Harris has played a leading role in developing U.S. policy toward artificial intelligence (AI). The Biden-Harris administration has framed supporting the U.S. technology sector as a matter of national security, even as it has sought to confront large tech companies for alleged unfair market practices.

• Harris led the formulation of an executive order requiring companies to share with the government risks they are facing and outlining a framework for the safe use of AI that federal agencies can follow. 
• She reportedly suggested that leading AI firms agree to voluntary safety commitments, including a pledge to submit their most powerful models for government review; fifteen of them did so in 2023. She also led efforts to develop rules surrounding military use of AI that have been agreed to by more than fifty countries.
• The Biden-Harris administration passed the CHIPS and Science Act in August 2022, directing more than $280 billion in funding toward domestic production of advanced technologies and the hardware that underpins their development, such as semiconductors.
• The same year, the administration published an “AI Bill of Rights” identifying five principles for the responsible deployment of the technology. Harris says U.S. policy toward AI should both stimulate innovation and protect against “profound harm.”
• Harris represented the United States at the first international AI governance summit in London in 2023. The summit produced a joint declaration that seeks to ensure the technology is “human-centric, trustworthy, and responsible.” China has also signed the statement.
• The Biden-Harris administration unveiled a new National Cybersecurity Strategy in 2023 that urges U.S. companies to take responsibility for ensuring that their systems cannot be hacked and suggests that they could be held legally liable for not protecting “digital infrastructure.” The strategy also called for expanding U.S. military authorization to preempt foreign cyberattacks.  
• The administration has asked Congress to create legislation strengthening antitrust enforcement that can be used against large technology firms. The Department of Justice has pursued antitrust cases against Apple, Amazon, Google, and other big tech firms.
• The administration has cracked down on cryptocurrencies due to concerns over their utility in evading sanctions, laundering money, and financing terrorism. It has directed the Federal Reserve to explore developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Harris is reportedly seeking a “reset” with the crypto sector.

Biden has framed China’s rise as a serious challenge. He has criticized its “abusive” trade practices—warning that it may pull ahead of the United States in new technologies—and its human rights record. He says he would mount a more effective pushback against China than Trump and work more closely with allies to pressure Beijing.

• Biden agrees with Trump that China is breaking international trade rules, unfairly subsidizing Chinese companies, and discriminating against U.S. firms and stealing their intellectual property. He says one million manufacturing jobs have been lost to China.
• However, he says Trump’s broad tariffs are “erratic” and “self-defeating,” and he instead calls for targeted retaliation against China using existing trade laws and building a united front of allies. He warns that China is making massive investments in energy, infrastructure, and technology that threaten to leave the United States behind.
• He criticized Trump’s January 2020 “phase one” trade deal with China, calling Beijing “the big winner” and arguing that increased purchases of U.S. agricultural products won’t address China’s “illegal and unfair” economic practices.
• He has also criticized Trump for accepting China’s assurances about the coronavirus pandemic, and says the Trump administration’s travel ban failed to halt visitors from China. He says he would insist on greater transparency from the Chinese government.
• He attacked Trump for what he called a weak response to China’s infringement of Hong Kong’s autonomy and democratic processes under Beijing’s new national security law, and he stated that he would step up sanctions on those responsible.
• He pledges to reinvigorate the United States as a Pacific power by increasing the U.S. naval presence in the Asia-Pacific and deepening ties with countries including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea to make it clear to Beijing that Washington “won’t back down.”
• He told CFR that “the free world” must unite in the face of China’s “high-tech authoritarianism” and that Washington must shape the “rules, norms, and institutions” that will govern the global use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence. 
• He has said that China’s corruption and internal divisions mean “they’re not competition for us.” He says deeper U.S.-China cooperation is possible on climate, nuclear weapons, and other issues. He also believes that remaining competitive with China hinges on U.S. innovation and uniting “the economic might of democracies around the world.”
• He believes his vice-presidential experience gives him unique insight into dealing with China’s leadership, saying he has spent more time with Xi Jinping than any other world leader.
• As a senator, Biden supported China’s 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization, which gave it permanent normal trade relations with the United States. As vice president, he backed the Obama administration’s Asia-Pacific trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), arguing it would have helped check China’s influence in the region.
• He told CFR that China’s detention of more than one million Muslims in the Xinjiang region is “unconscionable.” He says the United States “must speak out,” and that he would support sanctions against the individuals and companies involved, as well as a UN Security Council condemnation.

Harris says China is responsible for stealing intellectual property and distorting the global economy with unfairly subsidized exports. The Biden-Harris administration has argued that China’s growing influence and aggression in some areas are the leading national security threat to the United States.

• Harris says she will ensure that “America, not China, wins the competition for the twenty-first century.” The Biden-Harris administration has placed stringent restrictions on exports of high-tech products to China that it deems critical to national security and proposed limits on imports from China that it deems dangerous, such as automotive software. It has pressed U.S. partners in the European Union and elsewhere to impose similar measures on Chinese tech. 
• She argues that the United States should “de-risk,” not decouple, from China, arguing that Washington lost the trade war that began under Trump. The administration has retained $360 billion worth of tariffs on China imposed by Trump and introduced a raft of its own. 
• These restrictions followed major legislation that subsidized domestic manufacturing of computer chips, electric vehicle parts, and other new technologies. Firms that produce such goods in China are not eligible for U.S. subsidies.
• Harris says the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok poses national security concerns. In April 2024, Biden signed a bill that will ban TikTok from the United States if it is not sold by 2025; Harris has said a ban is not the administration’s intention. 
• She says she would maintain the United States’ long-standing “One China” policy, while also supporting “Taiwan’s ability to defend itself,” in line with the current U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward the island that China claims as its own.
• Her campaign says she helped lead administration efforts to ensure freedom of navigation through the South China Sea and sought closer ties with American allies in the Indo-Pacific, including Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea. In April 2024, Harris hosted the first-ever trilateral summit between the United States, Japan, and the Philippines.
• Harris met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2022, urging him to “maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries.” Under the Biden-Harris administration, the United States and China agreed to pursue policies aimed at tripling global renewable energy capacity. 
• The Biden-Harris administration unveiled two programs aimed at building infrastructure in lower-income countries to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
• As a senator, Harris cosponsored legislation calling on several U.S. agencies to investigate China’s crackdown on the Uyghur ethnic group and the autonomy of Hong Kong.

