Policy Pack III.I
THE CANDIDATES ON THE ISSUES ON THE BALLOT January 2020
PLATFORMWOMEN.ORG @PLATFORMWOMEN YEAR IN REVIEW
Table of Contents
Note from the Team 1 Meet The Candidates 2 Reparations 3 College Access 7 Healthcare 13 Disability 18 Indigenous Rights 24 Sexual Violence Prevention 31 Gun Violence Prevention 36 LGBTQ+ Equity 45 Reproductive Rights 52 Environmental Racism 57 Justice Reform 63 Workplace and Economic Opportunity 70 D.C. Statehood 77
THE CANDIDATES Note from the Team
There have been remarkable leaps and bounds of young people reclaiming our government. We are voting in higher numbers and regularly taking to the streets to strike and to protest. Yet still far too many of us believe our votes do not matter. And we get it.
We know that this belief is not rooted in apathy but rather from a very deep reality that inside city halls, state capitals, and the chambers of Congress, elected officials make decisions about our bodies, lives, and futures without listening to our voices. It is rooted in the reality that on the campaign trail, we are promised change that counts everybody in, but in session, we are dealt legislation that negotiates people out.
We can change this. We have to change this.
We do that through voting AND through the actions we take every day before, on, and after election day.
It is the work we do before election day that ensures campaign promises reflect us and the future we are determined to create. It is the voting we do on election day that ensures we fill the seats of power with partners in progress. It is the lobbying, the protests and strikes, the die-ins and call outs we do every day after election day that turn campaign promises into legislation into the realities we live.
Election day is not the end of the road, but the beginning of a new fight. A fight that becomes easier when elected officials share in our vision and use their position to amplify our voices in the movement for change.
And we have the power to determine who holds those positions. A candidate’s victory hinges upon our decisions to show up and be heard. They don’t have a job without us and they cannot keep their job without leading for us. Your vote, or your ability to organize and mobilize voters, is therefore inherently powerful.
With that, we present this Policy Pack. In the pages that follow you will see highlights of the candidates’ stances and plans regarding many of the policy issues critical to our community and captured in our Platform Pledge. We did our best not to editorialize and worked primarily to break down candidates’ official agenda items, as released by their teams. However, in some cases, we included external information when their website could not provide a clear answer (or any answer) or when we believed background information was essential in painting a deeper picture of their perspective. What we share is not the entirety of their platforms, and the amount of space allocated to each person roughly translates to the comprehensiveness of their plan, though not the full plan. Finally, where content is not cited it was taken directly from their campaign website in December of 2019.
Primary election and caucus days are approaching. It’s almost time to decide who will not only fight back against the injustices of the current administration, but also chart a new path forward that counts us all in.
Let’s build power together,
The Platform Team
1 THE CANDIDATES MEET THE CANDIDATES
Michael Bennet Current U.S. Senator for Colorado Joe Biden Former Vice President Michael Bloomberg Former NYC Mayor, Founder of Everytown Pete Buttigieg Former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana John Delaney Former U.S. Representative for MD-6 Tulsi Gabbard Current U.S. Representative for HI-2 Amy Klobuchar Current U.S. Senator for Minnesota Deval Patrick Former Governor of Massachusetts Bernie Sanders Current U.S. Senator for Vermont Tom Steyer Founder of NextGen America Elizabeth Warren Current U.S. Senator for Massachusetts Andrew Yang Founder of Venture for America
2 THE CANDIDATES
REPARATIONS Reparations: “The making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.” 1
H.R. 40/S.1083, H.R.40 Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act: On the first day of the 116th Congress, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee introduced this bill into the House. Senator Booker introduced its companion in the Senate in April of 2019. The bill was introduced to: “address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.” This legislation has become a benchmark of candidates’ commitment to addressing the legacy of slavery and present systems of inequality and oppression.
3 THE CANDIDATES REPARATIONS
Cosponsors H.R. 40’s Senate Companion During an appearance on ABC’s The View, the Senator responded to a question about reparations by stating: “I've supported the bill to study reparations in the House, because I think there are distinct issues relating particularly to African American people in this country. There's a straight line that you can draw from slavery, through Jim Crow through the red lining and the banking and housing to mass incarceration today. And I think it's important as somebody who's been a school superintendent, it's important that we face those facts." Bennet 2 During the third Democratic Presidential Debate, the former Vice President was directly asked about the responsibility to repair the damage of slavery. His response: “We have — make sure that every single child does, in fact, have 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds go to school. School. Not daycare. School. We bring social workers in to homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It's not want they don't want to help. They don't—they don't know quite what to do. Play the radio, make sure the television—excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night, the — make sure that kids hear words. A kid coming from a very poor school— a very poor background will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time they get there.” Previously, a campaign spokesperson said that the former Vice President "believes that we should gather the data necessary to have an informed conversation Biden about reparations, but he has not endorsed a specific bill." 3
As of January 1, 2020, Bloomberg had not yet released an official policy plan or statement regarding reparations.
Bloomberg Stated Support of H.R. 40 During the sixth debate, the Mayor stated: “I support H.R. 40, which is the bill that has been proposed in Congress to establish a commission to look at reparations. But we shouldn't wait for that commission to do its work to do things that are reparative. Remember, we're not talking about a gift to anybody. We're talking about mending what was broken. We're talking about the generational theft of the wealth of generations of African-Americans. And just crossing out a racist policy and replacing it with a neutral one is not enough to deliver equality. Harms compound, just like a 1 dollar saved in its value compounds over time. So does the value of a dollars stolen. And that is why the United States must act immediately with investments in minority- owned businesses, with investments in health equity, with investments in HBCUs, and Buttigieg on the longer term look at reparations so that we can mend what has been broken.” 4
4 THE CANDIDATES REPARATIONS (cont'd)
Stated Support of H.R. 40 In April, the former Representative attended Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network Convention where he said he would sign H.R. 40 if elected.
Delaney 5
Cosponsors H.R. 40
Gabbard
Cosponsors H.R. 40’s Senate Companion During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, the Senator responded to a question about reparations stating she supports investing in “those communities that have been so hurt by racism… it doesn’t have to be a direct pay for each person. "But what we can do is invest in those communities. Acknowledge what’s happened. ... Making sure we have that shared dream of opportunity for all Americans."
Klobuchar 6
In November, the former Governor said that while he thinks reparations are “right” he does not think he supports H.R. 40. He later expanded: “Yes we need to deal with the chronic poverty and marginalization that has been true of an overwhelming number of our people that has its roots in slavery. But once the check is written, unless we have reconciliation, unless we have some truth telling about what actually happened, I’m just not sure we’re going to feel satisfied.”
7 Patrick Cosponsors H.R. 40’s Senate Companion When asked about his support of reparations in the form of cash payments during the Second Democratic Debate, he responded: “I am supportive of Jim Clyburn’s legislation, which is called 10-20-30. And what that understands is that, as a result of slavery and segregation and the institutional racism we see now in healthcare, in education, in financial services, we are going to have to focus big time on rebuilding distressed communities in America, including African-American communities. In terms of education, I also have a plan. It’s called the Thurgood Marshall Plan, and it would focus on ending the growth of segregated schools in America. It would triple funding Sanders for Title I schools. It would make sure that teachers in this country earned at least
$60,000 a year.” 8
5 THE CANDIDATES REPARATIONS (cont'd)
The campaign website states, “Tom also strongly supports legislation to establish a commission to re-examine the issue of reparations.”
9 Steyer
Cosponsors H.R. 40’s Senate Companion In March, the Senator declined to commit to reparations in the form of monetary compensation, however, a week later—during a CNN town hall—she announced her support for H.R. 40 and said, it’s time for a “full-blown conversation about reparations.” The Senator has also called for the inclusion of Native Americans in the conversation about reparations.
Warren 10
“I 100 percent agree with the moral case for reparations.”
11 Yang
6 THE CANDIDATES
College Access Refinancing Student Loans: The process of obtaining a new loan at a lower interest rate
Pell Grants: The federal government provides money in the form of grants to students primarily pursuing bachelor's or professional degrees. The amount of money provided is dependent on need, tuition costs, and student status. Under most circumstances, Pell Grants do not need to be repaid.
HSIs: Hispanic-Serving Institutions
TCUs: Tribal Colleges and Universities
HBCUs: Historically Black Colleges and Universities
MSIs: Minority Serving-Institutions
7 THE CANDIDATES COLLEGE ACCESS
Two-year College: Free Public Four Year College: Debt Free (including tuition, fees, reasonable room and board costs) Student Debt: Cap student loan payments at 8 percent of income, which is a 20 percent reduction in income-based student loan payments; forgive loans after 20 years; forgive in bankruptcy; forgive $10,000 per year in student loan debt for up to four years for “public servants and those who work in high-need professions in Bennet underserved communities, such as teachers, OB-GYNs, nurses, or primary care physicians in rural areas or high-poverty urban communities where there are shortages of these professionals.” Refinancing Student Loans: Yes Pell Grants: Increase—as part of the debt-free commitment—along with other forms of aid, for low- and middle-income families up to 300% of the federal poverty threshold (about $75,000 of income for a family of four). HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: Though not on his policy platform, the Senator pushed for the Senate to pass the FUTURE Act to reauthorize $255 million in mandatory federal funding for these institutions, after it lapsed at the end of September; In the last session of Congress, he introduced the Strengthening Minority-Serving Institutions Act to permanently extend and increase funding to $300 million. Immigrant Access: No official position as of January 1, 2020. 12 Two-year College: Free Public Four Year College: N/A Student Debt: Individuals making $25,000 or less per year will not owe any payments on their undergraduate federal student loans and also won’t accrue any interest on those loans; individuals making more than $25,000 will pay 5 percent of their discretionary income (income minus taxes and essential spending like housing and food) over $25,000 toward their loans; forgive loans after 20 years; ensure “debt forgiven through the income-based repayment plan won’t be taxed;” provide $10,000 Biden of undergraduate or graduate student debt relief per year for every year of national or community service, up to five years. Refinancing Student Loans: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Pell Grants: Double maximum value of grants; students attending community college can use their Pell Grants for costs other than tuition and fees; restore access for individuals who were previously incarcerated. HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: Invest $18 billion in grants to these four-year institutions (equivalent to up to two years of tuition per low-income and middle class student); invest $10 billion to create at least 200 new centers of excellence that serve as research incubators and connect students underrepresented in fields critical to our nation’s future; invest $20 billion in infrastructure for HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs to build physical research facilities and labs; invest $10 billion in programs that increase enrollment, retention, completion, and employment rates; invest $5 billion in graduate programs in teaching, health care, and STEM and will develop robust internship and career pipelines at major research agencies; and require federal agencies and states to publish reports of their allocation of federal funding to colleges and universities. Immigrant Access: Immigrants would be able to attend community college for free; access to financial aid. 13
8 THE CANDIDATES COLLEGE ACCESS (cont'd)
As of January 1, 2019, Bloomberg had not released an official plan regarding college access.
Bloomberg
Two-year College/ Public Four Year College: Ensure public tuition is free for all families earning up to $100,000 and many middle-income families with multiple children; provide subsidies for students from families earning up to $150,000; mandate states improve affordability for all students. Student Debt: Enroll student borrowers who fall behind on their payments or indicate they are struggling to repay their debt into income-driven plans. These loans will be cancelled, tax-free, after borrowers have been enrolled in the income-based plan for 20 years; cancel debt for students who attended for-profit programs; provide loan Buttigieg forgiveness to public servants (government service or nonprofit) and cancel debt after 10 years. Refinancing Student Loans: Supports Pell Grants: Increase maximum Pell Grant by $1,000 and tie Pell Grants to inflation. HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: Allocate an additional $50 billion for capital and instructional costs, need- based aid, and efforts to meet student need and improve college completion. Immigrant Access: Enable DACA recipients to access Pell Grants. Extras: Create a $2 billion pilot program to provide food vouchers to community college students.
Two-year College: Free Public Four Year College: N/A Student Debt: Expand eligibility and improve terms for the Obama administration’s income-based repayment programs; borrowers using the Pay As You Earn Plan and the Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan will have access to loan forgiveness 2 years earlier than the current requirement and will no longer pay taxes on the value of their forgiven loan amounts; allow people who need to declare bankruptcy to use that Delaney process to discharge student loan debt. Refinancing Student Loans: Plans to reduce interest rates on federal student loans and set them equal to the interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds; supports allowing borrowers with high interest private loans to refinance through the federal government with new, low interest federal loans up to the $27,000 cap. Pell Grants: Increase funding for program and increase maximum award. HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: Create a federal grant program to fund start up incubators and accelerators at HBCUs. Immigrant Access: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Extras: Proposes a National Service Program that will award scholarships to people who complete their service.
9 THE CANDIDATES COLLEGE ACCESS (cont'd)
Two-year College: Supports the College for All Act of 2017, which would make two- year college free. Public Four Year College: Supports the College for All Act of 2017, which would make public, four-year college tuition-free for families that make up to $125,000 a year. Student Debt: Supported the HELP for Students and Parents Act which would give tax credits to businesses that assist in paying off the student loans of their employees. Refinancing Student Loans: Supports the College for All Act of 2017 which would cut Gabbard all student loan interest rates for new borrowers in half. Pell Grants: Previously supported the Pathways to an Affordable Education Act increase the Pell Grant maximum award. HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Immigrant Access: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Two-year College: Free Public Four Year College: N/A Student Debt: Improve the existing Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and expand it to borrowers who work in in-demand occupations. This program would forgive all debt after 10 years of payments through an income-driven repayment plan; allow students who believe they were defrauded by their colleges to apply for loan forgiveness; and require schools to notify student borrowers of their total loan Klobuchar obligations, estimated interest rate, and expected monthly payment. Refinancing Student Loans: Supports Pell Grants: Double from $6,000 to $12,000 and expand to cover families that make up to $100,000. HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: Institute the Pathways to Student Success initiative to allow HBCUs and MSIs receiving federal funding to waive or significantly reduce the first two years of tuition for low- income students at four-year schools Immigrant Access: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Extras: Establish microgrant programs to help students with necessary expenses if they face unexpected financial hardship; expand categorical eligibility for SNAP benefits for low-income students; support pilot projects to increase the availability of federal housing assistance to students.
Two-year College: “So that they are free or at least affordable, public colleges and universities should be publicly funded.” Public Four Year College: “So that they are free or at least affordable, public colleges and universities should be publicly funded.” Student Debt: “Our objective must be to eliminate student debt entirely and responsibly.”Supports providing students who give to national military or civilian service as many years of free tuition and fees at public institutions. Refinancing Student Loans: “At a minimum refinance their debt to eliminate or Patrick substantially reduce the interest; if we did so retroactively, we could credit excess interest paid against the principal balance.” Pell Grants: No official position as of January 1, 2020. HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Immigrant Access: No official position as of January 1, 2020. 14
10 THE CANDIDATES COLLEGE ACCESS (cont'd)
Two-year College: Free Public Four Year College: Free Student Debt: Cancel Refinancing Student Loans: Cap at 1.88 percent moving forward. Pell Grants: Provide Pell Grants to low-income students to cover the non-tuition and fee costs of school, including: housing, books, supplies, transportation, and other costs of living. Sanders HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: Invest $1.3 billion every year in private, non-profit historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. Immigrant Access: “As president, Bernie will: Enact College for All, which will make public colleges and universities tuition and debt free to all regardless of immigration status, and provide first- generation and minority students supports and services needed to end equity gaps in higher education attainment.” 15 Extras: Triple funding for the Work-Study Program. Two-year College: Free Public Four Year College: N/A Student Debt: Supports passing a Student Borrowers Bill of Rights, and forgiving the student loan debt of teachers and other public servants; forgive debt for participants who serve a total of five years in his new National Service Program Refinancing Student Loans: Supports Pell Grants: No official position as of January 1, 2020. HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: Released his HBC 2030 Plan which includes investing Steyer $125 billion over 10 years to be spent on educators and administrators, technology, infrastructure, student services, and other activities; support schools in building their endowments; creating a HBCU Board of Regents, which will coordinate state and federal resources, programming, and ensure fiscal accountability; establishing HBCU Centers of Innovation to train a workforce in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields as well as healthcare, business, civic engagement, criminal justice, and environmental protection. Immigrant Access: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Two-year College: Free Public Four Year College: Free Student Debt: Cancel $50,000 in student loan debt for every person with household income under $100,000; provide substantial debt cancellation for every person with household income between $100,000 and $250,000; no cancellation for people with household income above $250,000; canceled debt will not be taxed as income. Refinancing Student Loans: N/A Warren Pell Grants: Invest an additional $100 billion over the next ten years. HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: Create a fund for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority- Serving Institutions that will have a minimum of $50 billion, but the Secretary of Education will have the authority to increase the amount of money in the fund as needed to ensure that spending per- student at those schools is comparable to colleges in the area. Private HBCUs and MSIs would also be able to opt into the federal free-tuition program available to public colleges. Immigrant Access: Prevent public colleges from considering citizenship status in decisions. Extras: Mandate public colleges to conduct annual audits to identify issues creating shortfalls in enrollment and graduation rates for lower-income students and students of color as well as propose steps to improve those rates.
