Why an American president’s first 100 days matter

JOE BIDEN has promised to deliver 100m vaccines to 100m Americans in his first 100 days in office. Within that time, he also hopes to see most elementary and middle schools reopened and pass a big stimulus package, and he has proposed legislation that lays out a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. Four years ago Donald Trump laid out an equally ambitious plan for his first 100 days, promising, among other things, a federal hiring freeze, a constitutional amendment limiting senators to two terms and congressmen to three, and a ban on lobbying by ex-White House officials for five years after leaving their jobs. Most presidents enter office vowing great things in the first 100 days. But why that particular time-frame, and when did it become so important?

Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to use the phrase “first 100 days”, in a radio address on July 24th 1933. He had taken office around five months earlier. America was then in its fourth year of a depression. In his inaugural address Roosevelt said: “This nation asks for action, and action now.” He vowed that if Congress failed to act, he would demand “broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.”

Roosevelt was not joking. Looking over the roster of legislation passed—15 important bills—in the first 100 days of the Congressional session that began shortly after he took office would make any other president green with envy. Among other things, Roosevelt’s legislation took America off the gold standard; separated commercial and investment banking; set up a public-works relief programme (the Civilian Conservation Corps); gave the federal government power to regulate the stockmarket; and created the Tennessee Valley Authority, which is today America’s biggest public power company. In all, Roosevelt passed 76 laws in his first 100 days. The only president who comes close to that total is Harry Truman, with 53. FDR also issued 99 executive orders, another record.

Since Roosevelt’s time, legislation has grown more complex and partisanship more deeply entrenched; his record looks safe. It took Barack Obama a full year to pass his first term’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. George W. Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act, an education-reform bill, just under a year after entering office. But presidents still use the “100 days” to tell the public how they intend to hit the ground running. That framing acknowledges a general rule of politics. The best time to enact ambitious campaign promises is at the start of a term, when approval ratings tend to be highest. The president will have just won an election, and with it a popular mandate. His party probably controls one or both chambers of Congress, and is reasonably unified behind him. He has not disappointed anyone yet. The inevitable leaking and infighting will (probably) not have begun. He has an executive branch staffed with fresh, rested appointees eager to get to work.

Mr Biden’s first days, even more than Mr Trump’s, have featured a raft of executive orders. They are easier to enact than legislation, requiring just a presidential signature. Most have been pandemic-related and uncontroversial—the sorts of things that a competent government would have done months ago. But soon he will turn to the complex, grinding, horse-trading work of getting his signature legislation passed: a sizeable covid-relief bill, probably followed by an even heftier green-tinged infrastructure package. He will want to have those both well away by April 30th, the 101st day of his administration.

See also: We are tracking the Biden administration’s progress in its first 100 days