Mandate for Progress: A Blueprint for Equitable Governance
Foreword: A Commitment to a Resilient and Inclusive America
Theme: Reasserting the core progressive values of collective action, democratic inclusion, universal rights, and evidence-based governance to confront systemic inequality and existential challenges like the climate crisis.
Core Pillars of the Progressive Promise:
Strengthen the democratic foundations and dismantle systemic barriers to equity.
Empower the expert administrative state for efficiency and justice.
Invest in sustainable infrastructure and universal public goods.
Lead through diplomacy, strong alliances, and international cooperation.
Section 1: Taking the Reins of Government
Chapter 1: White House Office
Progressive Viewpoint: Reasserting democratic control by reinforcing the role of non-partisan, expert staff dedicated to public service and advancing an agenda focused on equity and inclusion.
Initial Policy Goals:
Leadership: Appoint diverse, expert-driven staff focused on collective problem-solving rather than centralized personal power.
Transparency: Institute new policies for maximum transparency in all decision-making and communications, making expertise accessible to the public.
Equity Audit: Establish a standing committee to audit all government offices and policies for systemic inequities and develop binding plans to address them.
Chapter 2: Executive Office of the President of the United States
Progressive Viewpoint: Empowering the Executive Office of the President (EOP) to serve as the nucleus for coordinated, whole-of-government action on climate, economic justice, and national equity goals.
Initial Policy Goals:
National Equity Council (NEC): Elevate NEC with direct authority over all policy councils to embed equitable outcomes across all regulatory and budgetary decisions.
Budgeting: Use the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and fiscal policy to promote pro-active public investment in equitable outcomes and climate solutions.
Regulatory Authority: Strengthen the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to prioritize climate mitigation, public health protections, and social benefits in cost-benefit analyses, reasserting the social value of regulation.
Chapter 3: Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy
Progressive Viewpoint: Defending and strengthening the professional, non-partisan civil service as a necessary vehicle for consistent, evidence-based governance and rejecting attempts to dismantle or politicize merit protections.
Initial Policy Goals:
Protecting Merit: Vigorously defend the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the civil service merit system against politically motivated changes (e.g., Schedule F).
Diversity and Inclusion: Mandate robust DEI initiatives across all federal hiring, promotion, and training to ensure the workforce reflects the American public at all levels.
Collective Bargaining: Support and expand federal employee unions and collective bargaining rights to ensure fair wages and workplace safety.
Section 2: The Common Defense
Chapter 4: Department of Defense
Progressive Viewpoint: Modernizing the Department of Defense (DoD) to address 21st-century threats, emphasizing climate security, strategic alliances, and personnel policies that reflect American pluralism and support force readiness.
Initial Policy Goals:
Climate Security: Integrate climate change as a core national security threat, adapting military bases and strategies for environmental resilience.
Personnel Inclusion: Reaffirm and expand inclusive policies regarding gender, sexuality, and reproductive healthcare to boost recruitment, retention, and morale.
Acquisition Reform: Prioritize ethical, transparent defense procurement that invests in future-facing technologies and local/diverse suppliers, moving away from wasteful legacy systems.
Chapter 5: Department of Homeland Security
Progressive Viewpoint: Reforming the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to focus on border humanitarianism, pathways to citizenship, modern cybersecurity, and addressing climate displacement as a primary driver of migration.
Initial Policy Goals:
Abolish ICE (Phased): Establish clear humanitarian standards for border enforcement, prioritizing asylum processing, and phasing down detention centers in favor of community-based alternatives.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA): Strengthen CISA’s role in protecting critical infrastructure and combatting domestic misinformation related to foreign interference without infringing on civil liberties.
Immigration: Streamline pathways to citizenship and expand legal immigration channels to support economic growth and address humanitarian needs.
Chapter 6: Department of State
Progressive Viewpoint: Re-establishing the primacy of diplomacy, investing heavily in the Foreign Service, and making human rights, democracy promotion, and climate cooperation central to U.S. foreign policy.
Initial Policy Goals:
Diplomacy First: End the practice of militarizing foreign policy and restore the Foreign Service as the primary tool of engagement.
Multilateralism: Recommit to and strengthen multilateral institutions (UN, WHO, etc.) to tackle global challenges like climate change, poverty, and pandemics.
Global Rights: Vigorously advocate for universal reproductive, civil, and human rights globally, opposing discrimination and authoritarian regimes.
Chapter 7: Intelligence Community
Progressive Viewpoint: Ensuring the Intelligence Community (IC) operates free from political influence, focusing resources on emerging threats (e.g., climate, global health, technology espionage by Russia/China), and protecting the civil liberties of U.S. persons.
Initial Policy Goals:
Depoliticization: Implement enhanced oversight mechanisms to prevent political manipulation of intelligence products.
Civil Liberties Protection: Strengthen limitations on surveillance of U.S. citizens, reform FISA, and ensure maximum transparency regarding intelligence activities impacting civil rights.
Modernizing Focus: Shift intelligence gathering resources toward analyzing non-traditional security threats, including climate instability and global supply chain vulnerabilities.
Chapter 8: Media Agencies
Progressive Viewpoint: Affirming the vital role of independent, diverse, and well-funded public media (domestic and international) in promoting democratic discourse and countering disinformation.
Initial Policy Goals:
CPB/NPR/PBS: Increase dedicated, insulated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to expand non-commercial, public-interest journalism and educational programming.
USAGM: Defend the statutory "firewall" for Voice of America (VOA) and other international broadcasters, ensuring editorial independence and maximizing efforts to counter foreign propaganda with objective truth.
Chapter 9: Agency for International Development
Progressive Viewpoint: Reimagining development aid as climate- and equity-centered investment, moving beyond transactional foreign aid to foster self-reliance and global stability through sustainable partnerships.
Initial Policy Goals:
Climate Integration: Make climate resilience and green technology transfer central to all development and disaster assistance programs.
Health and Rights: Vigorously re-fund and expand global health initiatives, including reproductive and family planning services (reversing any "Global Gag Rule" policies).
Local Ownership: Prioritize grants and contracts to local, indigenous, and community-led organizations over large international NGOs/contractors.
Section 3: The General Welfare
Chapter 10: Department of Agriculture
Progressive Viewpoint: Reorienting agricultural policy to promote climate-smart farming, food security, and rural development that invests in local, sustainable food systems and addresses food deserts.
Initial Policy Goals:
Climate-Smart Farming: Use financial and technical assistance to incentivize sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices that sequester carbon and improve soil health.
Food Security/SNAP: Expand and strengthen the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as a core anti-poverty program, removing all punitive work requirements and ensuring equitable access.
Local Food Systems: Invest heavily in infrastructure and financing for local and regional food processing/distribution hubs to diversify the food supply chain and support small farmers.
Chapter 11: Department of Education
Progressive Viewpoint: Investing in universal, high-quality public education from pre-K through post-secondary training, addressing systemic inequities, and rejecting the diversion of public funds to private interests.
Initial Policy Goals:
Universal Pre-K and Title I: Fully fund universal pre-K and dramatically increase Title I funding for high-poverty schools with strict accountability to ensure equitable resource distribution.
Debt Relief/Affordability: Expand student loan forgiveness programs and income-driven repayment plans to address the national debt crisis, while increasing Pell Grants to make post-secondary education universally affordable.
Protecting Civil Rights: Vigorously enforce Title IX and federal civil rights laws to protect LGBTQ+ students, mandate inclusion, and oppose all forms of racial discrimination and segregation.
Chapter 12: Department of Energy and Related Commissions
Progressive Viewpoint: Accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy through massive public investment, regulatory clarity, and advanced scientific research to ensure climate targets are met.
Initial Policy Goals:
Green Energy Investment: Establish a national goal for 100% clean electricity by 2035, directing the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Program Office and grant programs to accelerate grid modernization and renewable energy deployment.
Climate Research: Prioritize research on climate mitigation, battery technology, carbon capture, and grid resilience across the National Labs.
Regulation: Direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to prioritize climate risks and cumulative environmental impact in all permitting and rate-setting decisions.
