The Power of the Pen: Using Executive Actions to Secure Policy Wins

Last updated March 20th, 2023

Author: Alan Barber, Policy Director (alan@progressivecaucuscenter.org)

Introduction

Over the last two years, President Biden has taken steps to enact executive actions (EA), that address a broad swath of issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, making progress in the fight against climate change, and providing economic security for people throughout the United States. Yet, while these EAs were part of an economic plan that improved the lives of millions, there are many policy changes that the Biden administration can still pursue to improve people’s lives and build a better, more resilient nation.


This explainer explores the Biden administration’s use of various executive actions — such as executive orders, memoranda, and statements — as policy tools. This explainer also documents a short list of transformative, EAs enacted during the first two years of President Biden’s term. The last part of this explainer lays out a platform of potential EAs across a range of issue areas that the Biden Administration could act on during the remainder of his term.

What are Executive Actions?

Executive Actions (EAs) are used in this explainer as a catch-all for direct actions by the executive branch (the president and federal agencies) to create, enforce, implement, influence, and interpret government policies, regulations, and rules. As described by the Congressional Research Service, EAs are “...used extensively by Presidents to achieve policy goals, set uniform standards for managing the executive branch, or outline a policy view intended to influence the behavior of private citizens.” EAs do not require Congressional approval. However, future administrations can offer new EAs that negate previous EAs, and Congress can pass laws that overrule an executive action. For instance, Proclamation 10141, issued by President Biden on January 20, 2021, effectively revoked the travel bans — also known as Muslim bans — issued by President Trump on 14 countries, most of which were African or Muslim. In this explainer, EAs refer to executive orders, proclamations, memoranda, statements, and other directives issued by the president. Table 1 provides definitions of each of these EAs.

 

Overview of Executive Actions since 2020 

The 2020 elections set the backdrop for President Biden’s approach to EAs. After President-elect Biden won the White House in 2020 and Democrats secured slim majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, Democrats held a governing trifecta — or complete control of the executive branch and both houses of Congress — for the first time in 12 years. 

During the first two years of the Biden Administration, Democrats leveraged their trifecta to pass major legislative packages, including the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and the Chips and Science Act (CHIPS). The ARP secured temporary relief from the COVID-19 crisis for millions of Americans and helped boost the economy. The IIJA made critical long-term investments in our nation's infrastructure to repair our bridges and roads and expand access to clean drinking water. The Inflation Reduction Act made historic investments in fighting the climate crisis, expanding our domestic energy production, and taxing giant corporations that had avoided paying their fair share of taxes. Finally, the CHIPS Act increases U.S. domestic capacity to manufacture semiconductor chips and strengthens the supply chain.

However, the slim margins in the House of Representatives and Senate meant that Congress could limit the full implementation of the Biden administration’s agenda. From the outset of his presidency and anticipating these Congressional limitations, President Biden utilized EAs to help fulfill his policy agenda. 

Using EAs to enact policy and to instruct the federal government and the public is not unprecedented. However, the issuance of EAs by presidents of both parties varies from administration to administration. President Franklin D, Roosevelt issued 3,701 executive actions while in office. President George H.W. Bush signed 166. the Federal Register lists 106 EOs alone signed by President Biden in the first two years of his presidency. As seen in Table 2 below, President Trump signed 92 EOs in his first two years in office, while Presidents Obama, G.W. Bush, and Clinton signed 74, 85, and 10, respectively, over the same period in their presidencies.

Enacted EAs  

As soon as President Biden won the 2020 presidential election and formed his transition team, grassroots, advocacy, and policy groups urged the Biden administration to use EAs to enact key movement proposals and priorities. To document some of the critical policy victories, the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center reached out to our partners and allies at progressive advocacy and policy organizations to identify high-priority EAs issued by President Biden. Taken together, these enacted EAs are progressive policies that have the potential to strengthen our democracy, build more resilient communities, and make sure we can live safe, healthy, and dignified lives.

Executive Action Wins Under The Biden Presidency

The chart below is not exhaustive. However, this list highlights pivotal policies supported by the CPC Center and allied groups

 
 
 

Potential Executive Actions for 2023

The bold EAs described above represent positive change for millions of workers and families. Still, there are more EAs that the Biden administration could sign to impact even more people’s lives. Moreover, in 2023, the decision-making landscape to pass broad legislative packages via reconciliation or other tools looks different for the White House and Congress. As a result, EAs are now the most effective policy tool President Biden can employ to enact his administration’s remaining policy objectives.  

The CPC Center, partner organizations, and allied coalitions have identified the EAs below as potential priority policies for 2023 that the administration could pursue over the next two years. The EAs focus on one particularly transformative potential EA in the following areas: child care and elder care; the climate crisis; democracy; economic justice, foreign policy; healthcare; and immigration. The potential EAs are detailed in Table 4 below. 

Conclusion

Executive action has long been a tool employed by presidents and their administrations to shape policy. President Biden used EAs to help end the COVID-19 pandemic, provide economic relief from the resulting recession, protect basic rights by overturning or strengthening EAs from previous administrations, and complement signature legislation like the ARP, IIJA, IRA, and CHIPS. The enacted EAs discussed in this document enshrined many of the policies President Biden campaigned on — and that many grassroots advocates called for — while changing lives for the better. 

There are still a number of policies the administration could pursue via additional EAs. The EAs explored in the last part of this explainer represent just some of the ways the Biden administration could win transformative change. These seven executive actions are clear, specific examples of how President Biden could use the power of the pen to fulfill his administration’s policy agenda and bring about real change now.