{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/121514", "News December 15", "2014-12-15", "2014", "2014-12", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "News December 15\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 15, 2014\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSenator Sanders\r\nSenate Passes $1.1 Trillion Bill The Senate late Saturday night passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill by a 56-40 vote that crisscrossed party lines. Sen. Bernie Sanders said the bill lacks need regulation for big banks and ignores the needs of the middle class, WCAX-TV reported on Sunday. VIDEO\r\nSanders Votes No In a rare split within Vermont's congressional delegation, Sen. Patrick Leahy voted in favor of the bill that Sen. Sanders called \"totally crazy.\" Sanders joined 21 Democrats and 18 Republicans in opposing it. Rep. Peter Welch also voted against the bill when it passed the House Thursday night. Sanders and Welch took issue with two policy riders attached to the spending bill that would roll back regulations governing Wall Street banks and dramatically increase the amount of money donors can give to political parties. In a statement released ahead of Saturday's vote, Sanders also faulted the legislation for failing to invest in infrastructure improvements and environmental programs, Seven Days reported. LINK\r\nParty Splits Sen. Sanders and all of the Senate\u2019s other potential presidential candidates from both parties voted against the bill, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Radio News nd Daytona Beach (Florida) News-Journal reported on Monday. \u201cThere was commonality among 2016 candidates. They didn't like this bill. Isn't that representative of the Democrats also having a problem with their... Warren wing?\u201d Candy Crowley asked Sen. Chuck Schumer on CNN. \u201cI think that the differences between -- among Democrats are small compared to the huge chasm of Republicans,\u201d Schumer said. LINK, LINK, LINK\r\nAn American Agenda \u201cWe need to put the unemployed back to work, to raise wages and make certain that all Americans have the health care and education they need for healthy and productive lives,\u201d Sen. Sanders wrote in a column published Monday in the Des Moines Register. LINK\r\nBernie\u2019s Bigger Platform Sen. Sanders\u00a0has long voiced frustration over income inequality and tax cuts for the wealthy.\u00a0Next Congress, he\u2019ll have a bigger platform for airing those criticisms.\u00a0The Senate Democratic Steering Committee on Friday tapped\u00a0Sanders, a Vermont independent, to become the top-ranking minority member of the Senate Budget Committee, the Burlington Free Press reported in the cover story of Monday\u2019s newspaper. Sanders\u2019 elevation to the ranking position on the Budget Committee also was noted in the Rutland Herald and Times Argus. LINK, LINK, LINK\r\nSenate Progressives \u201cThe power of (Elizabeth) Warren and likeminded senators seems only to be growing. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made her a member of leadership. In the next Senate, the top Democrat on the Banking Committee will be liberal leader Sen. Sherrod Brown. The top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee will be Bernie Sanders,\u201d The Washington Post reported. LINK\r\nWorld\r\nSydney Cafe Siege An armed gunman is holding some 30 hostages in a cafe in central Sydney. Five captives fled from the caf\u00e9 where two people were seen holding up a flag containing an Islamic declaration of faith. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the incident was politically motivated but he avoided pointing blame at any group, CBS News reported. LINK\r\nNational\r\nIn Final Spending Bill, Salty Food and Belching Cows Are Winners\u00a0Health insurance companies preserved their tax breaks. Farmers and ranchers were spared having to report on pollution from manure. Tourist destinations like Las Vegas benefited from a travel promotion program. Also buried in the giant spending bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday and is headed to President Obama for his signature were provisions that prohibit the federal government from requiring less salt in school lunches and allow schools to obtain exemptions from whole-grain requirements for pasta and tortillas, The New York Times reported. LINK\r\nProtest Leaders Vow to Keep Pressing for Change Organizers and participants in nationwide weekend protests of police treatment of minorities say the movement is evolving to include more lobbying for legislative and political change. Demonstrations drew thousands, and at times tens of thousands, of participants in New York, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, the San Francisco Bay Area and San Antonio, among other cities, on Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK\r\nVermont\r\nAshe: Slow Down on Single Payer Gov. Peter Shumlin will unveil his single-payer financing proposal later this month, but a powerful state senator says the Legislature might want to spend less time this year talking about how Vermont pays for health insurance, and focus instead on making sure everyone is getting it. Few people in the Legislature will have more influence over the health care debate in than Sen. Tim Ashe. The Chittenden County Democrat not only chairs the committee that handles tax matters for the Senate, he\u2019s also the Senate President\u2019s most trusted advisor on health care reform matters, Vermont Public Radio reported. 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