The Millennial Platform

The Millennial Platform is a crowd-sourced, non-partisan policy platform being drafted by young Americans as an alternative to the political agendas of both major parties.  In drafting this platform, our members are striving to create a common-sense political platform built using the best ideas from across the political spectrum, free from the influence that big-money and special interest groups have played in shaping the platforms of both major political parties.

If you would like to help develop the Millennial Platform, click here to apply to join our platform editorial team.

Bail Reform

In recent decades, the use of bail for criminal offenses has changed from a useful means of preventing arrestees from disappearing before their trial, to an overused and unnecessary imposition that disproportionately hurts the lives of low-income citizens. While wealthy arrestees can oftentimes be released on bail within hours of an arrest, individuals who are lower-income cannot always afford the excessive bail amounts oftentimes employed by the criminal justice system today.

This is particularly unjust because the consequences of not being able to afford bail and being detained for weeks or months at a time can include the loss of employment, which can result in serious consequences to the lives and finances of not only lower-income arrestees, but their families and children as well.

Recent advancements in identification and tracking technology have made bail an unnecessary requirement for release between a non-violent offender’s arrest, and the date of their trial. Consequently, American Millennials supports the passage of legislation at both the federal and state level designed to prohibit the use of unnecessary incarceration and bail requirements for all but the most serious of crimes.

Climate Change

The vast majority of scientists agree that climate change is real, and that humanity’s heavy use of carbon-based fuels during the past couple centuries is responsible for these changes. Unfortunately, a number of irresponsible industrialists have spent untold millions to mislead the American public and protect the financial interests of multinational conglomerates that profit off of oil, gas, coal, and fracking.

As neither major political party has shown a willingness to pass the legislation necessary to reverse the damage that recent generations have done to the planet’s atmospheric composition, the responsibility of solving climate change will inevitably fall on our generation.

While solving climate change may be the biggest challenge humanity’s ever been faced with, we believe our generation is up to the task. To this end, we’re working to assemble the legislative package designed to not only provide a short-term plan to significantly curtail the use of carbon-based fuels during the coming years, but a long-term plan to actually restore the atmospheric composition to pre-industrial levels.

To learn more about this issue, click here.

Criminal Justice Reform

The criminal justice system in the United States is in desperate need of significant reform.  Over recent generations, politicians seeking to advance their own careers by appearing “tough on crime” or “tough on drugs” have enacted an array of criminal laws that are ineffective and cruel, and yet fail to deter the commission of the crimes or rehabilitate those imprisoned under such laws.

It’s time we rethink how we approach criminal justice in America today, abandon the failed policies of yesteryear, and adopt new policies that have been proven to reduce crime and recidivism, ensure better compensation for victims, and provide the guilty paths to redemption and reform.

The problems that have arisen in the past few decades are numerous and significant:

  • Banning the Use of For-Profit Prisons: The use of for-profit prisons has frequently been embraced as a solution to reduce the state costs of imprisoning inmates. However, by creating a profit incentive that’s directly attached to occupancy, our society inadvertently placed a profit incentive on locking up as many people as possible, for as long as possible.  This produced several inevitable consequences:
    • The management of companies working within the prison-industrial complex were incentivized to financially support candidates and propositions that called for harsher punishments, thereby increasing prison populations and the profitability attached to it, and passing the expense of those harsher laws on to taxpayers.
    • In efforts to lower costs and increase the profitability of for-profit prisons, prisoners are often subjected to deplorable living conditions, inadequate diets, and minimal resources that would lead to rehabilitation and reduce recidivism.
  • Eliminating the Slavery Exception: While the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provided a prohibition on the use of slavery and indentured servitude, it provided a single exception, “…except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,” and this exception has been exploited by U.S. corporations seeking sources of cheap labor.  To maximize the resource of low-cost labor, increasingly harsh penalties for drug crimes have been used to capture and enslave larger and larger populations.  While prisoners should always have the option of reducing their sentences and paying off compensation to their victims through labor programs, both the federal and state prison systems need to be reformed to eliminate any profit incentive attached to forced labor.
  • A New Model for Corrections: American Millennials supports the adaptation of an entirely new model of criminal justice, designed to:
    • Protect society from dangerous individuals until such time as they can be reformed.
    • Provide treatment to persons with mental health conditions, including the recognized mental disease of addiction, rather than dumping such persons into the criminal justice system.
    • Minimize prison populations by embracing alternative corrective solutions that are proven to be more effective in prisoner reform, reduce levels of recidivism, and ensure the greatest likelihood of victim compensation.
    • Provide prisoners with routes to their own redemption, including education, work-opportunities, and spiritual development, and ensure that once the guilty have paid their debts, the burden of a criminal record can be expunged within a reasonable period relative to the crime originally commit.
  • Banishment – Unless a victim so objects or a judge deems it inappropriate given the nature of the crime commit, persons imprisoned should be given the option of accepting banishment from a jurisdiction (be it a state, or the nation as a whole), as a means of avoiding some or all of their punishment by a state, so long as they affirmatively agree to a predecided punishment should they ever be caught returning to the jurisdiction they’ve been banished from, and agree to any additional terms of such a release that may be appropriate, such as complying with victim compensation agreements.

