{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=D1FD3DE8-B74C-4E7C-A70F-A76831D724CF", "News September 14", "2013-09-14", "2013", "2013-09", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "News September 14\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\tSaturday, September 14, 2013\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSenator Sanders\r\nThe Fed\u00a0President Barack Obama would face opposition from within his own party if he were to nominate Lawrence Summers to head the Federal Reserve. There is so much \u201cDemocratic antipathy to Mr. Summers that Mr. Obama will have to sweat on a bloc of Republican votes in the Senate to get him across the line,\u201d according to\u00a0Financial Times. Sens. Sherrod Brown and Jeff Merkley have indicated they will vote against Summers and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren penned an op-ed entitled \"Four questions for Fed chair candidates,\" including whether the nominee would \"work to break up 'too-big-to-fail' financial institutions.\"\u00a0LINK\r\nObama and the Left\u00a0President Obama's push to use military force against the Syrian regime highlighted his many differences with liberals who believe the president has fallen short of his progressive mandate, according to\u00a0Politico. Several progressives, including Sens. Sanders and Brown, did not back a military authorization bill and others, such as Rep. Alan Grayson, opposed it outright.\u00a0LINK\r\nImmigration Reform\u00a0Sen. Sanders introduced three amendments to the Senate-passed immigration reform package aiming to ensure fair wages and working conditions for workers, Heather Gautney wrote in an op-ed for\u00a0Truthout.\u00a0LINK\r\nKoch Brothers\u00a0Charles and David Koch funneled $250 million to right-wing causes last year through a secretive organization called Freedom Partners which supports the United States Chamber of Commerce,\u00a0Think Progress\u00a0reported. The chamber consistently has supported the Export-Import Bank, which Sen. Sanders once called \"corporate welfare at its worst.\"\u00a0LINK\r\nSanders on Syria\u00a0Sen. Sanders expressed his serious reservations about President Obama's plan for military strikes in Syria in his \"Bernie Buzz\" e-newsletter,\u00a0Seven Days\u00a0reported. The latest edition said Sanders \"shares\" widespread public opposition to the strikes.\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK\r\nMissile Defense\u00a0Camp Ethan Allen in Vermont has been selected as a potential candidate for a United States missile defense system,\u00a0National Journal\u00a0reported. Sen. Sanders, alongside the rest of Vermont's congressional delegation and governor, opposes a plan to bring the missile defense system to the state.\u00a0LINK\r\nWorld\r\nU.S.-Russia Talks on Syria\u2019s Arms Make Progress\u00a0President Obama will not insist on a United Nations Security Council resolution threatening Syria with military action, senior administration officials said Friday, as American and Russian negotiators meeting in Geneva moved closer to an agreement that would seek to ultimately strip Syria of its chemical weapons,The New York Times\u00a0reported.\u00a0Secret Syrian military units have been ordered to move stocks of poison gases and munitions to as many as 50 different locations to make them harder for the United States to track,\u00a0The Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK\r\nTaliban Attacks U.S. Diplomats in Afghanistan\u00a0Taliban fighters attacked the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan on Friday,\u00a0The Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported. A truck of men carrying rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests and assault rifles attacked the outpost. Security forces stopped the attack, which killed multiple Afghan civilians but no Americans.\u00a0LINK\r\nNational\r\nMinimum Wage\u00a0The nation's most populous state passed legislation this week to raise its minimum wage to $10 an hour, the highest in the country,\u00a0The Hill\u00a0reported. Democrats were quick to praise the California measure and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged Congress to follow suit at the federal level.\u00a0LINK\r\nVA Health Care\u00a0The Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019 reputation took a beating this week at a congressional hearing over its handling of the nation's veterans health care system,\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0reported. House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller held a hearing in Pittsburgh on Monday to hear heart-wrenching testimony from veterans and family members about their frustrations with the VA.\u00a0LINK\r\nVermont\r\nSt. Albans Downtown\u00a0The city of St. Albans will press forward with plans to revive its downtown area through real estate deals, voter approval and government funding, theBurlington Free Press\u00a0reported. City voters authorized a $13 million parking structure at a special election this week. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and state legislators have promised $5.5 million in funds for new St. Albans downtown office space.\u00a0LINK\r\nSolar Plans Scrapped\u00a0Rockingham will no longer pursue a plan to create a 500-kilowatt solar facility on town-owned land due to the lapsing of the property's Act 250 permit,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported.LINK", 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=D1FD3DE8-B74C-4E7C-A70F-A76831D724CF"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8396911434829235, "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"}