their recommendations from the meetings today and tomorrow will be issued to update the d.n.c.'s rules and bylaws committee to be considered for the upcoming elections in 2018 and 2020. while we wait for the meeting to resume, we'll show you d.n.c. chair tom perez welcoming members of the commission and talking about why the commission was created and his hopes for the outcome. >> i'd like to start today by acknowledging chairman perez, we're thankful for his participation. and more than that for his leadership of the democrats in the national party. we're glad you could be here with us and look forward to earing your remarks.

>> good morning, everyone. hank you all for being here this was labor intensive, everyone came to it with an open mind and remarkable set of ideas. i want to say thank you to all f you. you have both entered this boldprise with a spirit of passion and a spirit of ingenuity and a spirit that understands that this is the most serious stress test on our nation's democracy perhaps in our history and the work of this

unity commission is so critically important. larry and jen, thank you so much for what up been doing. it's impossible to overstate the importance of the work that you have been doing. his is -- i come to you both with a sense of remarkable sobriety given what's happening in washington and around the country in the era of this president and also a sense of optimism borne out of what we've een on the ground. you look at the chaos and carnage that we see every day from this administration and the stakes couldn't be higher. this tax bill that people like congresswoman fudge and others fought against is just an absolute abomination. it is a break for wealthy eople, wealthy corporations at the expense of virtually

everybody else. the attack on the affordable care act, 13 million people potentially losing health care all in service of the tax cut for large corporations and wealthy people who don't need it. they tell us there is no money to re-authorize the state children's health insurance program but yet they want to eliminate the estate tax, which is a boon for the 1% of the %. and you see what's happening overseas where we have become a laughing stock around the world, other countries have figured out ow to handle this president, you roll out the red carpet, you appeal to his ego and then take him to the cleaners and that's what happened in china and what has happened elsewhere, yet our allies in europe and elsewhere rather than having our back, this administration establishes them in the back. and that's why we are a a less

afe country and democracy. and that's why this work is so critically important moving forward. we understand the seriousness of the task at hand. but i also come to you with a sense of optimism. we have seen in 2017 what we can do when we are united and watched the elections. the last time we won the governors' races in new jersey and virginia was in 2005 and we saw what happened in the house of representatives a year later in 2006. we saw what happened in both new jersey and virginia, but in other places, we saw what happened when we are united. we saw what happened when we organize. we organize early. we lead with our values and go into places like virginia and say health care is a right for all and not a privilege for a few. voters responded to that.

health care was the number one issue in virginia by far and the democratic party led on that issue and that is a big reason why we won. in virginia and elsewhere. and so we have a lot to look back on in 20717 and wasn't just new jersey and virginia. we can win elections virtually anywhere. the special elections in oklahoma that took place, three special elections in deep red rump districts and what they all have in common, we won all three elections. state senate seat in new hampshire, a special election down in florida where the republican won last year by a double-digit margin and annette won that race. you see when we organize. you see what we do and we listen. and when we make sure take the

term off year out of the electiony con of the democratic party. we have gone to school on the lessons. and one of the lessons we learned from the past is the mission of the democratic national committee must always be to elect democrats up and down the ticket from the school board to the oval office and we have done just that. and with the help of this commission, we will be able to do that even better scale because the recommendations that you have put forth today are remark apply important in moving forward as we turn the corner. i believe again that democrats can win everywhere. and the motto of our partnership with our state parties, we call it every zip code counts because again we can understand we can win everywhere and we have demonstrated that in elections. we understand that we have to spend money on

infrastructure. we haven't spent a dime on television at the d.n.c. our investments have been organizing and connecting directly with voters. through our summer program led by deputy chair keith ellison, we knocked over a million doors to invite americans of all walks of life to join us. we made investments in virginia up to a million five in virginia. zero dollars went into television, but into organizing and made sure the tech tools were there to help our friends in the progressive ecosystem. and in new jersey, we helped people up and down the ticket. it was an honor to campaign on behalf of the house of delegates' candidates. we want you to govern and best way is to flip the house of delegates. last time democrats this many seats in the virginia house of delegates was the late 19th century. it wasn't a coincidence and the 15 republican whors about to become former members of the

virginia house of delegates are all men, replaced by 11 women. remarkable. history made, including the first two latinas in the history of the house of delegates. first asian american in virginia house of delegates and first openly transgender person in virginia house of delegates. we can win. so that's what we've learned. that's the progress we have made. that's the momentum. we need to scale that and make sure we are doing that everywhere in 2018 because we can win governorships and state legislatures. i was with the dch dlcc yesterday reiterating the message ta the new democratic party is up and down the ticket and working to organize everywhere.