Biden says climate change is “the greatest threat to our security,” and calls for a “revolution” to address it. He has released a national plan to reduce emissions and invest in new technology and infrastructure. As a senator, he expressed alarm over greenhouse gases, but also supported controversial energy sources such as fracking and so-called clean coal.

• His climate plan, released in June 2019, calls the Green New Deal a “crucial framework” and likewise advocates for a society-wide effort to reduce emissions, invest in infrastructure, create new jobs, and advance social justice.
• The plan would commit the U.S. economy to net-zero emissions by 2050. It envisions $1.7 trillion in direct government spending on clean energy. It promises executive action on methane emissions, stricter fuel-economy standards, and nationwide energy efficiency standards. Biden also opposes any new drilling, including fracking, on public lands.
• It promises a return to the 2015 Paris climate agreement and a diplomatic push to make its targets more ambitious. Biden also wants to use trade policy as a climate tool by putting tariffs on high-carbon products from other countries.
• It advocates for major reforms in transportation, agriculture, and housing to reduce their carbon footprint and create jobs. 
• In July 2020, Biden expanded on the 2019 plan, upping his budget proposal to more than $2 trillion in an effort to achieve a carbon-free electricity sector by 2035, invest more in low-income communities and communities of color, build clean infrastructure, and leverage the federal government to purchase zero-emissions vehicles. The proposal also frames this spending as a plank of Biden’s post-pandemic economic recovery plan.
• He told CFR that he would bar U.S. foreign aid and financing for coal-fired power plants overseas, provide debt relief for countries implementing green policies, and expand Group of Twenty efforts to reduce fossil fuel subsidies worldwide.
• He touts the record of the Obama administration, including $90 billion for clean energy in the 2009 stimulus law, tighter fuel-economy standards, new regulations on coal-fired power plants, and the negotiation of the Paris accord. 
• The Obama administration’s “all-of-the-above” energy strategy also supported the fracking boom that helped double U.S. oil production. In 2008, Biden expressed support for clean coal technologies opposed by many environmentalists and declined to vote on the unsuccessful Climate Security Act, the most ambitious emissions-capping legislation to reach the Senate floor.

Harris describes the climate crisis as an “existential threat.” She has supported many of Biden’s climate policies, including his decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement, and cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate to pass the largest clean energy and climate investment bill in U.S. history.

• Harris backed Biden’s decision to return the United States to the 2015 Paris Agreement, under which nearly two hundred countries agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to limit global temperature rise.
• She cast the tiebreaking vote on the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the largest investment in climate-related policies in U.S. history. The bill budgets roughly $370 billion for emissions-reduction efforts, including tax credits and subsidies for clean energy projects. The IRA builds on the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a $1.2 trillion law to upgrade U.S. infrastructure and spur the adoption of electric vehicles, among other measures.
• As part of the IIJA, the Biden-Harris administration created the Civil Nuclear Credit Program to invest $6 billion in existing nuclear energy facilities. In March 2024, the administration announced it will lend $1.5 billion to Michigan to restart a shuttered nuclear plant, the nation’s first such recommissioning.
• Harris launched a new partnership between the United States and Caribbean countries that seeks to strengthen energy security, critical infrastructure, and local economies in the region.
• At the 2023 UN climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Harris announced a $3 billion pledge from the United States to the UN Green Climate Fund, the world’s largest fund dedicated to helping developing countries address climate change. 
• The Biden-Harris administration created the American Climate Corps, a jobs program that aims to train tens of thousands of young people in high-demand skills for careers in climate action and clean energy. The program is modeled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps.
• The Biden-Harris administration has approved a range of new fossil fuel projects, including an $8 billion oil drilling project in northern Alaska. However, it also announced restrictions on new oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres (5.3 million hectares) of an Alaskan federal petroleum reserve. Under the administration, oil and gas production has continued to grow to historic highs, with the United States becoming the world’s largest crude oil producer.
• As a 2020 presidential candidate, Harris put forth a $10 trillion plan that called for net-zero emissions by 2045 and a carbon-neutral electricity sector by 2030. She also pledged to end federal support for the fossil fuel industry and called for a carbon tax and a ban on fracking. She now says she will not ban fracking.
• As a senator in 2019, Harris was an early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, a nonbinding congressional resolution that aimed to help the United States transition to 100 percent clean energy within a decade, and said she would eliminate the Senate filibuster to pass the deal if needed.

Biden has put forward a national plan to address the pandemic of the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19. He pledges to strengthen presidential leadership and spend “whatever it takes” to expand testing, contact tracing, treatment, and other health services; support the economy; and prepare for future pandemics. He criticizes Trump’s response as “political theater” and promises to return the United States to a position of global leadership on the crisis.