Daylight Savings

Daylight Savings is an outdated concept that has proven to be little more than an inconvenience in the modern world. That’s why American Millennials supports legislation to discontinue the use of Daylight Savings.

To learn more about this issue, click here.

Death Penalty

This is the 21st century, and in today’s day and age, almost every civilized nation on earth has banned the use of the death penalty, and with good reason. It’s extraordinarily expensive, ineffective as a deterrent, and a significant number of executed inmates have later been proven innocent. In light of these facts, we fully support legislation to permanently ban the use of death penalty on both the state and federal level.

To learn more about this issue, click here.

Drug Reform

Drugs are a complex and controversial issue, but over the past several years there has been a growing recognition that the War on Drugs approach has failed to achieve any of its stated goals.

Recognizing the failure of America’s 20th-century drug policies, American Millennials is calling for the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana, as well as comprehensive drug reform on the state, national, and international levels, based largely on the policy recommendations being made by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. These new policies must bring an end to the ineffective and expensive War on Drugs, and minimize the impact of drug abuse and addiction on our society by treating drug addiction as a public health issue rather than a criminal matter.

To learn more about this issue, click here.

Education

Providing our citizens with access to affordable and high-quality education is critical to the United States thriving in the 21st century.  That’s why American Millennials is supporting a number of measures designed to improve our nation’s primary education systems, require states to provide tuition-free higher education or vocational training to their citizens, and transition the funding of education from the current student loan model to a publicly funded model. Privately-owned educational institutional would retain their right to charge tuition at whatever rate they see fit.

We support the creation of a National Online University, known as the University of the United States, designed to extend the opportunity of affordable higher education (or vocational training) to every United States citizen as a guaranteed right of citizenship.  This online university should provide US citizens with access to a bachelors-level university education for free, and a variety of affordable graduate programs.  Non-citizens should be given access to the system for a nominal fee. In addition to providing educational resources, this online university should include an integrated database of employment opportunities for those individuals who have completed certain courses or degrees.

For more information on this topic, click here.

Election Reform

If the 2016 Presidential Primaries have taught us anything, it’s that America’s democracy is in a state of complete disarray, both with respect to how political campaigns are funded, and with respect to how our elections are actually run. In Arizona and New York, there were serious allegations of incompetence and/or intentional voter disenfranchisement. In other states, there have been reports of voters being removed from voting lists, voters being forced to stand in line for hours, and other barriers arising that have interfered with the ability of American citizens to have their votes counted.

To remedy this, American Millennials is calling on the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that will establish both common sense campaign finance reforms, as well as establish a Voters’ Bill of Rights. For more information on this topic, click here.

Energy

In recognition of the dangers posed by climate change, American Millennials support a policy designed to transition our carbon-based economy to 95% green and sustainable sources within 20 years, as well as the implementation of carbon-removal programs designed to restore the pre-Industrial revolution atmospheric balance by 2035.  Furthermore, we support nationwide-based bans on fracking and a $50 billion investment in fusion energy research.