11 THE CANDIDATES COLLEGE ACCESS (cont'd)
Two-year College: Will work to fund community colleges to a point where they can provide free (or drastically reduced) tuition to anyone from the community (especially those taking vocational classes). Public Four Year College: N/A Student Debt: Propose the 10×10 Student Loan Emancipation Act, a plan by which the federal government would buy student loan debt (negotiated rate with the private lenders) and allow students to opt into a plan to repay it through pledging 10% of their salary per year for ten years, after which the balance would be forgiven; ask schools Yang to forgive in part or in whole the debts of those who do not graduate; allow graduates to pay a percent of income instead of a fixed amount; establish a commission that will explore debt forgiveness or reduction for students who sought degrees under false pretenses; change bankruptcy laws to make it easier to discharge educational debt; expand forgiveness of the debt of graduates who work in rural areas or with underprivileged populations. Refinancing Student Loans: Pledges to ensure students get the lowest possible interest rates and can refinance at those rates. Pell Grants: N/A HSIs/TCUs/HBCUs/MSIs: Ensure HBCU federal funding levels are equitable when compared to similar schools; commit $250 million in federal funds to provide training programs in grant writing for faculty and staff at HBCUs; provide $7.5 billion in federal funding for general infrastructure improvements including facilities and academic resources, as well as $750 million for building out a fundraising infrastructure; end any practices that allow banks to charge HBCUs higher fees, and provide public funding options to ensure that all HBCUs can receive lower rates; help strengthen HBCUs with support for loan forgiveness and salary incentives through $1.5 billion in federal funding to recent PhDs who commit to teaching at HBCUs; strengthen and empower the White House Initiative on HBCUs by providing $6 billion in federal funding for scholarships and internships through the organization and by encouraging them to engage in dialogue with HBCU leaders on strengths and weaknesses of various programs. Immigrant Access: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Extras: Stipulate that any university that receives public funding cannot increase its costs by more than the rate of annual median wage growth the year before.
12 THE CANDIDATES
Health Care Affordable Care Act (ACA): The ACA/ObamaCare/ The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a comprehensive healthcare reform that was signed by President Barack Obama into law in March 2010. The reform works to expand healthcare coverage to those who were previously uninsured by making insurance more affordable through subsidies/”premium tax credits,” expand Medicaid coverage to all adults earning below 138% the federal poverty line, and protect patients through regulations such as the ban on insurance companies denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, to name a few. 16
Medicaid: A program run through a state-federal partnership that provides health insurance to certain low-income people, families and children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
Medicare: A federally-run health insurance program for people ages 65 and older, as well as some people with disabilities.
Medicare For All Act of 2019: Among its provisions, Medicare For All establishes a national health insurance program run by the Department of Health and Human Services. This program would cover all U.S. residents; automatically enroll people at birth or upon residency; cover services deemed “medically necessary or appropriate to maintain health or to diagnose, treat, or rehabilitate a health condition, including hospital services, prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse treatment, dental and vision services, and home- and community-based long- term care;” ban deductibles, coinsurance, and copays except in regards to prescription drugs; and restrict private health insurers to provide only supplemental benefits. Current health insurance exchanges and certain federal health programs would end upon implementation of Medicare For All, except for coverage by the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Indian Health Service. Finally, states would be required to cover certain institutional long-term care services through their Medicaid programs.
13 THE CANDIDATES HEALTH CARE
His plan, Medicare-X, would establish a public insurance option—to be available on the exchange for people who do not have insurance or do not like their private insurance. This public option would first be available in rural areas with limited or no insurers and then expand over two years. Under Medicare-X: The federal government would be required to negotiate lower drug prices All of the ACA’s essential health benefits including maternity and mental health care would be covered; Bennet Individuals would not pay more than 13 percent of their income and a family of four making $101,000 will not pay more than 9 percent of their income on insurance premiums. The tax credit will increase for people earning less than 400% of the federal poverty line and provide premium tax credits for those earning more than 400% of the federal poverty level, who currently do not qualify for any assistance; The government will authorizes $30 billion over three years for a national reinsurance program to stabilize the marketplace; Medicare Advantage as well as employer-and union-provided health insurance can continue.
Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: “Undocumented immigrants should have the option of purchasing health insurance on the exchange.” 17
The Biden Plan, which has been dubbed outside the campaign as “Affordable Care Act 2.0” would: Create a public option that will negotiate lower prices and hospitals and healthcare providers; coordinate between doctors; and cover primary care without copayment; Increase the value of tax credits to lower premiums and extend coverage to more workers; Offer premium-free access to the public option for the 4.9 million individuals in states that have failed to expand Medicaid eligibility, but who would have qualified Biden under such expansion; Stop “surprise billing” by prohibiting health care providers from charging patients out-of-network rates when the patient doesn’t have control over which provider the patient sees; Allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with drug corporations; Expand access to contraception and abortion care; Protect people from healthcare discrimination based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: “You cannot let people who are sick, no matter where they come from, no matter what their status, go uncovered.” 18
Bloomberg would create a public option, similar to Medicare, as an insurance option. It would be run by the federal government and paid for by customer premiums. The primary focus would be to use the public option to cover the uninsured and people who would be eligible for Medicaid expansion had their states participated. People purchasing the public option would still be eligible for the ACA subsidies. In addition, under his plan: Premiums would be capped at 8.5% of a household’s income; Bloomberg Medicare would include an optional dental, hearing, and vision care policy; States would be required to cover oral healthcare for adult Medicaid recipients; Out-of-network charges would be capped at 200% of Medicare rates;
14 THE CANDIDATES HEALTH CARE (cont'd)
The government would cap drug prices at 120% of the average in other advanced nations—and this cap would apply to consumers with public or private insurance; Beneficiaries’ annual out-of-pocket costs would be capped at $2,000.
Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Bloomberg (cont'd)
Buttigieg’s plan, Medicare for All Who Want, creates a public option and: Purchasers are eligible for subsidized coverage even if they choose the public option and subsidies will be expanded; Anyone eligible for free coverage in Medicaid or the public option will be automatically enrolled and those eligible for subsidized coverage will have a simple enrollment option; Premium payments will be capped at 8.5 percent of income; In order to stop surprise bills, bills related to in-network facilities will be billed as in- Buttigieg network,including for services from physicians and laboratories that may not be in- network; Prohibit health care providers, including hospitals, from charging more than twice what Medicare would pay for the same service for out-of-network care.
Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: “Undocumented immigrants should be able to buy coverage through the public option,” a Buttigieg campaign spokesman told The Washington Post early in the campaign. Buttigieg later told The Post, “I would expect that you'd have to be a citizen to qualify for subsidies.” 19 If elected, Delaney would first focus on fixing the rollbacks to the Affordable Care Act and then introduce his universal health care plan, BetterCare. Under this Plan: Individuals would be automatically enrolled in the new public plan. People would be allowed to opt-out and receive a tax credit to buy their own insurance policy if they choose; Private insurance options will remain available for purchase by employers and individuals to cover additional health needs; Delaney Medicaid would be absorbed by this plan, while individuals 65 and older would still transition to Medicare; States would continue to pay their share for the current Medicaid population and the federal government would cover the cost of expanded coverage; The federal government would be able to negotiate drug prices; Cost sharing would be implemented for higher-income individuals to fund an increase in reimbursement rates for primary care provider.
Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: No.
15 THE CANDIDATES HEALTH CARE (cont'd)
The Congresswoman supports Medicare For All and is a cosponsor of the House bill, H.R.1384 - Medicare for All Act of 2019. She also supports allowing people to access private insurance if they so choose.
Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: H.R.1384 extends coverage to undocumented immigrants, but Gabbard has not explicitly stated her position.
Gabbard The Senator would create a public option, expanding either Medicare or Medicaid, in her pursuit for universal healthcare. She would also work to improve the Affordable Care Act in order to bring down consumer costs through reinsurance, cost-sharing reductions, expanding premium subsidies, and continuing delivery system reform. She would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices to lower prescription drug costs and institute more consumer protections.
Klobuchar Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: No official position as of January 1, 2020.
Supports expanding a public option within the Affordable Care Act that could be modeled after Medicare.
Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Patrick The Senator champions Medicare For All and is the author of the Senate bill, S.1129 - Medicare for All Act of 2019. The Senator also supports efforts to reduce the cost of prescription drugs including allowing Medicare to negotiate costs; allowing patients, pharmacists, and wholesalers to buy low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other industrialized countries; tying costs to the median drug price in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan.
Sanders Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: “If you are a human being, regardless of your immigration status, you have a right to health care.” 20 Steyer would “provide a healthcare system that covers more Americans at a lower cost. [He] will repeal Trump’s rollbacks to the Affordable Care Act, enact a strong public option, and institute insurance industry rate review. [He] will allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug costs and eliminate pay-for-delay contracts to lower the cost of prescription drugs.” 21
Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: “Yes. Unfortunately, we have a broken immigration system. We have people living here, contributing to Steyer society, but are forced to live in the shadows. Until we fix our immigration system, undocumented workers should have access to the health services that they require.” 22
16 THE CANDIDATES HEALTH CARE (cont'd)
While Senator Warren, supports Medicare for All, she plans to use her first years in office to improve existing health care while preparing to pass a law for a full Medicare for All implementation in her third year. She will initially work to lower drug prices and to make a Medicare for All option available to everyone. This option will immediately be available for free for children under the age of 18 and for families making at or below 200% of the federal poverty level (about $51,000 for a family of four). For all others, the cost will be modest, and eventually, coverage under this plan will be free Warren for everyone. Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: Yes. Yang’s New Way Forward Plan allows negotiating drug prices; invests in technologies to finally make health services function efficiently and reduce waste by utilizing modernized services like telehealth and assistive technology, supported by measures such as multi-state licensing law; and ensure crucial aspects of wellbeing, including mental health, care for people with disabilities, HIV/AIDs detection and treatment, reproductive health, maternal care, dental, and vision are addressed and integrated into comprehensive care for the 21st century. Yang Access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants: "Undocumented immigrants who register for the path to citizenship would be eligible to participate in the health plan at some additional cost to them." 23
17 THE CANDIDATES
Disability Rights Included in this section are the policy plans candidates put forth to explicitly advance the rights and well-being of people with disabilities.
Olmstead v. L.C: In 1999, The Supreme Court ruled that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, if a patient with mental disabilities is cleared to live in, expresses a desire to live in, and the resources to transfer them into "integrated settings," then it is required that such a transition from an institutionalized to a community setting is made. States may be exempt from making such a transfer only if they can prove the financial constraints to support the individual in question would harm other individuals.24
18 THE CANDIDATES DISABILITY RIGHTS
Allocate $250 million for states to purchase new, accessible voting machines; Medicare-X, will ensure mental health services are included and covered as essential health benefits; Expand healthcare providers in rural areas, including mental health care providers; Integrate primary care with behavioral health so that mental health conditions can be screened and treated the same way we manage physical health conditions; His housing plan rewards communities that identify public property that can be used Bennet for affordable housing and encourages that such property supports housing for people with disabilities among others; Remove the disability insurance penalty against individuals with disabilities for re-entering the workforce if their condition improves so they can go back to work without risking their disability payments. His sexual violence prevention policy would establish grant programs so that educational institutions can provide accessible, “developmentally-appropriate lessons on the right to bodily autonomy, consent, and the dynamics of healthy relationships” and would expand funding so domestic violence and sexual assault programs can better serve victims with disabilities; Guarantee veterans with disabilities who need a prosthesis are able to access the most modern prosthetics technology as well as upgrade their equipment at no cost; Create a new grant to support under-resourced four-year schools to work with Biden community-based organizations to provide better support for students with disabilities; Provide innovation competitive grants for low-endowment private universities to help improve graduation rates; Fund initiatives to partner mental health and substance use disorder experts, social workers, and disability advocates with police departments; Officers will learn de-escalation techniques when someone is in emotional distress; Fully fund the federal government’s commitment to The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans did not include any mention of disability policy.
Bloomberg
19 THE CANDIDATES DISABILITY RIGHTS (cont'd)
The Mayor’s separate disability rights plan includes, but is not limited to: Improving Medicare coverage for people with disabilities and expanding home and community care benefits. This includes ending the two-year waiting period for Medicaid coverage for people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance; Ending 14(c) which allows employers to pay people with disabilities a subminimum wage; establishing an apprenticeship and internship network for programs providing competitive integrated employment; investing $5 billion in an apprenticeship program that ensure well-paying jobs, particularly for people with Buttigieg disabilities, and paid internships for people with disabilities; increasing federal contracting with disability-owned business; and ensuring workers have access to paid sick and paid family and medical leave; Promoting inclusive education by ensuring 85% of students with intellectual and multiple disabilities are in general education classrooms for the vast majority of the day; strengthen data collection to promote accountability; investing in the supplementary aids, services, and supports to promote inclusion; bolster teacher education to promote inclusive school; fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; ending corporal punishment, seclusion, and restraint in schools; improving access to services for people with disabilities beyond high school; strengthening Title IX protections and supporting students with disabilities who experience sexual violence in college. Increasing enforcement of Olmstead v. L.C. and the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as making it easier to understand individual rights under the ADA and report problems; Ensuring parents with disabilities do not lose custody or adoption rights due to their disability and improving federal policy to combat bias for parents with disabilities; Training first responders and police to better respond to people with disabilities and integrating mental health clinicians and co-response teams into the first responder workforce; Improving voting accessibility; Ending the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Benefit Cliff; eliminating SSDI work incentives; and updating SSI thresholds; Improving access to long-term care in homes and communities through the Disability Integration Act; Reinstating the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule to ensure access to affordable and safe housing; Developing an Accessible Technology Bill of Rights.
Delaney’s plans regarding disability rights is focused through a mental health lens. In this regard he plans to require and enforce mental health parity in regards to insurance coverage; increasing access to mental health resources for at-risk populations; adding more mental health professionals in schools and in correctional facilities; improving mental and behavioral telehealth options; increasing Medicaid reimbursements rates.
Delaney
20 THE CANDIDATES DISABILITY RIGHTS (cont'd)
Gabbard’s plans make little mention of disability rights, though she has a stated pledge to expand Social Security Disability Insurance.
Gabbard Senator Klobuchar’s plans include fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; reinstating Department of Education guidance on the rights of students with disabilities; protecting federal housing subsidies; providing financial relief for caregivers and paid family leave for all; partnering with states to improve voting access; expanding treatment and recovery services for people needing mental health services; improving mental health insurance coverage; investing in research to advance mental health treatments; improving training for mental health providers to Klobuchar address workforce shortages; prioritizing health and treatment over jail for nonviolent offenders; and training and preparing law enforcement to respond to people with mental illnesses.
As of January 1, 2020, his published plans did not include any mention of disability policy.
