Democrats know we can reduce out-of-pocket costs for families while improving the quality of health care for all.
We will make it easier for working families to afford high-quality insurance in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces by ensuring that no one pays more than 8.5 percent of their income in premiums
and eliminating the cap on subsidies.
Democrats believe that when Americans are in the hospital or an emergency room, they shouldn’t have to worry about whether their health care providers are in-network or not, which is why we will outlaw the predatory practice of surprise medical billing.
We will work to increase price transparency in the health care system across all payers,
and reduce paperwork through uniform medical billing.
And we will vigorously use antitrust laws to fight against mega-mergers in the hospital, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries that would raise prices for patients by undermining market competition.
Excessive prescription drug cost-sharing and voids in coverage such as dental, vision, and hearing services can lead to severe health consequences for Medicare patients.
Democrats will fight any efforts to cut Medicare benefits,
and support finding financially sustainable policies to expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing.
Democrats will support policies that increase the number of primary care practitioners, registered nurses, dentists, and dental therapists, especially in rural and low-income metropolitan areas, so it’s easier for every American to access preventive and primary health care.
Democrats value all people
and will actively promote wellness programs for all ages in our diverse communities for better overall health.
Expanding Access to Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment
Every American who needs it should be able to access mental health care or substance use disorder treatment, no matter where they live.
Democrats will aggressively enforce the federal mental health and substance use disorder parity law
and ensure that health insurers adequately cover mental health and substance use treatment.
We will also invest in training and hiring more mental health providers, substance use disorder counselors, and peer support counselors,
including by expanding funding for health clinics, especially in rural areas,
and increasing access to these services through Medicaid.
Trauma has a profound effect on both mental and physical health, and Democrats will support increased training for health care professionals, educators, social workers, and other care workers in trauma-informed care and practices.
We will oppose efforts to weaken HIPAA and FERPA privacy rights of people with mental illness.
The opioid epidemic has devastated American communities,
and the Trump Administration has completely failed in its response, leaving millions of families desperate for help.
Democrats will make medication-assisted treatment available to all who need it,
and will require publicly supported health clinics to offer medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction
and approved treatments for other substance use disorders.
We believe we must stop over-prescribing while improving access to effective and needed pain management.
Democrats recognize that incarcerated people suffer from serious mental health and substance use disorders at higher rates than the general population, which is why we will support expanded access to mental health and substance use disorder care in prisons and for returning citizens.
We will ensure no one is incarcerated solely for drug use,
and support increased use of drug courts,
harm reduction interventions,
and treatment diversion programs for those struggling with substance use disorders.
Expanding Long-Term Care Services and Supports
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of people who reside in institutional settings, such as nursing homes and independent living facilities,
and made clear that biases within Medicaid create undue barriers to home- and community-based long-term services and supports.
Democrats will work to eliminate waiting lists for home and community-based care
and the institutional bias within Medicaid,
making investments in building the capacity of the Medicaid system to provide home and community-based services.
We will modernize Medicaid eligibility so people with disabilities do not have to work low-wage jobs to access needed services,
and to ensure the spouses of people with disabilities can maintain a certain level of income and assets.
We will also help Americans pay for long-term care by creating a tax credit for informal and family caregivers
and increasing the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.
Democrats will also pursue policies to improve nursing home staffing and quality standards,
strengthen accreditation processes,
and combat corporate abuses in nursing homes and independent living facilities.
And Democrats are strongly committed to protecting and enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act
and fulfilling the promise of the Olmstead v. L.C. decision, which found institutional segregation of people with disabilities to be unlawful.
Eliminate Racial, Gender, and Geographic Health Inequities
The national statistics on American health care mask profound disparities in insurance rates, access to primary and specialized care, and disparate health outcomes, which are a symptom of those disparities in access.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the uninsured rate was nearly three times higher for Latinos and nearly twice as high for Black Americans as it was for whites.
Some segments of the Asian American and Pacific Islander population faced uninsured rates rivaling those of Black Americans and Latinos,
and more than one in five Native Americans and Alaska Natives was uninsured.
Black children are far more likely than white children to suffer from asthma.
Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Black Americans are diagnosed with diabetes at higher rates than whites.
And average life expectancy is more than two years lower for rural Americans compared to those who live in metropolitan areas.
We recognize it is not enough to have a commitment to eliminating health disparities: we must have a plan.
That is why Democrats will launch a sustained, government-wide effort, with leadership at the highest levels, to eliminate racial, ethnic, gender, and geographic gaps in insurance rates, access to quality care, and health outcomes.
That includes tackling the social, economic, and environmental inequities—the social determinants of health like poor housing, hunger, inadequate transportation, mass incarceration, air and water pollution, and gun violence—
that contribute to worse health outcomes for low-income Americans and people of color.
We can and must fix these inequities by expanding coverage,
making health care more affordable,
and tackling implicit bias in our health care system.
Democrats will ensure that people with disabilities are never denied coverage based on the use of quality-adjusted life year (QALY) indexes.
Democrats will ensure federal data collection and analysis is adequately funded and designed to allow for disaggregation by race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, geography, disability status, national origin, and other important variables, so that disparities in health coverage, access, and outcomes can be better understood and addressed.
We will expand access to health care for people living and working across the United States by extending Affordable Care Act coverage to Dreamers,
and working with Congress to lift the five-year waiting period for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program eligibility for low-income, lawfully present immigrants.
Democrats remain committed to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic,
which disproportionately affects communities of color and the LGBTQ+ community,
and will support critical investments under the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund.
Protecting Native American Health
Native American tribes have for too long been forced to cope with insufficient access to health care and mental health services,
nutrition services,
and modern infrastructure.
Democrats are committed to pursuing environmental justice and climate justice, including for Indigenous peoples and communities,
and will invest significant new resources in clean water and wastewater infrastructure,
clean energy generation and distribution,
and sustainable and regenerative agriculture.
And we will make mandatory and work toward full funding for the Indian Health Service
as part of our commitment to pursuing strong nation-to-nation relationships
and honoring the United States’ trust obligations to Native American communities.
Securing Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice
Democrats are committed to protecting and advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice.
We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services,
including safe and legal abortion.
We will repeal the Title X domestic gag rule
and restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood,
which provides vital preventive and reproductive health care for millions of people, especially low-income people, and people of color, and LGBTQ+ people, including in underserved areas.
Democrats oppose and will fight to overturn federal and state laws that create barriers to reproductive health and rights.
We will repeal the Hyde Amendment,
and protect and codify the right to reproductive freedom.
We condemn acts of violence, harassment, and intimidation of reproductive health providers, patients, and staff.
We will address the discrimination and barriers that inhibit meaningful access to reproductive health care services, including those based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, income, disability, geography, and other factors.
Democrats oppose restrictions on medication abortion care that are inconsistent with the most recent medical and scientific evidence and that do not protect public health.
We recognize that quality, affordable comprehensive health care;
medically accurate, LGBTQ+ inclusive, age-appropriate sex education;
and the full range of family planning services are all essential to ensuring that people can decide if, when, and how to start a family.
We are proud to be the party of the Affordable Care Act,
which prohibits discrimination in health care on the basis of sex
and requires insurers to cover prescription contraceptives at no cost.
These efforts have significantly reduced teen and unintended pregnancies by making it easier to decide whether, when, and how to have a child.
We believe that a person's health should always come first.
Democrats will protect the rights of all people to make personal health care decisions,
and will reject the Trump Administration’s use of broad exemptions to allow medical providers, employers, and others to discriminate.
Protecting and Promoting Maternal Health
Black women are more than three times as likely to die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth compared to white women.
To save mothers’ lives, Democrats will expand postpartum Medicaid coverage to a full year after giving birth,
invest in rural maternal health,
promote a diverse perinatal workforce,
and implement implicit bias training for health professionals.
We will support comprehensive solutions to address every dimension of the Black maternal health crisis in America
and eliminate all racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes,
and support policies and approaches that will at least halve our nation’s unacceptably high maternal mortality rate.
We strongly and unequivocally support the decision to have a child, including by ensuring a safe and healthy pregnancy and childbirth,
and by providing services during pregnancy and after the birth of a child,
including adoption and social support services,
as well as protections against pregnancy discrimination.
We are committed to creating a society where children are safe and can thrive physically, emotionally, educationally, and spiritually.
Protecting LGBTQ+
Health
We condemn the Trump Administration’s discriminatory actions against the LGBTQ+ community,
including the dangerous and unethical regulations allowing doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies to discriminate against patients based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Democrats will reverse this rulemaking and restore nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS in health insurance,
including coverage of all medically necessary care for gender transition.
We will also take action to guarantee that LGBTQ+ people and those living with HIV/AIDS have full access to needed health care and resources,
including by requiring that federal health plans provide coverage for HIV/AIDS testing and treatment and HIV prevention medications like PrEP and PEP, gender confirmation surgery, and hormone therapy.
Democrats support increased community HIV prevention and testing programs which target Latino, Black, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Native American, and other at-risk communities to address the increases of HIV.
Democrats will recommit the federal government to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2025.
Democrats are proud that the Obama-Biden Administration lifted the discriminatory lifetime ban on blood donation by healthy gay and bisexual Americans.
We will work to ensure blood donation regulations are based on science, not fiction or stigma
and that no American, when seeking to donate blood, will face more stringent limitations than any other simply because of who they are.
Strengthening and Supporting the Health Care Workforce
The COVID-19 pandemic has made plain to people across the country that our health care workers are heroes.
Our doctors and nurses, our home health aides and physician’s assistants, our public health professionals, our home care workers and nursing home workers, and our cleaners and service workers have shown up to work every day despite dire shortages of personal protective equipment.
Far too many of them have lost their lives to this terrible disease,
and untold thousands are suffering the mental and emotional strain of losing far too many patients.
And yet, despite the critical role they play in our society and our economy, these frontline workers—a majority of whom are women of color—are often underpaid
and lack access to paid sick days, paid family and medical leave, health insurance, and other benefits critical for their own health and the health of patients.
Democrats believe that all jobs in the caring economy must come with family-sustaining wages, good benefits, access to paid leave, fair and predictable schedules, access to training and professional development, and the ability to join a union and collectively bargain.
We believe all employers funded by taxpayer dollars must pay their workers at least $15 an hour
and protect workers’ rights to organize.
Although health care jobs are among the fastest growing in the economy, demand for services still far outstrips supply, especially in primary care.
We will invest in community health worker care-forces around the nation proven to prevent, manage, and better treat chronic illnesses,
and empower first-time mothers with home visiting.
We will close provider gaps and increase diversity in the health care profession by creating a robust pipeline of talent with career ladders for advancement.
And we will also increase opportunities for community health workers to come from the communities they serve.
Investing in Health Science and Research
Scientific research is at the heart of medicine—and of health care.
Democrats want the United States to be at the forefront of scientific research and discovery for the benefit of our people, our economy, and our global competitiveness.
We will support increased and sustainable funding for health and medical research
and federal grants across agencies, including at the National Cancer Institute and other components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the CDC, and the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality.
We will increase the federal investment in research and development for new medications through the NIH,
and make sure that there is a return on that investment for taxpayers.
We will also build on the foundation of the Obama-Biden Administration’s Cancer Moonshot to break down silos and accelerate research into cancer and cancer treatments by creating an agency with the sole mission of finding new cures and treatments for cancer and other diseases.
Democrats also support increasing funding for research into health disparities by race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, geographic area, and socioeconomic status, with a particular focus on how the social determinants of health contribute to differences in health outcomes.
We support fully integrating people with disabilities in all stages of health and medical research to ensure outcomes reflect the true needs of Americans with disabilities.
Democrats will take steps to increase the diversity of principal investigators receiving federal grants,
as well as of participants in federally supported clinical trials,
to improve the quality and applicability of our medical research for women and people of color, who are too often left out of research on disease and medical responses to treatment options.
The Trump Administration’s systematic efforts to undermine, discredit, dismiss, fire, disempower, and diminish the contributions of scientists, in health science and other disciplines, have weakened our public institutions,
slowed the pace of scientific inquiry,
and profoundly damaged America’s standing in the world.
Democrats will protect the independence and intellectual freedom of scientists, whether they are employed by the federal government or receiving federal grants in support of their research,
and take steps to shield our scientific research agencies from future political interference.
PROTECTING COMMUNITIES AND BUILDING TRUST BY REFORMING OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Our criminal justice system is failing to keep communities safe—and failing to deliver justice.
America is the land of the free, and yet more of our people are behind bars, per capita, than anywhere else in the world.
Instead of making evidence-based investments in education, jobs, health care, and housing that are proven to keep communities safe and prevent crime from occurring in the first place, our system has criminalized poverty,
overpoliced and underserved Black and Latino communities,
and cut public services.
Instead of offering the incarcerated the opportunity to turn their lives around, our prisons are overcrowded
and continue to rely on inhumane methods of punishment.
Instead of treating those who have served their time as full citizens upon their return to society, too many of our laws continue to punish the formerly incarcerated, erecting barriers to housing, employment, and voting rights for millions of Americans.
Democrats believe we need to overhaul the criminal justice system from top to bottom.
Police brutality is a stain on the soul of our nation.
It is unacceptable that millions of people in our country have good reason to fear they may lose their lives in a routine traffic stop, or while standing on a street corner, or while playing with a toy in a public park.
It is unacceptable that Black parents must have “the talk” with their children, to try to protect them from the very police officers who are supposed to be sworn to protect and serve them.
It is unacceptable that more than 1,000 people, a quarter of them Black, have been killed by police every year since 2015.
Democrats also recognize that all too often, systematic cuts to public services have left police officers on the front lines of responding to social challenges for which they have not been trained, from homelessness to mental health crises to the opioid epidemic.
We can and must do better for our communities.
Democrats know we can end the era of mass incarceration
and dramatically reduce the number of Americans held in jails and prisons
while continuing to reduce crime rates, which have fallen steadily from their peak nearly three decades ago.
This is the moment to root out structural and systemic racism in our criminal justice system and our society,
and reimagine public safety for the benefit of our people and the character of our country.
We must start by preventing people from entering the criminal justice system in the first place.
Democrats believe we must break the school-to-prison pipeline that too often relies on arrests and law enforcement to address misbehavior that ought to be handled and deescalated within the school..
We support re-issuing federal guidance from the Department of Education and the Department of Justice to prevent the disparate disciplinary treatment of children of color and children with disabilities in school and educational settings.
Democrats believe every school should have sufficient funding to employ guidance counselors, social workers, nurses, or school psychologists to help guarantee age-appropriate and racially equitable student disciplinary practices, rather than turning to police to resolve these issues.
A growing number of states have recognized it is unjust—and unjustifiable—to punish children and teenagers as harshly as adults.
We believe that if you aren’t old enough to drink, you aren’t old enough to be sentenced to life without parole.
The federal government will incentivize states to stop incarcerating kids,
and develop community-based alternatives to prison and detention centers for youth
and invest in after-school programs,
community centers,
and summer jobs to provide opportunities for young people at risk.
And Democrats believe that children who do enter the juvenile justice system should be given a true second chance, including by automatically sealing and expunging juvenile records.
Democrats believe we must ensure real accountability for individual and systemic misconduct in our police departments,
prevent law enforcement from becoming unnecessarily entangled in the everyday lives of Americans,
and reimagine policing for the benefit and safety of the American people.
In recent years, some innovative police departments have enacted evidence-based reforms to change their approach by investing in robust training
and putting in place—and, even more crucially, enforcing—strong standards governing conflict resolution, de-escalation, and use of force.
We must build on these evidence-based approaches and implement them nationwide.
Democrats will establish strict national standards governing the use of force,
including banning the use of chokeholds and carotid holds
and permitting deadly force only when necessary and a last resort to prevent an imminent threat to life.
Americans must feel safe when they are asleep in their own homes.
We will work to establish “no-knock warrants” standards.
The risk of mistakes and unintended consequences is too great.
We will require immediate application of these standards to all federal law enforcement agencies and condition federal grants on their adoption at the state and local level.
We will require officer training in effective nonviolent tactics, appropriate use of force, implicit bias, and peer intervention, both at the academy and on the job.
And we will ban racial and religious profiling in law enforcement.
Democrats will support measures to improve training and education for judges, corrections officers, prosecutors, public defenders, and police officers to ensure transgender and gender non-conforming people receive fair and equitable treatment in the criminal justice system.
It is past time to end the failed “War on Drugs,” which has imprisoned millions of Americans
—disproportionately Black people and Latinos—
and hasn’t been effective in reducing drug use.
Democrats support policies that will reorient our public safety approach toward prevention, and away from over-policing
—including by making evidence-based investments in jobs,
housing,
education,
and the arts
that will make our nation fairer, freer, and more prosperous.
Democrats will reinvigorate community policing approaches, so officers on the beat better serve the neighborhoods they work in,
and make smart investments to incentivize departments to build effective partnerships with social workers and mental health and substance use counselors to help respond to public health challenges.
Body cameras are not a panacea, but Democrats believe they can help improve accountability and transparency;
we support their continued use and will take steps to improve compliance,
require their use in blended federal-local task forces,
and promulgate best practices to protect personal privacy.
Democrats believe weapons of war have no place on our streets, and will once again limit the sale and transfer of surplus military weapons to domestic law enforcement agencies
—a policy President Trump reversed immediately upon taking office.
We cannot create trust without holding those in power accountable for their actions.
Democrats will reinvigorate pattern-or-practice investigations into police misconduct at the Department of Justice,
and strengthen them through new subpoena powers and expanded oversight to address systemic misconduct by prosecutors.
Far too often, the law has shielded police officers who stand accused of heinous violations of civil and human rights.
Democrats support lowering the intent standard for federally prosecuting law enforcement officials for civil rights violations.
We will also act to ensure that victims of federal, state, or local law enforcement abuses of power can seek justice through civil litigation by reining in the doctrine of qualified immunity.
The American people deserve access to timely and accurate data on activities supported by their tax dollars, including policing.
We will collect and publish data on the use of force in police departments across the country to promote transparency and accountability.
To increase transparency and improve federal, state, and local law enforcement hiring practices, Democrats will also establish a national registry of officers who have been found to have abused their power.
Democrats also support measures to increase diversity among the ranks of police departments, so our law enforcement agencies look more like the communities they serve.
And we will seek increased funding for officer health and well-being in police departments across the country, including for personal safety equipment and mental health services.
Substance use disorders are diseases, not crimes.
Democrats believe no one should be in prison solely because they use drugs.
Democrats will decriminalize marijuana use and reschedule it through executive action on the federal level.
We will support legalization of medical marijuana,
and believe states should be able to make their own decisions about recreational use.
The Justice Department should not launch federal prosecutions of conduct that is legal at the state level.
All past criminal convictions for cannabis use should be automatically expunged.
And rather than involving the criminal justice system, Democrats support increased use of drug courts, harm reduction interventions, and treatment diversion programs for those struggling with substance use disorders.
Poverty is not a crime, and it should not be treated as one.
Democrats support eliminating the use of cash bail
and believe no one should be imprisoned merely for failing to pay fines or fees,
or have their driver's licenses revoked for unpaid tickets or simple violations.
Equal justice under the law should not be contingent on the ability to pay for quality legal representation,
which is why we support increasing funding for public defenders and for the Legal Services Corporation.
Since 1990, the United States has grown by one-third, the number of cases in federal district courts has increased by 38 percent, federal circuit court filings have risen by 40 percent, and federal cases involving a felony defendant are up 60 percent, but we have not expanded the federal judiciary to reflect this reality in nearly 30 years.
Democrats will commit to creating new federal district and circuit judgeships consistent with recommendations from the Judicial Conference.
Sentencing decisions should be based on the facts of each case, including the severity of the offense and individuals’ circumstances.
Democrats support allowing judges to determine appropriate sentences, which is why we will fight to repeal federal mandatory minimums, incentivize states to do the same,
and make all sentencing reductions retroactive so judges can reconsider past cases where their hands were tied.
We believe it is long past time to end the federal sentencing disparity between crack and powdered cocaine, which has contributed to the disproportionate imprisonment of people of color.
And Democrats continue to support abolishing the death penalty.
Our courts should reflect our country.
Democrats will appoint people to the bench who are committed to seeing justice be served,
and treating each case on its merits.
We will nominate and confirm federal judges who have diverse backgrounds and experiences, including as public defenders, legal aid attorneys, and civil rights lawyers.
Democrats are proud that the Obama-Biden Administration commuted the sentences of more than 1,700 people serving unjust sentences following thorough review of their individual cases,
and we support the continued use of the President’s clemency powers to secure the release of those serving unduly long sentences.
We denounce President Trump’s inappropriate use of clemency to help his friends and political cronies avoid justice.
We also support establishing an independent clemency board to ensure an appropriate, effective process for using clemency,
especially to address systemic racism and other priorities.
Private profit should not motivate the provision of vital public services, including in the criminal justice system.
Democrats support ending the use of private prisons and private detention centers,
and will take steps to eliminate profiteering from diversion programs, commercial bail, electronic monitoring, prison commissaries, and reentry and treatment programs.
Democrats believe prisoners should have a meaningful opportunity to challenge wrongful convictions and unconstitutional conditions in prisons.
We also believe that too many of our jails and prisons subject people to inhumane treatment,
and will work to end practices like solitary confinement for adults and juveniles,
ban the use of restraints on pregnant federal inmates,
and ban the use of chokeholds and carotid holds.
Incarcerated people must not be denied access to vital medical care or unnecessarily exposed to disease, as they have been during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And Democrats will pursue a holistic approach to rehabilitation,
increasing support for programs that provide educational opportunities, including pursuing college degrees, for those in the criminal justice system, both in prison and upon release.
Democrats believe in redemption.
We must deepen our commitment to helping those who have served their time re-enter society, earn a good living, and participate in our democracy as the full citizens they are.
We support the automatic expungement of certain criminal records for those that have been fully acquitted, wrongfully convicted, or pardoned by the executive.
We will aim to ensure access to transitional housing for returning citizens,
support expanded access to mental health and substance use treatment,
and will stop the practice of reincarcerating people for technical violations of probation or parole.
Democrats support federal and state efforts to “ban the box”
and will make it easier for returning citizens to access work opportunities through the Job Corps.
The formerly incarcerated should not be blocked from exercising their voting rights
or accessing public services, including Pell Grants and nutrition assistance, available to other free citizens of the United States.
Continuing to punish a person after they have rejoined the community is both cruel and counterproductive.
HEALING THE SOUL OF AMERICA
Democrats believe in bringing the American people together, not stoking division and distrust.
President Trump has denigrated virtually every segment of American society
—and in so doing, he has insulted the very idea of America itself.
Healing the soul of America means facing up to the deepest inequities in our society, from structural racism to misogyny to discrimination against people with disabilities,
and enacting ambitious measures to fix them.
Protecting Americans’ Civil Rights
Democrats are committed to ending discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, language, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status.
We will appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices and federal judges who look like America,
are committed to the rule of law,
will uphold individual civil rights and civil liberties as essential components of a free and democratic society,
and will respect and enforce foundational precedents,
including Brown v. Board of Education
and Roe v. Wade .
Democrats are committed to restoring the full power of the Voting Rights Act
and ensuring every citizen can access the ballot box.
We will enforce and strengthen the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act,
and will end racial and religious profiling in law enforcement.
President Trump’s words and actions have given safe harbor and encouragement to racists, anti-Semites, anti-Muslim bigots, and white supremacists.
It’s time to root out domestic terrorism in all its forms.
We will use federal law enforcement tools and resources to address domestic terrorism,
and if necessary work with Congress to pass a domestic terrorism law that is consistent with the Constitutional right to free speech and civil liberties.
Achieving Racial Justice and Equity
Historic wrongs and abuses perpetrated against Native Americans, two and a half centuries of slavery, a hundred years of Jim Crow segregation, and a history of exclusionary immigration policies have created profound and lasting inequities in income, wealth, education, employment, housing, environmental quality, and health care for communities of color.
Democrats are committed to standing up to racism and bigotry in our laws, in our culture, in our politics, and in our society,
and recognize that race-neutral policies are not sufficient to rectify race-based disparities.
We will take a comprehensive approach to embed racial justice in every element of our governing agenda, including in jobs and job creation, workforce and economic development, small business and entrepreneurship, eliminating poverty and closing the racial wealth gap, promoting asset building and homeownership, education, health care, criminal justice reform, environmental justice, and voting rights.
Democrats will ensure federal data collection and analysis is adequately funded and designed to allow for disaggregation by race and ethnicity, among other important factors,
to better design policies to address the needs of the most vulnerable communities
and make informed policy choices.
Hate and its symbols have no home in America.
Democrats believe that we can only build a more just and equitable future if we honestly reckon with our history and its legacy in the present.
We support removing the Confederate battle flag and statues of Confederate leaders from public properties.
We recognize Black history has too often been intentionally suppressed or excluded from our history books,
and will invest in recovering, celebrating, and highlighting Black history as American history.
Democrats believe Juneteenth (June 19th) represents the end of slavery, the freedom for millions of enslaved Black Americans, and should be recognized as a federal holiday.
We believe Black lives matter,
and will establish a national commission to examine the lasting economic effects of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and racially discriminatory federal policies on income, wealth, educational, health, and employment outcomes;
to pursue truth and promote racial healing;
and to study reparations.
We must acknowledge that there can be no realization of the American dream without grappling with the lasting effects of slavery,
and facing up to the centuries-long campaign of violence, fear, and trauma wrought upon Black Americans.
The extreme gap in household wealth and income between people of color—especially Black Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and certain Asian American and Pacific Islander communities—and white families is hurting our working class and holding our country back.
Democrats are committed to improving economic mobility for people of color.
We will fight to tackle intergenerational poverty
and close the racial wealth gap.
Democrats support policies to end discrimination and unfair practices in the housing market,
will empower local governments to combat gentrification trends that disproportionately harm long-time residents of color,
and will create a Community Restoration Fund to repair the toxic legacy of historic investments in transportation that were designed to enforce racial segregation.
We will equalize access to credit and expand support for first-time homebuyers to make homeownership and the wealth-building it creates more accessible for people of color.
Democrats recognize that racial wealth gaps are rooted in longstanding discrimination and unjust policies.
We will equalize established pathways for building wealth while exploring innovative approaches to closing racial wealth gaps,
including policies that provide seed capital in order to access the economic security of asset ownership.
The right to organize and collectively bargain benefits all workers, but especially for workers of color.
Unions close pay gaps between white workers and people of color.
The union wage premium is high for all workers, but remains especially substantial for people of color, including Latinos and Black workers.
This is one reason why Black workers represent a higher share of the labor movement than the workforce as a whole.
Unemployment rates for people of color are persistently higher than the national average, which is why Democrats support making racial equity part of the mandate of the Federal Reserve.
Specifically, we will work with Congress to direct the Chair of the Federal Reserve to report on the extent of racial employment and wage gaps, and how the central bank is countering them,
in addition to monitoring, reporting on, and responding to macroeconomic conditions in general.
We will invest in low-income communities, urban and rural areas, and communities of color by strengthening the Community Reinvestment Act,
improving federal support and access to credit for women- and minority-owned small businesses,
expanding and making permanent the New Markets Tax Credit,
and doubling funding for CDFIs.
We will restore and build on the Obama-Biden Administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces policy,
and use the purchasing power of the federal government to incentivize private companies to recruit and advance people of color, women, people with disabilities, and veterans.
Democrats believe it is unacceptable that schools are more segregated today than they were in the late 1960s.
We believe education is a critical public good,
and will increase investments to guarantee all students can access high-quality public schools, no matter where they live, so students of color are well prepared to thrive in college and careers.
We will break the school-to-prison pipeline that sees children of color disproportionately punished by the criminal justice system for disciplinary issues that should be handled by school administrators or counselors.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately sickened and killed Black Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and certain Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, has made long-standing racial and geographic disparities in health care and health outcomes into front-page news.
Democrats will launch an all-of-government effort to eliminate health disparities, including by achieving universal health coverage through a high-quality, affordable public option;
expanding funding for community health centers, rural health centers, and mobile health clinics;
and tackling environmental racism that sees communities of color disproportionately impacted by air pollution, water pollution, and toxic chemicals.
All people in the United States should be able to easily access public services,
and all citizens should be able to exercise their Constitutional right to vote without facing unjust or discriminatory barriers.
Democrats will restore the full powers of the Voting Rights Act
and go further to roll back discriminatory policies that have been put in place in recent years to prevent people of color from voting.
We will ensure all federal agencies produce materials in languages commonly spoken in the United States, including languages spoken by Asian American and Pacific Islander communities,
and that voting materials are also easily accessible for citizens with limited English proficiency.
Protecting Women’s Rights
Democrats will fight to guarantee equal rights for women,
including by ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment and at long last enshrining gender equality in the U.S. Constitution.
We will take aggressive action to end pay inequality,
including by increasing penalties against companies that discriminate against women
and passing the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Democrats are committed to ending sexual assault, domestic abuse, and other violence against women,
including the epidemics of violence against Native American women
and transgender women of color.
Like the majority of Americans, Democrats believe every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services,
including safe and legal abortion.
We oppose and will fight to overturn federal and state laws that create barriers to women’s reproductive health and rights,
including by repealing the Hyde Amendment
and protecting and codifying the right to reproductive freedom.
And Democrats will take action to protect the rights of pregnant women in the workplace, including by requiring employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant and breastfeeding workers and those who have recently given birth
and at last joining other advanced economies by enacting paid sick days and universal paid family and medical leave.
Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights
Democrats applaud this year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that made clear that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity violates the law,
but we know we still have work to do to ensure LGBTQ+ people are treated equally under the law and in our society.
We will fight to enact the Equality Act and at last outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in housing, public accommodations, access to credit, education, jury service, and federal programs.
We will work to ensure LGBTQ+ people are not discriminated against when seeking to adopt or foster children,
protect LGBTQ+ children from bullying and assault,
and guarantee transgender students’ access to facilities based on their gender identity.
Democrats will ensure federally funded programs for older adults are inclusive for LGBTQ+ seniors.
Recognizing that LGBTQ+ youth and adults suffer from significant health disparities, including mental health and substance use disorders, Democrats will expand mental health and suicide prevention services,
and ban harmful “conversion therapy” practices.
We will ensure that all transgender and non-binary people can procure official government identification documents that accurately reflect their gender identity.
We will stop employment discrimination in the federal government,
and will restore full implementation of President Obama’s executive order prohibiting discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Democrats are committed to ending the homelessness crisis, including among LGBTQ+ youth.
We will fight to end violence against transgender Americans and particularly against Black transgender women, who are disproportionately victims of assault and homicide
, and will prioritize the investigation of hate crimes against transgender and non-binary people.
Protecting Disability Rights
One in four American adults live with a disability.
Democrats believe people with disabilities deserve to lead full, happy, and healthy lives.
Democrats will fully enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, and the Help America Vote Act, among other bedrock statutes protecting the rights of people with disabilities.
We will oppose any efforts to weaken enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
We will ensure non-discrimination in access to health care, building on the protections for people with disabilities enshrined in the Affordable Care Act.
We will ensure every federal agency aggressively enforces the integration mandate affirmed in the Olmstead decision,
and repair the damage done by the Trump Administration.
We will rigorously enforce non-discrimination protections for people with disabilities in health care, employment, education, and housing,
and ensure equal access to the ballot box.
Democrats are committed to supporting the millions of Americans on the autism spectrum and their families.
We will expand early childhood screening, particularly in underserved communities,
and promote equitable treatment of students on the autism spectrum in schools and educational settings,
in keeping with our commitment to providing equal educational opportunities for students with disabilities.
By eliminating state waiting lists for home and community-based care,
ending the institutional bias in Medicaid,
and expanding support for informal caregivers,
Democrats will enable more individuals with autism to receive the support they need in their homes and communities.
Democrats will phase out the subminimum wage,
expand competitive, integrated employment opportunities,
and protect and strengthen economic security for people with disabilities.
We will take a holistic approach to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) programs that are essential for millions of Americans with disabilities by increasing SSI benefits, eliminating waiting periods for SSDI, and eliminating the “benefit cliff” for SSDI benefits.
We will increase federal funding to expand accessible transportation
and accessible, integrated, and affordable housing.
We will protect people with disabilities in emergencies
and meet the needs of travelers with disabilities.
We will ensure new technologies benefit, and are affordable and accessible for, people with disabilities.
We will expand access to tax-advantaged ABLE savings accounts, which provide people with disabilities a way to pay for disability-related expenses like housing, education, and transportation.
And Democrats will improve access to home- and community-based care for people with disabilities and older Americans,
including by enforcing the Medicaid Home and Community-Based Settings Rule,
ending the institutional bias within Medicaid,
and expanding the home care workforce to end state waiting lists for long-term services and supports.
Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations
The U.S. government has a profound legal and moral obligation toward Native American Tribes and Indigenous communities—
a trust which has been broken time and again, undermining Tribal nations’ ability to flourish politically, culturally, and economically.
Democrats are committed to honoring, upholding, and strengthening the United States’ trust obligations to Tribal Nations and communities, as enshrined in the Constitution, treaties, federal statutes, and case law.
Democrats recognize and support the sovereignty of Tribal Nations
and pledge to work on a nation-to-nation basis to empower Indigenous peoples,
increase economic development in Tribal Nations,
and protect Tribal lands, assets, resources, and treaty rights.
We honor and support the great Indigenous traditions all across the country.
We stand with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and all Tribal Nations in rejecting the Trump Administration’s efforts to remove land that had been put into trust by the Obama-Biden Administration.
We will fight to enact a clean Carcieri fix
and support policies to restore Tribal lands, including culturally significant federal lands, by moving land into trust, streamlining the land-into-trust process, and conducting land buy-backs.
We will also support establishment of additional federal co-management agreements with Tribal Nations on federal lands that have cultural and historical significance to Tribes.
Democrats believe the federal government must commit to providing full funding to fulfill unmet trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations and Native American peoples.
We will work on a nation-to-nation basis to increase funding, resources, and financial tools for Tribes, particularly in the key areas of criminal justice, health care, education, housing, and economic development.
Democrats will work to address the predictability of funding for Tribes, and explore pathways including mandatory funding, advanced appropriations, shutdown exemptions, and other mechanisms.
The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated Indian Country, with some Tribal communities facing among the highest per capita infection rates in the country.
As part of our commitment to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats will support funding to hire sufficient staff to conduct contact tracing for all who test positive for this deadly disease.
We will surge funding to the Indian Health Service
and support investments to help Tribal governments address the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and President Trump’s recession, including investments to support and create jobs in Tribal communities
and to support affordable child care, so parents are not forced to choose between keeping their jobs and keeping their children safe.
Democrats recognize the security of Native peoples (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians) is paramount,
and will ensure that they have the resources they need to investigate and prosecute crimes against Native peoples and communities,
including cooperation from law enforcement agencies outside Tribal lands.
We will fight for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Democrats will at last reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act,
reaffirm provisions relating to Tribal jurisdiction,
and expand the list of crimes that can be prosecuted under the statute to include stalking, child abuse, and trafficking.
We also support Indian Tribal jurisdiction over Tribal lands,
and we support further efforts to address the Oliphant decision.
We will defend the Indian Child Welfare Act
and protect Native families and involve Tribes in child welfare cases.
And we will build on federal programs to reduce the disproportionate incarceration of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian men and women,
reduce sentencing disparities,
and work to ensure all returning citizens have access to housing, employment services, and health care, including mental health and substance use disorder treatment.
American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians are uninsured at higher rates
and suffer from disparities in health outcomes, including in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Democrats will make mandatory and work toward full funding for the Indian Health Service and the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act to help expand access to health care for Native people, including mental health, dental care, and substance use disorder treatments,
and will fully fund contract support costs.
We will expand insurance coverage for Native Americans (including American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians) no matter where they live by creating a high-quality, affordable public option on the Affordable Care Act exchanges,
and making the public option available without premiums to low-income families.
The legacy of Native American boarding schools has caused generational trauma.
We acknowledge this injustice and support continued education and restorative justice.
We will invest in Indian education from early childhood through college and career education.
Democrats will significantly expand funding for the Bureau of Indian Education
and invest in improving public school buildings.
We will increase resources for programs that promote cultural preservation and enable Native students to learn their Indigenous languages,
and support national curricula to teach Native American history and culture in schools.
Democrats will increase recruitment of high-quality teachers and school professionals in Tribal areas.
And we will break down barriers that keep Native American students from accessing a college education,
including by making community colleges free
and significantly increasing support to lower attendance costs at Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs).
Democrats are committed to reestablishing and strengthening the White House Generation Indigenous initiative and its annual White House Tribal Youth Gathering to support Native youth.
We are committed to combating hurtful and racist Native American stereotypes in mainstream American culture, especially those associated with sports teams and educational institutions.
Democrats will substantially increase investments to meet Tribal housing needs,
including by constructing and upgrading affordable housing on Tribal lands,
investing in drinking and clean water infrastructure,
and investing in rural and Tribal broadband infrastructure.
We will make energy-saving upgrades to millions of low-income homes and affordable and public housing units,
and increase funding for the Indian Community Development Block Grant program.
We will unlock significant new resources for economic development on Tribal lands,
including supporting investments in clean energy,
climate change resilience,
and 21st century infrastructure projects.
We will expand access to capital for Tribes by increasing resources for the Native American CDFI Assistance Program,
expanding and making permanent the New Markets Tax Credit,
and expanding technical assistance to enable Tribes to better access existing federal funding streams.
We will continue to support and expand SBA programs for Tribes
and fully implement the Buy Indian Act.
We will also support Tribal governments and their authority to tax activities on their lands in support of Tribal self-sufficiency and government services.
