut its emissions in half by 2030 and his infrastructure plan will boost clean energy efforts. President Biden created the first Office of Domestic Climate Policy in the White House, which has called on federal agencies to make climate change and environmental justice a priority in decision making. Lastly, Biden ended drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

President Biden has made racial equity one of his biggest priorities, including policing, and guns. Unfortunately, he did not fulfill his promise on creating an oversight commission and instead, has been lobbying Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a police reform bill. Biden claimed he would send a bill to Congress on his first day to repeal liability protection for gun manufacturers and close background check loopholes, which he still has not done. On April 28th, Biden made a speech to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber and pushed Congress to pass gun control bills: “Don’t tell me it can’t be done,” he firmly stated. So far, President Biden has signed six gun-related executive orders that are some of the strongest gun control policies of the past twenty years.

On Biden’s first day in office, he signed an executive order that strengthened DACA. However, as of April 29, 2021, more than 15,000 children are in U.S. custody as his administration tries to undo the damage from Trump’s tenure. Nonetheless, Biden still established a task force to reunite hundreds of families still separated under Trump’s 2017 zero-tolerance policy, tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to help solve some of the roots of the current migrant crisis, and decreased the number of deportations since the administration focuses mostly on immigrants who pose a threat to national security and public safety. 

Currently, 1.4 million people are in need of resettlement as conflict, climate change, and the coronavirus are driving global humanitarian needs and displacement to record levels. Even with this, Biden has kept the Trump-era admissions cap of 15,000 refugee admissions in place. Over 30 Senate Democrats have urged Biden to put the cap at his original target of 62,000 and in response, his administration has now said they will raise it by May 15, but to a lower number than originally promised.

For foreign policy, Biden announced a full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by September 11th of this year, which would be exactly 20 years since the 9/11 terror attacks. He also began conversations with Iran to re-enter the Nuclear Agreement and condemned Russia for its role in a massive cyberattack on the U.S. Despite promising to “end forever wars,” Biden approved an airstrike in Syria made him the fifth U.S. president in a row to order airstrikes in the Middle East.

Biden has shown his plan for the future by introducing his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, two huge pieces of legislation focused on rebuilding the country. The American Jobs Plan would invest over $2 trillion in infrastructure and job creation, creating 19 million jobs in a green energy economy. The American Families Plan would make changes in the U.S. by creating universal Pre-K, making community college free, and lowering the cost of child care. It’s up to Congress to pass these acts, but they would be worth more than $6 trillion combined. All in all, President Biden has had his fair share of successes and broken promises in the first one hundred days of his presidency.

Sources:  NPR, The CDC, The Hill, Politico, ABC News, CNN, The White House