Patrick Senator Sanders’ disability rights policy includes a Disability Rights Plan which includes doubling funding for TRIO Programs and increasing funding for GEAR UP to improve college access and graduation for students with disabilities; expanding Social Security Disability Insurance; fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and improving vocational opportunities; ending 14(c), or the subminimum wage for people with disabilities; ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; passing for Medicare For All, which includes provisions for home- and Sanders community- based care; working to end discrimination. Outside of this plan, he also intends to: End the public charge rule that bars immigrants with disabilities and create the National Office of Disability Coordination and task it with ensuring the immigration and citizenship processes are accessible; Increase public transit and guaranteeing it will be accessible; Establish an Office of Climate Resiliency for People with Disabilities in order to ensure a just transition under the Green New Deal for people with disabilities and ensure jobs under the Green New Deal follow equitable hiring standards; Improve access to affordable housing for people with disabilities; Better meet the needs of veterans by eliminating the VA backlog; processing claims more quickly; and expanding the list of injuries and illnesses presumed to be connected with military service; 21 THE CANDIDATES DISABILITY RIGHTS (cont'd)
Support towns and states with the development of civilian corps so that unarmed first responders are addressing maintenance violations, mental health emergencies, and low-level conflicts outside the criminal justice system; Incentivize access to counseling and mental health services for officers; Provide trauma-informed mental health treatment in prisons and jails; Ensure mental health care is available without copay or deductibles; Train, recruit, and increase the number of mental health providers to provide Sanders (cont'd) culturally competent care in underserved communities; End restraint and seclusion discipline in schools; Establish the Department of Justice’s Office of Disability to divert people with disabilities from detention; coordinate services; and ensure prisons and jails are ADA compliant.
In order to improve access to affordable housing for people with disabilities, Steyer plans to invest $47 billion annually into the Housing Trust Fund and Capital Magnet Fund, which will create grants and loans for new construction, renovations and preservation for low-income housing and he will undo efforts to weaken the Fair Housing Act, which protects against discrimination, Steyer Included in Warren’s “Protecting the Rights and Equality for People with Disabilities” plan, she would: Pass the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act to help transition individuals with disabilities and business models from subminimum wage to competitive employment; Institute family and medical leave that allows workers to take time off to care for themselves—or for family members with disabilities; Warren Explore ways to increase entrepreneurship among individuals with disabilities, including promoting government contracting with disability-owned businesses and financing for startups; Create a position at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to coordinate and expand the Bureau’s existing services for people with disabilities; Provide people with disabilities access to additional training and services that prepare them for competitive employment; Fully fund the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and formally establish ODEP in law; Eliminate waiting periods for the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefit and Medicare; fix the return-to-work benefit cliff; fight to increase the SSI federal benefit rate to match the federal poverty line; establish a hold harmless provision so that recipients don’t lose access to other critical programs from the benefit rate increase; Expand funding for early intervention services for infants, toddlers and young children; fully fund IDEA; invest $50 billion to guarantee accessible school infrastructure; support inclusive, culturally- responsive, and comprehensive education; address language deprivation of Deaf and hard-of- hearing students; tackle discriminatory policies and practices head-on; implement Department of Education regulations to ensure that students of color with disabilities are treated fairly when it comes to identification, classroom placement, services and accommodations, and discipline; fight to pass the Safe Schools and Improvement Act, which would ban bullying and harassment based on a student’s actual or perceived disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity;
22 THE CANDIDATES DISABILITY RIGHTS (cont'd)
Issue guidance for school districts on how best to include students in the development of their IEPs beginning in elementary school and encourage states to develop postsecondary transition plans earlier in a student’s school career; Fight for $100 billion in new funding for the National Institutes of Health to expand research that can provide a foundation for affordable and life-changing supports for people with disabilities; Work to pass the Digital Equity Act, which invests $2.5 billion over ten years to help Warren (cont'd) states develop digital equity plans and launch digital inclusion projects; Reform our criminal justice system to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities, including enforcing the ADA in the legal system and in access to counsel; Guard against discrimination that threatens the rights of parents with disabilities; Remove barriers that inhibit voting for people with disabilities; Enact and build on the Disability Integration Act and fully enforce the Olmstead decision to achieve its promise of community-based treatment and services under Medicare for All. Yang would improve healthcare for people with disabilities by: Ensuring hospitals meet ADA standards; Using telehealth; Ensuring public transit to healthcare facilities is accessible and covered by insurance; Mandating healthcare covers preventative care services for people with disabilities like assistive mobility devices, hearing aids, adequate catheters, and sufficient physical therapy visits to prevent further secondary conditions; Yang Improving family access to experts who can identify and care for children with disabilities; Including mental health checkups as part of primary care; Providing funds for suicide prevention and awareness competency training for school professionals; Using loan forgiveness and training programs to expand mental health workforce; Better investing in veteran mental health and allocate funding for crisis lines; Launch a campaign to end the stigma around mental health; Allocating funding to states to improve polling locations and voting methods and ensure vote by mail programs target voters with disabilities.
23 THE CANDIDATES
Indigenous Rights
24 THE CANDIDATES INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
In the absence of specific, Indigenous-centered policies, here are past examples of the Senator’s record on Indigenous rights:
In 2018, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs conducted a hearing in response to the rapid disappearance of Native languages as a result of assimilation. In regards to the hearing, Bennet’s Senate spokesperson said, “Colorado’s history and culture have been deeply enriched by long-standing Native American communities. Michael has Bennet worked with tribal leadership to protect lands sacred to their heritage, such as Bears Ears National Monument. He similarly supports efforts to preserve their language and culture.”
A year prior, he co-introduced the Native American Indian Education Act, which would help cover the costs to maintain tuition-free higher education for Native Americans. 25
Biden’s plan to address violence against women, includes upholding tribal sovereignty to support survivors and hold non-Native perpetrators accountable; increasing federal resources for Tribal gender-based and sexual violence programs; and expanding American Indian and Alaska Native police officers’ access to national crime information databases to close the data gaps. Biden
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans do not include any mention of Indigenous rights or sovereignty policy.
Bloomberg The Mayor’s “Indian Country” policies and plans include: Respecting and upholding a commitment to obtain free, prior, and informed consent from tribal leadership; Fulfilling commitments to treaty-enshrined rights to health care and education; Bringing back the White House Tribal Nations Conference, the White House Council on Native American Affairs, and high-level Tribal Affairs appointments in every federal agency; Enacting laws and strengthening policies that recognize the inherent authority of Buttigieg of tribes to govern their territories, especially when it comes to ensuring tribal rights to protect their lands and natural resources; Improving voting rights on tribal lands by modernizing registration, increasing the number of polling places, and ensuring access to the ballot; Supporting tribal economic development by recognizing the authority of Indian tribes to tax activities on their lands in support of tribal self-sufficiency and government services.
25 THE CANDIDATES INDIGENOUS RIGHTS (cont'd)
At the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum, Delaney was asked if he would support Red Stain legislation, which would revoke the Medals of Honor from those who massacred hundreds of unarmed Lakota people. In his initial response, he referred to the Wounded Knee Massacre as a battle, but then said he would sign the bill if it came to his desk.
Later during the forum, Chair of the National Indian Health Board Victoria Kitcheyan Delaney asked him how he will provide high quality healthcare to Native Americans. He responded, “I would want that the national, universal healthcare system that I build for all the citizens of this country to be available to your community, because I think it would be a better option than what you have now. There are alternatives to achieving that, which is to allow it to continue to be an independent, separate system and funding it at sufficient levels. I think either of those are potentially good options for improving the quality of the Indian Healthcare System.”
Kitcheyan responded, “Sir, I just have to respond, that would not work for Indian Country, universal healthcare. We are a distinct political nation and please, just put that out of your mind on a solution for Indian Country.” 26
Though Gabbard does not have explicit policy plans to support indigenous people, her Congressional work includes: Supporting H.R.558 to provide Federal economic development assistance for Native American communities through the Native American Challenge Demonstration Project; Leading the passage of an amendment to H.R. 5 to Reauthorize the Native Hawaiian Education Act; Securing funding for the Hawai‘i State Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to Gabbard build affordable homes, make renovations, and provide housing support for Native Hawaiian families; to increase availability, affordability and improve the quality of child care programs for Native Hawaiian families through Maui Family Support Services; and for the Native American Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI); Reintroducing and passing the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA).
In her, “First 100 Days” Plan, Klobuchar states her commitment to ending attacks on tribal sovereignty; barring the Department of Justice from taking anti-sovereignty positions in litigation; directing the Department of Health and Human Services from deferring to states on Medicaid rules for tribal members; increasing meaningful tribal consultation; and restoring Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument.
Klobuchar Additionally, she will: Invest in, provide resources, and ensure full funding of Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). She will also ensure TCUs, Alaska Native-serving institutions, Native Hawaiian-serving institutions and Native American-serving non-tribal institutions are eligible for the Pathways to Student Success initiative; Partner with tribes in the development of all federal policies that affect tribes and consult with the Tribal Nations on all matters of federal policy; Invest in efforts to help tribal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies combat violence and human trafficking in Indian Country; 26 THE CANDIDATES INDIGENOUS RIGHTS (cont'd)
Expand broadband deployment in Indian Country by connecting every household to the internet by 2022; Consult with tribal officials to combat addiction and prioritize mental health by creating new early intervention and suicide prevention programs, expanding access to treatment, combating addiction to opioids and other substances, increasing beds for mental health, providing alcohol and drug treatment services, and providing a path to sustainable recovery through economic opportunity; Klobuchar Improve voter accessibility by increasing access to voter registration sites and (cont'd) polling locations, requiring automatic voter registration for eligible citizens when they turn 18, and bolstering Native American voter registration, education and election participation efforts in Indian Country; Prioritize and fully fund federal and tribal law enforcement efforts, expand support for tribal judicial systems, and direct the Department of Justice to aggressively prosecute violent crimes in Indian country; Increase teacher pay and school funding, allocate resources and school infrastructure investments in Indian Country; Work with Tribal officials to put forward a plan to cut childhood poverty in half across the country in ten years, including expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Care Tax Credit, SNAP benefits and overhauling our country’s housing policy, with a focus on Indian Country; Work with tribes to settle litigation and resolve long-standing disputes over trust assets and natural resources; Support the Indian Health Service, defending the Affordable Care Act, pushing for advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service, and focus on prevention and treatment of diseases where there is a severe health disparity between tribes and non-Indian communities, including cancer, diabetes and suicide; Prioritize VA health care services, employment, and housing for Native veterans and advocating for Native veterans so they have access to a good education and good jobs when they come home.
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans did not include any mention of indigenous rights or sovereignty policy.
Patrick
27 THE CANDIDATES INDIGENOUS RIGHTS (cont'd)
Under his “Empowering Tribal Nations” plan, Sanders would: Support Native Americans to protect their treaty and sovereign rights, advance traditional ways of life, and improve the quality of life.Honor tribal treaty rights and sovereignty, moving away from a relationship of paternalism and control toward one of deference and support; Reauthorize and expand the Violence Against Women Act to provide critical resources to women in Indian country and allow all tribes to prosecute non-Native Sanders criminals. Implement the 10-20-30 legislation introduced in Congress to prioritize federal funding for Indian Country and ensure that significant percentages of federal funds are invested in Native communities that lack access to quality schools, health care, and job opportunities. Enact a Green New Deal which includes a federal job guarantee to rebuild Native communities. In advancing the Green New Deal Sanders intends to ensure Tribes and Native American people benefit; the federal government abides by treaties and respects tribal sovereignty; grant tribes eligibility for all funding available through the plan; and abide by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to ensure the free, prior and informed consent by Indigenous Peoples.
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans do not include any mention of indigenous rights or sovereignty policy.
Steyer Among her “Honoring and Empowering Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples,” Warren plans to: Pass the Honoring Promises to Native Nations Act, which proposes a spending package “to directly and immediately address critical unmet needs in Indian Country to ensure Native Americans get the full equity we’ve been fighting for;” Remove vital programs for Indian Country from the traditional appropriations process and instead ensure predictable funding; Warren Create a permanent, cabinet-level White House Council on Native American Affairs; establish a new White House Budgetary Office of Tribal Affairs; work to center indigenous matters within executive agencies; Pledge timely consultation with Tribal Nations on federal policy; Pass the PROGRESS for Indian Tribes Act and consider new means of expanding self- governance and self-determination; Fully fund investments in transportation infrastructure and access throughout Indian Country; Set minimum, significantly increased set-asides for Tribal drinking water improvements from the EPA Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, the EPA Clean Water State Revolving Fund, and the tribal water pollution control program; Triple investments in the Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy and empower tribal communities with the resources needed to fully fund needed electrical grids and expand the many successful renewable energy initiatives on Native lands;
28 THE CANDIDATES INDIGENOUS RIGHTS (cont'd)
Create a new $85 billion federal grant program to massively expand broadband access across the country — including $5 billion set aside specifically for 100% federal grants to Tribal Nations to expand broadband access on Native American lands; Support the Native American Business Incubators Program Act, which would provide grants to incubators specializing in Native-owned businesses; significantly increase support for Native Community Development Financial Institutions; create a Warren (cont'd) Small Business Equity Fund.Expand funding for the Indian Tribal Land Acquisition Loan Program and the Highly Fractionated Indian Land Loan Program; Fix the 2009 Supreme Court case Carcieri v. Salazar, so that Tribal Nations’ land can be taken into trust and their reservations protected; Reauthorize the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act with the full inclusion of Native Hawaiians; expand the Indian Housing Block Grant to $2.5 billion to build or rehabilitate 200,000 home; and increase the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant to $8 million in the first year; Guarantee Funding for the Indian Health Service; replaces the current Native Health programs to ensure funding for all necessary services, access to adequate medical providers throughout Tribal lands, and includes specific programs designed to zero in on behavioral health and chronic disease issues to make real change; expand tele-mental health services and resource for staffing and push Congress to pass the Native American Suicide Prevention Act; Close coverage disparities for Native populations under Medicare For All can be eliminated; Adequately fund the Bureau of Indian Education schools; provide grant support so public school curriculum can include Native American history and culture; enable students to attend Tribal Colleges and Universities without paying a dime in tuition or fees; Recognize the inherent jurisdiction of tribes over their sovereign territory, while providing tribal authorities sufficient funding to provide robust legal systems that deliver justice for victims and due process to criminal defendants; empower Tribal courts with the sentencing authority required to address more serious offenses by amending the Indian Civil Rights Act,; fully fund the public safety and justice needs of Tribal communities; identify mechanisms to fund tribal law enforcement programs through DOJ’s COPS grants, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Tribal Access Program; roll back the Oliphant decision and recognizing full tribal authority to prosecute non- Native defendants; provide necessary funding for investigation, coordination, and prosecution; pass the Studying the Missing and Murdered Indian Crisis Act to mandate the federal government formally report on the law enforcement response to missing and murdered Native people; expand the POWER Act to fund pro bono legal services for Native victims of domestic and dating violence; propose a nationwide Missing Indigenous Woman Alert System modeled after the Amber Alert System ; establish a Department of Justice Task Force to investigate the epidemic of sexual assaults and murders committed against Native women and prosecute offenders' Expand federally protected land that is important to tribes and protect historic monuments and sacred sites; restore protections to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and any other national monuments targeted by the Trump Administration; advocate for legislative action to save Oak Flat from copper mining and protect Chaco Canyon and the surrounding region from mineral development; revoke the permits for the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines and reject permitting of new projects where improved processes are not followed; Pass the Native American Voting Rights Act.
29 THE CANDIDATES INDIGENOUS RIGHTS (cont'd)
Yang would work to promote voting access to Native people by passing the Native American Voting Rights Act; mandating polling stations be within 20 miles of reservations; demanding states provide alternatives to address registration for reservation residents; and reducing the incidences of polling station location changes.
