The Final Policies Biden Is Pushing Through Before He Leaves Office

President Joe Biden will leave the White House, presumably for the last time, on Jan. 20. And while his successor, Donald Trump, has promised to implement a raft of policies on Day One of his new term, Biden isn’t leaving before pushing through a few of his own.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

In December, Biden announced nearly $2.5 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, commuted death-row sentences, and granted clemency to a record number of prisoners. Since the beginning of 2025—in addition to addressing crises like the California wildfires and attending to the usual end-of-presidency securing of judicial confirmations, bill signings (mostly post office renamings), and handing out of medals to citizens and service members—Biden has used his remaining days in office to tout his administration’s accomplishments—on everything from LGBTQ rights to health care to small-business growth—as well as to assert his domestic and foreign-policy principles through a series of executive actions.

“My Administration is leaving the next Administration with a very strong hand to play,” Biden said on Monday in the first of two farewell speeches to the nation. (The second is scheduled for Wednesday.)

Here’s a rundown of some of the final policies Biden has announced this month so far, as his presidency winds down.

Blocking Nippon Steel’s planned acquisition of U.S. Steel

On Jan. 3, Biden blocked a nearly $15-billion deal from Japanese company Nippon Steel to acquire Pittsburgh-headquartered U.S. Steel—a planned move that drew political scrutiny during the recent election season amid reinvigorated calls to shore up America’s domestic manufacturing industry. Biden said he blocked the acquisition on national security grounds. “A strong domestically owned and operated steel industry represents an essential national security priority and is critical for resilient supply chains,” the outgoing President said in a statement. “Without domestic steel production and domestic steel workers, our nation is less strong and less secure.”

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel were ordered to abandon their transaction within 30 days, but they sued the Biden administration alleging “illegal interference” in the deal that the companies say, according to a joint statement, would “enhance, not threaten, United States national security.” The Biden administration extended the deadline to unwind the transaction to mid-June, further into Trump’s term, though Trump has also opposed the acquisition.

Increasing Social Security benefits for millions

On Jan. 5, Biden signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act, a bipartisan measure that will increase Social Security payments for former and current public employees who receive pensions—including firefighters, police officers, and teachers, as well as their spouses and survivors—by rescinding two federal policies that limited their benefits. “This is a big deal,” Biden said during a signing event at the White House, where he touted himself as “the first president in more than 20 years to expand Social Security benefits.” The law would increase the monthly payouts of some 3 million recipients by an average of $360, while many will also receive lump-sum payments to make up for the shortfall of benefits they should have gotten in 2024.

Trump has promised to “protect Social Security,” though analysts have warned the fund is headed toward insolvency and his proposals could worsen its finances, which may lead to legally-mandated benefit cuts.

Banning offshore drilling

On Jan. 6, Biden, using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, issued a ban on new offshore oil and natural gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, as part of his larger climate and conservation agenda. The order covers some 625 million acres of federal waters, including the U.S. East coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Coast along California, Oregon, and Washington, and more portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska. “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement.

Trump, who has promised to establish U.S. “energy dominance” by expanding oil and gas drilling, posted on Truth Social that Biden is “doing everything possible to make the TRANSITION as difficult as as possible” and said during a Jan. 7 press conference at Mar-a-Lago that he will immediately reverse Biden’s order—though he will likely need an act of Congress.

Removing medical debt from credit reports

On Jan. 7, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule that will remove around $49 billion in medical bills from consumer credit reports, improving the credit score of more than 15 million Americans. Lenders will also be barred from using medical information in their lending decisions, the bureau said, based on previous research that showed medical bills on people’s credit reports are poor predictors of their loan repayment ability. “This will be lifechanging for millions of families, making it easier for them to be approved for a car loan, a home loan, or a small-business loan,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a White House factsheet that called reducing the burden of medical debt “a key priority in President Biden and Vice President Harris’s effort to lower cost for American families.”

Expanding veterans’ benefits

On Jan. 8, Biden announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs will expand the benefit coverage of veterans with cancer believed to be linked to toxic pit exposures, as part of a yearslong effort of his Administration to increase veterans’ access to benefits. According to a press release by the Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans with acute and chronic leukemias, multiple myelomas, myelodysplastic syndromes, myelofibrosis, urinary bladder, ureter, and related genitourinary cancers, as well as the survivors of veterans who passed from these conditions, can immediately apply for benefits without needing to prove that their ailments are linked to their service. “It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as Commander-in-Chief and to support and care for our service members, veterans, and their families,” Biden said in his statement.