Chapter 13: Environmental Protection Agency
Progressive Viewpoint: Reasserting the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority to aggressively regulate pollutants, combat the climate crisis, and prioritize environmental justice for marginalized communities.
Initial Policy Goals:
Enforcement: Restore and expand EPA’s enforcement capacity, especially against major corporate polluters, and use advanced monitoring technology to track emissions.
Environmental Justice: Mandate that all EPA actions include robust environmental justice analysis, directing resources and enforcement to communities historically burdened by pollution.
Climate Regulation: Use the full authority of the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as a pollutant, setting the most ambitious feasible standards.
Chapter 14: Department of Health and Human Services
Progressive Viewpoint: Guaranteeing universal healthcare access, protecting reproductive rights as essential healthcare, addressing systemic health disparities, and depoliticizing public health agencies.
Initial Policy Goals:
Protecting Reproductive Rights: Use all federal authority (including Medicare/Medicaid) to ensure access to abortion services and comprehensive reproductive healthcare.
Universal Access: Expand Medicaid, strengthen the Affordable Care Act, and push for a public health insurance option to move toward universal coverage.
Public Health: Depoliticize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), restoring their independence, focusing on scientific integrity, and ending the use of moral or political criteria in funding or policy decisions.
Chapter 15: Department of Housing and Urban Development
Progressive Viewpoint: Committing to housing as a human right, investing to increase the affordable housing supply, ending discriminatory zoning practices, and expanding tenant protections.
Initial Policy Goals:
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH): Vigorously enforce the AFFH rule, using federal funds to dismantle exclusionary zoning and incentivize construction of multi-family, transit-oriented, mixed-income housing.
Homelessness: Reaffirm the Housing First model, prioritizing permanent supportive housing and moving away from punitive or transitional approaches.
Tenant Protections: Establish national standards for tenant rights, including just-cause eviction and rent stabilization, to counter predatory corporate landlords.
Chapter 16: Department of the Interior
Progressive Viewpoint: Shifting the Department of the Interior's (DOI) mission toward conservation, climate resilience, and honoring treaty obligations, while ending the dominance of fossil fuel interests on public lands.
Initial Policy Goals:
Conservation and Restoration: Expand national monuments and protected areas, prioritizing ecological restoration and climate change mitigation over extractive industries.
End Fossil Fuel Leasing: Implement a permanent ban on new oil, gas, and coal leasing on all federal lands and waters, while investing in clean energy projects on public land.
Indigenous Sovereignty: Honor tribal treaty rights, streamline the return of ancestral lands, and give tribal governments greater authority over resource management on their own lands.
Chapter 17: Department of Justice
Progressive Viewpoint: Reforming the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prioritize civil rights enforcement, systemic criminal justice reform, and combating white nationalism and political extremism.
Initial Policy Goals:
Civil Rights: Re-staff and empower the Civil Rights Division to investigate discriminatory policing, educational inequality, and hate crimes, particularly against marginalized communities.
Criminal Justice Reform: End mandatory minimum sentences, promote alternatives to incarceration, and legalize/decriminalize marijuana offenses at the federal level.
Police Accountability: Restore federal oversight and consent decrees for police departments that demonstrate patterns of unconstitutional practices.
Chapter 18: Department of Labor and Related Agencies
Progressive Viewpoint: Strengthening the power of workers, unions, and collective bargaining to achieve higher wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces, while addressing occupational segregation and wage theft.
Initial Policy Goals:
Worker Empowerment: Dramatically increase the minimum wage, eliminate barriers to union organizing, and aggressively enforce protections against wage theft and misclassification of independent contractors.
Workplace Protections: Expand Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards to address climate-related heat stress and other emerging occupational hazards.
Benefits: Mandate universal paid family and medical leave and expand access to affordable childcare to support working families.
Chapter 19: Department of Transportation
Progressive Viewpoint: Investing in modern, equitable public transit and passenger rail, reducing auto dependence, and prioritizing climate-friendly transportation infrastructure.
Initial Policy Goals:
Public Transit Investment: Shift federal highway funding formulas to prioritize state and local investment in mass transit, passenger rail, and multimodal infrastructure over highway expansion.
