Sen. Bernie Sanders calls them “corporate deserters” – American companies that dodge U.S. taxes by exploiting a law that lets them pretend, for tax purposes, to be based overseas.  Earlier Friday, Sanders spoke in Philadelphia to the National Association of Letter Carriers about the need to modernize the Postal Service and beat back efforts to cut jobs and services. As chairman of the Senate veterans committee, Sanders steered President Obama’s nominee to head the VA through the committee confirmation process on Wednesday. That tees up a vote in the full Senate in the coming week. At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Republicans complained about an EPA proposal to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The Republicans’ denial of overwhelming scientific evidence, Sanders said, is “frightening.” 

U.S. Postal Service Sanders on Friday addressed the annual convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers and drew standing ovations when he opposed cutting services and jobs at a time Postal Service revenue is rising. In fact, USPS took in $1.2 billion more than it spent since October, 2012.  “The Postal Service is not going broke,” Sanders said, despite claims by critics who would dismantle the institution. Sanders is the chief sponsor of legislation to modernize the U.S. Postal Service, save Saturday mail and prevent other unnecessary cuts in services provided by one of the most popular and important institutions in America.

Veterans Sanders, chairman of the Senate veterans committee, on Thursday announced a proposal that would cost about $25 billion over three years to lease new clinics, hire thousands of doctors and nurses, and make it easier for veterans who can't get prompt appointments with VA doctors to get outside care. He offered to trim the cost of both House- and Senate-passed bills to improve health care services at the VA. Sanders welcomed a plea by major veterans’ service organizations for Congress to give the Department of Veterans Affairs the resources it needs to provide quality, timely health care. “Congress has a sacred obligation to provide VA with the funds it requires to meet both immediate needs through non-VA care and future needs by expanding VA’s internal capacity,” the letter from the leaders of 16 major organizations representing millions of veterans. Watch Sanders discuss veterans with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC

Corporate Deserters There’s a new scheme by corporations to dodge U.S. taxes by moving their headquarters overseas. Sanders on Tuesday filed legislation to ban those businesses from receiving U.S. government contracts. “I have a message for these corporate deserters: You can't be an American company only when you want corporate welfare from American taxpayers or you want lucrative contracts from the federal government.” The giant drug maker AbbVie made no bones about the fact that ducking U.S. taxes is why it hopes to take over its European rival. Walgreen’s, the giant drugstore chain launched at a Chicago storefront, may move its corporate headquarters to Switzerland to avoid U.S. taxes. They are part of a growing corporate trend. Bernie had a word for it. “It’s treason,” he said. Watch Sanders discuss corporate taxes with Ed Schultz on MSNBC 

Global Warming The EPA wants to curb power plant emissions to fight global warming. At a hearing on Tuesday, Sanders said Republican critics are ignoring the scientific evidence. “There is no more debate,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of scientists say climate change is real, that it is caused by human activity and that it already is causing devastating problems around the world. If we do not get our act together the situation will only get worse. That we have a major political party rejecting that is extremely frightening.” Watch hearing highlights

A Climate Change Success Story Major television network Sunday shows discussed climate change more during the first half of this year than they did during all of 2013, Media Matters reported on Monday. Sanders last year had asked TV executives why there had been “shockingly little discussion” about global warming on Meet the Press and other Sunday shows. “This is a step in the right direction,” he said of the latest report by the media watchdog. Read more

Affordable Care Act Two federal appeals courts reached conflicting conclusions Tuesday on whether the government may subsidize health care premiums for millions of Americans in three dozen states. In Washington, D.C., an appeals court ruled 2-1 that the Affordable Care Act did not authorize tax subsidies for millions of people in states that relied on an insurance marketplace, or exchange, set up by the federal government.  In Richmond, Virginia, another federal appeals court panel came to the opposite conclusion. Both rulings are sure to be appealed. Meanwhile, the insurance program will remain in force  The Affordable Care Act subsidies are not being challenged in Vermont, 13 other states and the District of Columbia, which all set up their own exchanges.

Gay Workers President Barack Obama signed executive orders Monday prohibiting discrimination against gay and transgender workers for the federal government and federal contractors. “The president is right,” Sanders said. “We’ve got to end LGBT discrimination in the workplace. Vermont did this 22 years ago when it passed one of the first state laws in the country protecting lesbian and gay workers. Congress should have acted long ago, but Republicans have blocked action. The House won’t even allow a vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act  that the Senate passed last year. That’s why the executive order that President Obama is singing on Monday is an important step in the right direction.” Sanders and some 200 other members of Congress last March urged Obama act alone and issue an executive order to at least prohibit taxpayer-funded discrimination in federal contractor workplaces.