On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden committed to repairing the damage done by the Trump administration on the world stage and returning the United States to a values-based foreign policy. With the help of the members of our NextGen Initiative, Foreign Policy for America has collected and analyzed progress made on over one hundred foreign policy commitments. We believe the administration has taken significant positive steps thus far, but that ongoing accountability is critical to ensuring a return to a foreign policy that reflects American values. This tracker will be updated.
President Biden committed to reimagining the U.S.’ historical relationship with NATO and called on all NATO allies to recommit to their duties as members of the alliance. During a speech at NATO headquarters in March 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on his European counterparts to renew their commitment to defending a free and open rules-based order, modernize alliances to meet the needs of the 21st century, and “weave” together broader coalitions of allies and partners (Biden Campaign).
As part of his commitment to revitalize the NATO alliance, President Biden pledged to maintain the organization’s military edge, while improving its capacity to take on nontraditional threats, such as weaponized corruption, disinformation, and cybertheft. In March 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken took his first trip to Brussels for a two-day summit during which he met with his European counterparts and reaffirmed the U.S.’ commitment to NATO stating, “You have our unshakeable vow: America is fully committed to NATO, including Article 5” (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to make Ukraine a U.S. foreign policy priority. He promised to increase U.S. security assistance — including weapons — to the country and expand the training mission for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a program started under the Obama-Biden administration. In March 2021, the Department of Defense announced a $125 million dollar package for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), reaffirming President Biden’s commitment to help Ukraine more effectively defend itself (Biden CFR Interview).
During various campaign speeches and debates, President Biden voiced his commitment to strengthening alliances with democratic partners in Asia, including improving the U.S.’ relationship with South Korea and Japan. In March 2021, senior foreign policy officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin, traveled to Japan and South Korea to engage in high level talks about the future of U.S.-Asia relations (Biden Campaign).
In light of COVID-19 and an increasingly confident China, President Biden committed to strengthening American resiliency by reinvesting in critical supply chains. In February after taking office, President Biden issued an executive order to conduct a government-wide, 100-day supply chain review to inform his administration’s policy on strengthening America’s supply chain resiliency (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to ban U.S. companies from supporting the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state or abetting repression. He also committed to imposing sanctions and applying the Magnitsky Act if the Chinese government takes steps to silence U.S. citizens and companies (Biden Statement to Reuters).
President Biden pledged to reinvigorate U.S. clean energy leadership through Mission Innovation, a global initiative established in 2015 to catalyze clean energy research and development. In May 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration played a central role in launching Mission Innovation 2.0 , with the aim of mobilising and connecting global clean energy RD&D efforts around focused challenges that will accelerate the transition to a net-zero future and make clean energy affordable, attractive and accessible to all. Further cementing U.S. commitment to this agenda, it was announced in November 2021 that the joint September 2022 Mission Innovation and Clean Energy Ministerial Summit will be held in Pittsburgh, PA. (Biden Campaign).
Within his plan for a clean energy revolution, President Biden promised to combat all dirty energy financing and reduce the carbon footprints of big corporations — the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the Export-Import Bank, and the U.S. International Development Corporation — by prohibiting them from further financing any coal-fired power plant (Biden Campaign).
In order to meet the challenge of climate change at home and globally, President Biden promised to return to the Green Climate Fund, a fund established to help support developing countries respond to the climate crisis, and work with other international institutions to provide debt relief to countries embracing climate-friendly development. In April 2021, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry spoke at an event hosted by the Green Climate Fund. Kerry expressed that the U.S. plans on putting more money into the fund, in addition to the $1.2 billion already requested in the proposed budget, to increase the support for developing countries (Biden Campaign).
As part of his climate policy, President Biden also promised to secure a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies, building on G20 efforts made during the Obama-Biden administration (Biden CFR Interview).
President Biden pledged to create enforceable commitments with the world’s other major carbon emitters to limit and reduce global emissions in global shipping and aviation (Biden Campaign).
