The Senate on Thursday effectively ended the filibuster as a way to block presidential nominees. Now a simple majority will end debate and clear the way for Senate confirmation votes on most of the president’s picks for court and cabinet posts. Sen. Bernie Sanders supported the change. He said the shift was forced by Republican senators abusing the rules since President Obama took office.  Earlier in the week, Sanders’ Senate subcommittee on aging held a hearing into whether poverty is a death sentence. And on Thursday, the president signed a Sanders bill to help veterans.

Majority Rule “Most Americans grew up believing that in America the majority rules," Sanders said after the Senate voted to change its rules to make it harder to filibuster. "They also believe that this country deserves a Senate which is not dysfunctional and unable to address the needs of the American people. Unfortunately, in recent years the Republican minority has engaged in an unprecedented level of obstructionism. They have used the filibuster hundreds of times to delay or block the president’s nominees and to stop legislation from even being considered.”  The decision by the Senate to let the majority rule on votes to confirm judges, cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials, Sanders added, “is a step in the right direction toward ending dysfunction in Senate." Watch Chris Jansing interview Sanders on MSNBC

Poverty is a Death Sentence A recurring theme from witnesses at a Senate hearing on Wednesday was that “poverty in America is in fact very expensive.” Sanders’ subcommittee on aging examined disparities in life expectancy between regions of the United States and even from neighborhood to neighborhood within cities. “If people don’t have access to health care, if they don’t have access to education, if they don’t have access to jobs and affordable housing then we end up paying not only in terms of human suffering and the shortening of life expectancy but in actual dollars,” Sanders added. Read more in The Nation, Watch hearing highlights 

Veterans COLA President Obama on Thursday signed into law a measure by Sanders to provide annual cost-of-living adjustments in benefits for veterans with service-connected disabilities and for their survivors. The legislation, for the first time in years, ends a Department of Veterans Affairs practice of rounding down benefits. “I applaud the president for signing into law the measure that addresses one of the major concerns brought to my attention by veterans service organizations,” said Sanders, who chairs the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.