Kamala Harris Accomplishments

Historically, the VP role has been defined largely as a supporting behind-the-scenes one. Over the last four years, however, Kamala Harris’ fingerprints can been seen on all parts of the administration’s initiatives and priorities. And she’s led on several critical issues, while President Biden focused on others.

Much of Kamala Harris’ work as VP, has been in the area of foreign diplomacy - a Biden-

Harris administration priority. Harris has helped conduct U.S. foreign policy and

international crisis management at the highest levels. She has regularly participated in Cabinet meetings and emergency meetings in the White House situation room.

And she frequently lunches with the president to discuss and advise him on the most pressing and existential issues of the day.

Harris has met with more than 150 heads of state and government on foreign policy and traveled to 21 countries, working to renew and strengthen U.S. partnerships. Among the most significant in terms of substance and timing have been her meetings this year

with embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In a joint news

conference following her address at the Munich Security Conference in February, she publicly assured Zelensky and Europe of the administration’s commitment to provide urgently-needed aid to stop Russian advances in its war against Ukraine,

amid a bruising battle with Republicans in Congress over funding. Harris met with Zelensky again in June at the Global Peace Summit, convened in Switzerland to

declare U.S. support for a just and lasting peace and to deliver humanitarian and reconstruction aid as Russia opened a new front outside of Kharkiv.

In regards to Israel, Harris has long advocated internally for more pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire and improve the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza. Her visit with him during his recent visit to Washington gave her a chance to differentiate herself from a Biden policy that many young voters, progressives, and Muslim and Arab Americans have found too conciliatory toward Israel and insufficiently supportive of Palestinians suffering on the ground.

Harris’ work in the Indo-Pacific region has included visits to seven Asian countries where she met with dozens of leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and those of major U.S. allies - Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia and

Thailand. She represented the United States at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asia summits, reassuring and building ties with the

nations most affected on a daily basis by China’s growing economic clout and

geopolitical bid to control the South China Sea. Harris discussed a limited free-

trade deal with the president of Indonesia and issued a joint statement with Japan and Philippine leaders to signal their trilateral cooperation in maritime security.

Last year VP Harris made a historic weeklong trip to Africa to follow up on the U.S.-

Africa summit and U.S. initiatives to bring private sector investment, financing and digital transformation to African countries in a not-so-subtle competition with China, which has become Africa’s largest trading partner and investor. As America’s first black VP, Harris received a warm reception not seen since Obama’s visits

during his presidency.

In 2021, President Biden tasked VP Harris to examine the root causes of migration from Central America including poverty, violence and corruption. Through

diplomacy, VP Harris has worked to promote democracy and development there and to convince companies to invest in Central America. Under her leadership, Central America Forward (CAF), a public-private partnership, supports the creation of local jobs and other measures to slow the flow of mass migration. Harris has secured more than

$5.2 billion from the private sector to promote economic opportunities and reduce violence in the region. Partners include more than 50 companies and organizations that have committed to supporting economic growth in the Northern Triangle region of Central America. The entities represent the financial services, textiles, apparel, agriculture, technology, telecommunications, nonprofit and other sectors.

Harris also set up offices in origin countries to allow asylum seekers to apply there rather than attempt the life-threatening journey through jungles alone or with

coyotes who prey on the vulnerable. In the course of this work, she met with the

heads of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras and led the U.S. delegation at the 2022 Summit of the Americas.

Far less noticed have been the roles Harris has played in cutting-edge issues that

affect U.S. national security, its competitive edge and a values-based foreign policy. She chairs the National Space Council, which orchestrates policy across civil,

commercial and national security domains, ranging from space exploration and the space industrial base to threats emanating from China’s burgeoning investment in satellite and anti-satellite capabilities that are pivotal to modern warfare, as well as daily communication and commerce. Harris also has taken the lead in several

initiatives on the safe and responsible development and use of artificial intelligence (AI), enlisting both the tech sector and philanthropies, which she announced at the AI Summit in London last winter.

Given this extensive foreign policy portfolio and her accomplishments, 350 national security leaders have joined together to state if she’s elected president, she will enter office with more significant national security experience than the four presidents prior to President Biden – Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Harris’ domestic portfolio also has been robust. She helped pass historic legislation, voting as tie breaker for 34 bills as president of the Senate. Harris has led the charge on addressing maternal healthcare and mortality. Building on her work as Senator, she brought this issue to the national stage, and maternal and infant health care became a key component of the Build Back Better Act passed in 2022. The legislation expands access to maternal care and makes new investments to drive down mortality and morbidity rates. As VP, she’s led the Maternal Health Task Force, and now 47 states plus D.C. have expanded postpartum Medicaid access. Even states that have not expanded Medicaid access through Obamacare have still participated in Medicaid expansion for mothers’ postpartum health care. The task force also introduced the first- ever national maternal mental health hotline, of which over 38,000 mothers have taken advantage.

Since the overturning of Roe, VP Harris has traveled around the country as chief administration spokesperson on maternal healthcare and reproductive rights. She’s met with at least 18 states to discuss the issue, and in March 2024, she made a historic first visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic to support healthcare workers and their patients.

Harris was at the forefront of the administration’s pursuit to enshrine voting rights protection throughout the U.S. Toward that goal, she helped craft political coalitions with civil rights leaders and engaged privately with law makers. She pushed for Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would’ve extended the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and required federal approval for some local election law changes. In 2021, the bill hit a brick wall when Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema rejected proposed changes to Senate procedures to stop a Republican filibuster, preventing the start of debate on the Senate floor where Harris would have cast the deciding vote in the evenly split chamber.

Harris is overseeing the first-ever Office of Gun Violence and Prevention - tackling an issue Republicans had been obstructing any progress on for decades. This Office builds upon actions taken by the Biden-Harris administration to end gun violence, which includes the signing of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Heralded as the most impactful gun violence prevention measure in almost three decades, the law bars individuals under the age of 21 from buying firearms, grants the Justice Department additional powers to prosecute gun traffickers, funds community-based violence- intervention programs and provides mental health services in schools to assist youth affected by gun violence trauma and grief.

As a Senator, Harris co-sponsored a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. In 2021, Congress passed and President Biden signed a bill making it so. Often referred to as the “Second Independence Day,” it commemorates June 19, 1865, the day two years after the Emancipation Proclamation that 2,000 Union troops reached Galveston, Texas to announce enslaved African Americans were freed by executive order.

After 200 previous failed attempts, Harris rejuvenated the push to make lynching a federal hate crime when she was in the Senate, and as VP got the Emmett Till Anti- Lynching Law passed in Congress in 2022.

Harris led the effort to gain a historic $16 billion in funding for HBCUs in FY2021-23 as part of their commitment to advance racial equity, economic opportunity and educational excellence. She also has worked to fight homeownership appraisal bias.

Harris has traveled around the country to meet with diverse organizations and other groups to spotlight other key issues directly impacting the American people. These include advancing economic opportunity, boosting manufacturing, creating good-paying jobs, delivering on infrastructure investment, addressing the climate crisis and fighting for the freedom to learn and teach America’s full history. Harris has keynoted numerous conferences, headlined various other events and taken her message to the airwaves and a variety of digital platforms.

As VP, Kamala Harris has been a dynamic partner to President Joe Biden on expansive and complex policies – both foreign and domestic. This experience has prepared her to be an extraordinarily prepared candidate for President herself.

Pam Pettengell 7/29/24