Kamala Harris takes on new role as she heads for first overseas trip Kamala Harris
When Kamala Harris leaves on her first overseas trip on Sunday, the US Vice President will do so with an expanded national portfolio.
Last week, Joe Biden announced in a speech that Harris would help lead Democrats' efforts to push forward a set of voting rights bills, a top legislative priority for the party on an issue that disproportionately affects black and brown Americans. The president made the announcement during a speech in Oklahoma on Tuesday, where he marked the centenary of the Tulsa racial massacre, which wiped out a thriving black community.
“To underscore the importance of our efforts today, I ask Vice President Harris to help and lead these efforts among her many other responsibilities,” Biden said.
The announcement was in part the result of the vice president asking Biden a month ago to help push the voting rights bills through congressional deadlock.
"It's not at all surprising" that the vice president is being given this role, said Maria Echaveste, former deputy chief of staff under President Bill Clinton. “Especially someone with the Harris profile… given the long history of voting rights and African Americans. It makes a lot of sense. "
He also added to Harris’s portfolio which, less than a year after starting Biden’s presidency and following major policy initiatives, has been a bit opaque. When asked in an interview in February what her main topic of interest as vice president was, Harris replied, “Making sure Joe Biden is a success. "
Roy Neel, a former Al Gore chief of staff when he was vice president, called Harris' role a "float" in the administration.
Harris worked early on selling Biden's stimulus package and more recently worked on immigration policy for Central America. This mission included US aid to the Northern Triangle.
Echaveste said it was "somewhat surprising that [Harris] received the North / Central America Triangle, the root causes of migration, because it is such a difficult task." But she also described it as "a tremendous opportunity for growth."
Even before taking office, Biden, sometimes nostalgically, described how he sought out a vice president to fill a relationship similar to the one he had under Barack Obama. He wanted someone he was "simpatico" with, who would be the last person in the room for important decisions. But Harris's roles have so far seemed relatively smaller and more specific.
Harris has been regularly present at major presidential announcements and speeches. But she was not designated to be the go-to person for the pandemic response, and she was not the primary negotiator with members of Congress on the U.S. plan for Biden's job or the U.S. plan. for families.
Biden, on the other hand, was the member of the administration Obama relied on to liaise with congressional lawmakers during particularly tense times.
Harris spent a fraction of the time in Congress that Biden did, and therefore does not have the deep connections that only a few senators are capable of cultivating. Biden served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009. Harris served in the Senate from 2017 to 2021.
"The way President Obama used Vice President [Biden] was that he used him as his envoy to the Senate because of the longstanding ties to the institution and the senators there," explained Andy Winer, former Democratic Senate chief of staff.
“What it seems now is that this is not the way President Biden now makes Vice President Harris work on the issues. He does not appear to be using him as a direct envoy to the Senate or Congress; he seems to do it directly himself. You can see it in the way he handles the infrastructure bill.
Harris associates designed her next trip as an opportunity to meet business leaders and entrepreneurs and to strengthen a multinational approach in an attempt to combat illegal immigration.
“The aim of the Vice President's trip is to deepen our strategic partnership and bilateral relations with the Guatemalan and Mexican governments to advance a comprehensive strategy to tackle the causes of migration,” said Symone Sanders, Senior Advisor and chief spokesperson for the vice president.
However, Harris collaborators rebuffed the idea that this role includes chairmanship of the Biden administration's approach to stemming the flow of illegal immigration across the southern border - what his team sees as an impossible task. to win.
Harris's new role as shepherd of two priority voting rights bills - the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For The People Act - is a whole other challenge. Neither bill is certain to pass, despite weak Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress and Biden's urgent calls to overturn increasingly restrictive voting laws in state legislatures controlled by the Republicans.
For Harris, the benefit is as much in strengthening his own relationship with Capitol Hill lawmakers as it is in being faced with an immediate surge in the needs of the Biden administration. And veteran Democratic Party leaders say this new assignment for Harris will draw attention to voting rights.
"Putting this in your wallet will mean this issue will receive a lot of attention," Donna Brazile, former Democratic National Committee chairperson, told the Washington Post.
Harris, in a statement after Biden announced his additional assignment, said she would engage with activists, the private sector and members of Congress to bring forward a voting rights bill.
“The job ahead of us is to make voting accessible to all American voters and to ensure that every vote is counted through a free, fair and transparent process,” said Harris. “This is the work of democracy. "
