House Dems reflect on Biden’s complicated legacy
Members celebrate his historic legislative record while lamenting the incomplete work on top domestic issues.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. The presidential inauguration is in five days. The Trump Vance Inaugural Committee announced The Village People, Rascal Flatts, Parker McCollum and Christopher Macchio and confirmed Carrie Underwood would be among the musical performers for the event.
In this evening’s edition: News and notes on the breakthrough Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, the first House bill to pass with bipartisan support this Congress, the FDA’s ban on red dye and the award House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) received the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast to celebrate what would have been Dr. King’s 96th birthday.
But let’s start with President Joe Biden, who will deliver his farewell address from the Oval Office in 90 minutes. It’s arguably his final high-profile moment to shape the legacy of his final chapter in a more than 50-year career in public service before riding off into the post-presidential sunset.
Hill Republicans are broadly universal in their belief that the US and the world are worse after Biden’s term, but for many Democrats, it’s a bit more complicated.
On the one hand, he’ll leave behind a rich legislative record featuring meaningful bills he signed into law to accelerate the economy’s post-pandemic recovery, invest in the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, prioritize domestic semiconductor manufacturing, codify federal marriage equality, enact the first federal gun safety legislation in three decades, expand veterans’ health care, and back the largest investment to address the climate crisis in world history.
“You don’t need me to talk about Joe Biden's legacy, his legacy is the Senate, as vice president and as president is well established,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said. “Policy is how you change Americans’ lives. I think Joe Biden's legacy is well intact of service to his country.”
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told me her relationship with Biden dates back to his time as a senator when she saw him fight for some of the same causes he championed as leader of the free world.
“I’ve known him over the years and what a rich legacy that he does leave, including the Violence Against Women Act, his presence in our foreign policy and the differences that he has made over the years and in the most recent times.”
DeLauro added that Biden’s experience as a lawmaker helped him understand how to foster the kind of legislation and efforts that the federal government should be about.
“He is someone who knew why he was elected to office. He came to push the edge of the envelope of the institutions to make sure that it responds to the needs of the people of his country,” she said. “That’s who Joe Biden is and that’s what he did.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who served as the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus during the first two years of Biden’s term and was elected to Congress when his second term as Barack Obama’s vice president, specifically pointed to how his administration uplifted the Black community, which powered him to victory in a crowded primary field in 2020.
“When you think about what he has done for women—Black women, specifically—to have the first Black female justice sitting on the Supreme Court [Ketanji Brown Jackson]. And something that he made a bold statement to say that he would put a Black woman on [the bench] during an election year, and he did it,” she said. “For him to have appointed a Black woman as vice president of the United States [Kamala Harris]. It doesn't get any better than that.”
Beatty also mentioned Biden’s advocacy for the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, and the broader diversity, equity and inclusion movement as hallmarks of his presidency.
“When you think about every segment of what we work on here, this president has been ten toes down in the forefront of modern history making a difference.”
And while Biden also restored American alliances around the world, the disastrous US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and Biden’s perceived public acquiescence to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel’s indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians in the war in Gaza has exposed him to criticism that tarnished his stature as a foreign policy stalwart. A few current and former members still harbor distaste towards the president for the disintegration of the core elements of his Build Back Better agenda, speaking about the economy in macro terms (Bidenomics, anyone?) that downplayed the high cost of living, and running for a second term instead of passing the torch to a new generation.
Other members wished he had done more on domestic issues, but they acknowledged the political and institutional constraints that prevented further progress.
“I wish we would have done more on gun violence prevention, but that wasn’t for lack of the president trying,” Moskowitz said of Biden, who signed an executive order in 2023 to establish the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. “I mean, executive actions come and go, right? The only way you're going to make long-standing change is through Congress. And the problem is, the more Congress becomes dysfunctional and doesn’t pass laws, the more executive actions get done, which only then lasts for four years or eight years, and then get rolled back as the politics at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue change.”
In the first months of his presidency, Biden and Vice President Harris expended enormous amounts of political capital to advance two significant pieces of voting rights legislation that stalled in the face of unanimous Republican opposition and the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, otherwise known as the filibuster. Biden, the ultimate institutionalist, even announced his support for a voting rights exception to the filibuster at the time. Former Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema, who officially retired from Congress this month as independents but were Democrats at the time, supported the bills and the filibuster so they never reached the president’s desk.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) emerged on the national stage when she made headlines as one of the Texas state House Democrats who walked off the floor to stop Republicans from passing a voter suppression bill.
She told me she wishes Biden would have tripled down on the voting rights push throughout his presidency.
“We are lacking in the protections that were initially signed into law in 1965 by a real good Texan, [former President Lyndon B. Johnson],” she told me. “And so I would have preferred, even if we didn’t quite get it done, I think that if anyone could twist arms in the Senate, it would have been Joe Biden.”
When I argued that the Supreme Court had eroded key provisions of the Voting Rights Act and pointed out that Manchin wasn’t opposed to expanding protections, but with the proposed filibuster carveout, she maintained her belief that a deal could have been made.