During the election, President Biden campaigned on the promise to recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change. On day one of his presidency, President Biden submitted instruments of acceptance to the United Nations and the U.S. officially returned as a party to the Paris Agreement on February 19, 2021 (Biden Campaign).
President Biden promised bold U.S. global leadership on climate change. He campaigned on the promise to convene a world climate summit, where leaders from major carbon-emitting nations could discuss ways to reduce global emissions and solve the climate crisis. From April 22-23, President Biden virtually hosted 40 world leaders at the U.S. Leaders Summit on Climate (Biden Campaign).
Following the devastating fires in 2019 that destroyed the Amazon rainforest, President Biden promised to engage with global allies and take action to protect the Amazon, including raising $20 billion to support conservation efforts. Alongside ministers from Britain and Europe, the Biden-Harris administration is in the process of negotiating a deal with the Brazilian government to reduce Brazil’s destructive forest clearance (Ohio Debate).
In order to make sure other countries and leaders are reducing their carbon footprints and environmental impacts, President Biden promised to apply a carbon adjustment fee against countries that fail to meet their climate and environmental obligations (Biden Campaign).
Under a Biden-Harris administration, President Biden committed to work with African partners to start a green urbanization initiative. This initiative will help African cities plan for growth and development while simultaneously addressing critical issues such as energy access, climate change adaptation, transportation, and water management (Biden CFR Interview).
As climate change has increasingly become a core national security priority, President Biden pledged to work with national security and defense officials to develop a strategy focused on the security impacts of climate change and ways to mitigate them. In January 2021, President Biden ordered the Director of National Intelligence to prepare a National Intelligence Estimate on the national and economic security impacts of climate change and directed the Secretary of Defense to create a Climate Risk Analysis (Biden Campaign).
As part of the Biden-Harris administration’s effort to restore U.S. industrial and technological leadership, President Biden committed to work with democratic allies to develop a rules-based 5G network that is broad, inclusive, and led by private industry. In an April 2021 bilateral meeting, President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced their intention to work together to develop 5G communications technology that will compete with Chinese technology (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
Recognizing the cyber domain as an arena of both potential opportunity and conflict, President Biden committed to build a comprehensive U.S. cyberstrategy that both sets the rules for responsible state behavior in the cyber domain and holds accountable those engaging in malicious cyber activity. In March 2021, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas outlined steps the federal government would be taking to address gaps in cybersecurity, including modernizing defense capabilities and expanding partnerships with the private sector. In April 2021, President Biden named Chris Inglis to serve as the first-ever National Cyber Director, a Senate-confirmed position that will work in coordination with the military and national security council to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity. In May 2021, the Justice Department announced a 120-day policy review for addressing cyber concerns (Biden NYT Interview).
The Biden-Harris campaign committed to bold modernization of the federal IT infrastructure, including a $9 billion investment in the Technological Modernization Fund (TMF) to better integrate and secure IT and cyber infrastructure across the federal government. In February 2021, Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology, Anne Neuberger, stated that a new National Cyber Strategy was being developed (Fed Scoop).
Faced with increased national security threats from adversaries such as China and Russia, President Biden promised to shift defense spending away from irrelevant legacy systems and instead invest in new technology and innovations, such as unmanned systems, space, and AI (Defense News).
Following the grave human rights abuses and repression under the rule of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MbS), President Biden committed to reassess the U.S.’ relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During his campaign, President Biden specifically pledged to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In February 2021, the White House released an intelligence report which found that MbS had approved Khashoggi’s assassination. Despite the release of the report, the Biden-Harris administration did not take any penalizing actions against the Crown Prince. In June of 2022, the White House acknowledged that President Biden would travel to Saudi Arabia and meet with MbS despite earlier promises to make Saudi Arabia a pariah (Biden Campaign).
President Biden campaigned on the promise of confronting China’s abusive behaviors and human rights violations in league with allies. During the first official meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials in March 2021, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken openly expressed concerns over rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. In coordination with other Western allies — the EU, Britain, and Canada — President Biden issued sanctions on Chinese officials in March for their human rights abuses against the Uyghur population. This coordinated move followed the Biden-Harris administration’s first sanctions imposed against Chinese officials for suppression in Hong Kong (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
During the election, President Biden condemned the systematic repression occurring in Belarus under the authoritarian regime of President Lukashenka and committed to stand with Belarusian civil society and support the country’s democratic process. In February 2021, the Biden-Harris administration sanctioned 109 individuals involved in undermining Belarusian democracy (Biden Medium Op-Ed).
President Biden pledged to defend the right of international political dissidents, journalists, and activists to speak freely without living in fear of violence and persecution. In February 2021, the Biden-Harris administration enacted the Khashoggi Ban, a visa restriction policy that prohibits individuals who have engaged in counter-dissident activities or have harassed, suppressed, or harmed journalists and activists from obtaining U.S. visas. Most recently, the Biden-Harris administration has criticized the Russian government for the jailing and treatment of Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of President Putin (Biden Campaign).
Following four years of Trump’s “America first” rhetoric, President Biden pledged to host a Summit of Democracy early in his administration. The White House has yet to release any plans or progress on the summit (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to restore the U.S.’ standing as a global leader defending LGBTQ+ rights and development and to advance an inclusive foreign policy agenda that promotes and integrates LGBTQ+ rights. At the beginning of his presidency, President Biden signed an Executive Order reversing the ban that prohibited transgender individuals from serving in the military and issued a memorandum combating the criminalization of gender identity and sexual orientation (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to hold Russia accountable for its violations of international norms and impose real costs for Russia’s actions. In April 2021, the Biden-Harris administration announced that the U.S. would expel 10 Russian diplomats and imposed sanctions against dozens of Russian individuals and companies for interference in the 2020 presidential election and the recent SolarWinds hack targeting U.S. federal agencies (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
President Biden pledged to take action against the systematic discrimination and atrocities perpetrated against Burma’s Rohingya Muslim minority and to seek justice, peace and security for all Rohingya citizens of Burma. This commitment includes starting an interagency process to review whether the crimes committed against the Rohingya constitute genocide. While no specific progress has been made on the review, following the February 2021 coup in Burma, the Biden-Harris administration enacted a series of sanctions and other actions to hold the military accountable and released a statement expressing its continued support for the Rohingya and other vulnerable populations (Blinken Tweet).
President Biden pledged to expand U.S.-Cuban relations and focus U.S policy on advancing human rights and political freedom on the island. More specifically, President Biden pledged to demand the release of all political prisoners. In May 2022, Biden announced the revision of US- Cuba policy, easing many restrictions applied by the former administration (Biden NBC Interview)(Reuters).
President Biden campaigned on the promise of revitalizing and reinventing the U.S. State Department. During the election, he committed to pursue full gender parity and diversity in the administration’s foreign policy and national security appointments, while also making sure that women of color are well-represented in senior policy roles. As of April 2021, 181 females and 251 males have been nominated to positions in the Biden-Harris administration. Notable nominations include Avril Haines, the first woman to serve as the Director of National Intelligence, Kathleen Hicks, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Samantha Power, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S Ambassador to the U.N. (Biden Campaign).
In order to strengthen the U.S. State Department, President Biden pledged to reinvest in the diplomatic corps. Since assuming office, President Biden has nominated many seasoned and experienced foreign policy professionals for diplomatic posts. This includes his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thoma-Greenfield, who brings 35 years of diplomatic service. In a speech to the State Department, President Biden promised to empower and value the country’s diplomats and foreign service officers(Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
After four years of diplomatic atrophy, President Biden pledged to bring diplomacy back to the forefront of American foreign policy. In his first address to the State Department, President Biden announced “diplomacy is back” and declared America’s reemergence on the world stage. This commitment is further outlined in the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance released in March (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
To help drive and strengthen economic ties and jobs, President Biden pledged to work with African partners to increase the number of Foreign Commercial Service posts (Biden CFR Interview).
