President Joseph Biden
President of the United States
Biden is President of the United States and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 20, 2021. Biden’s current term ends on Jan 20, 2025. He is 81 years old.
He was previously Vice President of the United States as a Democrat from 2009 to Jan 20, 2017; and a senator from Delaware as a Democrat from 1973 to Jan 15, 2009.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Biden is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2008 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Biden sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 2003 to Dec 11, 2008. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Biden was the primary sponsor of 42 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 3605 (110th): Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008
- S. 1738 (110th): PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008
- S. 3370 (110th): Libyan Claims Resolution Act
- S. 2565 (110th): Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery Act of 2008
- S. 3061 (110th): William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008
- S. 3218 (110th): Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008
- S. 2731 (110th): Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008
Does 42 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Biden sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (19%) Crime and Law Enforcement (18%) International Affairs (17%) Armed Forces and National Security (11%) Economics and Public Finance (10%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (9%) Science, Technology, Communications (8%) Health (8%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Biden recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 3668 (110th): Crime Victims with Disabilities Act of 2008
- S.Res. 698 (110th): A resolution designating October 17, 2008, as “National Mammography Day”.
- S.Res. 692 (110th): A resolution designating the week of November 9 through November 15, 2008, …
- S. 3605 (110th): Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008
- S. 3524 (110th): Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Improvements Act of 2008
- S. 3526 (110th): Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act of 2008
- S.Res. 662 (110th): A resolution raising the awareness of the need for crime prevention in …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1973 to Jan 2009, Biden missed 1,781 of 14,556 roll call votes, which is 12.2%. This is much worse than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Jan 2009. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office. Legislators running for president or vice president typically miss votes while on the campaign trail — that’s normal. See our analysis of presidential candidates’ missed votes.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
- Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills