{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=173C742E-C8FF-4D7C-87B4-BE6E36B20CE4", ": News September 9", "2013-09-09", "2013", "2013-09", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "News September 9\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tMonday, September 9, 2013\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSenator Sanders International Response Needed on Syria\u00a0Sen. Bernie Sanders said the United States should work with the world community in responding to Syria\u2019s use of chemical weapons. After more than a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan \u201chow about coming home and addressing the crisis facing the American people?\u201d Sanders said on\u00a0MSNBC. \u201cIf we want to deal with a crisis, let\u2019s deal with unemployment, let\u2019s deal with health care, let\u2019s deal with education. We have enough on our own hands,\u201d the senator added.\u00a0LINK,\u00a0VIDEO\r\nAmericans Oppose Intervention in Syria\u00a0Sen. Sanders said that more than nine out of 10 calls and emails to his office over the past week opposed U.S. action in Syria. The senator also said he's worried that the \"surgical strike\" against Syria could prompt a push for greater U.S. involvement to bring about a regime change,\u00a0WPTZ-TV\u00a0reported. Sanders said the public wants Congress to address issues affecting working families,\u00a0WCAX-TV\u00a0reported.\u00a0VIDEO, VIDEO\u00a0\r\nWhite House Turns up Heat\u00a0Proponents of striking Syria are banking on getting lawmakers away from anti-war town halls and into classified briefings.\u00a0Sen. Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats, said Democrats he's spoken with feel the tug of party loyalty and not wanting to undercut Obama so publicly. But he told\u00a0National Journal\u00a0that such loyalty doesn't typically outweigh overwhelming public opposition.\u00a0LINK\r\nRight-Left Coalition\u00a0\u201cWhat the president has to be careful of is what I call the Ted Cruz Bernie Sanders coalition \u2026The anti-war Democrats and Tea Party Republicans voting against this because of their deep held beliefs,\u201d Heidi Pryzybla of\u00a0Bloomberg News\u00a0said on Sunday\u2019s broadcast of Capital Gains.\u00a0VIDEO\r\nWorld Kerry, Assad Trade Warnings\u00a0Secretary of State John F. Kerry issued a strong challenge in London on Monday to Syrian President Bashar Assad to turn over his chemical weapon stockpile to avoid a US-led attack,\u00a0The Boston Globe\u00a0reported. Assad, in an interview withCBS News\u00a0that aired Monday morning, issued a warning of his own, saying that the United States should \u201cexpect every action\u201d if the US attacks Syria, while saying a response might \u201cNot necessarily from the government.\u201d\u00a0LINK\r\nObama to visit Senate Democrats on Tuesday\u00a0President Obama will travel to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to help sell his plan for U.S. military strikes on Syria. Just hours before a scheduled national address from the Oval Office Obama will meet with Senate Democrats as he tries to overcome skepticism \u2014 or outright opposition \u2014 from members of his own party as the Senate prepares to hold critical votes on the Syria use-of-force resolution. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is likely to win a cloture vote on Wednesday, but it is unclear if the Senate will approve the resolution on a final vote after that,\u00a0Politico\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nSupport Wanes for Obama on Syria\u00a0Congress will be in session on Monday for the first time since the August recess. Debate on Syria could begin in the full Senate this week. White House efforts to convince Congress to back military action against Syria are not only failing, they seem to be stiffening the opposition, according to\u00a0Reuters. The influential Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, Mike Rogers, told CBS's \"Face the Nation\" that the White House had made a \"confusing mess\" of the Syria issue.\u00a0LINK\r\nNational Congress Ignores Jobs\u00a0The 7.3 percent of Americans unemployed in August was down from 8.1 percent unemployment a year ago, but the improvement is happening slowly and there's no reason to expect Washington to step in and speed things up. Since 2009, Congress hasn't passed major legislation aimed at helping to shrink the nation's massive pool of unemployed, according to\u00a0National Journal.\u00a0LINK\r\nCongress Puts Off Immigration Reform\u00a0Congress is likely to postpone consideration of an immigration overhaul until the end of the year, if not longer, because the sudden debate over military action in Syria and a looming face-off with President Obama over the budget and the nation\u2019s borrowing limit have shot to the top of the legislative agenda,\u00a0The New York Timesreported.\u00a0LINK\r\nCongress Delays Farm Bill\u00a0The two sides are also jockeying over the farm bill, which was a victim of a conservative revolt over food stamps,\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nDebt Ceiling Debate Now a Sideshow\u00a0The post-summer period was supposed to have been dedicated to avoiding a government shutdown and addressing the federal borrowing limit, but now the focus is on President Obama's request for congressional approval to take military action in Syria,\u00a0The Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported. That means time soaked up by briefings and debate, plus the added tension that comes with a divisive issue like a proposed bombing campaign.\u00a0LINK\r\nNAACP\u00a0Benjamin Jealous, the president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Sunday that he plans to step down at the end of the year, The Associated Press reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nGreed, Recklessness and Illegal Behavior\u00a0Five years after Lehman Brother\u2019s collapse hastened a worldwide economic panic, the government faces lingering questions about the decision to spare executives like Richard S. Fuld Jr., who ran Lehman for 14 years until its demise. Not a single senior executive from any Wall Street bank faced criminal charges from the crisis, either. And the government\u2019s deadline for filing most charges will expire this month, the anniversary of Lehman\u2019s collapse, providing a reminder of the case and its unpopular outcome, according to\u00a0The New York Times.\u00a0LINK\r\nObama Got Secret Court to Lift Restrictions on NSA\u00a0The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency\u2019s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans\u2019 communications in its massive databases, according to aWashington Post\u00a0report based on interviews with government officials and recently declassified material.\u00a0LINK\r\nVermont\r\nState Reaches Deal on Asbestos Mine Cleanup\u00a0The state has reached a settlement with the owners of an inactive asbestos mine that officials say poses an ongoing pollution threat in two Northern Vermont towns. The mine, in the towns of Eden and Lowell, is the state\u2019s biggest hazardous waste site. Clean-up and mitigation costs could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Without providing specifics on the settlement, Vermont Assistant Attorney General Thea Schwartz told\u00a0Vermont Public Radio\u00a0that the settlement reflects the reality that the mine\u2019s owner doesn\u2019t have the resources to pay for the clean-up.\u00a0LINK\r\nPutney Goes Solar\u00a0Officials in Putney chose a company to build a new solar array that would provide electricity for the town\u2019s buildings. The\u00a0Brattleboro Reformer\u00a0reported that Integrated Solar is building a 500-kilowatt solar array in Westminster. Putney will get about 185 kilowatts to provide power for Town Hall, the fire station, garage, public library and wastewater treatment plant. The town expects to save about $4,000 every year by buying the solar power from the developers of the solar array.\u00a0LINK", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=173C742E-C8FF-4D7C-87B4-BE6E36B20CE4"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2385540176182985, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}