There was more fallout from the disclosure of a massive telephone and Internet surveillance program. The data harvesting operation of heretofore unknown scope tracked the calls and keystrokes of tens of millions of innocent Americans. Fifty-eight percent of Americans disapprove of this type of data collection in the case of ordinary Americans, according to a poll for CBS News. “I believe that most Americans do not want to live in an Orwellian society, where everything you do is recorded," Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a reference to George Orwell’s “1984.” Sanders introduced legislation on Thursday that would give intelligence and law enforcement officials the authority they need to ferret out terrorists without violating the rights of innocent Americans. On Capitol Hill, the Senate on Monday passed a farm bill. On Tuesday, an immigration reform bill was on the floor for a debate expected to last throughout June.

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Domestic Surveillance The bill Sanders introduced on Thursday would put strict limits on sweeping powers used by the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation to secretly track telephone calls by millions of Americans who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.  “We must give our intelligence and law enforcement agencies all of the tools that they need to combat terrorism but we must do so in a way that protects our freedom and respects the Constitution’s ban on unreasonable searches,” Sanders said. His legislation would put limits on records that may be searched. Authorities would be required to establish a reasonable suspicion, based on specific information, in order to secure court approval to monitor business records related to a specific terrorism suspect. Read more. Read the bill.

Immigration The Senate began debating a bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. It would make sure children brought into this country by their parents years ago are allowed to become citizens. It would improve border security. Sanders strongly supports all that. He strongly opposes, however, provisions in the bill that would let large corporations import hundreds of thousands of temporary blue-collar and white-collar guest workers from overseas. So on Thursday he filed two amendments. One would put a fee on visas for guest workers in order to raise $1.5 billion for a summer and year-round jobs program for low-income young Americans. Another amendment by Sanders and Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin would prohibit companies which have announced mass layoffs over the past year from hiring guest workers, unless the companies can prove that their overall employment will not be reduced as a result of these layoffs. Read the youth jobs amendment. Read the Sanders-Grassley-Harkin amendment.

Youth Jobs New unemployment numbers for last month showed that the jobless rate for young people remains extremely high. Speaking at a community college in Detroit on Monday, Sanders said the news media and Congress have turned a blind eye to a jobs crisis. He proposed legislation to help young people find work. Watch a short video.

Global Warming Worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use rose 1.4 percent in 2012, the International Energy Agency said in a report on Monday. If that pace continues, the agency estimated that a temperature increase over pre-industrial times of as much 9 degrees Fahrenheit. That “would be a disaster for all countries,” the energy agency’s chief economist said. A Senate panel, meanwhile, will begin consideration of a bill by Sanders to put a tax on carbon and methane, the pollutants that cause global warming. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer told reporters on Thursday that the Sanders bill she cosponsored will be taken up at a July hearing.

VA Claims Backlog Has the Department of Veterans Affairs turned a corner and begun to whittle down a massive backlog of claims for disability benefits? There are some 851,000 veterans awaiting answers on compensation claims for illnesses or injuries incurred during their military service. Two-thirds of them have been waiting more than 125 days for an answer. A top VA official told Sanders at a Senate hearing this week that there has been “significant progress” and VA is “at a tipping point” in getting a handle on the backlog. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki set a goal of processing all claims within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy by the end of 2015. “I honestly believe we’re going to hit that number,” Murphy said. Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, was cautiously optimistic. “The current backlog is unacceptable and this committee will do everything possible to make sure the VA achieves its goal. We will continue to monitor the situation very closely,” Sanders said. Read more in The Washington Post.

Education Reform The Senate education committee debated legislation on Tuesday and Wednesday to reform the flawed Bush-era No Child Left Behind Act. Sanders is a member of the committee. He wants to let schools move away from standardized testing. Vermont is one state where educators are eager to pursue new approaches. Sanders also wants to ensure that small, rural states like Vermont can effectively compete in Education Department competitive grant programs like "Race to the Top." That program has distributed more than $4.5 billion over the last three years, but most of the money has gone to states with big-city school systems.