President Biden pledged to address endemic poverty in Central America by targeting food insecurity and prioritizing the development of human capital in the Northern Triangle. In April 2021, Vice President Harris announced $310 million in increased assistance to address the urgent needs of those in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras (Biden Campaign).
To strengthen democracy at home and abroad, President Biden pledged to issue a policy directive to establish “combating corruption as a core national security interest and democratic responsibility.” In June, President Biden announced an ambitious new push to enforce anti-corruption efforts across government agencies through a new national security memorandum. In a statement following the release of the memorandum, President Biden said that, “the United States will lead by example and in partnership with allies, civil society, and the private sector to fight the scourge of corruption.” (White House Fact Sheet).
President Biden pledged to lead international efforts to bring transparency to the global financial systems, including by going after illicit tax havens, seizing corrupt assets, and making it more difficult for world leaders to hide behind illegal shell companies (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
President Biden pledged to propose a new law that would make it harder for foreign nationals and governments to influence U.S. elections through loopholes in our campaign finance system. President Biden also pledged to create a new independent agency, the Commission on Federal Ethics, to “ensure vigorous and unified enforcement of this and other anticorruption laws” (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
President Biden pledged to prioritize combating corruption in U.S. policy toward Central America, including by working with partners and international organizations to improve and expand anti-corruption mechanisms in the region, provide additional funding to train prosecutors in specialized anti-corruption policies and procedures, and beefing up embassy staff in Central America to better fight against organized crime and illicit activity. President Biden also committed to revoke visas and freeze assets of corrupt individuals in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The Biden-Harris administration named Ricardo Zúñiga as Special Envoy to the Northern Triangle in March 2021, who has sought to set up a corruption task force through the U.S. Department of Justice (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to make Ukraine a foreign policy priority, including expanding U.S. security assistance programs conditioned on anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine. In March 2021, the Biden-Harris administration announced a $125 million military aid package for Ukraine. An additional $150 million in aid approved by Congress has been withheld pending review to ensure “Ukraine has made ‘sufficient progress on key defense reforms this year’” (Biden CFR Interview).
In order to elevate financial opportunities for women and girls around the world and close the existing economic gaps between men and women, President Biden pledged to increase women’s access to capital (Biden Campaign).
To ensure equal opportunities for all children, President Biden committed to increasing access to education for all girls and promoting school as a tool of empowerment and power (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to increase U.S. engagement with global partners and multilateral organizations to tackle the legal and attitudinal barriers that pose challenges to women and girls around the world. In June, the G7 countries launched the Build Back Better (B3W) World Partnership with mention of increasing cooperation on gender equity and equality (Biden Campaign).
In order to amplify and elevate women’s leadership globally, President Biden pledged to launch an initiative to strengthen the role and influence of women-led civil society organizations (Biden Campaign).
To continue to uplift the rights of women and girls at home and around the world, President Biden committed to expand the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) and continue to champion women’s fundamental right to live free from violence (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to launch a new comprehensive effort to exert more diplomatic pressure on governments to properly train law enforcement and authorities to investigate issues of corruption resulting in gender-based violence and effectively prosecute those responsible (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to build upon the Obama-Biden legacy of supporting policies to address gender-based violence (GBV). During his campaign, he pledged to improve peacekeeper performance by developing comprehensive gender-based violence policies that address women’s participation and leadership in peace processes and issues of sexual violence in conflict zones, and hold perpetrators accountable for their actions (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to increase support for the Special Representative to the U.N. Secretary General for Sexual Violence in Conflict and pledged to continue to champion efforts to counter issues of GBV in the U.N. Security Council (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to support domestic violence asylum seekers and increase support for the Safe from the Start Act, which calls for attention to preventing gender-based violence in humanitarian responses. In February 2021, President Biden signed an executive order to create a comprehensive framework aimed at addressing the causes of migration and providing safe processing of asylum seekers. The EO explicitly outlines a migration strategy that prioritizes combating sexual, gender-based and domestic violence in the Northern Triangle (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to recognize and incorporate challenges faced by underrepresented communities — including indigenous and ethnic minority women, Afro-Latina women, and women in the LGBTQ+ community — into U.S. development policies. On his first day, President Biden signed an executive order to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity (Biden Campaign).
