Biden, Sanders unity task forces release policy recommendations

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign on Wednesday rolled out the policy recommendations reached by its joint task forces with supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which is slated for next month.

The 110-page document has been submitted to the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee and will be personally reviewed by Biden ahead of the nominating convention, the former vice president’s campaign announced.

The task force recommendations don’t include the kind of wide-scale systemic upheaval that won Sanders such a fervent following in his two presidential campaigns — while provoking an outcry from moderate Democrats and Republicans alike. A single-payer health care system such as “Medicare for All,” a “Green New Deal” overhauling environmental policy, and doing away with Immigration and Customs Enforcement are not among the policy proposals.

But while the recommendations hew more closely to priorities laid out by Biden during the primary, like expanding the Affordable Care Act through a public option, they also include ambitious time lines for reaching certain environmental benchmarks, such as eliminating carbon pollution from power plants and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for new buildings.

The recommendations also include a slew of criminal justice reforms, including to law enforcement and policing practices, issues that havw come to the fore in recent weeks since the death of George Floyd in police custody in May.

The former Democratic primary rivals unveiled the members of their unity task forces in May, about a month after Sanders suspended his campaign and endorsed Biden. Each of the six task forces, focusing on climate change, criminal justice reform, the economy, education, health care and immigration included members picked by Biden and Sanders, as well as co-chairs selected by each man.

Most notably, the joint task force on climate change was co-chaired by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has become a superstar of the party’s left wing, championing the Green New Deal and in doing so becoming a ripe target for attack from Republicans.

The idea of joint task forces was born out of Biden and Sanders’ pledges to unite the party ahead of the November election, as the party seeks to avoid the kind of intraparty tension that some maintain President Donald Trump was able to capitalize on in his 2016 campaign. The inclusion of high-profile progressives like Ocasio-Cortez was meant to help assuage concerns from left-leaning Democrats that Biden would keep to his more centrist leanings in the general election campaign against the president.

Biden linked the work of the task forces as integral to the country’s recovery from the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

“For the millions of Americans facing hardship due to President Trump’s failed coronavirus response, this election offers the chance to usher in a stronger, fairer economy that works for our working families,” he said.

Biden continued: “I commend the task forces for their service and helping build a bold, transformative platform for our party and for our country. And I am deeply grateful to Senator Sanders for working together to unite our party, and deliver real, lasting change for generations to come.”

Sanders, for his part, expressed satisfaction with the policies laid out by the joint task force.

“Though the end result is not what I or my supporters would have written alone, the task forces have created a good policy blueprint that will move this country in a much-needed progressive direction and substantially improve the lives of working families throughout our country,” he said in a statement, emphasizing that Democrats’ left and centrist wings need to come together in order to defeat Trump.