Yang
30 THE CANDIDATES
Sexual Violence Prevention
31 THE CANDIDATES SEXUAL VIOLENCE PREVENTION
Does not believe college students accused of sexual assault should have the right to cross examine their accusers; Called on U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to not rescind the Title IX guidance, which provided schools with direction on how to handle investigations of campus sexual assault;
Bennet 27 Biden’s sexual violence prevention plan includes: Increasing visas for domestic violence survivors and working to end anti-immigrant state laws that have forced immigrants into the shadows rather than getting support or seeking justice after surviving domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking; Improving housing access for survivors through the creation of a targeted comprehensive housing grant program that includes advocacy with landlords and housing agencies, legal assistance, child care, and employment training; access to Biden housing assistance; protections from housing discrimination; Financial support including allocating $5 billion to community organizations, which will, in turn, provide cash grants to survivors in need, whether the need is to help pay for day care, transportation to work, or to buy a laptop for a new job; Allowing survivors to access their retirement savings as they rebuild their lives; guaranteeing paid domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking safe leave; Campus support and accountability including expanding requirements for comprehensive sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence prevention education on college campuses as well as training for campus administrators and staff on how to provide support; improving survivors’ reporting rights and options on college campuses; strengthening Title IX and Clery Act enforcement; Expanding prevention and services to public K-12 schools; Addressing online harassment by convening a National Task Force on Online Harassment and Abuse; providing funding for law enforcement training to tackle online abuse; advocating for federal and state legislation to create a civil and criminal cause of action for unauthorized disclosure of intimate images; Providing legal strength through restoring and strengthening VAWA’s civil cause of action for survivors; increasing access to lawyers; hiring victim advocates so every survivor can access this support if they so choose; Ending mandatory arbitration clauses imposed by employers on workers, including for claims of workplace sexual harassment; Reducing the rape kit backlog with $100 million annually; Working to better culturally-specific services for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking program; Ensuring federal programs are not one-size-fits-all, but actually addresses community need; Reaffirming Tribal sovereignty to support victims and hold offenders accountable, and expanding federal resources for Alaska Native and American Indian women and girls impacted by violence and abuse; Pushing to provide federal funding for local efforts to meet the needs of transgender communities, including employment assistance, housing assistance, leadership development, and other priorities identified by local communities; Providing sex education designed for youth with disabilities accessible; and ensuring services are accessible. 32 THE CANDIDATES SEXUAL VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans did not include any mention of sexual violence prevention.
Bloomberg Buttigieg plans include: Training all students in consent and bystander intervention and teaching students in public schools to identify and address gender discrimination and bias; Defending Title IX, enacting a student-centric process to amend Title IX regulations, focusing on early intervention and prevention programs, offering supports like counseling and academic accommodations, and advising schools to guarantee each student a transparent and full investigation; Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act and implementing automatic Buttigieg reauthorization; Criminalizing revenge porn, increasing funding for law enforcement training, and working with industry to eradicate online harassment on their platforms; Establishing a commission on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
Delaney, who was an original cosponsor of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, would include sexual harassment as an offense under the act and close the Boyfriend Loophole, which allows dating partners convicted of domestic violence to own and purchase guns (though not married partners). He would also work to undo the Trump Administration’s rollbacks of Obama-era Title IX guidance. Delaney Gabbard has been a vocal proponent of creating pathways outside the chain of command for survivors in the military to report sexual violence. She has also supported legislation including: H.R. 6545, Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2018 H.R. 459, Trafficking Survivors Relief Act of 2017, to create a process for victims of human trafficking to request relief from non-violent federal crimes committed as a direct result of human trafficking H.R. 3775, Military Sexual Assault Victims Empowerment (SAVE) Act, to give Gabbard survivors the option to seek reimbursable care from non-VA/TRICARE medical providers H.R. 4396, Member and Employee Training and Oversight On (ME TOO) Congress Act, to prevent sexual harassment in Congress, and provide a fair, transparent path to justice for victims H.R. 4494, Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund Elimination Act, to end taxpayer-funded harassment settlements and require any individual who has settled such a claim using taxpayer funds to fully reimburse the Treasury.
33 THE CANDIDATES SEXUAL VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
In her first 100 Days, Klobuchar will: Reverse the Trump Administration’s Title IX rollbacks; Restore asylum for the victims of gender-based violence; Use executive action the “boyfriend loophole,” which allows dating partners convicted of domestic violence to own and purchase guns (though not married partners); Close the data gap on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and invest in Klobuchar efforts to help tribal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies combat violence and human trafficking in Indian Country.
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans did not include any mention of sexual violence prevention.
Patrick As President, Sanders would: Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act; Provide funding to end the national rape kit backlog as well as requiring testing of the kits and ensuring survivors are updated on the status of their kit; Reverse the Trump Administration’s rollback on Title IX; Institute “safe harbor” policies to treat sex trafficked persons as victims rather than criminals, and that offer legal and financial support for victims; Sanders Allocate federal funds for sex trafficking research and prevention programs. These programs to are support early identification of vulnerable populations, like foster children and youth in transition, as well as Native American women; Support victims of sexual assault with housing assistance and paid leave; Create a national help hotline and state-funded long-term counseling in order to expand non-police interventions for domestic violence.
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans do not include any mention of sexual violence prevention.
Steyer
34 THE CANDIDATES SEXUAL VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
In a Warren presidency, here are steps that her administration would take to address sexual violence: Close the “boyfriend loophole,” which allows dating partners convicted of domestic violence to own and purchase guns (though not married partners); Recognize tribal authority to prosecute non-Native defendants; provide funding for investigation, coordination, and prosecution of cases; mandate the federal government report on law enforcement response to missing and murdered Native Warren people; fund pro bono legal services for Native victims of domestic and dating violence; create an Amber-Alert-like system for Missing Indigenous Women; and create a task force within the Department of Justice to investigate sexual assaults and murders committed against Native women and prosecute offenders; Establish a grant within the Office of Violence Against Women to direct resources into organizations led for and by transgender people, particularly people of color.
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans did not include any mention of sexual violence prevention.
Yang
35 THE CANDIDATES
Gun Violence Prevention Boyfriend Loophole: An individual convicted of domestic violence is prohibited from purchasing and owning a gun only if they were married, live with, have a child with, or are a parent/ guardian to their victim. Individuals who are stalkers or who were “just” dating partners are not covered by this ban.
Charleston Loophole: People purchasing guns from licensed dealers are subject to a background check. The FBI has three days to complete the check and if it does not complete the check in that time, the licensed seller can proceed with the sale.
Straw Purchaser: An individuals who purchases a firearm or related items for those who are unable to purchase for themselves.
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program: Established by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and housed within the U.S. Department of Justice, this program allocates resources and grant funding so state and local law enforcement can hire community police, to create and test new policing strategies, and to support law enforcement trainings.
36 THE CANDIDATES GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION
One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinctions.
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans do not include any mention of gun violence prevention.
Bennet On police violence: In 1994, Biden sponsored the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act to add 100,000 police officers and increase sentences for a host of crimes. Today, he would: Authorize and lean on the Department of Justice to exert greater power in addressing systemic police misconduct; Invest $300 million in the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which authorized funding both for the hiring of additional police officers and for training on how to undertake a community policing approach; require potential Biden recipients hire police officers that mirror the racial diversity of the community in which they serve; Establish a panel to scrutinize what equipment is used by law enforcement in our communities.
On broader gun violence: One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinctions. Background checks: Require background checks on all guns and close remaining loopholes, including the Charleston Loophole, in the system; adequately fund background checks; alert law enforcement when someone attempting to purchase a firearm fails a background check; require purchasers of gun kids or 3D printing codes pass a background check. Waiting Period: No official position as of January 1, 2020. Buybacks: Institute a buy back program on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that allows individuals to either sell their weapons to the government or register them. Licensing: Allocate funds for states to implement gun licensing programs. Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: Ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Purchasing Limits: Restrict individual firearm purchases to one per month. Boyfriend Loophole: Close Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: Allocate funds for states to opt into passing extreme risk protection order laws. Other bans on who can purchase/own: Prevent people who cannot “manage their affairs for mental reasons” from obtaining guns; prevent individuals convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime from purchasing or possessing a firearm; ban people facing arrest warrants from purchasing or possessing a firearm; require all people who cannot buy or own guns to relinquish them; prioritize and prosecute “straw purchasers” who buy firearms for those barred from purchasing. Digital: Ban all online sales of firearms, ammunition, kits, and gun parts; move toward a place where all new firearm sales are of “smart guns.” Extras: Require safe firearm storage and require reporting when a firearm is lost or stolen; hold adults accountable for giving minors access to firearms; prohibit federal dollars from arming or training educators on discharging firearms.
37 THE CANDIDATES GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
On police violence: Bloomberg is responsible for New York City’s stop-and-frisk policies that led to the racial profiling of Black and Brown folx. Before announcing his run for President, he apologized for the policy.
On broader gun violence: Founder of Everytown for Gun Safety, his policies are to: Background checks: Require background checks for all gun purchases; close the private sale and gun show loopholes. Bloomberg Waiting Period: Require all gun buyers to wait at least 48 hours before any firearm purchase. Buybacks: Start with a voluntary buyback and ban on purchasing assault weapons before enforcing a mandatory buyback. 28 Licensing: Require every buyer obtain a permit before purchasing a gun. Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: Reinstate the federal ban on both. Purchasing Limits: No stated position as of January 1, 2020. Boyfriend Loophole: Close Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: Pass a federal law that expands extreme risk orders to 50 states—and fund state efforts to maximize the policy. Other bans on who can purchase/own: Use sales records to identify crime guns and notify local police when individuals become barred from having a gun; make purchasing age at least 21 years old to buy handguns and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns; temporarily prohibit gun possession by those with assault and other violent misdemeanors; classify straw purchasing and trafficking as stand- alone federal crimes. Technology: Reverse Trump Administration rules making it easier to publish 3D-printing blueprints online and pass legislation to prohibit digital publication of those files; grant Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) authority to treat guns like other household products so that the federal government will have the power to set safety requirements for gun technology. Extras: Require all gun owners to report to police if their firearms have been lost or stolen; mandate secure storage; ban all guns in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities–except for law enforcement; allocate at least $100 million annually for local violence intervention programs; fund at least $100 million annually for public health research into gun violence; ensure gunmakers and gun dealers will no longer have broad immunity from civil lawsuits; declare the gun violence crisis to be a public health emergency to expedite funds and research; establish a gun coordinator in the White House; focus executive energy on suicide reduction, school safety interventions, and corporate partnerships. On police violence: This past June, a white police officer in South Bend, Indiana, where Mayor Pete served, killed a Black man and it opened up questions and concerns with the Mayor’s record. His policies in regards to police violence are: Developing a federal database to document use of force, track officers who are fired from their duties, and develop accountability practices for use of force; Increase funding for body-worn cameras and develop an analytics process to go through results; Call on the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to investigate law Buttigieg enforcement agencies that have a pattern or practice of violating civil rights and the Constitution, including by racial profiling; Advance legislation to raise the legal standard under which officers are justified to use lethal force and offer incentives for states and localities to adopt more restrictive policies; Push to eliminate unfair and discriminatory practices, such as broken windows-style policing, that are shown to be biased against people of color;
38 THE CANDIDATES GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
Promote effective, informed independent civilian oversight of state and local law enforcement agencies; Allocate resources for community-based health care, especially mental health services, and other front-end social supports.
On broader gun violence: One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinctions. Background checks: Push for universal background checks, close the Charleston Buttigieg loophole. (cont'd) Waiting Period: Work with Congress on this Buybacks: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Licensing: Create a licensing system. Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: Ban Purchasing Limits No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Boyfriend Loophole: Close Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: Work with Congress on this. Other bans on who can purchase/own: Prohibit people convicted of hate crimes from acquiring or possessing firearms. Extras: Address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women; end gun industry immunity, resume federal funding for gun violence research; invest in evidence-based urban gun violence intervention programs proven to work.
On police violence: Allocate funding to support and train police officers to prevent racial profiling and promote de-escaltion; Expand funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program; Meet funding and support needs for police departments and first responders, particularly those who serve in areas with high crime rates; Allow the Department of Justice to intervene in local police departments that have Delaney a pattern of abuse and misconduct; Dedicate more federal funding for body cameras.
On broader gun violence: One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinctions. Background checks: Require for every gun sale Waiting Period: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Buybacks: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Licensing: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: Supports the Assault Weapons Ban Purchasing Limits: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Boyfriend Loophole: Close Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: Provide grants to support state, local, and tribal governments that adopt extreme risk laws. Extras: Ban all accessories designed to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic weapon, including bump stocks and trigger cranks; ensure that the government funds this vital field of research.
39 THE CANDIDATES GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
On police violence: Gabbard supports legislation that would require police to go through verified training before they can receive military-grade equipment, but has yet to sign it because she wants it to limit the type of weapons police can use. She also calls for reconsideration of a program that hands weapons over from the Pentagon to local police. 29
On broader gun violence: One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinctions. Gabbard Background checks: Require for every gun sale. Waiting Period: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Buybacks: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Licensing: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Purchasing Limits: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Boyfriend Loophole: Close Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: N/A Extras: Ban devices that speed up gunfire from semi-automatic weapons. On police violence: No official policy as of January 1, 2020.
On broader gun violence: One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinctions. Background checks: Universal background checks; close the gun show loophole; close the Charleston loophole Waiting Period: Establish Klobuchar Buybacks: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Licensing: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: While working to pass this ban, raise the age to buy military-style assault weapons from 18 to 21. Purchasing Limits Boyfriend Loophole: Close Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: Providing grants to states to implement. Other bans on who can purchase/own: Require the Social Security Administration to submit records of people with severe mental illness to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Technology: Prohibit the online publication of code for 3D printing firearms; hold manufacturers and distributors of gun kits to the same standards as those of completed firearms. Extras: Ban bumpstocks; allocate funding for research on firearm safety and gun violence prevention as public health crises; prohibit federal funding from being used to arm teachers; increase inspections and strengthen enforcement to crack down on gun manufacturers and sellers that violate the law.
On police violence: Was previously appointed as a senior advisor to Chicago Police Department Task Force on Police Accountability to review systems of accountability, oversight and training that already exist in Chicago police departments. The Task Force was to investigate any suspected police misconduct, identify officers with multiple complaints against them, and discuss a system through which to release footage of incidents where there is believed police wrongdoing. Patrick 40 THE CANDIDATES GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
On broader gun violence: Background checks: Universal background checks Waiting Period: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Buybacks: Voluntary. Licensing: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: Ban Purchasing Limits: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Boyfriend Loophole: Close Patrick (cont'd) Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Extras: Ban bumpstocks; support research on the causes and sources of gun violence. On police violence: Help police departments in adopting policies and training to more fairly interact with transgender people, especially transgender women of color; Incentivize states and localities to end police departments’ reliance on fines and fees for revenue; Revitalize the use of Department of Justice investigations, consent decrees, and federal lawsuits to address systemic constitutional violations by police Sanders departments; Establish strict guidelines and independent oversight on all federal funds used by police departments; Stop providing military equipment to local police forces; Build a federally managed database of police use of deadly force; Provide grants for states and cities to establish civilian oversight agencies with enforceable accountability mechanisms; Mandate federal standards for the use of body cameras; Establish criminal liability for civil rights violations resulting from police misconduct; Restrict “qualified immunity” to address the lack of criminal liability for civil rights violations resulting from police misconduct; Require an investigation by the U.S. Attorney General in every case where someone is killed in police custody; Ban police use of facial recognition software; Establish national standards for use of force by police that emphasize de-escalation; Require, fund, and establish oversight police officer training on implicit bias, cultural competency, de-escalation, crisis intervention, adolescent development, and how to interact with people with mental and physical disabilities; Ban the practice of any law enforcement agency benefiting from civil asset forfeiture; Financially support states and municipalities to create civilian corps of unarmed first responders, such as social workers, EMTs, and trained mental health professionals; Expand counseling and mental health services for officers; Diversify police forces and academies and incentivize officers to live and work in the communities they serve.