In order to bring more attention to the issue of gender equity, President Biden committed to establish a White House Council on Gender Equality. In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order officially establishing the council, which will work closely with other White House councils to guide policies impacting women and girls on economic security, health care, racial justice, gender-based violence, and foreign policy (Biden Campaign).
In order to better advance the rights of women and girls globally, President Biden committed to pursuing the ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (Biden Campaign).
Recognizing the national security benefits of having women participate in leadership roles, President Biden committed to fully implementing the Women, Peace, and Security Act (Biden Campaign).
President Biden promised to rescind the Mexico City Policy (also known as the Global Gag Rule) enforced under the Trump administration, which prevents international recipients of U.S. global health funding from offering abortion or family planning services, or even publicly sharing information related to those services. The Biden-Harris administration rescinded the policy shortly after taking office (Biden Campaign).
President Biden promised to establish an Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the Department of Health and Human Services. A few days after taking office, President Biden signed an executive order directing HHS to establish the office in order to “address the impact of climate change on the health of the American people” (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to lead the global response to COVID-19 and “lay the groundwork for sustained global health security leadership into the future.” In January 2021, the Biden-Harris administration introduced its National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness, which directed a government-wide approach to mobilize an international response, including support for global vaccination efforts and other global health initiatives (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to fully staff all federal agencies, task forces, and scientific and economic advisory groups focused on health security, including establishing an Assistant Secretary at the State Department to oversee an office of Global Health Security and Diplomacy. The Biden-Harris administration has not yet formally established the office and federal staffing is ongoing (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to reengage with international partners to strengthen global capacity for biosurveillance and health emergency response to “facilitate crisis coordination among health, security, and humanitarian organizations.” This includes supporting the creation of a Permanent Facilitator within the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General for Response to High Consequence Biological Events as well as fully resourcing the WHO, especially its Contingency Fund for Emergencies (Biden Campaign).
President Biden promised to create a Global Health Emergency Board through the WHO to coordinate global health and economic responses to global health crises, with a focus on assisting vulnerable countries (Biden Campaign).
President Biden promised to immediately restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which was established by the Obama-Biden administration and eliminated by the Trump administration in 2018. President Biden fulfilled this promise via an executive order issued shortly after inauguration (Biden Campaign).
During his campaign, President Biden pledged to address the root causes of migration. In order to accomplish this, he committed to launching a comprehensive review of U.S. funding to Central America to determine how best to tackle the issues of violence, corruption, and poverty driving migration from the Northern Triangle. The Biden-Harris administration named Ricardo Zúñiga as Special Envoy to the Northern Triangle in March 2021 and has since announced over $300 million in additional assistance to the region. Vice President Kamala’s special role in delivering on this promise was highlighted by her trip to the Northern Triangle last week. The White House has released a Fact Sheet which serves as a call to action to the private sector to deepen investment in the region. (Biden Campaign).
In order to further address issues of migration, President Biden pledged to convene a meeting of leaders from Guatamala, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Canada and other Western Hemisphere countries, to address the conditions driving migration and work to develop a new multi-national resettlement proposal. In February, President Biden signed an Executive Order to implement a regional framework to address root causes and manage migration throughout North and Central America (White House).
In response to the abusive regime of Nicolás Maduro, President Biden pledged to support the people of Venezuela and grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Venezuelans already living in the U.S.. In March 2021, the Biden-Harris administration officially granted TPS to Venezuelans for 18 months (Biden CFR Interview).
President Biden vowed to end the “national emergency” enabling Department of Defense funding to be used to construct the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. On day one of his administration, President Biden issued a proclamation ending the national emergency and halting border wall construction (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to end the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required asylum seekers to stay in Mexico, regardless of the migrants’ country of origin, as they awaited their court hearings. On day one, the Biden-Harris administration suspended Trump’s policy and paused all new enrollments in the program (Biden Campaign).
