{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=AE5B0C78-B415-4ABD-A146-F435AF50E62D", ": News August 30", "2013-08-30", "2013", "2013-08", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "News August 30\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\tFriday, August 30, 2013\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSenator Sanders\r\nIrene Recovery\u00a0The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide funding to replace much of a state office complex in Waterbury which was destroyed two years ago by Tropical Storm Irene. An agreement was reached with the Federal Emergency Management Agency that will provide nearly $90 million of the $125 million dollar price tag for the new complex. The Vermont project benefited from provisions in legislation passed after Hurricane Sandy. Sen. Patrick Leahy said he and Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch worked the halls of Congress to make it happen, the\u00a0Burlington Free Pressreported.\u00a0LINK\r\nVermont Yankee\u00a0Entergy's plan to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant may pose new challenges for the local economy in Vernon,\u00a0The Deerfield Valley News\u00a0reported. Sen. Bernie Sanders praised Entergy\u2019s decision as a step in that will allow Vermont to \"focus on leading the nation toward safer and more economical sources of sustainable and renewable energy.\"\u00a0LINK\r\nVermont Yankee\u00a0\u201cWe all need to \u2026 preserve \u2026 jobs and assure the safe storage of highly radioactive waste that will certainly remain at the site for decades to come \u2026 [Sen.] Sanders\u00a0is a high-ranking member of the Senate energy committee \u2026 and can fight for the funds and directives that will force Entergy to decontaminate the Yankee site now to create jobs and ensure community health and safety,\u201d Lissa Weinmann, a World Policy Institute senior fellow, wrote in the\u00a0Brattleboro Reformer.\u00a0LINK\r\nFighting Bob Fest\u00a0Progressives will gather in Madison, Wis., on Sept. 7 for the annual fest that will be crammed with many national and local speakers to discuss the issues facing both Wisconsin and the nation. Sens. Sanders and Tammy Baldwin are on the schedule. Sanders is in the middle of the fight to save Social Security and Medicare from those who want to privatize the two successful programs for the elderly, Dave Zweifel wrote for\u00a0The Capital Times.\u00a0LINK\r\nIntern Pay\u00a0The vast majority of senators who pay interns are Republicans. Of those 35 senators, only 11 are Democrats. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, pays interns, according to\u00a0The Atlantic.\u00a0LINK\r\nCorporate Welfare\u00a0Conservative columnist John McClaughry should \u201csign up for a fall internship in Bernie Sanders\u2019 office in Washington. There, he might learn [how] corporate welfare \u2026 is bankrupting America,\u201d Phil Stephan wrote in a letter to the editor of theRutland Herald.\u00a0LINK\r\nSinging for Bernie\u00a0Middlebury College graduate Laura Heaberlin is making a splash in Vermont's local music scene. In a video posted online by the\u00a0Burlington Free Press, Heaberlin said she played at a rally for Sen. Sanders when she was just 16 years old.\u00a0\u201cI got to play an anti-war song at the rally, which was really fun for me,\u201d she said.\u00a0VIDEO\r\nWorld\r\nObama Set for Limited Strike on Syria as British Vote No\u00a0President Obama is prepared to move ahead with a limited military strike on Syria, administration officials said Thursday, despite a stinging rejection of such action by Britain and mounting questions from Congress. The negative vote in Parliament was a heavy blow to Prime Minister David Cameron, who had pledged his support to Obama and called on lawmakers to endorse Britain\u2019s involvement in a brief operation to punish the government of President Bashar al-Assad for apparently launching a deadly chemical weapons attack last week that killed hundreds,\u00a0The New York Timesreported.\u00a0LINK\r\nAdministration Tells Lawmakers of Evidence Linking Assad to Attack\u00a0The Obama administration presented its case for possible military action against Syria to congressional leaders, including evidence from an intercepted phone call involving a high-level Syrian official, which a lawmaker said officials offered as proof of a government chemical-weapons attack. The evidence was part of a 90-minute, unclassified briefing delivered to the congressional leaders in a conference call Thursday evening,\u00a0The Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nEmerging Markets Pass Advanced Economies\u00a0For the first time ever, the combined gross domestic product of emerging markets has passed the combined measure of advanced economies, according to an International Monetary Fund report cited by\u00a0The Huffington Post.\u00a0LINK\u00a0\r\nNational\r\nFast-Food Strikes\u00a0Thousands of fast-food workers went on strike in over 60 cities Thursday to protest unfair wages,\u00a0Politico\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nWhite House, Republican Senators End Budget Talks\u00a0The Obama administration and a group of Republican senators abandoned efforts Thursday to hammer out a budget deal and avoid a showdown over the national debt, saying they had failed to resolve their long-standing dispute over taxes. \u201cIt\u2019s very evident that there just isn\u2019t common ground at present and we\u2019ve all agreed there\u2019s no reason for these talks to continue,\u201d Sen. Bob Corker told\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0after attending the group\u2019s final session at the White House.\u00a0LINK\r\nReprimanded Doctors Get VA Bonuses\u00a0The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded performance-pay bonuses to doctors who were disciplined or reprimanded. A Government Accountability Office report said a $7,663 bonus went to a VA doctor who was reprimanded for practicing medicine with an expired license, for example, and a $11,189 bonus was given to a surgeon suspended without pay for 14 days after leaving an operating room before surgery was completed. \u201cVA's performance pay and bonus system has absolutely nothing to do with performance,\u201d Rep. Jeff Miller, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs chairman, told\u00a0USA Today.\u00a0LINK\r\nUS Won\u2019t Fight States on Marijuana\u00a0Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that the Department of Justice would not seek a legal challenge at the federal level to laws legalizing marijuana in two states,\u00a0CNN\u00a0reported. . Sen. Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, welcomed the Justice Department decision not to sue to stop the states of Colorado and Washington from allowing the recreational use of marijuana,\u00a0APreported.\u00a0LINK\r\nThe Black Budget\u00a0America spends $52.6 billion on its intelligence agencies, according to \"the black budget,\" a secret fiscal framework obtained by\u00a0The Washington Post. Despite the vast outlays, intelligence agencies reported having critical blind spots in intelligence throughout the world.\u00a0LINK\r\nSnowden\u00a0National security officials told\u00a0NBC News\u00a0that Edward Snowden was able to access thousands of high-clearance files by impersonating the user profiles of ranking security officials. Snowden downloaded a reported 20,000 documents before escaping to Hong Kong. \u201cThe damage, on a scale of 1 to 10, is a 12,\u201d said one former intelligence official.\u00a0LINK\r\nIRS to Recognize Gay Marriages\u00a0Legally married same-sex couples will now be recognized for federal tax purposes,\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0reported. In the wake of a June court decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, the Treasury Department announced Thursday that joint income tax returns would be made available to same-sex couples who marry in any of the thirteen states that allow gay marriage.\u00a0LINK\r\nObama Signs Order on Guns\u00a0Four months after a failed drive for additional gun legislation, President Barack Obama signed an executive order Thursday curbing the import of military surplus weapons,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported. The new policy will end a government practice that lets military weapons be reimported into the United States after they are sold or donated to allied nations.\u00a0LINK\r\nVermont\r\nFEMA to Rebuild State Office\u00a0The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced alongside Sen. Patrick Leahy and Gov. Peter Shumlin Thursday plans to provide $53 million for the rebuilding of the Vermont state office complex in Waterbury that was damaged by Tropical Storm Irene,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported.\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=AE5B0C78-B415-4ABD-A146-F435AF50E62D"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7872721180319786, "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"}