Platform Committee 2026-08-19

Attending

• Lily Boyt
• Elliot Smith
• Mars Bale

Agenda

• finish foreign policy plank to send to PNC
• determine policies for a bodily autonomy plank
• determine next meeting agenda

Discussion

The following was approved to be sent to PNC as a replacement for the current Foreign Policy and Pan-Americanism planks.

Foreign Policy

We advocate for the right to free association and self-determination. We believe people living in a political entity should have the right to maintain, alter or conclude their relationship to larger entities, or join in union, if it is the will of the people. We affirm the right to free movement. The foreign policy of the United States has not reflected those values.

International Law

To hold ourselves accountable to the standards we expect of other countries, we believe the United States should

• Ratify the Rome Statute and repeal the Hague Invasion Act.
• Join the Ottawa Treaty and the CCM treaty
• Ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and join the High Seas Treaty.
• Ratify Protocol I and II to the Geneva Conventions.
• Make all international treaties self-executing, and engage with the system of international law without substantive carve-outs.
• Pay UN dues in full and on time.

The same standard applies to what we fund abroad. We should give no military aid to any undemocratic country including the genocidal apartheid state of Israel.

Pan-Americanism

In our own hemisphere, decades of embargo and sanction have punished populations without changing the governments they were aimed at. The United States has not been a good neighbor. We believe that through the OAS or other Pan-American organizations we should foster genuine collaboration and friendship. We should end the Cuban embargo, close Guantanamo Bay, lift sanctions on Nicaragua and end the occupation of Venezuela. Legislation should be passed explicitly preventing the US government and its intelligence agencies from covertly interfering with elections anywhere. This is only a start to what needs to be done to repair relations in the Americas.

Trade and Sanctions

We strive for free trade and free movement of peoples, as it will lead to a higher quality of life for everyone. Unfortunately, sanctions and tariffs will remain a tool of policy for the foreseeable future. They should be bounded in time and should be targeted at governments like those of Russia and China which continually infringe upon their citizens human rights. There should be permanent humanitarian exemptions in sanctions for food and medicine. Sunset clauses and mandatory congressional reauthorization should be attached to any sanctions or tariff regime.

Military Spending

Our force structure should be sized to the missions we actually intend to carry out. The US military is by far the most powerful in the world, it is an unjustifiable level of over-preparedness. With the goal of reducing US military spending to 50% of its current level over the next 15 years, we should reevaluate our defense spending priorities. Savings should first come from contractors. We should restore competitive bidding as the default. We should require certified cost and pricing data on every part a military contractor sells us. The Pentagon budget should be cut every year it fails an audit, and most overseas bases should be closed. We should pair this drawdown with a doubling of the peace corps.

Nuclear Weapons

While nuclear weapons will certainly remain an essential part of US military capability for the foreseeable future, our nuclear strategy should be aimed at the eventual goal of a world without them. To that end:

• We should negotiate an expanded New START successor treaty to govern a mutual drawdown in nuclear weapons, within a framework that can include all nuclear powers.
• We should adopt a legally binding no-first-use policy for nuclear weapons.
• We should ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

War Powers

Congress must also reclaim its constitutional authority over the use of force. The 2001 AUMF should be repealed, and the War Powers Act should be amended to close loopholes and strengthen enforcement.

The War Powers Act should be updated to require congressional authorization before introducing US forces into any hostilities, except to repel an actual armed attack on the United States. Any such emergency use of force should terminate automatically, with appropriations cut off, absent congressional authorization within 30 days.  

The definition of hostilities should be expanded to explicitly include drone strikes, standoff strikes, special operations raids, offensive cyber operations, direct support to belligerents, and any other comparable use of force that successive presidents have used to avoid congressional oversight and conduct illegal wars. Individual members of Congress should be granted standing to sue for unauthorized uses of force, with expedited review and political-question dismissal barred.

Bodily Autonomy

After some brainstorming, the following were determined as polices to include in a future bodily autonomy plank.

• ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child
• federal legislation protecting the right to an abortion
• recognize a third gender federally with legislation.
• repeal the Hyde amendment
• ban conversion therapy
• repeal the Comstock act
• ban unnecessary surgeries on intersex infants
• right to morphological freedom
• gender affirming care for minors
• protections for DIY HRT

next meeting

• it was decided that an environmental incorporating clean air & water would be next after bodily autonomy.