Environment

Our generation has been saddled with environmental challenges that dwarf those of any generation to come before us. American Millennials support the establishment of both national and international strategies designed to protect our natural resources and minimize the negative impacts of human activity on the world, including but not limited to:

  • National Livestock Standards: During the 20th century America has seen the collapse of family-owned farms, and the proliferation of factory farms that maximize profits by subjecting animals to abhorrent living conditions. American Millennials support the passage of National Livestock Standards that would require the implementation of humane living conditions for all livestock within 5 years.
  • National Agriculture Plan: American Millennials support the passage of a National Agriculture Plan designed to help farmers coordinate crop rotation, maximize agricultural output, and require the excess agricultural product to be utilized for both national and international low-income nutritional supplement programs.
  • National Water Protection and Reclamation Plan: While legislation such as the Clean Water Act has helped revitalize America’s lakes, rivers, and streams over the past few decades, there have been significant technological advances made in irrigation and water reclamation that need to be implemented on the national level.  That’s why American Millennials support the passage of legislation that would require all large-scale agricultural operations to embrace such new technologies and techniques to end the overutilization of our nation’s limited aquifers and significantly reduce the amount of agricultural pollution which makes its way into the same rivers we drink from.
  • Reef Protection Plan: One of the greatest threats posed by global warming is irreversible damage and bleaching of our planet’s fragile coral reefs.  Given the importance that coral reefs play in the global ecosystem, protecting reefs around the globe needs to be treated as a critical issue on the international stage.  Recognizing this, American Millennials call on the American President and Congress to lead the global community in passing legislation to protect all reefs from commercial fishing, exploitation, pollution, and similar threats.
  • Carbon Extraction Plan: During the past 50 years, human activity has resulted in a significant change in the planet’s atmosphere, with levels of carbon in the atmosphere increasing from 315 parts per million to 385 parts per million. This change to the chemical composition of our planet’s atmosphere had already led to a global increase in temperature of 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, and current projections indicate the situation will only get worse if we don’t take significant action now.  In recognition of the seriousness of this problem, American Millennials are advocating for the continued partnership in the Paris Climate Accords, as well as the passage of legislation that will place a tax on all carbon-based fuels, set at rates relative to the damage caused by said fuels, and use the proceeds to fund carbon extraction projects around the globe, as well as research into new methods of extracting carbon from the atmosphere.
  • Ocean Restoration Plan: In addition to our Reef Protection Plan, American Millennials also support the passage of international legislation to permanently outlaw the use of commercial trawling, and place reasonable limitations on commercial fishing operations around the globe as necessary to allow fish populations to return to their natural levels.
  • Reforestation Plan: While various efforts are being made to curtail deforestation around the globe, the time has come for humanity to take a pro-active approach in reversing the damage by expanding the protection of forests and wilderness areas around the globe. That’s why American Millennials support the United States taking a leadership role in establishing a global program to replant forests across the face of the globe. This program would be funded by placing a small tax on every tree harvested by commercial lumber operations, paid for by the commercial operators themselves, or by their respective nations. While this tax would likely be less than $0.20 per tree, each tree harvested would pay for at least two trees to be planted in its place, either locally or in an area designated for replanting.
  • Curtailing the Use of Plastics: The ever-expanding use of plastics during the past century has created an environmental nightmare of unprecedented scope.  According to EcoWatch, “plastic constitutes approximately 90 percent of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile. One million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.”  As discarded plastics degrade, small pieces of plastic (including microbeads and microfibers) make their way into our water bodies, where they subsequently go on to harm and poison the entire food chain.  To address these harms, American Millennials supports the implementation on new policies to reduce the use of non-biodegradable plastics, and replace said materials with environmentally-sustainable alternatives.

Fixing the Constitution

Unfortunately, America is currently faced with a number of serious problems that can only be solved by amending our Constitution, or in the alternative, by passing legislation in a majority of state legislatures designed to have the same effect.

Recognizing the severity of some of these problems, American Millennials supports the following solutions proposed by Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Steven, as well as the organization of state legislators working together to bring about a National Popular Vote for the President of the United States.

To learn more about this issue, click here.

Food Security

In the United States, no citizen should ever go hungry. This isn’t simply a sentiment – it’s a statistical fact. 49.1 million Americans live in food-insecure households, including 33.3 million adults and 15.8 million children. Fortunately, hunger is caused by poverty and inequality, not scarcity. That means its a solvable problem – it’s simply a matter of math.

