A New Campaign to Spur Executive Action

     After months of stalling, Congress is getting back to work. The powerful American Rescue Plan Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are soon to be followed up by the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, a $110 to $350 billion bill that will invest in clean energy, reduce supply chain issues, restore federal funding for science, bring back American manufacturing, strengthen Made-In-America rules, and much more. In the meantime, we still have to pass the Build Back Better Act. Until then, as prices rise thanks to corporate greed under the guise of inflation, it's time for President Biden to use his executive powers to make social and economic progress for the American people. He has already done so, but, ahead of the midterms, Democrats are pushing him to take it up a notch:

1. Ban federal funding for conversion therapy, which is a disproven pseudoscientific procedure that does incredible harm to LGBT2SQIA+ youth.
2. Order federal health agencies to declassify intersex sex characteristics as a physical deformity.
3. Expand the census to count the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the U.S. and recognize non-binary and intersex options.
4. Direct the DOJ to publish model legislation to assist the only two states with conjugal visits that don't allow them for same-sex couples, Connecticut and Washington, do so.
5. Allow intersex individuals to serve openly in the military.
6. Recognize gender identity as grounds for asylum.
7. Allow endorsable visas for immigrants and travelers who are legally recognized as non-binary in their country of origin.
8. Prohibit the detention of immigrants on the basis of their LGBT2SQIA+ identity.
9. Prohibit the deportation of LGBT2SQIA+ immigrants back to countries with the death penalty for homosexuality.
10. Ban federal law enforcement officers from profiling LGBT2SQIA+ people.
11. Expand the interpretation of anti-LGBT2SQIA+ discrimination laws to include intersex individuals.
12. Enact LGBT2SQIA+ discrimination provisions related to housing and healthcare in federal prisons, juvenile halls, and immigration detention centers.
13. Direct the DOJ to sue Texas, the last state where Romeo and Juliet laws do not apply equally to same-sex couples.
14. Direct the DOJ to publish model legislation to repeal HIV criminalization laws in California, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. 
15. Direct the DOJ to sue Idaho and Tennessee for refusing to alter birth certificates for transgender people and Arkansas and Tennessee for laws that prohibit local anti-discrimination ordinances.
16. Codify the Biden administration policy of launching a whole-of-government approach to crack down on fraudulent student loan providers in higher education.
17. End the use of for-profit detention centers to detain immigrants from Latin America and other regions of the world.
18. Remove visa restrictions from Ghana, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Sierra Leone.
19. Establish a White House Council on Gun Violence and task it with negotiating with major online companies to ban the online sale of weapons and ammunition, publishing model legislation for states to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, etc.
20. Restore the Cole Memorandum and expand it to include magic mushrooms and other drugs.
21. Ban the deportation of military veterans and personnel.
22. Use a national policing commission to address policing issues at the state-level across the country.
23. Publish model legislation for states to end pay discrimination, recognize Black and Latina Equal Pay Day, commission a study on pay disparities and intersectionality related to race and sex in pay discrimination, identify and end pay discrimination in federal employment and contracting, and issue a call to action to businesses with the goal of ending pay discrimination by 2038.
24. Support the study of reparations for slavery.
25. Black new fracking on federal lands.
26. Ban new oil and gas leases on federal land while mandating that existing leases are used to lower the cost of energy.
27. Establish a goal of fully restoring America's forests by 2046 and take more aggressive action (at least related to ocean protection) to fulfill the 30x30 goal outlined in the America the Beautiful initiative.
28. Build on the Postal Service Reform Act by appointing replacements for Donald Moak and William Zollars and confirming nominees Derek Kan and Dan Tangherlini; ordering the firing of Louis DeJoy once this is achieved; and then signing an executive order surveying the challenges the USPS faces competing in the modern world that are not budgetary.
29. Publish model legislation for states to expand the right to vote to felons, people on probation and parole, and incarcerated individuals and take other executive actions similar to the March 2021 order promoting the right to vote.
30. Sign an executive order developing national initiatives to combat Islamophobia in the post-9/11 era
31. Sign an executive order codifying the goal of removing the rest of the prisoners from Gitmo by 2025.
32. Issue an arms embargo, sponsor Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, and file criminal charges related to the 2021 coup in Myanmar.
33. Withhold federal government dollars and contracts from companies that engage in anti-union practices.

     As a voter, I encourage each person reading this to mobilize and select an issue or two and contact the White House endlessly about it. For me, it will be the blood ban and Myanmar, and I hope to have updates related to these two issues within the next few weeks. Let's build a better America with our own hands!