Democrats are committed to environmental justice for Indian Country,
and will work to ensure all people have clean air, clean water, modern wastewater infrastructure, and can live without exposure to toxic chemicals.
Democrats recognize that the Native American men and women who have proudly served in the Armed Forces of the United States in all its wars, from the beginning of U.S. history, deserve the total and unqualified support of their needs by the federal government.
We will ensure that all the benefits provided to U.S. military veterans are provided to Native veterans
and fully funded to meet the special cultural needs of Native veterans.
Democrats will additionally establish a Veterans Affairs Tribal Advisory Committee to foster improved collaboration and coordination between the federal government and Tribal Nations on meeting the unique needs of Native American veterans,
and establish Tribal veteran service delivery programs in Tribal communities.
Democrats commit to managing federal actions and undertakings in a manner that honors the trust responsibility;
respects the nation-to-nation relationship and sovereignty of Tribes;
and protects subsistence, treaty, and other reserved rights, natural and cultural resources, and sacred sites of federally-recognized Indian Tribes.
We commit to upholding leasing and rights-of-way regulations that strengthen Tribal sovereignty
and ensure Tribal consent on lands in which Tribes hold an interest.
We will create a more robust and meaningful consultation process that is consistent across all federal agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget,
and use early and ongoing consultation to identify and work to appropriately mitigate or address concerns.
Democrats recognize that self-governance and self-determination empowers Tribes to prioritize their needs and plan for the future consistent with their distinct traditions, economies, and institutions.
Recognizing the success many Tribes have had with self-governance, we will work to make it more effective within the Bureau of Indian Affairs and encourage other federal agencies to negotiate such agreements with Tribes.
Consistent with the policies of the Obama-Biden Administration, Democrats will make permanent the White House Council on Native American Affairs
and commit to holding an annual White House Tribal Nations Conference.
We will nominate federal judges who understand Indian law,
and will ensure Native Americans and Alaska Natives are appointed to high-level and leadership positions within the federal government.
Over 70 percent of Native Americans live off-reservation.
Democrats will create a strategy to support urban Indian populations and ensure their voices are heard and no one is left behind,
including by expanding support to access quality health care, culturally relevant education, affordable housing, and other programs.
46 Democrats also support efforts for self-governance and self-determination of Native Hawaiians.
Native Hawaiians are the Indigenous, aboriginal people of Hawai’i whose values and culture are the foundation of the Hawaiian Islands.
We support proactive actions by the federal government to enhance Native Hawaiian culture, housing, health, language, and education.
We recognize and honor the contributions and sacrifices made in service to our country by Native Hawaiians.
Ending Violence Against Women
Democrats are committed to ending sexual assault, domestic abuse, and other violence against women.
We will act swiftly to overcome Republican obstructionism and reauthorize and expand the Violence Against Women Act to better protect Native American women, women with disabilities, children and young women, transgender women and other LGBTQ+ people, and other groups who are disproportionately affected by sexual assault and domestic abuse.
Democrats will expand services for survivors of violence against women, including by expanding access to housing, legal assistance, and victim advocate services.
We will support danger assessment and lethality training for law enforcement officers and community partners to help curb domestic violence homicides.
We recognize that sex workers, who are disproportionately women of color and transgender women, face especially high rates of sexual assault and violence,
and we will work with states and localities to protect the lives of sex workers.
We will enforce and provide tools and resources for schools to implement Title IX, which requires schools and institutions of higher education to properly investigate sexual misconduct, including peer-on-peer sexual harassment and violence; take appropriate action; and prevent future sexual misconduct.
Democrats will increase resources to eliminate the national backlog of untested rape kits so that more survivors can see justice be served.
And we will support federal and state legislative efforts to make “revenge porn” and other unauthorized disclosures of intimate images a civil and criminal offense.
Ending the Epidemic of Gun Violence
Gun violence is a public health crisis in the United States.
Over 100,000 people are shot and nearly 40,000 people die annually from guns—devastating countless families, friends, and communities.
We can and will make gun violence a thing of the past.
Addressing the gun violence crisis requires supporting evidence-based programs that prevent gun deaths from occurring in the first place,
including by making mental health care more accessible
and supporting suicide reduction initiatives,
funding interventions to reduce homicides and gun violence in neighborhoods,
and strengthening protections against domestic violence.
Democrats will also ensure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have sufficient resources to study gun violence as a public health issue, including the ongoing health care, mental health, economic, and social costs that can affect survivors and their families for years.
Democrats will enact universal background checks,
end online sales of guns and ammunition,
close dangerous loopholes that currently allow stalkers, abusive partners, and some individuals convicted of assault or battery to buy and possess firearms,
and adequately fund the federal background check system.
We will close the “Charleston loophole” and prevent individuals who have been convicted of hate crimes from possessing firearms.
Democrats will ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high capacity magazines.
We will incentivize states to enact licensing requirements for owning firearms
and extreme risk protection order laws that allow courts to temporarily remove guns from the possession of those who are a danger to themselves or others.
We will pass legislation requiring that guns be safely stored in homes.
And Democrats believe that gun companies should be held responsible for their products, just like any other business,
and will prioritize repealing the law that shields gun manufacturers from civil liability.
Supporting Faith and Service
Religious freedom is a core American value
and a core value of the Democratic Party.
Democrats will protect the rights of each American for the free exercise of his or her own religion.
It will be the policy of the Democratic Administration to advocate for religious freedom throughout the world.
Democrats celebrate America’s history of religious pluralism and tolerance,
and recognize the countless acts of service of our faith communities,
as well as the paramount importance of maintaining the separation between church and state enshrined in our Constitution.
During the Trump Administration, too many of our religious communities have been victimized by acts of intolerance, bigotry, and violence.
We will reject the Trump Administration’s use of broad religious exemptions to allow businesses, medical providers, social service agencies, and others to discriminate.
Democrats will increase funding and support for security investments and protection at houses of worship, because everyone should be able to pray without fear.
We will confront white nationalist terrorism and combat hate crimes perpetrated against religious minorities.
Democrats also recognize that, to fully confront the legacy of systemic and structural racism, it is time to examine, confront and dismantle the government programs, policies and practices that have unfairly targeted American Muslims as security threats.
We condemn the decades-long campaign to demonize and dehumanize the Muslim faith community, which has led to increased rates of violence and discrimination targeting American Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim.
We will hold accountable those who engage in or enable violent or other illegal activity targeting religious minorities,
including by directing the federal government to address the growing and violent threat of white supremacist, neo-Nazi and anti-government groups.
Supporting Press Freedom
The free press is essential to our free democracy.
Democrats roundly reject President Trump’s denigration of the free and independent press, which has endangered reporters’ lives, helped fuel conspiracy theories, and deepened distrust between Americans and their government.
Democrats will appoint an independent media professional to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media, to ensure that the news and information projected around the world by the federal government meets the highest standards of fact-based and unbiased journalism.
Democrats are concerned about the potentially harmful effects of corporate consolidation in the media industry, including in television, radio, and newspapers,
and will reinstate and strengthen media ownership rules
and direct federal antitrust agencies to investigate the economic impacts of mergers in the media industry.
Supporting the Arts and Culture
The arts are essential to our free and democratic society, to our culture, and to our local economies.
Democrats are proud of our support for arts funding and education,
and will continue policies and programs that promote the creative arts.
We support public funding for the National Endowment for the Arts,
the National Endowment for the Humanities,
and for art and music education in public schools.
We recognize that federal grants supporting nonprofit cultural organizations, artists, scholars,
and state and local governments help increase participation in the arts, enhance appreciation, and strengthen our nation's cultural heritage.
We value the arts and art education for developing imagination, creativity, innovation, and critical thinking skills in students
and for building bridges between people and communities across the country and around the world.
COMBATING THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND PURSUING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Climate change is a global emergency.
We have no time to waste in taking action to protect Americans’ lives and futures.
The last four years have seen record-breaking storms, devastating wildfires, and historic floods.
Urban and rural communities alike have suffered tens of billions of dollars in economic losses.
Dams have failed catastrophically in Michigan.
Farmers’ crops have been drowned in their fields across the Midwest.
Coastal communities from Florida to New Jersey are facing an existential crisis as a result of sea level rise and stronger storms.
Thousands of Americans have died.
And President Trump still callously and willfully denies the science that explains why so many are suffering.
Like so many crises facing the United States, the impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed in our society or our economy.
Communities of color, low-income families, and Indigenous communities have long suffered disproportionate and cumulative harm from air pollution, water pollution, and toxic sites.
From Flint, Michigan, to the Navajo Nation, to Lowndes County, Alabama, millions of Americans have been denied access to clean, safe drinking water and even the most basic wastewater infrastructure.
Pacific Islanders in Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are losing their traditional way of life as sea level rise submerges their homelands.
And although the youngest generations of Americans have contributed the least to this calamity, they stand to lose the most as they suffer from the impacts of runaway carbon pollution for decades to come.
Democrats believe there is a better way.
We can and must build a thriving, equitable, and globally competitive clean energy economy that puts workers and communities first and leaves no one behind.
We will help rebuild our economy from the COVID-19 pandemic and President Trump’s recession by mobilizing historic, transformative public and private investments to launch a clean energy revolution.
We applaud the organizing efforts of young people, union workers, and communities of color to mobilize voters and make the climate crisis a top priority.
As Democrats, we believe the scientists: the window for unprecedented and necessary action is closing, and closing fast.
Democrats reject the false choice between growing our economy and combating climate change;
we can and must do both at the same time.
We will use federal resources and authorities across all agencies to deploy proven clean energy solutions;
create millions of family-supporting and union jobs;
upgrade and make resilient our energy, water, wastewater, and transportation infrastructure;
and develop and manufacture next-generation technologies to address the climate crisis right here in the United States.
And we will do all this with an eye to equity, access, benefits, and ownership opportunities for frontline communities—
because Democrats believe we must embed environmental justice, economic justice, and climate justice at the heart of our policy and governing agenda.
We will take immediate action to reverse the Trump Administration’s dangerous and destructive rollbacks of critical climate and environmental protections.
We will rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement
and, on day one, seek higher ambition from nations around the world,
putting the United States back in the position of global leadership where we belong.
We will restore protections for irreplaceable public lands and waters, from Bears Ears National Monument to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
We will follow science and the law by reducing harmful methane and carbon pollution from the energy sector.
Democrats will make investments to create millions of family-supporting and union jobs in clean energy generation, energy efficiency, clean transportation, advanced manufacturing, and sustainable agriculture across America.
All jobs in the clean energy economy should provide an opportunity to join a union.
Democrats will restore and protect workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively.
The clean energy economy must represent the diversity of America.
We will invest in the education and training of underrepresented groups, including people of color, low-income Americans, women, veterans, people with disabilities, and unemployed energy workers for jobs in clean energy-related industries,
especially union jobs that provide strong opportunities for economic advancement.
Democrats will target relevant investments with the goal of delivering 40 percent of the overall benefits to disadvantaged and frontline communities, including in clean energy and energy efficiency; clean transit and transportation; affordable and sustainable housing; remediation and reduction of legacy pollution; and critical clean water infrastructure.
Democrats will also mobilize a diverse new generation of young workers through a corps and cohort challenged to conserve our public lands;
deliver new clean energy,
including to low-income communities and communities of color;
and address the changing climate, including through pre-apprenticeship opportunities, joint labor-management registered apprenticeships for training, and direct-hire programs
that put good-paying and union jobs within reach for more Americans.
Black, Latino, and immigrant workers are often on the front lines of disaster relief work with limited worker protections.
Democrats will invest in this critical workforce,
supporting the creation of family-supporting and union jobs in disaster response and climate resilience,
with strong labor standards and worker protections, including good wages, benefits, access to paid leave, training and advancement opportunities.
We agree with scientists and public health experts that the United States—and the world—must achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, and no later than 2050.
To reach net-zero emissions as rapidly as possible, Democrats commit to eliminating carbon pollution from power plants by 2035 through technology-neutral standards for clean energy and energy efficiency.
We will dramatically expand solar and wind energy deployment through community-based and utility-scale systems, including in rural areas.
Within five years, we will install 500 million solar panels, including eight million solar roofs and community solar energy systems,
and 60,000 wind turbines,
and turn American ingenuity into American jobs by leveraging federal policy to manufacture renewable energy solutions in America.
Recognizing the urgent need to decarbonize the power sector, our technology-neutral approach is inclusive of all zero-carbon technologies, including hydroelectric power, geothermal, existing and advanced nuclear, and carbon capture and storage.
Democrats believe that any clean energy infrastructure project financed with federal support, including through the tax code, should come with robust wage and labor requirements.
We will build a modern electric grid by investing in interstate transmission projects and advanced, 21st century grid technologies to power communities with clean electricity,
including federal support to build sustainable and resilient energy grids in rural America and in Tribal areas lacking energy infrastructure.
We will reduce methane pollution through strong federal standards and targeted support for repairing and replacing aging distribution systems,
which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs,
including for the same pipefitters, insulators, and other workers who built the systems in the first place and who know best how to protect our communities from methane pollution.
Democrats will lower families’ energy bills by making energy-saving upgrades to up to two million low-income households and affordable and public housing units within five years,
creating hundreds of thousands of jobs
and promoting safe, healthy, and efficient homes.
We will ensure investments in affordable housing and public housing support both energy efficiency retrofits and construction of new units, to greatly increase the number of energy-efficient homes available to low-income families.
We will address barriers and increase funding for programs that enable energy efficiency improvements for low-income families in urban and rural areas,
including through the Weatherization Assistance Program
and the Rural Utilities Service,
and incentivize landlords to make energy efficiency and clean energy upgrades that will reduce their tenants’ energy costs.
We will set a bold, national goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for all new buildings by 2030, on the pathway to creating a 100 percent clean building sector.
Within five years, we will incentivize tens of billions of dollars in private-sector investment to retrofit four million buildings,
including helping local governments save money and cut pollution by weatherizing and upgrading energy systems in hospitals, schools, public housing, and municipal buildings.
Democrats will encourage states and cities to adopt energy-efficient building codes,
address barriers to energy efficiency upgrades,
incentivize the adoption of efficient electric and geothermal pump home heating solutions that can help reduce families’ energy burden,
and leverage the federal footprint to model net-zero and 100 percent clean energy building solutions.
Democrats affirm California’s statutory authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own emissions standards for cars and trucks.
We will immediately convene California and other states with labor, auto industry, and environmental leaders to inform ambitious executive actions that will enable the United States to lead the way in building a clean, 21st century transportation system
and stronger domestic manufacturing base for electric vehicles
powered by high-wage and union jobs.
Democrats will move quickly to reestablish strong standards for clean cars and trucks that consider the most recent advances in technology,
and accelerate the adoption of zero-emission vehicles in the United States
while reclaiming market share for domestically produced vehicles.
We will reduce harmful air pollution and protect our children’s health by transitioning the entire fleet of 500,000 school buses to American-made, zero-emission alternatives within five years.
We will lead by example in the public sector by transitioning the three million vehicles in the federal, state, and local fleets to zero-emission vehicles.
Democrats will additionally support private adoption of affordable low-pollution and zero-emission vehicles by partnering with state and local governments to install at least 500,000 public charging stations from coast to coast.
We will increase investments in public transportation,
understanding that the United States currently lags behind many other developed countries in the quality and availability of efficient and accessible public transportation.
Democrats will aim to provide all Americans in municipalities with 100,000 or more residents with quality public transportation options
by making flexible federal investments to upgrade and expand light rail, bus lines, existing transit systems,
and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
Democrats will invest in modernizing our freight infrastructure, including ports, rail, and maritime freight,
in order to reduce air and water pollution,
improve public health,
create jobs,
and improve economic competitiveness.
Democrats believe we can build the clean energy infrastructure of the future using American-made materials.
We will support measures to build a clean, equitable, and globally competitive manufacturing sector,
including national Buy Clean and Buy America standards to incentivize production of low-carbon building and construction materials, like steel, cement, and timber, here in the United States.
We will apply a carbon adjustment fee at the border to products from countries that fail to live up to their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement,
because we won’t let polluters undermine American competitiveness.
Democrats will partner with farmers to make the American agriculture sector the first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions,
opening up new sources of income for farmers in the process.
We will substantially improve water security and ecological health through conservation, protection, and maintenance of our water infrastructure, including water systems for home, commercial, industrial, and agricultural use.
We will expand federal programs to help farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners pursue high-productivity, lower-emission, and regenerative agricultural practices
in order to help build more resilient, vibrant, local and regional food systems.
We will substantially increase investments in voluntary conservation programs,
which generate economic and environmental benefits for farmers and their surrounding communities.
We will support healthy coastal communities and marine ecosystems to sustain and enhance our economic well-being,
including in the fishing,
tourism
and clean energy industries.
And we will support communities and businesses nationwide in their efforts to build zero-waste and circular economies, including efforts to eliminate plastic waste and food waste.
Every American has the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live without fear of exposure to toxic waste.
And all Americans should benefit from the clean energy economy—especially those who have been left out and left behind for generations.
Democrats will create an environmental justice fund to make historic investments aimed at eliminating legacy pollution, which disproportionately causes illness and premature death in communities of color, low-income communities, and Indigenous communities.
We will protect children’s health by replacing lead service lines and remediating lead paint in homes and schools;
remediate Superfund and other contaminated sites;
and ensure housing and schools have adequate plumbing and safe wastewater disposal systems.
Democrats oppose the Trump Administration's reckless and scientifically unsound decision to reverse a proposed ban on chlorpyrifos, a potent neurotoxin proven harmful to children and farmworkers.
We will invest to help farmers reduce pesticide and chemical fertilizer use.
And we will set science-based drinking water standards for emerging contaminants like PFOA and PFAS chemicals
and establish aggressive plans for remediating this dangerous pollution.
Energy companies should be held responsible for meeting strong standards to protect worker safety,
public health,
and the environment.
Democrats are committed to ensuring tough safeguards in place, including Safe Drinking Water Act provisions, to protect local water supplies.
We believe states should not be able to preempt local government decisions about energy production.
Democrats will work with affected frontline communities to develop a screening and mapping tool to ensure racial and socioeconomic equity in federal climate, energy, and infrastructure programs
and identify areas of high cumulative pollution that threatens residents’ health and safety.
We will help reduce heat stress in urban neighborhoods by planting millions of trees.
We will support locally-driven economic development
a nd commit to directing a significant portion of clean energy and sustainable infrastructure investments to historically marginalized communities
to help create local jobs
and reduce energy poverty,
install clean energy technologies including community solar,
build resilience to climate change impacts,
prepare for disasters,
expand access to green space and outdoor recreation opportunities,
improve public health,
and restore ecosystems.
Already, the impacts of climate change are being felt in communities across the country, and the American people are paying the price.
Democrats commit to reducing climate risks
and building back better after disasters and climate-fueled catastrophes in a resilient, green, and just manner.
We will empower local communities to become more resilient to the impacts of the climate crisis.
We will prioritize disaster preparedness for disproportionately exposed, frontline, and vulnerable communities and those who struggle most to cope, including seniors, low-income families, and people with disabilities,
so that they can become more economically resilient to extreme weather events, heat stress, and increases in disease that scientists have connected to climate change.
We will rectify the inequities and inefficiencies of disaster response,
including transparent and timely reporting and oversight
and protections and enforcement of disability rights.
Democrats will ensure FEMA has the experienced leadership, staff, and resources necessary to coordinate the federal response to climate change-influenced and other disasters,
and is equipped to work in partnership with, and drive federal resources to, state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments to mount a successful emergency response in conjunction with local emergency responders,
help communities recover and rebuild,
and invest in pre-disaster mitigation and resilience.
We will increase support for restoring wetlands, which are critical for protecting communities from sea level rise and storm surge and also act as natural carbon sinks.
We will partner with states and local communities to make smart investments to avoid the loss of life and property, prevent flooding, mitigate disaster risks, and adapt to costly, growing climate impacts.
Democrats recognize that climate change poses serious risks to the economy and the financial system.
We will require public companies to disclose climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions in their operations and supply chains.
We will hold polluters and corporate executives accountable for intentionally hiding or distorting material information
and for affecting the health and safety of workers and communities.
Democrats will empower and stand with workers and communities who have put their health and lives on the line and who have been impacted by the changing energy market,
including by fighting to protect retirees’ health and pension benefits,
shoring up the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund,
expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include those harmed by our nation’s nuclear weapons efforts
including uranium miners exposed to radiation on the job,
and increasing funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission to support locally-driven economic development priorities.
We will hold fossil fuel companies accountable for cleaning up abandoned mine lands, oil and gas wells, and industrial sites, so these facilities no longer pollute local environments
and can be safely repurposed to support new economic activity, including in the heart of coal country.
Democrats will support the most historically far reaching public investments and private sector incentives for research, development, demonstration,
and deployment of next-generation technologies,
once again making the United States the world’s leader in innovation.
We will challenge the best and brightest scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs in the world to pursue breakthrough opportunities in energy storage, heavy-duty trucking and freight solutions, sustainable aviation fuels, and direct air capture and net-negative emissions technologies.
We will advance innovative technologies that create cost-effective pathways for industries to decarbonize,
including carbon capture and sequestration that permanently stores greenhouse gases
and advanced nuclear that eliminates waste associated with conventional nuclear technology,
while ensuring environmental justice and other overburdened communities are protected from increases in cumulative pollution.
All of these investments will create jobs for blue-collar workers, including in fenceline communities,
help decarbonize American industries,
and create valuable new exports to help mitigate climate change around the world.
America’s national parks and monuments, public lands, and marine protected areas are treasures that should be held in trust for future generations.
We will protect these precious places
and preserve America’s unspoiled wildernesses for hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping by codifying the roadless rule,
and grow America’s outdoor recreation economy,
which supports millions of jobs in rural areas.
Democrats will immediately reverse the Trump Administration’s harmful rollbacks of protections for national monuments like Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
We support banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters,
modifying royalties to account for climate costs,
and establishing targeted programs to enhance reforestation and develop renewables on federal lands and waters.
We will take action to protect wildernesses and waters,
and require full, rigorous, and transparent scientific and environmental reviews of any proposed mining projects near national treasures.
Democrats will protect wildlife habitats and biodiversity,
slow extinction rates,
and grow America’s natural carbon sinks by conserving 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030.
We support fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund to increase resources for conserving public lands and waters
and incentivizing voluntary conservation efforts on private lands, including through private-sector ecosystems markets.
And Democrats will ensure America’s public lands and waters reflect the diversity of our country by engaging all Americans in the great outdoors,
building a diverse workforce in our land management agencies,
and protecting landscapes, marinescapes, and cultural sites that tell the full story of America.
RESTORING AND STRENGTHENING OUR DEMOCRACY
Our government and our elections are supposed to reflect the interests of the American people, not only the wealthiest few and the biggest corporations.
Democrats will fight to restore and protect Americans’ fundamental right to vote,
including by aggressively pushing back against Republican governors, legislatures, and state officials who have disenfranchised people of color, young people, low-income people, and people with disabilities.
And we will strictly enforce ethics laws
and improve transparency across the federal government in order to rebuild trust with the American people,
and will protect civil servants and whistleblowers from political retribution.
Protecting and Enforcing Voting Rights
Democrats are committed to the sacred principle of “one person, one vote”
—and we will fight to achieve that principle for every citizen, regardless of race, income, disability status, geography, or English language proficiency.
We stand united against the determined Republican campaign to disenfranchise voters through onerous voter ID laws,
unconstitutional and excessive purges of the voter rolls,
and closures of polling places in low-income neighborhoods, on college campuses, and in communities of color.
Americans should never have to wait in hours-long lines to exercise their voting rights.
Democrats will strengthen our democracy by guaranteeing that every American’s vote is protected.
We will make it a priority to pass legislation that restores and strengthens the Voting Rights Act,
and ensure the Department of Justice challenges state laws that make it harder for Americans to vote.
We will make voting easier and more accessible for all Americans by supporting automatic voter registration,
same-day voter registration,
early voting,
and universal vote-from-home and vote-by-mail options.
Democrats believe Election Day should be a national holiday, in celebration of our democratic institutions
and to make it easier for everyone to cast their ballot.
Democrats recognize that unions, community groups, faith organizations and other civic organizations are critical to facilitating registration, encouraging voting, and protecting voter rights.
We will fully implement the Help America Vote Act
and require that polling places and elections are accessible for people with disabilities,
and work to ensure that returning citizens have their voting rights restored upon release from jail or prison without the additional hurdle of having to pay fines and fees in order to vote.
Democrats will also fight for emergency funding for states to help make vote-from-home and vote-by-mail universally available during the pandemic,
while ensuring that all jurisdictions take steps to ensure continued meaningful, safe opportunities to vote in person.
We recognize that the United States Postal Service is more than ever a critical component to our democracy
and must be supported to guarantee timely and efficient delivery and return of vote by mail ballots.
Election officials must be provided with sufficient time after election day to process, count, and audit all ballots.
We must give voters the confidence that their ballot was counted as cast by supporting mandatory, statistically meaningful post-election audits
and full transparency of all election results and data.
To ensure every eligible ballot is counted, vote by mail voters must be informed of and provided a meaningful opportunity to fix any problem with their ballot.
A professional and well-trained election workforce is critical to the administration of elections,
we support ongoing federal and state funding for local elections offices.
Gerrymandering distorts our democracy,
and Democrats will enact measures to end partisan gerrymandering in federal elections.
Efforts to redraw legislative districts following the 2020 Census must be guided by transparency and public input, while reducing the power of partisan actors,
so that maps reflect the will of voters,
fairly represent communities of color,
and provide for competitive races.
We will protect the integrity of the decennial Census from political interference,
including ensuring that apportionment and redistricting be based on total population counts,
and also ensure the Census Bureau is equipped to conduct cost-effective, timely, and accurate surveys.
Democrats will maintain the legal requirement for Census participation
and increase resources to reduce undercounts of communities of color, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, rural and low-income populations, and young children that have long plagued the decennial Census.
We will also direct the Census Bureau to study whether counting the prison population where they are incarcerated creates inequitable outcomes in state or federal representation or funding allocations.
Democrats will increase investments to help state and local governments upgrade election technology, including cybersecurity technology,
and ensure that election technology is accessible for people with disabilities.
Democrats will also increase oversight of private election vendors to ensure voting systems are secure and worthy of voters' trust.
We will not tolerate election interference
and will protect the integrity of our elections from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Reforming the Broken Campaign Finance System
Democrats believe that the interests and the voices of the American people should determine our elections.
Money is not speech, and corporations are not people.
Democrats will fight to pass a Constitutional amendment that will go beyond merely overturning Citizens United and related decisions like Buckley v. Valeo by eliminating all private financing from federal elections.
In the meantime, Democrats will work with Congress on legislation to strengthen the public funding system by matching small-dollar donations for all federal candidates,
crack down on foreign nationals who try to influence elections,
and ensure that super PACs are wholly independent of campaigns and political parties.
We will bring an end to “dark money” by requiring full disclosure of contributors to any group that advocates for or against candidates,
and bar 501(c)(4) organizations from spending money on elections.
Democrats will ban corporate PACs from donating to candidates
and bar lobbyists from donating, fundraising, or bundling for anyone they lobby.
Building an Effective, Transparent Federal Government
Every federal employee swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution.
It is a sacred promise to the American people—that federal workers, both civil servants and political appointees, will put the interests of the many ahead of their own personal concerns.
President Trump and his Administration have abused the trust between the American people and their government—including by denigrating civil servants, directing federal grants and contracts toward their cronies and political donors, inappropriately interfering with federal investigations and firing independent watchdogs, retaliating against whistleblowers, failing to share information as required with Congress, and, most nefariously, violating the law by withholding congressionally appropriated funds in an attempt to get a foreign government to interfere in America’s elections.
Democrats will establish a commission on federal ethics to aggressively enforce and strengthen federal ethics laws, including rules around personal financial disclosures for Executive Branch officials,
and make campaign finance, financial disclosure, and lobbying disclosure filings easier for the public to access and understand.
We support requiring all candidates for federal office, including presidential candidates, to publicly disclose at least 10 years of tax returns.
The American people deserve assurances that their elected officials and federal appointees work for them, not for special interests.
Democrats will re-establish merit-based federal contracting decisions
and prohibit political appointees, at the White House or in agency leadership, from interfering in grantmaking.
We will restore and re-empower independent inspectors general across the federal government
and work to strengthen whistleblower protections to fully protect federal employees from retaliation.
And we will ban lobbying by foreign governments
and significantly lower the threshold for having to register as a federal lobbyist in order to close loopholes that allow special interests to secretly influence policymaking in Congress and across the federal government.
Democrats condemn President Trump's determination to sow chaos and division by inappropriately deploying federal agents to American cities,
where too many have used egregious tactics against peaceful protestors.
We know federal agents can ably protect federal property while also clearly displaying badges, insignias, and identifying markings;
without detaining Americans in undisclosed locations without cause;
and without brutally attacking peaceful protestors.
Democrats are committed to following the rule of law
and will uphold the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.
The Republican Party has packed our federal courts with unqualified, partisan judges who consistently rule for corporations, the wealthy, and Republican interests.
They have undermined the legitimacy of our courts through an anti-democratic, win-at-all costs campaign that includes blocking a Democratic president from appointing a justice to the Supreme Court and obstructing dozens of diverse lower-court nominees.
The Democratic Party recognizes the need for structural court reforms to increase transparency and accountability.
Now more than ever, federal agencies need experts on staff who know how to use science, evidence, data, and facts to guide decision-making on behalf of the American people.
As the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates, our country needs the best experts working within government to protect and improve the lives of all Americans.
Democrats support the recruitment of people with expertise in science, social science, technology, and innovation to jobs in public service to help solve our nation’s most pressing challenges.
To ensure that federal funds are invested as effectively and efficiently as possible, the federal government should be using the best available evidence when making budget and spending decisions.
Democrats will ensure federal data collection and analysis is adequately funded and designed to allow for disaggregation by race, gender, LGBTQ+ status, geography, disability status, and other important variables, so that disparities can be better understood and addressed.
Democrats support the widespread use of strategies to promote evidence-based policymaking,
including more robust evaluations of tax expenditures and allocating funds for program evaluation, to help ensure the American people are receiving the most productive, efficient services from our federal government.
Making Washington, D.C. the 51st State
It’s time to stop treating the more than 700,000 people who live in our nation’s capital as second-class citizens.
The residents of Washington, D.C. pay more per capita in federal income taxes than any state in the country—and more in total federal income tax than 22 states—and yet the District has zero voting representatives in the U.S. Congress.
The Congress retains broad power to override budget decisions made by democratically elected officials in Washington, D.C.
And as was made shockingly clear to the American people this year, under current law, Washington, D.C. does not have control over its own National Guard units
and can be occupied by military forces at the President’s whim.
The citizens of Washington, D.C.—a majority of whom are people of color—voted overwhelmingly in favor of statehood in a 2016 referendum and have ratified a state constitution.
Democrats unequivocally support statehood for Washington, D.C.,
so the citizens of the District can at last have full and equal representation in Congress
and the rights of self-determination.
Guaranteeing Self-Determination for Puerto Rico
The people of Puerto Rico deserve self-determination on the issue of status.
Democrats are committed to helping the island rebuild and recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Irma and Maria and the recent earthquakes,
and will mobilize resources across the federal government to address the island’s disparities in energy, infrastructure, health care, education, housing, agriculture, employment, and disaster preparedness.
Disaster response in Puerto Rico must be given the same priority and be conducted on the same basis as federal responses to natural disasters elsewhere in the United States.
We will forgive disaster relief loans issued to Puerto Rican municipalities following Hurricanes Irma and Maria to help expedite the island’s economic recovery.
The unequal treatment of Puerto Rico’s residents must end.
We will invest in the island’s future through economic development initiatives,
increased education funding,
construction of affordable housing,
and innovative energy and climate resilience programs.
Democrats support accelerating access to disaster recovery funds so the island can improve its infrastructure
and transform itself into one of the fastest-growing, most prosperous parts of the United States.
We also believe Puerto Rico should be treated equally with respect to federal programs, including Medicaid, SNAP, and the Child Tax Credit.
Bankruptcy blocks Puerto Rico’s growth and recovery.
Democrats will help restructure and provide relief from Puerto Rico’s remaining debt burden
and work with the government of Puerto Rico to accelerate progress in order to dissolve the Financial Oversight and Management Board.
Supporting the U.S. Territories
Democrats recognize and honor the contributions and sacrifices made in service of our country by the Americans living in the territories of Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The people of the U.S. territories have played a vital role in American democracy for more than 120 years,
and have for too long been met with unequal treatment by the federal government.
We support establishing a Congressional task force to gather findings on voting rights in the territories,
and recommend changes to Congress to allow for the full and equal voting rights of U.S. citizens who are residents of the territories in federal elections,
and for full and equal voting representation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The American citizens of the U.S. territories should have the right to vote for President of the United States.
Democrats will support self-determination for the people of the U.S territories, including respecting their right to decide their future status in a fair, binding, and equitable manner.
The U.S. Virgin Islands suffered significant impacts as a result of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa have suffered damages as a result of intensifying Pacific typhoons and cyclones.
Democrats will support investments to help the U.S. territories recover from recent natural disasters
and build increased resilience to the impacts of climate change,
including by expanding access to clean, affordable, reliable energy and water systems.
We will mobilize resources to address disparities in agriculture, economic development, education, employment, energy, health care, housing, and infrastructure in the U.S. territories
to help the territories diversify their economies
and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
We will improve health care access and affordability
and support policies to address health disparities in the U.S. territories.
We believe the territories should be treated equally with respect to important federal programs, including the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, SNAP, and the Child Tax Credit, that reduce poverty
and support working families.
And Democrats commit to ensuring veterans from the U.S. territories have access to timely and quality health care and other benefits through the VA.
Democrats will continue to work with the people of Guam to properly memorialize residents who suffered unspeakable harm as a result of their U.S. nationality during the Imperial Japanese occupation of Guam during World War II.
We recognize the increasing demands placed on state and territorial governments by migration under the Compacts of Free Association (COFA),
and will explore mechanisms for increasing reimbursement of costs absorbed by Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Hawaii.
And Democrats will restore Medicaid eligibility for migrants under COFA who are legally residing, working, and studying in the United States, but who were inadvertently left out of health care legislation.
Strengthening the U.S. Postal Service
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is the world’s most efficient mail carrier,
and Democrats are wholly committed to supporting a public USPS.
We will fight all efforts to privatize the USPS
and will work to ensure the USPS is financially sustainable, including by repealing the mandate that the agency “pre-fund” retiree health costs.
Democrats will protect the Postal Service’s universal service obligation as a core American value
and maintain six-day and doorstep mail delivery,
which is a lifeline for rural Americans.
And we will work to restore service to appropriate levels,
including overnight delivery of first-class mail and periodicals within the same metropolitan area,
maintaining six-day and door-to door delivery,
and appointing members to the Board of Governors and the Postal Regulatory Commission who champion a strong public Postal Service.
We will also support new revenue streams for the USPS, including allowing secure shipping of alcoholic beverages by mail
and exploring options to enable unbanked and underbanked Americans to access financial services through the Postal Service.
CREATING A 21ST CENTURY IMMIGRATION SYSTEM
Out of many, we are one.
That bedrock American idea has animated our country from its earliest days,
inspiring people from every corner of the earth to participate in our great democratic experiment.
The Trump Administration has repudiated that idea and abandoned our values as a diverse, compassionate, and welcoming country.
Instead of pursuing a sensible, humane, and responsible approach to immigration that strengthens the United States, the Trump Administration has been callous, cruel, and reckless in the extreme.
President Trump’s immigration policies have made our communities less safe, undermined our economy, and tarnished our image around the world.
This Administration’s cruelty and dehumanization of immigrants stretches the imagination and shocks the conscience:
forcibly separating families and putting children in cages;
deporting veterans who have fought to defend our freedoms;
conducting militarized raids on our workplaces;
endangering lives by denying COVID-19 testing and treatment based on immigration status, including to essential workers at the forefront of the pandemic response;
banning people from traveling to the United States based on their faith or their country of origin;
and turning away refugees and asylum seekers fleeing violence and persecution.
These actions should not happen in our country again.
Democrats believe America can do better.
Indeed, we must.
The truth is that our immigration system was broken long before President Trump came into office,
and his departure alone won’t fix it.
Immigrants are essential to our society and our economy.
Immigrants are part of our families.
They enrich our culture.
They grow our food, care for our loved ones, serve in our armed forces, and provide critical health care services.
Immigrants make America stronger.
Not only do immigrants support us—immigrants are us.
Our families and our communities, our congregations and our schools, our businesses large and small have been built and sustained through the inclusion of immigrants.
That’s why Democrats commit to building a 21st century immigration system that reflects our values, repairs past harms, heals our communities, rebuilds our economy, and renews our global leadership.
We will start by righting the wrongs of the Trump Administration.
Democrats will rescind President Trump’s fabricated “National Emergency,” which siphons funding away from our men and women in uniform to construct an unnecessary, wasteful, and ineffective wall on the southern border.
We will immediately terminate the Trump Administration’s discriminatory travel and immigration bans that disproportionately impact Muslim, Arab, and African people,
and invite those whose visas have been denied under these xenophobic and un-American policies to re-apply to come to the United States.
We will support legislation to ensure that no president can enact discriminatory bans ever again.
We will reinstate, expand, and streamline protections for Dreamers
and the parents of American citizen children
to keep families together in the communities they have long called home.
Democrats believe the United States should be a beacon of hope for those who are suffering violence and injustice,
which is why we will protect and expand the existing asylum system and other humanitarian protections.
We will reverse Trump Administration policies that prevent victims of gang and domestic violence, as well as LGBTQ+ people who are unsafe in their home countries, from being eligible to apply for asylum.
