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 nations 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. Its 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 whats happening in washington and around the country in the era of this president and also a sense of optimism borne out of what weve een on the ground. You look at the chaos and carnage that we see every day from this administration and the stakes couldnt 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 dont need it. They tell us there is no money to reauthorize the state Childrens HealthInsurance Program but yet they want to eliminate the estate tax, which is a boon for the 1 of the . And you see whats 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 thats 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 thats why we are a a less afe country and democracy. And thats 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 wasnt 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 doubledigit 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 havent 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 wasnt 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 thats what weve learned. Thats the progress we have made. Thats 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 its 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 its 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 were going to do to make sure that we are true to that admonition a were going to announce our debate schedule for democratic primaries well in advance of know degree who the candidates are so theres no perception that theres a thumb on the scale for any one candidate. I know there are other things we an do. Im 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 thats on one day and a deadline to change your Party Affiliation thats 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 thats a really important reform that i look forward not om to adopting with this commission but to mplementing because its 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 cochair for the work they have done in this area because there are too many oom working people who cant 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 theres 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 im 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 shouldnt 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 dont 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 thats why we are continuing to make sure we make these investments. Im proud of the fact that we are now providing onethird every month to state parties. And its 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. Im 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. Lets 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 doesnt mean you muslim it. Ut when we unanimity. We may not agree on everything t when we recognize what unites us thats when were 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 womens rights, immigrants rights. When we move forward in that spirit and im confident we agree on many, many things here and im 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. Im going to work with all of you to make sure it doesnt 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 longterm sustained success. Thats 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, were 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 well 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 president ial primary after a bruising 2016 primary prompted allegations by Bernie Sanders supporters that the system was rigged. The changes probably wouldnt have made a difference in last years primary. Hillary clinton received at least three million more primary votes than Bernie Sanders. Again, well have live coverage twhain resume their deliberations. Until then, some of this mornings 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 didnt 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. Its 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. Thats the only part of this that youre 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 jeffs amendment . Seeing no discussion i just want to make sure i understand whats happening. So were 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 were going to come back with something tighter. Is that whats 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. Id 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, its moved forward. Further amendments for the unpledged section. Do you want an amendment to adopt this section as amended . K. All right. So, were going to move to go through and vote on each recommendation and were just going to need a min