In a quick response to a crisis in the dairy industry, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday lifted the floor price for dairy products. Senator Bernie Sanders said more must be done to build on that "good start." Also in Washington, Sanders testified on Tuesday about the need to rein in oil speculators, continued to work for strong health care reform, and on Friday saw momentum build in the Senate for his effort to shed light on who got trillions of dollars in secret loans from the Federal Reserve.   

Dairy Crisis The USDA decision to lift dairy price supports was announced two days after Vermont's senators and a coalition of lawmakers from other dairy states met with Secretary Vilsack. "I appreciate the secretary's quick response to our request. This is a good start, but much more needs to be done if Vermont dairy farmers are going to receive a fair price for their product. My office continues to look at all available options to raise milk prices for family-based dairy farms, including expanding the MILC program and investigating monopolistic practices in the dairy industry."

Oil Prices In testimony on Tuesday, Sanders told federal regulators considering limits on oil price speculation that consumers are "sick of a Wall Street that is allowed to make a fortune betting that the price of oil will go up while millions of Americans pay the price at the gas pump." The senator testified before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Chairman Gary Gensler said his agency must "seriously consider" setting "strict" new limits on traders who place bets on energy contracts. Bart Chilton, another commissioner, warned that speculative activity left unchecked could have "dangerous consequences." Sanders has introduced legislation that would require the commission to exercise emergency powers to limit speculation.  The supply of oil in the United States is at an all-time high because the recession has driven down demand. To read the senator's testimony pinning the increase on speculators, click here.   

Health Care Healthcare companies are spending millions of dollars and marshaling armies of lobbyists to influence the debate in Congress. "This is not really primarily a healthcare debate. It is a debate about the healthcare industry and the drug companies spending a huge sum of money to try to get their way," Sanders told the Reuters news service. The senator addressed hundreds of supporters of his bill to eliminate some $400 billion a year in waste and bureaucracy in the private insurance industry. President Obama's former doctor, David Scheiner, also spoke to the large gathering on Capitol Hill and called for a single-payer health care system. At the very least, Sanders told the Los Angeles Times, "what the American people want is a Medicare-type public option in 50 states in this country which will give them the choice against private insurance companies." To watch the senator's speech at the rally, click here. To watch Bernie's interview on The Rachel Maddow Show, click here. To take our new health care poll, click here.

Fed Secrecy A bipartisan group of senators on Friday sent a letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke urging him to release a full list of Wall Street firms that have received emergency assistance. "It is not justifiable to have the Federal Reserve Board fail to provide this information," said the letter from Sanders and Sens. Charles Grassley and Byron Dorgan. They and others voiced concern about a lack of transparency surrounding the central bank's use of a special emergency authority in "unusual and exigent circumstances" to make loans. "In light of recent announcements by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and others that are reporting very large profits...we don't believe there is now any reason for the Federal Reserve Board to refuse to share information about the companies that were helped by its activities as well as the specific amount of such help for each company," the senators wrote. Sanders has introduced legislation calling for a Government Accountability Office audit of the central bank.