On broader gun violence: One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinctions. Background checks: Expand to cover all gun sales; end the gun show loophole Waiting Period: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Buybacks: Implement Licensing: Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: Ban 41 THE CANDIDATES GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
Purchasing Limits: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Boyfriend Loophole: Close Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: Support Other bans on who can purchase/own: Crack down on straw purchasers Technology: Ban the 3-D printing of firearms Extras: Take on the NRA Sanders (cont'd) On police violence: Restart the DOJ Office of Community Oriented Policing and invest in local solutions. Call on the federal government to provide funding for police training and to develop model use of force directives that can be used by state and local governments across the country.
On broader gun violence: One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Steyer Candidate Distinctions. Background checks: Universal Waiting Period: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Buybacks: Implement Licensing: Create a new Office of Gun Safety and licensing requirements. Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: Ban Purchasing Limits: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Boyfriend Loophole: Potentially close, his plan just says “close loopholes." Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: Enact Other bans on who can purchase/own: Crack down on straw purchasers. Technology: Ban the 3-D printing of firearms.
Extras: Provide resources to communities to reduce gun violence. 30 On police violence: Invest in mental and emotional health support for officers; Establish a process to collect data for police accountability; Triple funding for the Office of Civil Rights to allow for increased investigations of departments with the highest rates of police violence and whenever there is a death in custody; Provide incentives for state attorney generals to conduct oversight of police Warren behavior; Establish a competitive grant program that provides funding to communities that form an independent civilian oversight mechanism for their police departments, such as a civilian oversight board or Office of Civilian Complaints; Clarify a federal standard for use of force; Allocate funding to incentives for cities and states that hire a diverse police force and provide tools and resources to ensure that best practices on law enforcement training are available across America, providing local police with what they need to meet federal training requirements, including training on implicit bias and the scientific and psychological roots of discrimination, cultural competency, and engaging individuals with cognitive or other disabilities; Restrict qualified immunity for police officers to allow for accountability;
42 THE CANDIDATES GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
Withhold federal funding from law enforcement agencies that continue to employ stop-and-frisk policies; Separate law enforcement from immigration enforcement; Eliminate the transfer of military-grade weapons and lethal equipment to local police; ban local law enforcement from buying military equipment with federal funding; and create a buy-back program for equipment already in use in our communities; Warren (cont'd) Expand funding for body cameras. On broader gun violence: One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinctions. Background checks: Universal background checks; close gun show loophole; close the Charleston loophole Waiting Period: Establish Buybacks: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Licensing: Create a federal licensing system. Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: Ban Purchasing Limits: Report on multiple purchases; limit an individual purchases to one per month Boyfriend Loophole: Close Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: Pass Other bans on who can purchase/own: Make clear that straw purchases are a federal crime; prohibit people convicted of a hate crime from owning a gun. Technology: Prohibiting accessories that make weapons more deadly. Extras: Expand the number of sales covered by existing age restriction provisions that require the purchaser to be at least 18 years old; revoke licenses for gun dealers who break the rules; raise taxes on gun manufacturer; expand the Gun-Free School Zones Act to include college and university campuses; allow for civil liability; allow federal private right of action against gun manufacturers; pass basic safety standards for federally-licensed gun dealers, including employee background checks, locked cabinets, and up-to-date inventories of the weapons they have in stock; hold gun industry CEOs personally accountable; invest $100 million to conduct research into the root causes of gun violence and the most effective ways to prevent it. On police violence: The 44-year-old New York businessman has said he “he would ‘100 percent yes’ reinstitute the ability of the Department of Justice to study patterns and practices of law enforcement and use consent decrees;” 31 Authorize federal funding to pay for a body camera for every officer in every police department in the country; Have the DOJ compile accurate composite measurements, including from private sources, of police-related incidents and deaths to establish baseline rates; Yang Provide federal funding for training of local police officers in the latest techniques; Encourage community-based policing and reward departments for a combination of low complaints and continued efficacy; Re-establish the ban on distributing surplus unnecessary military-level artillery gear to police departments; Invest in new non-lethal weaponry that can be used to de-escalate conflicts at range and handprint signature guns so that weapons can only be used by their officers (‘he reached for my gun’ will no longer apply).
43 THE CANDIDATES GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (cont'd)
On broader gun violence: One of the recipients of Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinctions. Background checks: Require all sales and most transfers to have a background check; close gun show loophole; close Charleston loophole Waiting Period: Implement Buybacks: Work through the buyback program to allow “trades” of non-personalized guns to personalized ones; implement a federal buyback program for anyone who wants to voluntarily give up their firearm. Yang (cont'd) Licensing: Promote a stringent licensing system, with a 5-year renewal requirement, for gun ownership. In order to obtain a license, an individual would have to go through a federal background check, interview with a federal agent, who has limited discretion on granting the license; pass a basic hunting or firearm safety class, and provide a receipt for an appropriately-sized gun locker, or trigger locks (tax deductible). Assault Weapons/High-capacity magazines: Create a clear definition of “assault weapon”, and prevent their manufacture and sale. Purchasing Limits: Establish a rate, not total, limit. Boyfriend Loophole: Likely, but not explicitly. Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws: No official policy as of January 1, 2020. Other bans on who can purchase/own: Anyone with a history of violence, domestic abuse, or violent mental illness would not be allowed to hold a license. Technology: Create an agency tasked with monitoring gun manufacturing developments and addressing “design-arounds” as they arise; form a commission to study the development of 3D printing technology; invest in personalized gun technology that makes it difficult or impossible for someone other than a gun’s owner to fire it Extras: Increase funding to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and drastically increase funding to the US Department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Prevention efforts; research gun violence; require all locations where guns are sold to display information on how to receive mental health treatment or reach suicide crisis hotlines; initiate and fund mindfulness programs in schools and correctional facilities, which have been demonstrated to reduce violent behavior; invest heavily in law enforcement training to de-escalate situations involving firearms, and provide funding to programs that involve mental health professionals in de-escalation situations.
44 THE CANDIDATES
LGBTQIA+ EQUITY Equality Act: The Equality Act would be the first comprehensive federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. With 239 cosponsors upon introduction in the 116th Congress, the bill has the most Congressional support in the history of pro-LGBTQ+ legislation. The current version of the Equality Act was introduced to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. It specifically lays out protections against discrimination in applying to public accommodations, public facilities, public education, federal funding, employment, housing, equal credit opportunity, and juries.
45 THE CANDIDATES LGBTQIA+ EQUITY
Cosponsor of the Equality Act.
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans did not include any mention of LGBTQIA+ Equity.
Bennet Supports the Equality Act Under the plans the Vice President has released, he has committed to: Ending Trump policies that limited individuals who are LGBTQ from qualifying asylum; Directing programs for survivors of sexual violence to more directly address needs of different communities, including sexual orientation and gender identity protections and funding for the National LGBTQ Institute on IPV (intimate partner violence); Biden Combatting the violence against transgender women of color through federal funding for local programs such as employment assistance, housing assistance, and leadership development; Passing the LGBTQ Essential Data Act; Updating the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports Supplementary Homicide Reports to include sexual orientation and gender identity; Creating cultural competency training protocols for Veterans Affairs facilities and in community care settings; Understanding the needs of LGBTQ veterans experiencing homelessness; Protecting against health care discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
In the plans or policy stances Bloomberg has officially released, he states his commitment to fixing burdensome voting laws that make it more difficult for transgender people to vote. He also has an Equal Rights page that states, “As mayor, he stood up to bigotry and discrimination, championed LGBTQ rights, helped lead the fight for marriage equality, and presided over New York City’s first official same-sex marriage the day it became legal. Mike’s company is a global leader in advancing gender equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace.” Bloomberg
46 THE CANDIDATES LGBTQIA+ EQUITY (cont'd)
Supports the Equality Act The Buttigieg Campaign published a comprehensive “Becoming Whole: A New Era for LGBTQ+ Americans” Plan that includes: Passing the Student Nondiscrimination Act and the Safe Schools Improvement Act, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, the Do No Harm Act; Ending Trump Administration rules allowing religious exemption to become a license to discriminate, including an end to rules allowing shelters to discriminate on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity; Buttigieg Ensuring each federal agency identifies discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and vigorously uses all available tools to stop it; Proposing a budget that provides federal Offices of Civil Rights with the staffing and funding they need to enforce protections for LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized groups; Update the U.S. passport program to include a third, non-binary gender option, “X”, for all new U.S. passports; Ensuring all public health decisions and regulations are based on scientific evidence and not fear or stigma, including blood donor deferral guidelines to prevent HIV transmission; Banning medically unnecessary genital surgeries on intersex infants and children and training medical professionals on the health needs and human rights of intersex people; Providing coverage for gender-affirming treatments and procedures and training clinicians on sexual orientation and gender identity, for transgender Americans; Ensuring transgender men have access to safe reproductive health care including routine gynecological health services such as pap smears or breast exams and lesbian and bisexual women receive targeted approaches within women’s health programs; Re-establishing the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and, within six months of taking office, update the National HIV/AIDS Strategy to ensure that U=U (Undetectable means Untransmittable) and universal access to PrEP in order to end the epidemic by 2030; Clarifying that Title IX protections against discrimination in school extends to transgender students; Providing LGBTQ+ inclusive lessons and health education; Banning discrimination against potential adoptive or foster parents and children based on sexual orientation or gender identity; Clarifying State Department guidance so that same-sex couples living abroad are spared from additional hoops for their children to gain citizenship; Ending youth homelessness by increasing federal investment in housing and services for youth experiencing homelessness; Providing federal funding for LGBTQ+ community centers; Establishing funding for workforce training and apprenticeship programs that expand opportunities for LGBTQ+ people, especially LGBTQ+ youth. Advancing initiatives that support LGBTQ+-owned businesses and entrepreneurs. Vigorously enforcing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and supporting law enforcement and community policing strategies to investigate and prosecute these crimes in a manner that ensures justice to trans women and their families, while protecting the trans community; Training law enforcement and requiring reporting on issues specific to LGBTQ+ people; Ensuring all correctional and detention facilities provide medically necessary treatment and appropriate detention conditions; Reforming and strengthening the Prison Rape Elimination Act;
47 THE CANDIDATES LGBTQIA+ EQUITY (cont'd)
Ending the transgender military ban and the restrictions on military service by people living with HIV; Reviewing federal retirement benefits to ensure equity for survivors of long-time LGBTQ+ couples who were prohibited from civil marriage; Increasing funding to help document and celebrate LGBTQ+ history and culture; Provide funding and promote special exhibits and other activities to document and celebrate LGBTQ+ history and the contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals and communities and for arts and culture grants that are LGBTQ+-inclusive. Buttigieg Protecting LGBTQ+ refugees and asylees; reducing the number of immigrants (cont'd) in detention, particularly for LGBTQ+ individuals; ensuring the refugee resettlement program is inclusive of the needs of LGBTQ+ people and that LGBTQ+ refugees are placed in welcoming communities; Appointing officials who reflect the diversity of America; Working with the LGBTQ+ community to identify appropriate vehicles to collect greater and more useful data about sexual orientation and gender identity; Increasing funding for federal research about LGBTQ+ individuals, families, and communities; Honoring LGBTQ+ Pride Month every year.
Supports the Equality Act His “Plan for LGBTQ Equality” includes: Passing the Student Non-Discrimination Act, which codifies Title IX protections for LGBTQ students; Federally banning conversion therapy; Ending the military ban against transgender individualsSupporting the Voting Rights Advancement Act and opposing voter ID laws. Delaney Supports the Equality Act Gabbard’s support of LGBTQ equality has come under fire and question and she’s been called to answer for her earlier stances on LGBTQIA+ rights and her father’s organization that advocates for conversion therapy and against same-sex marriage. 32 In place of a plan, her website touts her support of the following legislation: H.R.1244, To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to clarify that all provisions shall apply to legally married same-sex couples in the same manner as other married couples, and for other purposes. Gabbard H.R 2532, Respect for Marriage Act H.R.2119, Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017, To prohibit, as an unfair or deceptive act or practice, commercial sexual orientation conversion therapy H.Res.124, Expressing opposition to banning service in the Armed Forces by openly transgender individuals.
48 THE CANDIDATES LGBTQIA+ EQUITY (cont'd)
Cosponsor of the Equality Act In her first 100 days in office, Klobuchar pledges to: End the military ban against transgender individuals; Stop federal efforts that allow for discrimination against LGBTQ people; Clarify that Title VII protections extend to gender identity and sexual orientation and ensure the Department of Justice is in accord; Reduce LGBTQ homelessness; Klobuchar Address LGBTQ suicide rates; Increase access to PrEP; Establish an office of LGBTQ Anti-discrimination within the White House Domestic Policy Council; Ensure data is collected to address LGBTQ disparities During the remainder of her term, she will work to reverse Trump anti-LGBTQ policies; combat domestic terrorism and call on law enforcement to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of hate- motivated violence; ban landlords from engaging in discrimination against renters; and launch a national suicide-prevention and mental health awareness campaign.
Patrick would form an interagency working group to address cross-state identification issues that make it harder for transgender individuals to register and vote.
Patrick Cosponsor of the Equality Act In his, “Fight for LGBTQ+ Equality,” Sanders states he will: Pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, and the Student Non-Discrimination Act; Protect and enforce Title IX nondiscriminations protections; Guarantee health insurance for LGBTQ+ people and ensure they receive care without discrimination; Sanders Work to end bullying and reduce suicide rates; Support police departments that adopt policies to ensure fairer interactions with transgender people, especially transgender women of color who are often targeted by police unfairly, and by instituting training programs to promote compliance with fair policies; Prevent creditors and banks from discriminating against LGBTQ+ people; Oppose “religious liberty” legislation that serve as licenses to discriminate.
In his immigration plan, Sanders also commits to eliminating discrimination against LGBTQ+ families in immigration law and ensuring children born to U.S. citizen parents have acquired citizenship, regardless of biological relationship.
49 THE CANDIDATES LGBTQIA+ EQUITY (cont'd)
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans did not include any explicit mention of LGBTQIA+ equity.
Steyer Cosponsor of the Equality Act In her “Securing LGBTQ+ Rights and Equality” plan alone, Warren will: Pass the Do No Harm Act; Prevent weaponization of “religious liberty” as an expansion of the license to discriminate; Rollback Trump Administration rules that allow discrimination in housing, federal contracts, healthcare and more and then work to protect against discrimination in Warren all of those agencies; Make LGBTQ+ non-discrimination a condition of receiving federal grants; End TSA screening practices that target transgender people; Limit Title IX waivers that allow colleges and universities to suspend students for being LGBTQ+; Expand affirmative civil rights testing for anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination; Nominate judges who will uphold LGBTQ+ rights; Ban discrimination in adoption and throughout the child welfare system; Ban conversion therapy; Make it easier to change identification documents to reflect a person’s gender identity; Amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to require school districts to adopt codes of conduct that specifically prohibit bullying and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; clarify that Title IX protections include sexual orientation and gender identity; increase the number of school-based mental health providers and ensure school staff are trained in culturally-competent and trauma-informed care; end harsh zero tolerance policies which lead to school push-out; Develop a comprehensive LGBTQ+ homelessness prevention program within the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness; reauthorize and fully funding the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act; support programs that help people experiencing homelessness secure employment and educational opportunities; stop laws that criminalize homelessness; Take executive action to fight LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination: Appoint EEOC commissioners and NLRB members who support LGBTQ+ workers, issue regulations affirming LGBTQ+ people’s equal rights in employment, and make those rights enforceable by banning federal contractors from using forced arbitration and collective action waivers to bar LGBTQ+ workers from suing if they are discriminated against at work; advocate for the BE HEARD in the Workplace Act to end sexual harassment in the workplace; Pass the Refund Equality Act, which allows married same-sex couples to amend their federal tax returns and recoup money that they should not have had to pay had the federal government recognized their marriages; Possibly decriminalizing sex work;
50 THE CANDIDATES LGBTQIA+ EQUITY (cont'd)
Increase funding for police training on implicit bias and ensures that the best practices on law enforcement training are widely available across the country; triple the funding of the Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights to allow for increased investigations of police departments; End the LGBTQ+ panic legal defense; Eliminate solitary confinement; audit prisons’ compliance with Prison Rape Elimination Act and prosecute prison staff who engage in misconduct; end the Warren (cont'd) practice of imprisoning transgender people in facilities based on their sex assigned at birth; and ensure that all facilities meet the needs of transgender people, including by providing medically necessary care, like transition-related surgeries, while incarcerated; Ensure access to equitable, gender-affirming, and culturally-competent healthcare; Push for LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education; End the discriminatory blood donation ban for gay and bisexual men; Support greater diversity in medical research by directing the FDA to increase participation of underrepresented populations in clinical trials; Increase funding for federal HIV/AIDS programs, including the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative; decriminalize HIV transmission; publicly manufacture PrEP to lower the cost; Ensure children born to U.S. citizen parents have acquired citizenship, regardless of biological relationship; Resume granting asylum claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity; Restore information on LGBTQ+ issues to government websites; Use every legal tool to prohibit the intersecting forms of discrimination that transgender women of color face everywhere it occurs; Create a new grant program within the Office of Violence Against Women that will specifically channel resources into organizations by and for transgender people, especially people of color.
