Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday called for millions of Americans to mobilize support for a constitutional amendment to undo the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United. That 2010 ruling already has opened the floodgates for millionaires and billionaires to spend unlimited, unregulated sums to sway elections. The Senate on Thursday approved and sent to President Barack Obama a bill by Sanders to improve access to health care for veterans and reform the Department of Veterans Affairs. And in testimony on Wednesday at the EPA and at a Capitol Hill news conference, Sanders strongly endorsed an Obama administration proposal to reduce carbon emissions at the nation’s power plants.

Citizens United Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Friday set up a procedural vote for September on a constitutional amendment to limit money in politics. The amendment would overturn Supreme Court decisions that let corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals spend more money on federal elections. “Millions of Americans must demand that their members of Congress, once and for all, end the ability of the billionaire class to buy elections,” Sanders said on Friday. 

Global Warming Sanders on Wednesday strongly endorsed an Obama administration proposal to reduce carbon emissions at the nation’s power plants. He testified in support of the proposal at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing and spoke out at a Capitol Hill news conference, accusing Republican climate change deniers of "rejecting basic science." The EPA wants to set state-by-state carbon pollution limits. By 2030, the standards are expected to reduce U.S. power plant carbon pollution by 30 percent compared to 2005 levels. There are no coal-fired power plants in Vermont, but the state will collaborate with New England neighbors in a Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. 

Veterans The president is expected to sign the VA bill crafted Sanders and Rep. Jeff Miller, the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairmen. The $16.3 billion bill passed the Senate by a vote of 91-3. The House of Representatives had voted 420-5 on Wednesday to approve the same measure. “This bill keeps our commitment to the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend our country. It makes certain that we address the immediate crisis of veterans being forced onto long waiting lists for health care. It strengthens the VA so that it will be able to hire the doctors, nurses and medical personnel it needs so we can permanently put an end to the long waiting lists.  It addresses the very serious problem of accountability and makes certain that dishonest and incompetent senior officials do not remain employed at the VA,” Sanders said. Watch the Bernie on The O’Reilly Factor , Read a summary of the bill, Read the bill

Corporate Deserters More and more giant American corporations are scheming to dodge U.S. taxes by moving overseas. Sanders has proposed an amendment to ban those businesses from receiving lucrative U.S. government contracts. On Tuesday, The New York Times revealed who’s behind the merger deals. Wall Street banks – led by JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs –  are in line to collect nearly $1 billion in fees over the last three years from American companies that moved their headquarters address overseas – without actually moving of course. The bankers have been promoting the deals, known as inversions, to giant American corporations, including Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant.

NSA Spying on Americans Sanders cosponsored legislation that was introduced on Tuesday by Sen. Patrick Leahy to restore Americans’ privacy rights by ending the government’s dragnet collection of phone records. The bill also would require greater oversight, transparency, and accountability by the National Security Agency and other American surveillance authorities.