Bernie Sanders

WASHINGTON, November 4 – The Senate voted late this afternoon for a 14-week extension of unemployment insurance benefits. The extension would help about 1,800 Vermonters whose benefits were to have run out by the end of this year.

“Winter is coming and in Vermont and around the country we simply cannot leave families in the lurch without any source of income,” said Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Sanders said workers who have lost their jobs during the worst recession since the 1930s have remained unemployed an average of 27 weeks – longer than at any time since the end of World War II.

The House later this week is expected to finish action on the bill and send it to President Obama. The measure also would expand an $8,000 tax credit for homebuyers.    » read more »

November 5, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, November 5 – The Senate environment committee today overcame a Republican boycott and voted 11 to 1 for a sweeping climate bill that would cut greenhouse gases from power plants and factories by 83 percent by 2050.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the panel’s Green Jobs and the New Economy Subcommittee, was an active participant in crafting the legislation.

More aggressive than a House-passed global warming bill, the Senate measure also calls for a 20 percent reduction by 2020 in emissions that cause climate change.    » read more »

October 29, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, March 31 –The Senate banking committee today narrowly approved and sent to the Senate legislation to ban abusive credit card practices.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cosponsored the bill that cleared committee, but he said that when the legislation reaches the Senate floor he will press for a nationwide cap on credit card interest rates.

Sanders on March 12 introduced a measure to place a 15 percent ceiling on interest rates on credit cards and loans to consumers and businesses.

Banks that have received the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history, he said, should not be allowed to slap consumers with heavy fees on top of interest rates that have shot up to 30 percent or more.    » read more »

Meeting With Energy Secretary Helped Make Vermont’s Case

October 27, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- The Vermont Congressional Delegation – Senator Patrick Leahy (D), Senator Bernie Sanders (I) and Representative Peter Welch (D) – announced Tuesday morning that Vermont Transco, LLC, will receive $68,928,650 in federal support to launch Vermont’s Smart Grid technology. The funds are part of $3.4 billion in Smart Grid grants across the nation that President Obama announced today – the largest awards made in a single day from this year’s American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.    » read more »

Meeting With Energy Secretary Helped Make Vermont’s Case

WASHINGTON -- Oct. 27 -- The Vermont Congressional Delegation – Senator Patrick Leahy (D), Senator Bernie Sanders (I) and Representative Peter Welch (D) – announced Tuesday morning that Vermont Transco, LLC, will receive $68,928,650 in federal support to launch Vermont’s Smart Grid technology.

The funds are part of $3.4 billion in Smart Grid grants across the nation that President Obama announced today – the largest awards made in a single day from this year’s American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.    » read more »

October 19, 2009 -- With nationwide unemployment at 9.8 percent, benefits will expire by the end of the year for nearly 2 million out-of-work Americans, including some 1,800 Vermonters. “In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and at a time when long-term unemployment is extremely high, we cannot turn our backs on jobless Americans by letting their unemployment insurance expire,” Senator Bernie Sanders said.

He backs legislation to extend unemployment insurance for up to 14 additional weeks. Some job hunters exhausted their benefits at the end of September.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, October 14 – Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today welcomed President Barack Obama’s support for a one-time, $250 payment next year to more than 50 million seniors to keep Social Security benefits from shrinking.

“Even as we seek to bring about recovery, we must act on behalf of those hardest hit by this recession,” Obama said. “I want to compliment all the members of Congress who have been working to address these challenges, especially Senators Reid, Baucus, Sanders, and Lincoln, Speaker Pelosi, and Representatives Rangel, McCarthy, and DeFazio.”    » read more »

BURLINGTON, October 9 – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement after President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize:

“President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the non-Western world and stress diplomacy.

“Americans should be extremely proud that we now have a president who is restoring respect and admiration for our country around the globe. At a time when our planet faces so many serious problems the United States must play a leadership role in bringing the international community together against our common enemies of war, terrorism, poverty, AIDS and global warming.    » read more »

October 8, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, October 8 - Seven more Vermont counties have been awarded economic stimulus funding for energy efficiency and conservation projects through a block grant program created in legislation authored by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

County-specific block grants were awarded to Windham County for $130,800, Orange County for $115,800, Windsor County for $193,300, Washington County for $254,600, Chittenden County for $195,400, Rutland County for $189,700, and Addison County for $153,700. Block grants were awarded in September to Caledonia, Franklin, and Orleans Counties.

The State of Vermont and its cities and towns also were awarded $10.3 million in March under the same program.    » read more »

National Telecommunications And Information Administration Awards $1.2 M. To Vermont

WASHINGTON (Tuesday, Oct. 6) - U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Congressman Peter Welch and Governor Jim Douglas Tuesday welcomed the announcement by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, that Vermont has been awarded Vermont a $1.2 million broadband mapping grant. Vermont's grant is one of the first four American Recovery and Reinvestment Act broadband grants to reach the states for broadband mapping, aggregation and infrastructure.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, October 2 – The Senate last night passed an amendment by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would require the Department of Defense to calculate how much the Pentagon pays companies that committed fraud.

The measure, added to a defense appropriations bill, also would make the Pentagon recommend how to penalize contractors that repeatedly cheated the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, September 30 – Senate and House negotiators have agreed to provide $350 million for hard-pressed dairy farmers, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced today. The funding was first included in a Sanders amendment to the Department of Agriculture appropriations bill.    » read more »

September 30, 2009 -- Senators Bernie Sanders, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), John Kerry (D-Mass.) and eight supporters kicked off the global warming debate in the Senate Wednesday with a rally releasing their comprehensive climate bill.

"Countries around the world have asked ‘Where is the United States of America in helping us lead the fight against global warming?' Today, we are back. And we are going to lead the offensive," Sen. Sanders said at an event to roll out major climate change legislation. "We are going to make this bill stronger. People are going to say ‘Thank you America for taking us in a new direction.'"    » read more »

September 15, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, September 15 - The National Farmers Union and U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Robert Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.); Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) today backed legislation to support dairy farmers.

The Senate in August passed Sanders' amendment to the agriculture appropriations bill to provide an extra $350 million for milk price supports and to increase government purchases of surplus dairy products.    » read more »

Sanders Warning on Speculators: ‘They’re Back!’

WASHINGTON, June 22 – Senate Republicans today blocked consideration of an amendment by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to require federal regulators to use emergency powers to curb oil price speculation.

“What are they afraid of? Who are they trying to protect?” Sanders asked.

“There is mounting evidence that the run-up in oil prices has little to do with the fundamentals of supply and demand and everything to do with excessive speculation by some of the same Wall Street firms that received the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world,” Sanders said. “They're back,” he warned.    » read more »