Politics

WASHINGTON, June 26 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation to make federal regulators invoke emergency powers to stop speculators from taking advantage of turmoil in Iraq to drive up oil prices and make motorists pay more for gasoline.

“I am getting tired of big oil companies and Wall Street speculators using Iraq as an excuse to pump up oil and gas prices,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate energy committee. “The fact is that high gasoline prices have less to do with supply and demand and more to do with Wall Street speculators driving prices up in the energy futures market.”

WASHINGTON DC—Last evening, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Congressman Peter Welch’s bipartisan legislation to encourage schools administrators to make cost-saving energy efficiency upgrades. The Streamlining Energy Efficiency for Schools Act, modeled after Vermont’s school-based energy efficiency efforts, is the second Welch-authored energy efficiency bill to pass the House this year.

Vermont Congressman Peter Welch voted in favor of defund some of the NSA’s spying on innocent Americans yesterday. He added his support to a bill that stops the backdoor searches of information collected under the Section 702 program and blocks the NSA from mandating that tech companies add backdoors in their software or hardware.

The Senate and White House will need to approve, but a vote of 293-123 shows that the House, at least, is ready to curtail some of the NSA’s unnecessary activities. It’s the first time that Congress has acted to defund NSA activities since Edward Snowden gave documents to journalists just over a year ago. It’s a pretty solid vote, too, across party lines.

WASHINGTON, June 19 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today accused oil companies and Wall Street speculators of using unrest in Iraq as a phony excuse to artificially drive up crude oil and gasoline prices.

The price of oil today rose above $115 a barrel – a new nine-month high on the New York Mercantile Exchange – ostensibly because of concerns that sectarian violence in Iraq could cut off the country’s exports. The price of regular gasoline rose to $3.67 a gallon today, up a nickel in the past month. That was despite the fact that today there is more supply and less demand for gasoline than five years ago, when the average price of a gallon of gas was just $2.67 a gallon.

WASHINGTON, June 18 – Over staunch opposition by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 12-10 for the construction of the Keystone Pipeline which would transport oil from the tar sands region in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas.

Sanders said extracting and refining “the dirtiest oil imaginable” would spew more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and worsen global warming.

Completing the Keystone XL pipeline, he added, would send a signal that the United States is unwilling to lead the way toward reversing global warming.

Roger Allbee has announced that he is a candidate for the Vermont State Senate, representing Windham County, as a Democrat. Allbee will contest the Democratic primary on August 26 with incumbent Senator Jeanette White, as well as several other candidates.  He will enjoy the endorsement of Senator Peter Galbraith who has decided to not seek reelection.

Allbee is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Administrator of Grace Cottage Hospital / Carlos G. Otis Health Care Center in Townshend and is the former Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets for the State of Vermont. Additionally, he is working on VIEWBOOST, a rural tourism application for mobile devices, which connects tourists to places, events and businesses in real time and is using Vermont as a model. 

WASHINGTON, June 11 – The Senate today voted nearly unanimously for a bill to expand hospitals and clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs and to hire more doctors and nurses to provide timely, quality care for veterans.

The bipartisan bill by Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would let veterans facing long delays for doctor appointments at VA facilities go elsewhere. Their measure also would hold VA officials accountable for trying to conceal patient wait times.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Peter Welch made the following statement after Senators Sanders and McCain announced a bipartisan agreement for reforms at the Department of Veterans Affairs:

“The cost of any war must include the cost of caring for warriors when they return home. That solemn commitment has been shaken by recent events.

WASHINGTON, June 5 – Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today reached a bipartisan agreement to improve veterans’ access to health care and address serious problems facing the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“While this is not the bill that I would have written, we have taken a significant step forward with this agreement,” said Sanders.

At a time when VA medical facilities in parts of the country have waiting lists that are too long, this legislation would give veterans access to private doctors, community health centers, Department of Defense medical facilities and facilities funded by the Indian Health Service.

BURLINGTON, Vt., June 2 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was joined this morning by representatives of Vermont-based, worker-owned businesses and an employee-ownership expert at a news conference to announce legislation to help workers who want to form their own businesses or worker-owned cooperatives.

