{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/121614", "News December 16", "2014-12-16", "2014", "2014-12", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "News December 16\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\tTuesday, December 16, 2014\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSenator Sanders\r\nSanders: Expand Social Security Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is moving to a new post as top minority member of the Senate Budget Committee, said on Monday that he'll use the position to defend Social Security, which he calls \"the most successful government program in history.\" The Associated Press and WPTZ-TV reported. Sanders said questions about Social Security's long-term solvency are misplaced. The program has a $2.76 trillion surplus and has paid out promised benefits consistently since it was founded nearly 80 years ago, he said in a Senate speech featured on C-SPAN. LINK, VIDEO, VIDEO\r\nBudget Committee\u00a0Senate Republican leaders on Monday announced their conference's new committee assignments for the next Congress. The only race for committee leadership still undecided is for the Senate Budget Committee. Sen. Sanders was selected late last week to become the Budget panel\u2019s ranking member next year, The Hill\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\u00a0\u00a0\r\nDavid Koch is \u2018Fascinating\u2019\u00a0Barbara Walters of ABC News interviewed conservative donor David Koch as one of her \"most fascinating people of 2014.\" She called him a hero to the right and villain to the left and showed a snippet of a speech by Sen. Sanders. \u201cI don't know if the Koch brothers are nice guys or not nice guys. That's not the issue.\u201d Sanders has criticized the billionaire's efforts to buy elections, according to Newsbusters.\u00a0LINK\u00a0\r\nTreasury Nominee\u00a0Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is joining a growing number of Senate Democrats and Sen. Sanders in expressing concerns about the president's nomination of Antonio Weiss, a Wall Street insider and investment banker, for a top position at the Treasury Department,\u00a0Business Insider\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\u00a0\u00a0\r\nTar Sands Pipeline\u00a0Environmental activists are hoping low oil prices will push President Barack Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline,\u00a0Politico\u00a0reported. Sen. Sanders, a strong opponent of the pipeline, noted the \"abundance of oil on the marketplace and prices going down.\"\u00a0LINK\u00a0\u00a0\r\nFunding Bill A $1.1 trillion funding bill was passed the Senate on Saturday over opposition by every senator considering a White House bid, including Bernie Sanders,\u00a0The Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported. Rolling back a regulation on risky bank investments was a reason for Sanders\u2019 opposition to the bill,\u00a0The Huffington Post noted.\u00a0Sanders proposed legislation to split up banks deemed \"too big to fail,\" PolicyMic\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\u00a0\u00a0LINK, LINK,\u00a0LINK\r\nPre-K in Vermont Vermont got a big boost last year when it received a $37 million federal grant to move its early-childhood education programs forward. Sen. Sanders, a member of the Senate education committee, worked with the U.S. Department of Education, the congressional delegation and the Shumlin administration to secure the funding to operate the pre-K program, according to an Addison County Independent editorial. LINK\r\nWhite House '16, Iowa\u00a0Looking more like a longshot candidate for president, Sen. Sanders will visit Iowa Tuesday and address audiences in Ames and near Des Moines along with meetings of labor and women's rights groups in what is his first trip to the leadoff caucus state since the midterm election, AP reported. \u201cThe Vermont senator, who is an independent, will be at the Progress Iowa holiday party in Altoona. Sanders is the longest serving registered independent in congressional history, WOI-TV in Des Moines reported. VIDEO\r\nWhite House '16, Polls\u00a0A new national poll of potential Democratic nominees shows former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leading the field. Sen. Elizabeth Warren drew 6 percent.\u00a0 Sen. Sanders and Vice President Joe Biden tied for third place with 2 percent each,\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0and\u00a0The Philadelphia Inquirer\u00a0reported. LINK,\u00a0LINK\u00a0\r\nWhite House '16, Warren Democracy for America, which in the past has partnered with Sanders, sent out a mailer supporting Warren,\u00a0VICE\u00a0magazine said.\u00a0LINK\u00a0\r\nWhite House '16, O\u2019Malley Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will probably push off an announcement about running for president until spring. He would almost certainly run to Clinton's left but there are likely to be others in the Democratic field, including Sen. Sanders, who will make an appeal to the left wing of the party, according to The Washington Post. LINK\r\nWorld\r\nSydney Attack\u00a0A gunman's siege of a cafe in the heart of Sydney, Australia ended Monday with two hostages and their captor dead,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported.\u00a0An Iranian-born gunman burst in, took 17 workers and customers hostage, and forced some to hold a flag with an Islamic declaration of faith above the shop window's festive inscription of \"Merry Christmas.\"\u00a0LINK\r\nClimate Scientists Express Concerns\u00a0In the wake of an international climate deal, many scientists are concerned that global emissions reductions targets are still too conservative to prevent serious damage to the planet,\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nLawmakers Press for Russia Sanctions\u00a0A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Monday pressed President Barack Obama to approve new santions on Russia and provide weapons and other assistance to Ukraine,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nNational\r\nSenate Confirms Nominee for Surgeon General The Senate on Monday confirmed President Obama\u2019s nominee for surgeon general, ending a long fight over gun control and politics that had left the country without a permanent top doctor for a year and a half. In an early-evening vote, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, an internal medicine physician, was approved, 51- to 43. The confirmation was one of the last acts of business for the Democratic-controlled Senate, The New York Times reported. LINK\r\nBudget Battle Is Likely to Heat Up Next Year Congress last week barely managed to approve a funding bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, working under spending guidelines set by each party\u2019s budget gurus. Next year could get even uglier. After four years of a divided Congress, Republicans will take full control of both chambers in January with hopes of passing individual spending bills under an orderly process rarely seen in recent years, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK\r\nEconomic Recovery Spreads to the Middle Class For years, even as the economy recovered and the stock market soared, most American workers saw little evidence of better times in their paychecks. But last month\u2019s surprisingly large increase in both average hourly and weekly earnings, along with other encouraging data, has convinced many economists that falling unemployment and increased hiring are finally about to start paying off in terms of wage gains for a broader swath of workers, according to The New York Times. LINK\r\nVermont\r\nUVM Faculty Contract The University of Vermont says its full-time faculty members have approved a new contract thatprovides for performance-based and across-the-board annual increases, as well as salary adjustments when faculty members are promoted, AP reported.\r\nStorm Recovery\u00a0Vermont's largest electric utility says it's restored power to nearly all its customers, but small outages are continuing to occur and heavy snow continues to fall from trees,\u00a0AP\u00a0reported. 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