Presidency of Joe Biden in the context of "119th United States Congress"

On March 25, 2019, the United States officially recognized the Golan Heights as being under the sovereignty of Israel. Signed into effect by the Trump administration, the U.S. presidential proclamation marked the first instance of any country recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; the territory is viewed as part of Syria under international law, though it has been under an Israeli military occupation since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. In 1981, Israel's government passed the Golan Heights Law — a de facto annexation of the territory.

Israeli officials lobbied the United States into recognizing "Israeli sovereignty" over the territory. The U.S. recognition was seen as a political gift from American president Donald Trump, in a bid to help Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu gain a favorable standing among voters in the then-upcoming April 2019 legislative election. It was condemned by a number of countries and organizations, including the United Nations and the European Union (see § Reactions). The Syrian government rejected the U.S. statement, describing it as a "blatant attack" on Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The recognition continued under the successor Biden administration.

The Mexico–United States border crisis is an ongoing migrant crisis in North America concerning the illegal migration of people into the United States across the Mexico-United States border. U.S. presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both referred to surges in migrants at the border as a "crisis" during their tenure. Following a decline in migrants crossing the border during the first Trump administration, illegal border crossings surged during the Biden administration, with over 7.2 million migrants encountered between January 2021 and January 2024, not counting gotaways. Experts have attributed the increase in attempted crossings to pent-up demand, changes in global migration patterns, a change of perceptions by migrants about the ease of crossing, and incentives for migrants to try to cross again after Title 42 expulsions. The number of migrants sent back increased as a result, though the percentage sent back decreased. Border apprehensions fell back to 2020 levels in mid-2024.

The migrants, who are mostly of Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Honduran, and Venezuelan citizenship, are reported to be escaping economic hardship, gang violence and environmental disaster in their home countries (particularly acute in Guatemala and Honduras) to seek asylum in the US. Unlike the demographic of migrants in the preceding years, an increasing proportion of current migrants arriving at the Mexico–US border are children, including unaccompanied children and from countries outside Latin America.

The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, including flat-rolled and tubular products for customers in industries across automotive, construction, consumer, electrical, industrial equipment, distribution, and energy. Operations also include iron ore and coke production facilities. In 2025, U.S. Steel was acquired by Nippon Steel in a deal arranged with the United States government.

U.S. Steel ranked eighth among global steel producers in 2008 and 24th by 2022, remaining the second-largest in the U.S. behind Nucor. Renamed USX Corporation in 1986, it reverted to U.S. Steel in 2001 after spinning off its energy assets, including Marathon Oil. In December 2023, Nippon Steel announced a $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, retaining its name and Pittsburgh headquarters. The deal faced opposition from the United Steelworkers, the Trump presidential campaign, and the Biden administration, which formally blocked it in January 2025. U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel sued the administration, claiming the block was unlawful. The acquisition was finalized on June 18, 2025, making U.S. Steel a subsidiary of Nippon Steel North America, with an oversight role for the federal government of the United States through a golden share.

The 117th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2021, during the final weeks of Donald Trump's first presidency and the first two years of Joe Biden's presidency and ended on January 3, 2023.

The 2020 elections decided control of both chambers. In the House of Representatives, the Democratic Party retained their majority, albeit reduced from the 116th Congress. It was similar in size to the majority held by the Republican Party during the 83rd Congress (1953–1955).

The 118th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2023, and ended on January 3, 2025, during the final two years of Joe Biden's presidency.

In the 2022 midterm elections, the Republican Party won control of the House 222–213, taking the majority for the first time since the 115th Congress, while the Democratic Party gained one seat in the Senate, where they already had effective control, and giving them a 51–49-seat majority (with a caucus of 48 Democrats and three Independents). With Republicans winning the House, the 118th Congress ended the federal government trifecta Democrats held in the 117th.

Sung Yong Kim (Korean: 김성용; born 1960) is an American business advisor and retired diplomat of Korean descent who served as the United States Special Representative for North Korea Policy from 2014 to 2016, and again from 2021 to 2023. He also served as the acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from January to June 2021.

In 2008, Kim was appointed by President George W. Bush as the U.S. Special Envoy for the six-party talks. He later served in the Obama and first Trump administrations as the Ambassador to South Korea from 2011 to 2014 and as the Ambassador to the Philippines from 2016 to 2020. In 2020, Kim was appointed by President Donald Trump as Ambassador to Indonesia. He later reprised his role as special envoy to North Korea in the Biden administration.

The United States Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, marking the end of the 2001–2021 war. In February 2020, the Trump administration and the Taliban signed the United States–Taliban deal in Doha, Qatar, which stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, and in return for the Taliban's counter-terrorism commitments, provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan by 1 May 2021. Following the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks on the Taliban to the detriment of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), and its fight against the Taliban insurgency.

The Biden administration's final decision in April 2021 was to begin the withdrawal on 1 May 2021, but the final pull-out of all US troops was delayed until September 2021, triggering the start of the collapse of the ANSF. This collapse led to the Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021.

The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, formerly known as the Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships, was an office within the White House Office that was part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

The office was established by the George W. Bush administration in 2001. During the first Trump administration, it was inactive and replaced by an initiative centered around Centers for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives. It was reinstated by the Biden administration, but abolished by the second Trump administration and replaced with the White House Faith Office.