We need to ban the destruction of agricultural product to artificially manipulate market prices. All excess agricultural should be purchased by the government, and distributed by local and state entities as necessary to accommodate the different nutrition supplementation needs of different communities.

Forfeiture Reform

Civil asset forfeiture has come to be recognized as an overused law enforcement tactic that violates the private property rights of citizens, even in instances where there’s insufficient evidence of a crime. Unfortunately, to get seized property back, owners must prove it was not involved in criminal activity, which can be a complicated if not impossible task depending on the given facts of a case, by placing the burden on the property owner to prove their innocence.

Over the past several decades, despite the existence of the Fourth Amendment, federal and state legislators have given law enforcement bodies significant leeway to seize the personal and private property of U.S. citizens, oftentimes without the necessity of a guilty finding, and sell such property for the financial benefit of their own departments.  While the seizure and sale of personal private property would oftentimes be considered felonies if performed by almost any other class of persons in the United States, the flexibility and benefit-of-the-doubt given to the law enforcement community to seize and sell property based on nothing more than “probable cause” has allowed for the abuse of the tactic to grow into a multi-billion industry.

American Millennials supports the passage of federal and state legislation designed to require a finding of guilt before the private property of any citizen can be officially seized by law enforcement officials, and only allow for temporary seizures until such a finding has been established by a court of law.

Freedom of Movement

American Millennials supports the passage of legislation that eliminates the few remaining restrictions on travel by U.S. citizens, establishing “Freedom of Movement” as a right of all American citizens to travel anywhere in the world, including countries that have limited formal relations with the U.S.  Our goal is to establish this right through modifications to existing laws, bypassing the need of a Constitutional Amendment.

Health Care

While the Affordable Care Act (also known as the ACA or ObamaCare) has proven overwhelmingly successful, the fact of the matter is that America’s insurance-based health care system remains unnecessarily complex, bloated, inefficient and expensive.  That’s why American Millennials support the creation of a Multi-State Single Payer System, known as AmeriCare, that gives United States citizens and legal permanent residents an affordable public alternative to private health insurers.  Under our plan, states would be able to opt-in or opt-out of providing their citizens with the Single Payer option, and that those states that choose to opt-in would be required to make private supplemental insurance programs available for those individuals who want to premium services or accommodations that aren’t covered by the Single Payer system. States that choose to opt-out should be permitted to operate under the terms of the Affordable Care Act, but should not be allowed to fall beneath the minimum standards and requirements set by the ACA.

Homelessness

Nobody should be homeless in the United States. This is an ideal we can and should make a reality.

The fact is, approximately 3.5 million people in the U.S. are homeless, many of them veterans. At the same time, 18.6 million homes around the country sit vacant. In other words, there are approximately 6x as many vacant homes as there are homeless individuals.

In light of these facts, the time has come for the American President and the U.S. Congress to work together to solve homelessness in the United States by 2018. That’s why American Millennials supports legislation to accomplish the following goals:

  • Coordinate Federal and State programs to eliminate homelessness in the United States by 2018.
  • Create a real estate investment trust program to purchase foreclosed vacant homes from banks, and facilitate their resale to families through subsidized mortgage programs.
  • The creation of modern, clean and safe low-income housing facilities, managed by private companies and organizations, with high standards for property management and maintenance established by regulation, and financial incentives for programs that demonstrate high levels of effectiveness and resident satisfaction.
  • The creation of psychiatric housing and services for the mentally ill, administered by private companies and organizations, with high standards for patient treatment established by regulation, and financial incentives for programs that demonstrate high levels of effectiveness and patient satisfaction.
  • The creation of a national adoption program that incentivizes, encourages and facilitates the adoption of orphaned or otherwise parentless children.
  • The creation of a national orphan program, designed to provide quality homes, education, living environments and care to every parentless child.

Human Trafficking

Despite the passage of the 13th Amendment, human trafficking (slavery) remains a serious problem both at home and abroad.  In the United States alone, human trafficking generates $9.5 billion annually.  That’s why American Millennials support the creation of a government agency which both works to uncover and prosecute individuals and groups that engage in human trafficking, as well as provide support and recovery programs for all victims of human trafficking.