Auto Standards: Increase fuel efficiency (CAFE) standards and accelerate the mandate for electric vehicle adoption and associated public charging infrastructure.
Equity and Safety: Implement equitable safety policies (Vision Zero) that redesign streets to protect pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users, moving away from auto-centric planning.
Chapter 20: Department of Veterans Affairs
Progressive Viewpoint: Ensuring universal, accessible, and high-quality healthcare and benefits for all veterans, recognizing intersectional needs, and fully staffing the VHA to minimize reliance on privatized care.
Initial Policy Goals:
Universal VHA: Aggressively staff the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to ensure timely, high-quality, in-house care, minimizing reliance on privatized Community Care, which fragments services.
Inclusion: Ensure the VA is fully inclusive of all veteran identities, providing full, comprehensive benefits and medical care, including reproductive health services, without discrimination.
Benefits Modernization: Streamline and automate the benefits process, prioritizing rapid claims processing for toxic exposure and mental health issues.
Section 4: The Economy
Chapter 21: Department of Commerce
Progressive Viewpoint: Using data and targeted investment to foster equitable economic development, support strategic clean energy industries, and engage globally on digital standards and fair trade practices.
Initial Policy Goals:
Statistical Integrity: Protect the independence of the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis, ensuring data collection is robust and transparent, especially on demographic trends and inequality.
Clean Industrial Policy: Direct the International Trade Administration (ITA) to support domestic industries critical to the clean energy transition through targeted investment and export promotion.
Broadband Access: Prioritize equitable, universal broadband deployment in underserved areas, actively opposing the use of federal funds for overbuilding in already-served markets.
Chapter 22: Department of the Treasury
Progressive Viewpoint: Reforming tax law to fund public investments through progressive taxation, vigorously enforcing sanctions against human rights abusers, and integrating climate risk into financial regulation.
Initial Policy Goals:
Tax Enforcement: Vigorously enforce tax laws against wealthy individuals and large corporations, using increased IRS funding to audit high-net-worth filers and end corporate tax avoidance.
Progressive Tax Reform: Propose legislation to increase corporate tax rates, raise capital gains taxes, and implement a wealth tax to fund universal programs.
Sanctions and Finance: Use financial tools and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to enforce strict sanctions against human rights abusers and entities tied to foreign authoritarian militaries.
Chapter 23: Export-Import Bank
Progressive Viewpoint (Synthesis): Re-charter and expand the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) with a strict mandate to prioritize transactions that support U.S. clean energy technology exports, counter Chinese strategic debt traps, and benefit small and minority-owned businesses.
The Case for a Climate-Aligned EXIM (Pro-Expansion): EXIM is a necessary tool to compete against state-backed foreign export credit agencies, particularly China's strategic lending. It should aggressively underwrite clean energy and ethical supply chain exports while restricting financing for fossil fuel projects.
The Case for Democratic Accountability (Anti-Abolition): EXIM must remain publicly accountable, but its operations should be fully transparent and subject to clear legislative mandates that prevent corporate abuse.
Chapter 24: Federal Reserve
Progressive Viewpoint: Expanding the Federal Reserve's mandate to explicitly address climate risk and racial equity within its regulatory and supervisory functions, ensuring the stability of the financial system for all Americans.
Initial Policy Goals:
Expanded Mandate: Formally expand the dual mandate to a triple mandate that explicitly includes mitigating climate-related financial risk and reducing racial/economic inequality through its supervisory authority.
Community Investment: Use the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and other tools to direct capital toward minority- and women-owned banks and underserved communities.
Transparency: Increase transparency regarding emergency lending facilities and asset purchases, ensuring public benefits over corporate bailouts.
Chapter 25: Small Business Administration
Progressive Viewpoint: Investing public funds to provide capital and training to women- and minority-owned small businesses, entrepreneurs in underserved areas, and co-operatives to foster inclusive economic growth.
Initial Policy Goals:
Equitable Access to Capital: Reorient SBA lending programs to aggressively target underserved communities (e.g., rural, minority, women-owned) and reduce reliance on personal wealth for loan eligibility.
