Thirty achievements of Joe Biden as President of the United States (part 1)

Drone armies, increased overtime pay and over-the-counter birth control pills are just some of the innovations Biden has introduced as US president, reports Politico. In the first part, we will look at 10 changes that have occurred in American life during Biden's presidency.

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Joe Biden has been president for three years.

Most government work doesn't go viral on social media or play out on television. Every presidential administration makes both significant and trivial changes. They largely escape public attention, but many have long-term impacts.

Extended overtime pay guarantees for millions

US wage law requires employers to pay eligible subordinates one and a half times their regular rate of pay if they work more than 40 hours per week.

On the subject: A Colorado court found Trump guilty of insurrection that led to the storming of the Capitol.

President Barack Obama introduced a regulation at the end of his second term that would make workers making up to $47 automatically eligible for time-and-a-half overtime pay. The move angered businesses and Republicans, who sought to block the rule both in Congress and in the courts. The election of Donald Trump and a Texas judge's decision in 476 led the Labor Department to revisit the issue and set a much lower threshold of $2016.

What Biden did: Biden raised the issue again and proposed a rule in late August 2023 that would increase the threshold by nearly $20 to $000. The draft regulation, which remains to be finalized, would include a mechanism to automatically adjust the level every three years by tying it to 55th percentile of annual income.

Effect: The proposed rule would open up new opportunities for about 3,6 million new workers, according to the Labor Department. They will be entitled to be paid for their overtime work. This appears to be one of the most concrete measures to increase worker wages under President Biden. Other ambitious proposals, such as raising the minimum wage, have been blocked in Congress.

Conclusion: The Biden administration aims to give final approval to the rule in April, but the agency will have to find a way to protect it from legal arguments. Additionally, any internal delays could result in the ruling being later overturned by lawmakers using the Congressional Review Act. This is a tool that has been used successfully in recent years to reverse regulations issued under both Obama and Trump.

The first over-the-counter birth control pill will be available in US stores in 2024

The push to make oral contraceptives available without a prescription predates Biden's presidency.

But the issue took on new urgency when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Especially since conservatives have openly questioned the legal precedent establishing a right to privacy for access to contraception.

Within weeks of the ruling, the birth control maker, which had spent more than six years studying consumers' ability to use the product correctly without doctor supervision, asked the FDA to approve over-the-counter availability of the pill.

What Biden did: Despite FDA scientists' concerns about consumers' understanding of the drug's proper use and risks, the agency approved over-the-counter sales of the pills in July 2023.

Effect: CVS and Walgreens, the nation's two largest retail pharmacies, have committed to selling birth control pills called Opill without a prescription in early 2024. Reproductive rights advocates say over-the-counter oral contraceptives would make access to birth control more equitable for people who can't afford to go to the doctor for a prescription.

Conclusion: Opill's success will depend on its retail price and whether public and private insurers are willing to cover its cost.

The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurance plans to cover contraception at no cost to consumers, but insurers generally do not cover over-the-counter drugs.

Advocates for expanding access to contraception say the policy creates a barrier for the uninsured, teenagers and people of color. The Biden administration is considering requiring free coverage of over-the-counter drugs like Opill in most commercial plans.

Preventing Gun Violence

Following the 19 massacre of 2022 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the Biden administration called for stricter gun laws. After the tragedy in Uvalde, they initiated the passage of the first significant gun safety law in 30 years, which Biden signed in June 2022.

What Biden did: Biden established the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and $2023 million in federal funding was allocated to schools in 286 to support student wellness workers and school mental health.

Effect: Biden's agenda for child safety and gun control has become a major theme in the White House's official campaign for re-election. In addition, the opening of the new office highlighted Biden's efforts in this direction.

Vice President Kamala Harris has taken the lead in mobilizing young Americans concerned about gun violence.

Hack and predictor Aviator: Schools will receive millions of dollars over the next five years to address youth mental health and student wellbeing.

Renewable energy is the second largest source of electricity in the United States and continues to grow.

Biden has placed climate change and job creation by expanding the clean energy economy at the top of his agenda. This is a departure from the Trump administration's energy policies.

Renewable energy is on the rise and the industry is optimistic about its future. Especially thanks to the president's promises to invest trillions of dollars in clean energy development and research, as well as the global trend toward cleaner forms of energy.