i believe we can win everywhere and we can win everywhere as long as we are continuing to organ continuing to put in place the recommendation of this remarkable commission. and so -- as we shift into this next phase of the commission, i want to take a moment to tell you some of the things we have already put in place because i think it's really important and inspired conversations with people i have had in this room. we need to be looking toward 2017 and need to have an eye on the future and build a party that can win today and sustain those victories tomorrow. we need to make sure we are preparing now for the 2018 election, but also preparing ahead for the 2020 election. and as we think about 2020, there are many things that are very important.

we spent a lot of time learning from the past and our mistakes. i think it's so critically important heading into 2020 and that starts now at the d.n.c. that it does not put its thumb on the scale either in fact or in perception. nothing the d.n.c. or our party officials do should give a primary candidate an unfair advantage. toward that end we announced a while back that one innovation we're going to do to make sure that we are true to that admonition a we're going to announce our debate schedule for democratic primaries well in advance of know degree who the candidates are so there's no perception that there's a thumb on the scale for any one candidate. i know there are other things we an do.

i'm committed to making sure all our joint fundraising agreements are trance parent and available to all of the candidates. we need to make sure we give them more opportunities. the recommendations here on the primaries i think are some of the most important things we can do. it makes absolutely no sense to me to have a voter registration deadline that's on one day and a deadline to change your party affiliation that's 60 or 90 or even 100 days earl ear -- earlier or even one day earlier. that makes no sense to me. i suspect that makes little or no sense to anyone on this commission and that's a really important reform that i look forward not om to adopting with this commission but to mplementing because it's one thing to adopt but another thing

to make sure we move forward with our recommendations. we also need to make sure that we remain vigilant in making sure we expand opportunities for people to vote, not contract them. my work as a civil rights lawyer has given me a front row seat to the fact that voter suppression is a permanent part of the republican playbook. the sooner we understand, the sooner we respond. they have been talking about this decades, not just for months and implementing not just through voter i.d. laws that are making it harder for eligible people to vote rather than easier. we need to make sure that voter offense and defense are part of our playbook and these recommendations of the commission and i commend the chair and the co-chair for the work they have done in this area because there are too many oom working people who can't vote in this. we have had a robust dialogue and i thank everybody who has been working on the issue of caucuses because obviously we want to make sure that if you are a shift worker you can vote

in the caucus or a member of the military or someone else who has been left out of the process that we can do that, that you can vote and make sure that your ranchise is exercised. and there's been remarkably important discussions here. i think opening up that caucus process consistent with the recommendations are going to be game changing and i applaud the work of the commission and i applaud the work you have done in the area of superdelegates. in 2016, it made up 16% of the delegates in the commission. at that time, when you were negotiating the unity commission, both secretary clinton and senator sanders agreed on the mandate passed there to provide for a significant reduction in the number of unpledged delegates and i'm excited about the fact that the recommendations are going to reduce that by over 50%. and that is so critically important.

but timely -- and i shouldn't say but, finally, if we want democrats to win and stay in power we have to reform our arty from the ground up. our resistance summer effort was a downpayment, efforts of grassroots organizing, we are at rise and organ we are going to continue this. i commend my friend and colleague, keith ellison who has been part of that conversation. we have been making investments in our state parties and making investments in ballot races and working with our colleagues in the progressive ecosystem. some of these organizations don't have a chief technology officer but what they have is tremendous energy and when they harness that technology and use the tools we have, that is a force multiplier because we all succeed when we all succeed. and as we saw in new jersey, virginia and elsewhere, we are

at our best when we are united when we have our oars in the ater and rowing. and that's why we are continuing to make sure we make these investments. i'm proud of the fact that we are now providing one-third every month to state parties. and it's not a blank check but accompanied by accountability measures and working together with state parties and critical takeholders in each state to develop that strategic plan for success that enables us to win this year and for many years to come. i'm proud of the technology infrastructure that we are building, the voter protection infrastructure, all of those things that unable us to work across states to make sure we

