Comcast on Friday called off its bid for Time Warner Cable in the face of skeptical regulators and criticism by Sen. Bernie Sanders and others.  At a rally on Monday and on the Senate floor throughout the week, Sanders led the fight to block a jobs-killing trade deal. Sanders on Thursday spoke at a strike staged by congressional contractor workers to support their call for a living wage. On Earth Day on Wednesday, Sanders proposed legislation to take tax breaks away from the fossil fuel industry.

Comcast-Time Warner Comcast gave up on its $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable. Sanders was among senators who signed a letter by Sen. Al Franken to the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission saying that “unmatched power in the telecommunications industry would lead to higher prices, fewer choices, and poorer quality services for Americans.”  Responding to news that Comcast backed away from the buyout, Sanders called it “good news for American consumers.” He added, “The level of media consolidation in America already is unacceptable and it would have been extremely dangerous for one company to control 57 percent of the broadband Internet market, 30 percent of the cable market and dominate 19 of the 20 largest U.S metropolitan areas.”

Not so Fast Senate backers of a bad trade deal want to rush it through Congress using a legislative process called fast-track. A leading opponent of the trade deal, Sanders on Wednesday slowed down the process for a time by shutting down a committee hearing called to consider the fast-track bill," Sanders said. "It is basically insane to keep going with the same type of trade policy that has failed and failed and failed." Sanders on Monday marched with leaders of the AFL-CIO and other labor organizations to a rally outside the U.S. trade representative’s office. “One of the key reasons why the middle class in America continues to decline and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider is because of disastrous trade agreements which have sent millions of decent-paying jobs to China and other low-wage countries,” Sanders said. Watch the Senate speech

Capitol Cafeteria Workers Strike Sanders on Wednesday rallied outside the U.S. Capitol with low-wage federal workers who had walked off their jobs in the Capitol, at the Smithsonian and other federal buildings.  He supports raising the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $15 per hour. "What America is supposed to be about is if you work 40 hours a week, you make enough money to feed your family," Sanders told the crowd. "A great nation will not survive, in my view, when so few have so much and so many have so little."

End Polluter Welfare As the nation marked Earth Day on Wednesday, Sanders and Rep. Keith Ellison introduced legislation to close tax loopholes and eliminate other subsidies for the oil, gas and coal industries.  Subsidies for polluters now in place are projected to cost taxpayers more than $135 billion in the coming decade. “At a time when scientists tell us we need to reduce carbon pollution to prevent catastrophic climate change, it is absurd to provide massive taxpayer subsidies that pad fossil-fuel companies’ already enormous profits,” Sanders said.

Attorney General Lynch

The Senate on Thursday approved Loretta Lynch to be attorney general. The United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York will be the first African-American woman to hold the top Justice Department position. She was confirmed 56 to 43 more than five months after she was nominated by President Barack Obama.  “I am delighted that Loretta Lynch finally was confirmed by the Senate,” said Sanders. “I look forward to working with her as the attorney general and I congratulate Sen. Patrick Leahy for all the work he did to help steer the nomination through the Senate confirmation process.  I was disappointed that it took more than five months for her nomination to be confirmed. The fact that it took more time to confirm her than all but two other attorneys general in history is more evidence of the unprecedented level of Republican obstructionism.”

Budget Conference Sanders on Tuesday asked Republican presidential candidates to renounce a “grossly unfair” Senate budget proposal to give the wealthiest 5,400 American families another $269 billion in tax breaks while paving the way for a tax hike on working families. “At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, it is beyond belief that Congress would provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to a handful of millionaire and billionaire families,” said Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. “Meanwhile, that same budget paves the way for raising taxes for low- and moderate-income families by not extending earned-income and child tax credits that today benefit 13 million Americans,” Sanders added. Senate and House conferees on Monday began negotiations on a final budget plan for the coming year. Watch Sanders at the hearing