• Biden has released a pandemic plan with a three-pronged approach: a health response, an economic response, and a global response. He cites his experience as vice president, during which he helped lead the Obama administration’s responses to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and the 2014–16 Ebola epidemic. The plan would nationalize the coronavirus response, rather than relegate it to state governments as the Trump administration has done.
• His plan calls for national emergency health-care mobilization that ramps up testing, makes it free, and provides transparency on the resulting data. It also promises to rapidly expand hospital capacity by quickly creating temporary hospitals, in part through the mobilization of Defense Department resources; establish a national corps of at least one hundred thousand contact tracers; and accelerate the creation of vaccines and other treatments. He would also mandate wearing masks in public.
• The plan promises zero out-of-pocket expenses for anyone who needs coronavirus-related health services of any kind by amending the relevant laws governing both private and public health insurance plans. The plan doesn’t offer a cost estimate, but campaign officials say Biden would spend “whatever it takes” to get the coronavirus crisis under control.
• It proposes to incentivize businesses to produce more personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and gloves. His administration would work with businesses to return some pharmaceutical and medical equipment supply chains back to the United States, after decades of outsourcing much of that production abroad.
• He promises to lead an expanded global response that would be coordinated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and would assist vulnerable nations. He pledges to rejoin the World Health Organization and cooperate more closely with the United Nations and other major world players.
• He says he will restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, an office within the National Security Council for preparing and coordinating the response to pandemics that the Trump administration disbanded in 2018. He promises to expand staffing and funding for the State Department and other federal agency health programs.
• He faults Beijing for a lack of transparency in the early stages of the crisis, and says that he would have insisted on sending U.S. health experts to the country.
• On the economic front, his plan proposes a raft of federal programs to protect workers. These include mandated paid sick leave policies, expanded unemployment benefits, and additional funds for federal food programs, child care programs, and loans to small businesses.
• It also proposes a new “State and Local Emergency Fund” that will allow governors and mayors to access federal dollars for a range of purposes, including mortgage and rental relief, jobs programs, or direct cash payments to citizens.

Biden has been a major proponent of a strategy he called “counterterrorism plus.” This approach emphasizes fighting terrorist networks in foreign countries using small groups of U.S. special forces and aggressive air strikes instead of large troop deployments.

• This counterterrorism strategy largely defined the Obama administration’s policy in fighting jihadists and other militant groups around the world, including in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, West Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Arabian peninsula, where U.S. drone strikes have rapidly increased. These operations controversially included the direct targeting of militants with U.S. citizenship, such as Anwar al-Awlaki.
• He opposes Trump’s executive order barring travelers from several majority-Muslim countries, which the Trump administration says is necessary to limit entry of would-be terrorists into the country.
• He told CFR that U.S. policy must focus on ensuring the remnants of al-Qaeda and the self-proclaimed Islamic State cannot reconstitute themselves.
• He has supported a number of expansions of federal anti-terrorism authority. He introduced an unsuccessful 1995 law to expand government surveillance powers, much of which was incorporated into the 2001 Patriot Act, which he supported. In 2015, the Obama administration approved the USA Freedom Act, which renewed the Patriot Act with some new restrictions on surveillance.    
• He was a critic of other federal surveillance measures, voting against updates to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 2007 and 2008 that authorized the collection of emails, search histories, and other personal data of U.S. citizens.
• He says that as vice president, he was an advocate of closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which he has called an “advertisement” for recruiting terrorists. Attempts to fully close the facility were blocked by Congress.

Biden says that cyber threats are a growing challenge for U.S. national security, election integrity, and the health of the nation’s democracy. Meanwhile, he thinks government should be pressuring tech companies to reform their practices around privacy, surveillance, and hate speech.

• As president, he would call a global summit to pressure tech companies to make pledges that they will ensure their platforms “are not empowering the surveillance state, facilitating repression in China and elsewhere, spreading hate, [or] spurring people to violence.”
• He told CFR that the United States should use its foreign assistance to provide the world with alternatives to China’s “dystopian” surveillance technologies. 
• He says he would work with U.S. allies to develop 5G cellular networks and other advanced technologies to ensure they remain secure from intrusion by U.S. adversaries.
• He is co-chair of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, a group founded in 2018 by former U.S. and EU policymakers to combat the shared threat of election hacking, especially by Russia.
• He has repeatedly warned of the vulnerability of U.S. cyber infrastructure—including transportation networks, electrical grids, and election systems—to attack, sabotage, and infiltration, and calls for greater investment and higher regulatory standards.
• He warns about the ability of China and Russia to exploit loopholes in the U.S. regulatory system and use the financial industry to launder money to get around the ban on foreign funding of elections.
• While Biden has called some of the proposals to break up Facebook and other social media giants “premature,” he says the option should be considered. He argues for the repeal of regulations that exempt Facebook and other online platforms from responsibility for what their users post.

Biden has supported some U.S. military interventions abroad and opposed others. He has often advocated for narrow objectives in the use of force, and he has expressed skepticism over the ability of the United States to reshape foreign societies. He is wary of unilateral efforts, emphasizing the importance of diplomacy and working through alliances and global institutions.

• He says that force should be used “only to defend our vital interests, when the objective is clear and achievable,” and promises to end what he calls “the forever wars” in Afghanistan and the Middle East. 
• In 2016, speaking about the use of military force, he argued that “we need a real strong dose of humility about [our] capacity to fundamentally alter circumstances around the world.” He rules out using U.S. troops for any regime-change efforts.
• He says that the United States has both a moral duty and a security interest to respond with military force to genocide or chemical weapons use around the world. He also favors using force to avoid the disruption of the global oil trade.
• He told CFR that he would bring U.S. combat troops home from Afghanistan in his first term by launching a high-level diplomatic effort that includes Afghanistan’s neighbors. He favors keeping a small number of special forces and intelligence assets in the country to combat terrorism, while pursuing peace talks with the Taliban. 
• He supported the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, but as vice president pushed for troop reductions and a more limited mission. He argues that 2019 reports that U.S. policymakers misled the public about the progress of the Afghan war vindicate his opposition to “nation-building” there.
• He argues that military spending is too focused on traditional warfare rather than emerging areas for defense such as space and cyberspace. He says the United States must seek to maintain its superiority amid a “return to great power competition” with China and Russia.
• He supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but he now calls it a “mistake” and touts his role in withdrawing 150,000 troops from the country in 2011. 
• He says he would “reaffirm” the ban on torture and provide more transparency on military operations, particularly as it relates to civilian casualties.
• He is a strong proponent of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), calling it “the single most important military alliance in the history of the world.” 
• As vice president, he was against the 2011 intervention in Libya and skeptical of committing U.S. troops to Syria.
• Biden has criticized the expansion of executive war powers, saying as a candidate for president in 2008 that the use of force without congressional approval, except in the case of an imminent threat, is an impeachable offense. 
• He promises a new federal initiative to address suicide and mental health issues among veterans that will include increased funding to Veterans Affairs health programs.