Internet Freedom and Security

The Internet is arguably the most powerful tool ever bestowed upon humanity, but certain special interest groups in the United States have quietly worked to curtail the privacy rights of users’.  In April, 2017, the Republican Party and President Trump quietly passed and signed into law a bill that allows internet service providers to sell the internet usage data of customers to third parties without the customers’ consent.

American Millennials strongly opposes this law, and supports the passage of legislation to classify internet usage as activities generally protected within the scope of our Fourth Amendment privacy rights.

Furthermore, in the wake of recent large-scale hackings of companies such as Equifax, American Millennials supports the creation of an online identity management hub, giving every citizen a common platform from which they can assert complete control over their digital identity, establish the scope of access various parties have to their personal information.

Law Enforcement

During the past several months, the Black Lives Matter movement has brought significant attention to the fact that the lives of minorities are being systematically and intentionally targeted for demise by law enforcement officers on a regular basis. While the primary focus of the movement has been the violent and all-too-often lethal force used by law enforcement officers against minorities, the fact is that the need for reform in the American law enforcement community goes well beyond the extreme examples so often highlighted by the movement.

Restoring the trust that the American public has in the law enforcement community and the criminal justice system is critically important. For more on this topic, click here.

Living Wage

With 46.2 million Americans living in poverty, it’s time that our political leaders take action to ensure that every American willing to work has access to a job that pays a living wage.  To this end, American Millennials supports legislation designed to peg local and state minimum wages to locally-calculated living wages, and automatically recalculate said minimums regularly to account for inflation and fluctuations in the cost of living.

Mental Health

4.1% of U.S. adults suffer from serious mental health issues. Whereas America once relied on insane asylums and psychiatric institutions to provide care for the mentally ill, today the mentally ill are often incarcerated or forced into homelessness.

The time has come for America to adopt a national mental health policy designed to help those Americans unfortunate enough to suffer from mental health issues get the care they need.  The reason that it’s so important to ensure that anyone who suffers from mental health issues can get the care they need is that mental health issues can happen to anyone, from veterans to housewives to CEOs.

Metric Rule

The time has come for the United States to adopt the metric system as the national standard for measurement, and for several good reasons:

The Metric system has become the international standard, now used by 95% of the world.
The Metric system is has been adopted as the standard language of medicine, science, and international commerce.
The Metric system is easier to use and calculate conversions with.

For more information on this topic, click here.

Military

During the last century, America has successfully created the most powerful, expensive, and influential military force in all of human history.  However, since September 11th, 2001, it has become apparent that the national security threats America is being presented within the 21st century are very different from those of the 20th century. Consequently, we believe the time has come to overhaul our nation’s national security apparatus. In light of this need, American Millennials is proposing a reduction in military spending to no more than twice that of total global military spending by all other nations, while simultaneously placing a greater focus on the types of intelligence and covert operations necessary to counter international terrorism and state-sponsored hacking. In addition, the United States also needs to proactively work to buy all loose nuclear weapons and materials by the end of this decade, and reprocess such materials for peaceful energy purposes, reduce our own nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons to 300 within five years, and pass an international agreement to achieve a permanent global ban on nuclear weapons by 2025. Lastly, American Millennials supports the creation of a new division of the military that operates exclusively as a humanitarian and peacekeeping force, which would be deployed as necessary to assist areas in need around the globe.

For more information on this topic, click here.

Population

The United States needs to provide global leadership in establishing the economic and social policies necessary to encourage population shifts directed at the ideal sustainable human population.

Prison Reform

While the topic of prison reform doesn’t usually get much press, the sad reality is that America’s prison system is nothing short of a national disgrace.  Despite having only 5% of the world’s population, the United States currently imprisons more than one-quarter of the prisoners on earth, as well as more people per capita than any other nation on Earth.  While reforming our drug laws and eliminating excessively harsh three-strikes laws will solve a significant part of the problem, the fact remains that our nation’s approach to crime and punishment needs to be overhauled.