In order to ensure the safety and dignity of all migrants and asylum seekers, President Biden pledged to end support for and shut down for-profit migrant detention centers (Biden Campaign).
President Biden promised to work with Congress to pass immigration reform legislation aimed at providing a new path to citizenship for the almost 11 million undocumented individuals in the U.S. President Biden’s immigration bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act, outlines an eight-year pathway to legal status and security for the undocumented in the U.S. (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to create new pathways to citizenship for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) holders who have been living in the U.S. for an extended period of time (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to updating the Central American Minors (CAM) program which allows parents with legal status in the U.S. to apply to bring their children from Central America to live with them. In March 2021, the Biden-Harris administration reopened the CAM program and initiated the first phase, restarting the processing of all eligible applications that were closed when the program was terminated in 2017 (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, whose expansion was targeted and rescinded under the Trump administration. On day one, the Biden-Harris administration issued an executive order fortifying the program which protects young immigrations from deportation and gives them access to temporary work permits (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to support family-based immigration policies, emphasizing the importance of family unification as a centerpiece of the U.S. immigration system. President Biden’s immigration bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act, outlines various family-based immigration reforms, including clearing backlogs on family visas, eliminating lengthy wait times, and increasing per-country visa caps (Biden Campaign).
Within the first 100 days, President Biden pledged to prioritize the reunification of families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration. In February 2021, President Biden signed an executive order creating an Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families charged with identifying all separated children and reuniting them with their families. The task force is required to deliver an initial progress report no later than June 2021 and must give interim progress reports every 60 days thereafter (Biden Campaign).
Within the first 100 days, President Biden pledged to reverse the Trump administration’s detrimental aslyum policies and restore asylum eligibility for domestic violence survivors and members of the LGBTQI+ community. In February 2021, President Biden signed a memorandum expanding efforts to ensure LGBTQI+ individuals are granted equal access to asylum and protection, while also ordering the Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security to undergo training so as to teach key authority personnel to effectively identify the needs of LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to protect asylum seekers, including Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enfroced Departure (DED) holders, from being returned to their home countries, if their country of origin proves to be unsafe (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
President Biden pledged to increase the global annual refugee admissions target to 125,000, while seeking to further increase the limit over time. While President Biden signed an executive order in February 2021 to rebuild the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), he failed to increase the Trump administration’s historically low cap of 15,000 refugees for fiscal year 2021. Following pressure, in May 2021, President Biden revised the annual refugee cap to 62,500 for FY21, acknowledging that although the U.S. will likley not achieve that number this year it “reflects my committment to the goal of 125,000 refugee admissions in the first fiscal year of my presidency” (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to work with Congress to formalize an annual minimum refugee admissions number of 95,000 (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to reverse the Muslim Ban, a policy enacted under the Trump administration which indefinitely banned any travelers, immigrants or refugees from various African and predominantly Muslim countries from entry into the U.S. On day one, President Biden issued a proclamation, rescinding Trump’s Muslim ban and resumed all visa processing for the aforementioned individuals (Biden Campaign).
In order to speed up and improve the U.S. immigration system, President Biden pledged to double the number of immigration judges, court staff, and interpreters. Per the administration’s preliminary budget released in April 2021, the Biden-Harris administration set aside $891 million to address the 1.3 million outstanding immigration court cases and add up to 100 new judges (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to do more to support and empower immigrant women who are survivors of domestic violence and abuse. In June, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland reversed Trump-era immigration rulings that had made it nearly impossible for people to seek asylum in the United States over credible fears of domestic abuse or gang violence. The decisions are applicable to all cases in the system, including appeals, and will likely affect tens of thousands of migrants. (Biden Campaign).
President Biden’s campaign advisor pledged to make foreign aid central to U.S. foreign policy. President Biden’s FY2022 budget proposal includes a $6.8 billion increase in U.S. international affairs spending for a total budget of $63.5 billion. This budget marks a 12% increase from 2021 spending (DEVEX).