Democrats will end Trump Administration policies that deny protected entry to asylum seekers, put them at great risk,
and destabilize our neighbors and the broader region.
And we will end prosecution of asylum seekers at the border
and policies that force them to apply from “safe third countries,” which are far from safe.
Democrats believe that our fight to end systemic and structural racism in our country extends to our immigration system, including the policies at our borders and ports of entry, detention centers, and within immigration law enforcement agencies and their policies and operations.
And Democrats will immediately halt enforcement of and rescind the Trump Administration’s un-American immigrant wealth test.
Even as we work to reverse the enormous damage caused by the Trump Administration,
we are determined to build a 21st century immigration system that embodies our values,
expands economic opportunity for all Americans,
and enhances our global competitiveness.
Democrats believe it is long past time to provide a roadmap to citizenship for the millions of undocumented workers, caregivers, students, and children who are an essential part of our economy and of the fabric of our nation.
We will fast-track this process for those workers who have been essential to the pandemic response and recovery efforts, including health care workers, farmworkers, and others.
We will also eliminate unfair barriers to naturalization,
reduce application backlogs,
and make our immigration processes faster, more efficient, and less costly.
These reforms will strengthen our communities, our families, our economy, and our country.
Democrats oppose President Trump’s illegal, chaotic, and reckless changes to the legal immigration system,
including decisions to slash family-based immigration
as well as H-1B and other visa programs that can help our economy.
Democrats believe family unity should be a guiding principle for our immigration policy.
We will prioritize family reunification for children still separated from their families,
and we will restore family reunification programs ended by the Trump Administration.
We support legislation to treat the spouses and children of green card holders as immediate relatives
and end their unfair separation.
We will eliminate family-based green card backlogs and reform the system to speed up family-based visas.
And we will work with Congress to eliminate immigration barriers, such as the three- and 10-year bars,
and remove the 10-year waiting period for waivers to the permanent bars that keep loved ones apart.
We believe we should expand, not reduce, the annual visa cap for victims of human trafficking, including victims of sex trafficking, violence against women and children, and other heinous crimes;
ensure that same sex-couples and their children receive equal treatment in the immigration and naturalization systems;
reaffirm America’s commitment to family-based immigration;
and preserve the critical role of diversity preferences in our immigration system.
Democrats will ensure that law-abiding individuals with Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Enforced Departure are not sent back to countries where they cannot live safely,
and we will work to pave a path to citizenship for those who have been in the country for an extended period of time and built their lives in the United States.
Democrats know that when employers feel free to abuse and bully immigrant workers, all workers suffer.
That’s why we will hold employers accountable, promote workers’ rights, and prioritize the enforcement of labor and employment laws across the economy, including discrimination and sexual harassment protections, wage and hour laws, and health and safety rules.
We will prevent employers from taking advantage of immigrant workers by establishing an affirmative process to request deferred action for workers who report labor violations and by supporting the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights and the Protect Our Workers from Exploitation and Retaliation (POWER) Act.
We will ensure that enforcement mechanisms are humane and consistent with our values and international humanitarian obligations.
That’s why we will end workplace and community raids.
We will protect sensitive locations like our schools, houses of worship, health care facilities, benefits offices, and DMVs from immigration enforcement actions,
and prohibit raids in which children and members of vulnerable populations are left behind without their caregivers.
We will prohibit enforcement actions that deter access to justice at courthouses
and repress freedom of speech and assembly,
end programs that force state and local law enforcement to also be responsible for immigration enforcement,
and stop targeting men and women who served in uniform and their families.
We will reaffirm enforcement officials’ ability to engage in the pre-Trump practice of prosecutorial discretion for deserving cases, including when needed to address humanitarian issues or other injustices.
We will also prevent enforcement officials from retaliating against individuals for their political speech or activity,
or because of their efforts to advocate for individuals’ rights.
We believe detention should be a last resort, not the default.
Democrats will prioritize investments in more effective and cost-efficient community-based alternatives to detention.
We will end for-profit detention centers
and ensure that any facility where migrants are being detained is held to the highest standards of care and guarantees their safety and dignity.
We will ensure all detention centers provide access to competent interpreters who speak migrants' native languages and dialects.
Detention of children should be restricted to the shortest possible time,
with their access to education and proper care ensured.
We will prioritize alternatives to detention for individuals with special vulnerabilities—those who are known to be suffering from serious physical or mental illness, who have disabilities, who are elderly, pregnant, or nursing, who demonstrate that they are primary caretakers of children or an infirm person, identify as gay, lesbian, transgender, gender non-conforming, or intersex, or whose detention is otherwise not in the public interest.
Democrats will implement robust mechanisms for oversight, accountability, and transparency to ensure immigration agencies abide by our values, the U.S. Constitution, and international law.
Democrats believe immigration judges should be able to operate free of inappropriate political influence,
and will support steps to make immigration courts more independent.
We will demand that leaders of our immigration agencies be Senate-confirmed professionals,
and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection personnel abide by our values and professional, evidence-based standards
and are held accountable for any inappropriate, unlawful, or inhumane treatment.
A 21st century immigration system that honors our values is an essential prerequisite not just to recovering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but to strengthening our democracy
and guaranteeing America’s long-term economic competitiveness.
That’s why Democrats believe in improving and increasing opportunities for legal, permanent immigration.
Our family, humanitarian, and diversity pathways have contributed immeasurably to the vibrancy and productivity of American society
and should continue to be the centerpiece of our immigration system .
We also support awarding visas for permanent, employment-based immigration in a way that is responsive to labor market needs.
We want to attract and keep talent in this country,
which is why Democrats will end the Trump Administration’s freeze on green cards for new immigrants
and instead pursue a meaningful reform agenda.
Democrats support policies and programs to make it easier for qualified immigrants and their families to become full and equal citizens,
including increasing funding for culturally appropriate immigrant inclusion and citizenship services,
legal support,
English classes and bilingual education,
workforce development,
and adult education.
Finally, Democrats will address the root causes of migration—violence and insecurity, poverty, pervasive corruption, lack of educational and economic opportunity, and the impacts of climate change.
Disciplined American leadership and well-designed assistance programs can help prevent and mitigate the effects of migration crises around the world, from Southeast Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa to Central America.
We will support a comprehensive strategy to strengthen security and prosperity in partnership with the people of Central America and the Caribbean
and with the support of the international community.
And we will renew American diplomacy as our tool of first resort,
rebuild our partnerships and alliances,
and once again lead the global humanitarian response.
PROVIDING A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION IN EVERY ZIP CODE
Education is fundamental to the idea of America and to fulfilling our nation’s promise.
It is the key to addressing the challenges before us—
to growing our economy,
maintaining American competitiveness on the world stage,
and building a more just, equitable, civically engaged, and socially conscientious nation.
As Democrats, we believe that education is a critical public good—not a commodity—
and that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that every child, everywhere, is able to receive a world-class education that enables them to lead meaningful lives,
no matter their race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability status, language status, immigration or citizenship status, household income or ZIP code.
For too long, we have short-changed our children by underinvesting in our nation’s public schools and in our higher education system.
Despite ample research showing that early childhood education can improve outcomes for students for decades to come, we still do not have universal, high-quality pre-K.
Despite the decades-long trend that has seen more and more women entering the labor force as breadwinners, it is still far too difficult for families to secure safe and affordable child care services.
Our public schools are bedrock community institutions, and yet our educators are underpaid, our classrooms are overstuffed, and our school buildings have been neglected,
especially in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.
Roughly six in 10 jobs require at least some education beyond high school, and yet the ever-rising cost of college tuition and fees leaves higher education out of reach —or saddles students with a lifetime of debt.
The emergency conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic have vividly demonstrated to parents, students, and educators across the country that there is no sustainable, long-term substitute for high-quality, in-classroom learning.
Significant gaps in access to technology, including lack of access to high-speed broadband and connected devices,
have deepened inequities in our educational system for students of color, students with disabilities, English language learners, and students in rural areas and under-resourced neighborhoods during this pandemic.
We will significantly increase federal investments in rural, urban, and Tribal broadband infrastructure to close the digital divide
and ensure students can access educational resources from their homes and schools now and in the future.
We will need increased investments in public education to help students get back on track when public health experts determine it is safe to return to schools.
Democrats believe we can and must do better for our children, our educators, and our country.
We are committed to making the investments our students and teachers need to build equity and safeguard humanity in our educational system
and guarantee every child can receive a great education.
To this end, we support K-12 instruction in civics
and climate literacy.
We will support evidence-based programs and pedagogical approaches,
including assessments that consider the well-being of the whole student and recognize the range of ways students can demonstrate learning.
We will reimagine our education system guided by the stakeholders and qualified, first-class, well-trained, passionate educators who know these issues best: young people, educators, parents, and community leaders.
Democrats fundamentally believe our education system should prepare all our students—indeed, all of us—for college, careers, lifelong learning,
and to be informed, engaged citizens of our communities, our country, and our planet.
Guaranteeing Universal Early Childhood Education
Democrats believe that all children across the United States should have access to high-quality early childhood education programs.
We will work with states to offer pre-K for all three- and four-year-olds
and expand Head Start and Early Head Start.
We will drive increased resources to the communities with the highest need, including those with the highest concentrations of low-income students, impoverished urban areas impacted by gentrification, and rural areas,
and will strive to support holistic school readiness.
We also will ensure students with disabilities and English language learners have access to and are fully included in early childhood programs.
We recognize that learning starts at birth,
and the exorbitant costs of safe, quality child care present a significant economic burden to families.
Democrats support making child care and dependent tax credits significantly more generous
and will increase funding to states to guarantee that low-income and middle class families can afford child care.
We will make major investments to increase quality options for parents
and increase compensation for providers.
Democrats also support expanding proven programs for low-income and first-time parents, guardians, and caregivers,
including home visiting, that can help connect families in need to child care, education, and child development opportunities and improve outcomes for children and parents alike.
Democrats also support raising early childhood standards
and providing ongoing professional development for early childhood educators,
to ensure that children’s academic, social development, behavioral, and cognitive needs are being met.
Democrats believe that early childhood educators, like all educators and all workers, should be paid a family-supporting wage,
have access to benefits
and paid leave,
and be able to organize, join a union, and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Supporting High-Quality K-12 Schools Across America
Each year, the United States spends $23 billion more on schools in predominantly white districts than in non-white districts.
Using property taxes to fund public K-12 schools results in inequitable treatment for students in low-income school districts, compared to those in wealthier areas.
Democrats are committed to closing the school funding gap by tripling Title I funding, which benefits schools that serve low-income students,
and incentivizing states to adopt progressive funding formulas that direct resources to the schools that need it most.
We will also ensure sustainable, reliable funding for rural schools, schools in impoverished urban areas impacted by gentrification, and Bureau of Indian Education schools.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has made plain, our public schools are more than places where children learn—they are pillars of our neighborhoods and our society.
Democrats believe that no student should ever be shamed over school lunch debt, and support expanding universal free school meal programs.
We will also support wraparound health care and nutrition services, before- and after-school programs, adult education classes, and other services by significantly expanding the community school model.
Students should have multiple public school pathways to be able to access the opportunities they deserve.
Democrats will work to expand access to career and technical education, magnet schools for science and the arts, International Baccalaureate programs, and early college high schools to offer multiple pathways to meet the diverse needs and interests of America’s high school students.
We will increase investments in high-quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs in our public schools,
support access to computer science for all
and improve professional development opportunities for math and science teachers,
including through the creation of a national science corps of outstanding STEM teachers serving as leaders in their schools and communities.
Democrats believe we must prioritize STEAM education
and funding for underrepresented students, including students of color, girls, and low-income students, to help remove enrollment and achievement barriers.
We will equip students with the knowledge and skills to understand complex scientific issues,
counter the rising tide of denialism by promoting environmental and climate literacy,
and reverse the Trump Administration's cuts to the National Environmental Education Act.
In addition to developing strong literacy, numeracy, and STEAM skills, our education system should develop the deep learning and life skills needed to thrive in the 21st century economy, including critical and creative thinking, leadership, and judgment and decision-making.
Charter schools were originally intended to be publicly funded schools with increased flexibility in program design and operations.
Democrats believe that education is a public good and should not be saddled with a private profit motive, which is why we will ban for-profit private charter businesses from receiving federal funding.
And we recognize the need for more stringent guardrails to ensure charter schools are good stewards of federal education funds.
We support measures to increase accountability for charter schools, including by requiring all charter schools to meet the same standards of transparency as traditional public schools,
including with regard to civil rights protections, racial equity, admissions practices, disciplinary procedures, and school finances.
We will call for conditioning federal funding for new, expanded charter schools or for charter school renewals on a district’s review of whether the charter will systematically underserve the neediest students.
And Democrats oppose private school vouchers and other policies that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from the public school system,
including the program at issue in the recent Espinoza decision.
Democrats are committed to safe and supportive school climates for students and educators alike.
Guns have no place in our schools.
We disagree strongly with the Trump Administration’s dangerous and short-sighted suggestion that teachers should bring firearms into the classroom.
Democrats also believe that all schools should have adequate resources to expand school-based health services
and hire guidance counselors, social workers, nurses, and school psychologists to help support students’ mental health needs, address trauma, and promote social and emotional development.
We will work with school administrators, educators, students, and mental health advocates to reduce the stigma that too often prevents students from seeking out these resources.
Democrats will make sure schools do not engage in, and appropriately address, discrimination, bullying and harassment related to sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity; race; national origin; immigration or citizenship status; religion; disability; and language status.
We will protect the rights of transgender students.
It is unacceptable that America’s public schools are more racially segregated today than they were in the late 1960s.
Schools—and classrooms and programs within schools—continue to be segregated by race and class.
And, with increasing frequency, students are being unnecessarily and unlawfully segregated by disability, language status and through the use of exclusionary discipline and school-based arrests.
We believe that schools must no longer engage in segregation and segregative practices.
Democrats support appointing judges who will enforce the Civil Rights Act in schools.
We will fund federal programs to promote integration and school diversity, including magnet schools and school transportation initiatives.
We will also reinvigorate and increase funding for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights,
expand the civil rights data collection to inform civil rights enforcement and the public on the status of equal educational opportunity for all children,
and build on the Strength in Diversity Act to increase federal funding for community-driven strategies to desegregate schools.
All children have the Constitutional right to go to school.
Schools should be safe zones for children and their families, which is why Democrats will protect sensitive locations like schools from immigration enforcement actions.
Democrats believe that English learners should be recognized as bringing an asset, rather than a deficit, with them to school.
We recognize the need for significantly increased funding and support for English learners to ensure they can participate meaningfully and equally in school.
Democrats will protect the civil rights of limited English proficient parents so they receive information in the language they understand and are able to meaningfully participate in their child’s education,
including through public meetings and community decision-making mechanisms.
Democrats believe in providing equal educational opportunities for students with disabilities.
We will fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
and fully implement its requirements for a free appropriate public education and least restrictive environment.
We will support aggressive enforcement of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the integration mandate of the Olmstead decision,
and provide school districts with additional resources to better serve students with disabilities.
We will ban seclusion and prevent and decrease use of physical restraint, in partnership with teachers, school administrators, and the disability rights movement.
Democrats also support aggressive enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act in schools and other settings.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made long-standing educational disparities evident to all Americans.
Democrats will prioritize equitable education and access for students with disabilities, English language learners, low-income students, students of color, and urban and rural students, including those who are homeless, are immigrants or refugees, or are in the foster care or juvenile justice systems.
Remote instruction must be individualized to the greatest possible extent
and reasonable modifications should be provided for students with disabilities even during a pandemic.
The evidence from nearly two decades of education reforms that hinge on standardized test scores shows clearly that high-stakes testing has not led to enough improvement in outcomes for students or for schools,
and can lead to discrimination against students, particularly students with disabilities, students of color, low-income students, and English language learners.
Democrats will work to end the use of such high-stakes tests and encourage states to develop reliable, continuous, evidence-based approaches to student assessment that rely on multiple and holistic measures that better represent student achievement.
Assessments will provide families with clear, accessible, consistent information about how well schools are serving individual students and groups of students, while better representing student achievement.
Students, parents, and educators will be supported by data collection and analysis disaggregated by race, gender, disability status, and other important variables, to identify and address disparities in educational equity, access, and outcomes.
Educators have always been heroes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the value that educators provide to children, parents, and the economy obvious as never before to tens of millions of Americans.
Public school educators should have the same rights to organize, join a union, and collectively bargain as private sector workers.
Democrats will fight to significantly increase pay and benefits for all educators, in order to help recruit, retain, and reward high-quality teachers and support professionals,
and will continue to support measures to help teachers pay for out-of-pocket classroom expenses.
We will support programs to help introduce high school students to the teaching profession,
enable school support staff to climb the professional ladder within schools,
and recruit a diverse educational workforce through partnerships with HBCUs, MSIs, and TCUs.
Making Higher Education Affordable and Accessible
Democrats believe that everyone should be able to earn a degree beyond high school, if they choose to, without money standing in the way.
That is why we will make public colleges and universities tuition-free for students whose families earn less than $125,000—roughly 80 percent of the American people.
We will double the maximum Pell Grant award for low-income students,
and double federal support for TRIO programs that help first-generation college students, students with disabilities, veterans, and other underrepresented groups apply to and complete college.
HBCUs, MSIs, and TCUs serve a disproportionate number of low-income students who might otherwise be unable to access a college degree, and yet these vital institutions are chronically under-resourced.
Democrats will work to provide grants to HBCUs, MSIs, and TCUs to lower student costs,
increase academic research capabilities,
and ensure these essential institutions can continue to thrive in the future.
Democrats support making community colleges and trade schools tuition-free for all students, including Dreamers.
Our nation’s network of two-year community colleges provides accessible, high-quality education for students of all ages.
Democrats will additionally support and expand pre-apprenticeship opportunities and registered apprenticeships with formal worker representation in program development to provide a clear pathway to high-quality jobs that does not require attending college.
We will increase federal support for services like child care on college campuses, so more students are able to balance the demands of school and family and graduate with degrees.
Democrats also support increased funding for wraparound services, including covering the cost of textbooks and fees for low-income students and establishing programs to address campus food insecurity, so students can focus on what matters most: their studies.
Democrats will fight to create a federal funding program for higher education, modeled on Title I funding for K-12 schools, that would direct funds to public and nonprofit colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions based on the proportion of low-income students those schools enroll and graduate.
We will promote transparency and fairness regarding higher education faculty working conditions,
including adjuncts, graduate employees, and full-time lecturers who are often grossly underpaid compared to full professors,
and support and encourage professor tenure.
And Democrats will safeguard academic freedom on college campuses.
Democrats oppose the Trump Administration’s cruel and capricious treatment of international students studying in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Young people around the world dream of coming to the United States, especially to study, innovate, and contribute to our research institutions, our economy, and our communities.
Winning the competition for talents is a major component for winning global competitions in the 21st century.
Democrats are committed to policies that make the United States welcoming to the more than one million international students who come to study in our colleges and universities annually,
contributing to our higher education sector and to our nation's intellectual and cultural vibrancy.
We will act to restore trust and certainty for international students
and the higher education sector as part of the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic
and the Trump Administration's harmful policies toward international students.
Providing Borrowers Relief from Crushing Student Debt
Student debt is holding millions of Americans back.
The COVID-19 pandemic and President Trump’s recession are making it harder for those with student loans to make ends meet right now.
Democrats will work to authorize up to $10,000 in student debt relief per borrower to help families weather this crisis.
Beyond that immediate relief, Democrats will also take steps to ease the burden of high monthly student loan payments through legislative and administration relief processes,
including creating a simplified repayment process.
Democrats will work to pause monthly billing
and stop interest from accruing on federal student loans for people earning less than $25,000,
and cap payments at no more than five percent of discretionary income for those earning more than $25,000.
After 20 years, remaining federal student loan debt should be automatically forgiven without tax liability.
For those earning less than $125,000, we support forgiving all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities,
and we will also apply this benefit to individuals holding federal student loans for tuition from private HBCUs and MSIs.
Democrats support modernizing and improving the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program,
including making the enrollment process automatic for people who work in schools, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.
We will also make the program more generous by forgiving up to $10,000 in student debt per year for up to five years,
and apply this action to people who have already dedicated 5 years or less of service to working in our schools, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.
We reject Republican proposals that, in the name of simplification, would make students pay billions of dollars more on their student loans.
Not only will these measures make it easier for Americans to buy a home or start a small business,
student debt forgiveness is key to helping address the racial wealth gap,
as students of color are more likely to have to borrow to finance higher education.
Democrats will also empower the CFPB to take action against exploitative lenders
and will work with Congress to allow student debt to be discharged during bankruptcy.
The Trump Administration has let for-profit colleges and universities once again prey upon students with impunity by repealing important protections.
Democrats will crack down on predatory for-profit higher education programs,
including by issuing requirements that these programs be able to demonstrate their value and effectiveness before becoming eligible for federal student loans.
We will call upon the Secretary of Education to forgive debt carried by students who were ripped off by predatory schools, including by programs that defrauded students or that misrepresented program offerings or program outcomes,
as well as debt held by people who are permanently disabled.
And we will protect veterans and servicemembers from being steered into low-performing for-profit higher education and professional programs.
RENEWING AMERICAN LEADERSHIP
Democrats believe that we can only be strong in the world when we are strong and united at home.
We believe that a healthy democracy, just society, and inclusive economy are essential prerequisites for effective American leadership abroad.
And we believe that the ultimate measure —and purpose—of our foreign policy is whether it protects and advances America’s security, prosperity and values —and delivers results for all Americans.
President Trump promised he would put “America First”—but Trump’s America stands alone.
Under his leadership, America’s reputation and influence are in tatters.
Our country is less safe,
our economy more fragile,
and our democracy, values, and unity endangered.
Rather than advance our interests and values in a more competitive world, President Trump has retreated —allowing our adversaries to fill the void.
He has attacked the sources of our strength,
hollowed out American diplomacy,
shredded international commitments,
weakened our alliances,
and tarnished our credibility.
Rather than make smart investments to keep our military’s competitive edge, President Trump has wasted billions on vanity projects,
barred patriotic Americans from serving their country,
denied military families the care and support they have earned,
and tried to use our women and men in uniform to sow fear and division.
Rather than help Americans compete in the global economy, he’s launched reckless, politically-motivated tariff wars
that have punished American workers,
antagonized our allies,
and benefited our adversaries.
Rather than end our forever wars, he’s brought us to the brink of new conflicts,
and further militarized our foreign policy.
Rather than reduce nuclear dangers, he’s amplified them, and brought the world closer to catastrophe.
Rather than stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies and partners, he’s betrayed them.
Rather than defend democracy and human rights, he’s fawned over autocrats, sent love letters to despots, sided with dictators over peaceful protestors, and invited foreign interference in our elections.
Rather than root out corruption, he’s made common cause with kleptocrats.
Rather than fight the existential threat of climate change, he’s denied science and accelerated the damage.
In every region and on every issue, American security and interests are at greater peril— and our rivals at greater advantage—than four years ago.
Democrats believe four more years of Donald Trump will damage our influence beyond repair.
But closing the chapter on “America First” is just the beginning of the work ahead.
We must meet the world as it is today, not as it was before President Trump’s destruction.
That’s why we cannot simply aspire to restore American leadership.
We must reinvent it for a new era.
We will revitalize the power and purpose of American diplomacy to compete in a more contested world.
We will lead not just with the example of our power, but with the power of our example.
We will place values at the center of our foreign policy.
And we will reinvent alliances, partnerships, and international institutions to meet common challenges that no country can face on its own.
The world today looks very different from the post-WWII period that gave birth to our alliance system.
But these changes make our alliances more—not less—crucial to our success.
We will ensure that our military has no peer.
We owe it to our men and women in uniform and to the American public to spend our defense dollars more wisely and strategically
—focused on building a force that can deter and win the conflicts of the 21st century.
And we will use force only when necessary, always as a last resort,
and with the informed consent of the American people.
And, most importantly, Democrats will ensure that the reinvention of American leadership abroad prioritizes and accelerates our renewal at home.
We will root a disciplined foreign policy in the needs and aspirations of the American middle class
and the imperative of building a more dynamic, fair, and resilient society— the ultimate wellspring of our power.
Revitalizing American Diplomacy
Democrats will revitalize American diplomacy to ensure that the United States remains the world’s pivotal power
and a principled force for peace and prosperity.
The United States should be at the head of the table whenever the safety and well-being of Americans is at stake,
working in common cause with our allies and partners.
Time and again, the Trump Administration has stormed out, leaving America’s seat at the table vacant and American interests on the menu.
Americans deserve better.
Rebuilding America’s Tool of First Resort
Democrats believe that diplomacy should be our tool of first resort.
The world’s greatest power deserves to have the world’s very best diplomatic corps.
But today, American diplomacy is badly adrift and under resourced,
and our diplomats are demoralized.
Democrats will support and invest in long overdue reforms to make the State Department more strategic, modern, agile, and effective.
Rather than militarize our foreign policy, treat our diplomats with contempt, and call for reckless budget cuts, Democrats will put diplomacy back in the hands of professionals
and ensure they are better prepared to advance American interests on the central issues of our time, like disruptive technology and climate change.
We will recruit a new generation of Americans who want to serve their country abroad
and ensure they have the training and tools they need.
And we will expand and reform the Foreign Service so it reflects the diversity and richness of the country it represents.
Reinventing Alliances
Democrats believe America’s alliances are an irreplaceable cornerstone of our national security that should be cultivated, not cast away.
Our allies offer an enormous strategic advantage that our rivals can’t match.
They multiply our influence, spread our reach, lighten our burden, and advance our shared interests and priorities much farther than we could ever do on our own.
President Trump has undermined our alliances in ways that our adversaries could have only dreamed of—sowing doubts about our commitments to diplomatic agreements, mutual defense, democratic values, and strategic purpose.
As a result, our alliance system today faces its biggest test since the end of the Cold War.
He has pushed to bring Russia back into the G7
while lambasting our NATO partners
and ignoring intelligence about Russian bounties for killing American troops and other coalition forces in Afghanistan.
He has undermined confidence in America’s commitment to the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defense provision,
and threatened to pull troops out of Germany without consultation.
In the midst of a nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, he tried to extort our South Korean allies to dramatically increase their share of alliance costs.
Democrats will not only repair our alliances, but reinvent them to advance mutual priorities and deal with new challenges.
We believe our alliances are strongest when they are rooted in shared democratic values.
That’s why we need to signal clearly our profound concerns about democratic backsliding in a number of ally states,
and why we need to work with allied democracies to end democracy’s global recession.
We will make developing shared responses to non-military threats like disinformation, corruption, and economic coercion, priorities in our agenda.
We will work with our partners to improve interoperability,
and we will encourage them to build up their defense capabilities,
take greater responsibility for regional security,
and contribute their fair share.
But we will never treat our alliances like protection rackets.
Democrats will not only reinvent existing alliances
but also work to strengthen and build new partnerships in regions of growing strategic importance,
particularly in Africa
and Latin America.
International Institutions
Democrats believe that American security and prosperity are enhanced when the United States leads in shaping the rules, forging the agreements, and steering the institutions that guide international relations.
We believe the system of international institutions we built and led over the past seven decades has generated an enormous return on our investment.
And in today’s more competitive world, its renovation is a critical diplomatic priority.
Unfortunately, President Trump has orchestrated an American retreat from global bodies that weakens our influence,
cedes ground to our adversaries,
and puts global peace and prosperity in jeopardy.
Instead of walking away, Democrats believe the United States should lead the way and mobilize our partners to work in common cause.
We will rejoin and reform the WHO,
the United Nations Human Rights Council,
and the United Nations Population Fund,
because in a global public health crisis and a global democratic recession, American leadership is needed more than ever.
We will work to modernize international institutions to make sure they are fit for purpose in the 21st century
and responsible stewards of both public funds and the world’s trust.
Foreign Assistance and Development
Democrats believe that foreign assistance and development programs are powerful tools for promoting American, and global, security and prosperity.
With less than one percent of its annual budget, the United States gets an extraordinary return on its investments in the prevention and alleviation of poverty, hunger, disease, and conflict,
the empowerment of vulnerable and marginalized populations,
and the opening of global markets for American business and exports to thrive.
That’s why we will ensure that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reclaims its position as the world’s premier development agency.
And it’s why we reject the Trump Administration’s punitive and transactional approach to foreign aid
and its use to advance domestic political errands at the expense of our national interests.
Democrats will devote the resources and implement the reforms necessary to further multiply the impact of foreign assistance.
We will reaffirm America’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
and promote data efforts and transparency measures that ensure accountability
and help identify areas for strategic investment.
We will incorporate local perspectives, including from civil society partners, into the design, execution, and evaluation of our programs to secure lasting impact.
And we will provide the budgetary support and statutory authorities necessary to make sure our aid institutions, including the new U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, are successfully integrated into broader international and private-sector development efforts.
Democrats will lead international efforts to help developing countries withstand and recover from debt crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,
and we will push for international standards that establish more transparency and sustainability in development financing.
Transforming Our Armed Forces for the 21st century
Democrats believe our military is—and must be—the most effective fighting force in the world.
To keep it that way, we need to bring our forever wars to a responsible end,
rationalize our defense budget,
invest in the forces and technologies of the future,
repair civil-military relations,
and strengthen our covenant with service members, veterans, and military families.
Ending Forever Wars
Democrats know it’s time to bring nearly two decades of unceasing conflict to an end.
Our military engagements, which have spanned from West Africa to Southeast Asia, have cost more than $5 trillion
and claimed more than half a million lives.
Our war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, with the youngest U.S. troops now fighting a war that was launched before they were even born.
President Trump said he would get the United States out of these wars, but instead he deployed more combat forces, expanded their missions,
and stoked regional tensions that unnecessarily endangered American lives and interests.
Democrats will deliver on this overdue commitment to end the forever wars, and we will do it responsibly —setting priorities,
leading with diplomacy,
protecting ourselves from terrorist threats,
enabling local partners,
and bringing our troops home.
Democrats are committed to a durable and inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan that ensures that al-Qaeda isn’t allowed to reconstitute,
the Islamic State (ISIS) isn’t allowed to grow,
and the international community can help Afghans safeguard hard-fought gains,
especially for women and girls.
Democrats will end support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen
and help bring the war to an end.
This war is responsible for the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,
and it amplifies threats to the region and to our interests.
Democrats believe that the United States should support diplomatic efforts—not block them.
Democrats will not only end the wars that have cost so much American blood and treasure—we will apply their lessons.
We will only use force when necessary to protect national security and when the objective is clear and achievable
—with the informed consent of the American people,
and where warranted, the approval of Congress.
That is why we will work with Congress to repeal decades-old authorizations for the use of military force
and replace them with a narrow and specific framework that will ensure we can protect Americans from terrorist threats
while ending the forever wars.
Rather than occupy countries and overthrow regimes to prevent terrorist attacks, Democrats will prioritize more effective and less costly diplomatic, intelligence, and law enforcement tools.
We will right-size our counterterrorism footprint,
put it in service of broader regional and overarching foreign policy objectives,
and ensure it never undermines the values we seek to uphold.
And we will mobilize our partners to make sustained investments that can prevent conflict
and help extinguish the flames on which extremists feed.
Securing our Competitive Edge
Democrats believe the United States military should be the best-trained, best-equipped, and most effective fighting force in the world.
Ending the forever wars,
reducing the enormous stress on our forces,
and rationalizing our global military footprint
are essential prerequisites to securing our competitive edge—but they’re not enough.
We will invest in technology and forces that meet the threats of the future—from cyber to space, and artificial intelligence to unmanned systems—
and reinforce the alliances and partnerships that enhance our collective security.
Rather than continuing to rely on legacy platforms that are increasingly exposed and vulnerable, Democrats support funding a more cost-effective, agile, flexible, and resilient force with modern transportation and logistics capabilities that can operate in more contested environments.
Democrats will accelerate defense transformation in a responsible, ethical way,
and with strong privacy protections.
And we believe the implications of climate change for national security and the Department of Defense can no longer be an afterthought,
but must be at the core of all policy and operational plans to secure our vital interests.
Defense Spending
Democrats believe the measure of our security is not how much we spend on defense, but how we spend our defense dollars
and in what proportion to other tools in our foreign policy toolbox and other urgent domestic investments.
We believe we can and must ensure our security while restoring stability, predictability, and fiscal discipline in defense spending.
We spend 13 times more on the military than we do on diplomacy.
We spend five times more in Afghanistan each year than we do on global public health and preventing the next pandemic.
We can maintain a strong defense and protect our safety and security for less.
It’s past time to rebalance our investments,
improve the efficiency and competitiveness of our defense industrial base,
conduct rigorous annual audits of the Pentagon,
and end waste and fraud.
Keeping Faith with Our Veterans and Military Families
Democrats believe that our force is stronger when it reflects the richness and diversity of American society,
and when we treat our service members, veterans, and their families with the dignity they’ve earned.
We will protect and enhance opportunities for anyone who can meet the standards to serve in combat roles,
and we will fight the scourge of rape and sexual assault in our military,
end retaliation and impunity,
and take care of survivors.
We will reverse the Trump Administration’s hateful transgender ban,
discriminatory exclusions in military health care,
and policies that stigmatize and discriminate against people living with HIV and AIDS,
and ensure that LGBTQ+ service members and families enjoy equal respect, benefits, and care.
We will root out systemic racism from our military justice system, where black service members are twice as likely as white ones to face court-martial.
We will accelerate efforts to recruit and promote people of color in the officer corps.
We believe that service members, veterans, and their spouses should never face deportation.
We will create a parole process for veterans deported by the Trump Administration to reunite them with their families and compatriots.
And we believe anyone who has served honorably in our military has earned a path to citizenship prior to discharge or retirement.
Democrats believe that the world’s best fighting force and its veterans deserve the world’s best health care.
We will rebuild trust in, and accountability at, the VA
—not privatize it.
We will modernize VA facilities and bolster funding to the VA
as part of a nationwide infrastructure plan,
expand eligibility for VA benefits so that all veterans can access the VA,
and work with Congress to eliminate VA cop-pays for preventive health care for veterans.
We will ensure that VA benefits address the full needs of our women veterans,
including reproductive services,
and that every veteran receives comprehensive and culturally competent care and benefits regardless of their ethnicity, race, gender identity, or sexual orientation,
and eliminate transgender exclusions.
We will combat veteran homelessness,
including by converting VA facilities into housing.
Twenty veterans and service members take their life every day.
We will treat suicide as the public health crisis it is.
Today, only half of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans have access to the mental health services they need.
That’s why we will invest in mental health and suicide prevention services,
and work with our military communities to encourage and support those seeking help, connecting them to critical services.
Democrats will provide the hundreds of thousands of service members that transition to civilian life with the support they need.
Democrats will not abide exploitation of our veterans, especially by for-profit colleges that raid benefits and burden veterans with debt.
Democrats believe that we can’t maintain the force we need unless we take care of military families— who have been asked to endure so much for so long, with far too little support.
No military family should struggle to pay their bills, put food on the table, or access health care, quality housing, child care, or the workforce.
We will ensure pay and compensation keep pace with the current economy.
We will also increase time between deployments,
improve educational outcomes for military children,
and invest in career training, education, and entrepreneurship programs for military spouses, who face an unemployment rate twice the national average.
We will expand tax credits to help family caregivers of our veterans,
and ensure they receive the support they need from the VA and Department of Defense.
And we will support efforts across the country to help veterans and military families thrive, enrich, and strengthen their communities and our nation.
Civil-Military Relations
Democrats believe that healthy civil-military relations are essential to our democracy
and to the strength and effectiveness of our military.
We will end the Trump Administration’s politicization of the armed forces
and distortion of civilian and military roles in decision-making.
We will reinstate national security policymaking processes that advance competent civilian control
and appropriately incorporate military advice
—not issue commands by tweet.
We will safeguard the independence of the military justice system
—not pardon war criminals.
Democrats will hold regular press briefings to explain the legal and policy justifications for military operations,
because transparency and open debate with Congress and the American public are necessary for democratic accountability.
Democrats will never use active duty soldiers as political props,
and we will never send military forces to suppress Americans exercising their constitutional rights.
Mobilizing the World to Address Transnational Challenges
Global Health and Pandemics
The human and economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the urgency of strengthening the global public health system
—and the consequences of America’s disengagement from the world.
The Trump Administration was warned about the clear and present danger of a global pandemic.
The Administration not only ignored the threat but dismantled our early warning and response mechanisms and failed to act when the pandemic began.
We owe it to all those whose lives have been shattered by this disease to learn from that fatal mistake.
Democrats will take overdue steps to ensure our government is not caught off guard by public health threats, at home or abroad.
We will revitalize and expand the Obama-Biden Administration’s Global Health Security Agenda,
and we will immediately restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense.
Democrats will also mobilize allies, partners, and international institutions to develop a more robust and effective global public health system.
We will work to help the United Nations improve its facilitation efforts in public health crises,
and we will establish a Global Health Emergency Board to harmonize crisis response for vulnerable communities.
Rather than undercutting the WHO and undermining its work on the frontlines of global pandemic response, Democrats will ensure the United States remains its leading funder and technical partner.
Democrats will fully resource the WHO, especially its Contingency Fund for Emergencies,
while supporting fundamental reforms and mechanisms to enhance accountability and protect experts from political pressure.
We support the development of a vaccine accelerator to ensure rapid, equitable, and affordable global access to vaccines, therapeutics, and supplies.
Democrats know that effective global health policy saves lives at home and around the world.
Beyond its immediate damage, the COVID-19 pandemic has badly disrupted routine, life-saving vaccinations, putting 80 million children around the world at greater risk of dying from preventable diseases.