Sanders said employee ownership increases employment, productivity, sales and wages. The federal government, however, has not done enough for employee ownership to realize its full potential.

BURLINGTON, Vt., June 2 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) welcomed an Obama administration initiative unveiled today to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, but the senator said real progress on global warming has been blocked by Republicans in Congress who have thwarted every measure to confront a planetary crisis that they deny is happening.

BURLINGTON, Vt., June 1 – Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today outlined a comprehensive legislative package to address “reprehensible” behavior by VA officials and to correct underlying problems in access to medical care.

“There must be a culture of honesty and accountability within the VA and people who have lied or manipulated data must be punished. But we also have to get to the root causes of the problems that have been exposed. The simple truth is that with 2 million more veterans coming into the system in recent years there are many facilities within the VA that do not have the doctors, nurses and other personnel that they need to provide quality care in a timely way.”

You are likely aware of the incredible influence the Koch brothers (Charles and David) are having on US politics. Their combined wealth is over 70 billion dollars which is more than the wealth of any other individual in the U..S. They have used their money to very strongly influence politics in this country through the cover of organizations such as Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners which in turn contribute large sums of money to conservative groups such as the Tea Party. The Koch brothers with their enormous wealth are part of an ever increasing takeover of the US democracy by private and corporate wealth and influence.

As I suspected, our “leaders” in the U.S. Congress aren’t inclined to require the Obama Administration to release the “targeted kill” memo authored by David Barron before confirming his judicial appointment today.  And once again, the mainstream media got suckered by the White House’s PR machine to enable business as usual.

While I encourage all to read , here’s how bmaz, a lawyer and top-level blogger at Emptywheel blog, ends his post on the subject today:

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MIDDLEBURY, Vt., May 16 – U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz spoke at a Vermont Energy Summit today as part of a first-hand look at how Vermont is on the cutting edge of transforming its energy systems from fossil fuels to sustainable energy.

In remarks at Middlebury College, Moniz focused on the need to reduce the cost of clean energy. Vermont, he added, “really looks unique” in terms of public and private cooperation on energy issues.

New FDA rule threatens mutually beneficial and environmentally sound partnership between brewers and farmers

Waterbury, VT (May 14th) – At the Alchemist Cannery today in Waterbury, Rep. Peter Welch unveiled a two-prong bipartisan effort to block a proposed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule that would likely end the longstanding practice of Vermont brewers providing nutritious and cost effective spent grain to farmers to feed their livestock. The spent grain would otherwise be dumped in landfills or composted at a significant cost to brewers.

Commissioner Recchia to Testify at U.S. Senate Hearing

WASHINGTON, May 13 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation to give states a greater role in decommissioning nuclear power plants.

Vermont and neighboring states should have more input in the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission process for determining what happens after the shutdown later this year of the 42-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, Sanders said. Aging plants also are projected to be mothballed in the next decade in Florida, Wisconsin, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.

BURLINGTON, Vt., May 12 – Flanked by Vermont college students and graduates who are deep in debt, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today he will introduce legislation to help students earn college credits in high school in order to cut the cost of earning a college diploma.

Sanders said he supports a separate bill to lower interest rates on student loans. And, as a member of the Senate education committee, he also is working on ways to bring down college costs.

BURLINGTON, Vt., May 9 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will hold a press conference Monday in his Burlington office to announce legislation to help children from working families go to college. Sanders will be joined by Vermonters who will share how carrying heavy student debt loads has affected their lives.

Sanders plans to introduce legislation in the Senate early next week to help students earn college credits while still in high school. That would cut the time and the cost of earning a college diploma.

WASHINGTON, May 6 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called for Congress to act on proposals to curb greenhouse gas emissions after a major new report today warned that global warming could exceed 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the United States by the end of this century.

“This important report is another loud and clear warning that greenhouse gases are rising faster than ever and our refusal to recognize and deal with the crisis could have catastrophic consequences,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate energy and environment committees.

“It is no longer acceptable for a majority in Congress to ignore the overwhelming scientific evidence. It is no longer acceptable that coal and oil companies spend millions of dollars to defeat efforts to protect the planet,” Sanders added.