Putting an emphasis on economic inequality in America, President Obama used Tuesday’s State of the Union address to announce that he would act without Congress to raise the minimum wage for workers employed by companies awarded federal contracts.  Sen. Bernie Sanders and 14 other senators had urged Obama to do just that. Sanders on Saturday hosted a town meeting in Montpelier, Vt., on how the National Security Agency and corporations are undermining Americans’ privacy rights. And Friday’s big news for big oil was that a State Department environmental impact study found no reason to prevent construction of the tar sands oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.  Sanders urged Obama to block the pipeline project.

Minimum Wage With millions of workers struggling to support their families on starvation wages, Sanders welcomed a White House announcement on Tuesday that President Obama would issue an executive order setting the minimum wage for workers for federal contractors at $10.10 an hour.  The announcement was a highlight of the president’s State of the Union address. The senator in September sent a letter to the president urging him to issue an executive order to setting a minimum wage for federal contractors. Sanders said the president’s action will give momentum to legislation he has cosponsored to raise the minimum wage for all workers to $10.10 from the current $7.25 an hour.

Unemployment The Labor Department on Tuesday announced that the unemployment rate in Vermont in December dropped to 4.2 percent, the fifth lowest in the nation. The national rate in December was 6.7 percent.  Real unemployment in December was 13.1 percent nationwide and 9.4 percent in Vermont. Those higher rates count workers forced to settle for part-time jobs and those who gave up looking for work.  And long-term unemployment is near a record high because of the slow recovery from the 2007 recession. Senate Republicans have blocked legislation to extend unemployment benefits that ran out late last year for 1.3 million Americans, including some 650 Vermonters.  There were behind-the-scenes negotiations

NSA Spying Sanders invited two nationally-renowned experts on civil liberties to a Saturday town meeting in Montpelier, Vt., to discuss the National Security Agency’s massive collection of records on millions of Americans’ telephone calls and emails.  Professor David Cole of Georgetown Law School and Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, have studied government and corporate attacks on privacy rights. Sanders has faulted the president for not doing enough to rein in the out-of-control National Security Agency.

Stop the Tar Sands Pipeline The State Department on Friday released a narrowly-focused environmental impact study on a proposed oil pipeline to carry crude oil to Gulf of Mexico refineries from Canada’s tar sands oil fields. Sanders wants President Obama to block the project. The dirty tar sands oil is responsible for greater greenhouse gas emissions that conventional oil. “The State Department study turns a blind eye to the ugly reality that extracting and refining dirty tar sands oil will spew into our atmosphere more and more of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. To my mind, global warming is the most serious environmental crisis facing the world today and President Obama should block construction of the Keystone pipeline,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate energy and environment committees.

Nuclear Power Sanders on Thursday urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to give states a greater role in the process of decommissioning nuclear power plants like Vermont Yankee. Entergy, the Louisiana utility that owns Vermont Yankee, plans to shut down the reactor by the end of this year but it could take decades to deal with nuclear waste and other matters related to decommissioning the plant.  At a hearing of the Senate environment committee, which oversees the NRC, all five commissioners agreed that states have a stake in the outcome but none committed to take any steps to give states a greater say in the process. Unless the NRC makes changes on its own, Sanders said he would introduce legislation to give states a greater role. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the committee chairman, said she would support such a bill.

Veterans As chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Sanders is managing the most comprehensive legislation for veterans in decades. His measure would repeal a $6 billion cut to military retirement benefits that was enacted as part of December's budget deal. Sanders’ measure also would expand access to health care, dental care and educational benefits for veterans. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday took steps to put that legislation in line for Senate debate perhaps as soon as next Thursday. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and other veterans and military service organizations are lining up in support of the bill.

Farm Bill The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill authorizing nearly $1 trillion in spending on farm subsidies and nutrition programs. The new five-year farm bill goes next to the Senate. Sanders criticized the $8 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, but welcomed the help for dairy farmers.