Harris has positioned herself as a strong supporter of multilateral cooperation and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). She has emphasized the U.S. commitment to Ukraine and furthered U.S. space policy as chair of the White House National Space Council.

• The Biden-Harris administration’s 2022 National Security Strategy [PDF] broadly maintained the Trump administration’s focus on great-power competition with China and Russia. Harris has pledged to ensure the United States “always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”
• At the Munich Security Conference in 2024, Harris reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO, calling it the “greatest military alliance the world has ever known.” Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Biden-Harris administration supported NATO enlargement by pushing for approval of Finland’s and Sweden’s accession bids. (The countries joined NATO in 2023 and 2024, respectively.)
• The Biden-Harris administration also formulated an updated Indo-Pacific Strategy [PDF], which pledges to support “a free and open Indo-Pacific.” To that end, the United States has inked a new defense pact with Papua New Guinea and advanced an existing defense agreement with the Philippines. The Biden-Harris administration has also deepened security cooperation with Japan and South Korea, and it held the inaugural in-person summit of the so-called Quad—an alliance comprising the United States, Australia, India, and Japan—which aims to counter China in the Indo-Pacific. 
• The administration announced a new trilateral pact with Australia and the United Kingdom, known as AUKUS, that seeks to bolster the countries’ allied deterrence and defense capabilities against China, including by supplying Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
• Harris has called for greater involvement with Africa, and in 2023, led a weeklong trip to the continent. In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration published a new Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa [PDF] that emphasizes democracy protection, economic development, and the clean energy transition; that same year, a U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit produced commitments to increase U.S. military aid and training for African governments. 
• Harris chairs the White House’s National Space Council, which advises the president on space policy and strategy. In 2022, she announced the U.S. commitment to halt anti-satellite weapons tests, which create dangerous atmospheric debris. She has also overseen a large increase in the number of signatories to the Artemis Accords, a global agreement governing space-related activity.
• She said she agreed with President Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. The Biden-Harris administration withdrew all remaining U.S. troops from the country in August 2021 as part of an earlier deal struck by Trump.
• She also told CFR that she would consider some sanctions relief to improve life for North Koreans in exchange for Pyongyang taking “serious, verifiable steps” to denuclearize.
• As a senator, Harris voted against reauthorizing parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act because it did not require warrants for the government to access U.S. citizens’ information.

Biden emphasizes that the United States cannot deal with the new challenges it faces without close relationships with its allies and the cooperation of international institutions. He says Trump’s withdrawal from treaties and his denigration of alliances has “bankrupted America’s word in the world.”

• He wants to convene all democratic nations in a “Summit for Democracy” to discuss three major areas: fighting corruption, defending against rising authoritarianism, and advancing human rights.
• He says he will make diplomacy the premier tool of U.S. foreign policy and will “rebuild” the State Department.
• He argues that Trump has “belittled, undermined, and in some cases abandoned U.S. allies and partners.”
• He promises to recommit to alliances and reenter agreements, including restoring U.S. support for NATO, rejoining the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, and strengthening alliances with Australia, Israel, Japan, and South Korea.
• He warns about the rising tide of populism and nationalism around the world, and argues that if the United States withdraws from global leadership, “authoritarian powers will rush in.” He says Trump’s “admiration for autocrats” is dangerous. 
• He told CFR that the United States’ greatest foreign policy accomplishment has been the “investments in collective security and prosperity” made in partnership with U.S. allies.

Biden has positioned himself as a champion of the middle class, warning that decreasing economic opportunity and mobility is worsening the polarization and radicalization of American life. He proposes trillions of dollars in new federal spending on U.S. products, infrastructure, and research, arguing that “economic security is national security.”

• He argues that the “basic bargain” with workers has broken down, and that economic globalization has had major downsides. He says globalization has “hollowed out” the middle class, led to the loss of millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs, and accelerated inequality. 
• He says the 2017 tax reform has made these problems worse by cutting taxes for the wealthiest individuals. He wants to repeal the 2017 law, instead raising corporate taxes and taxes on investments and other passive income. He would also increase middle-class benefits such as the child tax credit. 
• That additional tax revenue, he says, would help fund his $700 billion “Buy American” economic plan, outlined in July 2020. Under this plan, the federal government would spend $400 billion on U.S. goods and services over four years and devote another $300 billion to research and development of clean energy and other technologies. 
• He has described Trump’s manufacturing strategy as “trickle-down economics that works for corporate executives and Wall Street investors, but not working families.”
• He also wants to invest trillions of dollars into American infrastructure. He proposes putting at least $1.7 trillion—which he says would be generated by reversing the 2017 tax cuts—toward clean energy and other infrastructure. 
• He has consistently proposed major reforms to U.S. education, pushing for free community college and vocational training, as well as free public four-year college. He says this is essential for U.S. workers to compete internationally and adapt in an economy under pressure from automation and other technological disruptions.
• He proposes policies to strengthen worker leverage in the marketplace: banning noncompete rules, ending wage secrecy, and implementing a national $15 per hour minimum wage.  
• He wants to do more to challenge monopolies, arguing that the Trump administration has been weak on antitrust. He has said he is open to the federal government breaking up dominant firms like Facebook.