Advocacy: Use the Office of Advocacy to champion reforms that reduce regulatory burdens disproportionately impacting small firms, while ensuring large firms bear the full cost of environmental and labor compliance.
Technical Assistance: Expand low-cost, high-quality federal business training programs in communities of color and high-poverty rural areas.
Chapter 26: Trade
Progressive Viewpoint (Synthesis): Pursuing a trade policy that puts labor and environmental standards first, using strategic leverage to ensure reciprocal market access, and focusing on supply chain resilience over maximizing GDP volume.
The Case for Fair and Equitable Trade (Pro-Regulation): Trade must be conditional on enforceable labor, environmental, and human rights standards. Strategic tariffs should be used to force recalcitrant partners (like China) to comply, prioritizing worker and environmental welfare over short-term price benefits.
The Case for Open and Sustainable Markets (Anti-Protectionism): While enforcing high standards is essential, trade should be expanded where possible to reduce prices for consumers. Use multilateral engagement and standards harmonization to raise global floors, not protectionism to reduce domestic competition.
Section 5: Independent Regulatory Agencies
Chapter 27: Financial Regulatory Agencies
Progressive Viewpoint: Strengthening the ability of financial regulators to mitigate systemic risk, protect consumers from predatory practices, and ensure market stability is not undermined by climate change or unchecked corporate power.
Initial Policy Goals:
SEC: Mandate disclosure of climate risk and human capital management (DEI) metrics for public companies to give investors material information on long-term sustainability.
CFPB: Aggressively use the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) authority to protect vulnerable populations from predatory lending, debt traps, and algorithmic bias, challenging attempts to limit its independence.
Chapter 28: Federal Communications Commission
Progressive Viewpoint: Using the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate dominant platform power, protect a free and open Internet (Net Neutrality), and advance universal, equitable broadband access.
Initial Policy Goals:
Net Neutrality: Reclassify broadband providers under Title II of the Communications Act to restore strong Net Neutrality rules and establish the FCC's clear regulatory authority.
Platform Accountability: Use Section 230 interpretation and rulemaking authority to compel transparency and accountability from dominant online platforms regarding their content moderation practices, particularly where they suppress marginalized voices.
Infrastructure: Focus Universal Service Fund (USF) subsidies exclusively on areas lacking infrastructure, ensuring equitable build-out and prioritizing community-owned networks.
Chapter 29: Federal Election Commission
Progressive Viewpoint: Reforming the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to eliminate deadlocks, enforce campaign finance law vigorously, and reduce the influence of dark money in politics.
Initial Policy Goals:
Structural Reform: Advocate for structural changes to the FEC (e.g., five or seven commissioners) to break partisan gridlock and allow for effective enforcement.
Enforcement: Vigorously pursue civil enforcement actions against campaign finance violations, particularly those involving coordination between outside groups and campaigns.
Transparency: Mandate immediate and transparent disclosure of all large campaign contributions and dark money spending to inform voters.
Chapter 30: Federal Trade Commission
Progressive Viewpoint: Reinvigorating the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to aggressively block anti-competitive mergers, particularly in the tech and healthcare sectors, and expanding consumer protection to address digital privacy and algorithmic bias.
Initial Policy Goals:
Merger Enforcement: Adopt new, rigorous merger guidelines to challenge vertical and horizontal integration in concentrated sectors (Big Tech, hospitals, agriculture).
Privacy and Data: Use the FTC's unfair and deceptive trade practices authority to establish clear national rules for data privacy, algorithmic transparency, and protection against bias.
Child Protection: Aggressively prosecute online platforms that violate children’s online privacy (COPPA) and engage in deceptive marketing practices aimed at minors.
Conclusion: Onward to a More Just and Prosperous Union
Summary: A brief summary of how the progressive agenda uses government not to control, but to enable opportunity, secure rights, and address collective challenges for the benefit of all citizens.
Call to Action: A call for collaborative effort among all branches and stakeholders to move past outdated orthodoxies and build a more equitable, resilient, and inclusive future.
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