Yang’s policy stances on LGBTQIA+ Rights include: Extending protected status to individuals based on sexual orientation and gender identity; Increasing funding to educate the public on LGBTQ issues as well as for programs to help LGBTQ individuals experiencing discrimination; Appointing LGBTQ individuals to senior positions.
Though not on his LGBTQ Rights policy plan, he also cites the importance of Yang increasing mental healthcare for LGBTQ+ communities, ending voter ID laws and increasing vote by mail, pushing Veterans Affairs to hire doctors who specialize in “transgender issues.”
51 THE CANDIDATES
Reproductive Rights The Hyde Amendment: Congress first passed the Hyde Amendment in 1976, which prohibits abortion coverage in federal insurance programs like Medicaid, except in limited circumstances
52 THE CANDIDATES REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Hyde: Overturn 33
Bennet’s healthcare plan explicitly addresses maternal and infant health. To that end, he would work to increase the number of OB-GYNs and other rural providers; expand Medicaid coverage for pregnant individuals to cover six months postpartum; support expansion of telemedicine; support midwives and home visitation for maternal care in rural communities; increase research funding on maternal and infant health to Bennet improve pre-natal and neonatal care; correct for racial disparities in maternal health by ending maternity care deserts, require culturally competent screening and treatment; strengthen state and federal family planning and maternal care programs. Hyde: Earlier in the campaign, Biden stood by his vote in favor of the Hyde Amendment when he was in Congress. His website has since changed to call for an end to Hyde.
Under the Vice President’s plans: The public option would cover birth control and abortion care; Roe v. Wade would become codified; The Department of Justice would work to stop state laws that violate the right to an abortion, including TRAP laws, parental notification requirements, mandatory Biden waiting periods, and ultrasound requirements; Federal funding for Planned Parenthood would be restored; California’s efforts to reduce maternal mortality would be replicated on a federal level; He affirms that healthcare providers and insurance companies cannot discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; Expand community health centers, which, among their services, provide prenatal care. Hyde: Repeal
While Bloomberg had not released a plan on reproductive rights by the start of 2020, The Bloomberg Family Foundation, donated $13,962,000 to Planned Parenthood Federation of America between 2014-2017; he’s donated to EMILY’s list; and as mayor, he supported a requirement that public hospitals teach OB-GYN residents how to perform abortions.He credits his administration for increasing access to emergency contraception. Bloomberg 34 Hyde: Abolish
A Buttigieg administration would: Enact policies to guarantee coverage of gender-affirming care; Ensure clinicians use inclusive language, understand and address the health needs of folks in the LGBTQ+ community; and provide trauma-informed care—particularly for LGBTQ+ people of color; Improve coverage for pre-pregnancy and up to one year postpartum health; Buttigieg increase access to maternal health services in rural, Tribal Nations, and other underserved areas; reduce the closure of obstetric units; and protect the health of women who are incarcerated while pregnant; support policies for implicit bias training, increase the workforce for maternal health; and research pregnancy outcome disparities, Only nominate judges that align with him on reproductive rights; Codify the right to abortion into law and prohibit state governments from interfering in insurance abortion coverage; 53 THE CANDIDATES REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS (cont'd)
Guarantee all who need PrEP can access it, regardless of ability to pay; End Trump-era rules that ban doctors from discussing abortion options and that allow providers to use their personal beliefs to determine the care a patient does or does not receive; Cover family planning under Medicare for All Who Want It and ensure there is no cost sharing; Allocate Title X dollars only to those providers offering evidence-based care. Buttigieg (cont'd) Hyde: Repeal
As President, Delaney would: Require insurance companies to pay for birth control; Protect federal funding of Planned Parenthood; Guarantee coverage for pregnancy, maternal care, and pre-existing conditions under his healthcare plan; Delaney Create a national program, mirrored off of South Carolina’s Nurse-Family Partnership, that would improve health outcomes during first two years of a child’s
life 35
Hyde: Opposes 36
While Gabbard supports Roe v. Wade, she believes abortion should be, “safe, legal, and rare” and off the table in the third trimester unless the pregnant person’s life or severe health is at risk.
Gabbard Hyde: Cosponsored legislation to overturn 37
Under her reproductive policy plans, Klobuchar would: Expand Veterans Affairs health benefits to cover medically-necessary emergency services for newborn babies; Immediately work to increase maternity care health professionals in underserved areas and create best practices to end racial disparities in maternal and infant Klobuchar mortality; Ensure federal funding for Planned Parenthood; End the rules banning doctors from discussing abortion options and restore Title X funding for providers that do discuss abortion; Codify Roe v. Wade.
54 THE CANDIDATES REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS (cont'd)
Hyde: No stated policy position as of January 1, 2020.
While Patrick’s campaign has not released a statement or plan on his reproductive rights policy, as governor he signed a law allowing police to order the removal of anti-abortion protestors that block access to clinics.
38 Patrick Hyde: Sanders has defended past votes to uphold Hyde stating that was only in the case of larger spending packages and “"Sometimes in a large bill you have to vote for things you don't like.” He would work to eliminate it as president.39
In addition to overturning Hyde, Sanders would: Impose support of Roe v. Wade as his only litmus test for a Supreme Court nominee; 40 Sanders Oppose efforts to “protect” religious liberty that is a license to discriminate; Ensure full funding of Planned Parenthood, Title X, programs that guarantee access to contraception and abortion; Expand the WIC program for pregnant mothers, infants, and children.
Hyde: Repeal 41
While Steyer’s policy plans indicate only that his “administration will fight for full reproductive justice,” surveys he’s completed indicates a strong commitment to funding Planned Parenthood, ensuring insurance coverage of contraception and abortion, and stopping state’s anti-abortion legislation. 42 His, and his opponents, responses to surveys can be found through The New York Times’ election coverage. Steyer Hyde: Repeal
Senator Warren’s plans to expand reproductive rights and care honors the leadership of her fellow former and current candidates, such as Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker's work on Black maternal Health. She is honoring their policy proposals and adding: Hold health systems accountable for protecting black moms through rigorous Warren evaluations; bundling payments for care so that it’s not per visit but per “episode” of care; enabling health systems to cover services—like prenatal and postpartum visits, hypertension and depression screenings, and doula and lactation support—based on effectiveness rather than reimbursement rate; allow bonuses for improving overall outcomes; Guidance for the FDA to increase participation of underrepresented populations in clinical trials to ensure effectiveness of treatments across communities; Increase funding for federal HIV/AIDS programs and research, including the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative; decriminalize HIV transmission; publicly manufacture PrEP to lower the cost; Pass laws including the Women’s Health Protection Act to prevent states from restricting reproductive care and mandate pre-clearance before states and local governments that have a history of trying or restricting reproductive care enforce new reproductive rights laws;
55 THE CANDIDATES REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS (cont'd)
Sign the EACH Woman Act to ensure private insurance covers reproductive care and ensure Medicare for All covers contraception and abortion coverage; End the rules preventing doctors from discussing abortion and remove the restriction from Title X funding; Crack down on violence at abortion clinics and discrimination at work on the basis of reproductive choices; Warren In her plan, she also shares this affirmation: “The women of color who have championed the reproductive justice movement teach us that we must go beyond choice to ensure meaningful access for every woman in America — not just the privileged and wealthy few. We must go beyond abortion, to ensure access to contraception, STI prevention and care, comprehensive sex education, care for pregnant moms, safe home and work environments, adequate wages, and so much more. We must build a future that protects the right of all women to have children, the right of all women to not have children, and the right to bring children up in a safe and healthy environment.”
Hyde: Repeal and refuse to sign a budget that includes it.
Yang’s New Forward Plan: Ensures HIV/AIDs detection and treatment, reproductive health, and maternal care are included in care; Affirms the efficacy of medication abortion and would make it over the counter, along with contraception; Increases telehealth to provide care in places where there no abortion clinics; Yang Assures access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive care, including STI screenings, contraception, and abortion; Pledges gender-affirming services; Protects Title X funding for Planned Parenthood by removing ban on discussing abortion; Allocates more resources to maternal health research; to fully cover maternity costs; and improve implicit bias training for healthcare providers; calls for the establishment of objective treatment guidance for childbirth care.
56 THE CANDIDATES
Frontline Communities & Climate Change Many of the candidates have released comprehensive plans to combat climate change and we encourage you to look into how they are planning to hold fossil fuel and big oil companies accountable or how they are investing in renewable energy. The purpose of this section is to explore which candidates support the Green New Deal, which centers frontline communities, and which candidates explicitly name the problem of environmental racism and/or how they may be centering frontline communities in the environmental movement.
Environmental Racism: The disproportionate burden communities of color carry and experience in regards to pollution, waste, toxicity, and climate change and the policies contributing to them as well as their diminished ability to fight back against those policies and the systemic factors. For example, communities of color, particularly Black communities, disproportionately live within range of a coal-fired power plant and Black children are more likely to go to the emergency room as a result of an asthma attack and die as a result of an asthma attack than a white child. 43
Frontline Communities: “Frontline communities are those that experience 'first and worst' the consequences of climate change. These are communities of color and low-income, whose neighborhoods often lack basic infrastructure to support them and who will be increasingly vulnerable as our climate deteriorates. These are Native communities, whose resources have been exploited, and laborers whose daily work or living environments are polluted or toxic.” 44
57 THE CANDIDATES FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES & CLIMATE CHANGE
Stance on the Green New Deal: “I'm not going to pass judgment one way or another on the Green New Deal. I'm all for anyone expressing themselves about the climate any way they want." 45
Centering Frontline Communities: As Senator, Bennet broke from his fellow Democrats to approve the Keystone Pipeline. 46 Now, in pursuit of his “American’s Climate Change Plan,” Bennet plans to launch an effort on the first day of his Bennet Administration that will engage people across the country to develop the Climate Change Plan within 100 days and implement it within 9 months. He also plans to launch a “Next Generation Climate Board of Directors” to ensure young leaders are heard. There is no clarification of which communities will be engaged and how it will/if it will amplify those most directly impacted. Stance on the Green New Deal: “Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face.” 47
Centering Frontline Communities: Through his “Clean Energy Revolution,” Biden pledges to "stand up to the abuse of power by polluters who disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities” by pursuing cases of criminal pollution and holding them accountable to the extent of the law and seeking new legislation, when necessary to hold corporate executives personally accountable; Biden prioritize community-driven approaches to address environmental injustices that impact communities of color, low-income communities, and indigenous communities; guarantee safe drinking water in every community by prioritizing water infrastructure that includes monitoring and supporting communities to upgrade water systems; ensuring frontline communities benefit from the new job opportunities in the clean energy community; giving preference to frontline communities under the competitive grant programs.
Stance on the Green New Deal: “Yes. I support the climate goals of the Green New Deal resolution. Unfortunately, the Republican Senate is blocking action on climate, but as president I will take immediate and ambitious steps to combat climate change, beginning on my first day in office.” 48
Centering Frontline Communities: Bloomberg’s climate plan explicitly states he will prioritize and invest in frontline communities that have both been the most deeply Bloomberg impacted by pollution and also left behind in the green transition. He will hold corporations responsible for the harm they caused; fulfill commitments made to impacted communities; “fully embed environmental justice into how the government conducts its work–putting intense focus on federal rulemaking, enforcement, and investments on communities disproportionately impacted by the production and use of coal and gas;” strengthen health and carbon-reduction standards as well as expand enforcement and center communities most directly impacted by pollution; consult with community leaders and advocates in to create criteria for future rulemaking.
58 THE CANDIDATES FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES & CLIMATE CHANGE (cont'd)
Stance on the Green New Deal: “I think the elegance from a policy perspective of the concept of the Green New Deal is it matches a sense of urgency about that problem of climate change with a sense of opportunity around what the solutions might represent.” 49
Centering Frontline Communities: Under his climate plan, Buttigieg will: Establish a community-centered Disaster Commission to review and recommend processes for improved preparedness and recovery. The Commission will convene Buttigieg people from federal agencies, state and local officials, tribal officials, and volunteer organizations under a White House official with access to the President; Coordinate a climate summit in Pittsburgh climate summit to bring together local leaders from around the country; Allocate federal dollars for disaster-related community volunteer programs Increase efforts for disaster preparedness education and intentionally work to reach frontline communities; Provide the American Clean Energy Bank with $250 billion in initial dollars so it can provide grants, loans, loan guarantees, and credit enhancements to create infrastructure projects, primarily in places where private dollars might not invest; Respect sovereignty of federally-recognized tribes and other Native communities to ensure that they benefit from the clean energy transition; uphold treaties; elevate consultation with tribal governments and Native communities to where it belongs. 50
He also pledges to rollout “more specific action plans on environmental justice and supporting frontline communities in combating climate change.” 51
Stance on the Green New Deal: “The Green New Deal as it has been proposed is about as realistic as Trump saying that Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Let's focus on what's possible, not what's impossible.” 52
Centering Frontline Communities: Delaney’s plans make no mention of frontline communities' roles or leadership in creating the path forward. Instead, he proposes a Climate Corps program that would have recent high school graduates work in low- Delaney income and rural communities to support their transition to a green economy. Climate Corps members will identify the most pressing local needs hindering transition; provide information about sustainability; and assist in clean energy projects.
