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February 4, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Socialist presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to make extensive use of executive action to implement his agenda if he wins, according to a campaign document recently obtained by The Washington Post.

The document, prepared by campaign manager Faiz Shakir, senior adviser Warren Gunnels, and policy director Josh Orton, lists a number of proposed executive orders for Sanders to review, the Post reported. “We cannot accept delays from Congress on some of the most pressing issues,” it declares, “especially those like immigration where Trump has governed with racism and for his own corrupt benefit.”

Among the suggestions were that a President Sanders could order the U.S. Department of Justice to legalize marijuana, ban the exportation of crude oil on the basis of climate change being a national emergency, and reversing various aspects of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. 

While some of the proposals would fall within scope of the president’s executive authority, others – namely changing federal marijuana policy and banning exports – would likely be struck down for encroaching on the legislative branch and existing federal law.

The Post also reported that the document references “reversing federal rules blocking U.S. funding to organizations that provide abortion counseling” – likely a reference to the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule, which cuts almost $60 million from Planned Parenthood’s annual federal funding by requiring “clear financial and physical separation between Title X-funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning” and banning “referral for abortion as a method of family planning.” 

Sanders campaign spokesman Mike Casca did not dispute the authenticity of the document but would elaborate on its contents. The Post’s copy of the document indicated that Sanders himself had not yet embraced or rejected any of the specific proposals, but they are consistent with Sanders’ past comments about using executive orders to address immigration, marijuana, and pensions, as well as his threat to make the Justice Department “go after those states” that restrict abortion “in every way that I legally can.”

RealClearPolitics’ national polling average of the Democrat primary currently has Sanders in second place with 23.7 percent, just behind former Vice President Joe Biden’s 27 percent.