“While it may have hurt in the short term to cut whatever deals needed to be cut, I think that it would have been worthwhile in the long run for all of us in this country as we continue to see southern states that are constantly doing everything that they can to basically cheat their way to stay in power.”
Still, despite the setbacks, Crockett believes Biden will be remembered, recently like the late Jimmy Carter has been in recent weeks, as a president who only served one term but got a lot done during it.
“When people look back and they Monday night quarterback this thing, they will recognize that this had an actual agenda, not a concept of one, and he went in on day one ready to work,” she said. “[The American people] had a president that did not play politics with the American people.”
ISR-Hamas ceasefire to begin Sunday
After months of grueling negotiations and intense diplomacy, led by the US, Egypt and Qatar, Israel and Hamas will enter the first phase of an agreement that will stop the fighting in Gaza, surge humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians and secure the release of hostages, including Americans, who have been held for over 15 months. It will last six weeks.
Two future phases of the peace plan will focus on establishing a post-war governing body in Gaza and a plan to rebuild the war-torn city. The deal, which largely follows the framework President Biden announced last May, still needs to be approved by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war cabinet.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he hoped the deal would lead to the return of all hostages and greater peace in the region.
“The United States Senate stands ready to work with the incoming Trump-Vance administration to protect US interests abroad, provide Israel the support it needs to enforce this deal, and to ensure that every single American citizen returns home.”
House Minority Leader Jeffries called the agreement long overdue and the result of President Biden’s leadership.
“America’s commitment to the safety and security of Israel is ironclad and unbreakable,” Jeffries added. “We must also continue our support for those Palestinians who legitimately desire self-determination and peace in the region.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also called the agreement welcome news.
“We will not rest until every hostage comes home.”
President Biden, flanked by Vice President Harris, called the monthslong negotiations, some of the toughest he’s ever experienced.
“As I prepare to leave office, our friends are strong, our enemies are weak and there's a genuine opportunity for a new future,” Biden said.
The deal represents a dual political victory for Biden and Trump. The president will end his term on a high note, while the president-elect can claim his imminent return to power was the tipping point in the negotiations and start his second term without the war dominating his foreign policy.
House passes bill to strengthen US-Taiwan economic alliance
The House just passed a bill by an overwhelming 423-1 vote to provide tax exemptions for certain residents of Taiwan with income sources in the US. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is the only member who opposed the measure.
It’s the first bipartisan bill to clear the House after most Democrats opposed the Laken Riley Act and the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, bills that illuminate two of the nation’s most divisive cultural flashpoints: immigration and trans inclusion.
Specifically, the bill simplifies cross-border business between the U.S. and Taiwan by lowering the amount of taxes withheld, creating a long-term framework for tax treatment, and establishing clear rules for resolving tax disputes.
Supporters of the legislation called it necessary since Taiwan is America’s largest trading partner without an income treaty due to the East Asian country operating as a de facto independent state without formally declaring independence from China to avoid the risk of conflict with Beijing.
Do you have questions about the new Congress or the incoming Trump presidency? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch and I’ll report back with answers.
FDA finally bans Red Dye 3
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would ban the use of Red Dye 3 in the products it regulates.
“Today is a great day for parents across the country,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said in a statement. “Simply put, this chemical certainly has no place in products that are on grocery store shelves. I applaud FDA for doing the right thing by protecting kids and ensuring Red Dye 3 will no longer be used in our food.”
Red Dye 3 is a bright red synthetic food dye mainly used in products like candy, cakes, cookies, frostings, frozen desserts and some drugs. Although the way it causes cancer in male rats exposed to high doses doesn’t happen in humans and people are typically exposed to much lower levels, the FDA said it is still required to ban it based on a law that prohibits the approval of any additive found to cause cancer in humans or animals.
Manufacturers must stop using this dye in food by early 2027 or in drugs by early 2028. While other countries still allow certain uses of this dye, imported foods must meet US regulations.
Pallone wrote to the FDA last month asking it to urgently ban the dye and joined Rep. DeLauro earlier this month to reiterate their request for the agency to do so.
Jeffries, Clarke honored at MLK breakfast
Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, received the Lifetime Achievement in Public Service and Excellence Award from the National Action Network (NAN) at the annual breakfast to honor the late civil rights movement leader. The event was hosted by NAN founder Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and his wife Arndrea Waters King and gathered elected officials, civil rights leaders, and community advocates from across the nation to reflect on Dr. King’s legacy and strategize against the ongoing attacks on civil and social justice causes, such as voting rights. Jasmine Crockett, Joyce Beatty, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) and Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) were among the members of Congress in attendance. New Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) spoke at the event, which took place at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC.
Vice President Harris made a surprise appearance to honor the impact of Dr. King’s legacy and thank the leadership and members of NAN for their tireless work. She also encouraged the crowd to continue fighting to preserve and expand fundamental freedoms for future generations of Americans, a key theme from her unsuccessful presidential campaign.
“We can never be defeated,” she said. “Our spirit can never be defeated. This is a group of winners.”
Today is MLK’s birthday. The federal holiday in his name is observed on Monday, Jan. 20.