Stance on the Green New Deal: “I support the carbon neutrality goals of the Green New Deal and the awareness it has brought across the country on the critical issues of energy independence and the climate crisis, however, I do not support ‘leaving the door open’ to nuclear power unless and until there is a permanent solution to the problem of nuclear waste. I believe we need to invest in 100% renewable and safe energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal.” 53
Centering Frontline Communities: No plans released. Gabbard
59 THE CANDIDATES FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES & CLIMATE CHANGE (cont'd)
Stance on the Green New Deal: “My plan is definite that we have to go to carbon neutral by no later than 2050. I'm a cosponsor of the Green New Deal, so I'd like to see it even sooner, right? But at the outset, when I look at the numbers, I think we should at least get this done — we have to by 2050. And we have to limit this to 2.7 degrees warming Fahrenheit or we're going to be in a whole lot more trouble than we are already are in today.” 54
Klobuchar Centering Frontline Communities: Klobuchar commits to: Investing in climate adaptation and supporting frontline communities; Ensuring vulnerable communities play a key role in all decision making; Creating tax incentives and increasing federal funding to communities most directly impacted; Prioritizing vulnerable communities for infrastructure investments and climate change programs; Investing in the EPA’s Environmental Justice Grants and Office of Civil Rights; Allocating federal dollars for affordable housing that is attuned to climate resilience and mitigation; Strengthening Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
Stance on the Green New Deal: Unclear
Centering Frontline Communities: Patrick has not released a full climate plan, but has stated,“Rather than seeing the future as a threat, we can shape our own future, and we can do it in a way that expands opportunity for working people and people who live in communities where they feel American enterprise has forgotten them.” 55
Patrick
Stance on the Green New Deal: “As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis and act immediately to mobilize millions of people across the country in support of the Green New Deal.” 56
Centering Frontline Communities: Sanders has multiple layers of his climate policy with various efforts to center frontline communities and address environmental racism. Not all of these policies could be included here, but as an overview, such Sanders policies are: Stopping the exposure of people of color to harmful chemicals, pesticides and other toxins in homes, schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces and challenge faulty assumptions in calculating, assessing, and managing risks, discriminatory zoning and land-use practices and exclusionary policies; Creating a $40 billion Climate Justice Resiliency Fund that will conduct a nationwide survey to identify areas with high climate impact vulnerabilities and other socioeconomic factors, public health challenges, and environmental hazards. Each community will then be eligible for funding in order of most vulnerable to least vulnerable; Providing frontline and fenceline communities a just transition including real jobs, resilient infrastructure, economic development;
60 THE CANDIDATES FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES & CLIMATE CHANGE (cont'd)
Expanding the climate justice movement by coming together in a truly inclusive movement that prioritizes young people, workers, indigenous peoples, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups to take on the fossil fuel industry and other polluters to push this over the finish line and lead the globe in solving the climate crisis; Ensuring the full and equal enforcement of all environmental, civil rights, and public health laws and aggressive prosecution of violators; Sanders Focusing job training and local hiring to reflect the racial and gender diversity of the (cont'd) community receiving federal investments; Updating permitting rules that allow polluters to target poor communities for polluting infrastructure; Following the Principles of Environmental Justice adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit; Fully surveying and tracking pollution in vulnerable communities; Dedicating grant funding specifically to impacted communities, including Tribes; Mandating each agency involved in carrying out the Green New Deal coordinates in an interagency process to ensure local communities are involved in carrying out this plan; Ensuring a hunger-free transition by providing $215.8 billion for free, universal school meals, including breakfast, lunch and snacks and expanding the SNAP program and benefits to the people of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa so they are on par with the benefits in the continental United States; Abiding by treaties and respecting tribal sovereignty while upholding the trust responsibility in every step of this plan.
Stance on the Green New Deal: “In addition to taking bold executive actions, I will challenge Congress to pass vital legislation to enact a Green New Deal and provide additional funding to protect the country against climate and weather--related natural disasters.” 57
Centering Frontline Communities: In addition to creating a high-level task force that includes tribal leaders and community representatives, Steyer states he will “support the development of community-led plans with tailored local approaches for every state Steyer and US territory to prioritize justice, and lift up the voices of all Americans to address the unique needs of their communities. We will especially focus on communities bearing high burdens in both pollution and poverty , as well as areas financially dependent on fossil fuel extraction. We will support the development of new strategies to reduce pollution by investing in smarter systems and better infrastructure that will increase social cohesion and equity." 58
61 THE CANDIDATES FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES & CLIMATE CHANGE (cont'd)
Stance on the Green New Deal: “This is a crisis. We need bold, aggressive action. We need a Green New Deal -- and we need it now.” 59
Centering Frontline Communities: Warren has multiple layers of her climate policy with various efforts to center frontline communities and address environmental racism. Not all of these policies could be included here, but as an overview, such policies are: Warren Improving the EPA’s equity mapping of communities based on basic environmental and demographic indicators; Allocating trillions of dollars to transform the way energy is sourced and used while prioritizing resources to support vulnerable communities and remediate historic injustices; Creating a down-payment assistance program that provides grants to long-term residents of formerly redlined communities so that they can buy homes in the neighborhood of their choice; Investing $400 billion in clean energy research and development that funds research place-based interventions specifically targeting the communities that need more assistance; Revitalizing the cabinet-level interagency council on environmental justice; Restoring the EPA’s Civil Rights office and Office of Environmental Justice; Bolstering the CDC to play a larger role in environmental justice.
Stance on the Green New Deal: “The framers of it have done us all a great service by energizing so many people around a vision. And, to me, the only issue I have with the Green New Deal is the timing of the timeline. I mean, they are right that we need to take urgent action, but the timeline that they have put out there would do away with commercial air travel and a lot of other things in a particular time frame, that, if we have a little bit more time, we can head in the same direction and achieve most of the same value.” 60 Yang Centering Frontline Communities: No stated policies that explicitly call out the harm of environmental racism or how to support frontline communities.
62 THE CANDIDATES
Justice Reform
63 THE CANDIDATES JUSTICE REFORM
As President, Bennet would: Eliminate past marijuana convictions; Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline by providing school-based resources to support students who may be struggling, including significantly expanding mental health supports and resources; promoting positive behavioral supports such as restorative practices; and providing innovation grants to allow communities to develop and implement diversion programs to keep kids from incarceration; Bennet End mandatory minimum sentences; Prepare people in prison for reentry. 61 As a Senator, Biden helped write the 1994 Crime Bill, more officially known as the The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which is cited as a major federal contributor to mass incarceration in the 1990’s. As he works to defend his history on the justice system, his proposals on the subject include:
Sentencing: Investing in public defenders’ offices to boost quality counsel; eliminating mandatory minimums; ending the disparity between crack and powder cocaine; decriminalizing the use of cannabis and automatically; expunging all Biden prior cannabis use convictions; diverting people to drug courts and treatment; abolishing the death penalty; ending cash bail and jailing people who cannot pay fines and fees.
Youth: Reinvesting in the National Girls Initiative of the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to support communities and schools to develop gender-specific and trauma-informed prevention and treatment programs and services as alternatives to girls being placed in juvenile detention; investing $1 billion per year in juvenile justice reform and incentivizing states to stop incarcerating kids and instead supporting community-based alternatives to incarceration like mentorship, counseling, and jobs; expand funding for after-school programs, community centers, and summer jobs; ending the use of detention as punishment for status offenses; doubling the number of mental health professionals in schools; protecting juvenile records.
Alternatives: Researching and expanding community-based work on alternative pathways for justice; expanding federal funding for mental health and substance use disorder services and research; reviewing programs that allow non-violent offenders who are primary care providers for their children to serve their sentences through in-home monitoring.
Reentry: Setting a national goal of ensuring 100% of formerly incarcerated individuals have housing; expanding access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment, as well as educational opportunities and job training for individuals during and after incarceration; eliminating barriers for people who were previously incarcerated to access public assistance such as SNAP, Pell grants, and housing support; access to Job Corps; and authorizing access to voting right.
States: Creating a new $20 billion competitive grant program to spur states to shift from incarceration to prevention. To be eligible for the federal dollars, states will have to eliminate mandatory minimums for non-violent crimes, institute earned credit programs, and take other steps to reduce incarceration rates without impacting public safety.
But wait, there’s more: Granting clemency to individuals facing unduly long sentences for certain non-violent and drug crimes; ending federal use of private prisons, tying federal criminal justice grants to the adequate provision of primary care and gynecological care for women, including care for pregnant women. 64 THE CANDIDATES JUSTICE REFORM (cont'd)
Before announcing his presidential campaign, Bloomberg formally and publicly apologized for his “stop-and-frisk” policies as Mayor that led to the racial profiling and incarceration of Black and Brown folks. Now he proposes: Incentivizing states to test and analyze the impact of shorter sentences; Expanding alternatives to prison by increasing drug treatment and mental health services; Improving reentry and career training for people who are incarcerated; Bloomberg Reducing or eliminating cash bail for non-violent offenders; Cutting imprisonment in half for all juveniles in four years and eliminating juvenile incarceration for nonviolent offenders. As President, Buttigieg would: Double funding for federal grants for states that commit to criminal justice reform; Eliminate incarceration for drug possession, reduce sentences for other drug offenses and apply these reductions retroactively; Legalize marijuana and expunging past convictions; Eliminate mandatory minimums; Decriminalize poverty, mental illness, and addiction; Commute the sentences of people who are incarcerated in the federal system Buttigieg beyond what justice warrants by establishing an independent clemency commission that sits outside the Department of Justice; Abolish private federal prisons; Appoint an Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and U.S. Sentencing Commissioners who are committed to the fundamental transformation of the criminal justice system; Nominate judges from under-represented backgrounds, including women, people of color, public defenders, and civil rights attorneys; Protect access to homeless shelters for transgender youth; Combat the overrepresentation and mistreatment of LGBTQ people in the criminal justice system, and ensure that incarcerated transgender individuals have access to hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery.
Sentencing: Allocate more federal funding for state public defenders; end or limit the use of money bail; eliminate mandatory minimum sentences; encourage alternatives to incarceration for individuals who committed certain nonviolent offenses and who are younger than 18; oppose charging juveniles as adults; abolish the death penalty; removing marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and creating strong federal guidelines and taxation policies to support decisions at the state level Delaney Mental Health: Increase the number of mental health professionals in schools to provide services to students and emphasize early detection and intervention; increase mental health professionals available to those incarcerated.
Reentry: Promote “ban the box” policies and increase federal support for recidivism reduction programs that have proven to be effective.
But Wait...there’s more: End for-profit prisons and limiting use of solitary confinement.
65 THE CANDIDATES JUSTICE REFORM (cont'd)
“As president I’ll end the failed war on drugs, legalize marijuana, end cash bail, and ban private prisons and bring about real criminal justice reform.” 62
Gabbard During her time as a prosecutor, Klobuchar is remembered for aggressively prosecuted smaller offenses such as vandalism and routinely sought longer-than- recommended sentences, including for minor. 63 Now she is advocating for: The creation of a clemency advisory board and position in the White House that advise the President from a criminal justice reform perspective; Guidance directing schools to reduce racial disparities in how they discipline students; Klobuchar Incentives for states and localities to adopt sentencing and prison reforms, including the restoration of some discretion from mandatory sentencing for nonviolent offenders and reforming the conditions in state prisons and local jails; Funding to prevent and respond to violent hate crimes and address racial discrimination; Federal dollars to fully staff and fund the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, a non-investigative office of “peacemakers” founded by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provides communities facing racial and other conflict with confidential services to ease tensions; An end to guidance directing federal prosecutors to seek the most severe penalties in all cases; An evaluation of the process to reschedule marijuana, collecting the required scientific and medical evaluations and recommendations; A phase out the use of private prisons by directing the Department of Justice to decline to renew or reduce the scope of contracts when the contract reaches its end. Patrick calls for: An end to private prisons; And end to the criminal prohibition on marijuana; A revival of parole and other programs to prepare people who are incarcerated for their release; Treating those dealing with substance use disorders as patients instead of criminals; Sentencing reform that provides non-violent drug offenders a real chance at re-entering society. Patrick
Trials and Sentencing: Withhold funding from states that continue the use of cash bail systems and ensuring cash bail alternatives do not create more harm; triple congressional spending on indigent defense, to $14 billion annually; set a minimum starting salary for all public defenders; establish federal guidelines and goals for a right to counsel; create a federal agency to provide support and oversight for state public defense services; cancel all existing student debt and cancel any future student debt for public defenders through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Sanders Program; abolish the death penalty; end mandatory sentencing minimums; end “three strikes” laws.
66 THE CANDIDATES JUSTICE REFORM (cont'd)
People with disabilities: Make ending discriminatory law enforcement interactions with people with disabilities a major enforcement priority of the Civil Rights Division; end restraint seclusion in school; invigorate and expand the compassionate release process so that people with disabilities are transitioned out of incarceration whenever possible; invest in diversion programs as alternatives to the court and prison system for people with disabilities; create an Office of Disability in the Department Of Justice.
Sanders Mental Health: Challenge states that have failed to adequately support the voluntary, (cont'd) community-based mental health services that can divert people with mental illness away from prison. Youth: Bar criminal charges for school-based behavior that would not otherwise be criminal; invest in school nurses, counselors, teachers, teaching assistants, and small class sizes; allocate $5 billion so schools can provide the necessary school counselors and wrap-around services; ban the prosecution of children under the age of 18 in adult courts; work to ensure that all juvenile facilities are designed for rehabilitation and growth; ensure youth are not jailed or imprisoned for misdemeanor offenses; guarantee juveniles are not housed in adult prisons; end solitary confinement for youth; end long mandatory minimum sentences and life-without-parole sentences for youth; decriminalize truancy for all youth and their parents.
Within the Prisons: Ban for-profit prisons; make prison phone calls and other communications such as video chats free of charge; audit the practices of commissaries and use regulatory authority to end price gouging and exorbitant fees; establish living wages and safe working conditions for people who are doing labor while incarcerated; end solitary confinement; ensure access to free medical care in prisons and jails; ensure incarcerated trans people have access to all the health care they need; protect from sexual abuse and harassment, including mandatory federal prosecution of prison staff who engage in such misconduct.
Alternatives: Expand the use of sentencing alternatives, including community supervision and publicly funded halfway houses. This includes funding state-based pilot programs to establish alternatives to incarceration, including models based on restorative justice and free access to treatment and social services.
Reducing Existing Sentences: Create an independent clemency board removed from the Department of Justice and placed in White House; reinstate a federal parole system and end truth-in- sentencing; create a path for people serving long sentences to undergo a “second look” process to make sure their sentence is still appropriate.
Drugs: Legalize marijuana and vacate and expunge past marijuana convictions, and ensure that revenue from legal marijuana is reinvested in communities hit hardest by the War on Drugs; provide people struggling with addiction with the health care they need; decriminalize possession of buprenorphine; legalize safe injection sites and needle exchanges around the country, and support pilot programs for supervised injection sites, which have shown to substantially reduce drug overdose deaths; raise the threshold for when drug charges are federalized, as federal charges carry longer sentences; end the sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine.
Reentry: Ensure access to free educational and vocational training; end the ban on Pell Grants for all incarcerated people without any exceptions; restore the right to vote; ban the box; create a federal agency responsible for monitoring re-entry; guarantee safe, decent, affordable housing as well as jobs and free job training at trade schools and apprenticeship programs. 67 THE CANDIDATES JUSTICE REFORM (cont'd)
Steyer pledges that he will work to end cash bail, reduce the prison population, stop the prison pipeline and revolving door, eliminate private prisons, restructure parole and probation, promote better-policing methods and training to reduce police brutality, exercise his clemency powers where appropriate, and increase resources for public defenders and community intervention programs, and fight for the rights of those reentering society by supporting rehabilitation and workforce readiness programs. Steyer Breaking the school-to-prison pipeline: Equip schools with resources to meet their students’ needs by providing access to health care to support the physical, mental, and social development of children, improve their overall school readiness and providing early intervention services; decriminalize truancy; provide schools with resources to train teachers and administrators in positive behavioral interventions, trauma-informed alternative discipline practices, and implicit bias to limit suspensions, expulsions, and minor-infraction arrests; fully fund the Office of Civil Warren Rights of the Department of Education so that it can investigate school districts with dramatic disparities in school disciplinary actions. Mental Health: Decriminalize mental health; invest in preventing people from reaching crisis points by providing continuous access to critical mental health care services; increase funding for “co- responder” initiatives that connect law enforcement to mental health care providers and experts.
Drugs and Substance Abuse: Invest in diversion programs for substance abuse disorder; support diversion programs; support evidence-based safe injection sites and needle exchanges, and expand the availability of buprenorphine to prevent overdoses; invest $100 billion over ten years to increase access to high quality treatment and support services; address the legacy of the War on Drugs; legalize marijuana and erase past convictions; eliminate the remaining disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing.
Stop criminalizing poverty: End cash bail; restrict fines and fees levied before adjudication; cap the assessment of fines and fees; eliminate fees for necessary services such as phone calls, bank transfers, and health care.
Accountability for the wealthy and the well-connected: Uphold a new criminal negligence standard for executives of corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue when their company is found guilty of a crime or their negligence causes severe harm to American families; put pharmaceutical executives on the hook to report suspicious orders for controlled substances that damage the lives of millions; implement new certification requirements for executives at giant financial institutions so that we can hold them criminally accountable if the banks they oversee commit fraud.
