During the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden set out an ambitious agenda. One year into his presidency, he has made significant progress on some agenda items, rolling back the legacy of the Trump era by rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement and revoking the “Muslim travel ban.” But many of the most transformational proposals remain unfulfilled, due in large part to stonewalling from two Democratic senators.
On the anniversary of Biden’s inauguration, Teen Vogue takes a look at the president’s first year in office and the progress his administration has made toward five key campaign promises that are important to young people: student debt forgiveness; climate action; getting the COVID-19 pandemic under control; fighting for pro-union legislation; and protecting voting rights.
1. Student Debt Forgiveness: “It should be done immediately.”
During his campaign, Biden pledged to “forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities and private HBCUs and MSIs for debt-holders earning up to $125,000,” according to PolitiFact’s Biden Promise Tracker. He also repeatedly said that he is willing to cancel $10,000 in debt per student — a claim he repeated in February 2021, after assuming office.
Because of the pandemic, Biden has repeatedly pushed back the deadline for borrowers to start paying back loans, but he has yet to follow through on related promises. According to NPR, though, the Education Department has forgiven or is in the process of forgiving some $11 billion in federal loans for specific populations: those who attended schools that were forced to close; those defrauded by for-profit institutions; those with “total and permanent disabilities”; and public servants, such as teachers and government workers who’ve worked a certain number of years. Still, with federal student loan debt totaling nearly $1.8 trillion, only 1% of borrowers benefit from the cancellations, according to Fortune.
Biden also announced plans to make two-year community colleges tuition-free through a provision in the Build Back Better Act, but that provision was removed from the legislation before the House vote. He has said he doesn’t believe he has the “authority” to cancel $50,000 per borrower by executive order, as some Senate Democrats have called for him to do.
2. Climate Action: “We can’t wait any longer.”
During the campaign, Biden pledged to “put the United States on an irreversible path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050.”
In his first year as president, Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, revoked permits for the Keystone XL pipeline, and tightened fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. But an executive order he issued pausing new gas and oil leases on public lands and offshore waters was blocked by a federal court. And his administration has proceeded to approve more drilling permits on public lands this year than Trump did each year during his first three years in office, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Much of Biden’s climate policy is included in the Build Back Better Act, which devotes $555 billion to clean energy. After passing the House last year, the act stalled in the Senate. Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, declined to back the sweeping legislation, as has West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, who, according to Rolling Stone, receives more donations from the oil and gas industry than any other member of Congress.
John Paul Mejia, the national spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement, an organization of young people working to combat climate change, tells Teen Vogue, “Biden has the moral obligation to play hardball with Joe Manchin. And frankly, he has to understand the moment that we find ourselves in. History’s eyes are on the president right now. Not only is the future of democracy at stake, but the future of a livable planet [is] at stake as well.”
Putting Build Back Better aside, Mejia offers several alternative options for Biden to make an impact: “Not only could he ban fossil fuel projects, but he could also use the executive office to spur new programs that can get us on track to decarbonize our economy and create millions of jobs for people.”
With regard to Biden’s climate policy, Mejia feels that “Biden is failing us right now. He’s failing millions of young people and millions of voters who took a chance on him in 2020.”
3. COVID-19: “I’m going to shut down the virus, not the country.”
During the final presidential debate of 2020, Biden took aim at Donald Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Anyone that is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America,” he said. When Trump left office, 396,837 U.S. residents had died of COVID-19, per The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project. A year into Biden’s presidency, this total has more than doubled, according to CDC data.
The emergence of COVID variants scrambled plans to return the country to some semblance of normalcy. On December 2, 2021, the Biden administration issued a statement claiming: “No business should shut down this winter because of COVID-19.” But the extremely transmissible omicron variant caused cases to skyrocket, prompting the closure of schools and businesses nationwide. Students and employees say they’ve had to put their health at risk by continuing to go to school and work in-person during the surge.