We will reaffirm our commitment to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
and help realize the promise of an AIDS-free generation.
And we will help the world eradicate tuberculosis, malaria, and polio, as well as preventable maternal and childhood deaths.
Climate Change
Democrats recognize that the United States does not stand alone in the fight against climate change and global environmental degradation.
We will fully integrate climate change into our foreign policy and national security strategies,
and we will restore U.S. global climate leadership.
Democrats will immediately rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement,
commit the United States to doing its fair share and lead the world in the effort to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,
and convene a world summit aimed at new and more ambitious global targets to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
We will revive and expand climate-related foreign assistance including by recommitting to the Green Climate Fund.
We will protect our oceans—vital buffers against the impacts of climate change— through fisheries management programs
and additional designations of marine protected areas.
We will seek collaborative, science-based approaches to be good stewards of the rapidly changing Arctic region,
while protecting our strategic interests.
We will work to ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol
and move expeditiously to phase out super-polluting hydrofluorocarbons in the United States.
We will restore funding to the Global Environment Facility and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to support critical climate science research around the world.
We will support the protection of species and wildlife habitats around the world,
including by advancing the goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Biological Diversity,
and encourage other countries to join us in conserving 30 percent of the planet by 2030.
Democrats will also work with world leaders to catalyze increased global investments in clean energy solutions and climate resilience,
including to help low-income countries move along a more sustainable development path.
We will promote climate accountability
and mobilize a united front to keep states like China from outsourcing pollution to other countries.
Democrats believe that executing a strategy of bold climate leadership will require sustained focus and increased expertise across our foreign policy institutions.
We will incorporate climate issues as key priorities at the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and in the Intelligence Community.
And we will ensure that America’s service missions abroad, including those executed through the Peace Corps and USAID, expand their calls to action to include reducing carbon pollution,
safeguarding Indigenous peoples and vulnerable populations from climate impacts,
and guaranteeing a more sustainable planet for all.
Technology
Democrats believe that American diplomatic leadership is critical to maximizing the benefits of technological innovation while minimizing its risks and dislocations.
We have a stake in bridging the gap between the pace of innovation and the development of rules of the road governing the most consequential domains of technology, from cyberspace to artificial intelligence to synthetic biology.
Democrats will avoid a race to the bottom, where countries hostile to democratic values shape our future.
Instead, we will mobilize public and private actors to ensure that new products and new discoveries are bound by law, ethics, and civil liberties protections
that enable democratic societies to thrive
and prosperity to be shared broadly.
We will recommit the United States to the principles of an open internet, including net neutrality,
and vigorously oppose efforts to digitally silo off countries and populations from the rest of the world.
Democrats believe that algorithms and platforms should empower people instead of the surveillance state.
We expect technology companies and social media platforms to take responsibility and do more to preserve the openness of democratic societies
and identify foreign disinformation,
especially including paid efforts to influence American elections through advertising or coordinated inauthentic behavior,
and we will take steps to prevent the use of new technologies to facilitate repression, spread hate, or incite violence.
Democrats recognize that the security of data is only becoming more vital across all threads of technological progress.
That’s why we will work with our allies and partners to develop secure 5G networks
and address threats in cyberspace.
Democrats will maintain American capabilities that can deter cyber threats,
and we will work with other countries—and the private sector—to protect individuals’ data
and defend critical infrastructure,
including the global financial system.
We will also work to make sure that the revolution in biotechnology remains a force for global good.
We will promote international efforts to responsibly and ethically manage research in areas like gene editing.
We will sustain and improve international collaboration and data-sharing.
And we will ensure equitable access to medical treatments and vaccines generated by new biotech discoveries.
Democrats will partner with other countries and private companies to build up capacity
and implement appropriate safety standards for any work that involves dangerous pathogens,
and we remain staunchly committed to the international prohibition on the development or use of biological weapons.
Nonproliferation
Democrats believe the United States has a moral responsibility and national security imperative to prevent the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons,
and eventually secure their elimination.
Over the past four years, the Trump Administration has done precisely the opposite.
Its brash nuclear threats,
ill-considered withdrawals from critical arms control treaties and nuclear agreements,
and reckless embrace of a new arms race have made the United States, and the world, less safe.
Thanks to President Trump’s abdication of leadership, the nuclear dangers that Americans face are greater than they have been in decades.
Democrats reject a return to an old era of grave nuclear dangers.
Democrats believe that the sole purpose of our nuclear arsenal should be to deter—and, if necessary, retaliate against—a nuclear attack,
and we will work to put that belief into practice, in consultation with our allies and military.
We will work to maintain a strong, credible deterrent
while reducing our overreliance and excessive expenditure on nuclear weapons.
The Trump Administration’s proposal to build new nuclear weapons is unnecessary, wasteful, and indefensible.
Democrats commit to strengthening the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,
maintaining the moratorium on explosive nuclear weapons testing,
pushing for the ratification of the UN Arms Trade Treaty and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,
and extending New START.
Just as was the case during the height of the Cold War, it’s in our interest to work with Russia to verifiably limit and reduce our nuclear stockpiles.
We will build on this foundation to negotiate arms control agreements that reflect the emergence of new players like China,
capture new technologies,
and move the world back from the nuclear precipice.
Terrorism
So long as violent extremists continue to plot attacks on our homeland and our interests, Democrats will maintain a vigilant focus on counterterrorism.
Democrats recognize that the threat landscape has evolved dramatically since September 11.
Our counterterrorism priorities, strategies, footprint, and tools should shift accordingly,
including to respond to the growing threat from white supremacist and other right-wing terrorist groups
Democrats will sustain the global effort to defeat ISIS, al-Qaeda, and their affiliates.
We will ensure that the world is equally committed to the difficult task that follows military success:
dealing with the underlying conditions that allowed violent extremism to flourish in the first place.
We will work with our partners to prioritize diplomatic, law enforcement, and intelligence tools, to reinforce our objectives instead of distorting them.
Democrats believe that our rhetoric, policies, and tactics—and those of our counterterrorism partners—should never serve as terrorist recruiting tools.
We will always work to avoid civilian casualties,
and we will not weaponize counterterrorism for anti-immigrant purposes.
We will reject the targeting of Muslim, Arab, and other racial and ethnic communities based on their faith and backgrounds at home and abroad.
We will close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay,
enhance transparency, oversight, and accountability in counterterrorism programs and operations,
and safeguard civil liberties
and the rule of law.
Democracy and Human Rights
Around the world, democracy and human rights are under greater assault than they have been in a generation.
Under President Trump, the United States has too often been part of the assault and too rarely engaged in the defense and promotion of universal values.
Democrats believe that the fight for universal values should start at home, but it can’t end there.
Global democratic backsliding
and the erosion of human rights put our interests and values at risk.
That’s why the reinvention of American leadership demands we put democratic values at the core of our foreign policy,
with renewed strategies and tools for a new era.
Democrats will make gender equality a key foreign policy priority
and work to achieve gender parity across our national security team.
We will implement the Women, Peace, and Security Act because advancing gender equality enhances stability and economic prosperity around the world.
Along with our diplomatic partners, we will incorporate more women into peace processes
—where their participation can improve the odds of a peace agreement holding—
and ensure women’s leadership in peace and security processes globally.
Democrats will lead international efforts to address the scourge of gender-based violence,
and we will work to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
We will push for greater participation by women in the global workforce, which studies show can boost global GDP by 25 percent.
Democrats will always protect sexual and reproductive health and rights.
We believe that comprehensive health services, including access to reproductive care and abortion services, are vital to the empowerment of women and girls.
We will support the repeal of the global gag rule (also known as the Mexico City Policy) and measures like the Helms Amendment, which limit safe access to abortion.
We will also restore and expand American contributions to the United Nations Population Fund to help guarantee access to health care for women and children around the world
and eliminate child, early, and forced marriage.
Democrats will advance the ability of all persons to live with dignity, security, and respect, regardless of who they are or who they love.
We will restore the United States’ position of leadership on LGBTQ+ issues by passing the GLOBE Act
and appointing senior leaders directly responsible for driving and coordinating LGBTQ+ issues at the State Department, USAID, and the National Security Council.
We will ensure that our immigration policies account for the needs of LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers,
and that we use the full slate of human rights promotion and accountability tools to defend the universal rights of LGBTQ+ people.
We will amplify the voices of LGBTQ+ persons around the world
and counter violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons wherever it appears.
Democrats will stand up for and support civil society around the world.
Crackdowns on civic space in recent years have undermined democracy, the rule of law, and the vibrancy and health of societies.
As autocrats leverage technology and employ arbitrary legal measures to shrink civic space, the United States should lead the world in adapting and bolstering support for civic activism.
Democrats believe that the United States should defend freedom of the press.
Independent media is not the enemy of the people, but the guardian of democracy.
We will push back against erosion of press freedom wherever it occurs and in whatever form—whether through direct intimidation of, and violence against, journalists
or legal, regulatory, and financial pressures that smother free speech.
We will fight human trafficking
and strive to end the practice of modern-day slavery around the world.
We will aggressively leverage U.S. law enforcement
and strengthen diplomatic efforts
to combat forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
And we will increase visas for victims of human trafficking at a time when mass migration has affected so many vulnerable communities.
Democrats believe that improving labor standards around the world protects human rights
and promotes broad-based prosperity.
We will ensure that America’s diplomatic and trade agreements include enforcement provisions for workers’ rights,
and we will fight to end the evils of poverty-wage, child, and slave labor.
We believe that American workers should not be undercut by foreign competition that relies on the abuse of workers,
and we will support the rights of unions and workers abroad to organize,
including International Labor Organization Conventions supporting freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Democrats believe that America should be a world leader when it comes to disability rights.
We will work to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
and we will appoint a Special Envoy for International Disability Rights.
Across American diplomatic and development efforts, we will ensure that programs are disability-inclusive,
and we will encourage partner countries and international organizations to address the needs of persons with disabilities.
Democrats believe that freedom of religion and the right to believe—or not to believe—are fundamental human rights.
We will never use protection of that right as a cover for discrimination.
We reject the politicization of religious freedom in American foreign policy,
and we condemn atrocities against religious minorities around the world—from ISIS’ genocide of Christians and Yezidis, to China’s mass internment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, to Burma’s persecution of the Rohingya, to attacks on religious minorities in Northeast Syria.
Democrats believe that the United States should serve as a model for countries around the world when it comes to safeguarding and promoting the rights of Indigenous peoples.
We will reaffirm the Obama-Biden Administration's support for, and strive to advance the principles of, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Consistent with the Declaration, the United States should urge the United Nations and the Organization of American States to create mechanisms that include the formal participation of Tribal nations.
Democrats will work to secure a better future for younger generations.
Roughly 40 percent of the world’s population is under 25, and the proportion of young people is even higher in the developing world.
Democrats will ensure that our policies, and those of our partners and development institutions, work to increase economic opportunities,
expand education,
and improve health care for young people around the world.
And we will pay special attention to protecting the rights of youth
and nurturing young leaders from vulnerable or underrepresented communities.
Democrats believe that the United States has an urgent, moral obligation and strategic interest to help alleviate suffering around the globe.
Entrenched conflicts and unprecedented levels of forced migration have pushed the world into an acute humanitarian crisis that spills across borders.
This year, almost 170 million people are going to need humanitarian assistance.
By 2022 that figure could top 200 million, and need is poised to continue outstripping growth in humanitarian funding and capacity.
Democrats will reassert America’s humanitarian example and leadership.
We will contribute not just more aid, but better aid.
The United States ought to drive the international community in providing more strategic, coordinated, proactive, predictable, and cost-effective funding
—and in implementing programs that both reflect the realities of today’s increasingly complex and protracted humanitarian emergencies,
and deliver on the health,
education,
and protection needs of populations devastated by conflict and displacement.
In the midst of the worst forced displacement crisis since WWII, the Trump Administration launched a campaign to undermine the global system that provides crucial assistance to refugees and the countries that give them safe harbor.
Democrats will end the Trump Administration’s shameful efforts to close doors to the world’s most vulnerable.
We will reverse discriminatory bans and policies that deny protection to groups based on their religion, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
We will significantly raise the annual global refugee admissions target,
and work with Congress to create a minimum annual number for refugee admissions,
while expanding and identifying new pathways for refugees to seek safe havens.
Admitting refugees is not only the right thing to do —it’s the smart thing to do.
Bringing in those seeking a better life helps preserve the stability of America’s partners abroad,
strengthens our hand in getting other countries to uphold their obligations,
grows our own economy,
and enriches our society.
Democrats believe that torture is immoral and ineffective.
President Trump’s fondness for torture and other war crimes only gives fodder to America’s enemies.
Democrats will immediately reaffirm the Obama-Biden Administration’s ban on torture
and commit to upholding American values at home and abroad.
We will condemn the mistreatment of imprisoned individuals wherever it occurs,
and we will hold to account those who perpetrate human rights abuses.
Advancing American Interests
Global Economy and Trade
Democrats will fight for every American job
and will make sure American workers have a fair shot in the global economy.
For too long, the global trading system has failed to keep its promises to American workers.
Too many corporations have rushed to outsource jobs,
and too many countries have reneged on commitments to be honest and transparent partners.
We will not negotiate any new trade deals before first investing in American competitiveness at home.
We will aggressively enforce existing trade laws and agreements.
And we will insist on strong and enforceable standards for labor,
human rights,
and the environment in any future trade agreements,
so that they build the American middle class,
create jobs,
raise wages,
and strengthen our communities.
We will use all tools at our disposal to take action against countries that steal American intellectual property
or manipulate their currencies to get an unfair advantage in international markets.
Democrats believe that if the United States does not work with its allies and partners to shape the terms of global trade, China will shape them for us
—and American working families and the middle class will pay the price.
That’s why we will work with our allies to mobilize more than half the world’s economy to stand up to China and negotiate from the strongest possible position.
Democrats believe that fighting for American workers also means pushing back against global corruption,
and we will make anti-corruption a priority in our foreign policy.
The Trump Administration’s own shady dealings and its enthusiasm for authoritarianism abroad have only emboldened the world’s autocrats and kleptocrats.
Democrats will implement new transparency measures aimed at preventing illicit money from flowing through the American financial system,
including a ban on anonymous shell companies,
expansions of anti-money laundering requirements,
disclosure of beneficial ownership,
and greater oversight of cross-border transactions.
We will combat bribery abroad by expanding on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,
and we will deploy the full range of America’s diplomatic and economic tools to target kleptocrats —including targeted sanctions and visa bans.
When used strategically—as one of the tools employed, alongside our allies, to achieve clear policy objectives—financial and economic sanctions are an effective way to advance many core U.S. national security objectives.
But when misused and overused, sanctions not only undermine our interests,
they threaten one of the United States’ greatest strategic assets: the importance of the American financial system.
Democrats will guard against the improper application of economic and financial sanctions that incentivize foreign businesses to bypass our financial system,
corrode the power and potential of sanctions,
undercut the potential of our diplomacy,
hurt our economy,
and threaten the key role of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
Africa
Democrats will revitalize our partnerships across Africa
to unleash enormous potential for growth and innovation
and address together challenges and stresses across the continent.
Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Its population will roughly double to more than two billion by the middle of this century,
and Nigeria is projected to have the third largest population in the world.
American diplomacy can play a critical role in helping ensure that the region’s vulnerabilities to climate change and pandemic disease—and persistent challenges of regional conflict, illicit financial flows, poor governance, and food, water, and health insecurity—do not overwhelm its enormous opportunities.
At a moment when U.S.-Africa ties are increasingly important to our interests and our economy,
and when our friends and rivals are investing more resources and diplomatic attention across the continent,
the Trump Administration has treated Africa and its people with neglect and contempt.
We will repair our relationships with African partners and publics,
renewing our commitment to fight for democracy
and human rights;
advance peace
and security;
bolster economic growth
and public health;
and promote clean energy,
sustainable agriculture,
environmental protection,
and decent work for all
with special regard for youth and women.
Democrats will recommit to the Obama-Biden Administration’s National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking
and ban importation into the United States of hunting trophies from Africa’s iconic and endangered big cats.
Democrats will seize opportunities to strengthen fragile political transitions in Sudan and Ethiopia while deepening relations with key partners.
We will not shirk from our longstanding pledge to assist countries in Central Africa, the Sahel, and the Horn of Africa to counter extremism
and address root causes of insecurity.
We will support the implementation of the African Union’s African Continental Free Trade Agreement and its Agenda 2063
and promote a multi-faceted economic engagement focused on increasing two-way and regional trade, promoting investment and partnership in key industries.
And we will assist in Africa’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic while expanding efforts to improve the resiliency of health systems across the continent.
Moreover, we will stand in solidarity with our African counterparts against structural racism in the United States and abroad,
and commit to elevate African voices in multilateral forums to solve the world’s most pressing problems.
Americas
Democrats believe the Western Hemisphere is America’s strategic home base —a region bound together by common values, history, and vision of a more prosperous, democratic, and secure future.
When the United States hosts the region’s leaders at next year’s Summit of the Americas—the first to be held here since the 1994 inaugural meeting in Miami—we will turn the page on the Trump Administration’s denigration and extortion of our neighbors,
and we will chart a new era of cooperation based on partnership and shared responsibility for the region we all call home.
Democrats will reaffirm the importance of North America to U.S. global economic competitiveness.
We will ensure the USMCA lives up to its commitment to create prosperity for American workers,
and we will strictly enforce compliance with its labor and environmental provisions.
We will reinvigorate and build upon the North American Plan for Animal and Pandemic Influenza launched under the Obama-Biden Administration
and work with our partners to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused the biggest economic decline in history across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Rather than coerce our neighbors into supporting cruel migration policies, we will work with our regional and international partners to address the root causes of migration—violence and insecurity, weak rule of law, lack of educational and economic opportunity, pervasive corruption, and environmental degradation.
Rather than encourage climate denial and environmental devastation, we will rally the world to protect the Amazon from deforestation,
protect Indigenous peoples,
and help vulnerable nations in the Caribbean and Central America adapt to the impacts of climate change.
And rather than imitate populist demagogues, we will link arms with our neighbors to realize our shared aspirations for the region’s future.
We will reject President Trump’s failed Venezuela policy, which has only served to entrench Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorial regime
and exacerbate a human rights and humanitarian crisis.
To rise to the occasion of the world’s worst refugee crisis and worst humanitarian crisis outside a warzone in decades, the United States will mobilize its partners across the region and around the world to meet the urgent needs of the people of Venezuela,
and grant Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans in the United States.
Democrats believe that the best opportunity to rescue Venezuela’s democracy is through smart pressure and effective diplomacy, not empty, bellicose threats untethered to realistic policy goals and motivated by domestic partisan objectives.
Democrats will also move swiftly to reverse Trump Administration policies that have undermined U.S. national interests
and harmed the Cuban people and their families in the United States,
including its efforts to curtail travel and remittances.
Rather than strengthening the regime, we will promote human rights and people-to-people exchanges,
and empower the Cuban people to write their own future.
Asia-Pacific
As a Pacific power, the United States should work closely with its allies and partners to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values
—and shape the unfolding Pacific Century.
Democrats’ approach to China will be guided by America’s national interests and the interests of our allies,
and draw on the sources of American strength
—the openness of our society,
the dynamism of our economy,
and the power of our alliances to shape and enforce international norms that reflect our values.
Undermining those strengths will not make us “tough on China.”
It would be a gift to the Chinese Communist Party.
Democrats will be clear, strong, and consistent in pushing back where we have profound economic, security, and human rights concerns about the actions of China’s government.
Democrats will protect the American worker from unfair trade practices by the Chinese government,
including currency manipulation
and benefiting from a misaligned exchange rate with the dollar,
illegal subsidies,
and theft of intellectual property.
We will rally friends and allies across the world to push back against China or any other country’s attempts to undermine international norms.
Democrats believe the China challenge is not primarily a military one,
but we will deter and respond to aggression.
We will underscore our global commitment to freedom of navigation
and resist the Chinese military’s intimidation in the South China Sea.
Democrats are committed to the Taiwan Relations Act
and will continue to support a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan.
Rather than stand with President Xi Jinping as he cracks down on Hong Kong’s autonomy, Democrats will stand for the democratic rights of its citizens.
We will fully enforce the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, including by sanctioning officials, financial institutions, companies, and individuals responsible for undercutting Hong Kong’s autonomy.
And we will bring the world together to condemn the internment of more than one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in concentration camps in China, using the tools provided by the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.
Democrats will pursue this strategy without resorting to self-defeating, unilateral tariff wars
or falling into the trap of a new Cold War.
Those mistakes would only serve to exaggerate China’s weight,
over-militarize our policy,
and hurt American workers.
America must approach our relationship with China with confidence —the confidence to lead international efforts to push back on malign behavior
while also pursuing cooperation on issues of mutual interest like climate change
and nonproliferation
and ensuring that the U.S.-China rivalry does not put global stability at risk.
Rather than denigrate our partners and encourage tensions between our allies, the United States will work to strengthen ties with and between our key allies in the region, including Japan, South Korea, and Australia,
and we will work to ensure that our alliances with Thailand and the Philippines live up to the values that our peoples share.
Together with our allies
—and through diplomacy with North Korea —
we will constrain and contain the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program and its regional belligerence.
We will build a sustained, coordinated diplomatic campaign to advance the longer-term goal of denuclearization.
And we will not forget the people of North Korea—
Democrats will support humanitarian aid
and pressure the regime to cease its gross human rights abuses.
We will reinvigorate our commitment to robust engagement with regional multilateral institutions like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
which will help us promote the rule of law
and sustainable, inclusive economic growth on both sides of the Pacific.
And we will continue to invest in our strategic partnership with India—the world’s largest democracy, a nation of great diversity, and a growing Asia-Pacific power.
Europe
In the 30 years since the fall of the Berlin wall, the United States and Europe have strived to build a transatlantic community of free and democratic societies that works together to bring peace, prosperity, and dignity to all our citizens.
The Trump Administration has put that dream in grave danger.
Donald Trump either does not know or has forgotten who America’s friends are.
He sees Europe as a foe—not a friend—of the United States.
He sees Vladimir Putin’s Russia as a strategic partner—not a strategic rival.
He sees anti-European Union, far-right nationalists as political allies—not destructive antagonists.
Democrats, on the other hand, believe a united, democratic, and prosperous Europe is vital to the United States.
We believe the transatlantic alliance is the ballast of our global influence.
Ours is the largest economic relationship in the world, making up nearly half of global GDP.
NATO is the world’s most formidable military alliance.
And together, we stand as champions of universal rights
and freedoms around the world.
Transatlantic cooperation is crucial to addressing almost every global challenge we face.
Democrats will reinvigorate the transatlantic partnership to repair the damage of the Trump era
and preempt the risks of broader structural divergence between the U.S. and Europe.
We will work together with individual European countries and the European Union to counter threats to our democracies
and enhance shared resilience against corruption and kleptocracy.
We will support greater European integration,
stronger defense capabilities,
and greater energy security.
We will enhance our coordination and joint standard setting on technology, trade, and investment,
and we will work to boost our post-COVID-19 economic recovery
and reduce inequality.
Democrats will join our European partners in standing up to a revanchist Russia.
We will not allow Moscow to interfere in our democracies
or chip away at our resolve.
We will reaffirm America’s commitment to NATO
and defending our allies.
We will maintain transatlantic support for Ukraine’s reform efforts and its territorial integrity.
Democrats will lower regional—and global—threats by reinforcing nuclear arms control.
We believe Europe is our natural partner in managing areas of competition with China and will work to establish common priorities, strategies, and tools.
And just as we came together to stand up to communism and respond to global terrorism, we will come together with Europe to confront the existential challenge of climate change.
Middle East
Turning the page on two decades of large-scale military deployments and open-ended wars in the Middle East does not mean the United States will abandon a region where we and our partners still have enduring interests.
Democrats believe it’s past time, however, to rebalance our tools, engagement, and relationships in the Middle East away from military intervention—
leading with pragmatic diplomacy to lay the groundwork for a more peaceful, stable, and free region.
Democrats will call off the Trump Administration’s race to war with Iran
and prioritize nuclear diplomacy, de-escalation, and regional dialogue.
Democrats believe the United States should not impose regime change on other countries
and reject that as the goal of U.S. policy toward Iran.
We believe the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) remains the best means to verifiably cut off all of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear bomb.
The Trump Administration’s unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA isolated us from our allies
and opened the door for Iran to resume its march toward a nuclear weapons capacity that the JCPOA had stopped.
That’s why returning to mutual compliance with the agreement is so urgent.
The nuclear deal was always meant to be the beginning, not the end, of our diplomacy with Iran.
Democrats support a comprehensive diplomatic effort to extend constraints on Iran’s nuclear program
and address Iran’s other threatening activities, including its regional aggression, ballistic missile program, and domestic repression.
Democrats also believe we need to reset our relations with our Gulf partners to better advance our interests and values.
The United States has an interest in helping our partners contend with legitimate security threats;
we will support their political and economic modernization
and encourage efforts to reduce regional tensions.
But we have no interest in continuing the blank-check era of the Trump Administration,
or indulging authoritarian impulses,
internal rivalries,
catastrophic proxy wars,
or efforts to roll back political openings across the region.
Effective relations with the Gulf will help us reconnect Iraq to its neighbors and protect the country’s stability, security, and sovereignty.
Democrats support a small, finite, and focused military presence to train our Iraqi partners so they can ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS.
We also support keeping up the offensive against ISIS in Syria to prevent it from regaining a foothold,
and will stand by Kurdish and other critical partners in that fight.
We will work to repatriate foreign fighter detainees,
and reinvigorate diplomacy to protect the humanitarian needs and human and civil rights of all Syrians
and find a political resolution for this horrific war.
Democrats are deeply concerned by the deepening crisis in Lebanon and are committed to work with the Lebanese people to promote political and economic reform, financial stability, and security.
Democrats believe a strong, secure, and democratic Israel is vital to the interests of the United States.
Our commitment to Israel’s security, its qualitative military edge, its right to defend itself, and the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding is ironclad.
Democrats recognize the worth of every Israeli and every Palestinian.
That’s why we will work to help bring to an end a conflict that has brought so much pain to so many.
We support a negotiated two-state solution that ensures Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state with recognized borders
and upholds the right of Palestinians to live in freedom and security in a viable state of their own.
Democrats oppose any unilateral steps by either side—including annexation—that undermine prospects for two states.
Democrats will continue to stand against incitement and terror.
We oppose settlement expansion.
We believe that while Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations, it should remain the capital of Israel,
an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.
Democrats will restore U.S.-Palestinian diplomatic ties
and critical assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza, consistent with U.S. law.
We oppose any effort to


unfairly single out and delegitimize Israel,
including at the United Nations
or through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement,
while protecting the Constitutional right of our citizens to free speech.
Preamble
With this platform, we the Republican Party reaffirm the principles that unite us in a common purpose.
We believe in American exceptionalism.
We believe the United States of America is unlike any other nation on earth.
We believe America is exceptional because of our historic role
— first as refuge,
then as defender,
and now as exemplar of liberty for the world to see.
We affirm — as did the Declaration of Independence: that all are created equal, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We believe in the Constitution as our founding document.
We believe the Constitution was written not as a flexible document, but as our enduring covenant.
We believe our constitutional system — limited government, separation of powers, federalism, and the rights of the people — must be preserved uncompromised for future generations.
We believe political freedom and economic freedom are indivisible.
When political freedom and economic freedom are separated — both are in peril; when united, they are invincible.
We believe that people are the ultimate resource
— and that the people, not the government, are the best stewards of our country's God-given natural resources.
As Americans and as Republicans we wish for peace
— so we insist on strength.
We will make America safe.
We seek friendship with all peoples and all nations,
but we recognize and are prepared to deal with evil in the world.
Based on these principles, this platform is an invitation and a roadmap.
It invites every American to join us and shows the path to a stronger, safer, and more prosperous America.
This platform is optimistic because the American people are optimistic.
This platform lays out — in clear language — the path to making America great and united again.
For the past 8 years America has been led in the wrong direction.
Our economy has become unnecessarily weak with stagnant wages.
People living paycheck to paycheck are struggling, sacrificing, and suffering.
Americans have earned and deserve a strong and healthy economy.
Our standing in world affairs has declined significantly — our enemies no longer fear us and our friends no long trust us.
People want and expect an America that is the most powerful and respected country on the face of the earth.
The men and women of our military remain the world's best.
The have been shortchanged in numbers, equipment, and benefits by a Commander in Chief who treats the Armed Forces and our veterans as a necessary inconvenience.
The President and the Democratic party have dismantled Americans' system of healthcare.
They have replaced it with a costly and complicated scheme that limits choices and takes away our freedom.
The President and the Democratic party have abandoned their promise of being accountable to the American people.
They have nearly doubled the size of the national debt.
They refuse to control our borders
but try to control our schools, farms, businesses, and even our religious institutions.
They have directly attacked the production of American energy
and the industry-related jobs that have sustained families and communities.
The President has been regulating to death a free market economy that he does not like and does not understand.
He defies the laws of the United States by refusing to enforce those with which he does not agree.
And he appoints judges who legislate from the bench rather than apply the law.
We, as Republicans and Americans, cannot allow this to continue.
That is why the many sections of this platform affirm our trust in the people, our faith in their judgment, and our determination to help them take back their country.
This means removing the power from unelected, unaccountable government.
This means relieving the burden and expense of punishing government regulations.
And this means returning to the people and the states the control that belongs to them.
It is the control and the power to make their own decisions about what’s best for themselves and their families and communities.
This platform is many things: A handbook for returning decision-making to the people.
A guide to the constitutional rights of every American.
And a manual for the kind of sustained growth that will bring opportunity to all those on the sidelines of our society.
Every time we sing, "God Bless America,” we are asking for help.
We ask for divine help that our country can fulfill its promise.
We earn that help by recommitting ourselves to the ideas and ideals that are the true greatness of America
Restoring the American Dream
Rebuilding the Economy and Creating Jobs
We are the party of a growing economy that gives everyone a chance in life, an opportunity to learn, work, and realize the prosperity freedom makes possible.
Government cannot create prosperity, though government can limit or destroy it.
Prosperity is the product of self-discipline, enterprise, saving and investment by individuals, but it is not an end in itself.
Prosperity provides the means by which citizens and their families can maintain their independence from government,
raise their children by their own values,
practice their faith,
and build communities of cooperation and mutual respect.
It is also the foundation for our nation's global leadership,
for it is the vigor of our economy which makes possible our military strength and our national security.
Pundits and Democrats tell us that we should accept the new normal of a slow-growing economy.
The consequences are too dire to ever accept that:
President Obama and his party will set a record of being the first modern president ever to leave office without a single calendar year of three percent economic growth.
As a result, the number of Americans living in poverty has increased by 7 million,
our nation's economy has lost nearly $8 trillion of cumulative output compared with an average recovery,
and the economic growth shortfall has left a cumulative real after-tax per person personal income shortfall of nearly $17,000 compared with an average recovery.
Under President Obama and the Democrats, new private-sector jobs are three million below where they should have been with just average modern post-recession growth.
Our labor force participation rate has plunged to at or below 63 percent for far too long, lows last seen two generations ago before President Reagan was elected in 1980.
Business closures have exceeded business startups throughout the Obama Presidency.
Strong growth, more jobs, increasing incomes, and expanding opportunity are all in short supply under President Obama and the Democrats.
We repudiate the absurd idea this is the best America can do.
The American people rejected that nonsense the last time it was offered, in the historic election of 1980,
and we ask them to join us now to again repudiate the false gospel of America's di- minishment and retreat.
We offer instead our vision of an opportunity society based on the economics of inclusion.
Fair and Simple Taxes for Growth
Republicans consider the establishment of a pro-growth tax code a moral imperative.
More than any other public policy, the way government raises revenue — how much, at what rates, under what circumstances, from whom, and for whom — has the greatest impact on our economy's performance.
It powerfully influences the level of economic growth and job creation,
which translates into the level of opportunity for those who would otherwise be left behind.
Getting our tax system right will be the most important factor in driving the entire economy back to prosperity.
The current tax code is rightly the object of both anger and mockery.
Its length is exceeded only by its complexity.
We must start anew.
That will be an enormous undertaking and, if it is to succeed, it must command the attention and approval of the American people.
It cannot be engineered from the top down,
but must have a common sense approach, and be simplified.
Our proposal is straightforward.
Wherever tax rates penalize thrift or discourage investment, they must be lowered.
Wherever current provisions of the code are disincentives for economic growth, they must be changed.
We will not divide the American people into winners and losers.
We will eliminate as many special interest provisions and loopholes as possible and curb corporate welfare,
especially where their erosion of the tax base has created pressure for higher rates.
We will be mindful of the burdens on families with children
and the impact on an aging population.
We will seek simplicity and clarity so that every taxpayer can understand how much of their income is consumed by the federal government.
We will welcome all to this enterprise — to discuss, debate, challenge, and amend —
so that together we can restore economic growth for the American people
and, even more important, renew their faith in the future.
Our Tax Principles
To ensure that past abuses will not be repeated, we assert these fundamental principles.
We oppose retroactive taxation.
We condemn attempts by activist judges at any level of government to seize the power of the purse from the people's elected representatives by ordering higher taxes.
We oppose tax policies that deliberately divide Americans or promote class warfare.
Because of the vital role of religious organizations, charities, and fraternal benevolent societies in fostering generosity and patriotism,
they should not be subject to taxation and donations to them should remain deductible.
To guard against hypertaxation of the American people in any restructuring of the federal tax system,
any value added tax or national sales tax must be tied to the simultaneous repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment, which established the federal income tax.
A Competitive America
Competitiveness equals jobs.
That equation governs our policies regarding U.S. corporations in the global economy.
Private investment is a key driver of economic growth and job creation.
After falling dramatically during the recession, private investment has recovered at a disappointing pace
due in part to high corporate tax rates
and increasing regulatory burdens and uncertainty.
American businesses now face the world's highest corporate tax rates.
That's like putting lead shoes on your cross-country team.
It reduces companies' ability to compete overseas, encourages them to move abroad, lessens their investment,
cripples job creation here at home, lowers American wages,
and fosters the avoidance of tax liability
— without actually increasing tax revenues.
A more damaging policy is hard to imagine.
We propose to level the international playing field by lowering the corporate tax rate to be on a par with, or below, the rates of other industrial nations.
We endorse the recommendation of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, as well as the current Administration's Export Council, to switch to a territorial system of taxation  so that profits earned and taxed abroad may be repatriated for job-creating investment here at home.
We believe American companies should be headquartered in America.
We should reduce barriers to accomplishing that goal.
A Winning Trade Policy
International trade is crucial for all sectors of America's economy.
Massive trade deficits are not.
We envision a worldwide multilateral agreement among nations committed to the principles of open markets, what has been called a “Reagan Economic Zone,” in which free trade will truly be fair trade for all concerned.
We need better negotiated trade agreements that put America first.
When trade agreements have been carefully negotiated with friendly democracies, they have resulted in millions of new jobs here at home supported by our exports.
When those agreements do not adequately protect U.S. interests, U.S. sovereignty, or when they are violated with impunity, they must be rejected.
We cannot allow foreign governments to limit American access to their markets while stealing our designs, patents, brands, know-how, and technology.
We cannot allow China to continue its currency manipulation, exclusion of U.S. products from government purchases, and subsidization of Chinese companies to thwart American imports.
The current Administration's way of dealing with these violations of world trade standards has been a virtual surrender.
Republicans understand that you can succeed in a negotiation only if you are willing to walk away from it.
A Republican president will insist on parity in trade
and stand ready to implement countervailing duties if other countries refuse to cooperate.
At the same time, we look to broaden our trade agreements with countries which share our values and commitment to fairness,
along with transparency in our commercial and business practices.
In pursuing that objective, the American people demand transparency, full disclosure,
protection of our national sovereignty, and tough negotiation on the part of those who are supposed to advance the interests of U.S. workers.
Significant trade agreements should not be rushed or undertaken in a Lame Duck Congress.
Freeing Financial Markets
The Republican vision for American banking calls for establishing transparent, efficient markets where consumers can obtain loans they need at reasonable rates based on market conditions.
Unfortunately, in response to the financial institutions crisis of 2008-2009, the Democratic-controlled Congress enacted the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, otherwise known as Dodd-Frank.
They did not let the crisis go to waste but used it as an excuse to establish unprecedented government control over the nation's financial markets.
The consequences have been bad for everyone except federal regulators.
Rather than address the cause of the crisis — the government's own housing policies
— the new law extended government control over the economy by creating new unaccountable bureaucracies.
Predictably, central planning of our financial sector has not created jobs, it has killed them.
It has not limited risks, it has created more.
It has not encouraged economic growth, it has shackled it.
Since the enactment of Dodd-Frank, the number of community banks has significantly declined,
and the cost and complexity of complying with the law has created impediments to the remaining banks' ability to support the customers they serve.
From 13,000 community banks in 1985, only 1,900 remain.
Still, the majority of agricultural loans and small business loans are made by community banks.
From start-ups foregone to home loans not made, Dodd-Frank’s excessive regulation and burdensome requirements have helped contribute to the slow economy we all endure today  under President Obama and the Democrats.
Community banks are essential to ensuring small businesses have easy and affordable access to the capital they need to grow and prosper.
Community banks should be relieved of excessive regulations.
We support removing roadblocks and regulations that prevent access to capital.
The worst of Dodd-Frank is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, deliberately designed to be a rogue agency.
It answers to neither Congress nor the executive,
has its own guaranteed funding outside the appropriations process,
and uses its slush fund to steer settlements to politically favored groups.
Its Director has dictatorial powers unique in the American Republic.
