HELP FOR WORKERS The Senate on Tuesday overcame a Republican filibuster and extended benefits for the near-record number of workers without jobs for six months or more. "Republican hypocrisy has reached a whole new level.  While they oppose virtually every effort to help the middle class, including unemployment benefits, when it comes to the needs of millionaire and billionaire families they have no problem providing huge tax breaks and reducing revenue," Sen. Bernie Sanders said.

Sanders voted with a 60-to-40 Senate majority to overcome the Republican filibuster and was on the verge of extending benefits for an estimated 2.5 million unemployed Americans.  In Vermont, some 6,000 people - a quarter of all the jobless - have been out of work at least half a year.

"In the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s, it would be immoral to turn our backs on millions of Americans who, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs and are unable to find new ones," Sanders said.  To read the senator's press release on the pending extension, click here.

Sanders contrasted support by Republican senators for tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans with their virtual lockstep opposition to the emergency unemployment assistance and other efforts to help the middle class. "I am particularly disturbed that while every Republican wants to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for millionaire and billionaire families, only two were prepared to stand up for families that are really hurting."  To watch his Senate floor speech on this topic, click here.

PROTECTING CONSUMERS In a letter sent to the White House on Monday, Sen. Sanders urged President Obama to pick Elizabeth Warren to be the first director of a new consumer protection bureau. He wrote that "at a time when doubts about Wall Street and its practices run very deep ... American consumers need a federal government that is looking after their best interests." Obama on Wednesday plans to sign into law a bill overhauling financial regulations that would create the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

"Professor Warren has a proven track-record as a smart and tough consumer advocate.  As head of the TARP Oversight Committee she is seen, across the breadth of America, as a champion of open, honest and responsive government.  No one in our nation could do a better job as the first Director of the BCFP," wrote Sanders.  Sanders welcomed a serious debate about "the role that government should play in protecting the American people against the outrageous behavior we have seen on Wall Street." 

In the spring of 2008, the senator hosted Professor Warren at a serious of economy-focused events in Vermont.  Sanders and Warren participated in town meetings in Montpelier and at Vermont Law School in South Royalton.

To take the senator's petition in support of Elizabeth Warren, click here.