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The Congressional Progressive Caucus released an extensive 2025 policy agenda on Thursday, with its chair revealing that “we are not seeing the momentum that we would like to see” for President Biden’s re-election bid.
The seven-point agenda, first obtained by NBC News, calls for a $17 minimum wage, free public higher education and comprehensive policing reform.
It sticks to domestic issues and makes no mention of the war in Gaza, which has once again been thrust into the national spotlight in recent days with anti-Israel protesters blocking roads and staging demonstrations around the country.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for commentfrom Fox News Digital.
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Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in May 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“If the progressive base is not excited and enthusiastic – and if they don’t feel like we are trying to earn their votes and that they are important – then I think the horrific idea of a second Donald Trump presidency could become reality,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who is the chair of the caucus, told NBC News. “We cannot afford to let that happen. And we won’t.”
In an area of the agenda titled “lowering health care costs,” it calls for the creation of an Office of Drug Manufacturing within the Department of Health & Human Services that would be “tasked with manufacturing select generic drugs, including insulin, and offering them to consumers at a fair price that guarantees affordable patient access.”
It pushes to “close the U.S. racial wealth and homeownership gaps by providing $100 billion in direct assistance to help first-time, working-class homebuyers purchase their first home.”
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Jayapal told NBC News “we’re going to have a tough election” in November as President Biden is facing former President Donald Trump.
The agenda also calls for an expansion of Social Security – which is already running into funding issues – and a minimum wage of $17 an hour by 2028.
In a section titled “advance justice,” the Congressional Progressive Caucus says it wants to “codify the rights to abortion, contraception, and in vitro fertilization,” pass a comprehensive policing reform bill, legalize marijuana, establish a committee to “study and develop proposals for reparations for Black Americans,” and create a “fair and humane immigration system.”
Other parts of the agenda call to give Washington, D.C., statehood, ban Congressional stock trading and ownership, raise wages for teachers and to provide “free tuition” for public higher education.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and The Squad are among the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“We have to excite our base. We have to show them what the path forward is – not just say, ‘This is the most important election of your life, and we expect you to vote.’ I don’t think that’s going to turn people out. And so I think this agenda, really, speaks to the needs of poor people, working people, progressives across the country who want us to make that case to them,” Jayapal told NBC News. “We are not seeing the momentum that we would like to see. We’re going to have a tough election. . . . We know we’re going to have to put together that progressive coalition. And I think this is the thing that allows us to say, ‘Look, here’s what we’re fighting for.’”
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