To increase support for women’s health globally, President Biden pledged to restore U.S. funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and support its work to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights and prevent gender-based violence around the world. In January 2021, the Biden-Harris administration rescinded the Kemp-Kasten designation on the UNFPA and initiated the process to make available $32.5 million to support the organization (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to reengage with the U.N. Human Rights Council. In February 2021, the U.S. returned to the council — the world’s most powerful human rights body — as an observer nation, with plans to rejoin as a full member later on in the year (Biden Medium Op-Ed).
President Biden promised to rejoin the World Health Organization. President Biden ordered the U.S. to rejoin the WHO as one of his first actions in office (Biden Tweet).
President Biden pledged to return the U.S. to the Iranian nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), if Iran moves to restore compliance with its nuclear obligations. The JCPOA requires Iran to accept restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. In April 2021, talks commenced in Vienna aimed at bringing both the U.S. and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. These negotiations are currently ongoing, with Robert Malley, the U.S. Special Envoy for Iran, serving as the lead U.S. negotiator (Biden NYT Interview).
Faced with a continued nuclear threat from Iran, President Biden pledged to maintain targeted sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile program and continue to push back against Iran’s human rights abuses and support for terrorism through coordinated sanctions (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to preventing Iran from acquiring or developing a nuclear weapon. The nuclear negotiations, currently ongoing in Vienna, aim to fortify and extend the original deal’s provisions and prevent Iran from strenghtening its nuclear arsenal (Biden CNN Op-Ed).
President Biden pledged to sustain America’s “ironcald commitment” to Israel’s security, emphasizing the importance of maintaining the current level of U.S. military aid to Israel. The administration’s preliminary budget calls for $63.5 billion for the State Department and international programs, specifically allocating funds to a long-term peace plan for Israel and Palestine (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to ground his policies in a commitment to a two-state solution and expressed his belief in the importance of working with both the Palestinians and Israelis to bring forth security, prosperity and democracy. During a series of remarks at a U.N. Security Council meeting in January 2021, Ambassador Richard Mills, the acting representative for the U.S. Mission to the U.N., expressed the administration’s commitment to renewing credible U.S. engagement with Palestinians and continuing active consultation with both parties (Biden Campaign).
In support of his commitment to the two-state solution, President Biden pledged to reopen the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem (Biden Campaign).
In order to address the ongoing economic and humanitarian crises, President Biden pledged to take immediate action to restore assistance to Palestine. In April 2021, the Biden-Harris administration announced the restoration of assistance to Palestine. The funding, amounting to $235 million in economic, development and humanitarian aid, includes $150 million in assistance to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) (Biden Campaign).
President Biden committed to improving the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. The Palestinian aid package, announced by the administration in April 2021, allocated $75 million for economic and development assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, $10 million for peacebuilding programs, and $150 million in humanitarian assistance (Biden Campaign).
In a stark contrast to the actions of the Trump administration, President Biden pledged to end all measures of direct, personal diplomacy with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un (Biden NYT Interview).
In order to pursue the denuclearization of North Korea, President Biden pledged to tighten sanctions until North Korea ends its nuclear and missile programs (Biden NYT Interview).
President Biden pledged to strengthen diplomatic efforts, including increasing support for U.S. negotiators, to combat and prevent North Korea’s continued proliferation of nuclear weapons. Since assuming office, President Biden has issued warnings to North Korea over missile launches and has met with allies in the region to discuss combatting North Korea’s nuclear actions (Biden Campaign).
In order to keep American citizens safe from nuclear threats and restore U.S. leadership on arms control and nonproliferation, President Biden pledged to pursue new arms control arrangements with other nuclear powers (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
President Biden pledged to pursue an extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia, the sole remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear arms agreement. In February 2021, the Biden-Harris administraiton extended New START with Russia for another five years (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
President Biden pledged to reduce the role of nuclear weapons. He stated he did not support the new low-yield warhead fielded by the Trump administration. He also stated the United States does not need new nuclear weapons and the current arsenal of weapons is sufficient to meet our deterrence and alliance requirements. (Council for a Livable World Candidate Survey).