Harris has prioritized national and international health-care issues. She has long been an outspoken supporter of reproductive rights, advocating for new legislation to restore abortion rights overturned by the Supreme Court. She has also played a role in the administration’s efforts to address the opioid epidemic.

• The Biden-Harris administration pursued an aggressive COVID-19 vaccination policy that included free vaccine access and a nationwide vaccine mandate that would have affected most large employers. (The Supreme Court later struck down the mandate.) In 2021, the administration released a national pandemic strategy [PDF] that focused on quickly ramping up vaccine production, protecting essential workers, and expanding access to testing and treatment.
• The administration issued an executive order retracting Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization, to which the United States is one of the largest donors.
• In 2023, Harris convened state attorneys general from across the country to discuss state and federal efforts to address the U.S. opioid epidemic. Her campaign says she will sign the bipartisan border security bill to fund technology that would help detect illegal drugs being smuggled across the border. The Biden-Harris administration has declared synthetic opioid trafficking a national emergency; sanctioned firms and individuals in China, a critical node in the drug’s supply chain; and pushed China and Mexico to do more to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
• In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration unveiled a new national biodefense strategy [PDF] that aims to help the United States better prepare for large-scale biological or viral threats that could emerge in the future. The strategy led to the creation of the White House’s Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, tasked with coordinating, leading, and implementing pandemic preparedness efforts.
• Harris has been a leading voice on reproductive rights. She criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 1973 decision which recognized a constitutional right to abortion, and supports new legislation to enshrine Roe into federal law. In 2021, the Biden-Harris administration rescinded the so-called Mexico City policy blocking abortion-related programs from receiving U.S. foreign aid, saying that it undermined U.S. efforts to support women’s health. 
• As a senator, Harris cosponsored legislation that sought to ban states from imposing restrictions on abortion rights, and she voted against a bill that aimed to ban abortions after twenty weeks.

Biden has condemned Trump’s approach to immigrants and asylum seekers, calling it “morally bankrupt” and “racist.” He supports comprehensive immigration reform, and has in the past backed more restrictionist policies. He emphasizes the need to address the root causes of immigration in the countries of origin.

• Biden highlights his role on immigration in the Obama administration, where he led policy on addressing the 2014 wave of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S. southern border. He says the $750 million aid package the administration gave to Central American governments helped stem the flow of migrants.
• He continues to back the broad outlines of Obama’s unsuccessful 2013 comprehensive reform plan, including a path to citizenship for undocumented residents paired with stronger border enforcement. He says border policy should focus on beefing up screening at legal points of entry, not building a wall.
• He would overturn policies that separate families at the border and prolong detentions. He also vows to establish public-private networks to address humanitarian needs at the border.
• He opposes Trump’s executive order barring travelers from several majority-Muslim countries, which the Trump administration says is necessary to limit entry of would-be terrorists into the country.
• He says Dreamers—undocumented residents brought to the United States as children—should be immediately granted citizenship. 
• He criticizes Trump on punishing so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. He condemns family separation and overcrowded detention facilities and wants to “strengthen and streamline” the U.S. asylum system. 
• He also wants to reverse Trump on temporary protected status (TPS)—restoring the immigration program for citizens of El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, and elsewhere and extending it to Venezuelans. 
• He has rebutted criticism from other candidates who have attacked Obama’s deportation policy—three million people were deported during his tenure—saying it is “immoral” to compare Obama and Trump.
• As a senator, he voted for the 2006 Secure Fence Act, which authorized seven hundred miles of fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border, and a 1996 law that increased penalties for illegal immigration and expanded the government’s deportation authority. In 2008, he proposed jailing employers that hire undocumented workers, cracking down on sanctuary cities, and building more border fencing to stop drug dealers from Mexico. 

Harris advocates for comprehensive immigration reform. She was tasked with leading the federal effort to address the root causes of migration from Central America, though her comments dissuading would-be migrants from traveling to the United States have created controversy.

• Harris has promised to reform the “broken” immigration system, including by bringing back and signing into law the bipartisan border security bill that failed twice in Congress.
• Biden tapped Harris to lead the administration’s diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of migration from Central America’s so-called Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Since 2021, Harris has helped secure some $5 billion in private sector investment to promote economic opportunities and curb violence in Central America.
• During her first international trip to Guatemala and Mexico in 2021, she told would-be migrants thinking about making the dangerous trek to the southern U.S. border “do not come” given the likelihood they would be turned away by border authorities.
• The Biden-Harris administration reinstated the Central American Minors program, which has allowed thousands of children from the Northern Triangle to gain refugee status or temporary legal residence before traveling to the southern U.S. border. 
• The Biden-Harris administration has sought to rebuild the U.S. refugee resettlement program after Trump made large cuts. In fiscal year 2023, the United States welcomed more than sixty thousand refugees, over double the previous year. The administration also created new parole programs that have welcomed tens of thousands of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees to the United States.
• The administration has sought to restore asylum access, including by ending daily limits on asylum applications and restoring protections to victims of domestic and gang violence. However, it unveiled a new policy in 2023 that allows the government to deny asylum to migrants who did not previously apply for it in a third country and to those who cross the border illegally. This approach includes new screening centers in several Latin American countries.
• In 2024, the administration also issued an order temporarily blocking people who illegally cross the border from seeking asylum once the number of daily crossings exceeds a certain threshold—which it has for much of Biden’s presidency. A separate order also expanded green card access for certain undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens.
• The administration has expanded and renewed temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of eligible nationals of several countries, including Afghanistan, Cameroon, and Ukraine.
• The Biden-Harris team has expanded the capacity of some guest worker visa programs in response to the increasing demand for temporary workers.
• As a presidential candidate in 2019, she put forth an immigration plan that called for the creation of a path to citizenship for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, a program launched by former President Barack Obama that provides deportation relief and work permits to undocumented migrants brought to the United States illegally as children.
• In 2020, she reintroduced the Access to Counsel Act, which would ensure that people held or detained while entering the United States have access to legal counsel. She originally introduced the bill—her first as a senator—in 2017. She also supported legislation that would have expedited the reunification of immigrant families.

