Joseph Biden
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Key Campaign Platform (source: www.joebiden.com)
- Iraq: The idea is to maintain a unified Iraq by federalizing it and giving Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis breathing room in their own regions. The central government would be responsible for common interests, like border security and the distribution of oil revenues. The plan would bind the Sunnis - who have no oil -- by guaranteeing them a proportionate share of oil revenues. It would convene an international conference to secure support for the power sharing arrangement and produce a regional nonaggression pact, overseen by a Contact Group of major powers. It would call on the U.S. military to withdraw most U.S. troops from Iraq by the summer of 2008, with a residual force to keep Iraqis and their neighbors honest.
- Darfur: Biden's Plan for Darfur -- now before the Senate in S. Res. 276 -- would make it U.S. policy to stop the violence by deploying a robust international peacekeeping force, ensure access for humanitarian workers and negotiate a durable political settlement. Its key elements include: Launch a sustained, coordinated diplomatic offensive with the U.N, sending a heavy support mission, and enforcing a No Fly Zone.
U.S.-India Relations
- Has introduced, co-sponsored or supported several India-related bills, the most prominent being the US-India Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement Bill which was signed into law by President George W Bush in January this year.
- Biden also cosponsored the 2007 Energy Diplomacy and Security Act which calls on the secretary of state to establish "petroleum crisis-response mechanisms with India.
Notable Achievements
- Senator Biden Was instrumental in passing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which is now named after him as the Biden Crime Law.
- Was the author of the landmark Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which contains a broad array of ground breaking measures to combat domestic violence and provides billions of dollars in federal funds to address gender-based crimes.
- Authored the Help America Vote Act which has been called the most important voting rights legislation since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
- Biden and Les Gelb of the Council on Foreign Relations proposed a plan for Iraq following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Rather than continuing the present approach or withdrawing, the plan calls for "a third way that can achieve the two objectives most Americans share: to bring our troops home without leaving chaos behind. The idea is to maintain a unified Iraq by federalizing it and giving Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis breathing room in their own regions."