are empowering folks. we need to continue to empower our diverse grassroots democrat at every level and make sure they have a seat at the leadership table. let's build on our small dollar fundraising success and stand by our pledge to ban corporate -- i was born at night but not last night and this commission is a critical part of that process moving forward. and i am confident that senator ennedy once taught me many things but he said, you know, tom, we are at our best when we are united and unity doesn't mean you muslim it. ut when we -- unanimity. we may not agree on everything t when we recognize what unites us that's when we're at the best. senator kennedy moved the ball down the field and making sure if we protected the right to organize, making sure we protected women's rights, immigrants' rights.

when we move forward in that spirit and i'm confident we agree on many, many things here and i'm confident there are areas where we may still have disagreements. but i know what units us far exceeds our differences. moving forward this report is going to make a big difference. i'm going to work with all of you to make sure it doesn't gather dust because the work you do today and tomorrow is the end of one chapter but the beginning of an equally important chapter, the chapter of implementation. when history looks back on your work, our work, that history records this as a moment in which democrats came together around a vision of opportunity for everyone, of empowerment for grassroots communities, of construction of a pathway not only for a victory in 2018 but long-term sustained success. that's when we are at our best. i thank you and look forward to hearing the final results.

i know we have a lot of work to do today but i have a lot of optimism moving forward because this is a great group of folks who know what our north star is. north star is taking back america and making sure it works for everybody and every community. when we do that, we're at oush best. thank you, jen, thank you, larry, and thank you everybody on this commission for your great work. [applause] > tom perez, d.n.c. chair from morning, the democratic unity commission meeting this morning, when they resume we'll bring you that live. 2016 re put together in to review the election and

recommend changes. democrats are considering a plan that would limit but not abandon the influence of superdelegates in the next presidential primary after a bruising 2016 primary prompted allegations by bernie sanders supporters that the system was rigged. the changes probably wouldn't have made a difference in last year's primary. hillary clinton received at least three million more primary votes than bernie sanders. again, we'll have live coverage twhain resume their deliberations. until then, some of this morning's activity including the offering of a number of d.n.c. amendments, proposed changes, including the role of unpledged delegates in the democratic convention. >> this is a series of amendments that seeks to clarify the section on how unpledged, previously unpledged delegates will be allocated under the new formula which binds folks to the outcome of the election.

11 and 12 sort of deal with how we put people in different categories and what the priority is for categories. because there are some superdelegates who are superdelegates for more than one reason. so we are going to prioritize which category they are in. the amendment 14 merely says that we hope that the r.b.c. does its work in a consulttive way with the members of the commission. also it points out that we looked at some other options besides the options we suggested in terms of how we bind the delegates, but that some of those that we rejected would have greatly increased the number of pledge delegates at the convention. so we didn't adopt those. amendment 15, make sure that we use the word bound instead of pledged. pledged means something very specific. those are delegates elected to the primary and caucus system. and calling the newly bound previously unpledged delegates pledged also is confusing and so we should call them -- use the term bound.

it means something different. number 16, changes in one place, with respect to the r.b.c., the word comment to consultation. number 17, purely technical. just to ensure that folks nderstand that the new process will be integrated into the way that votes are actually cast at the convention. it's a very technical amendment in that way. i would ask for the adoption of those amendments en bloc. happy to answer any questions. >> second the motion. >> so there are some very complicated provisions in here with how this process works. in the recommendation on unplenged -- unpledged delegates. i would like to ask the commission to basically allow jeff and myself and anyone else who would like to collaborate to review one more time the

specific language and come back to this commission with perhaps somewhat more concise but still very accurate discussion of how the process will work for dealing with the unpledged delegates. >> just for clarification, that is specific to the categories execution of the voting. five, a, b, and c. that's the only part of this that you're asking to have a little bit more time to rework, the language, to simplify it. >> yes. so i would move the adoption of the amendment and then i think we can make a unanimous consent request after that that allows some revisions to the technical aspects of this which allows us to represent it to the

