{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/120114", "News December 1", "2014-12-01", "2014", "2014-12", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "News December 1\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, December 1, 2014\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSenator Sanders\r\nCongress Reconvenes Lawmakers reconvene Monday for the final two weeks of the 113th Congress, with some Republicans clamoring to block President Obama's executive action on immigration and Democrats warning that such a strategy could lead to another government shutdown. After hearings before the Thanksgiving recess on veterans suicide-prevention and mental health, legislation could be gaining traction. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee chairman, said he would work to get a bill passed by the end of the year, National Journal reported. LINK\r\nVeterans Health Care Congressional Quarterly examined the cost of using private doctors to care for veterans. Lou Celli of the American Legion pointed to an analysis of a bill by Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Chairman Sanders and Sen. John McCain which could have cost the federal government in excess of $50 billion a year. LINK\r\nTreasury Pick Panned President Obama\u2019s nomination of Antonio Weiss to serve as the Treasury Department\u2019s top domestic finance official is drawing fire from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. They oppose Weiss, a major investment banker with Lazard, as another example of their fatigue with filling top-ranking administration spots with officials that have spent significant time working for or on behalf of Wall Street titans, The Hill reported.\r\nGlobal Warming Rep. Jared Huffman introduced legislation that would require the Congressional Budget Office to estimate the projected carbon footprint \u2014 greenhouse gas emissions \u2014 stemming from all congressional legislation. The same bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Sanders, according to the Marin Independent Journal in San Rafael, California. LINK\r\nWorking Families \u201cIf Democrats want to win back the white working class \u2014 an enormous demographic \u2014 they need to start encouraging work, rather than talking about race or class. Sen. Sanders, for one, suggests the government invest heavily in infrastructure, which would create a lot of blue-collar jobs,\u201d Glen Harlan Reynolds wrote in a column for USA Today and the Visalia, California, Times-Delta. LINK\r\nSearching for Sanders Sen. Sanders was among the 10 most-searched politicians in the United States this year by people using Microsoft\u2019s Bing search engine. President Obama was the most searched politician. Overall, Kim Kardashian dethroned Beyonce Knowles as the most-searched person in 2014. LINK\r\nChamplain Parkway The Champlain Parkway has cleared several permitting hurdles and the city now believes it can project a date to again start construction of the project that dates back to the 1960s when Bernie Sanders was mayor, WCAX-TV reported. LINK, VIDEO\r\nObamacare \u201cWhen the Affordable Care Act was passed into law, there were 60 Democrats in the U.S. Senate. If, that is, you count our own Bernie Sanders whose sense of political honor requires that he call himself an independent. And maybe he is. But for the big games, he suits up in Democratic colors,\u201d Geoffrey Norman wrote in a column for The Caledonian-Record.\r\nNational\r\nFunding Deadline Tops Congress\u2019s Agenda Lawmakers returning to Capitol Hill on Monday will have less than two weeks to figure out how to keep the government funded amid an acrimonious fight between Republicans and the White House over immigration. With government funding set to expire Dec. 11, top Democrats and Republicans had hoped to pass a so-called omnibus measure that would tie together tailored spending bills to fund the government through September 2015, the end of the fiscal year. But it is unclear what Republicans will do to satisfy conservatives who want to express their anger over President Barack Obama \u2019s decision to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, The Wall Street Journal reported.\u00a0 LINK\r\nVietnam Vets and PTSD Hundreds of thousands of aging Vietnam veterans late in life are now seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder\u2014a mix of flashbacks, depression and sleeplessness springing from a war that ended four decades ago, according to The Wall Street Journal. LINK\r\nMark Warner Named to Senate Democratic Leadership A senator who voted against keeping Harry Reid as the Democratic leader is getting a seat at the leadership table. Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia is taking on the role of policy development advisor at the Democratic Policy and Communications Center. He joins a leadership team that previously expanded in number with the addition of progressive heroine Elizabeth Warren,\u201d Roll Call reported. LINK\r\nVermont\r\nPre-K Delay A universal pre-kindergarten bill signed into law this year in Vermont is being delayed until the 2016-2017 school year. The implementation was scheduled to start July 1, 2015, but the Rutland Herald reported that state officials said that would not allow school boards \u2014 most of which start building their budgets this month \u2014 to plan accordingly.The law gives the State Board of Education authority to propose rules that clarify the way the law will be implemented. Last week, officials recognized those rules won't be ready until spring, after voters cast ballots on the budgets on Town Meeting Day.\r\nWalmart Protest Chants of \"Walmart, Walmart, get on the same page, pay your workers a living wage,\u201d filled the Black Friday afternoon air outside the Walmart in Bennington. About a dozen people gathered with signs, fliers, and a signed letter to the store's manager as part of a protest taking issues with the companies alleged financial practices regarding the payment of workers, the Bennington Banner reported.", 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://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/120114"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5854497905820608, "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"}