The influence and power of the Vice-President is entirely up to the President. Some Vice-Presidents, most notably Dick Cheney in recent years, have convinced Presidents to give them their own power center and set of responsibilities, or have been tacitly or openly acknowledged to be key Presidential advisers and people who influence access to the President.
But most Vice-Presidents spend their time repeating whatever talking points the Administration wants emphasized, going to funerals, avoiding contradicting the President or otherwise embarrassing the Administration. It's a pretty low bar to reach.
So if you happen to be a Kamala Harris supporter, it's probably a bit of a downer to see that Harris is apparently having a bit of trouble reaching that minimal "meets expectations" B minus job evaluation. Harris' portfolio was supposed to be immigration and voting rights. Nothing substantively progressive has occurred on either of those fronts.
Whatever the case it is a fact that the Biden Administration has been unable to influence enough Senators to vote to make federal laws that would reverse the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act or to stop many Republican dominated states from putting in more seemingly neutral laws specifically designed to prevent Black voters from exercising their franchise. In addition illegal border crossings are at levels not seen before.
Apparently some people are in their feelings about Harris' seeming lack of progress on her assigned initiatives. CNN pundit and former Democratic Representative Bakari Sellers claimed that Harris' portfolio was trash and that the President wasn't supporting her. I think that claiming that your friend's work is too hard might not be the best way of making her look good to detractors. Perhaps in retribution for this comment, some White House personnel involved in immigration debates said that Harris was "completely irrelevant".
One reflection of the White House’s struggles is the low profile of Vice President Kamala Harris, who has little role in the internal debates, the current and former officials said, including two who characterized her as “completely irrelevant.”
A Harris aide said the vice president is regularly briefed on immigration, together with Biden and separately. Harris is also in touch with the president on major decisions, said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the dynamic.
Biden last spring tasked Harris with addressing the “root causes” of illegal migration from Central America. She quickly fell into a political morass of Republican mockery and left-wing outrage at her calls for migrants to stay home.
Since then, Harris has mostly kept her distance from border issues, and the growing share of migrants arriving from beyond Mexico and Central America has left the root-causes strategy looking inadequate.
But given that Harris has a lower approval rating than her boss and has previously shown incompetence when pressed (see her primary campaign which imploded in truly spectacular fashion) it's fair to wonder if (a) Harris is attempting to operate above her capacity and (b) if Harris will still be around for the 2024 ticket. Yes it's very early. Things will probably become politically better for the Biden Administration between now and 2024.
But if I give someone some assignments I don't want to hear that the person is completely irrelevant to the success or failure of those assignments. I'd rather see someone working, doing their best, and messing things up than someone pretending that they didn't hear me give them some work to do.