commission, probably tomorrow out of the normal order. >> ok. any further discussion on jeff's amendment? seeing no discussion -- >> i just want to make sure i understand what's happening. so we're going to vote on your technical amendments. then you and jeff are -- and whoever else -- are proposing that we, we look at this section with your technical amendments and potentially we're going to come back with something tighter. is that what's on the table? ok. >> we can discuss that latter part if we want to talk further. we just want to clear the -- ok. >> [inaudible] >> ok. ll those in favor of the amendment please raise your hands. ok. unanimous support. the amendment is adopted. >> i'd ask unanimous consent that following this meeting, that mr. berman and myself and any other interested commission

members meet to discuss the technical aspects of the implementation of the mandate with respect to unpledged delegates and be able to present he conclusion of those discussions out of order tomorrow during these proceedings. >> any objections? hearing none, it's moved forward. further amendments for the unpledged section. >> do you want an amendment to adopt this section as amended? k. all right. >> so, we're going to move to go through and vote on each

recommendation and we're just going to need a minute here before we get them up on the screen. as everyone knows, we are going to go vote by vote. and then we will go from there.

>> by not being told when we signed up, we were never told the time or the room for this meeting. you know this is a tainted meeting and yet when a few people figure out how to participate, by just sitting here, you want to take a sign away. [inaudible] underscores the problem with how the d.n.c. has not learned the lessons of the past. if it's so threatening to have a sign, that simply asks democratic party or undemocratic party, question mark, this behavior of trying to kick people out and take away the signs underscores perhaps the answer to that question. >> all of the commission members deeply respect the grassroots that are here and i think if you could take your seat and hold your sign, i think we're ok with that. we're all comfortable with that.

[inaudible] are all the commission members ok with that? thank you. thank you. [applause] we deeply respect the grassroots that are here. >> yes. please return the signs and then if you both take your see the, -- take your seats, that's totally fine. hank you. >> one of my signs has open public meeting and statements and suggestions as well. another of my recommendation was to get money out of politics and make that number one priority of the democratic party. another of my sugs was that we need to do everything we can to prevent the unseen favoritism. thank you. >> we appreciate your support and your comments. and we take grassroots comments very seriously and appreciate yours.

>> we will have an opportunity to listen to the public's testimony because i think it's very important. thank you.

>> any additional amendments in the unpledged section? >> madam chair, yes, for number . page 4, line 32 so it reads right now, the commission recommends the d.n.c. work to ensure that all party first who have a role in the execution of the actual primary

caucus process in their state st be scrupeously neutral in reality and perception in their administration in electoral activities and i move that to amend to say will. they will ensure. >> second the amendment. >> any discussion. hose in favor say aye. unanimous. the amendment is adopted. >> another amendment, page 4, i want to add to the end -- hat paragraph that any

number 10, page 4, line 35. adding to the end of the paragraph, any person who violates this important commitment to impartiality could be subject to loss of delegate status or any other privilege hey may hold at the d.n.c. so we're adding at the end of this higher paragraph so everyone -- >> i second the amendment. >> seeing no discussion. ll those in favor. unanimous. t's adopted. any additional amendments?

we are going to putting up the recommendations starting on page 4. i'm going to read this, the first one, and then we can move forward with that.

recommendation number one under unpledged delegates the ommission concurs that the reduction of over 400 unfledged legate votes equaling 60% in 2016 will strengthen the grassroots role in our presidential nominating process and it's important that the gas roots' voice be amplified. ny discussion? >> madam chair, i think it would be helpful just to clarify for people watching online and those in the audience who we are removing the superdelegates

status for. so i think for clarification purposes that means all these state level d.n.c. members. so the chairs, vice chairs, d.n.c. committee men and women, the remaining superdelegates will be the members of congress, governors and other distinguished party leaders. so i just want to make it clear those are going to be the remaining superdelegates and state level folks will continue to be delegates to the convention but their vote will be tied how their primary or caucus votes. >> i think we explicitly stated it in the next one we're going to adopt. >> are we prepared to vote on 1. all those in favor of 1, please raise their hands.

recommendation is adopted. we are going to move to number 2 n regards to current unpledged delegates -- >> part of the national democratic committee. they are gaffe elling back in and formed after the 2016 election. they'll make recommendations to update the d.n.c.'s rules and by-laws. live coverage here on c-span.