The Biden-Harris administration has focused on making public investments in infrastructure and green energy, expanding the middle class, and challenging monopolistic consolidation. To pay for a surge in spending, it has sought to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans. 

• Harris supported legislation signed by Biden that authorized trillions of dollars in new public spending. In 2021, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the largest infrastructure spending bill in decades, authorized $1.2 trillion in spending toward U.S. roads, railways, airports, and other infrastructure. Additional subsidies for semiconductor and climate investments have surpassed $800 billion.
• Nonpartisan watchdogs expect that the administration’s spending programs will increase the growing federal deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. The deficit is now $1.7 trillion, and the national debt has climbed past $30 trillion, or more than 100 percent of U.S. economic output.
• She has backed Biden’s proposals to institute trillions of dollars worth of tax increases. She supports raising the top income tax rate and implementing a wealth tax that would impose a 25 percent levy on individuals with more than $100 million worth of total assets, including unrealized gains. She also favors raising the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent. However, her proposal to raise the capital gains tax to 28 percent is lower than the 39.6 percent rate proposed by Biden.
• Harris says that building the middle class will be a “defining goal” of her presidency. Her proposed policies include raising the minimum wage, eliminating taxes on tips, and creating a newborn child tax credit of up to $6,000 per year. The economic proposals in a fact sheet released by the Harris campaign would add $1.7 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to some estimates.
• In 2018, she proposed legislation that called for reversing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Many of these cuts are set to expire in 2025; Biden has proposed maintaining cuts for Americans making less than $400,000, a plan Harris now supports.
• In 2021, the Biden-Harris administration brokered a global agreement to tax corporations at a minimum of 15 percent, though it is yet to be implemented. A year later, the administration introduced a 15 percent corporate minimum tax on U.S. companies with annual income over $1 billion. Harris supports raising that rate to 21 percent.
• The administration has made antitrust policy a priority, challenging alleged monopolies in the aviation, energy, and technology sectors. In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice recorded the most challenges to proposed mergers since the United States began requiring premerger reviews in 1976.

Harris backs Israel’s right to self-defense but has also been outspoken about the toll on Palestinian civilians amid the war between Israel and Hamas. She supports an immediate cease-fire and hostage release as well as a two-state solution to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• She says she “will always give Israel the ability to defend itself.” She has previously reiterated this point, including in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July 2024. She has supported U.S. military aid to Israel, which has topped $12 billion since Hamas attacked the country in October 2023, and she says she would continue the Biden-Harris administration’s policy on arming Israel.
• Harris called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in March 2024, one month before Biden did. She said she supports “Israel’s legitimate military objectives to eliminate the threat of Hamas” but decried the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip. She has pressed Israeli leaders to do more to protect civilians and has pushed the Israeli government to allow more aid into Gaza.
• At her first debate with Trump, she said there must be a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve.” She has called for a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority to govern a unified Gaza and West Bank. She also says Israel needs to hold “extremist settlers” in the West Bank accountable for violence against Palestinians. In February 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned four Israeli settlers accused of violence in the West Bank.
• In 2021, she affirmed U.S. support for the Abraham Accords, a series of normalization deals between Israel and Arab countries negotiated by the Trump administration. 
• Before Hamas attacked Israel, the Biden-Harris administration was seeking a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. In exchange, Riyadh had asked for formalized U.S. security guarantees, cooperation on a civilian nuclear program, and Israeli concessions toward Palestinians.
• As a senator, she supported a 2018 resolution calling on the president to end all military actions in Yemen and voted to block weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. The Biden-Harris administration froze certain offensive arms sales to Saudi Arabia in 2021 before resuming them in August 2024 with a $750 million weapons sale.
• She says she will take “whatever action is necessary” to defend U.S. troops against Iran and its proxies. After Iran-aligned forces killed three U.S. service members in Jordan in January 2024, U.S. military forces struck more than eighty-five Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria.
• She says one of her highest priorities is to “ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power.” In 2019, she told CFR that she would rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Iran returned to compliance. The Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to rejoin the deal were hindered by Iran’s support of Hamas, the Houthis, and other groups antagonistic to the United States.

Both as a senator and as vice president, Biden has been deeply engaged in shaping U.S. diplomacy and military policy across the Middle East. As a candidate, he is running on his experience dealing with Iraq, Israel, Syria, Iran, and others in the region.

• Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel throughout his political career, calling himself a Zionist. He says his commitment to Israel’s security is “ironclad” and that, while he promises to place “constant pressure” on Israel to resolve its conflicts, he would not withhold aid.
• He told CFR he backs a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, which he says Trump’s unilateral approach has made more difficult. He supports keeping the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem after Trump moved it there in 2018.
• He also says Israel must stop settlement activity in the occupied territories and provide more aid to Gaza, and that Palestinian leaders should stop the “glorification of violence.” He calls on Arab states to normalize relations with Israel. He says he does not support Israeli government plans to annex the West Bank, arguing such a move would “choke off any hope for peace.”
• He criticizes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to put economic pressure on Israel, and says it “veers into anti-Semitism,” and that he would oppose any BDS efforts in Congress.
• He calls Iran a “destabilizing” force in the region and told CFR it must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
• He calls Trump’s approach to Iran a “self-inflicted disaster”, arguing that his withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal has failed to keep Tehran from advancing its nuclear program. Biden pledges to rejoin the agreement if Iran returns to compliance.
• He says that Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. air strike in January 2020, deserved justice for his role in attacks on U.S. troops, but that Trump’s decision to target him was an “enormous escalation” made without any plan for the likely consequences. He says Trump has no authority to undertake war with Iran without congressional approval.
• He condemns Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria, which he calls a betrayal of the Kurds and “the most shameful thing any president has done in modern history in terms of foreign policy.” He says Turkey “must pay a heavy price” for its military campaign in Syrian Kurdish territory. 
• He says he is “very concerned” about the United States keeping nuclear weapons in Turkey, and proposes stronger support for the domestic opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As vice president, Biden publicly apologized to Erdogan for suggesting Turkey supported the Islamic State.
• As vice president, he was skeptical of committing U.S. troops to Syria, arguing that any significant use of force would have had unpredictable consequences. In 2018, he called Syria one of the United States’ “biggest conundrums.” 
• He has long been deeply involved in Iraq policy. As a senator, he supported President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, but opposed the 2007 surge of additional troops. Instead, Biden proposed partitioning Iraq into three self-governing regions. As vice president, he oversaw the 2011 withdrawal of the remaining 150,000 U.S. troops and then the return of U.S. forces to fight the Islamic State in 2014.
• He told CFR he wants a “reassessment” of U.S. support for Saudi Arabia in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi-led war in Yemen, and domestic human rights violations.
• Though the Obama administration backed the Saudi war in Yemen, Biden says Washington should end its involvement in the “unwinnable conflict.” He also says he would stop arms sales to the kingdom and treat Riyadh like a “pariah” on the world stage.
• He has long been critical of Saudi Arabia. In 2014, he blamed the country and its Sunni allies for allowing resources to flow to the Islamic State. 

Biden supports diplomacy with Pyongyang, but says that Trump’s talks with Kim Jong-un have been unsuccessful and potentially counterproductive, serving only to “legitimize a dictator.”

• Biden supports continued negotiations, but says they would depend on Kim taking concrete steps toward dismantling his nuclear program, with a final goal of a fully denuclearized North Korea. He says he would not continue direct personal diplomacy with Kim.
• He told CFR he would launch a “sustained, coordinated campaign” with U.S. allies and with China to advance negotiations. He says Trump has “ostracized” the United States from its Asian allies, especially South Korea, and that he would seek to deepen Washington’s relationship with Seoul.
• He has called Trump’s repeated meetings with Kim “photo-ops,” and he argues that they have worsened the situation by bolstering Kim’s regime without securing any concessions.
• “We still don’t have a single commitment from North Korea...not one missile or nuclear weapon has been destroyed, not one inspector is on the ground,” Biden has said.

Biden warns that Russia under President Vladimir Putin is “assaulting the foundations of Western democracy” by seeking to weaken NATO, divide the European Union, and undermine the U.S. electoral system. He also warns of Russia using Western financial institutions to launder billions of dollars, money he says is then used to influence politicians.

• Biden is a longtime champion of NATO, and has encouraged its expansion eastward, most recently with the accession of Montenegro. In 2009, he supported the so far unsuccessful ambitions of Georgia and Ukraine to join the alliance.
• He calls for an independent investigation into “Russia’s assault on American democracy,” along the lines of the 9/11 Commission, to examine how to deter Moscow’s ongoing efforts at disruption. 
• He says that the United States and its European allies must strengthen their cyber infrastructure, close foreign-money loopholes, increase the transparency of online platforms, and better coordinate intelligence and law enforcement efforts.
• They must also invest more in NATO, which he says should forward deploy more troops to Eastern Europe to deter Russian aggression.
• He argues that the United States and Europe must “impose meaningful costs” on Moscow. Biden touts the sanctions the Obama administration levied against Russia after its 2014 invasion of Ukraine and says they should be continued and expanded as necessary.
• He told CFR that he would increase U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, conditioned on anticorruption reforms, to ensure “Russia pays a heavier price” for its interference. As vice president, he advocated for sending weapons to Ukraine to support it against the Russia-backed insurgency in its eastern territories, and he supported Trump’s moves to do so as well.
• He sharply criticized Trump for failing to respond to intelligence reports that reportedly indicated Moscow was offering bounties to Taliban-linked militias to kill U.S. and coalition soldiers in Afghanistan, calling it a “dereliction of duty.” 
• He opposes Trump’s advocacy for readmitting Russia to the Group of Seven, from which it was expelled after its 2014 annexation of Crimea.
• Biden has faced criticism from Trump for his family’s ties to Ukraine, specifically the affiliation of his son, Hunter, with a Ukrainian energy company while Biden was serving as vice president. Biden says Hunter’s position had no connection to U.S.-Ukraine policy. Trump’s alleged efforts to use military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden were at the center of Trump’s 2019 impeachment.
• Despite his distrust of Russian policy objectives, Biden says Washington should pursue new arms control arrangements with Moscow, beginning with the extension of the New START treaty to reduce nuclear stockpiles.

Harris says the United States will back Ukraine’s defensive efforts against Russia for “as long as it takes” to counter the threat that a Russian victory would pose to the rest of Europe. She has represented the United States at peace talks on Ukraine and encouraged Congress to give Kyiv tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance.

