The House passed a $3 trillion spending plan Thursday, and the Senate followed suit early Friday. In Iraq, another grim milestone is being marked in the war that already has lasted longer than the United States fought in World War II. Meanwhile, farm workers found support on Capitol Hill, and in Vermont, the congressional delegation won top honors from advocates for the poor and middle class.

Budget Final passage came after senators defeated, by a vote of 43 to 55, an amendment by Senator Bernie Sanders that would have rescinded a tax break for households earning more than $1 million per year to raise $32.5 billion for children's programs and deficit reduction. "While I am disappointed, we are making progress and raising consciousness about the need to change our national priorities," Sanders said Sanders wanted to devote the revenue to special education, Head Start, school construction, children's nutrition programs and deficit reduction. "The wealthiest people in this country have not had it so good since the 1920s, incomes are soaring while the middle class is shrinking and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country. The time is now to change our national priorities and move the country in a different direction." The three major presidential candidates interrupted their campaigns to cast key votes on the budget. Senators Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) both voted for the Sanders Amendment. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) did not vote. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) voted with Sanders. For the complete roll call vote, click here.

Iraq War With the overall U.S. military death toll in Iraq nearing 4,000, deadly attacks against Americans in Iraq continued. At least 3,987 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. The fifth anniversary of the war is Wednesday. Before Congress left Washington for their Easter recess, senators observed the impending anniversary with a moment of silence.

Regular Americans "Vermont is one of just two states (where the) entire congressional delegation received topnotch grades for their support of the middle class, according to a report released Wednesday. All three lawmakers took home report cards marked with an A+, reflecting their votes on 13 issues that the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy considers critical for the nation's struggling middle class," the Brattleboro Reformer reported. "Vermont's congressional delegation received extremely high marks for their voting records last year on poverty issues, according to a new report, just as most of those bills failed to get the support necessary to pass the U.S. Senate. A 40-page report from the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law gave both U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch an A+ for their voting record while U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy received an A," according to the Vermont Press Bureau. "Vermont joined Hawaii, Massachusetts and Rhode Island as the only four states whose Washington delegation received all A marks on their voting record on poverty bills." To read the Reformer article, click here. To read the Vermont Press Bureau article, click here.

Harvest of Shame "As someone who represents Vermont, the first state in the United States to outlaw slavery, it is almost incomprehensible to me that we are standing here today -- at the beginning of the 21st century -- holding a press conference to bring attention to the fact that workers in the tomato fields of Florida are working in desperate conditions, conditions that in some cases are so extreme that even the Bush administration has brought slavery charges," Senator Bernie Sanders told a Capitol Hill press conference. Sanders said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, chairman of the Senate labor committee, agreed to hold a hearing in mid-April into working conditions for tomato pickers in Florida. To read more, click here.