Its regulatory harassment of local and regional banks, the source of most home mortgages and small business loans, advantages big banks
and makes it harder for Americans to buy a home.
Its one-size-fits-all approach to every issue threatens the diversity of the country’s financial system
and would leave us with just a few enormous institutions, as in many European countries.
If the Bureau is not abolished, it should be subjected to congressional appropriation.
In that way, consumer protection in the financial markets can be advanced through measures that are both effective and constitutional.
Any settlements arising from statutory violations by financial institutions must be used to make whole the harmed consumers,
with any remaining proceeds given to the general Treasury.
Diversion of settlement funds to politically- connected parties should be a criminal offense.
Republicans believe that no financial institution is too big to fail.
We support legislation to ensure that the problems of any financial institution can be resolved through the Bankruptcy Code.
We endorse prudent regulation of the banking system to ensure that FDIC-regulated banks are properly capitalized
and taxpayers are protected against bailouts.
We will end the government’s use of disparate impact theory in enforcing anti-discrimination laws with regard to lending.
Responsible Homeownership and Rental Opportunities
Homeownership expands personal liberty,
builds communities,
and helps Americans create wealth.
“The American Dream” is not a stale slogan.
It is the lived reality that expresses the aspirations of all our people.
It means a decent place to live,
a safe place to raise kids,
a welcoming place to retire.
It bespeaks the quiet pride of those who work hard to shelter their family
and, in the process, create caring neighborhoods.
The Great Recession devastated the housing market.
U.S. taxpayers paid billions to rescue Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,
the latter managed and controlled by senior officials from the Carter and Clinton Administrations,
and to cover the losses of the poorly-managed Federal Housing Administration.
Millions lost their homes, millions more lost value in their homes.
More than six million households had to move from homeownership to renting.
Rental costs escalated so that today nearly 12 million families spend more than 50 percent of their incomes just on rent.
The national homeownership rate has sharply fallen
and the rate for minority households and young adults has plummeted.
So many remain unemployed or underemployed,
and for the lucky ones with jobs, rising rents make it harder to save for a mortgage.
There is a growing sense that our national standard of living will never be as high as it was in the past.
We understand that pessimism but do not share it,
for we believe that sound public policies can restore growth to our economy, vigor to the housing market, and hope to those who are now on the margins of prosperity.
Our goal is to advance responsible home- ownership while guarding against the abuses that led to the housing collapse.
We must scale back the federal role in the housing market,
promote responsibility on the part of borrowers and lenders,
and avoid future taxpayer bailouts.
Reforms should provide clear and prudent underwriting standards and guidelines on predatory lending and acceptable lending practices.
Compliance with regulatory standards should constitute a legal safe harbor to guard against opportunistic litigation by trial lawyers.
We call for a comprehensive review of federal regulations,
especially those dealing with the environment,
that make it harder and more costly for Americans to rent, buy, or sell homes.
For nine years, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been in conservatorship and the current Administration and Democrats have prevented any effort to reform them.
Their corrupt business model lets shareholders and executives reap huge profits while the taxpayers cover all loses.
The utility of both agencies should be reconsidered as a Republican administration clears away the jumble of subsidies and controls that complicate and distort home-buying.
The Federal Housing Administration, which provides taxpayer-backed guarantees in the mortgage market, should no longer support high- income individuals,
and the public should not be financially exposed by risks taken by FHA officials.
We will end the government mandates that required Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and federally- insured banks to satisfy lending quotas to specific groups.
Discrimination should have no place in the mortgage industry.
Zoning decisions have always been, and must remain, under local control.
The current Administration is trying to seize control of the zoning process through its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation.
It threatens to undermine zoning laws in order to socially engineer every community in the country.
While the federal government has a legitimate role in enforcing non-discrimination laws,
this regulation has nothing to do with proven or alleged discrimination and everything to do with hostility to the self-government of citizens.
America on the Move
Our country's investments in transportation and other public construction have traditionally been non-partisan.
Everyone agrees on the need for clean water
and safe roads, rail, bridges, ports, and airports.
President Eisenhower established a tradition of Republican leadership in this regard by championing the creation of the interstate highway system.
In recent years, bipartisan cooperation led to major legislation improving the nation's ports and waterways.
Our Republican majority ended the practice of earmarks, which often diverted transportation spending to politically favored projects.
In the current Congress, Republicans have secured the longest reauthorization of the Highway Trust Fund in a decade
and are advancing a comprehensive reform of the Federal Aviation Administration to make flying easier and more secure.
The current Administration has a different approach.
It subordinates civil engineering to social engineering as it pursues an exclusively urban vision of dense housing and government transit.
Its ill-named Livability Initiative is meant to “coerce people out of their cars.”
This is the same mentality that once led Congress to impose by fiat a single maximum speed limit for the entire nation, from Manhattan to Montana.
Our 1980 Republican Platform pledged to repeal that edict.
After the election of Ronald Reagan, we did.
Now we make the same pledge regarding the current problems in transportation policy.
We propose to remove from the Highway Trust Fund programs that should not be the business of the federal government.
More than a quarter of the Fund's spending is diverted from its original purpose.
One fifth of its funds are spent on mass transit,
an inherently local affair that serves only a small portion of the population,
concentrated in six big cities.
Additional funds are used for bike-share programs, sidewalks, recreational trails, landscaping, and historical renovations.
Other beneficiaries of highway money are ferry boats, the federal lands access program, scenic byways, and education initiatives.
These worthwhile enterprises should be funded through other sources.
We propose to phase out the federal transit program
and reform provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act which can delay and drive up costs for transportation projects.
We renew our call for repeal of the Davis-Bacon law,
which limits employment
and drives up construction and maintenance costs
for the benefit of unions.
Recognizing that, over time, additional revenue will be needed to expand the carrying capacity of roads and bridges,
we will remove legal roadblocks to public-private partnership agreements that can save the taxpayers' money and bring outside investment to meet a community's needs.
With most of the states increasing their own funding for transportation,
we oppose a further increase in the federal gas tax.
Although unionization has never been permitted in any government agency concerned with national security, the current Administration has reversed that policy for the Transportation Security Administration.
We will correct that mistake.
Americans understand that, with the threat of terrorism, their travel may encounter delays,
but un- acceptably long lines at security checks can have the same impact as a collapsed bridge or washed out highway.
TSA employees should always be seen as guardians of the public's safety,
not as just another part of the federal workforce.
Amtrak is an extremely expensive railroad for the American taxpayers, who must subsidize every ticket.
The federal government should allow private ventures to provide passenger service in the northeast corridor.
The same holds true with regard to high-speed and intercity rail across the country.
We reaffirm our intention to end federal support for boondoggles like California's high-speed train to nowhere.
Building the Future: Technology
The digital revolution has transformed how we work, learn, sell, shop, socialize — in short, how we live.
Technological change drives our positions with regard to STEM education,
business and corporate involvement with educational certifications,
workforce issues,
privacy,
cyber and national security,
energy development,
regulation,
and other elements of our campaign for growth and jobs.
It is why we propose to simplify the tax code,
reduce corporate rates,
transition to a territorial system,
and create incentives for investment and innovation.
We envision government at all levels as a partner with individuals and industries in technological progress,
not a meddlesome monitor.
We want to create a business climate that rewards risk and promotes innovation,
a learning system that gives Americans the skills needed to seize the opportunities of the 21st century,
and an international order that maintains a fair and open global market for America's goods and services.
We intend to advance policies that protect data privacy
while fostering innovation and growth and ensuring the free flow of data across borders.
Together, broadband and good ideas have become the 21st century engines of American ingenuity.
Innovation, by its nature, is disruptive.
In challenging legacy forms of business, innovation creates new jobs, gives access to new markets, opens opportunity to underserved populations, and expands consumer choice.
Government must give America's innovators the freedom to create and, on their merits, succeed or fail.
Our agenda includes balanced protections for intellectual property, explained elsewhere in this document.
We intend to facilitate access to spectrum by paving the way for high-speed, next- generation broadband deployment
and competition on the internet and for internet services.
We want government to encourage the sharing economy and on-demand platforms to compete in an open market,
and we believe public policies should encourage the innovation and competition that are essential for an Internet of Things to thrive.
Government must keep pace with the technology deployed in the private sector.
There is an urgent need to modernize the federal government's legacy systems
and to recruit the skilled technical personnel who can advance the adoption of innovation in the public sector.
At the cost of billions, the current Administration has done little to advance our goal of universal broadband coverage.
That hurts rural America, where farmers, ranchers, and small business people need connectivity to operate in real time with the world's producers.
Almost ten million Americans have given up wired broadband connections in just the last two years alone, and millions more have never been connected in the first place.
We encourage public-private partnerships to provide predictable support for connecting rural areas
so that every American can fully participate in the global economy.
The public-private partnerships between NASA, the Department of Defense, and commercial companies have given us technological progress that has reduced the cost of accessing space
and extended America's space leadership in the commercial, civil, and national security spheres.
The entrepreneurship and innovation culture of the free market is revitalizing the nation's space capabilities,
saving taxpayer money,
and advancing technology critical to maintain America's edge in space and in other fields.
To protect our national security interests
and foster innovation and competitiveness,
we must sustain our preeminence in space by launching more scientific missions,
guaranteeing unfettered access, and ensuring that our space-related industries remain a source of scientific leadership and education.
Building the Future: America’s Electric Grid
Our nation's interstate electric transmission system has long been a catalyst for developing and delivering low cost energy
while spurring economic growth throughout the United States
The grid is aging,
vulnerable to cyber and terrorist threats,
and unprepared to serve our energy needs of tomorrow.
It should not take seven to ten years to plan and construct a transmission line.
We support expedited siting processes and the thoughtful expansion of the grid so that consumers and businesses continue to have access to affordable and reliable electricity.
Start-up Century: Small Business and Entrepreneurship
A central reason why the 20th century came to be called the American Century was the ability of individuals to invent and create in a land of free markets.
Back then they were called risk-takers, dreamers, and small business owners.
Today they are the entrepreneurs, independent contractors, and small business men and women of our new economy.
Their innovation drives improvement and forces long-established institutions to adapt or fade away.
Many of them are so young they remember little if anything of the last century because dynamic progress does not look back.
As in the past, they still create most new jobs and form the commercial network that holds communities together.
Their enterprise is the lifeblood of our economy,
but it is weakening.
More businesses are closing in our country than are starting.
Older firms are an increasing proportion of companies.
Productivity growth has slowed.
This is not the way to jumpstart a new era of growth.
We need to consider the effect of capital gains rates on the availability of venture capital,
as well as the positive impact of expensing on start-up firms.
We should reduce the occupational licensing laws that shut untold millions of potential workers out of entrepreneurial careers.
We must overturn the regulatory nightmare, created by the Dodd- Frank law, for the community banks and savings and loans that provide nearly half of all small- business loans
and over three-quarters of all agricultural loans.
Indeed, the world of the app economy cries out for the comprehensive regulatory reform proposed elsewhere in this platform.
We must challenge established interests and traditional business patterns to facilitate market entry of new business models, i
Including inventive means of transport, delivery, and communication.
As incubators of unconventional thinking, our country's existing research infrastructure — the National Labs, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and elements of the Defense Department —
have the potential to form partnerships with small businesses to create an American Start-Up Century.
The Federal Reserve
Because the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions affect job creation, upward mobility for workers, and equitable prosperity, they should be transparent.
Similarly, the Federal Reserve's important role as a lender of last resort should also be carried out in a more transparent manner.
The Republican Party will advance legislation that brings transparency and accountability to the Federal Reserve, the Federal Open Market Committee, and the Federal Reserve's dealing with foreign banks.
The first step is through an annual audit of the Federal Reserve's activities.
Such an audit would need to be carefully implemented so that the Federal Reserve remains insulated from political pressures
and its decisions are based on sound economic principles and sound money rather than political pressures for easy money and loose credit.
Determined to crush the double-digit inflation that was part of the Carter Administration's economic legacy, President Reagan, shortly after his inauguration, established a commission to consider the feasibility of a metallic basis for U.S. currency.
In 2012, facing the task of cleaning up the wreckage of the current Administration's policies,
we proposed a similar commission to investigate ways to set a fixed value for the dollar.
With Republican leadership, the House of Representatives has passed legislation to set up just such a commission.
We recommend its enactment by the full Congress and the commission's careful consideration of ways to secure the integrity of our currency.
Workplace Freedom for a 21st Century Workforce
The greatest asset of the American economy is the hard-working American.
That is why our first priority is getting people back to work by fostering the kind of growth that creates jobs.
That overarching goal unites all the sections of this platform.
It runs through our commitments on education and workforce development.
It underlies our approach to welfare reform, regulatory reform, and our determination to advance the kind of trade agreements that multiply opportunities for workers here at home.
It also impels us to challenge the anachronistic labor laws that limit workers' freedom and lock them into the workplace rules of their greatgrandfathers.
Instead of facilitating change, the current Administration and its agents at the National Labor Relations Board are determined to reverse it.
They are attacking the franchise model of business development, which is essential to the flexibility and creativity of the new economy.
They are wielding provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act from the 1930s, designed to fit a manufacturing workplace, to deny flexibility to both employers and employees.
They have repealed union transparency rules that allowed members to discover what was being done with their dues.
They have outlawed alternatives to unions
even when they were favored by the workers.
Their Project Labor Agreements discriminate against the overwhelming majority of workers by barring them from jobs on taxpayer-funded projects.
Their patronizing and controlling approach leaves workers in a form of peonage to the NLRB.
We intend to restore fairness and common sense to that agency.
Technology has already created jobs that did not exist fifteen years ago,
and today's workers need flexibility and family-friendly options to make the most of them,
especially portability in pension plans and health insurance.
We intend to encourage those trends by bringing labor law into the 21st century.
It should encourage cooperation between management and workers, not conflict.
All workers, including union members, must be free to accept raises and rewards without veto power from union officials.
All unionized workers should be able to find out what is going on in their union trust funds and in their executive compensation.
We support the right of states to enact Right-to-Work laws and call for a national law to protect the economic liberty of the modern workforce.
All Americans deserve the opportunity to pursue their American dream free from discrimination.
Clear nondiscrimination policies ensure all employees have the chance to succeed based solely on their merits.
These policies are vital to creating an inclusive, innovative, and competitive workforce.
Republicans believe that the employer- employee relationship of the future will be built upon employee empowerment
and workplace flexibility.
We therefore endorse employee stock ownership plans that enable workers to become capitalists,
expand the realm of private property,
and energize a free enterprise economy.
Minimum wage is an issue that should be handled at the state and local level.
A Federal Workforce Serving the People
The federal workforce is larger and more highly paid than ever.
The taxpayers spend an average of $35,000 a year per employee on non-cash benefits, triple the average non-cash compensation of the average worker in the private sector.
Federal employees receive extraordinary pension benefits and vacation time wildly out of line with those of the private sector.
We urge Congress to bring federal compensation and benefits in line with the standards of most American employees.
A Republican administration should streamline personnel procedures to expedite the firing of bad workers, tax cheats, and scammers.
The unionization of the federal workforce, first permitted by Democrat presidents in the 1960s, should be reviewed by the appropriate congressional committees to examine its effects on the cost, quality, and performance of the civil service.
Union representatives in the federal workforce should not be paid to conduct union business on the public's time.
Reducing the Federal Debt
Our national debt is a burden on our economy and families.
The huge increase in the national debt demanded by and incurred during the current Administration has placed a significant burden on future generations.
We must impose firm caps on future debt,
accelerate the repayment of the trillions we now owe in order to reaffirm our principles of responsible and limited government,
and remove the burdens we are placing on future generations.
A strong economy is one key to debt reduction,
but spending restraint is a necessary component that must be vigorously pursued.
A Rebirth of Constitutional Government
We the People
We are the party of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The Declaration sets forth the fundamental precepts of American government:
That God bestows certain inalienable rights on every individual,
thus producing human equality;
that government exists first and foremost to protect those inalienable rights;
that man-made law must be consistent with God-given, natural rights;
and that if God-given, natural, inalienable rights come in conflict with government, court, or human-granted rights, God-given, natural, inalienable rights always prevail;
that there is a moral law recognized as “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God”;
and that American government is to operate with the consent of the governed.
We are also the party of the Constitution, the greatest political document ever written.
It is the solemn compact built upon principles of the Declaration that enshrines our God-given individual rights
and ensures that all Americans stand equal before the law,
defines the purposes and limits of government,
and is the blueprint for ordered liberty that makes the United States the world's freest and most prosperous nation.
We reaffirm the Constitution's fundamental principles: limited government, separation of powers, individual liberty, and the rule of law.
We denounce bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism, ethnic prejudice, and religious intolerance.
Therefore, we oppose discrimination based on race, sex, religion, creed, disability, or national origin and support statutes to end such discrimination.
As the Party of Abraham Lincoln, we must continue to foster solutions to America's difficult challenges when it comes to race relations today.
We continue to encourage equality for all citizens and access to the American Dream.
Merit and hard work should determine advancement in our society,
so we reject unfair preferences, quotas, and set-asides as forms of discrimination.
Our ranks include Americans from every faith and tradition,
and we respect the right of each American to follow his or her deeply held beliefs.
Our Constitution is in crisis.
More than 90 percent of federal requirements are now imposed by regulatory agencies, without any vote of the House or Senate or signature of the President.
The current Administration has exceeded its constitutional authority,
brazenly and flagrantly violated the separation of powers,
sought to divide America into groups and turn citizen against citizen.
The President has refused to defend or enforce laws he does not like,
used executive orders to enact national policies in areas constitutionally reserved solely to Congress,
made unconstitutional “recess” appointments to Senate-confirmed positions,
directed regulatory agencies to overstep their statutory authority,
and failed to consult Congress regarding military action overseas.
He has changed what John Adams called “a government of laws and not of men” into just the opposite.
Democrats in Congress have enabled, supported, and defended each of these breaches.
They have applauded the President's efforts to do an end-run around Congress and stymied Republican efforts to restrain executive lawlessness.
Democrats in Congress have also endorsed an anticonstitutional agenda of their own.
Forty-eight Democratic senators, for instance, voted to amend the Bill of Rights to give government officials control over political speech.
Democrats in Congress have likewise proposed bills that would limit religious liberty,
undermine property rights,
and eviscerate the Second Amendment.
In a free society, the primary role of government is to protect the God-given, inalienable rights of its citizens.
These constitutional rights are not negotiable for any American.
We affirm that all legislation, regulation, and official actions must conform to the Constitution's original meaning as understood at the time the language was adopted.
Our most urgent task as a Party is to restore the American people's faith in their government by electing a president who will enforce duly enacted laws,
honor constitutional limits on executive authority,
and return credibility to the Oval Office.
We need a Republican president who will end abuses of power by departments and agencies, like the IRS and the EPA,
and by the White House itself.
Safeguarding our liberties requires a president who will respect the Constitution's separation of powers,
including the authority of Congress to write legislation and define agency authority.
Americans also deserve a president who will speak for our nation's history and values,
not apologize for them to our enemies.
The Judiciary
The rule of law is the foundation of our Republic.
A critical threat to our country's constitutional order is an activist judiciary that usurps powers properly reserved to the people through other branches of government.
Only a Republican president will appoint judges who respect the rule of law expressed within the Constitution and Declaration of Independence,
including the inalienable right to life
and the laws of nature and nature's God, as did the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
We are facing a national crisis in our judiciary.
We understand that only by electing a Republican president in 2016 will America have the opportunity for up to five new constitutionally-minded Supreme Court justices appointed to fill vacancies on the Court.
Only such appointments will enable courts to begin to reverse the long line of activist decisions
— including Roe, Obergefell, and the Obamacare cases — that have usurped Congress's and states' lawmaking authority,
undermined constitutional protections,
expanded the power of the judiciary at the expense of the people and their elected representatives,
and stripped the people of their power to govern themselves.
We believe in the constitutional checks and balances and that the Founders intended the judiciary to be the weakest branch.
We encourage Congress to use the check of impeachment for judges who unconstitutionally usurp Article I powers.
In tandem with a Republican Senate, a new Republican president will restore to the Court a strong conservative majority that will follow the text and original meaning of the Constitution and our laws.
The legitimate powers of government are rooted in the consent of the American people.
Judicial activism that includes reliance on foreign law or unratified treaties undermines American sovereignty.
Foreign laws and precedents should not be used to interpret our Constitution or laws,
nor should foreign sources of law be used in state courts’ adjudication of criminal or civil matters.
We also affirm the wisdom of President George Washington’s warning to avoid foreign entanglements and unnecessary alliances.
We therefore oppose the adoption or ratification of treaties that would weaken or encroach upon American sovereignty or that could be construed by courts to do so.
We will not recognize as binding upon the United States any international agreement forged without the constitutionally required assent of two-thirds of the United States Senate.
Administrative Law
Article I of the Constitution directs that "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States....”
For more than a century, however, Congress has delegated increasing amounts of legislative authority to executive departments, agencies, and commissions, laying the foundation for today’s vast administrative state.
Unelected bureaucrats in the executive branch now write countless rules with the force of law and arbitrarily punish individuals who disobey those rules.
The Constitution makes clear that these powers were granted to Congress by the people and must therefore remain solely with the people’s elected representatives.
We call on Congress to begin reclaiming its constitutional powers from the bureaucratic state by requiring that major new federal regulations be approved by Congress before they can take effect, such as through the Regulation Freedom Amendment.
We further affirm that courts should interpret laws as written by Congress rather than allowing executive agencies to rewrite those laws to suit administration priorities.
Defending Marriage Against an Activist Judiciary
Traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values.
We condemn the Supreme Court's ruling in United States v. Windsor, which wrongly removed the ability of Congress to define marriage policy in federal law.
We also condemn the Supreme Court's lawless ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which in the words of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, was a “judicial Putsch” — full of “silly extravagances” — that reduced “the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Storey to the mystical aphorisms of a fortune cookie.”
In Obergefell, five unelected lawyers robbed 320 million Americans of their legitimate constitutional authority to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The Court twisted the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment beyond recognition.
To echo Scalia, we dissent.
We, therefore, support the appointment of justices and judges who respect the constitutional limits on their power
and respect the authority of the states to decide such fundamental social questions.
The First Amendment: Religious Liberty
The Bill of Rights lists religious liberty, with its rights of conscience, as the first freedom to be protected.
Religious freedom in the Bill of Rights protects the right of the people to practice their faith in their everyday lives.
As George Washington taught, “religion and morality are indispensable supports” to a free society.
Similarly, Thomas Jefferson declared that “No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.”
Ongoing attempts to compel individuals, businesses, and institutions of faith to transgress their beliefs are part of a misguided effort to undermine religion and drive it from the public square.
As a result, many charitable religious institutions that have demonstrated great success in helping the needy have been barred from receiving government grants and contracts.
Government officials threaten religious colleges and universities with massive fines and seek to control their personnel decisions.
Places of worship for the first time in our history have reason to fear the loss of tax-exempt status
merely for espousing and practicing traditional religious beliefs that have been held across the world for thousands of years, and for almost four centuries in America.
We value the right of America’s religious leaders to preach, and Americans to speak freely, according to their faith.
Republicans believe the federal government, specifically the IRS, is constitutionally prohibited from policing or censoring speech based on religious convictions or beliefs,
and therefore we urge the repeal of the Johnson Amendment.
We pledge to defend the religious beliefs and rights of conscience of all Americans
and to safeguard religious institutions against government control.
We endorse the First Amendment Defense Act, Republican legislation in the House and Senate which will bar government discrimination against individuals and businesses for acting on the belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.
This Act would protect the non-profit tax status of faith-based adoption agencies,
the accreditation of religious educational institutions,
the grants and contracts of faith-based charities and small businesses,
and the licensing of religious professions —
all of which are under assault by elements of the Democratic Party.
We encourage every state to pass similar legislation.
We likewise endorse the efforts of Republican state legislators and governors who have defied intimidation from corporations and the media in defending religious liberty.
We support laws to confirm the longstanding American tradition that religious individuals and institutions can educate young people, receive government benefits, and participate in public debates without having to check their religious beliefs at the door.
Our First Amendment rights are not given to us by the government but are rights we inherently possess.
The government cannot use subsequent amendments to limit First Amendment rights.
The Free Exercise Clause is both an individual and a collective liberty protecting a right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience.
Therefore, we strongly support the freedom of Americans to act in accordance with their religious beliefs,
not only in their houses of worship, but also in their everyday lives.
We support the right of the people to conduct their businesses in accordance with their religious beliefs
and condemn public officials who have proposed boycotts against businesses that support traditional marriage.
We pledge to protect those business owners who have been subjected to hate campaigns, threats of violence, and other attempts to deny their civil rights.
We support the public display of the Ten Commandments as a reflection of our history and our country's Judeo-Christian heritage
and further affirm the rights of religious students to engage in voluntary prayer at public school events and to have equal access to school facilities.
We assert the First Amendment right of freedom of association for religious, private, service, and youth organizations to set their own membership standards.
The First Amendment: Constitutionally Protected Speech
The rights of citizenship do not stop at the ballot box.
Freedom of speech includes the right to devote resources to whatever cause or candidate one supports.
We oppose any restrictions or conditions that would discourage citizens from participating in the public square or limit their ability to promote their ideas,
such as requiring private organizations to publicly disclose their donors to the government.
Limits on political speech serve only to protect the powerful and insulate incumbent officeholders.
We support repeal of federal restrictions on political parties in McCain-Feingold,
raising or repealing contribution limits,
protecting the political speech of advocacy groups, corporations, and labor unions,
and protecting political speech on the internet.
We likewise call for an end to the so-called Fairness Doctrine,
and support free-market approaches to free speech unregulated by government.
We believe the forced funding of political candidates through union dues and other mandatory contributions violates the First Amendment.
Just as Americans have a First Amendment right to devote resources to favored candidates or views, they have a First Amendment right not to be forced to individually support individuals or ideologies that they oppose.
We agree with Thomas Jefferson that “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
The Second Amendment: Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms
We uphold the right of individuals to keep and bear arms, a natural inalienable right that predates the Constitution and is secured by the Second Amendment.
Lawful gun ownership enables Americans to exercise their God-given right of selfdefense for the safety of their homes, their loved ones, and their communities.
We salute the Republican Congress for defending the right to keep and bear arms by preventing the President from installing a new liberal majority on the Supreme Court.
The confirmation to the Court of additional anti-gun justices would eviscerate the Second Amendment's fundamental protections.
Already, local officials in the nation's capital and elsewhere are defying the Court's decisions upholding an individual right to bear arms as affirmed by the Supreme Court in Heller and McDonald.
We support firearm reciprocity legislation to recognize the right of law-abiding Americans to carry firearms to protect themselves and their families in all 50 states.
We support constitutional carry statutes and salute the states that have passed them.
We oppose ill-conceived laws that would restrict magazine capacity or ban the sale of the most popular and common modern rifle.
We also oppose any effort to deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms without due process of law.
We condemn frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturers and the current Administration's illegal harassment of firearm dealers.
We oppose federal licensing or registration of law-abiding gun owners, registration of ammunition, and restoration of the ill-fated Clinton gun ban.
We call for a thorough investigation — by a new Republican administration — of the deadly “Fast and Furious” operation perpetrated by Department of Justice officials who approved and allowed illegal sales of guns to known violent criminals.
The Fourth Amendment: Liberty and Privacy
Affirming the Fourth Amendment “right of the people to be secure in their houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,”
we call for strict limitations on the use of aerial surveillance on U.S. soil,
with the exception of patrolling our national borders for illegal entry and activity.
We oppose any attempts by government to require surveillance devices in our daily lives, including tracking devices in motor vehicles.
In recent years, technology companies have responded to market demand for products and services that protect the privacy of customers through increasingly sophisticated encryption technology.
These increased privacy protections have become crucial to the digital economy.
At the same time, however, such innovations have brought new dangers, especially from criminals and terrorists who seek to use encryption technology to harm us.
No matter the medium, citizens must retain the right to communicate with one another free from unlawful government intrusion.
It will not be easy to balance privacy rights with the government's legitimate need to access encrypted information.
This issue is too important to be left to the courts.
A Republican president and a Republican Congress must listen to the American people and forge a consensus solution.
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Foreign Bank and Asset Reporting Requirements result in government's warrantless seizure of personal financial information without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.
Americans overseas should enjoy the same rights as Americans residing in the United States, whose private financial information is not subject to disclosure to the government except as to interest earned.
The requirement for all banks around the world to provide detailed information to the IRS about American account holders outside the United States has resulted in banks refusing service to them.
Thus, FATCA not only allows “unreasonable search and seizures” but also threatens the ability of overseas Americans to lead normal lives.
We call for its repeal and for a change to residency-based taxation for U.S. citizens overseas.
The Fifth Amendment: Protecting Human Life
The Constitution's guarantee that no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property” deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence's proclamation that “all” are “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable right to life.
Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.
We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to children before birth.
We oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion or to fund organizations, like Planned Parenthood,
so long as they provide or refer for elective abortions or sell fetal body parts rather than provide healthcare.
We urge all states and Congress to make it a crime to acquire, transfer, or sell fetal tissues from elective abortions for research,
and we call on Congress to enact a ban on any sale of fetal body parts.
In the meantime, we call on Congress to ban the practice of misleading women on so-called fetal harvesting consent forms, a fact revealed by a 2015 investigation.
We will not fund or subsidize healthcare that includes abortion coverage.
We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life.
We oppose the non-consensual withholding or withdrawal of care or treatment, including food and water, from individuals with disabilities, newborns, the elderly, or the infirm, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide.
We affirm our moral obligation to assist, rather than penalize, women who face an unplanned pregnancy.
In order to encourage women who face an unplanned pregnancy to choose life,
we support legislation that requires financial responsibility for the child be equally borne by both the mother and father upon conception until the child reaches adulthood.
Failure to require a father to be equally responsible for a child places an inequitable burden on the mother,
creating a financial and social hardship on both mother and child.
We celebrate the millions of Americans who open their hearts, homes, and churches to mothers in need and women fleeing abuse.
We thank and encourage providers of counseling, medical services, and adoption assistance for empowering women experiencing an unintended pregnancy to choose life.
We support funding for ultrasounds and adoption assistance.
We salute the many states that now protect women and girls through laws requiring informed consent, parental consent, waiting periods, and clinic regulation.
We condemn the Supreme Court's activist decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt striking down commonsense Texas laws providing for basic health and safety standards in abortion clinics.
We applaud the U.S. House of Representatives for leading the effort to add enforcement to the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act by passing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,
which imposes appropriate civil and criminal penalties on healthcare providers who fail to provide treatment and care to an infant who survives an abortion, including early induction delivery whether the death of the infant is intended.
We strongly oppose infanticide.
Over a dozen states have passed Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Acts prohibiting abortion after twenty weeks, the point at which current medical research shows that unborn babies can feel excruciating pain during abortions, and we call on Congress to enact the federal version.
Not only is it good legislation, but it enjoys the support of a majority of the American people.
We support state and federal efforts against the cruelest forms of abortion, especially dismemberment abortion procedures, in which unborn babies are literally torn apart limb from limb.
We call on Congress to ban sex-selection abortions and abortions based on disabilities — discrimination in its most lethal form.
We oppose embryonic stem cell research.
We oppose federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
We support adult stem cell research and urge the restoration of the national placental stem cell bank created by President George H.W. Bush
but abolished by his Democrat successor, President Bill Clinton.
We oppose federal funding for harvesting embryos and call for a ban on human cloning.
The Democratic Party is extreme on abortion.
Democrats' almost limitless support for abortion, and their strident opposition to even the most basic restrictions on abortion,
put them dramatically out of step with the American people.
Because of their opposition to simple abortion clinic safety procedures, support for taxpayer-funded abortion, and rejection of pregnancy resource centers that provide abortion alternatives,
the old Clinton mantra of “safe, legal, and rare” has been reduced to just “legal.”
We are proud to be the party that protects human life and offers real solutions for women.
The Fifth Amendment: Protecting Private Property
The Framers of our government knew, from history and experience,
that when private property is not secure, freedom is at risk.
That is why the Fifth Amendment declares that private property may not be “taken for public use without just compensation.”
The Supreme Court's Kelo decision undermined this safeguard by allowing local governments to seize a person's home or land not only for vital public use, but also for “public purpose,”
which thus allowed the government to seize it for transfer to private developers or other private entities.
We call on any state legislatures that have not already done so to nullify the impact of Kelo within their jurisdiction by legislation or state constitutional amendments declaring that private property may be taken only for true public use,
and we join House Republicans in supporting the Private Property Rights Protection Act.
The government at every level must always pay just compensation whenever it takes private property to achieve a compelling public use,
with the money coming from the budget of the agency performing the taking.
This includes the taking of water rights and the taking of property by environmental regulations that destroy or diminish the property's value.
Civil asset forfeiture was originally intended as a way to cripple organized crime through the seizure of property used in a criminal enterprise.
Regrettably, it has become a tool for unscrupulous law enforcement officials,
acting without due process,
to profit by destroying the livelihood of innocent individuals,
many of whom never recover the lawful assets taken from them.
When the rights of the innocent can be so easily violated, no one's rights are safe.
We call on Congress and state legislatures to enact reforms to protect law-abiding citizens against abusive asset forfeiture tactics.
The Fifth Amendment: Intellectual Property Rights
Private property includes not only physical property such as lands and homes, but also intellectual property like books and patents.
Article 1, section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to safeguard intellectual property rights for “Authors and Inventors.”
By protecting the proprietary rights of creators and innovators, the Constitution promotes the general welfare by providing incentives for investment in all sorts of technology
and artistic works.
Intellectual property is a driving force in today's global economy of constant innovation.
It is the wellspring of American economic growth and job creation.
With the rise of the digital economy, it has become even more critical that we protect intellectual property rights
and preserve freedom of contract rather than create regulatory barriers to creativity, growth, and innovation.
Protecting intellectual property is also a national security issue.
We must guard against counterfeit parts that can compromise the reliability of our weapons systems
and the safety of military personnel.
Today, the worst offenses against intellectual property rights come from abroad, especially in China.
We call for strong action by Congress and a new Republican president to enforce intellectual property laws against all infringers, whether foreign or domestic.
The Ninth Amendment: The People’s Retained Rights
The Ninth Amendment to the Constitution declares that “[t]he enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
This provision codifies the principle that our national government derives its power from the governed and that all powers not delegated to the government are retained by the people.
We call upon legislators to give full force to this fundamental principle.
We welcome to our ranks all citizens who are determined to reclaim the rights of the people that have been ignored or usurped by the federal and intrusive state governments.
The Tenth Amendment: Federalism as the Foundation of Personal Liberty
Federalism is a cornerstone of our constitutional system.
Every violation of state sovereignty by federal officials is not merely a transgression of one unit of government against another;
it is an assault on the liberties of individual Americans.
Hence the promise of the Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The Constitution gives the federal government very few powers, and they are specifically enumerated;
the states and the people retain authority over all unenumerated powers.
In obedience to that principle, we condemn the current Administration’s unconstitutional expansion into areas beyond those specifically enumerated,
including bullying of state and local governments in matters ranging from voter identification (ID) laws, to immigration, from healthcare programs to land use decisions,
and from forced education curricula to school restroom policies.
We pledge to restore the proper balance and vertical separation of powers between the federal government and state governments
- the governments closest to, and most reflective of, the American people.
We encourage states to reinvigorate their traditional role as the laboratories of democracy,
propelling the nation forward through local and state innovation.
Big government undermines federalism through more than 1,100 grants-in-aid programs that consume more than one-sixth of the federal budget
for matters that should be the exclusive responsibility of the states.
Through these programs, money originating from state taxpayers is returned to the states,
usually greatly reduced, with myriad strings attached.
These grants turn state and local elected officials into agents of the federal government.
The web of conditions and regulations —
especially the requirement of matching funds that comes with federal grants -
transforms recipients into appendages of the Washington bureaucracy.
We call upon Congress to help a Republican president to reduce and ultimately eliminate this system of conditioned grants
so that state and local taxpayers can decide for themselves what is best for their own communities.
Honest Elections and the Electoral College
We oppose the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and any other scheme to abolish or distort the procedures of the Electoral College.
An unconstitutional effort to impose National Popular Vote would be a grave threat to our federal system
and a guarantee of corruption, as every ballot box in every state would offer a chance to steal the presidency.
We urge state legislatures that have voted for this proposal to rescind their approval.
Honest Elections and the Right to Vote
Honest elections are the foundation of representative government.
We pledge to protect the voting rights of every citizen,
as well as their rights of conscience when they are harassed or denied a job because of their contributions to a candidate or a cause.
We support state efforts to ensure ballot access for the elderly, the handicapped, military personnel, and all legitimate voters.
We urge state and local officials to take all appropriate steps to allow voters to cast their ballots in a timely manner.
We are concerned, however, that some voting procedures may be open to abuse.
For this reason, we support legislation to require proof of citizenship when registering to vote and secure photo ID when voting.
We strongly oppose litigation against states exercising their sovereign authority to enact such laws.
In addition, to guarantee that everyone’s vote is counted,
we urge that electronic voting systems have a voter-verified paper audit trail.
We urge every state to join the Interstate Voter Registration Cross Check Program to keep voter rolls accurate
and to prevent people from voting in more than one state in the same election.
To guard against foreign involvement in our elections, we call for vigilance regarding online credit card contributions to candidates and campaigns.
The members of our Armed Forces must not be denied the basic rights that they are defending for others.
Our troops, wherever stationed, must be allowed to vote in a timely manner.
We call upon the entire military chain of command to ensure the voting rights of our citizen soldiers.
The Constitution gives Congress authority to conduct the decennial census "in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”
In order to preserve the principle of one person, one vote, we urge our elected representatives to ensure that citizenship,
rather than mere residency, be made the basis for the apportionment of representatives among the states.