• Harris has condemned Russia’s invasion, and pledges to continue aiding Ukraine in its defensive efforts. She says any negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot happen without Ukraine’s participation. Since 2022, the United States has provided Ukraine with some $175 billion in assistance, including financial, humanitarian, and military support.
• In June 2024, Harris represented the United States at a peace summit organized by Ukraine in Switzerland, where she sought to rally global support to pressure Russia to end its war. At the summit, she pledged close to $2 billion in additional aid for Ukraine.
• Harris argues that a failure to respond to Russian aggression in Ukraine would embolden other countries considering invasions. She has helped coordinate with Western allies to impose sweeping sanctions, export controls, and other penalties on Russian entities and individuals, including the Russian private military company Wagner Group. The measures have focused on isolating Russia from the global financial system, limiting its energy exports, and hampering its military capabilities.
• She says Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine. In 2019, she told CFR that Russia’s occupation of Crimea is a “severe violation of international norms.” 
• In 2018, Harris was among more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers who objected to Trump’s decision to withdraw from a 1987 treaty that required the United States and Russia to eliminate their stockpiles of midrange, ground-launched nuclear missiles.

Harris says trade is important for economic growth but argues that trade deals should shield American workers from unfair practices abroad. The Biden-Harris administration has applied new guardrails on trade aimed at promoting U.S. manufacturing, countering China’s economic rise, and addressing worsening climate change. 

• Before becoming vice president, Harris said she is “not a protectionist Democrat” and opposed widespread tariffs, which she has argued contribute to inflation. However, the Biden-Harris administration has maintained some $360 billion in tariffs on China that were implemented by Trump and introduced tens of billions of dollars in additional duties. Harris also says that U.S. Steel, which agreed to sell itself to Japanese firm Nippon Steel in 2023, should “remain American-owned.”
• The Biden-Harris administration has argued that previous trade deals focused too much on boosting corporate profits while exposing U.S. workers to unfair competition. It has sought to strengthen investment in U.S. manufacturing and infrastructure to increase the country’s economic competitiveness.
• As a senator, Harris opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement negotiated by President Barack Obama and from which Trump withdrew, arguing the deal would harm American workers and the climate. The Biden-Harris administration has instead sought to negotiate a successor deal that includes cooperation on supply chains but does not eliminate tariffs or increase access to the U.S. market.
• She was one of ten senators to oppose the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, an updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was negotiated by Trump and supported by Biden. In 2019, she said that she would not sign a trade deal “unless it protected American workers and it protected our environment.” 
• The Biden-Harris Administration has mobilized the federal government to support strategic domestic industries, an effort known as industrial policy. Harris cast the tiebreaking vote in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which contained roughly $370 billion in federal grants, loans, and tax incentives for clean energy. To obtain access to IRA funding, companies must agree to limit operations in China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. 
• In 2022, the administration passed the CHIPS and Science Act directing hundreds of billions of dollars toward U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. It has also imposed a slew of new restrictions aimed at curtailing Beijing’s access to advanced technologies and pushed U.S. allies, including major semiconductor suppliers Japan and the Netherlands, to implement similar restrictions.
• Harris has said that she wants to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Biden-Harris administration has pushed for changes to the WTO’s dispute-settlement mechanism even as it has continued Trump’s and Obama’s practice of blocking nominees to its appeals court, saying that China is gaming the system.

Biden has been a longtime supporter of trade liberalization and a critic of Trump’s tariffs, arguing that Washington should take the lead on creating global trade rules and lowering barriers to commerce worldwide. However, he is also critical of some aspects of trade. 

• He told CFR that the United States must “write the rules of the road for the world” to create a level playing field for workers and to protect the environment. He says he wouldn’t sign any new trade deal that doesn’t include “major investments” in jobs and infrastructure, or that doesn’t include labor and environmental advocates in negotiations. 
• As vice president, he backed the Obama administration’s Asia-Pacific trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump rejected. He says backing out of the TPP “put China in the driver’s seat.”
• Singling out China, he argues for “aggressive” retaliation against countries that break international trade rules by subsidizing their companies and stealing U.S. intellectual property. He also says existing trade laws must be better enforced, and argues that the United States must use its economic leverage to negotiate better deals.
• He opposes Trump’s trade war with China, calling the tariffs “self-defeating” because Americans are bearing their cost.
• As a senator in 1993, he voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a vote he continues to defend. He supports Trump’s renegotiated version, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, because of its improved labor rights provisions.
• He has opposed some other U.S. trade deals, like the one signed with Peru in 2006, citing weak labor and environmental protections. He supported normalizing trade relations with China in 2000. 
• He told CFR that Washington should help African countries develop by strengthening trade relationships and opening new markets for U.S. businesses.

Biden says that Trump has “taken a wrecking ball to our hemispheric ties,” pointing to his immigration policies and also to what Biden sees as a haphazard approach to the regional crisis in Venezuela, which has created more than three million refugees.

• Biden told CFR that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is a “tyrant” who should step aside, and has called on world governments to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido. 
• He advocates for increased sanctions on the regime and its supporters, more aid to help both Venezuela and its neighbors deal with the refugee crisis, and negotiations over the release of political prisoners and new elections.
• He criticizes Trump’s handling of the Venezuela crisis, charging that his administration’s efforts to support democracy there “have been undermined by politicization, faulty execution and clunky sloganeering.” 
• He says that Trump’s “saber rattling” over potential U.S. military intervention in Venezuela has threatened the coalition that has been assembled to support Guaido, and he condemns the administration’s refusal to allow more Venezuelans refuge in the United States.
• He points to his focus on Latin America as vice president. During his tenure, the Obama administration reopened diplomatic ties with Cuba, which the Trump administration then reversed, blaming Cuba for propping up Maduro’s regime in Venezuela. Obama also concluded trade deals with Colombia and Panama and negotiated a $750 million aid package for Central America.