Biden's 100 Days

How effectively have recent presidents achieved their aims? 

A president’s first 100 days are an arbitrary bench mark, a point of measurement journalists are fond of because it allows us to draw comparisons between the current officeholder and Franklin D. Roosevelt 

FDR passed 15 major pieces of legislation in his first 100 days; Biden has passed exactly one. More importantly, while Biden’s relief bill is enormous in terms of dollars, most of its emergency provisions are only temporary. Unlike FDR’s New Deal laws, its programs — notably the family tax credit that promises to cut child poverty in half — won’t last a single generation unless the president persuades Congress to extend them. 

Biden's biggest legislative achievement was the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill known as the American Rescue Plan, which he signed into law in March after the Democratic-controlled Congress passed it through the budget reconciliation process.This was Biden’s first major bill as president, which passed on a party-line vote, narrowly securing Senate support by 50–49. This was a massive expenditure bill, spending an additional $1.9 trillion addressing the impact of COVID-19, especially on the economy. The final bill includes one-off direct payments of $1,400 to be sent off to most Americans. It extended weekly jobless benefit payments of $300 until later in that year and gave, $14 billion for vaccine distribution. Measures to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour were stripped from the bill primarily because of the lack of sufficient support amongst Senate Democrats, with Joe Manchin refusing to support the rise.

During his first 100 days, Biden signed 10 bills into law, which varied from the COVID-19 bill and a waiver that allowed for the confirmation of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as Defense Secretary to legislation that added sesame to the list of major allergens for food labeling.

Biden signed fewer bills into law compared to Trump at this stage of his presidency, but the legislation passed has significantly more pages and words, which can be attributed to the 242-page coronavirus relief bill, which contains more than 100,000 words.

Biden  issued 41 executive orders in his first 100 days, more than each of his four immediate predecessors at this stage of their presidencies.

Republicans  criticized Biden for the pace of  his actions, but during Trump's first 100 days in office, he issued 32 executive orders. By April Biden had reversed 62 of Trump's orders, including revoking the permit to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline and canceling two of Trump's actions on refugees.