America’s Natural Resources: Agriculture, Energy, and the Environment
We are the party of America's growers, producers, farmers, ranchers, foresters, miners, commercial fishermen,
and all those who bring from the earth the crops, minerals, energy, and the bounties of our seas that are the lifeblood of our economy.
Their labor and ingenuity, their determination in bad times and love of the land at all times,
powers our economy,
creates millions of jobs,
and feeds billions of people around the world.
Only a few years ago, a bipartisan consensus in government valued the role of extractive industries
and rewarded their enterprise by minimizing its interference with their work.
That has radically changed.
We look in vain within the Democratic Party for leaders who will speak for the people of agriculture, energy, and mineral production
Abundant Harvests
Agricultural production and exports are central to the Republican agenda for jobs, growth, expanded trade, and prosperity.
Because our farmers and ranchers care for the land,
the United States does not depend on foreign imports for sustenance.
Americans spend a smaller percentage of their income on food than any other nation.
On average, one American farm produces enough food to feed 155 people.
No other nation has been as generous with food aid to the needy.
We have good reason to celebrate our domestic security in food.
We are the largest agricultural exporter in the world,
and our exports are vital for other sectors of our economy.
Those exports drive additional economic growth as each dollar of agricultural exports generates another $1.27 in business activity.
That is why we remain committed to expanding trade opportunities and opening new markets for agriculture.
Under a Republican president, America's trade negotiators will insist that our global trading partners adhere to science-based standards with regard to food and health regulations.
We will not tolerate the use of bogus science and scare tactics to bar our products from foreign markets,
nor will we allow insufficient health and safety standards for products imported for our consumption.
We must also ensure that domestic policies do not compromise our global competitiveness through overregulation and undue interference in the marketplace.
There is growing recognition that federal dairy policies, crafted during the Great Depression, are increasingly an impediment to the ability of our dairy producers to meet the expected doubling in global demand coming by 2030.
We oppose the policies pushed by special interest groups seeking to stop or make more expensive our current system of safe, efficient, and humane production of meat.
Congress has repeatedly had to block the current Administration's draconian rules concerning the marketing of poultry and livestock.
This regulatory impulse must be curbed,
not on a case-by-case basis, but through a fundamental restructuring of the regulatory process.
In the meantime, the intrusive and expensive federal mandates on food options and menu labeling should be ended as soon as possible by a Republican Congress.
We oppose the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food,
which has proven to be safe, healthy, and a literal life-saver for millions in the developing world.
The Democratic Administration's sustained support for additional regulation of agriculture has directly resulted in higher costs of production for those who produce the food we eat.
This federal regulatory overreach has resulted and will continue to result in higher food prices for Americans.
These higher food costs are particularly challenging for those Americans struggling to make ends meet.
Like the rest of the economy, agriculture has suffered through eight years of the Democrats' regulatory juggernaut, particularly from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
States, not Washington bureaucrats, are best equipped to engage farmers and ranchers to develop sound farm oversight policies.
The EPA's Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, issued jointly with the Army Corps of Engineers, is a travesty.
It extends the government's jurisdiction over navigable waters into the micro-management of puddles and ditches on farms, ranches, and other privately-held property.
Ditches, dry creek beds, stock ponds, prairie potholes, and other non- navigable wet areas are already regulated by the states.
WOTUS is now subject to judicial review and must be invalidated,
but that will not be sufficient.
Unelected bureaucrats must be stopped from furthering the Democratic Party's political agenda through regulatory demands forced upon citizens and businesses beyond that which is required by law.
We must never allow federal agencies to seize control of state waters, watersheds, or groundwater.
State waters, watersheds, and groundwater must be the purview of the sovereign states.
Farmers and ranchers are among this country's leading conservationists.
Modern farm practices and technologies,
supported by programs from the Department of Agriculture,
have led to reduced erosion, improved water and air quality, increased wildlife habitat,
all the while maintaining improved agricultural yields.
This stewardship of the land benefits everyone,
and we remain committed to conservation policies based on the preservation, not the restriction, of working lands.
For this reason, ranching on public lands must be fostered, developed, and encouraged.
This includes providing for an abundant water supply for America's farmers, ranchers, and their communities.
Farming and ranching remain high-risk endeavors, and they cannot be isolated from market forces.
No segment of agriculture can expect treatment so favorable that it seriously disadvantages workers in other trades.
Federal programs to assist farmers in managing risk must be as cost-effective as they are functional,
offering tools that can improve producers' ability to operate when times are tough
while remaining affordable to the taxpayers.
Even so, the expansion of agricultural exports through the vigorous opening of new markets around the world is the surest path to farm security.
While uncertainty about natural weather and markets is a risk farmers and ranchers always face,
government should not add to their uncertainty by inaction and delay.
Thanks in large part to a lack of leadership from the current Administration and congressional Democrats,
the last Farm Bill took far too long to enact,
creating instability about farm policy for nearly two years.
Republicans are dedicated to leading this country forward,
which includes getting things done on time, including the next Farm Bill.
The Democrats play politics with farm security.
Much of the Democrats’ delay had nothing to do with the vital role of American agriculture.
It concerned their efforts to expand welfare through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),
which now comprises more than 70 percent of all farm bill spending.
During the last eight years of a Democratic Administration, nearly all the work requirements for able-bodied adults, instituted by our landmark welfare reform of 1996, have been removed.
We will restore those provisions
and, to correct a mistake made when the Food Stamp program was first created in 1964, separate the administration of SNAP from the Department of Agriculture.
Like all other sectors of our society, agriculture is directly impacted by the constant advance in technology.
Agriculture now faces a revolution in the generation of "Big Data”
— information produced not only through public oversight of regulations and programs,
but also from private business records of farming and ranching operations.
In the interest of protecting the safety of our farmers and ranchers, we will advance policies to protect the security, privacy, and most of all, the private ownership of individual farmers’ and ranchers’ data.
The U. S. Forest Service, within the Department of Agriculture, controls around 200 million acres of land with enormous natural resources,
especially timber, a renewable resource providing jobs for thousands of workers
that should be used to the best economic potential for the nation.
Many of our national forests are in worsening health with the threat of invasive species, insect mortality, and the severe risk of wildfire.
The increase in catastrophic wildfires has been needlessly killing millions of animals and destroying homes and watersheds for decades in the western states.
The expense to suppress wildfires related to failed federal forest policies continues to increase.
When timber is managed properly, the renewable crops will result in fewer wildfires
and, at the same time, produce jobs in the timber industry for countless families.
We believe in promoting active, sustainable management of our forests
and that states can best manage our forests to improve forest health and keep communities safe.
A New Era in Energy
Our country has greater energy resources than any other place on earth.
Our engineers and miners, the men and women whose labor taps the forces of nature, are the best in the world.
Together, the people of America’s energy sector provide us with power that is clean, affordable, secure, and abundant.
Their work can guarantee the nation’s energy security for centuries to come
if, instead of erecting roadblocks,
government facilitates the creation of an all-of-the-above energy strategy.
We applaud congressional Republicans for doing just that through far-sighted legislation.
Both Houses have passed bills that will modernize pipelines and the electric grid,
protect the grid from disruption,
expedite energy exports,
and lower energy costs.
A Republican administration will build on those policies to find new ways to store electricity, a breakthrough of extraordinary import.
Planning for our energy future requires us to first determine what resources we have in reserve.
Thirty years ago, the world’s estimated reserves of oil were 645 billion barrels.
Today, that figure is 1.65 trillion barrels.
The more we know what we will have in the future, the better we can decide how to use it.
That is why we support the opening of public lands and the outer continental shelf to exploration and responsible production,
even if these resources will not be immediately developed.
Because we believe states can best promote economic growth while protecting the environment,
Congress should give authority to state regulators to manage energy resources on federally controlled public lands within their respective borders.
The Democratic Party’s energy policy can be summed up in a slogan currently popular among its activists: "keep it in the ground.”
Keeping energy in the earth will keep jobs out of reach of those who need them most.
For low-income Americans, expensive energy means colder homes in the winter and hotter homes in the summer,
less mobility in employment,
and higher food prices.
The current Administration, and particularly its EPA, seems not to care.
Its Clean Power Plan — the centerpiece of the President’s war on coal — has been stayed by the Supreme Court.
We will do away with it altogether.
The Democratic Party does not understand that coal is an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource.
Those who mine it and their families should be protected
from the Democratic Party’s radical anticoal agenda.
The Democratic Party’s campaign to smother the U.S. energy industry takes many forms,
but the permitting process may be its most damaging weapon.
It takes an average of 30 days for states to permit an oil or gas well.
It takes the federal government longer than seven months.
Three decades ago, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leased 12.2 million acres.
In 2014, it leased only one-tenth of that number.
Our nuclear industry, cleanly generating almost 20 percent of our electricity from its 99 plants, has a remarkable safety record,
but only a handful of plants have been permitted in over three decades.
Permitting for a safe, non-polluting hydroelectric facility,
even one that is being relicensed, can take many years because of the current President’s hostility to dams.
The Keystone Pipeline has become a symbol of everything wrong with the current Administration’s ideological approach.
After years of delay, the President killed it to satisfy environmental extremists.
We intend to finish that pipeline and others as part of our commitment to North American energy security.
Government should not play favorites among energy producers.
The taxpayers will not soon forget the current Administration’s subsidies to companies that went bankrupt without producing a kilowatt of energy.
The same Administration now requires the Department of Defense, operating with slashed budgets during a time of expanding conflict, to use its scarce resources to generate 25 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2025.
Climate change is far from this nation’s most pressing national security issue.
This is the triumph of extremism over common sense, and Congress must stop it.
We support the development of all forms of energy that are marketable in a free economy without subsidies, including coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, and hydropower.
A federal judge has struck down the BLM’s rule on hydraulic fracturing and we support upholding this decision.
We respect the states’ proven ability to regulate the use of hydraulic fracturing, methane emissions, and horizontal drilling,
and we will end the Administration’s disregard of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act with respect to the long-term storage of nuclear waste.
We encourage the cost-effective development of renewable energy sources — wind, solar, biomass, biofuel, geothermal, and tidal energy —
by private capital.
The United States is overwhelmingly dependent on China and other nations for rare earth and other hardrock minerals.
These minerals are critical to advanced technology,
renewable energy,
and defense manufacturing.
We support expediting the permitting process for mineral production on public lands.
We support lifting restrictions to allow responsible development of nuclear energy,
including research into alternative processes like thorium nuclear energy.
We oppose any carbon tax.
It would increase energy prices across the board,
hitting hardest at the families who are already struggling to pay their bills in the Democrats’ no-growth economy.
We urge the private sector to focus its resources on the development of carbon capture and sequestration technology still in its early stages here and overseas.
American energy producers should be free to export their product to foreign markets.
This is particularly important because of international demand for liquefied natural gas, and we must expedite the energy export terminals currently blocked by the Administration.
Energy exports will create high paying jobs throughout the United States,
reduce our nation’s trade deficit,
grow our economy,
and boost the energy security of our allies and trading partners.
We remain committed to aggressively expanding trade opportunities and opening new markets for American energy through multilateral and bilateral agreements,
whether current, pending, or negotiated in the future.
Energy is both an economic and national security issue.
We support the enactment of policies to increase domestic energy production,
including production on public lands,
to counter market manipulation by OPEC and other nationally- owned oil companies.
This will reduce America’s vulnerability to energy price volatility.
Environmental Progress
Conservation is inherent in conservatism.
As the pioneer of environmentalism a century ago, the Republican Party reaffirms the moral obligation to be good stewards of the God-given natural beauty and resources of our country.
We believe that people are the most valuable resources
and that human health and safety are the proper measurements of a policy’s success.
We assert that private ownership has been the best guarantee of conscientious stewardship,
while some of the worst instances of degradation have occurred under government control.
Poverty, not wealth, is the gravest threat to the environment,
while steady economic growth brings the technological advances which make environmental progress possible.
The environment is too important to be left to radical environmentalists.
They are using yesterday's tools to control a future they do not comprehend.
The environmental establishment has become a self-serving elite,
stuck in the mindset of the 1970s,
subordinating the public's consensus to the goals of the Democratic Party.
Their approach is based on shoddy science, scare tactics, and centralized command-and-control regulation.
Over the last eight years, the Administration has triggered an avalanche of regulation that wreaks havoc across our economy
and yields minimal environmental benefits.
The central fact of any sensible environmental policy is that, year by year, the environment is improving.
Our air and waterways are much healthier than they were a few decades ago.
As a nation, we have drastically reduced pollution,
mainstreamed recycling,
educated the public,
and avoided ecological degradation.
Even if no additional controls are added, air pollution will continue to decline for the next several decades due to technological turnover of aging equipment.
These successes become a challenge for Democratic Party environmental extremists, who must reach farther and demand more to sustain the illusion of an environmental crisis.
That is why they routinely ignore costs, exaggerate benefits,
and advocate the breaching of constitutional boundaries by federal agencies to impose environmental regulation.
At the same time, the environmental establishment looks the other way when environmental degradation is caused by the EPA and other federal agencies as was the case during the Animas River spill.
Our agenda is high on job creation,
expanding opportunity
and providing a better chance at life for everyone willing to work for it.
Our modern approach to environmentalism is directed to that end,
and it starts with dramatic change in official Washington.
We propose to shift responsibility for environmental regulation from the federal bureaucracy to the states
and to transform the EPA into an independent bipartisan commission, similar to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with structural safeguards against politicized science.
We will strictly limit congressional delegation of rule-making authority,
and require that citizens be compensated for regulatory takings.
We will put an end to the legal practice known as “sue and settle,” in which environmental groups sue federal agencies whose officials are complicit in the litigation so that, with the taxpayers excluded, both parties can reach agreement behind closed doors.
That deceit betrays the public's trust; it will no longer be tolerated.
We will also reform the Equal Access to Justice Act to cap and disclose payments made to environmental activists
and return the Act to its original intent.
We will enforce the original intent of the Clean Water Act, not it's distortion by EPA regulations.
We will likewise forbid the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide, something never envisioned when Congress passed the Clean Air Act.
We will restore to Congress the authority to set the National Ambient Air Quality Standards
and modernize the permitting process under the National Environmental Policy Act so it can no longer invite frivolous lawsuits, thwart sorely needed projects,
kill jobs, and strangle growth.
The federal government owns or controls over 640 million acres of land in the United States, most of which is in the West.
These are public lands, and the public should have access to them for appropriate activities like hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting.
Federal ownership or management of land also places an economic burden on counties and local communities in terms of lost revenue to pay for things such as schools, police, and emergency services.
It is absurd to think that all that acreage must remain under the absentee ownership or management of official Washington.
Congress shall immediately pass universal legislation providing for a timely and orderly mechanism requiring the federal government to convey certain federally controlled public lands to states.
We call upon all national and state leaders and representatives to exert their utmost power and influence to urge the transfer of those lands, identified in the review process, to all willing states for the benefit of the states and the nation as a whole.
The residents of state and local communities know best how to protect the land where they work and live.
They practice boots-on- the-ground conservation in their states every day.
We support amending the Antiquities Act of 1906 to establish Congress’ right to approve the designation of national monuments
and to further require the approval of the state where a national monument is designated or a national park is proposed.
There is certainly a need to protect certain species threatened worldwide with extinction.
However, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) should not include species such as gray wolves and other species if these species exist elsewhere in healthy numbers in another state or country.
To upset the economic viability of an area with an unneeded designation costs jobs and hurts local communities.
We must ensure that this protection is done effectively, reasonably, and without unnecessarily impeding the development of lands and natural resources.
The ESA should ensure that the listing of endangered species and the designation of critical habitats are based upon sound science
and balance the protection of endangered species with the costs of compliance
and the rights of property owners.
Instead, over the last few decades, the ESA has stunted economic development,
halted the construction of projects,
burdened landowners,
and has been used to pursue policy goals inconsistent with the ESA
— all with little to no success in the actual recovery of species.
For example, we oppose the listing of the lesser prairie chicken and the potential listing of the sage grouse.
Neither species has been shown to be in actual danger and the listings threaten to devastate farmers, ranchers,
and oil and gas production.
While species threatened with extinction must be protected under the ESA, any such protection must be done in a reasonable and transparent manner
with stakeholder input and in consideration of the impact on the development of lands and natural resources.
Information concerning a changing climate, especially projections into the long-range future, must be based on dispassionate analysis of hard data.
We will enforce that standard throughout the executive branch, among civil servants and presidential appointees alike.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a political mechanism, not an unbiased scientific institution.
Its unreliability is reflected in its intolerance toward scientists and others who dissent from its orthodoxy.
We will evaluate its recommendations accordingly.
We reject the agendas of both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, which represent only the personal commitments of their signatories;
no such agreement can be binding upon the United States until it is submitted to and ratified by the Senate.
We demand an immediate halt to U.S. funding for the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in accordance with the 1994 Foreign Relations Authorization Act.
That law prohibits Washington from giving any money to "any affiliated organization of the United Nations” which grants Palestinians membership as a state.
There is no ambiguity in that language.
It would be illegal for the President to follow through on his intention to provide millions in funding for the UNFCCC and hundreds of millions for its Green Climate Fund.
We firmly believe environmental problems are best solved by giving incentives for human ingenuity and the development of new technologies,
not through top-down, command-and-control regulations that stifle economic growth and cost thousands of jobs.
Government Reform
Making Government Work for the People
Founding Father and Constitution Framer James Wilson declared that in America, “the people are the masters of government,” but that in other countries, “the government is master of the people.”
We pledge to make government work for the people, rather than the other way around.
Much of what the federal government does can be improved,
much should be replaced,
and much needs to be done away with or returned to the states.
It is long past time for just tinkering around the edges of a bloated and unresponsive bureaucratic state.
Its poorly managed programs, some begun generations ago, are ill-suited to meet present needs and future requirements.
Its credit card budgets impose massive indebtedness on every American today
and on children yet unborn.
The more it intrudes into every aspect of American life the more it alienates the citizens who work, pay taxes, and wonder what has happened to the country they love.
We agree with Thomas Jefferson that “[t]he multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife.”
Balancing the Budget
The federal fiscal burden threatens the security,
liberty,
and independence of our nation.
The current Administration's refusal to work with Republicans took our national debt from $10 trillion to nearly $19 trillion today.
Left unchecked, it will hit $30 trillion by 2026.
At the same time, the Administration's policies systematically crippled economic growth and job creation,
driving up government costs and driving down revenues.
When Congressional Republicans tried to reverse course, the Administration manufactured fiscal crises — phony government shutdowns
— to demand excessive spending.
The Administration's demands have focused on significantly expanding government spending and benefits for its preferred groups,
paid for through loans that our children and grandchildren will have to pay.
This is the path to bankrupting the next generation.
The Republican path to fiscal sanity and economic expansion begins with a constitutional requirement for a federal balanced budget.
We will fight for Congress to adopt, and for the states to ratify, a Balanced Budget Amendment
which imposes a cap limiting spending to the appropriate historical average percentage of our nation's gross domestic product
while requiring a super-majority for any tax increase,
with exceptions only for war or legitimate emergencies.
Only a constitutional safeguard such as this can prevent deficits from mounting to government default.
Republican budgets will prioritize thrift over extravagance
and put taxpayers first.
We support the following test: Is a particular expenditure within the constitutional scope of the federal government?
If not, stop it.
Has it been effective in the past and is it still absolutely necessary?
If not, end it.
Is it so important as to justify borrowing, especially foreign borrowing, to fund it?
If not, kill it.
Preserving Medicare and Medicaid
More than 100 million Americans depend on Medicare or Medicaid for their healthcare;
with our population aging, that number will increase.
To preserve Medicare and Medicaid, the financing of these important programs must be brought under control
before they consume most of the federal budget,
including national defense.
The good news is that it can be done,
and it can be done without endangering the elderly and the needy who depend on those programs.
We intend to save Medicare by modernizing it,
empowering its participants,
and putting it on a secure financial footing.
We will preserve the promise of Medicaid as well by making that program, designed for 1965 medicine, a vehicle for good health in an entirely new era.
Medicare’s long-term debt is in the trillions,
and it is funded by a workforce that is shrinking relative to the size of future beneficiaries.
Obamacare worsened the situation
— and imperiled seniors —
by imposing hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare providers to pay for its new spending.
When a vital program is so clearly headed for a train wreck, it’s time to put it on a more secure track.
That is why we propose these reforms: Impose no changes for persons 55 or older.
Give others the option of traditional Medicare or transition to a premium-support model designed to strengthen patient choice,
promote cost-saving competition among providers,
and better guard against the fraud and abuse that now diverts billions of dollars every year away from patient care.
Guarantee to every enrollee an income-adjusted contribution toward a plan of their choice, with catastrophic protection.
Without disadvantaging present retirees or those nearing retirement,
a more realistic age for eligibility in light of today’s longer life span.
This is an agenda to improve healthcare,
not just to manage its costs.
We reject the Democrats’ approach of rationing inherent in Obamacare.
We will not accept that or any other approach which denies care — or lowers its quality — for America’s elderly.
Medicaid presents related, but somewhat different challenges.
As the dominant force in the health market with regard to long-term care, births, and persons with mental illness, it is the next frontier of welfare reform.
It is simply too big and too flawed to be administered from Washington.
Most of the vaunted expansion of health insurance coverage under Obamacare actually has been an unprecedented expansion of the Medicaid rolls in many states.
We applaud the Republican governors and state legislators who have undertaken the hard work of modernizing Medicaid.
We will give them a free hand to do so by block-granting the program without strings.
Their initiatives — whether premium supports for purchasing insurance,
refundable tax credits,
alternatives to hospitalization for chronic patients,
disease prevention activities,
and other innovations —
are the best strategy for preserving Medicaid for those who need it the most.
Block granting Medicaid is particularly needed to address mental health care.
Mental illness affects people from all walks of life,
but there has been little success in developing effective system-wide medical models for addressing mental health.
For a variety of unique reasons, government is often the first frontier for people experiencing mental health problems
— from first responders who deal with crises
to publicly funded mental health facilities
and prisons where large numbers of inmates suffer from mental illnesses.
Using block grants would allow states to experiment with different systems to address mental health
and develop successful models to be replicated in states across the nation.
The current federally dictated mental health care regime is wasteful and ineffective,
and moving to a block grant approach would allow for state and local governments to create solutions for individuals and families in desperate need of help in addressing mental illness.
We respect the states’ authority and flexibility to exclude abortion providers from federal programs such as Medicaid and other healthcare and family planning programs so long as they continue to perform or refer for elective abortions or sell the body parts of aborted children.
Saving Social Security
We reject the old maxim that Social Security is the "Third Rail” of American politics, deadly for anyone who would change it.
The Democratic Party still treats it that way, even though everyone knows that its current course will lead to a financial and social disaster.
Younger Americans have lost all faith in the program and expect little return for what they are paying into it.
As the party of America’s future, we accept the responsibility to preserve and modernize a system of retirement security forged in an old industrial era beyond the memory of most Americans.
Current retirees and those close to retirement can be assured of their benefits.
Of the many reforms being proposed, all options should be considered to preserve Social Security.
As Republicans, we oppose tax increases
and believe in the power of markets to create wealth and to help secure the future of our Social Security system.
Saving Social Security is more than a challenge.
It is our moral obligation to those who trusted in the government's word.
Protecting Internet Freedom
The survival of the internet as we know it is at risk.
Its gravest peril originates in the White House, the current occupant of which has launched a campaign, both at home and internationally, to subjugate it to agents of government.
The President ordered the chair of the supposedly independent Federal Communications Commission to impose upon the internet rules devised in the 1930s for the telephone monopoly.
He has unilaterally announced America's abandonment of the international internet
by surrendering U.S. control of the root zone of web names and addresses.
He threw the internet to the wolves,
and they - Russia, China, Iran, and others - are ready to devour it.
We salute the Congressional Republicans who have legislatively impeded his plans to turn over the Information Freedom Highway to regulators and tyrants.
That fight must continue, for its outcome is in doubt.
We will consistently support internet policies that allow people and private enterprise to thrive,
without providing new and expanded government powers to tax and regulate
so that the internet does not become the vehicle for a dramatic expansion of government power.
The internet's independence is its power.
It has unleashed innovation, enabled growth,
and inspired freedom more rapidly and extensively than any other technological advance in human history.
We will therefore resist any effort to shift control toward governance by international or other intergovernmental organizations.
We will ensure that personal data receives full constitutional protection from government overreach.
The only way to safeguard or improve these systems is through the private sector.
The internet's free market needs to be free and open to all ideas and competition without the government or service providers picking winners and losers.
Immigration and the Rule of Law
Our party is the natural home for those who come in search of freedom and justice.
We welcome all to the Great Opportunity Party.
The greatest asset of the American economy is the American worker.
Our immigration system must protect American working families and their wages,
for citizens and legal immigrants alike,
in a way that will improve the economy.
Just as immigrant labor helped build our country in the past,
today's legal immigrants are making vital contributions in every aspect of national life.
Their industry and commitment to American values strengthens our economy,
enriches our culture,
and enables us to better understand and more effectively compete with the rest of the world.
We are particularly grateful to the thousands of new legal immigrants, many of them not yet citizens, who are serving in the Armed Forces and among first responders.
Their patriotism should encourage all to embrace the newcomers legally among us,
assist their journey to full citizenship,
and help their communities avoid isolation from the mainstream of society.
We are also thankful for the many legal immigrants who continue to contribute to American society.
To that end, we both encourage the preservation of heritage tongues
and support English as the nation's official language,
a unifying force essential for the advancement of immigrant communities and our nation as a whole.
America's immigration policy must serve the national interest of the United States,
and the interests of American workers must be protected over the claims of foreign nationals seeking the same jobs.
With all our fellow citizens, we have watched, in anger and disgust, the mocking of our immigration laws by a president who made himself superior to the will of the nation.
We stand with the victims of his policies,
especially the families of murdered innocents.
Illegal immigration endangers everyone,
exploits the taxpayers,
and insults all who aspire to enter America legally.
We oppose any form of amnesty for those who, by breaking the law, have disadvantaged those who have obeyed it.
The executive amnesties of 2012 and 2014 are a direct violation of federal law and usurp the powers of Congress as outlined in Article I of the Constitution.
These unlawful amnesties must be immediately rescinded by a Republican president.
In a time of terrorism, drug cartels, human trafficking, and criminal gangs,
the presence of millions of unidentified individuals in this country poses grave risks to the safety and sovereignty of the United States.
Our highest priority, therefore, must be to secure our borders and all ports of entry
and to enforce our immigration laws.
That is why we support building a wall along our southern border and protecting all ports of entry.
The border wall must cover the entirety of the southern border
and must be sufficient to stop both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
We insist upon workplace enforcement of verification systems
so that more jobs can be available to all legal workers.
Use of the E-verify program — an internet-based system that verifies the employment authorization and identity of employees — must be made mandatory nationwide.
We reaffirm our endorsement of the SAVE program — Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements — to ensure that public funds are not given to persons not legally present in this country.
We demand tough penalties against those who engage in identity theft, deal in fraudulent documents, and traffic in human beings.
The Department of Homeland Security must use its authority to keep dangerous aliens off our streets
and to expedite expulsion of criminal aliens.
Gang membership should be a deportable offense.
Any previously deported illegal alien who continues to show a lack of respect for our borders and rule of law must be penalized.
This is why we support stiffer penalties, such as a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, for any illegal alien who illegally re-enters our nation after already having been deported.
Because “sanctuary cities” violate federal law and endanger their own citizens, they should not be eligible for federal funding.
Using state licenses to reward people in the country illegally is an affront to the rule of law and must be halted.
In light of both current needs and historic practice, we urge the reform of our guest worker programs to eliminate fraud,
improve efficiency
and ensure they serve the national interest.
In light of the alarming levels of unemployment and underemployment in this country,
it is indefensible to continue offering lawful permanent residence to more than one million foreign nationals every year.
The Supreme Court has correctly recognized that states have the constitutional authority to take steps to reduce illegal immigration.
We condemn the Obama Administration’s lawsuits against states that are seeking to reinforce federal law.
We support the right of the states to enact laws deterring illegal aliens from residing within their states.
From its beginning, our country has been a haven of refuge and asylum.
That should continue
— but with major changes.
Asylum should be limited to cases of political, ethnic or religious persecution.
As the Director of the FBI has noted, it is not possible to vet fully all potential refugees.
To ensure our national security, refugees who cannot be carefully vetted cannot be admitted to the country,
especially those whose homelands have been the breeding grounds for terrorism.
Reforming the Treaty System
We intend to restore the treaty system specified by the Constitution: The president negotiates agreements, submits them to the Senate, with ratification requiring two-thirds of the senators present and voting.
This was good enough for George Washington but is too restrictive for the current chief executive,
who presumes to bind this country to bilateral and multilateral agreements of his devising.
His media admirers portray his personal commitments — whether on climate change, Iranian weapons, or other matters — as done deals.
They are not, and a new Republican executive will work with the Congress to reestablish constitutional order in America’s foreign relations.
All international executive agreements and political arrangements entered into by the current Administration must be deemed null and void as mere expressions of the current president’s preferences.
Those which are in the national interest but would traditionally have been made by treaty must be abrogated, renegotiated as treaties, and transmitted to the Senate for its advice and consent as required by the Constitution.
The United States will withdraw from all agreements and arrangements failing those standards.
Internal Revenue Service
Many good civil servants work at the IRS, but the agency itself is toxic.
Its leadership employs known tax delinquents,
rehires workers previously fired for misconduct,
spends user fees without congressional oversight,
and awards bonuses for customer service that would put any private company out of business.
Worst of all, the IRS has become an ideological attack dog for the worst elements of today's Democratic Party.
It systematically targets conservative, pro-life, and libertarian organizations,
harassing them with repeated audits and denying their tax exempt status.
Its commissioner has lied to Congress, hidden evidence, and stonewalled investigations.
He should be impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate.
We value the right of America's churches, pastors, and religious leaders to preach and speak freely according to their faith.
Republicans believe the federal government, specifically the IRS, is constitutionally prohibited from policing or censoring the speech of America's churches, pastors, and religious leaders.
We support repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which restricts First Amendment freedoms of all nonprofit organizations by prohibiting political speech.
We also support making the federal tax code so simple and easy to understand that the IRS becomes obsolete and can be abolished.
Audit the Pentagon
No major part of the Department of Defense has ever passed an audit.
Republican leaders in Congress have called for a full financial audit of the Pentagon to ensure that every dollar spent is truly benefitting our national security.
Every taxpayer must be prepared to pass an audit, and we urge Congress to demand the same level of accountability from the Pentagon and the Department of Defense.
Improving the Federal Workforce
We recognize the dedication of most employees of the federal government and thank them for their service,
with special praise for the whistleblowers who risk their careers to expose waste, fraud, and misuse of power.
None of them should ever be compelled to join a union or pay dues to it.
In fairness to their fellow workers, union representatives should not be allowed to engage in union-related activities while on the public's time.
The inability of federal managers to discipline and, if necessary, dismiss problem staff members is an affront to every conscientious worker,
as is the misuse of funds for lavish conferences and routine bonuses.
The appointees of a Republican president will work with career managers to end those abuses and enforce high standards for all federal employees.
We reaffirm the existing protections that provide all employees of the federal government the opportunity to pursue their desire to serve their country free from discrimination.
We call for renewed efforts to reduce, rather than expand, government responsibilities,
and we urge particular attention to the bloated public relations budgets of the departments and agencies.
The federal government spends too much of the people's money telling the people what they should do.
Advancing Term Limits
Our national platform has repeatedly endorsed term limits for Members of Congress.
In response, the GOP Leadership in 1996 brought to a vote, in both the House and Senate, a constitutional amendment.
It failed to secure the necessary two-thirds vote in the House, where 80 percent of Republicans voted for it
and 80 percent of Democrats voted against it.
Every Senate Republican voted to allow a vote on term limits,
but the Democrats killed it by a filibuster.
Blocked by that opposition, Republicans sought other ways to modernize the national legislature.
They set term limits for their own committee chairs and leadership positions,
and by law they required Congress to live by the same rules it imposes on others.
To make further progress, to advance a constitutional amendment for consideration by the states, we must expand the current Republican majorities in both chambers.
Regulation: The Quiet Tyranny
Over-regulation is the quiet tyranny of the "Nanny State.”
It hamstrings American businesses and hobbles economic growth.
The Great Recession may be over, but in the experience of most Americans, the economy is still sick.
The federal regulatory burden has been a major contributor to that stagnation.
The ability of the American people to govern themselves has been undermined by a vast array of agencies with sweeping power to regulate every aspect of American life.
They legislate as if they were Congress.
They decide guilt and issue penalties as if they were courts.
They collectively impose many billions of dollars in costs to the economy.
The current President and his allies on Capitol Hill have used those agencies as a superlegislature,
disregarding the separation of powers, to declare as law what they could not push through the Congress.
The Environmental Protection Agency has rewritten laws to advance the Democrats’ climate change agenda.
The Department of Health and Human Services has ignored the enacted text of the Affordable Care Act to do whatever it wants in healthcare.
Both the Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board have scrapped decades of labor law to implement the agenda of big labor.
The Dodd-Frank law, the Democrats’ legislative Godzilla, is crushing small and community banks and other lenders.
The Federal Communications Commission is imperiling the freedom of the internet.
We support reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which prohibits commercial banks from engaging in high-risk investment.
Sensible regulations can be compatible with a vibrant economy.
They can prevent the strong from exploiting the weak.
Right now, the regulators are exploiting everyone.
We are determined to make regulations minimally intrusive,
confined to their legal mandate,
and respectful toward the creation of new and small businesses.
We will revisit existing laws that delegate too much authority to regulatory agencies and review all current regulations for possible reform or repeal.
We endorse Republican legislation, already passed by the House, to require approval by both houses of Congress for any rule or regulation that would impose significant costs on the American people.
Further, Congress should work towards legislation that requires removal of a regulation of equal or greater economic burden when a new regulation is enacted.
Because regulations are just another tax on the consumers, Congress should consider a regulatory budget that would cap the costs federal agencies could impose on the economy in any given year.
Crony Capitalism and Corporate Welfare
Cronyism is inherent in the progressive vision of the administrative state.
When government uses taxpayer funding and resources to give special advantages to private companies, it distorts the free market and erodes public trust in our political system.
By enlarging the scope of government and placing enormous power in the hands of bureaucrats,
it multiplies opportunities for corruption and favoritism.
It is the enemy of reform in education,
the workplace,
and healthcare.
It gives us financial regulation that protects the large at the cost of the small.
It is inherent in every part of the current healthcare law, which is packed with corporate welfare.
Crony capitalism gives us special interest tax breaks, custom-designed regulations, and special exemptions for favored parties.
The Solyndra debacle is a perfect example.
It creates both subsidies and restrictions to tilt the market one way or the other.
By putting the weight of government behind the status quo, it leads to economic stagnation.
We applaud the Republican Members of Congress who have taken the lead in fighting crony capitalism and urge others to rally to their cause.
Honoring Our Relationship with American Indians
Based on both treaty and other law, the federal government has a unique government-to- government relationship with and trust responsibility for Indian Tribal Governments, American Indians, and Alaska Natives.
These obligations have not been sufficiently honored.
The social and economic problems that plague Indian country have grown worse over the last several decades; we must reverse that trend.
Ineffective federal programs deprive American Indians of the services they need,
and long-term failures threaten to undermine tribal sovereignty itself.
American Indians have established elected tribal governments to carry out the public policies of the tribe, administer services to its tribal member constituents, and manage relations with federal, state, and local governments.
We respect the tribal governments as the voice of their communities and encourage federal, state, and local governments to heed those voices in developing programs and partnerships to improve the quality of life for American Indians and their neighbors in their communities.
Republicans believe that economic self-sufficiency is the ultimate answer to the challenges confronting Indian country.
We believe that tribal governments and their communities, not Washington bureaucracies, are best situated to craft solutions that will end systemic problems that create poverty and disenfranchisement.
Just as the federal government should not burden states with regulations, it should not stifle the development of resources within the reservations,
which need federal assistance to advance their commerce nationally through roads and technology.
Federal and state regulations that thwart job creation must be withdrawn or redrawn so that tribal governments acting on behalf of American Indians are not disadvantaged.
It is especially egregious that the Democratic Party has persistently undermined tribal sovereignty in order to provide advantage to union bosses in the tribal workplace.
Native communities should have the same authority as state governments in labor matters, so that union bosses and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) cannot undermine the authority of tribal governments.
Republicans recognize that each tribe has the right of consultation before any new regulatory policy is implemented on tribal land.
To the extent possible, such consultation should take place in Indian country with the tribal government and its members.
Before promulgating and imposing any new laws or regulations affecting trust land or members,
the federal government should encourage Indian tribes to develop their own policies to achieve program objectives,
and should defer to tribes to develop their own standards, or standards in conjunction with state governments.
Republicans reject a one-size-fits-all approach to federal-tribal-state partnerships and will work to expand local autonomy where tribal governments seek it.
Better partnerships will help us to expand economic opportunity,
deliver top-flight education to future generations,
modernize and improve the Indian Health Service to make it more responsive to local needs,
and build essential infrastructure in Indian country in cooperation with tribal neighbors.
Our approach is to empower American Indians, through tribal self-determination and selfgovernance policies, to develop their greatest assets, human resources and the rich natural resources on their lands,
without undue federal interference.
Like all Americans, American Indians want safe communities for their families;
but inadequate resources and neglect have, over time, allowed criminal activities to plague Indian country.
To protect everyone —
and especially the most vulnerable: children, women, and elders
— the legal system in tribal communities must provide stability and protect property rights.
Everyone's due process and civil rights must be safeguarded.
