Election 2020: Democrat Amy Klobuchar Maps Out First 100 Days If Elected President

Promising an “ambitious, optimistic agenda to improve health care, combat climate change, and pursue economic justice,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar laid out an 18-page proposal outlining her agenda and first 100 days if elected president.

According to a copy of the proposal obtained by CNN, Klobuchar would have the U.S. re-enter the international Paris Climate accord that President Trump withdrew the U.S. from in 2017. Her first goal is to ensure the U.S. “maintain global leadership” in addressing the effects of climate change.

Another concern is to include protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions for continued access to the Affordable Care Act and seek ways for the “safe importation” of prescription drugs from other countries, such as Canada. At a House subcommittee meeting in May, Gilead Sciences CEO Daniel O’Day confirmed his company’s HIV prevention drug sold for $8 in Australia while the same medicine cost Americans $1,780, despite $50 million of the underlying research paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

"After four years of Donald Trump, a new president can't wait for a bunch of congressional hearings to act," Klobuchar said in a statement Monday. "The urgent problems our country is facing require immediate action. That's why in my first 100 days as president I will enact an ambitious, optimistic agenda to improve our health care, combat climate change, pursue economic justice and shared prosperity, and build a stronger democracy and safer world."

Amid the Democratic field of two dozen candidates, Klobuchar has staked out the middle ground. During an April town hall on CNN, she cautioned for a more moderate approach to health care, college tuition and student loans than many of her Democratic rivals.

Still, her exhaustive proposal includes an overhaul of immigration, gun violence legislation and a “historic investment” in public education. Although it was not clear how her education investment would differ from other Democrats who have pledged free or near-free college tuition, varying degrees of loan forgiveness, and public service as ways to soften the financial hit many students and their families take in order to complete a college degree.

Another pledge is to work with the Senate and American Bar Association to fill judicial vacancies in federal courts. She also put on a high priority on restoring “trust with our most important allies” in Canada and Europe, with the outcome to reinvigorate “America’s standing in the world.”

Klobuchar seemed to separate herself from the Democratic field by promoting cybersecurity, which she intends to make “an immediate priority” by “launching government-wide cybersecurity initiatives.”

Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are also priorities, along with a "bold infrastructure plan too rebuild America and re-establish the Presidential Advisory Council on Infrastructure." Klobuchar proposes a trillion dollar plan to address several infrastructure issues.

Klobuchar is a top 10 candidate among a crowded field. However, she is well behind former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.