Imposing more sanctions on Russia

On Jan. 10, the Biden Administration expanded the sanctions on Russia’s energy sector in response to the war it continues to wage in Ukraine. In a statement, the Administration called the sanctions the “most significant” so far—covering two major Russian oil producers, dozens of oilfield service providers, 183 vessels moving seaborne Russian oil, and opaque traders of Russian oil worldwide. Some of the targeted vessels are also suspected to ship Iranian oil, according to the Treasury Department. “Some will ask why we waited for the end of the Administration to introduce sanctions on Russian oil,” reads a White House statement on the sanctions. “The answer is this: for sanctions to be successful, they must be sustainable.”

Whether or not the Trump administration plans to continue these sanctions remains to be seen, though analysts have said that Trump may find sanctions on Russia to be “stickier” than expected, and he may even take advantage of them to force negotiations with Putin to end the war. Trump “has been handed a great big stick to use,” wrote Bloomberg’s Julian Lee. “He shouldn’t just throw it away.”

Issuing guidelines on clean tax credits

On Jan. 10, the U.S. Treasury Department released partial guidelines on how companies can secure clean fuel tax credits—which was aimed at incentivizing production of low-carbon fuels—in an apparent rush to secure climate initiatives before Biden’s term ends. “This guidance will help put America on the cutting-edge of future innovation in aviation and renewable fuel while also lowering transportation costs for consumers,” said Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo. But while the guidelines provide emission reductions criteria to ensure access to the subsidies, biofuels groups criticized the lack of specificity, as it leaves many of the final decisions to Trump, who has vowed to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act that established the credit in the first place.

Forgiving student debt

On Jan. 13, Biden approved student loan relief for more than 150,000 borrowers, bringing the total number of borrowers whose student debt has been cancelled under his term to 5 million—more than any other President in U.S. history, according to the Associated Press. Student loan relief, a key Biden campaign proposal in 2020, totaled to $183.6 billion throughout Biden’s presidency despite the Supreme Court striking down a wider forgiveness plan in 2023, forcing the Administration to instead expand upon the Education Department’s existing programs. “Since Day One of my Administration, I promised to ensure higher-education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity, and I’m proud to say we have forgiven more student loan debt than any other administration in history,” the President said in a statement.

In November, Politico reported that Trump’s transition team and advisers are already eyeing a rollback of Biden’s debt-forgiveness policies, though Trump allies have admitted that doing so won’t be simple.

Restricting exports of AI chips

On Jan. 13, the Biden Administration announced additions to its existing restrictions on AI chips, aimed at preventing China and other countries of concern to the U.S. from access to the technologies that will allow them to beat America in the artificial intelligence space. Under the framework, 18 U.S. allies will have no new restrictions, but for most other countries, the U.S. will require authorization for exports, reexports, and transfers of advanced computing chips. “This policy will help build a trusted technology ecosystem around the world and allow us to protect against the national security risks associated with AI, while ensuring controls do not stifle innovation or US technological leadership,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in a statement.

Tech groups, however, have warned that such “rushed” new policies could cause “unintended and lasting damage” to the American semiconductor and AI chip industry. The rule, however, has a 120-day comment period, which means the Trump Administration will get to decide whether or not it ultimately goes through.

“Obviously it’s going to be up to them how they want to proceed, and they may have internal debates the same way we had internal debates about exactly how to calibrate the rule,” Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told Bloomberg. “But I would be surprised sitting here today if, after 120 days, they looked at the landscape as we’ve looked at it, and said, ‘You know, we really don’t need this at all.’”.

Negotiating a Gaza ceasefire deal

The Biden Administration has been working to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, for which it has collaborated on negotiations with mediators Qatar and Egypt for more than a year. Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, which is seen by many as a deadline for a deal to be reached, Biden has made calls in the last couple days with the Emir of Qatar and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to White House readouts of both calls, Biden emphasized the need for a deal that would return the hostages that are still held in Gaza as well as bring a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

In a foreign-policy speech at the State Department on Jan. 13, Biden said, “On the war between Israel and Hamas, we’re on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition.” Personnel from both Biden’s and Trump’s teams have been working together on the negotiations—as Trump also appears keen to quickly resolve the conflict in the Gaza Strip, having warned Hamas that there will be “all hell to pay” if the remaining hostages held captive are not released by the time he returns to the Oval Office.