The Senate spent the week debating an immigration reform bill. Senate leaders on Friday agreed to include Sen. Bernie Sanders’ idea for a jobs program for unemployed young Americans. On Wednesday, Sanders chaired a hearing on why helping seniors stay healthy with programs like Meals on Wheels also helps taxpayers save money by keeping people healthy and out of hospitals and nursing homes. On Thursday, Sanders teamed up with the Senate energy committee chairman on a bill to help homeowners make energy efficiency upgrades.  

Youth Jobs Sanders’ provision in an immigration bill would provide $1.5 billion over two years for states and local communities to help find jobs for more than 400,000 16- to 24-year-olds. “With the youth unemployment rate unacceptably high, the youth jobs amendment will put hundreds of thousands of young Americans to work,” Sanders said. He had argued that helping unemployed American young people was the least Congress should do in a bill that allows college students from around the world to take jobs that young Americans would otherwise perform. To read a summary of Sanders’ jobs provision, click here.

Older Americans Act Sanders chaired a hearing Wednesday of his Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging on how programs like Meals on Wheels not only reduce hunger and poverty among seniors but cut Medicare and Medicaid outlays for much more expensive nursing home and hospital care. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out,” said Sanders.  “If you’re malnourished, you’re going to get sick more often.  You may end up in the emergency room at great expense to Medicaid … If you’re weak and you fall and break your hip, you end up in the hospital, at an expense of tens and tens of thousands of dollars. The simple truth is that we can feed a senior for an entire year for the cost of one day in a hospital.” Read more in The Nation.

Global Warming Temperatures were in the 80s this past week in Anchorage, where it was snowing just one month ago. It was even hotter in other parts of the state where mid-June normally brings high temperatures in the 60s. It was  96 degrees on Monday 80 miles north of Anchorage in the small town of Talkeetna.  In Washington, the White House signaled that President Obama plans soon to announce executive actions to limit emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming and may support a tax on carbon emissions. Sanders and Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate environment committee, have proposed a $20 fee per ton of carbon and methane emissions.

Energy Efficiency Legislation to lower energy use by helping homeowners improve energy efficiency was introduced on Thursday by Sanders with a key cosponsor, energy committee Chairman Ron Wyden. “While energy efficiency retrofits save money in the long-run, homeowners often can’t afford to bear the full up-front cost of these home improvements on their own,” Wyden said. “This bill encourages public-private partnerships and takes the risk out of the up-front costs, giving homeowners the assurance they need to make energy-saving investments in their homes.”