{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/121114", "News December 11", "2014-12-11", "2014", "2014-12", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "News December 11\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\tThursday, December 11, 2014\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSenator Sanders\r\nTorture Report Sen. Bernard Sanders denounced the brutal interrogation tactics described in a withering Senate Intelligence Committee report on the Central Intelligence Agency. He told The New York Times in an interview that he was especially disturbed by the panel's conclusion that the CIA misled the White House and Congress. \"If anyone is lying to elected officials, they should be fired immediately,\" he said.\u00a0But most of the major presidential candidates would not plunge into the debate over the report and some ducked questions entirely. Sen. Rand Paul, approached outside his office Wednesday, would not answer questions. LINK\r\nBig Hug for Rich Donors Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage at a provision slipped into the omnibus government funding bill that would expand the amount wealthy donors can give to national political party committees. The provision, buried on page 1,599 of a 1,603-page bill, would increase the sums a single contributor could give to a party committee by nearly tenfold. Sen. Sanders told The Huffington Post that the provision is \u201ca total outrage.\u201d In a Senate speech, Sanders said that \"the billionaire class can now put unlimited sums of money into elect candidates who represent their interests,\u201d CNN, KVUE-TV in Austin, Texas, WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, WSJV-TV in South Bend, Indiana, and other stations reported. LINK, LINK, VIDEO, VIDEO, VIDEO\r\nTreasury Pick Panned An increasing number of senators, including Sanders, oppose the nomination of Wall Street banker Antonio Weiss to a key Treasury Department post,\u00a0Salon,\u00a0CNN Money, Politico, American Banker, Talking Points Memo\u00a0and The Huffington Post reported. The brawl has become a proxy battle for a deepening rift in the party over its ties to the financial industry, according to a Wall Street Journal article listing Sanders among those opposing the New York banker. Sanders raised questions about the nominee\u2019s experience helping corporations move overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.\u00a0\u201cWe need economists in government who have a history of helping to create jobs, not helping corporations avoid taxes,\u201d Sanders told Market Watch. LINK,\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK\r\nBig Boost for Pre-K Vermont has been awarded $7.3 million in what is expected to be a $33.4 million, four-year federal grant for pre-kindergarten programs at public schools and Head Start agencies throughout the state. WCAX-TV reported that Sen. Sanders helped secure the funding.\u00a0\"At a time when working families are struggling to find quality and affordable child care, this grant is a big boost for Vermont,\" Sanders said in the\u00a0Burlington Free Press, Times Argus, Rutland Herald, Bennington Banner and Brattleboro Reformer. VIDEO,\u00a0LINK, LINK, LINK,\u00a0LINK, LINK\r\nHealth Care Outgoing Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said this week that Democrats \"blew it\" in 2009 when they didn't enact single-payer health care,\u00a0Bloomberg\u00a0reported. Sen. Sanders in 2009 said he thought there were 50 votes in the Senate the idea.\u00a0LINK\u00a0\u00a0\r\nProgressive Agenda\u00a0Progressive groups are rolling out a \"Big Ideas Project\" initiative to solicit input from the American people ahead of the 2016 elections, according to\u00a0The Washington Times. Twenty-nine lawmakers, including Sen. Sanders, agreed to \"seriously consider\" the ideas offered in the formation of a national legislative agenda.\u00a0LINK\u00a0\u00a0\r\nWorld\r\nUN Demands Torture Prosecutions\u00a0All senior U.S. officials and CIA agents who authorized or carried out torture like waterboarding as part of former President George W. Bush's national security policy must be prosecuted, top U.N. officials told\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0Wednesday. The Justice Department has declined to prosecute and the U.S. is not a member of the International Criminal Court.\u00a0LINK\r\nNational\r\nSpending Bill Congress limped Wednesday toward a rare bipartisan agreement on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to keep most of the government operating through next year. Lawmakers in both parties balked over details in the 1,600-page bill but Republican leaders and some Democrats expressed confidence that a government shutdown would be averted. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, who as the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee helped to negotiate a deal, called the spending plan a \u201cmonumental achievement\u201d in an era of seemingly intractable partisan divides. LINK\r\nPension Cuts\u00a0Republicans are pushing severe cuts to the benefits of current retirees in a measure expected to move as an amendment in the House and pass the Senate Thursday,\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nWall Street Reforms\u00a0Much to the chagrin of Democratic lawmakers, a spending bill to keep the government open also would roll back provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill,\u00a0National Journal\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nCampaign Finance\u00a0The $1.1 trillion spending agreement would vastly expand the amount of money that donors can give political parties,\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nOutside Groups Set Spending Record in Midterms Political groups independent of candidates spent more than $814 million to influence congressional elections last month, a record for the midterms and nearly twice the spending in 2010, Federal Election Commission records show. The most obvious explanation for the rapid increase is the effect of the 2010 Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court and the rise in spending by super PACs, which can accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions, The New York Times reported. LINK\r\nVA Hospital Project Grinds to a Halt A Department of Veterans Affairs hospital project near Denver came to a standstill this week after federal judges ruled the VA was in breach of contract, hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and devoid of a plan to adequately fund the facility, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK\r\nMany Say American Dream is Out of Reach Despite an improving economy and jobs picture, the public is more pessimistic than it was after the 2008 financial crisis that it is possible to work hard and become rich, according to a New York Times poll. The poll found that only 64 percent of respondents said they still believed in the American dream, the lowest result in roughly two decades. Even near the depth of the financial crisis in early 2009, 72 percent of Americans still believed that hard work could result in riches. \u201cThings have changed a lot,\u201d Michael Herdmann, a 54-year-old retired public works employee from Fairview Park, Ohio. \u201cThe decks have been stacked against not only the lower class but also the lower middle class.\u201d LINK\r\nVermont\r\nWinter Wallop Cuts Power\u00a0A two-day storm has dumped more than a foot of heavy wet snow in parts of Vermont, leaving more than 55,000 without electricity,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nLeahy Hails More Money for Crime Victims U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy is hailing a tripling in federal funding for crime victims and their families. The crime victims' fund had been capped at $745 million, but Leahy pressed for more of the money that's collected in fines and court assessments to be distributed to crime victims and programs supporting them, AP 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/121114"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5515610575675964, "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"}