We support efforts to ensure equitable participation in federal programs by American Indians, including Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians,
and to preserve their culture and languages that we consider to be national treasures.
Lastly, we recognize that American Indians have responded to the call for military service in percentage numbers far greater than have other groups of Americans.
We honor that commitment, loyalty, and sacrifice of all American Indians serving in the military today and in years past
and will ensure that all veterans and their families receive the care and respect they have earned through their loyal service to America.
Americans in the Territories
Throughout the history of our nation, the patriotism exhibited by our brothers and sisters in the territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico has often gone unacknowledged.
Year after year, the citizens quietly, without fanfare, send their sons and daughters into the U.S. Armed Services.
We honor the extraordinary sacrifices of the men and women of the territories who protect our freedom through their service in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Geographically, the territories and commonwealths, especially those in the Pacific, are of vital importance to our national security as the outermost line of defense and gateway to America against potential encroachment by foreign powers.
We welcome their greater participation in all aspects of the political process
and affirm their right to seek the full extension of the Constitution with all the rights and responsibilities that entails.
We recognize the challenges facing all the U.S. territories in an era of dramatic global economic change.
They need venture capital to retain existing industries and develop new ones.
A stronger private sector can reduce dependence on public employment and lead toward self-sufficiency.
Their development of local energy options will be crucial to reduce dependence on costly imported fuel.
The territories’ economic stability and potential for growth must be considered in any trade agreements between the United States and other Pacific nations.
They should be given flexibility or exemption from laws that increase costs for their populations,
such as the minimum wage
and the Jones Act concerning shipping.
All unreasonable impediments to their prosperity should be removed, including unreasonable U.S. customs practices.
Territories such as American Samoa should be able to properly develop their resources, including fishing, when jobs and the economy depend on it.
We call for the appointment of a commonwealth and territories advisory committee consisting of representatives from all five U.S. territories.
The committee will be integrated into the president’s transition team and be tasked with performing a holistic review of all federal regulations affecting the territories and commonwealths.
We further call for the appointment of a Special Assistant to the President responsible for day-to-day interaction with the territories and commonwealths.
This position will be the direct connection for the Office of Insular Affairs, the citizens of the territories and commonwealths, and the White House.
The Territory of Puerto Rico
We support the right of the United States citizens of Puerto Rico to be admitted to the Union as a fully sovereign state.
We further recognize the historic significance of the 2012 local referendum in which a 54 percent majority voted to end Puerto Rico’s current status as a U.S. territory, and 61 percent chose statehood over options for sovereign nationhood.
We support the federally sponsored political status referendum authorized and funded by an Act of Congress in 2014 to ascertain the aspirations of the people of Puerto Rico.
Once the 2012 local vote for statehood is ratified, Congress should approve an enabling act with terms for Puerto Rico’s future admission as the 51st state of the Union.
Preserving the District of Columbia
The nation’s capital city is a special responsibility of the federal government because it belongs both to its residents and to all Americans, millions of whom visit it every year.
Congressional Republicans have fostered homeownership
and open access to higher education for Washington residents.
Against the opposition of the current President and leaders of the Democratic Party, they have established and expanded the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, through which thousands of low-income children have been able to attend a school of their choice and receive a quality education.
Republicans have been in the forefront of combating chronic corruption among the city’s top Democratic officials.
We call for congressional action to enforce the spirit of the Home Rule Act, assuring minority representation on the City Council.
That council, backed by the current mayor, is attempting to seize from the Congress its appropriating power over all funding for the District.
The illegality of their action mirrors the unacceptable spike in violent crime and murders currently afflicting the city.
We expect Congress to assert, by whatever means necessary, its constitutional prerogatives regarding the District.
Since the Supreme Court’s decisions affirming the Second Amendment rights of its citizens, city officials have engaged in a campaign of massive resistance by denying virtually all applications for gun ownership.
The Republican Congress should be prepared, upon the inauguration of a Republican president, to enact legislation allowing law-abiding Washingtonians to own and carry firearms.
Statehood for the District can be advanced only by a constitutional amendment.
Any other approach would be invalid.
A statehood amendment was soundly rejected by the states when last proposed in 1976 and should not be revived.
Great American Families, Education, Healthcare, and Criminal Justice
American Values
We are the party of independent individuals and the institutions they create together — families, schools, congregations, neighborhoods — to advance their ideals and make real their dreams.
Those institutions, standing between the citizen and the power of government, are the pillars of a free society.
They create spaces where the power of government should not intrude.
They allow Americans to work together to solve most of the problems facing their communities.
They thus reduce the need for intervention by government in the form of more and bigger programs or a larger public workforce.
They minimize decision-making by those who hold or are appointed to office.
That is precisely why today’s progressives distrust and seek to control them — because this is more than a conflict of ideas.
It is a struggle for power.
Our society is at a crossroads.
For several generations, an expansive federal regime has marginalized and supplanted the institutions holding our society together.
No wonder, then, that so much seems to be coming apart now.
The question is whether we are going to reinvigorate the private- sector institutions under citizen control or allow their continued erosion by the forces of centralized social planning.
In that divide, the Republican Party stands with the people.
Marriage, Family, and Society
Foremost among those institutions is the American family.
It is the foundation of civil society,
and the cornerstone of the family is natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman.
Its daily lessons — cooperation, patience, mutual respect, responsibility, self-reliance — are fundamental to the order and progress of our Republic.
Strong families, depending upon God and one another,
advance the cause of liberty by lessening the need for government in their daily lives.
Conversely, as we have learned over the last five decades, the loss of faith and family life leads to greater dependence upon government.
That is why Republicans formulate public policy, from taxation to education, from healthcare to welfare, with attention to the needs and strengths of the family.
It is also why everyone should be concerned about the state of the American family today,
not because of ideology or doctrine, but because of the overwhelming evidence of experience, social science, and common sense.
All of which give us these truths about traditional marriage: Children raised in a two-parent household tend to be physically and emotionally healthier,
more likely to do well in school,
less likely to use drugs and alcohol,
engage in crime or become pregnant outside of marriage.
We oppose policies and laws that create a financial incentive for or encourage cohabitation.
Moreover, marriage remains the greatest antidote to child poverty.
The 40 percent of children who now are born outside of marriage are five times more likely to live in poverty than youngsters born and raised by a mother and father in the home.
Nearly three-quarters of the $450 billion government annually spends on welfare goes to single-parent households.
This is what it takes for a governmental village to raise a child, and the village is doing a tragically poor job of it.
The data and the facts lead to an inescapable conclusion: Every child deserves a married mom and dad.
The reality remains that millions of American families do not have the advantages that come with that structure.
We honor the courageous efforts of those who bear the burdens of parenting alone
and embrace the principle that all Americans should be treated with dignity and respect.
But respect is not enough.
Our laws and our government's regulations should recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman
and actively promote married family life as the basis of a stable and prosperous society.
For that reason, as explained elsewhere in this platform, we do not accept the Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage and we urge its reversal,
whether through judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment returning control over marriage to the states.
We oppose government discrimination against businesses or entities which decline to sell items or services to individuals for activities that go against their religious views about such activities.
Families formed or enlarged by adoption strengthen our communities and ennoble our nation.
Private entities which facilitate adoptions enrich our communities.
We support measures such as the First Amendment Defense Act to ensure these entities do not face government discrimination because of their views on marriage and family.
We applaud the Republican initiatives which have led to an increase in adoptions, an achievement which should be recognized in any restructuring of the federal tax code.
While the number of children in foster care has stabilized, teens who age out of that setting often are abruptly left to face the world on their own.
We urge states and community groups to help these young adults become independent.
Thirty years ago, President Reagan commissioned a Special Working Group on the Family to study how government at all levels could be more supportive of family life.
We urge marriage penalties to be removed from the tax code and public assistance programs.
We invite all who care about children to join us in this proposal to ensure that all federal programs, in the words of President Kennedy, “stress the integrity and preservation of the family unit.”
A Culture of Hope
We have been fighting the War on Poverty for 50 years and poverty is winning.
Our social safety net — about 80 separate means-tested programs costing over $1 trillion every year — is designed to help people born into or falling into poverty.
It rarely lifts them out.
Its apologists judge success by the amount of money spent to keep people in the system.
That is a cruel measurement.
Republicans propose to evaluate a poverty program by whether it actually reduces poverty and increases the personal independence of its participants.
The results are damning: intergenerational poverty has persisted and worsened since 1966.
This year marks another important anniversary; it has been 20 years since the landmark Republican welfare reform of 1996 broke away from the discredited Great Society model.
By making welfare a benefit instead of an entitlement, it put millions of recipients on a transition from dependence to independence.
Welfare rolls declined by half as recipients and prospective recipients discovered a better way to reach their goals.
Best of all, about 3 million children moved out of poverty.
Today that progress has been lost.
Defying the law as it was plainly written, the current Administration has nullified any meaningful work requirement and made TANF a mockery of the name we gave it: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
This decision ensures that those families will remain needy and cut off from the economic mainstream of American society.
This is the progressive pathology: Keeping people dependent so that government can redistribute income.
The result is 45.8 million people on food stamps and 77 million on Medicaid, plus another 5.7 million in the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
This is the false compassion of the status quo.
We propose instead the dynamic compassion of work requirements in a growing economy,
where opportunity takes the place of a hand-out,
where true self-esteem can grow from the satisfaction of a job well done.
We call for removal of structural impediments which progressives throw in the path of poor people:
Over-regulation of start-up enterprises,
excessive licensing requirements,
needless restrictions on formation of schools and day-care centers serving neighborhood families,
and restrictions on providing public services in fields like transport and sanitation that close the opportunity door to all but a favored few.
We will continue our fight for school choice until all parents can find good, safe schools for their children.
To protect religious liberty we will ensure that faith-based institutions, especially those that are vital parts of underserved neighborhoods, do not face discrimination by government.
We propose new partnerships between those who manage federal programs and those who are on the front lines of fighting poverty on the ground.
We must encourage their efforts to reclaim their communities from the culture of poverty.
To advance this process, we urge greater state and local responsibility for, and control over, public assistance programs.
Education: A Chance for Every Child
Education is much more than schooling.
It is the whole range of activities by which families and communities transmit to a younger generation, not just knowledge and skills, but ethical and behavioral norms and traditions.
It is the handing over of a cultural identity.
That is why American education has, for the last several decades, been the focus of constant controversy, as centralizing forces from outside the family and community have sought to remake education in order to remake America.
They have done immense damage.
The federal government should not be a partner in that effort, as the Constitution gives it no role in education.
At the heart of the American Experiment lies the greatest political expression of human dignity:
The self- evident truth that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
That truth rejects the dark view of the individual as human capital — a possession for the creation of another's wealth.
Parents are a child's first and foremost educators, and have primary responsibility for the education of their children.
Parents have a right to direct their children's education, care, and upbringing.
We support a constitutional amendment to protect that right from interference by states, the federal government, or international bodies such as the United Nations.
We reject a one- size-fits-all approach to education
and support a broad range of choices for parents and children at the state and local level.
We likewise repeat our longstanding opposition to the imposition of national standards and assessments,
encourage the parents and educators who are implementing alternatives to Common Core,
and congratulate the states which have successfully repealed it.
Their education reform movement calls for choice-based, parent-driven accountability at every stage of schooling.
It affirms higher expectations for all students and rejects the crippling bigotry of low expectations.
It recognizes the wisdom of local control of our schools
and it wisely sees consumer rights in education — choice — as the most important driving force for renewing education.
It rejects excessive testing and "teaching to the test”
and supports the need for strong assessments to serve as a tool so teachers can tailor teaching to meet student needs.
We applaud America’s great teachers, who should be protected against frivolous lawsuits
and should be able to take reasonable actions to maintain discipline and order in the classroom.
Administrators need flexibility to innovate and to hold accountable all those responsible for student performance.
A good understanding of the Bible being indispensable for the development of an educated citizenry, we encourage state legislatures to offer the Bible in a literature curriculum as an elective in America’s high schools.
We urge school districts to make use of teaching talent in the business community, STEM fields, and the military,
especially among our returning veterans.
Rigid tenure systems should be replaced with a merit-based approach in order to attract the best talent to the classroom.
All personnel who interact with school children should pass background checks and be held to the highest standards of personal conduct.
Academic Excellence for All
Maintaining American preeminence requires a world-class system of education in which all students can reach their potential.
Republicans are leading the effort to create it.
Since 1965, the federal government, through more than 100 programs in the Department of Education, has spent $2 trillion on elementary and secondary education with little substantial improvement in academic achievement or high school graduation rates.
The United States spends an average of more than $12,000 per pupil per year in public schools, for a total of more than $620 billion.
That represents more than 4 percent of GDP devoted to K-12 education in 2011-2012.
Of that amount, federal spending amounted to more than $57 billion.
Clearly, if money were the solution, our schools would be problem-free.
More money alone does not necessarily equal better performance.
After years of trial and error, we know the policies and methods that have actually made a difference in student advancement: Choice in education;
building on the basics;
STEM subjects and phonics;
career and technical education;
ending social promotions;
merit pay for good teachers;
classroom discipline;
parental involvement;
and strong leadership by principals, superintendents, and locally elected school boards.
Because technology has become an essential tool of learning, it must be a key element in our efforts to provide every child equal access and opportunity.
We strongly encourage instruction in American history and civics by using the original documents of our founding fathers.
Choice in Education
We support options for learning, including home-schooling,
career and technical education,
private or parochial schools, magnet schools, charter schools, online learning,
and early-college high schools.
We especially support the innovative financing mechanisms that make options available to all children: education savings accounts (ESAs), vouchers, and tuition tax credits.
Empowering families to access the learning environments that will best help their children to realize their full potential is one of the greatest civil rights challenges of our time.
A young person’s ability to succeed in school must be based on his or her God-given talent and motivation, not an address, ZIP code, or economic status.
We propose that the bulk of federal money through Title I for low-income children and through IDEA for children with special needs should follow the child to whatever school the family thinks will work best for them.
In sum, on the one hand enormous amounts of money are being spent for K-12 public education with overall results that do not justify that spending level.
On the other hand, the common experience of families, teachers, and administrators forms the basis of what does work in education.
In Congress and in the states, Republicans are bridging the gap between those two realities.
Congressional Republicans are leading the way forward with major reform legislation advancing the concept of block grants
and repealing numerous federal regulations which have interfered with state and local control of public schools.
Their Workplace Innovation and Opportunity Act — modernizing workforce programs, repealing mandates, and advancing employment for persons with disabilities — is now law.
Their legislation to require transparency in unfunded mandates imposed upon our schools is advancing.
Their D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program should be expanded as a model for the rest of the country.
We deplore the efforts of Congressional Democrats and the current President to eliminate this successful program for disadvantaged students in order to placate the leaders of the teachers’ unions.
To ensure that all students have access to the mainstream of American life, we support the English First approach and oppose divisive programs that limit students’ ability to advance in American society.
We renew our call for replacing “family planning” programs for teens with sexual risk avoidance education that sets abstinence until marriage as the responsible and respected standard of behavior.
That approach — the only one always effective against premarital pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease — empowers teens to achieve optimal health outcomes.
We oppose school-based clinics that provide referral or counseling for abortion and contraception
and believe that federal funds should not be used in mandatory or universal mental health, psychiatric, or socio-emotional screening programs.
The federal government has pushed states to collect and share vast amounts of personal student and family data, including the collection of social and emotional data.
Much of this data is collected without parental consent or notice.
This is wholly incompatible with the American Experiment and our inalienable rights.
Title IX
We emphatically support the original, authentic meaning of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
It affirmed that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
That language opened up for girls and women a world of opportunities that had too often been denied to them.
That same provision of law is now being used by bureaucrats
— and by the current President of the United States
— to impose a social and cultural revolution upon the American people by wrongly redefining sex discrimination to include sexual orientation or other categories.
Their agenda has nothing to do with individual rights; it has everything to do with power.
They are determined to reshape our schools — and our entire society — to fit the mold of an ideology alien to America's history and traditions.
Their edict to the states concerning restrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities is at once illegal, dangerous, and ignores privacy issues.
We salute the several states which have filed suit against it.
Sexual assault is a terrible crime.
We commend the good-faith efforts by law enforcement, educational institutions, and their partners to address that crime responsibly.
Whenever reported, it must be promptly investigated by civil authorities and prosecuted in a courtroom, not a faculty lounge.
Questions of guilt or innocence must be decided by a judge and jury, with guilt determined beyond a reasonable doubt.
Those convicted of sexual assault should be punished to the full extent of the law.
The Administration's distortion of Title IX to micromanage the way colleges and universities deal with allegations of abuse contravenes our country's legal traditions and must be halted before it further muddles this complex issue and prevents the proper authorities from investigating and prosecuting sexual assault effectively with due process.
Improving Higher Education
Our colleges, universities, and trade schools, large and small, public and private, form the world's greatest assemblage of learning.
They drive much of the research that keeps America competitive
and, by admitting large numbers of foreign students, convey our values and culture to the world.
Their excellence is undermined by an ideological bias deeply entrenched within the current university system.
Whatever the solution may be in private institutions, in state schools the trustees have a responsibility to the taxpayers
to ensure that their enormous investment is not abused for political indoctrination.
We call on state officials to preserve our public colleges, universities, and trade schools as places of learning and the exchange of ideas,
not zones of intellectual intolerance or “safe zones,” as if college students need protection from the free exchange of ideas.
A student's First Amendment rights do not end at the schoolhouse gates.
Colleges, universities, and trade schools must not infringe on their freedom of speech and association in the name of political correctness.
We condemn the campus-based BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) campaign against Israel.
It is antiSemitism and should be denounced by advocates of academic freedom.
College Costs
The cost of a college education has long been on an unsustainable trajectory, rising year by year far ahead of inflation.
Nationwide, student debt now exceeds credit card debt with average debt levels per student totaling roughly $27,000.
Delinquency rates on student loans are now as high as they were on subprime mortgages during the housing crisis.
Over half of recent college grads are unemployed or underemployed, working at jobs for which their expensive educations gave them no preparation.
We need new systems of learning to compete with traditional four-year schools: Technical institutions, online universities, life-long learning, and work- based learning in the private sector.
Public policy should advance their affordability, innovation, and transparency
and should recognize that a four-year degree from a brick-and-mortar institution is not the only path toward a prosperous and fulfilling career.
The federal government should not be in the business of originating student loans.
In order to bring down college costs and give students access to a multitude of financing options, private sector participation in student financing should be restored.
Any regulation that increases college costs must be challenged to balance its worth against its negative economic impact on students and their families.
In order to encourage new modes of higher education delivery to enter the market, accreditation should be decoupled from federal financing,
and states should be empowered to allow a wide array of accrediting and credentialing bodies to operate.
This model would foster innovation,
bring private industry into the credentialing market,
and give students the ability to customize their college experience.
Restoring Patient Control and Preserving Quality in Healthcare
Any honest agenda for improving healthcare must start with repeal of the dishonestly named Affordable Care Act of 2010: Obamacare.
It weighs like the dead hand of the past upon American medicine.
It imposed a Euro-style bureaucracy to manage its unworkable, budget-busting, conflicting provisions.
It has driven up prices for all consumers.
Their insurance premiums have dramatically increased while their deductibles have risen about eight times faster than wages in the last ten years.
It drove up drug prices by levying a $27 billion tax on manufacturers and importers
and, through mandated price cuts for drugs under Medicare and Medicaid, forced pharmaceutical companies to raise prices for everyone else.
Its "silver plans,” the most common option on the government insurance exchanges, limit people’s access to their own doctor through narrow networks
and restrict drug coverage, forcing many patients to pay for extremely costly medicines for their chronic diseases.
We agree with the four dissenting judges of the Supreme Court: “In our view, the entire Act before us is invalid in its entirety.”
It must be removed and replaced with an approach based on genuine competition, patient choice, excellent care, wellness, and timely access to treatment.
To that end, a Republican president, on the first day in office, will use legitimate waiver authority under the law to halt its advance and then, with the unanimous support of Congressional Republicans, will sign its repeal.
The Supreme Court upheld Obamacare based on Congress’ power to tax.
It is time to repeal Obamacare and give America a much-needed tax cut.
In its place we must combine what worked best in the past with changes needed for the future.
We must recover the traditional patient-physician relationship based on mutual trust, informed consent, and confidentiality.
To simplify the system for both patients and providers, we will reduce mandates and enable insurers and providers of care to increase healthcare options and contain costs.
Our goal is to ensure that all Americans have improved access to affordable, high-quality healthcare, including those struggling with mental illness.
We will return to the states their historic role of regulating local insurance markets,
limit federal requirements on both private insurance and Medicaid,
and call on state officials to reconsider the costly medical mandates, imposed under their own laws, that price millions of low-income families out of the insurance market.
To guarantee first-rate care for the needy, we propose to block grant Medicaid and other payments and to assist all patients, including those with pre-existing conditions, to obtain coverage in a robust consumer market.
Through Obamacare, the current Administration has promoted the notion of abortion as healthcare.
We, however, affirm the dignity of women by protecting the sanctity of human life.
Numerous studies have shown that abortion endangers the health and wellbeing of women, and we stand firmly against it.
To ensure vigorous competition in healthcare, and because cost-awareness is the best guard against over-utilization,
we will promote price transparency so consumers can know the cost of treatments before they agree to them.
We will empower individuals and small businesses to form purchasing pools in order to expand coverage to the uninsured.
We believe that individuals with preexisting conditions who maintain continuous coverage should be protected from discrimination.
We applaud the advance of technology in electronic medical records
while affirming patient privacy and ownership of personal health information.
Consumer choice is the most powerful factor in healthcare reform.
Today’s highly mobile workforce needs portability of insurance coverage that can go with them from job to job.
The need to maintain coverage should not dictate where families have to live and work.
We propose to end tax discrimination against the individual purchase of insurance and allow consumers to buy insurance across state lines.
In light of that, we propose repealing the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act which protects insurance companies from anti-trust litigation.
We look to the growth of Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Accounts that empower patients and advance choice in healthcare.
Our aging population must have access to safe and affordable care.
Because most seniors desire to age at home, we will make homecare a priority in public policy and will implement programs to protect against elder abuse.
Protecting Individual Conscience in Healthcare
America's healthcare professionals should not be forced to choose between following their faith and practicing their profession.
We respect the rights of conscience of healthcare professionals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and organizations, especially the faith-based groups which provide a major portion of care for the nation and the needy.
We support the ability of all organizations to provide, purchase, or enroll in healthcare coverage consistent with their religious, moral, or ethical convictions without discrimination or penalty.
We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children.
We support the right of parents to consent to medical treatment for their minor children and urge enactment of legislation that would require parental consent for their daughter to be transported across state lines for abortion.
Providers should not be permitted to unilaterally withhold services because a patient's life is deemed not worth living.
American taxpayers should not be forced to fund abortion.
As Democrats abandon this four decade-old bipartisan consensus, we call for codification of the Hyde Amendment and its application across the government, including Obamacare.
We call for a permanent ban on federal funding and subsidies for abortion and healthcare plans that include abortion coverage.
Better Care and Lower Costs: Tort Reform
Medical malpractice lawsuits have ballooned the cost of healthcare for everyone by forcing physicians to practice defensive medicine through tests and treatments which otherwise might be optional.
Rural America is especially affected as obstetricians, surgeons, and other providers move to urban settings or retire in the face of escalating insurance premiums.
Many Republican Governors have advanced the legal reforms necessary to reverse that trend.
We support state and federal legislation to cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits, thereby relieving conscientious providers of burdens that are not rightly theirs and addressing a serious cause of higher medical bills.
Advancing Research and Development in Healthcare
American medicine is poised to enter a new era of technological advance.
Federal and private investment in basic and applied biomedical research holds enormous promise, especially with diseases and disorders like autism, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's.
Just as we today take for granted wonders that seemed impossible a few decades ago MRIs and CAT scans, robotic surgery, and in utero treatment
— patients a decade hence will have care and treatment that will make much of today's medicine look primitive.
Modern miracles involving genetics, the immune system, cures for deadly diseases, and more are in the research pipeline.
This is the consequence of marrying significant investment, both public and private,
with the world's best talent, a formula that has for a century given the American people the world's best healthcare.
We are determined that it should continue to do so, especially as we confront new dangers like Ebola, Zika, Chikungunya, and antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
To continue our headway against breast and prostate cancer, diabetes, and other killers, research must consider the needs of formerly neglected demographic groups.
We call for expanded support for the stem cell research that now offers the greatest hope for many afflictions through adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood, and cells reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells
— without the destruction of embryonic human life.
We urge a ban on human cloning for research or reproduction,
and a ban on the creation of, or experimentation on, human embryos for research.
We applaud Congress’ ban on the FDA approval of research involving three-parent embryos.
We believe the FDA’s approval of Mifeprex, a dangerous abortifacient formerly known as RU-486, threatens women’s health,
as does the agency’s endorsement of over-the-counter sales of powerful contraceptives without a physician’s recommendation.
We support cutting federal and state funding for entities that endanger women’s health by performing abortions in a manner inconsistent with federal or state law.
Putting Patients First: Reforming the FDA
The United States has led life sciences and medical innovation for decades, bringing millions of high-paying jobs to our country and helping Americans and people around the world live longer, healthier lives.
Unfortunately, the continuously increasing burden of governmental regulation and red tape is taking its toll on our innovative companies, and their pipeline of new life-saving devices and drugs to our nation’s patients is slowing and diminishing.
The FDA has slowly but relentlessly changed into an agency that more and more puts the public health at risk by delaying, chilling, and killing the development of new devices, drugs and biologics that can promote our lives and our health.
The FDA needs leadership that can reform the agency for our century and fix the lack of predictability, consistency, transparency
and efficiency at the agency.
The FDA needs to return to its traditional emphasis on hard science and approving new breakthrough medicines,
rather than divert its attention and consume its resources trying to overregulate electronic health records or vaping.
We pledge to restore the FDA to its position as the premier scientific health agency, focused on both promoting and protecting the public health in equal measure,
so we can ensure that Americans live longer, healthier lives,
that the United States remains the world leader in life sciences and medical innovation,
that millions of high-paying, cutting-edge device and drug jobs stay in the United States,
that U.S. patients benefit first and most from new devices and drugs,
and that the FDA no longer wastes U.S. taxpayer and innovators’ resources through bureaucratic red tape and legal uncertainty.
We commend those states that have passed Right to Try legislation, allowing terminally ill patients the right to try investigational medicines not yet approved by the FDA.
We urge Congress to pass federal legislation to give all Americans with terminal illnesses the right to try.
Advancing Americans with Disabilities
Under the last two Republican presidents, landmark civil rights legislation affirmed the inherent rights of persons with disabilities.
Republicans want to support those rights by guaranteeing access to education and the tools necessary to compete in the mainstream of society.
This is not just a moral obligation to our fellow Americans with disabilities.
It is our duty to our country’s future to tap this vast pool of talented individuals who want to work and contribute to the common good.
For that reason, Republican leadership led to enactment of the ABLE Act (Achieving a Better Life Experience) and the Steve Gleason Act.
The former, for the first time, lets people with disabilities maintain access to services while saving to develop assets.
The latter, bearing the name of the former NFL player with ALS, provides access to speech-generating devices.
In addition, our Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act will make it easier for students with disabilities to pursue competitive employment.
Persons with disabilities are nearly twice as likely to be self-employed as the general population.
To encourage their entrepreneurship, it makes sense to include them in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) certification program, which opens up federal contracting for emerging businesses.
Any restructuring of the tax code should consider ways in which companies can benefit from the talent and energy of their disabled employees.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has opened up unprecedented opportunities for many students.
Congressional Republicans will lead in its reauthorization, as well as renewal of the Higher Education Act, which can offer students with disabilities increased access to the general curriculum.
Our TIME Act (Transition to Integrated and Meaningful Employment) will modernize the Fair Labor Standards Act to encourage competitive employment for persons with disabilities.
We affirm our support for its goal of minimizing the separation of children with disabilities from their peers.
We endorse efforts like Employment First that replace dependency with jobs in the mainstream of the American workforce.
We oppose the non-consensual withholding of care or treatment from people with disabilities,
including newborns, the elderly, and infirm,
just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, which endanger especially those on the margins of society.
We urge the Drug Enforcement Administration to restore its ban on the use of controlled substances for physician-assisted suicide.
Ensuring Safe Neighborhoods: Criminal Justice and Prison Reform
The men and women of law enforcement — whether patrolling our neighborhoods or our borders,
fighting organized crime or guarding against domestic terror
— deserve our gratitude and support.
Their jobs are never easy, especially in crisis situations,
and should not be made more difficult by politicized second-guessing from federal officials.
The current Administration’s lack of respect for them, from White House intervention in local arrests to the Attorney General’s present campaign of harassment against police forces around the country, has been unprecedented.
With all Americans, we mourn those whom we have lost to violence and hatred.
To honor their sacrifice, we recommit ourselves, as individuals and as a party, to the rule of law and the pursuit of justice.
The conduct of the Department of Justice has included refusal to enforce laws, stonewalling congressional committees, destroying evidence, reckless dealing with firearms that led to several deaths on both sides of our border, and defying a citation for contempt.
It has urged leniency for rioters while turning a blind eye to mob attacks on peaceful citizens exercising their political rights.
A new administration must ensure the immediate dismissal and, where appropriate, prosecution of any Department officials who have violated their oath of office.
The next president must restore the public’s trust in law enforcement and civil order by first adhering to the rule of law himself.
Additionally, the next president must not sow seeds of division and distrust between the police and the people they have sworn to serve and protect.
The Republican Party, a party of law and order, must make clear in words and action that every human life matters.
Two grave problems undermine the rule of law on the federal level: Over-criminalization
and over-federalization.
In the first case, Congress and federal agencies have increased the number of criminal offenses in the U.S. Code from 3,000 in the early 1980s to more than 4,500 today.
That does not include an estimated 300,000 regulations containing criminal penalties.
No one, including the Department of Justice, can come up with accurate numbers.
That recklessness is bad enough when committed by Congress,
but when it comes from the unelected bureaucrats of the federal agencies, it is intolerable.
The power of career civil servants and political appointees to criminalize behavior is one of the worst violations of constitutional order perpetrated by the administrative state.
To deal with this morass, we urge caution in the creation of new “crimes”
and a bipartisan presidential commission to purge the Code and the body of regulations of old “crimes.”
We call for mens rea elements in the definition of any new crimes to protect Americans who, in violating a law, act unknowingly or without criminal intent.
We urge Congress to codify the Common Law's Rule of Lenity, which requires courts to interpret unclear statutes in favor of a defendant.
The over-federalization of criminal justice is one of many ways in which the government in Washington has intruded beyond its proper jurisdiction.
The essential role of federal law enforcement personnel in protecting federal property and combating interstate crime should not be compromised by diversion to matters properly handled by state and local authorities.
We applaud the Republican Governors and legislators who have been implementing criminal justice reforms like those proposed by our 2012 platform.
Along with diversion of first-time, nonviolent offenders to community sentencing, accountability courts, drug courts, veterans treatment courts,
and guidance by faith- based institutions with proven track records of rehabilitation,
our platform emphasized restorative justice to make the victim whole and put the offender on the right path.
As variants of these reforms are undertaken in many states, we urge the Congress to learn from what works.
In the past, judicial discretion about sentences led to serious mistakes concerning dangerous criminals.
Mandatory minimum sentencing became an important tool for keeping them off the streets.
Modifications to it should be targeted toward particular categories, especially nonviolent offenders and persons with drug, alcohol, or mental health issues,
and should require disclosure by the courts of any judicial departure from the state’s sentencing requirements.
The constitutionality of the death penalty is firmly settled by its explicit mention in the Fifth Amendment.
With the murder rate soaring in our great cities, we condemn the Supreme Court’s erosion of the right of the people to enact capital punishment in their states.
In solidarity with those who protect us, we call for mandatory prison time for all assaults involving serious injury to law enforcement officers.
We call on the Congress to make the federal courts a model for the rest of the country in protecting the rights of victims and their families.
They should be told all relevant information about their case, allowed to be present for its trial, assured a voice in sentencing and parole hearings, given access to social and legal services, and benefit from the Crime Victims Fund established under President Reagan for that sole purpose.
Public officials must regain control of their correctional institutions, some of which have become ethnic and racial battlegrounds.
Persons jailed for whatever cause should be protected against cruel or degrading treatment by other inmates.
Courts should not tie the hands of prison officials in dealing with these problems.
We encourage states to offer opportunities for literacy and vocational education to prepare prisoners for release to the community.
Breaking the cycle of crime begins with the children of those who are prisoners.
Deprived of a parent through no fault of their own, youngsters from these families should be a special concern of our schools, social services, and religious institutions.
The internet must not become a safe haven for predators.
Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions.
We encourage states to continue to fight this public menace and pledge our commitment to children’s safety and well-being.
We applaud the social networking sites that bar sex offenders from participation.
We urge energetic prosecution of child pornography, which is closely linked to human trafficking.
Combatting Drug Abuse
The progress made over the last three decades against drug abuse is eroding,
whether for cultural reasons
or for lack of national leadership.
In many jurisdictions, marijuana is virtually legalized despite its illegality under federal law.
At the other end of the drug spectrum, heroin use nearly doubled from 2003 to 2013, while deaths from heroin have quadrupled.
All this highlights the continuing conflicts and contradictions in public attitudes and public policy toward illegal substances.
Congress and a new administration should consider the long- range implications of these trends for public health and safety and prepare to deal with the problematic consequences.
The misuse of prescription painkillers - opioids — is a related problem.
Heroin and opioid abuse touches our communities, our homes, and our families in ways that have grave effects on Americans in every community.
With a quadrupling of both their sales and their overdose deaths, the opioid crisis is ravaging communities all over the country,
often hitting rural areas harder than urban.
Because over-prescription of drugs is such a large part of the problem, Republican legislation now allows Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage plans to limit patients to a single pharmacy.
Congressional Republicans have also called upon the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to ensure that no physician will be penalized for limiting opioid prescriptions.
We look for expeditious agreement between the House and Senate on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which addresses the opioid epidemic from both the demand and supply sides of the problem.
America Resurgent
A Dangerous World
Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 23 that the first of the “principal” constitutional obligations of the federal government is to provide for the “common defense” of the United States, and President George Washington wisely reminded us that “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
After nearly eight years of a Democratic Commander-in-Chief who has frequently placed strategic and ideological limitations and shackles on our military,
our enemies have been emboldened and our national security is at great risk.
Our country faces a national security crisis, and only by electing a Republican to the White House will we restore law and order to our land
and safety to our citizens.
We are the party of peace through strength.
We believe that American exceptionalism — the notion that our ideas and principles as a nation give us a unique place of moral leadership in the world
— requires the United States to retake its natural position as leader of the free world.
Tyranny and injustice thrive when America is weakened.
The oppressed have no greater ally than a confident and determined United States,
backed by the strongest military on the planet.
Quite simply, the Republican Party is committed to rebuilding the U.S. military into the strongest on earth, with vast superiority over any other nation or group of nations in the world.
We face a dangerous world, and we believe in a resurgent America.
In all of our country's history, there is no parallel to what President Obama and his former Secretary of State have done to weaken our nation.
Our aging naval capabilities are inadequate for their job.
The Air Force fields the smallest and oldest force of combat aircraft in its history.
The Marines have only two-thirds the number of battalions they have historically needed to meet day to day operational demands.
The Army is at its lowest troop levels since before World War II.
Our U.S. Ambassador and American personnel were left without adequate security or backup halfway across the world in Benghazi.
In summary, we have returned to the hollow force days of Jimmy Carter.
Also neglected are our strategic forces, especially the development and deployment of ballistic missile defenses.
The Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system has been delayed and underfunded.
To curry favor with Russia, defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic have been neutralized and the number of planned interceptors in Alaska has been reduced.
A New START agreement (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), so weak in verification and definitions that it is virtually impossible to prove a violation, has allowed Russia to build up its nuclear arsenal while reducing ours.
Meanwhile Moscow has repeatedly violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty (a treaty agreeing to the elimination of land-based mid-range nuclear missiles) with impunity, covertly testing missiles banned under that agreement.
In the international arena, a weak Administration has invited aggression.
The results of the Administration's unilateral approach to disarmament are already clear:
An emboldened China in the South China Sea,
a resurgent Russia occupying parts of Ukraine and threatening neighbors from the Baltic to the Caucasus,
and an aggressive Islamist terror network in the Middle East.
We support maintaining and, if warranted, increasing sanctions, together with our allies, against Russia unless and until Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are fully restored.
We also support providing appropriate assistance to the armed forces of Ukraine and greater coordination with NATO defense planning.
All our adversaries heard the message in the Administration’s cutbacks: America is weaker and retreating.
Concomitantly, we honor, support, and thank all law enforcement, first responders, and emergency personnel for their service.
Confronting the Dangers
In the face of these threats, the first order of business for a Republican president and Congress will be to restore our nation’s military might.
Republicans continue to support American military superiority which has been the cornerstone of a strategy that seeks to deter aggression
or defeat those who threaten our vital national security interests.
We must rebuild troop numbers and readiness
and confirm their mission: Protecting the nation,
not nation building.
The United States should meet the Reagan model of “peace through strength” by a force that is capable of meeting any and all threats to our vital national security.
We will no longer tolerate a President whose rules of engagement put our own troops in harm’s way
or commanders who tell their soldiers that their first duty is to fight climate change.
A Republican administration will begin at once to undo the damage of the last eight years.
We must move from a budget-based strategy to one that puts the security of our nation first.
This means that our Republican president’s strategic vision will include the development of a balanced force to meet the diverse threats facing our nation.
Special Operations Forces are simply not intended to deal with the full spectrum of threats.
