May, 13 2020, 12:00am EDT
SUNRISE MOVEMENT CO-FOUNDER VARSHINI PRAKASH TO JOIN SANDERS-BIDEN TASK FORCE ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS ALONG WITH REP. OCASIO-CORTEZ
WASHINGTON
Today, the Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders campaigns announced the membership of six joint policy task-forces, with each task force representing a different policy issue area. Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash will sit on the Task Force on Climate Change. Also sitting on this task force as Sanders nominees are Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice founder, Catherine Flowers.
The goal for the Task Forces is to build upon the work of the Democratic Presidential campaigns to date, in order to develop the most successful possible agenda for Democrats in 2020. Both candidates had the opportunity to appoint members to each task force across six issue areas: the economy, immigration, healthcare, criminal justice, education, and climate action. The task forces will help craft the 2020 agenda for the Biden campaign, inform the DNC policy platform, and have a role in Biden's transition process should he defeat Donald Trump in November.
The Sunrise Movement endorsed Sanders' presidential campaign in January of this year and supported the campaign to victories in the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Democratic Primary before Sanders suspended his campaign in March.
Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash issued the following statement:
"I was honored and proud to stand alongside Bernie Sanders when our movement endorsed his candidacy. Now, I'm humbled that Bernie has endorsed me to carry on the fight for our agenda as a part of this task force. He's fought to give our movement, and young people, a seat at the table, and I will accept it. A year and a half ago, our movement was joined by then Representative-elect Ocasio-Cortez in Nancy Pelosi's office demanding that the Democrats develop a solution at the scale of the climate crisis. Now, together, we'll be helping to write the Democratic Platform on climate. While this is a step in the right direction, and a clear sign of how far our movement has come, what is achieved by this task force is much less important than what we do as a movement in the coming months. Our political power only exists because of our people power. We must keep building our movement and raising our voices loudly for a Green New Deal until we win it. The work has just begun."
Sunrise Movement is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
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