On Biden’s Second-Term Agenda: Unmet Goals From His First Term

President Biden wants American voters to give him another four years in office to “finish the job”—a signal that his second-term agenda would be driven largely by efforts to reach policy goals left undone in his first term.

Mr. Biden still has 18 months before the election to unveil some new proposals. And he won’t be the only one on the ballot in November 2024—both the House and Senate majorities will be at stake, and the fate of much of Mr. Biden’s agenda would depend on whether Republicans again end up in control of one or both chambers of Congress. A second Biden administration would also spend significant time continuing to implement the big-ticket bills passed in his first term.

Here is a closer look at what Mr. Biden has crossed off his to-do list and what is left on it that he is expected to try to tackle in a second term: 

Social Policy

Mr. Biden has signaled that he will push for universal prekindergarten, expanded eldercare benefits and more affordable housing if he earns a second term. The president included these ideas in his roughly $3.5 trillion agenda aimed at strengthening the country’s social safety net known as Build Back Better, but Congress whittled that down significantly. He is also expected to reup his goal of making the child tax credit permanent.