The economy, health care reform, support for Social Security recipients, and the crisis confronting dairy farmers all were on the agenda in Washington. Not a single Republican senator supported a weak health care bill unveiled by the Senate Finance Committee chairman after weeks of failed efforts to reach a bipartisan compromise. Sanders proposed legislation to prevent a cut in Social Security benefits. Farmers came to town to back Sanders' bill to boost price supports for dairy farmers struggling to cope with the lowest prices in four decades. And the Fed chairman, in a speech at Brookings, declared that it's like "the recession has ended." Sanders begged to differ.  He set out his views in his weekly Web video, Senator Sanders Unfiltered.

Dairy Crisis As farmers cope with the lowest prices in decades, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust division chief, Christine Varney, testified on Saturday that the market concentration controlled by giant milk processors is “something we are concerned about.” Senators Leahy and Sanders cited reports that Dean Foods Co., the huge Texas-based milk processor, dominates as much as 80 percent of the milk markets in many areas of the country and 70 percent in New England. Meanwhile, in Washington this week members of the National Farmers Union members came to Capitol Hill to support $350 million in assistance to struggling dairy producers. The Senate passed the amendment by Sanders as part of the Agriculture Department appropriations bill. Flanked by a dairy cow named Maggie, the farmers, and six of Sanders’ Senate colleagues appeared at a press conference on Wednesday to call on the House to pass an amendment increasing price supports to dairy farmers. To read an Associate Press report on the Saturday hearing in St. Albans, click here. To read opening statements by Senators Sanders and Leahy, click here. To read an ABC News story on the dairy crisis, click here. To watch excerpts from a press conference with Maggie the cow, click here.

Is the Recession Over? Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke declared in a speech on Tuesday that "it is very likely that the recession has ended."  He made the assessment during remarks at the Brookings Institution at a forum marking the first anniversary of the stock market collapse. The recession has ended? "Tell that to the 7 percent of our workforce - 26 million Americans - who are either unemployed, have given up looking for work because they no longer think a job is possible, or they are working part time when they want to work full time. That's 17 percent of our population. For those folks, I don't think they believe this recession is over," he said in his weekly Web video Senator Sanders Unfiltered.  "In fact, what they believe is that they are mired in the worst economic mess since the Great Depression. One of the really disturbing statistics out there is that it is taking unemployed people a lot longer to find a job than used to be the case. On average, it's taking about six months."  To watch this week's video, click here.

Social Security Retirees would get a one-time payment of $250 next year under legislation introduced Thursday by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter DeFazio. The payment would make up for the expectation that there will be no cost-of-living adjustment for the first time since 1975.  "While inflation is down overall, medical inflation, which comprises 30 percent of seniors' average expenses, is still going up," AARP's Dave Certner told the AARP Bulletin. Said Sanders, "We are in the midst of a major recession and we cannot forget about the serious economic stress that older Americans are living under.  Today, seniors are worried about how they will heat their homes this winter, and pay for the medicine and health care they require - among other basic needs.  That is why I have introduced legislation today to make certain that all Social Security beneficiaries receive an increase next year, and that no one will have their benefits cut."  Sanders discussed the problem and outlined his solution in a Senate floor speech. To watch it, click here.

Health Care Not a single Republican senator signed onto a weak, watered-down health care bill offered on Wednesday by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus. Compared to the Senate health committee legislation, the Baucus bill is "not as good, no question about it," Sanders told GritTV's Laura Flanders.  "One of the concerns that we have got to address is to make sure that everybody in the middle class ends up with a product that, in fact, is affordable, and that they don't look at their bill and say 'My God, I have health insurance but thank you for nothing because I can't afford it.'"  Later Thursday, Sanders told MSNBC's Ed Schultz, "It really is quite amazing that not one Republican has come forward to say, ‘Yes, I'm going to support strong health care reform.'" I hope that the White House is going to work with the Senate leadership to make sure that we have real health care reform that all of us can be proud of and that absolutely must include a public option. With a disintegrating health care system, with a million people this year going bankrupt, with 18,000 people dying because they don't have health insurance and can't get to the doctor on time, it really is quite amazing that not one Republican has come forward to say, ‘Yes, I'm going to support strong health care reform.'" To watch the GritTV interview, click here. To watch the MSNBC interview, click here.

Dairy Crisis Flanked by a dairy cow named Maggie - and six senate colleagues - Sanders at a Wednesday press conference called for the House to pass an amendment increasing price supports to dairy farmers. National Farmers Union members this week asked Congress to support $350 million in assistance to struggling dairy producers.  The Senate passed the amendment by Sanders to the Agriculture Department appropriations bill. "The effort by Vermont's congressional delegation to boost the minimum price paid to struggling dairy farmers is just one more patch to a pricing mechanism so full of leaks that it threatens to sink a whole system of family farms," The Burlington Free Press editorialized. Some dairy farmer supporters, including Sanders, question whether large milk processors like Dean Foods are using their market influence to hold wholesale milk prices down. Christine Varney, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, was to testify on the issue at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Vermont on Saturday, ABC News reported. To read the story, click here. To watch excerpts from a press conference with Maggie the cow, click here.

Surveillance Law A group of senators unveiled legislation Thursday aiming to strip telecommunications firms that took part in a hugely controversial Bush-era spying program of immunity from lawsuits. Sen. Russell Feingold, long a critic of government spy powers on Americans, was the chief author of the legislation. Sen. Sanders was among the original cosponsors. "Every American understands that we have got to do every single thing we can to protect the American people from terrorist attacks. There is no debate about that. Some of us believe, however, that we can be successful in doing that while we uphold the rule of law, while we uphold the Constitution of this country, which has made us the envy of the world," Sanders said. To read more about the legislation, click here.

Pentagon Waste Overhauling the way civilian contractors hurt in war zones are cared for could save as much as $250 million a year, according to a new Department of Defense study. The extensive review of the taxpayer-funded system said that the savings would occur if the government issued its own insurance to cover medical care and disability payments for injured civilians. The U.S. now pays more than $400 million annually to AIG and a small number of other carriers to purchase special workers' compensation insurance policies. "The current system for providing health insurance and workers compensation for our military contact workers in Iraq and Afghanistan is broken and wasting millions of dollars in payments to companies like AIG.  If the Pentagon, the Department of Labor and Congress modernize the current insurance system, we can save up to $250 million and finally give these workers and their survivors the basic health care and support they need and deserve," said Sanders. As much as 35 percent of the outlays under the Defense Base Act pad company profits, the study found. "In the long run, the self-insurance alternative may have the greatest potential for minimizing... insurance costs, and it has several administrative and compliance advantages as well," the report said. To read the Pentagon report, click here. To read the ProPublica article, click here.