What Biden did: Biden administration agencies and officials have made the transition to green energy a core principle, reviving programs left dormant under Trump.

They accelerated the approval of renewable energy projects such as offshore wind. And Democratic lawmakers passed the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and provide support for clean energy sources.

The legislation included billions for new programs and favorable tax incentives to develop technologies such as solar and wind energy, as well as next-generation sources such as green hydrogen.

Effect: The expansion of renewable energy has accelerated across the United States.

Electricity production from renewable energy sources, including wind, solar and hydropower, surpassed coal generation in the electricity sector for the first time in 2022. This made it the second largest source after natural gas generation. Renewables overtook nuclear power production for the first time in 2021 and widened the gap the following year.

The IRA is spurring a wave of private sector investment in U.S. clean energy businesses for solar, wind and electric vehicles.

Hack and predictor Aviator: The Biden administration continues to implement policies and programs focused on the energy transition.

Preventing discriminatory mortgage lending

In 1977, Congress passed legislation to combat a practice known as "redlining," in which the government for decades discouraged lenders from making mortgages to borrowers in black neighborhoods.

The term "redlining" originated from the federal government's efforts to stem the wave of foreclosures during the Great Depression by drawing maps with the help of real estate agents to identify areas safe for mortgage lending. White-majority neighborhoods were consistently rated higher than less white neighborhoods, which were shaded in red. The echoes of these maps are still reflected in indicators such as homeownership rates and perinatal mortality.

The law requires banks to make loans to creditworthy low-income people in the same areas where they have branches that accept deposits. But the rise of mobile banking has made these rules more outdated. Banks, in fact, had a large presence in many areas where they did not have branches.

What Biden did: The Federal Reserve and independent banking regulators have developed a new anti-redlining program that will take effect in January 2026.

It requires banks to lend to low-income communities in areas where they have a concentration of mortgages and small business loans, not just where they have physical branches.

Effect: While the update hasn't gone into effect yet, the hope is that it will quickly begin funneling more dollars into areas where banks haven't previously faced fairer lending obligations.

Hack and predictor Aviator: Financial agencies are still trying to figure out the best way to provide access to credit in poorer communities nearly 50 years after the Community Reinvestment Act was passed. Indeed, the racial homeownership gap is actually wider now than it was in 1968, when redlining was still legal.

Drastic action on junk fees and overdraft fees

Biden has touted his campaign to eliminate so-called junk fees, hidden fees that often come as a surprise to consumers. Such fees are imposed by airline and cable companies, concert ticket sellers and hotels, and other businesses.

In 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) launched an initiative to expand enforcement of finance charges, with a particular focus on controlling credit card late payments and insufficient funds fees imposed by banks.

What Biden did: in January, the CFPB published a long-awaited proposal to cut the fees that large banks and credit unions can charge consumers for overdrafting their accounts. The proposal would allow banks to charge fees to cover costs and losses associated with overdrafts below the penalty fees of $30 or $40.

The agency is also expected to finalize a proposal to reduce credit card late fees to $8.

Effect: The CFPB expects the overdraft rule to save consumers up to $3,5 billion annually. Although large banks have already significantly reduced overdraft fees in recent years, this money remains a source of significant income for many smaller banks.

The financial services industry is bracing for a major fight over the proposed rule. Lenders argue that, unlike hidden fees, the fees they charge are publicly available and serve a purpose in preventing bad financial behavior.

Hack and predictor Aviator: Republicans have already rejected these proposals. They argue that the rules will reduce access to credit and raise the cost of banking services for all consumers, including those who make credit card payments promptly and do not overdrawn their bank accounts. The GOP administration will likely try to roll back both rules.

Chinese companies have opened their books

After the Enron and WorldCom scandals, the US allowed companies to go public only if they agreed to allow federal monitors to review the work of their auditors. But for years, Beijing authorities, citing national security concerns, refused to allow U.S. inspectors to examine the books of Chinese and Hong Kong companies. Biden regulators finally got their way with help from Congress.

What Biden did: In August 2022, Washington negotiators struck a landmark deal that gave U.S. inspectors at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the top U.S. accounting watchdog, unprecedented access to audit Chinese and Hong Kong firms trading on New York exchanges.