For decades, federal and state politicians have pushed for harsher and harsher penalties for criminal offenses, including but not limited to drug offenses.  Sometimes they’ve done so to appear to voters as being “tough on crime.”  Sometimes they’ve done so while under the influence of campaign contributions made by the prison-industrial complex and its lobbyists, which are groups that have vested financial interests in maximizing our prison populations.

To address these problems, we need to end the corrupting influence of the prison-industrial complex, establish standards for the humane treatment of prisoners, and ensure that those unfortunate enough to end up in prison are given access to the tools necessary to successfully rehabilitate themselves before reentering society. This includes making jails and detention facilities responsible for providing addicts with treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery services, and liable for any failure to provide such care.

For more information on this topic, click here.

Prostitution

Prostitution is currently illegal in every state with the exception of Nevada. Unfortunately, despite the fact that such prohibitions were enacted with nothing but good intentions, the fact is that prohibitions of prostitution haven’t eliminated the industry, and have actually done far more harm than good by pushing the industry behind closed doors.

Here at American Millennials, we support ending the state-level prohibitions on prostitution so that state and local governments can effectively regulate and control the sex industry.   This is important for a number of reasons:

  • It will reduce violence against women.  As a black-market industry, many sex workers operate under the control of pimps who use violence and/or financial coercion to discipline and control the women working for them.  When such women are subjected to violence, the prohibition on prostitution prevents them from reporting such crimes to authorities without incriminating themselves.
  • It will allow sex workers to get labor rights. As an unregulated illegal industry, sex workers aren’t able to organize unions or establish laws designed to protect their own interest, health, and wellbeing.  By legalizing the industry, sex workers will be able to establish labor rights and employment standards for the industry.  Not only is this important for ensuring the wellbeing of sex workers operating within the industry, but it’s also critical to ensuring that sex workers seeking to leave the industry have the ability to do so, including access to the academic and employment resources and tools necessary to pursue an alternative career.
  • It is in the interest of the public’s health. By legalizing and regulating prostitution, the states can mandate the use of condoms and require that all sex workers be tested for STI’s on a regular basis, thereby significantly curtailing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
  • It will reduce human trafficking. Prohibitions of prostitution prevent government regulation and oversight of the industry.  This lack of oversight and control has created an environment in which the human trafficking of sex slaves is not only profitable, but commonplace. By legalizing prostitution so that it can be regulated, the states will be able to ensure that all sex workers are licensed, working of their own volition, and not forced to work against their will.
  • It will free up law enforcement resources. By legalizing prostitution, our law enforcement officers will no longer have to waste time and resources investigating victimless crimes, and will thus be able to focus their attention, time and resources towards the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes.
  • It will be a source of tax revenue. By legalizing and regulating prostitution, states can raise significant tax revenue which can be used for anything from building schools and roads.

Reproductive Rights

American Millennials supports the passage of a Constitutional Amendment designed to establish reproductive rights as an enumerated fundamental right.  This policy should be designed to not only permanently protect the privacy rights of Americans when it comes to family planning decisions, but also provide free contraception to any person unable to receive free contraception under the Affordable Care Act, and strengthen adoption networks and processes to ensure that no children ever have to experience life without a family.

Science and Medicine

If America hopes to remain the most advanced nation on earth in the 21st century, we’ll need to significantly increase our nation’s investment in science, technology, and medical research. That’s why the American Millennials supports tripling the budget for the National Institutes of Health from $30.1 billion to $90 billion, including a $5 billion additional investment per annum in the BRAIN Initiative, a $5 billion investment in researching cures and treatments for addiction, a $5 billion investment per annum in researching cures and vaccines for STDs/STIs, and tripling our nation’s investment in basic research.

The funds needed for these expanded areas of scientific and medical research will be paid for in large part by cuts to excessive military spending by capping military spending at twice the sum total of the rest of the world combined.

Sex Education

Did you know that the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed nation? Or that 37 states allow for medically inaccurate sex education? Or how about the fact that only 18 states require teachers to provide information about contraception?

Young Americans deserve better than to be lied to and mislead, and that’s why American Millennials supports the passage of federal legislation requiring every state, district and territory of the United States to make age-appropriate sex & relationship education and information compulsory in all schools, including private schools.