Prosecutorial and Judicial Reform: Strengthen public defenders and expand access to counsel; address prosecutorial abuses by reducing the use of coercive plea bargaining by DOJ prosecutors at the federal level, establishing open-file discovery, and putting in place responsible standards for evidence gathering; establish a Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct to make additional recommendations for best practices and monitor adoption of those recommendations; create an independent prosecutorial integrity unit to hold accountable prosecutors who abuse their power; Expand access to justice for people wrongfully imprisoned; appoint a diverse judicial bench; establish an advisory board comprised of survivors of violence, along with formerly incarcerated individuals. 68 THE CANDIDATES JUSTICE REFORM (cont'd)
Sentencing: Reduce or eliminate mandatory minimums; reverse the guidance that requires federal prosecutors to seek the most severe possible penalties; allow federal prosecutors discretion to raise the charge standards for misdemeanors and seek shorter sentences for felony convictions; end the death penalty.
Reentry: Reduce needlessly restrictive parole requirements; reverse the guidance that exempts privately run re-entry programs that contract with the Bureau of Prisons Warren (cont'd) from anti-discrimination laws, restoring protections for individuals with disabilities and those that encounter discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity establish a federal expungement option.
But wait...there’s more: Raise the age of adult criminal liability to 18; eliminate life-without-parole sentences for minors; and divert young adult offenders into rehabilitative programs wherever possible; use the pardon and clemency powers broadly to right systemic injustices and create a clemency board to make recommendations directly to the White House; ensure that incarceration meets basic human rights standards; implement a rigorous auditing program to ensure that prisons are adhering to legal requirements to protect LGBTQ+ individuals and others from sexual violence and assault while incarcerated, and prosecute prison staff who engage in misconduct; ensure that juveniles are not housed in adult facilities; invest in programs that facilitate rehabilitation; expand mental health and addiction treatment; eliminate private prisons.
As President, Yang would: Assess mandatory minimum laws against what the data shows is effective and adjust accordingly; Divert federal drug policy from punishment and towards treatment; End for-profit, private prisons; Allocate funding for programs dedicated to reducing recidivism and increasing reintegration; Advocate for reconsideration of the harshness in felony lawsInvestigate civil rights issues raised by the disproportionate amount of minorities convicted of felony crimes Yang
69 THE CANDIDATES
Workplace and Economic Opportunity Each candidate has plans to improve the economy, create opportunities for growth, support unions, and support workers. Here, we are highlighting a few key pieces across campaigns as well as a few of their unique policies.
70 THE CANDIDATES WORKPLACE AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
Minimum Wage: Raise to $15 in high-cost cities and allow rural and lower-cost communities to gain exemptions. No mention of subminimum wage.
Paid Leave: Workers can receive 70 percent of their wages for up to 12 weeks.
Child care: Under his "Real Deal," every family with kids would receive at least $3,000 a year, paid out monthly, to put toward rent, groceries, and child care. Bennet Expanding Economic Opportunities: Allocate $50 billion to create 500 Regional Opportunity Compacts over 5 years that will bring together community and labor markets to connect education, post-secondary education payment, workforce preparation, and local employers’ needs; Reduce barriers to occupational licensing requirements so that they are limited only to those regarding public safety and professionalism, and coordinate across states; Allocate money to the states so they can subsidize employers for up to 100% of the first six months of wages paid to new employees, particularly people who are long-term unemployed, eligible for public assistance, and who are formerly incarcerated.
Protecting Workers: Create a wage insurance program for workers who lose a job they’ve held for more than 3 years. These workers will receive income support, at a rate of half their lost wages up to a salary of $50,000, for up to two years after they are hired elsewhere; Establish a Self-Employment Assistance program, which would enable workers who lose their job through no fault of their own to start a business without being denied continued unemployment insurance benefits; Remove the disability insurance penalty against individuals with disabilities for re-entering the workforce if their condition improves so they can go back to work without risking their disability payments.
Minimum Wage: Increase to $15 and index to the median hourly wage. Eliminate the tipped minimum wage, including the subminimum wages for farmworkers, domestic workers, and workers with disabilities.
Paid Leave: Supports but does not outline length or amount of pay.
Child care: Incentivize community colleges and community-based organizations to provide wraparound support services including child care. Biden
Expanding Economic Opportunities: Enable individuals who serve as caregivers, and who might not participate in the formal labor market, to make “catch up” contributions to their retirement accounts; Incentivize states to end unnecessary occupational licensing requirements and ensure they extend across state lines.
71 THE CANDIDATES WORKPLACE AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (cont'd)
Protecting Workers: Expand the U Visa program to protect undocumented immigrants who are victims of workplace violations if they report and ensure workers on temporary visas are able to fully exercise their labor rights; Supports Fairness for Farmworkers Act and Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, that expands federal protections to agricultural and domestic workers, ensuring that they too have the right to basic workplace protections and to organize and collectively bargain. Biden (cont'd)
Minimum Wage: Raise to $15 and index to inflation. No mention of subminimum wage.
Paid Leave: Supports but does not outline length or amount of pay.
Child care: Pledges to ensure affordable child care.
Bloomberg Expanding Economic Opportunities: Invest in community college partnerships and apprenticeships to connect people with identifiable jobs and career paths.
Minimum Wage: Pass a $15 minimum wage as well as end the tipped and subminimum wage.
Paid Leave: Will work to enact “an enhanced version” of the FAMILY Act, which, in its current form, provides up to 12 weeks of partial income in the case of their own serious health conditions, including pregnancy and childbirth recovery; the serious health condition of a child, parent, spouse or domestic partner; the birth or adoption of a child; and/or for particular military caregiving and leave purposes. Workers, in any Buttigieg sized company, will earn up to 66 percent of their monthly wages, which will be funded by small employee and employer payroll contributions of two-tenths of 1 percent each. Under Buttigieg’s plan, the newly created national paid family and medical leave fund will ensure that low- income workers receive high enough benefits to actually take their leave.
Child care: Create a $1 billion community college fund to help with barriers for students such as child care; allocate $100 million annually for locally-driven public-private workforce partnerships to support programs like child care
Expanding Economic Opportunities: Invest up to $5 billion over the next decade to ensure an apprenticeship program in a growing industry is available within 30 miles of every American; Invest over $50 billion to grow women-owned business.
Protecting Workers: Create a 10-year, $200 billion fund that provides transition assistance for displaced workers and communities; Supports expanding federal protections to cover farm and domestic workers.
72 THE CANDIDATES WORKPLACE AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (cont'd)
Minimum Wage: Raise to $15 overtime, including for tipped workers, and index it to inflation.
Paid Leave: Establish a new federal paid family leave program to funded through a small payroll tax increase. Under this plan, workers can take paid leave for a serious health problem; birth and care of a child; placement and care of an adopted child or a child in foster care; or caring for a child, spouse, parent, or domestic partner with a Delaney serious health problem. The paid leave would be for up to 8 weeks at 60 percent of the monthly wage. Child care: Expand 0-3 child care availability for low income families.
Expanding Economic Opportunities: Create nonprofit banks to increase access to banking services in distressed communities; Institute a tax credit to promote venture capital investments in minority-owned businesses.
Protecting Workers: Create a new Workers’ Tax Credit to increase maximum benefits for low- income earners by $1,500 for each eligibility category.
Minimum Wage: Supports the Raise the Wage Act, which raises the minimum wage to $15 and ends the subminimum wage.
Paid Leave: Supports the FAMILY Act, which provides up to 12 weeks of partial income in the case of their own serious health conditions, including pregnancy and childbirth recovery; the serious health condition of a child, parent, spouse or domestic partner; the birth or adoption of a child; and/or for particular military caregiving and leave purposes. Workers, in any sized company, will earn up to 66 percent of Gabbard their monthly wages, which will be funded responsibly by small employee and employer payroll contributions of two-tenths of 1 percent each.
Minimum Wage: Increase the federal minimum wage to $15 and start with federal contractors. No mention of subminimum wage.
Paid Leave: Create a national paid family leave program to provide workers with 12 weeks of paid leave per year to care for a new child, a family member with a serious health condition, or their own serious health condition. Klobuchar will also reward federal contractors by providing additional points during the contract bidding process Klobuchar if contractors offer paid family leave to their employees. Child care: Reward contractors who offer child care benefits to their employees; invest in quality childcare.
Expanding Economic Opportunities: Strengthen the Minority Business Development Agency, which provides technical and managerial expertise to help minority business overcome social and economic disadvantages; direct her Secretary of Labor to analyze the use of apprenticeships for in- demand occupations, launch a nationwide campaign, and expand apprenticeship opportunities and benefits with the goal of doubling the number of apprenticeships to over a million by the end of her first term.
Protecting Workers: Invest in education and job training, including for workers at risk of losing their jobs to automation. 73
THE CANDIDATES WORKPLACE AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (cont'd)
As of January 1, 2010, his published plans did not include any related policy proposals.
Patrick Minimum Wage: Introduced the Raise the Wage Act, which raises the minimum wage to $15 and ends the subminimum wage.
Paid Leave: Guarantee all workers paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave and paid vacation. While not on his website, he told the paid leave advocacy group PL+US that he endorses six months of paid leave and full wage replacement for low- wage workers. 64 Sanders Child care: Enact a universal childcare and pre-kindergarten program.
Expanding Economic Opportunities: Enact a federal jobs guarantee, to ensure that everyone is guaranteed a stable job that pays a living wage.
Protecting Workers: Establish federal protections against the firing of workers for any reason other than “just cause;” Deny federal contracts to companies that pay poverty wages, outsource jobs overseas, engage in union busting, deny good benefits, and pay CEOs outrageous compensation packages; Ensure farm workers and domestic workers, historically excluded from labor protections, are afforded the same standards as all workers, including the right to overtime pay and to join a union.
Minimum Wage: Pass at least a $15 minimum wage. No mention of subminimum wage.
Paid Leave: Supports. Told the paid leave advocacy group PL+US that he endorses six months of paid leave and full wage replacement for low-wage workers. 65
Child care: Stated commitment to make childcare more affordable and available. Steyer
74 THE CANDIDATES WORKPLACE AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (cont'd)
Minimum Wage: Raise to $15 an hour for all workers, including tipped workers and workers with disabilities.
Paid Leave: Fight for up to 12 weeks of paid family or medical leave in a one year period to care for a newborn or newly adopted child; to act as caregiver to a spouse, child, parent, domestic partner, or chosen family member with a serious health condition; to deal with the worker’s own serious medical condition; or address specific Warren military caregiving needs. Workers would receive 66% of their salary, capped at $4,000 per month, with a minimum payment of $580 per month. Unlike our current unpaid federal leave system, which is limited to businesses with over 50 employees, paid family and medical leave would be available to anyone who meets the work history requirements for Social Security Disability Insurance.
Child care: Enact universal child care. Under her policy, any family making less than 200% of the federal poverty line will have access to free child care while the rates for families above the 200% threshold will be capped at no more than 7% of that family’s income.
Expanding Economic Opportunities: Invest $20 billion in apprenticeship programs and direct the Department of Labor to establish apprenticeship programs in industries throughout the country, including in home care, nursing, and hospitality; Require every federal agency to incorporate diversity as part of their core strategic plan and create support networks through a government-wide mentorship program that centers Black and Brown employees.
Protecting Workers: Pass the BE HEARD in the Workplace Act, comprehensive legislation to end sexual harassment in the workplace and to extend protections against harassment to independent contractors and workers in companies with fewer than 15 employees; Require employers with 15 or more employees to give two weeks of advance notice of work schedules; Require employers to offer additional work hours to existing, qualified, part-time workers before hiring new employees or contractors; Require large companies to let workers elect board members; Deny contracting opportunities to companies with poor track records on diversity and equal pay; Supports Fairness for Farmworkers Act and Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, that expands federal protections to agricultural and domestic workers, ensuring that they too have the right to basic workplace protections and to organize and collectively bargain.
75 THE CANDIDATES WORKPLACE AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (cont'd)
Minimum Wage: Leave minimum wage to states but universal basic income makes it much less necessary. 66
Paid Leave: Implement a comprehensive federal Paid Family Leave plan that provides the ability for all families, regardless of make up, the time to heal and bond with their child; guarantee 6 months Paid Family Leave for all parents, making this accessible to all families and employees in the U.S; offer tax breaks for employers who offer 12 months of paid leave for single parents; ensure this policy applies to the Yang addition of a new child by birth, adoption, or foster care.
Childcare: Use the U.S. military’s childcare program as a model for the country; invest in federal funding to incentivize both private and public childcare options; work with local communities to license and fund childcare centers that meet a national standard for quality; incentivize university campuses to have childcare; encourage and incentivize state funded Pre-K beginning at age 3; for single parents- create tax breaks for child-care services; increase federal funding for pre-K programs.
ExpandingEconomic Opportunities: Establish the Freedom Dividend, a universal basic income of $1,000/month, $12,000 a year, for every American adult over the age of 18.
76 THE CANDIDATES
D.C. Statehood 51 for 51 Campaign: This campaign is dedicated to achieving statehood for the District of Columbia. In order to do this, it calls for a change to the U.S. Senate rules, preventing use of the filibuster, for the purpose of the D.C. statehood vote. If the filibuster is suspended, the Senate will only need a simple majority (51 votes) to pass the measure.
The D.C. Statehood Pledge: Led by Students for D.C. Statehood calls on candidates to pledge to “support admitting Washington, D.C. into the Union as a state of the United States of America.”
H.R.51/S.631 , Washington, D.C. Admission Act: To provide for the admission of the State of Washington, D.C. into the Union.
77 THE CANDIDATES D.C. STATEHOOD
Washington, D.C. Admission Act: Cosponsored D.C. Statehood Pledge: Signed 67 51 for 51: “[51 for 51] requires us to get rid of the filibuster rule, and I’m not prepared yet to do that.” 68
Bennet
At a public address in 2015, Biden told Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, “You should be a state."
69 Biden
As of January 1, 2020, he did not have an official policy position.
Bloomberg
“Democracy is front and center right now, but some very important dimensions (like electoral college reform, DC statehood) get way too little attention. We must not become the first generation to see USA get less democratic versus more.” 70 51 for 51: Endorsed 71 Buttigieg
Washington, D.C. Admission Act: Cosponsored when he was in Congress in 2017 51 for 51: Endorsed 72
Delaney
78 THE CANDIDATES D.C. STATEHOOD (cont'd)
Washington, D.C. Admission Act: Cosponsored
Gabbard
Apparently, at one point, Klobuchar had a petition for statehood on her campaign website.” 73
Washington, D.C. Admission Act: Cosponsored D.C. Statehood Pledge: Signed 74 Klobuchar
In his Democracy Agenda, he states, “If the people of Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico wish to pursue formal statehood, they will have that chance during a Patrick administration and will be welcomed as states.”
Patrick 75
"I strongly support statehood for Washington DC.” 76
Washington, D.C. Admission Act: Cosponsored
Sanders
When NBC Washington asked the campaign for comment, the campaign manager stated, “Tom supports statehood for the District of Columbia.” 77
Steyer
79 THE CANDIDATES D.C. STATEHOOD (cont'd)
"DC residents don’t have an equal voice in our government—despite paying federal taxes. It’s not right, and I’m fighting to change that.” 78 Washington, D.C. Admission Act: Cosponsored 51 for 51: Endorsed 79 D.C. Statehood Pledge: Signed 80
Warren Statehood is included on his campaign website, “Hundreds of thousands of Americans right now are denied effective representation at the federal level while paying taxes and living in the shadow of the capital. We should go ahead and make Washington D.C. a state. I like 50 as a number as much as the next guy but it’s past time for a change.” 81
51 for 51: “We have to do everything possible.” The 51 for 51 Campaign counts it as an endorsement. 82 Yang
80 THE CANDIDATES Sources
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