Biden has received more praise for following through on his vaccine-related promises. During his campaign, he pledged to “get at least 100 million COVID vaccine shots into the arms of the American people” in his first 100 days, according to the New York Times. In March, he doubled that number to 200 million — a goal he met a week early. This number has since grown, with more than 209 million U.S. residents — or 63% of the total U.S. population — receiving at least two shots of the vaccine as of January 20, 2022.
Biden also reinstated the National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, provided a “restart package” to small businesses to cover COVID safety efforts upon reopening, improved COVID testing capacity, and issued an executive order to use the Defense Protection Act to increase the production of personal protective equipment, according to PolitiFact.
4. Workers’ Rights: “[I will] be the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.”
During his campaign, Biden promised to work with Congress to “build worker power to raise wages and secure stronger benefits.”
Biden has endorsed legislation such as the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would protect workers’ rights to organize for fair labor standards, but it, too, stalled in the Senate after being passed by the House. The Build Back Better Act also contains pro-worker and pro-union provisions, such as increasing fines for union-busting and allocating $350 million to the National Labor Relations Board.
However, while many Democratic lawmakers have advocated for the Build Back Better Act to include four-week paid family leave, Manchin is unlikely to vote for a version of the bill that contains that provision. Earlier in Biden’s presidency, a similar compromise was struck on the American Rescue Plan Act, which, before it was passed, was stripped of a provision to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, according to PolitiFact. Biden had campaigned on raising the federal minimum wage to that amount.
Some labor leaders say the good outweighs the bad. Brittany Anderson, organizer, vice president of Machinist Union District Lodge 77, and member of Pride at Work’s National Executive Board — the AFL-CIO’s constituency group for LGBTQ workers — tells Teen Vogue, “President Biden is probably the most outspoken pro-union, pro-worker president in modern American history.”
In his first year as president, Biden established a White House Task Force for Worker Organizing and Empowerment, increased the minimum wage for government contractors to $15 an hour, and rolled back several Trump-era anti-union policies. Anderson is keen to see the passage of Build Back Better and the PRO Act, as well as the Equality Act, which would make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity illegal.
“We had the Supreme Court case not so long ago that did extend protection from discrimination in regard to employment for LGBTQ workers, but there [are] still all of these ways where it is perfectly legal for us to be discriminated against,” Anderson says.
But the bipartisan popularity of many of the workers’ rights provisions in these pieces of legislation doesn’t mean they’ll pass Congress. “All of these are checks on the power of corporations and billionaires,” she says. “So they are always going to be ruthless about protecting their bottom line.”
5. Voting Rights: “Let more people vote. It’s simple.”
During his campaign, Biden promised to update the Voting Rights Act and increase election-spending transparency.
Biden supported the For the People Act, which would have revolutionized campaign finance law, election integrity, and voting rights — including restoring voting rights to those convicted of felonies after they’ve completed their sentences. The act passed the House, but it fell short in the Senate last June.
Biden also supported the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would have restored the original power of the Voting Rights Act by requiring states with a history of disenfranchisement to seek clearance before changing their voting laws. This act also failed in the Senate.
“Voting rights legislation is also a huge priority for the labor movement,” Anderson says. “We’re big believers in democracy.”
What can we expect to see from the Biden administration by this time next year?
Obstruction in the Senate has made it difficult to pass legislation that is crucial to Biden’s agenda. And the Democratic Party is at risk of losing its narrow majority in the Senate and House in the midterm elections this November. Activists, such as the Sunrise Movement’s Mejia, say young people should keep organizing and fighting for the changes they want to see.
“What we will need over the next few years is for young people to be joining social movements like never before to force politicians who have broken promises to never do that again,” Mejia says. “Cynicism and giving up is another tool that those who are corrupt and empowered use to disempower us and to stifle our movement. So I would also advise young people not to buy into those feelings, even though it can be hard.”
Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Billionaires Should Not Exist
Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take
