Press Releases

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today that he would cast one of the
60 votes needed in the Senate on Saturday to advance health care
reform, but he added that his vote on final passage remains uncertain.  “My
vote for final passage of this bill is not at all guaranteed until I
see a final bill that is strong and effective for working families and
taxpayers in Vermont and America,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate
health committee.  A strong advocate of a Medicare-for-all
single-payer approach, Sanders said he will continue his fight to give
states the opportunity to go forward with their own single-payer
program.  “While this bill makes some very important improvements
in our health care system, I continue to have a number of concerns,”
Sanders said.

Vermont and seven other states will share nearly $4 million in economic
stimulus funding announced today under a green jobs program that was
authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).   “If we get our act together as a nation and start addressing the major
environmental problems of our time – global warming and our dependence
on fossil fuels – we can create millions of good paying jobs,” said
Sanders, chairman of the Senate’s Green Jobs and the New Economy
Subcommittee. “In other words,” he added, “good environmental policy is
good economic policy.”

WASHINGTON, November 18 – Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) today announced that the Village of Barton will receive $2.8 million for water system improvements funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The $2.08 million grant along with a $723,000 loan awarded to Barton was among 31 water projects announced by the

Senator Bernie
Sanders introduced legislation that would break up financial institutions that
are too big to fail. “If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to
exist,” Sanders said. “We should break them up so they are no longer in a
position to bring down the entire economy. We should end the concentration of
ownership that has resulted in just four huge financial institutions holding
half the mortgages in America, controlling two-thirds of the credit cards, and
amassing 40 percent of all deposits.” Sanders’ legislation would give
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner 90 days to compile a list of commercial
banks, investment banks, hedge funds and insurance companies that he deems too
big to fail. The affected financial institutions would include “any entity that
has grown so large that its failure would have a catastrophic effect on the
stability of either the financial system or the United States economy without
substantial Government assistance.” Within one year after the legislation
became law, the Treasury Department would be required to break up those banks,
insurance companies and other financial institutions.

WASHINGTON, November 4 – The Senate voted late this afternoon for a 14-week extension of unemployment insurance benefits. The extension would help about 1,800 Vermonters whose benefits were to have run out by the end of this year.  “Winter is coming and in Vermont and around the country we simply cannot leave families in the lurch without any source of