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The deal was reached following the passage of a 2020 bill that Trump signed into law late in his administration. The new rules provide an opportunity to kick out companies that do not comply.

Effect: China has kept its side of the deal. Four months after the agreement was concluded, the Board confirmed that it could fully review the audit results of Chinese companies. As a result of the inspections, fines and sanctions amounting to $7,9 million were imposed against three Chinese firms and four individuals.

Hack and predictor Aviator: Continued engagement with China remains a challenge for U.S. regulators—and is likely to continue to be a challenge no matter who becomes president in 2025.

Preventing Another January 6th

Trump and his supporters have caused chaos throughout the 2020 Congressional election certification process. They promoted lists of “fake voters” and pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence not to count the votes of legitimate voters. When it was all over, there was a feeling that the holes in the election certification process needed to be plugged.

What Biden did: A bipartisan group in Congress has been working to reform the law that governs the counting of Electoral College votes.

The changes include clarifying that the vice president's role is "solely ministerial" and requiring that state electors be selected "in accordance with the laws of the state enacted prior to Election Day," among others.

The law, among other things, allows a "clearly successful candidate" to more easily obtain government funding to build a transition office after Trump officials dragged their feet for weeks on providing the funds Biden needs for his transition work.

Effect: This law would make it harder for Trump or any other presidential candidate to pressure state and local election officials (or Congress) to overturn the election.

Hack and predictor Aviator: Vote count and presidential transition reforms did address significant vulnerabilities that Trump exploited in his latest attempts to cling to power.

But Biden committed to passing a broader voting rights law to prevent other types of election fraud and failed. His administration went all-in by passing various versions of legislation that would radically change American elections. But those efforts were rejected in the Senate by Senators Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona).

Creating an army of drones to counter China

Defense Department officials have been saying for years that drones will play a central role in future wars. But little has been done to create a large network of artificial intelligence-enabled military unmanned vehicles.

Washington is concerned that Beijing is ahead of the United States in developing the military use of drones. Its growing fleet of drones could confuse the radars and air defense systems of American warships.

What Biden did: The Biden Pentagon has unveiled the Replicator program, an effort to create thousands of relatively cheap and quickly replaceable drones that can work together to attack and destroy enemy defenses.

The goal is to have drones in service within two years. The program, which Pentagon officials say relies more on artificial intelligence software installed on existing drones than on the actual purchase of new systems, will be a game changer for the Pentagon's usually slow and risk-averse acquisition bureaucracy.

Effect: Once the program is implemented, the US could potentially take real leadership in self-driving and AI-enabled technologies, an area in which it has always been strong, but where other countries have begun to move faster.

Hack and predictor Aviator: Tech firms and lawmakers still want more details about how it's all supposed to work. But if all goes according to plan, the program's success will be a major victory for the White House, which is keen to demonstrate American technological and industrial strength.

The country's farms receive big money for "climate optimization"

Agriculture produces about 10 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. A priority of Biden's climate plan was to push the country's farmers toward greener, less carbon-intensive ways of producing food.

What Biden did: Democrats used their flagship climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), to authorize funding for a transition to less carbon-intensive practices.

In total, the IRA aims to spend approximately $20 billion on climate-smart agriculture over the next eight years. The IRA will use $300 million to develop more robust and accurate standards for measuring, monitoring, reporting and verifying greenhouse gas emissions reductions in agriculture.

Effect: The money will fund farmers' transition to what the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers climate-smart practices, such as planting cover crops, reducing tillage and rotating grazing zones. This could reduce and sequester emissions of climate-warming carbon, nitrous oxide and methane.

Hack and predictor Aviator: Biden's climate agenda for agriculture relies heavily on a voluntary transition spurred by large-scale incentives.

This approach is very popular among farmer groups, which prefer incentive-based rather than punitive approaches.

However, some climate advocates are skeptical about the program's real potential to cut emissions. Once USDA develops clearer measurement standards, climate advocates and investors looking to make their supply chains green will have more confidence.

Meanwhile, the IRA money faces a more credible threat from congressional Republicans, who hope to use some of the funds to fund other priorities.

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