Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. (pron-en?d?o?z?f r?b??n?t ?ba?d?n; born November 20, 1942) is the 47th (List of Vice Presidents of the United States) and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President (President of the United States) Barack Obama. He was a United States Senator (United States Senate) from Delaware from January 3, 1973 until his resignation on January 15, 2009, following his election to the Vice Presidency (United States presidential election, 2008).

Biden was born in city-stateScrantonPennsylvania and lived there for ten years before moving to Delaware. He became an attorney in 1969, and was elected to a county council (County council#United States) in 1970. Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972 (United States Senate elections, 1972) and became the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history. He was re-elected to the Senate six times, was the fourth most senior senator (Seniority in the United States Senate) at the time of his resignation, and is the 14th-longest serving Senator in history (List of members of the United States Congress by longevity of service). Biden was a long-time member and former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee (United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations). His strong advocacy helped bring about U.S. military assistance and intervention during the Bosnian War. He opposed the Gulf War in 1991. He voted in favor of the Iraq War Resolution in 2002, but later proposed resolutions to alter U.S. strategy there. He has also served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary), dealing with issues related to drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties, and led creation of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and Violence Against Women Act. He chaired the Judiciary Committee during the contentious U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

Biden unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 (Joe Biden presidential campaign, 1988) and 2008 (Joe Biden presidential campaign, 2008), both times dropping out early in the race. Barack Obama selected Biden to be the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 U.S. presidential election (United States elections, 2008). Biden is the first Roman Catholic and the first Delawarean to become Vice President of the United States. As Vice President, Biden has been heavily involved in Obamas decision-making process and has held the oversight role for infrastructure spending from the Obama stimulus package (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009#Infrastructure Investment) intended to help counteract the late-2000s recession.