We need a Reagan-era force that can fight and win two-and one-half wars ranging from counterterrorism to deterring major power aggressors.
We should abandon arms control treaties that benefit our adversaries without improving our national security.
We must fund, develop, and deploy a multi-layered missile defense system.
We must modernize nuclear weapons and their delivery platforms,
end the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction,
and rebuild relationships with our allies,
who understand that as long as the U.S. nuclear arsenal is their shield, they do not need to engage in nuclear proliferation.
While immigration is addressed in more detail elsewhere, we cannot ignore the reality that border security is a national security issue,
and that our nation’s immigration and refugee policies are placing Americans at risk.
To keep our people safe, we must secure our borders,
enforce our immigration laws,
and properly screen refugees and other immigrants entering from any country.
In particular we must apply special scrutiny to those foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States from terror-sponsoring countries or from regions associated with Islamic terrorism.
This was done successfully after September 11, 2001, under the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, which should be renewed now.
Supporting Our Troops: Resources to do Their Job
We owe it to the American people and to those who fight our wars that we remain the strongest military on earth
and be prepared to defeat any adversary under any circumstances on any battlefield, including land, air, sea, or cyber.
Successive years of cuts to our defense budget have put an undue strain on our men and women in uniform.
This is especially harmful at a time when we are asking our military to do more in an increasingly dangerous world.
The U.S. defense budget has suffered a 25 percent cut in real dollars in the five years since sequestration.
We support lifting the budget cap for defense and reject the efforts of Democrats to hold the military’s budget hostage for their domestic agenda.
Congress and the Administration should work together to approve military spending at the level necessary to defend our country.
We must not be encumbered by decades- old, legacy procurement processes.
America’s incredible talent and ingenuity must be unleashed by modernizing the military procurement system and embracing competition among traditional and non-traditional suppliers.
Competitive acquisition and maintenance of weapon systems, including the sustainment and support of such systems,
will benefit the U.S. economy,
U.S. taxpayers,
and most important, the American warfighter.
Increased competition will enable new Department of Defense suppliers,
particularly small businesses, to participate in the defense sector.
That will promote new demand for skilled-labor jobs,
while making the Department's procurement more cost-efficient.
The increased agility and effectiveness will ensure that our troops are equipped with the right resources more quickly than our current procurement systems allow.
Supporting Our Troops: Standing by Our Heroes
With Republican leadership, the Congress recently passed legislation that begins to reverse America's military decline.
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2016 begins to correct the shortfalls in our military readiness by reversing troop cuts, increasing investments in training and maintenance, and rebuilding facilities.
It gives our troops the full pay raise to which they are entitled under the law
and gives the next administration the ability to review operations and funding, make adjustments, and ask for more money if necessary.
All this represents a sound start in supporting those who put their lives on the line in defense of our country,
while protecting our national security in a dangerous world.
Military families must be assured of the pay, healthcare, housing, education, and overall support they have earned.
In recent years, they have been carrying the burden of budgetary restraint more than any other Americans through cuts in their pay, health benefits, and retirement plans.
About 75 percent of enlistees come from military families.
We cannot expect that level of patriotic commitment to continue among young people who have experienced the way their families have been treated.
We must ensure that the nation keeps its commitments to those who signed on the dotted line of enlistment.
The repeated troop deployments during conflicts in the Middle East have been unusually hard on all members of their households, worsening unemployment and underemployment among spouses.
In many cases, they and their children have been at war for 14 years.
We must strengthen existing programs that offer families readjustment information and counseling, and we urge states to help by providing job programs, license reciprocity, one-stop service centers, and education.
The burden of our country's extended military involvement in the Middle East has taken a toll on our service personnel.
Suicides among our military — active duty troops, reservists, National Guardsmen, and veterans — are at shocking levels,
while postservice medical conditions, including addiction and mental illness, require more and more assistance.
More than ever, our government must work with the private sector to advance opportunities and provide assistance to those wounded in spirit as well as in body,
whether through experimental efforts like the PAWS (Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemen) program for service dogs or through the faith-based institutions that have traditionally been providers of counseling and aid.
We support the rights of conscience of military chaplains of all faiths to practice their faith free from political interference.
We reject attempts by the Obama Administration to censure and silence them, particularly Christians and Christian chaplains.
We support an increase in the size of the Chaplain Corps.
A Republican commander-in- chief will protect the religious freedom of all military members, especially chaplains, and will not tolerate attempts to ban Bibles or religious symbols from military facilities.
A Republican commander-in- chief will also encourage education regarding the religious liberties of military personnel under both the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the current National Defense Authorization Act.
Our country's all-volunteer force has been a success.
We oppose the reinstatement of the draft, except in dire circumstances like world war, whether directly or through compulsory national service.
We support the all-volunteer force and oppose unnecessary policy changes, including compulsory national service and Selective Service registration of women for a possible future draft.
We reiterate our support for both the advancement of women in the military
and their exemption from direct ground combat units and infantry battalions.
We affirm the cultural values that encourage selfless service and superiority in battle,
and we oppose anything which might divide or weaken team cohesion, including intra-military special interest demonstrations.
In particular, we warn against modification or lessening of standards in order to satisfy a nonmilitary agenda imposed by the White House.
We call for an objective review of the impact on readiness of the current Administration’s ideology- based personnel policies, and will correct problems with appropriate administrative, legal, or legislative action.
We reject the use of the military as a platform for social experimentation
and will not accept or continue attempts to undermine military priorities and mission readiness.
We believe that our nation is most secure when the president and the administration prioritize readiness, recruitment, and retention
rather than using the military to advance a social or political agenda.
Military readiness should not be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.
We oppose legislative attempts to modify the system of military justice that would undermine its fairness and due process rights for all concerned, both the accuser and the accused.
Citizen Soldiers: National Guard and Reserves
Our Reserve and National Guard forces are national assets that must be nurtured in a manner commensurate with their role as America’s sentinels.
Their historic mission as citizen-soldiers is a proud tradition linking every town and city across America to liberty’s cause.
Since September 11, 2001, the National Guard has transformed from a strategic reserve to a fully integrated operational fighting force.
The Guard has bled on missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and the Sinai.
Today, more than fifty percent of our Guardsmen have combat experience.
The Guard has demonstrated its value to the nation not only in war but during emergencies here at home such as Hurricane Katrina and Super Storm Sandy.
To avoid the overextension of our military, we support a larger active force
and oppose the current Administration’s cuts to the National Guard and Reserves.
Those reductions are dangerous and counter-productive because the men and women of the Guard and Reserve tend to be older and more experienced than their active duty counterparts.
Guard and Reserve forces are currently deployed at historically high rates.
The Army Reserve alone has soldiers in 30 countries.
To its credit, the Republican Congress, by passing the National Defense Authorization Act, has moved to ensure these troops have what they need.
That provision has triggered another veto threat from the Commander- in-Chief, even though the bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.
He would have the members of the Reserve and Guard train on, and potentially be deployed with, equipment that is no longer used by their active duty comrades.
We cannot tolerate this endangerment of both our troops and our national security.
Therefore, we recommend a permanent line item for National Guard affairs, one that is not eliminated by the President and reinstated by Congress.
The guard is too essential to our national defense to be a secondary decision.
Honoring and Supporting Our Veterans: A Sacred Obligation
Our nation’s veterans have been our nation’s strength and remain a national resource.
Their service to their country — as community leaders, volunteers, mentors, educators, problem solvers, and public officials — continues long after they leave the military.
In the same way, our obligation to the one percent who defend the other ninety- nine percent does not end when they take off the uniform.
America has a sacred trust with our veterans,
and we are committed to ensuring them and their families' care and dignity.
The work of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is essential to meet our commitments to them: Providing health, education, disability, survivor, and home loan benefits, and arranging memorial services upon death.
We heed Abraham Lincoln's command “to care for him who bore the battle.”
To care, as well, for the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, who must be assured of meaningful financial assistance, remains our solemn duty.
As shown by recent controversies at the Department, senior leaders must be held accountable for ensuring that their subordinates are more responsive to veterans' needs.
The VA has failed those who have sacrificed the most for our freedom.
The VA must move from a sometimes adversarial stance to an advocacy relationship with vets.
To that end, we will empower the Secretary to hold all VA employees accountable
and will seek fundamental change in the VA's senior leadership structure by placing presidential appointees, rather than careerists, in additional positions of significant responsibility.
We cannot allow an unresponsive bureaucracy to blunt our national commitment.
The VA must strengthen and improve its efforts through partnerships with private enterprises,
veteran service organizations,
technology and innovation,
and competitive bidding to enable the VA to better provide both quality and timely care along with all earned benefits to our nation's veterans and their families.
This will allow the VA to reduce the backlog and save immense resources all at the same time.
Therefore, let us look to innovative solutions that allow higher quality VA care,
reduce backlogs,
and save immense resources all at the same time.
Our wounded warriors, whether still in service or discharged, deserve the best medical care the country can provide.
We must make military and veterans' medicine the gold standard for mental health, traumatic brain injury, multiple traumas, loss of limbs, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Those injuries require a new commitment of targeted resources and personnel for treatment and care to advance recovery.
That includes allowing veterans to choose to access care in the community and not just in VA facilities,
because the best care in the world is not effective if it is not accessible.
We will seek to consolidate the VA's existing community care authorities to make a single program that will be easily understood by both veterans and VA healthcare providers.
Like the rest of American medicine, the VA faces a critical shortage of primary care and mental health physicians.
That's why there are long waiting times to see a doctor and why doctors are often frustrated by the limited time they have with their patients.
This is especially the case with mental health care, which often amounts to prescribing drugs because there are not enough psychologists and psychiatrists to do anything else.
Inadequate treatment of PTSD drives other problems like suicide, homelessness, and unemployment.
This situation may not be quickly reversed, but a Republican administration will begin, on day one, to undertake the job.
As a nation, we honor the sacrifice of our fallen service members at the graves where we lay them to rest in national, state, and veterans' cemeteries around the world.
In doing so, we make it clear that their ultimate sacrifice and service to our country will never be forgotten.
As a party, we seek to honor their sacrifice and comfort their families by ensuring all veterans' cemeteries are adequately equipped and a standard of care established, using Arlington Cemetery as a guide, that is befitting their service.
The level of financial distress and homelessness among vets is a shame to the nation.
For a veteran, a job is more than a source of income.
It is a new mission, with a new status, and the transition can be difficult.
We urge the private sector to make hiring vets a company policy and commend the organizations that have proven programs to accomplish this.
We will retain the preference given to veterans when they seek federal employment.
We urge closer coordination with the state offices for veterans' affairs,
particularly with regard to expediting disability claims, since those closest to an individual can often best diagnose a problem and apply a remedy.
We will halt the current Administration's unconstitutional automatic denial of gun ownership to returning members of our Armed Forces who have had representatives appointed to manage their financial affairs.
We urge state education officials to promote the hiring of qualified veterans as teachers in our public schools.
Their proven abilities and life experiences will make them more successful instructors and role models for students than would any teaching certification.
Over-prescription of opioids has become a nationwide problem hindering the treatment of veterans suffering from mental health issues.
We therefore support the need to explore new and broader ranges of options,
including faith- based programs,
that will better serve the veteran and reduce the need to rely on drugs as the sole treatment.
America: The Indispensable Nation
For the last several generations, our country’s two major political parties were dedicated to the nation’s security and the advance of freedom around the world.
Both had learned from mistakes of the past and realized that a weak America invited aggression.
Both recognized the need to stand with friends and oppose those who wished us evil.
Whatever their disagreements, both the Republican and Democratic parties stood for peace through strength
— and strength meant American military superiority.
This bipartisan commitment has tragically changed.
The leadership of the Democratic Party, both those in office and those who seek it, no longer see America as a force for good in the world.
They do not stand by allies or stand strong against our foes.
They pander to world opinion and neglect the national interest.
They cannot be trusted to advance either the cause of liberty or our national security in the dangerous years in which we live.
We affirm our party’s tradition of world leadership established by President Eisenhower and followed by every Republican president since.
It stands for enormous power — and the prudence to use it sparingly, precisely, and only in grave necessity.
It stands for involvement, not intervention.
It requires consultation, not permission to act.
It leads from the front — and ensures all others do their parts as well.
It embraces American exceptionalism
and rejects the false prophets of decline and diminution.
It is, in sum, the way we will lead the world into a new century of greater peace and prosperity — another American Century.
Challenges of a Changing Middle East
The Middle East is more dangerous now than at any time since the Second World War.
Whatever their disagreements, presidents of both parties had always prioritized America’s national interests,
the trust of friendly governments,
and the security of Israel.
That sound consensus was replaced with impotent grandstanding on the part of the current President and his Secretaries of State.
The results have been ruinous for all parties except Islamic terrorists and their Iranian and other sponsors.
We consider the Administration’s deal with Iran, to lift international sanctions and make hundreds of billions of dollars available to the Mullahs, a personal agreement between the President and his negotiating partners and non-binding on the next president.
Without a two-thirds endorsement by the Senate, it does not have treaty status.
Because of it, the defiant and emboldened regime in Tehran continues to sponsor terrorism across the region, develop a nuclear weapon, test-fire ballistic missiles inscribed with “Death to Israel,” and abuse the basic human rights of its citizens.
A Republican president will not be bound by it.
We must retain all options in dealing with a situation that gravely threatens our security, our interests, and the survival of our friends.
Over the last four years we have seen the rise of a murderous fanaticism in the form of ISIS, the so called Islamic State.
Its reach now extends far beyond the Middle East to virtually every continent.
ISIS has brought ancient butchery into the 21st century.
Nations are imploding, erasing long- established borders.
The Obama Administration and its Secretary of State so mishandled the Arab Spring that it destabilized the entire region.
The hope some saw in the Arab Spring has transformed into disappointment.
The dictator of Syria, Bashar Assad, has murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people and created millions of refugees,
and an American president has been unable to rally the world against him.
Understandably, our allies fear for their future in a region far more dangerous than it was eight years ago.
A Republican administration will restore our nation’s credibility.
We must stand up for our friends,
challenge our foes,
and destroy ISIS.
Hezbollah, controlling over 100,000 missiles in Lebanon, must be isolated and Lebanon’s independence restored.
We will support the transition to a post-Assad Syrian government that is representative of its people,
protects the rights of all minorities and religions,
respects the territorial integrity of its neighbors,
and contributes to peace and stability in the region.
The Iraqi people have been on the front lines in the fight against terror.
Hundreds of thousands have been killed, and the attacks against them continue, even in Baghdad.
Our partnership with them should continue as long as ISIS and others like it survive in the region.
We are deeply concerned that, in the face of genocide against them, Christian communities in cities like Erbil are receiving no financial support from either the U.S. government or the UN to help with displaced persons and urban refugees.
Their survival is sustained only by private charities.
This must change immediately.
Defeating ISIS means more than pushing back its fighters while abandoning its victims.
It must mean aiding those who have suffered the most — and doing so before they starve.
It means supporting the long-term survival of indigenous religious and ethnic communities,
punishing the perpetrators of crimes against humanity,
and conditioning humanitarian and military assistance to governments on their observable commitment to human rights.
We continue to support the Kurdish people, whose bravery and cooperation with our forces merit our respect and their autonomy.
Many countries in the region have given, and continue to give, substantial assistance to the United States because they understand that our struggle against terrorism is not an ethnic or religious fight.
They consider violent extremists to be abusers of their faith, not its champions.
We applaud their courage and value their counsel.
The U.S. government, together with its global partners, should mobilize its political, economic, and military assets to support the creation of a safe haven in northern Iraq to protect those ethnic and religious minorities continuing to face genocide at the hands of ISIS.
Our Unequivocal Support for Israel
Like the United States of America, the modern state of Israel is a country born from the aspiration for freedom and stands out among the nations as a beacon of democracy and humanity.
Beyond our mutual strategic interests, Israel is likewise an exceptional country that shares our most essential values.
It is the only country in the Middle East where freedom of speech and freedom of religion are found.
Therefore, support for Israel is an expression of Americanism,
and it is the responsibility of our government to advance policies that reflect Americans' strong desire for a relationship with no daylight between America and Israel.
We recognize Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state and call for the American embassy to be moved there in fulfillment of U.S. law.
We reaffirm America's commitment to Israel's security
and will ensure that Israel maintains a qualitative military edge over any and all adversaries.
We support Israel's right and obligation to defend itself against terror attacks upon its people
and against alternative forms of warfare being waged upon it legally, economically, culturally, and otherwise.
We reject the false notion that Israel is an occupier and specifically recognize that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) is anti-Semitic in nature and seeks to destroy Israel.
Therefore, we call for effective legislation to thwart actions that are intended to limit commercial relations with Israel, or persons or entities doing business in Israel or in Israeli-controlled territories, in a discriminatory manner.
The United States seeks to assist in the establishment of comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East,
to be negotiated among those living in the region.
We oppose any measures intended to impose an agreement or to dictate borders or other terms, and we call for the immediate termination of all U.S. funding of any entity that attempts to do so.
Our party is proud to stand with Israel now and always.
U.S. Leadership in the Asian Pacific
We are a Pacific nation with economic, military, and cultural ties to all the countries of the oceanic rim
and treaty alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
With them, we look toward the establishment of human rights for the people of North Korea.
We urge the government of China to recognize the inevitability of change in the Kim family’s slave state
and, for everyone’s safety against nuclear disaster, to hasten positive change on the Korean peninsula.
The United States will continue to demand the complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program with full accounting of its proliferation activities.
We also pledge to counter any threats from the North Korean regime.
We salute the people of Taiwan, with whom we share the values of democracy, human rights, a free market economy, and the rule of law.
Our relations will continue to be based upon the provisions of the Taiwan Relations Act, and we affirm the Six Assurances given to Taiwan in 1982 by President Reagan.
We oppose any unilateral steps by either side to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Straits on the principle that all issues regarding the island’s future must be resolved peacefully, through dialogue,
and be agreeable to the people of Taiwan.
If China were to violate those principles, the United States, in accord with the Taiwan Relations Act, will help Taiwan defend itself.
We praise efforts by the new government in Taipei to continue constructive relations across the Taiwan Strait and call on China to reciprocate.
As a loyal friend of America, Taiwan has merited our strong support,
including free trade agreement status,
the timely sale of defensive arms including technology to build diesel submarines,
and full participation in the World Health Organization, International Civil Aviation Organization, and other multilateral institutions.
China’s behavior has negated the optimistic language of our last platform concerning our future relations with China.
The liberalizing policies of recent decades have been abruptly reversed,
dissent brutally crushed,
religious persecution heightened,
the internet crippled,
a barbaric population control two-child policy of forced abortions and forced sterilizations continued,
and the cult of Mao revived.
Critics of the regime have been kidnapped by its agents in foreign countries.
To distract the populace from its increasing economic problems and, more importantly, to expand its military might, the government asserts a preposterous claim to the entire South China Sea and continues to dredge ports and create landing fields in contested waters where none have existed before, ever nearer to U.S. territories and our allies,
while building a navy far out of proportion to defensive purposes.
The complacency of the Obama regime has emboldened the Chinese government and military to issue threats of intimidation throughout the South China Sea,
not to mention parading their new missile, "the Guam Killer,” down the main streets of Beijing,
a direct shot at Guam as America’s first line of defense.
Meanwhile, cultural genocide continues in Tibet and Xinjiang,
the promised autonomy of Hong Kong is eroded,
the currency is manipulated,
our technology is stolen,
and intellectual property and copyrights are mocked in an economy based on piracy.
In business terms, this is not competition; it is a hostile takeover.
For any American company to abet those offenses,
especially governmental censorship and tracking of dissenters, is a disgrace.
The return to Maoism by China’s current rulers is not reason to disengage with the Chinese people or their institutions.
We welcome students, tourists, and investors, who can see for themselves our vibrant American democracy and how real democracy works.
We caution, however, against academic or cultural operations under the control of the Chinese government
and call upon American colleges to dissociate themselves from this increasing threat to academic freedom and honest research.
Most of the nations of Southeast Asia have set aside crippling ideologies and sought material progress in free enterprise and democracy.
We congratulate the people of Burma on their emergence from authoritarian rule
and urge their respect for the rights of their country’s minority populations.
Our improved relations with Vietnam — including arms sales — must advance efforts to obtain an accounting for, and repatriation of the remains of, Americans who gave their lives in the cause of Vietnamese freedom.
We cannot overlook the continued repression of fundamental rights and religious freedom,
as well as retribution against ethnic minorities and others who assisted U.S. forces during the conflict there.
India is our geopolitical ally and a strategic trading partner.
The dynamism of its people
and the endurance of their democratic institutions
are earning their country a position of leadership not only in Asia but throughout the world.
We encourage the Indian government to permit expanded foreign investment and trade,
the key to rising living standards for those left out of their country's energetic economy.
For all of India's religious communities, we urge protection against violence and discrimination.
Republicans note with pride the contributions to our country that are made by our fellow citizens of Indian ancestry.
Conflicts in the Middle East have created special political and military challenges for the people of Pakistan.
Our working relationship is a necessary, though sometimes difficult, benefit to both, and we look toward the strengthening of historic ties that have frayed under the weight of international conflict.
This process cannot progress as long as any citizen of Pakistan can be punished for helping the War on Terror.
Pakistanis, Afghans, and Americans have a common interest in ridding the region of the Taliban and securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
That goal has been undermined by the current Administration's feckless treatment of troop commitments
and blatant disregard of advice from commanders on the ground, particularly with regard to Afghanistan.
A Republican president will work with all regional leaders to restore mutual trust
while insisting upon progress against corruption and the narcotic trade that fuels insurgency.
Renewing the European Alliance
With bipartisan support, President Truman forged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as an alliance of the western democracies.
Its continued effectiveness is vital, especially in light of recent military challenges in Eastern Europe.
With the American people spending on defense, per capita, four times the amount spent by Europeans, we demand, as we have in the past, that our fellow members of NATO fulfill their commitments and meet their need for greater investment in their armed forces.
Our historic ties to the peoples of Europe have been based on shared culture and values,
common interests and goals.
Their endurance cannot be taken for granted, especially in light of the continent's economic problems and demographic changes.
We recognize with regret the increasing trend among many of our allies to move away from rights and liberties that Americans hold dear, especially freedom of speech.
It would be a tragic irony if the nations of Europe which withstood Soviet repression were to now impose a form of it upon themselves.
We honor our special relationship with the people of the United Kingdom
and are grateful for their staunch support in the fight against terrorism.
We respect their decision concerning their nation's relationship to the European Union and pledge that, however much other international relationships may change, those who were first to our side in our hour of loss will always rank first in our policies and our esteem.
We thank the several nations of Europe that have contributed to a united effort in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
Their support and sacrifice in the fight against Islamic terrorism will not be forgotten.
We applaud the ongoing reconciliation in Northern Ireland
and hope that its success might be replicated in Cyprus.
We urge greater coordination in economic and security affairs between the United States and the republics of Eastern Europe.
We urge that Poland be granted visa waiver status and we support placement of NATO troops in Poland.
For the people of Russia, we affirm our respect and our determination to maintain a friendship beyond the reach of those who wish to divide us.
We have common imperatives: Ending terrorism,
combating nuclear proliferation,
promoting trade, and more.
We also have a common problem: The continuing erosion of personal liberty and fundamental rights under the current officials in the Kremlin.
Repressive at home and reckless abroad,
their policies imperil the nations which regained their self-determination upon the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We will meet the return of Russian belligerence with the same resolve that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We will not accept any territorial change in Eastern Europe imposed by force, in Ukraine, Georgia, or elsewhere,
and will use all appropriate constitutional measures to bring to justice the practitioners of aggression and assassination.
We urge greater attention in U.S. diplomacy, trade, and strategic planning, to the nations of Eurasia, formerly parts of the Soviet Empire.
Caught between their two authoritarian neighbors, their path toward democratic institutions has been uncertain.
We urge our government and our allies to work toward the integration of the Central Asian republics into the global economy
through foreign investment,
which can bring with it market and political reforms
and a firmer establishment of the rule of law.
Those developments will not only improve the living conditions throughout that vast area
but are likely to reduce the lure of the radical ideologies that already threaten the region.
Family of the Americas
Our future is intimately tied to the future of the Americas.
Family, language, culture, environment, and trade link us closely with both Canada
and Mexico.
Our relations with both of these friends will be based upon continuing cooperation and our mutually shared interests.
Our attention to trade and environmental issues will contribute to strong economic growth and prosperity throughout the Americas.
We thank our neighbors in Mexico and Canada who have been our partners in the fight against terrorism and the war on drugs.
The Mexican people deserve our assistance as they bravely resist the drug cartels that traffic in death on both sides of our border.
Their rich cultural and religious heritage, shared by many millions of our fellow citizens,
should foster greater understanding and cooperation between our countries.
Our Canadian neighbors can count on our cooperation and respect.
To advance North America's energy independence, we intend to reverse the current Administration's blocking of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Apart from its economic value, that project has become a symbol in the contest between the public's desire for economic development
and the government's hostility to growth.
We stand with the people.
We express our solidarity with all the peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
Their aspirations for economic betterment and political liberty have deserved better from our government than its policies of the last eight years.
The current Administration has abandoned America's friends and rewarded its enemies.
A Republican president will never embrace a Marxist dictator, in Venezuela or anywhere else.
The current chief executive has allowed that country to become a narcoterrorist state, an Iranian outpost threatening Central America, and a safe haven for the agents of Hezbollah.
Now, with their country ruined by socialism and on the verge of chaos, the Venezuelan people are fighting to restore their democracy and regain their rights.
When they triumph, as they surely will, the United States will stand ready to help them restore their country to the family of the Americas.
We affirm our friendship and admiration for the people of Colombia
and call on the Republican Congress to express its solidarity with their decades-long fight against the terrorist FARC.
Their sacrifice and suffering must not be betrayed by the accession to power of murderers and drug lords.
We want to welcome the people of Cuba back into our hemispheric family
— after their corrupt rulers are forced from power and brought to account for their crimes against humanity.
We stand with the Women in White and all the victims of the loathsome regime that clings to power in Havana.
We do not say this lightly: They have been betrayed by those who are currently in control of U.S. foreign policy.
The current Administration's “opening to Cuba” was a shameful accommodation to the demands of its tyrants.
It will only strengthen their military dictatorship.
We call on the Congress to uphold current U.S. law which sets conditions for the lifting of sanctions on the island: Legalization of political parties,
an independent media,
and free and fair internationally-supervised elections.
We call for a dedicated platform for the transmission of Radio and TV Marti and for the promotion of internet access and circumvention technology as tools to strength Cuba's pro-democracy movement.
We support the work of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba
and affirm the principles of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, recognizing the rights of Cubans fleeing Communism.
Africa: The Promise and the Challenge
We recognize Africa’s extraordinary potential.
Both the United States and our many African allies will become stronger through investment, trade,
and promotion of the democratic and free market principles that have brought prosperity around the world.
We pledge to be the best partner of all African nations in their pursuit of economic freedom
and human rights.
The Republican Congress has extended to 2025 the African Growth and Opportunity Act,
and President George W. Bush’s health initiatives — AIDS relief under PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria — continue to save millions of lives.
Peace Corps volunteers and U.S. Seabees teach and build in villages that know firsthand our country’s idealism.
We stand in solidarity with those African countries now under assault by the forces of radical Islam: Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, and others like them.
Their terror falls on both Muslims and Christians, on anyone who will not submit to their savage ideology.
We urge governments throughout the continent to recognize this threat to their own people.
We support closer cooperation in both military and economic matters with those on the front lines of civilization’s battle against the forces of evil.
Sovereign American Leadership in International Organizations
There is no substitute for principled American leadership.
Since the end of World War II, the United States, through the founding of the United Nations and NATO, has participated in a number of international organizations which can,
but sometimes do not,
serve the cause of peace and prosperity.
While acting through them our country must always reserve the right to go its own way.
We must not be silent about our country’s cause.
That is why we have long supported our country’s international broadcasting to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Our continued participation in the United Nations should be contingent upon the enactment of long-overdue changes in the way that institution functions.
American taxpayers, the chief funders of the U.N., deserve full transparency in the financial operations of its overpaid bureaucrats.
We should no longer tolerate its managerial scandals,
its Human Rights Council composed of some of the world’s worst tyrants,
and its treatment of Israel as a pariah state.
The U.N.’s Population Fund has, from its origin, been rooted in no-growth policies that limit economic development in the countries needing it most.
Its complicity in China’s barbaric program of forced abortion led President Reagan to set a wall of separation — his Mexico City Policy, which prohibits the granting of federal monies to non-governmental organizations that provide or promote abortion.
We affirm his position and, in light of plummeting birth rates around the world,
suggest a reevaluation of the U.N.’s record on economic progress.
Precisely because we take our country’s treaty obligations seriously, we oppose ratification of international agreements whose long-range implications are ominous or unclear.
We do not support the U.N. Convention on Women’s Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, as well as various declarations from the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development.
Because of our concern for American sovereignty,
domestic management of our fisheries,
and our country’s long-term energy needs,
we have deep reservations about the regulatory, legal, and tax regimes inherent in the Law of the Sea Treaty.
We emphatically reject U.N. Agenda 21 as erosive of U.S. sovereignty, and we oppose any form of Global Tax.
To shield members of our Armed Forces and others in service to America from ideological prosecutions overseas, the Republican Party does not accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
We support statutory protection for U.S. personnel and officials as they act abroad to meet our global security requirements,
and we deplore the current inaction of the Administration in that regard.
Our service members must be subject only to American law.
Defending International Religious Freedom
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an initiative of Congressional Republicans, has been neglected by the current Administration at a time when its voice more than ever needs to be heard.
Religious minorities across the Middle East have been driven from their ancient homelands,
and thousands, there and in Africa, have been slaughtered for their faith in what the State Department has, belatedly, labeled genocide.
The United States must stand with leaders, like President Sisi of Egypt who has bravely protected the rights of Coptic Christians in Egypt,
and call on other leaders across the region to ensure that all religious minorities, whether Yazidi, Bahai, Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant Christians, are free to practice their religion without fear of persecution.
At a time when China has renewed its destruction of churches,
Christian home-schooling parents are jailed in parts of Europe,
and even Canada threatens pastors for their preaching,
a Republican administration will return the advocacy of religious liberty to a central place in its diplomacy,
will quickly designate the systematic killing of religious and ethnic minorities a genocide,
and will work with the leaders of other nations to condemn and combat genocidal acts.
America’s Generosity: International Assistance that Makes a Difference
Foreign aid must serve America’s interests first.
In today’s world of complex challenges, international assistance is a critical tool for advancing America’s security and economic interests by preventing conflict,
building stability,
opening markets for private investment,
and responding to suffering and need with the compassion that is at the heart of our country’s values.
A strong commitment to international development and diplomacy,
alongside defense, was a key component of President Reagan’s "peace through strength” strategy.
It can sometimes serve as an alternative means of keeping the peace, far less costly both in dollars and in human lives than military engagement.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation, spearheaded by the last Republican Administration, has established a new model of foreign assistance that helps ensure taxpayer dollars are spent on projects that are effective, results-driven, transparent, and accountable.
We must embrace this model throughout our foreign assistance programs and efforts as a catalyst for private sector investment to combat corruption,
strengthen the rule of law,
and open new markets for American goods and services in a competitive global economy.
Foreign assistance programs must not only project the best of American values,
but must work to create self-sustainability and leverage the resources and capacity of the private sector.
Even more important is the overseas assistance — billions of dollars and volunteer hours — provided by America’s foundations,
educational institutions,
faith-based groups,
and charitable individuals.
Their essential role in international development should be weighed in any revision of the tax code.
The advance of political freedom and entrepreneurial capitalism drives economic growth,
catalyzes private sector development,
and is the only sustainable solution to poverty.
Over the last 50 years, the level of private investment overseas from the United States has eclipsed aid many times over.
Our development strategy must build on recent Republican efforts to use foreign assistance to catalyze private sector investment and expertise in addressing global challenges that can build a more stable world
and advance America’s national security
and economic interests.
The integrity of our country’s foreign assistance program has been compromised by the current Administration’s attempt to impose on foreign recipients, especially the peoples of Africa, its own radical social agenda
while excluding faith-based groups — the sector with the best track record in promoting development — because they will not conform to that agenda.
We pledge to reverse this course, encouraging more involvement by the most effective aid organizations
and trusting developing peoples to build their futures through their own values.
Advancing Human Rights
To those who stand in the darkness of tyranny, America has always been a beacon of hope, and so it must remain.
Radical Islamic terrorism poses an existential threat to personal freedom and peace around the world.
We oppose its brutal assault on all human beings, all of whom have inherent dignity.
The Republican Party stands united with all victims of terrorism
and will fight at home and abroad to destroy terrorist organizations
and protect the lives and fundamental liberties of all people.
Republicans have led the way in promoting initiatives that have protected and rescued millions of the world’s most vulnerable and persecuted.
Standing up for repressed religious groups,
prisoners of conscience,
women trafficked into sexual slavery,
and those suffering from disease or starvation is not just consistent with American values.
It advances important security and economic interests as well.
A Republican administration will never say, as Hillary Clinton did as Secretary of State in 2009, that raising human rights concerns “can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis.”
The United States needs a radical rethinking of our human rights diplomacy.
A Republican administration will adopt a “whole of government” approach to protect fundamental freedoms globally,
one where pressing human rights and rule of law issues are integrated at every appropriate level of our bilateral relationships and strategic decisionmaking.
Republican policy will reflect the fact that the health of the U.S. economy
and environment,
the safety of our food and drug supplies,
the security of our investments and personal information in cyberspace,
and the stability and security of the oceans
will increasingly depend on allowing the free flow of news and information
and developing an independent judiciary and civil society in countries with repressive governments such as China, Russia, and many nations in the Middle East and Africa.
Liberty to Captives: Combatting Human Trafficking
As an estimated 21 million people worldwide are trapped in modern day slavery, we are reminded to be vigilant against human trafficking in whatever form it appears.
We will use the full force of the law against those who engage in commercial sexual exploitation and forced or bonded labor of men, women, or children; involuntary domestic servitude;
trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal;
and the illegal recruitment and use of child soldiers.
Building on the accomplishments of the last Republican administration in implementing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, we call for increased diplomatic efforts and accountability for foreign governments to prosecute traffickers,
including penalties for any public officials who may be complicit in this devastating crime.
We will highlight the need to stop slave labor, taking steps to prevent overseas labor contractors who exploit foreign workers from supporting military bases abroad or exporting goods to the United States.
A Republican administration will strategize with partners around the world to prevent the demand for trafficking victims that makes exploitation lucrative
and will prosecute sex tourists and domestic buyers to the fullest extent of the law.
We will work at home and abroad to ensure that trafficking victims are identified among migrants, refugees, and our own citizens
so they receive the rehabilitative care needed to heal and thrive.
America's continuing participation in the international campaign against human trafficking merits our support.
The goal of our domestic antitrafficking programs should be the rescue and safe return of victims to their homes,
not creating a longterm dependency upon public support.
We call for greater scrutiny of overseas labor contractors to prevent abuses against temporary foreign workers brought to the United States.
The horrific deaths of smuggled workers on our southwestern border at the hands of drug cartels and other gangs highlight the need for total security in that region.
Facing 21st Century Threats:
Cybersecurity in an Insecure World
Cyber attacks against our businesses, institutions, and the government itself have become almost routine.
They will continue until the world understands that an attack will not be tolerated — that we are prepared to respond in kind and in greater magnitude.
Despite their promises to the contrary, Russia and China see cyber operations as a part of a warfare strategy during peacetime.
Our response should be to cause diplomatic, financial, and legal pain,
curtailing visas for guilty parties, freezing their assets, and pursuing criminal actions against them.
We should seek to weaken control over the internet by regimes that engage in cyber crimes.
We must stop playing defense and go on offense to avoid the cyber-equivalent of Pearl Harbor.
The Republican Congress has passed important legislation to advance information-sharing among entities endangered by cyber attacks.
We will explore the possibility of a free market for Cyber-Insurance and make clear that users have a selfdefense right to deal with hackers as they see fit.
It is critical that we protect the cyber supply chain to ensure against contamination of components made all over the world, sometimes in offending countries.
Our own cyber workforce should be expanded with the assistance of the military, business, and hacker communities to better protect our country.
Protection Against an Electromagnetic Pulse
A single nuclear weapon detonated at high altitude over this country would collapse our electrical grid and other critical infrastructures and endanger the lives of millions.
With North Korea in possession of nuclear missiles and Iran close to having them, an EMP is no longer a theoretical concern — it is a real threat.
Moreover, China and Russia include sabotage as part of their warfare planning.
Nonetheless, hundreds of electrical utilities in the United States have not acted to protect themselves from EMP,
and they cannot be expected to do so voluntarily since homeland security is a government responsibility.
The President, the Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the States, the utilities, and the private sector should work together on an urgent basis to enact Republican legislation, pending in both chambers, to protect the national grid
and encourage states to take the initiative to protect their own grids expeditiously.
Confronting Internet Tyranny
Internet firewall circumvention and anticensorship technology must become a national priority in light of the way authoritarian governments such as China, Cuba, and Iran restrict free press and isolate their people limiting political, cultural, and religious freedom.
Leaders of authoritarian governments argue that governments have the same legal right to control internet access as they do to control migrant access.
A focus on internet freedom is a cost-effective means of peacefully advancing fundamental freedoms in closed and authoritarian societies.
But it is also an important economic interest, as censorship constitutes a trade barrier for U.S. companies operating in societies like China with advanced firewall protection policies.
A Republican administration will champion an open and free internet based on principles of free expression and universal values
and will pursue policies to empower citizens and U.S. companies operating in authoritarian countries to circumvent internet firewalls and gain accurate news and information online.