President Biden stated as Vice President and reiterated as a presidential candidate that he believes “that the sole purpose of the U.S. nuclear arsenal should be deterring—and, if necessary, retaliating against—a nuclear attack.” He pledged to work to put that belief into practice as president. (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
President Biden pledged to consider the environmental implications of trade. He committed to consulting environmental leaders on all new trade deals and including strong environmental enforcement provisions in all deals signed by the U.S. and its partners (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
In declaring that his trade policy will start at home, President Biden pledged to make major investments in America’s infrastructure and workers before signing any new trade deals (Biden CFR Interview).
To further protect American workers, President Biden committed to ensuring fair representation for America’s workers and promised to enforce existing labor provisions in all new trade deals (Biden Campaign).
In a reversal from the Trump administration, President Biden committed to return to an era of greater engagement with Cuba and pledged to ease travel restrictions to the island and limits on remittances that Cuban Americans send to their families. Despite his campaign promises, President Biden has yet to take any official action to reset U.S.-Cuban relations (NBC News).
President Biden pledged to continue support for the Good Friday Agreement, declaring that any new trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K be contingent on respect for the Agreement (Biden Tweet).
President Biden pledged to update domestic content rules to ensure that all federally procured purchases benefit American manufacturers and workers. In January 2021, President Biden signed an executive order directing all agencies to modify how they measured domestic content and increase domestic content requirements, including the content threshold which dictates how much of a product must be made in the U.S. (Biden Campaign).
President Biden pledged to extend his “Buy America” policy to include Research and Development strategy, so that new technologies and products are not only researched, but manufactured in America. President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, released in March 2021, amounts to nearly $2 trillion in investments dedicated to revitalizing America’s manufacturing systems, reinvesting in research and development and rebuilding America’s infrastructure (Biden Campaign).
In standing with American workers and businesses, President Biden pledged to enact aggressive trade enforcement actions against any country seeking to harm U.S. manufacturing through unfair practices such as currency manipulation or unfair subsidies (Biden Campaign).
Declaring unions as an essential part of democracy, President Biden committed to supporting trade unions at home and abroad. In April 2021, President Biden signed an executive order creating a new White House task force focused on promoting labor unions. The task force, which will be led by Vice President Harris, is expected to make recommendations within 180 days on how policies and programs can better help and support workers to organize and collectively bargain (Biden Campaign).
During the election, President Biden campaigned on the promise to improve economic relations with the E.U. by ending the “artificial trade war” started under the Trump administration. However, as of February 2021, the tarrifs imposed on European food imports remain in place (Financial Times).
During his campaign, President Biden was very clear on his commitment to bring American combat troops back from Afghanistan by the end of his first term. In April 2021, the Biden-Harris administration announced the U.S. will start to withdraw all American troops over the coming months, with the goal of a full military withdrawal by September 11, 2021 (Biden NYT Questionnare).
Throughout his campaign, President Biden emphasized his desire to reaffirm the ban on torture and restore greater transparency in U.S. military operations. As part of this commitment, he commited to reestablish a disclosure rule created under the Obama-Biden administration, and weakened during the Trump administration, that requires the government to disclose the number of civilian casualties resulting from U.S. airstrikes outside war zones. In May 2021, the Biden-Harris administration disclosed a set of rules put in place by the Trump administration for counterterrorism operations outside of conventional warzones, which stripped away safeguards put in place by the Obama-Biden adminstration to protect civilians from lethal U.S. military operations, including commando attacks and drone strikes. The administration is currently reviewing the guidelines (Biden Foreign Affairs Piece).
President Biden committed to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. In February 2021, the Biden-Harris administration officially announced the end of all American support for offensive operations in Yemen, including the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia (Biden Campaign).