Making voters show a photo ID at polling places lowers turnout, especially among young, black and newly-registered voters, according to a non-partisan congressional watchdog. The GAO report requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders came out on Wednesday. The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Wisconsin voter ID law while a federal judge blocked Texas from enforcing its law. Also at the Supreme Court, justices on Monday let stand rulings that expanded states where gay marriage is allowed. In a two-front investigation of sky-high drug prices, Sen. Bernie Sanders demanded explanations for “staggering” increases in generic  medications and also raised serious questions about a new $1,000-per-pill Hepatitis C treatment. On Wednesday, Sanders spoke out against disastrous U.S. trade policies that have shuttered American factories and sent jobs overseas.

Outsourcing Jobs The United States has lost 60,000 manufacturing plants and millions of decent-paying jobs since 2000 because of disastrous trade policies that moved manufacturing to China and other low-wage nations, Sanders said Wednesday. The issue emerged in a Senate race in Georgia where Republican David Perdue, a former CEO of Dollar General, once said he had spent most of his career outsourcing jobs. “I find it very hard to believe that a candidate like Mr. Perdue could actually be proud of helping to throw American workers out on the street and move plants aboard,” Sanders told Ed Schultz on MSNBC. Watch

Voter ID Laws Requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls does lower turnout, according to the Government Accountability Office report. The GAO said it identified few instances of in-person voter fraud, the problem voter ID laws are meant to combat, The Washington Times reported. "These state laws aren’t really intended to discourage fraud," Sanders said in The Hill. "They’re intended to discourage voting." Read more

Generic Drug Prices Sanders and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings asked 14 drugmakers to explain what’s going on with generic price hikes, like the $434 it now costs for an asthma medication that was on $11 a year ago.  Sanders has received letters and emails from all around the country like on from a Vermonter who wrote:  “I went to the pharmacy to refill a prescription. The drug was Plaquenil, available in a generic. Last month I paid $8.60, today the same drug cost me $88.50. The drug companies are ripping  off the American public. Tell Bernie about your experience with generic prescription drug prices

New Prescription Prices As the Senate veterans committee chairman, Sanders said the new liver disease treatment developed by Solvaldi to treat Hepatitis C could blow a $1.3 billion hole in the Department of Veterans Affairs budget over the next two years. “When we put money into the VA we want to be sure it pays for veterans to get the best care possible, not to pad the profit margins of large pharmaceutical companies.”

Gay Marriage The Supreme Court on Monday turned down appeals in seven cases where lower courts had voided state laws against same-sex marriage. The latest wave of court cases follow a 2013 Supreme Court decision that a provision in the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which denied gay spouses the same federal benefits as straight couples, was unconstitutional. When the federal law passed in 1996, then Rep. Bernie Sanders was one of only 67 members of the House who voted no.