http://www.cbsnews.com/news/in-platform-draft-democrats-weigh-in-on-marijuana-climate-and-trade/
ORLANDO, Florida -- Bernie Sanders'
still-impassioned campaign electrified debate over a draft of the
Democratic Party's policy positions Saturday, winning concessions on
climate change but failing to include opposition to the Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade deal.
During a frequently combative session in
an Orlando hotel ballroom Saturday, members of the Democratic National
Convention's full Platform Committee voted down amendments to the party
platform to explicitly oppose the
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
But Sanders supporters exploded in cheers when they won environmental
amendments that included support for pricing greenhouse gases,
prioritizing renewable energy and limiting fracking.
Some Sanders backers had also pushed for language to
remove marijuana as a "Class 1 Federal Controlled Substance, providing a reasoned pathway for future legalization."
According
to a Washington Post report of the committee's decision-making process,
one Sanders delegate from Tennessee, David King, had argued that
marijuana was added to the Controlled Substances Act during a "craze" to
hurt "hippies and blacks." The committee later approved the "pathway
for future legalization" language.
"None of this would have
happened in this forum without Bernie Sanders pushing this issue front
and center over and over again," said environmentalist Bill McKibben, a
supporter of the Vermont senator.
Hillary Clinton backers offered support for the environmental language, but stressed that
pricing greenhouse gases was a reflection of the views of some party members and was not a part of her current climate plans.
"Her plan is clearly articulated on her website," said Energy Policy Adviser Trevor Houser. "It's not her plan."
Since Clinton
effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination,
Sanders has aggressively campaigned to include his progressive policies
in the party platform. He has avoided endorsing Clinton, but appears to
be closing in on backing her campaign. He told reporters Saturday that
the campaigns are "coming closer and closer together in trying to
address the major issues facing this country."
As the policy meeting concluded after midnight on Sunday
morning, aides to Clinton and Sanders both hailed the newly amended
platform draft as the "most progressive" in party history. The draft
includes many of Sanders' priorities, including a call for a $15 federal
minimum wage over time, steps to break up large Wall Street banks and
support for the end to the death penalty.
"I think if you read the
platform right now, you will understand that the political revolution
is alive and kicking," said Sanders policy adviser Warren Gunnels.
Despite
coming together on many pieces of the platform, there were still
evident tensions in the room. In the closing moments of the meeting,
Sanders supporters shouted down an amendment that implied Clinton was
the nominee.
The platform is a nonbinding document that serves as a
guidepost for the party. After the Orlando meeting, the document will
be voted on at the convention in Philadelphia this month. The Orlando
meeting is not the final stop for Sanders, who should have support to
file reports that would allow for votes on some of these issues at the
convention.
While platform talks are often an afterthought,
Sanders' focus on the document brought more heat to the proceedings in
Orlando, which stretched late into the night on Friday and Saturday. The
fight over the trade deal was punctuated with boos and shouting at
times, as members debated the nuances of the language.
Sanders and Clinton have come out against the trade deal, but
President Barack Obama supports it.
Clinton supporters, including labor leaders, believed that toughening
the trade language made enough of a statement without directly opposing
the president, whom they did not mention during their public comments.
The amendment said that trade deals "must protect workers and the
environment and not undermine access to critically needed prescription
drugs." It went on to say that Democrats would apply those standards "to
all trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership."
Labor
leaders said after the vote that their amendment made clear where they
stand on TPP and that they oppose "bad trade deals." But Sanders backers
expressed their frustration with boos and angry shouts.
Sanders
supporter Benjamin Jealous, a former president of the NAACP argued that
language opposing the TPP would help Democrats win the presidential
election in November. "I want us to stop making it harder for us to win
and start making it easier for us to win," he said.
Clinton senior
policy adviser Maya Harris said in a statement that Clinton opposes the
TPP and is not interested in "tinkering around the margins" of the
deal. She added that the TPP "fails the test that is now laid out in the
platform as a result of this amendment."
The compromise language
on climate change said that the Democratic Party believes "that carbon
dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases should be priced" to reflect
their negative economic impact. It backs renewable fuels over natural
gas power plants. And it offers support for more regulation of fracking
and says fracking should not happen where there is local opposition.
Sanders had sought a carbon tax and national ban on fracking.
An effort failed to add language in a section on
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
calling for "an end to occupation and illegal settlements." The
committee instead kept language that advocates working toward a
"two-state solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict" that guarantees
Israel's security with recognized borders "and provides the Palestinians
with independence, sovereignty, and dignity."
Both sides agreed
on an amendment focused on criminal justice reform, calling for an
investigation by the Department of Justice to investigate on any
police-involved shootings