While religiously-based private schools must remain free to educate students on the religious tenants of their specific religion regarding sexuality, this legislation would require such schools to also provide their students with medically-accurate information regarding sex and relationships.  Any educational institutions that attempt to circumvent these requirements should face significant fines and the loss of any tax-free status they may enjoy if setup as a religiously-based institution.

Despite the fact that some religious institutions will disagree with this proposed legislation, providing medically accurate information to young Americans who are coming of age is a critically important to reducing the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), teen pregnancy, and unintended pregnancies taking place outside of marriage.

For more information on this topic, click here.

Statehood for U.S. Territories

While not often discussed, the time has come for the United States to offer the status of statehood to the various U.S. territories, commonwealths, and districts around the globe.  The reason this is so important is that U.S. citizens (and U.S. Nationals) living in U.S. territories are (in most instances) denied the right to vote in U.S. elections, don’t have adequate representation in the U.S. House of Representatives, nor any form of representation in the U.S. Senate.

The importance and urgency of extending full statehood to our territories can be seen most evidently in Puerto Rico, which has received inadequate federal support in the wake of Hurricane Maria.  Many believe the federal government’s inadequate response was a byproduct of the fact that Puerto Rico is a territory rather than a state, despite having a population larger than that of more than 20 different states.

To this end, American Millennials supports the admission of three new states to the Union:

  • Puerto Rico
  • The District of Columbia
  • Oceanic Islands

While efforts are already underway to secure statehood for both Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, American Millennials supports the creation of one additional state, known as the Oceanic Islands, which would extend the full rights and responsibilities of statehood to citizens living in the remaining U.S. territories.

For more information on this topic, click here.

Student Loans

Despite recent legislation passed by the United States Congress to ease the burden of student-loan debt on low-income earners, the fact remains that student-loan debt in the United States currently stands at about $1.2 trillion, and millions of Americans remain trapped in student-loan debt for decade after decade. That’s why American Millennials supports a Federal Student-Debt Reform package designed to cut interest rates and establish more lenient loan forgiveness policies.

For more information on this topic, click here.

Victimless Crimes

American Millennials supports the passage of federal legislation prohibiting the use of criminal consequences for most crimes that fall with the definition of “malum prohibitum.” This legislation would allow the federal, state, and local governing bodies to issue civil fines and civil orders for violations of the law in which there is no complainant, but would prohibit the use of incarceration for victimless crimes, including jaywalking, hitchhiking, prostitution, and possession of illicit drugs intended for personal use.

While such laws are often endorsed by self-righteous politicians who wish to appear “righteous,” “moral,” or “tough,” the use of incarceration as punishment for violations of malum prohibitum laws is unnecessary, inhumane, arguably immoral, and requires a significant waste of taxpayer money and law enforcement resources.

Under this proposal, legislatures may elect to modify malum prohibitum laws as necessary to achieve a regulatory purpose with alternative regulatory means, such as the payment of civil fines, or the use of civil orders, such as mandating drug rehabilitation.

Exceptions would only be allowed for public welfare offenses where a regulated behavior poses a significant risk to the public’s safety, such as driving under the influence, possession of illegal firearms, or the distribution of illicit substances for which there is scientific body of evidence proving the substance in question poses a significant danger to a user.

Voting

American Millennials are advocating for the passage of a Constitutional Amendment that makes voting a protected fundamental right, outlaws the use of partisan gerrymandering, ends the legal fictions that corporations are people, and that money is speech.  We also support the establishment of a secure national online voting system that is simple, intuitive, information-rich, open-source, and includes redundant security protocols.  Although voting privately in person must remain a protected right, the time has come for America’s democracy to embrace the technological age.

Womanhood Tax

80% of states currently apply a sales tax to feminine hygiene products, despite the fact that such products are basic necessities (as opposed to luxury items) that only one gender has to purchase and pay a tax on, but the other doesn’t. To rectify this problem, American Millennials supports a nationwide ban on the application of sales tax to gender-specific basic necessities, including all feminine hygiene products, and menstruation-related medicines such as Midol.

The reason we support this ban on gender-specific taxation comes down to equality. We believe that nobody should be required to pay a tax based on the circumstances and consequences of the gender they were born.