In a rare weekend session, the Senate on Saturday passed a housing bill with $20 million for Vermont communities. Senate Democrats were unable to limit debate on legislation curbing oil market speculation on Friday, and on Saturday Republicans blocked consideration of Senator Bernie Sanders' bill to help seniors, the disabled and working families afford skyrocketing home energy bills. A successful Vermont veterans outreach program garnered attention at a Senate hearing, and across Capitol Hill the collapse of the American middle class was examined at a special hearing.

Housing Senators approved and sent to President Bush a massive housing rescue bill intended to help hundreds of thousands of homeowners avoid foreclosure. The measure creates an Affordable Housing Trust Fund, an idea first introduced by Sanders seven years ago. Senators Patrick Leahy and Sanders also added a provision in the Senate that will pump $20 million to Vermont communities. A Sanders proposal to help disabled veterans retrofit their homes also is part of the package. The president had threatened to veto the bill, but he backtracked earlier this week and now says he will sign the measure that combines tax relief for homeowners, a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and a $300 billion program to avert foreclosures. The Senate completed action on the housing package amid fresh evidence that the mortgage crisis is worsening. The number of households facing the foreclosure more than doubled in the second quarter of this year compared to one year ago, according to data released Friday. The number of home foreclosures in Vermont also continues to climb. There were 443 new foreclosures in the past three months. That's a 65 percent increase over the same period last year, according to Vermont Public Radio. To listen to the VPR report, click here.

Home Energy Despite skyrocketing energy prices, Senate Republicans on Saturday blocked consideration of a bill that would provide an extra $2.5 billion in emergency assistance for working families, seniors and the disabled struggling to pay home energy costs. "We will continue to fight for this," said Sanders, the bill's sponsor. The bipartisan bill by Sanders and 52 cosponsors to double funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program ran into a Republican leadership road block. The Senate vote was 50 to 35, 10 short of the 60 needed to end a filibuster and formally begin debate on the measure. "At a time when oil companies are raking in record profits, the stubbornness of those who stood in the way of helping people in desperate need is incomprehensible to me. It is an outrage. The American people do not want to see the most vulnerable among us held hostage by the Senate Republican leaders," Sanders said. As crude oil rose to record highs, heating fuel in Vermont cost $4.46 a gallon last month, up from 79-cents a gallon as recently as June, 1999. Nationwide, the average cost of heating a home this winter will total about $1,114 - 14.6 percent more than last year - the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association has projected.

Middle Class Collapse The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits jumped to 406,000 last week, a three-year high. The last time claims were higher was after back-to-back hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005. The latest dose of bad news came in the wake of a congressional hearing on the impact of rising costs and stagnant wages in a slumping economy. "The title of this hearing is ‘The Squeeze of the Middle Class.' I don't think it's a squeeze, I think it's a collapse," said Sanders at the Joint Economic Committee. The hearing was held amid fresh evidence of a yawning income gap in the United States. New Internal Revenue Service data show the richest 1 percent of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income in at least two decades. At the same time, according to the IRS's income-statistics division, the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1 percent fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years. To watch NBC Nightly News coverage of the hearing, click here. To see excerpts of Sanders at the hearing, click here. To read The Wall Street Journal article on the growing income gap in America, click here.

Vermont Veterans Lt. Col. John C. Boyd, deputy chief of staff for personnel for the Vermont Army National Guard, testified on Wednesday before a Senate panel on a model Vermont veterans outreach program. Senator Bernie Sanders, a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, invited Boyd, who lives in Huntington, Vt., to appear before the panel. "In Vermont," Sanders said, "we take the approach that one of the most important ways we can take care of these veterans and their families is by going out and actually trying to contact each of them in their own homes." Testifying before the committee, Boyd, said, "We are proud of the role Vermont took in developing an effective response to the ‘invisible wounds' suffered by our soldiers. We believe this commitment to our veterans is our obligation and an important way to ensure that they are able to remain a part of the Guard and Reserve while also living a productive and normal life." To read Lt. Col. Boyd's full testimony, click here. To watch excerpts from the hearing, click here.