Which of Joe Biden's campaign promises were addressed through legislation in his first 100 days?

1. Big-ticket relief: How the American Rescue Plan fulfilled core pandemic pledges

The administration’s signature legislative achievement in the first 100 days was passage of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), a $1.9 trillion package that delivered direct stimulus payments, extended unemployment benefits, and significant funding for vaccine distribution and state and local governments. The ARP materially implemented campaign promises to provide immediate economic relief and help states avoid budget shortfalls, and it included funding targeted at small businesses and school reopenings, aligning with Biden’s stated priorities ^{[1] [2]}. Supporters framed the ARP as decisive action that met urgent public-health and economic needs; critics argued the bill was larger than necessary and would stoke inflation. Both perspectives hinge on trade-offs between speed of relief and long-term fiscal consequences, making the ARP the clearest legislative fulfillment of campaign pledges in the administration’s opening window ^[3].

2. Vaccine pledge kept: The 100 million shots promise and operational results

Biden publicly promised a rapid vaccination push and set a public target often described as 100 million vaccine doses administered in 100 days; that goal was met well ahead of schedule and reframed as vaccinating 50 million people, a milestone achieved in under two months. The administration also centralized federal distribution plans and invested ARP funds in expanding vaccine access, logistics, and testing infrastructure ^{[4] [5]}. Independent trackers and contemporaneous reporting credited the federal plan and funding for accelerating uptake, though some public-health experts noted state-level variation and supply-chain bottlenecks that complicated rollout. The vaccine milestone stands as a discrete, verifiable promise delivered through a mix of executive coordination and legislative funding from ARP ^{[2] [4]}.

3. Executive orders versus statutes: Reversals of Trump policies and limits of executive power

Biden used executive authority extensively—issuing dozens of orders to rescind the “Muslim bans,” reverse family separation practices, restore transgender military service, and re-enter the Paris Agreement and WHO—to quickly reverse prior policies without waiting for Congress. These actions fulfilled campaign commitments to reverse specific Trump-era policies, but they are inherently more vulnerable to future reversals or legal challenge than statutes ^{[3] [1] [6]}. Critics argued reliance on executive orders undercuts long-term durability and legislative consensus; proponents countered that rapid administrative fixes were necessary in the pandemic’s early days. The distinction between durable legislative achievement and reversible executive action shaped how many campaign promises were realized in that initial period ^{[1] [6]}.

4. Promises that stalled: Immigration, minimum wage, and gun measures left unfinished

Several high-profile campaign goals did not clear Congress in the first 100 days: a comprehensive pathway to citizenship for roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants, a federal $15 minimum wage, and major new assault-weapons bans or manufacturer liability changes failed to pass. These items required bipartisan or unified Democratic support in the Senate and ran into filibuster constraints, intraparty divisions, and competing priorities ^{[3] [7]}. The administration pursued some related executive actions and signaled continued legislative efforts, but the lack of statutory outcomes showed the limits of presidential power when Congress is divided or procedural hurdles persist, underscoring why several campaign promises remained “in progress” rather than fulfilled in statute ^{[3] [5]}.

5. Counting results: Bills signed, orders issued, and the politics of metric selection

Observers noted that Biden signed relatively few individual bills in the first 100 days—yet the significance and scale of enacted laws (notably ARP) mattered more than raw counts. The administration issued roughly forty-some executive orders in that window, reversing many predecessor actions and signaling policy direction ^{[2] [6]}. Fact-check projects that tracked 99 campaign promises later rated many as kept, compromised, or broken over the full term, illustrating the difficulty of cleanly mapping promises to legislative outcomes. The metrics chosen—number of bills, pages of legislation, executive actions, or specific policy milestones—shape narratives about success or failure, and each metric carries partisan uses: supporters point to substantive law and quick executive fixes, opponents emphasize low bill-count and reliance on non-legislative tools ^[3].

6. The big-picture takeaway: Early wins, structural limits, and the next political phase

Biden’s first 100 days delivered clear legislative success on pandemic relief and operational victory on vaccinations, with multiple executive reversals of Trump policies, but several signature domestic promises remained unrealized by statute due to Senate arithmetic, procedural rules, and competing priorities. The pattern shows that immediate crises (public health, economic stabilization) can be translated into legislation when political will and narrow majorities align, while broader structural reforms—immigration overhaul, wage floors, sweeping gun legislation—require sustained legislative strategy beyond the initial window. Short-term executive actions filled some gaps, but they underscored the durability problem: statutes endure; executive orders do not necessarily. This mixed record set the stage for subsequent years of the administration’s legislative and political efforts ^{[4] [7] [8]}.