{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/121814", "News December 18", "2014-12-18", "2014", "2014-12", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "News December 18\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 18, 2014\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSenator Sanders\r\nMajor Step Forward for Cuba Relations\u00a0Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday welcomed news\u00a0that the United States will open talks with Cuba aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations and that Cuba released Alan Gross, an American who Sanders visited in a Havana jail last February, The Christian Science Monitor,\u00a0The Wall Street Journal,\u00a0MarketWatch,\u00a0Politico,\u00a0Burlington Free Press,\u00a0Seven Days, WVNY-TV, WFFF-TV\u00a0and WPTZ-TV reported.\u00a0Sanders lauded the move as \u201ca major step forward in ending the 55-year Cold War with Cuba.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK, LINK, VIDEO\r\nU.S. Agriculture Eyes Cuba Several agriculture groups said they like what they\u2019ve heard so far from the Obama administration about changes that could open limited Cuban markets. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp saw opportunity for farmers. She and Sens. Sanders and Jon Tester met with Cuban officials in February to discuss the possibility of expanding trade with the United States, Congressional Quarterly reported. LINK\r\nBudget Committee Sen. Michael Enzi will be the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee in the next Congress. The Wyoming Republican will get the job over current ranking member Jeff Session. The ranking member of the Democratic caucus on the panel will be Sen. Sanders, Reuters reported. \u201cI look forward to working with Sen. Enzi on the Budget Committee to put together a budget which reflects the needs of the working families of our country, and not just powerful special interests,\u201d Sanders said in Congressional Quarterly. Sanders said his top priority as ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee will be resisting cuts to Social Security in the newly Republican-controlled chamber, the Clinton (Iowa) Herald reported on Wednesday. LINK, LINK, LINK\r\nFairPoint Strike\u00a0Vermont\u2019s congressional delegation called this week for FairPoint Communications to negotiate an end to a two-month strike by about 1,700 New England workers after a rash of Internet and phone outages on the network of the state\u2019s dominant carrier. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch sent a letter to FairPoint CEO Paul Sunu saying failure to reach a fair agreement with workers is negatively affecting customers and service,\u00a0WCAX-TV\u00a0reported.\u00a0\u00a0VIDEO\u00a0\r\nTerrorism Insurance \u201cA few Tea Party Republicans in the House and one in the Senate have derailed an incredibly important bipartisan bill \u2014 the reauthorization of Terrorism Risk Insurance \u2014 which has fueled the redevelopment of lower Manhattan in the wake of 9/11 and fostered construction and job growth in New York and cities across the country \u2026 Earlier this year, I negotiated a long-term reauthorization in the Senate that passed with 93 votes. Senators from Ted Cruz to Bernie Sanders supported the bill,\u201d Sen. Charles Schumer wrote in a column published by the New York Daily News. LINK\u00a0\r\nWorld\r\nSyria\u00a0The Obama administration, seeking to cut off the flow of oil to the government of President Bashar al-Assad, on Wednesday imposed penalties on five people and six companies it said were defying American sanctions and helping Syria\u2019s government attack its own citizens,\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nNational\r\nWealth Gap Widest in 30 Years\u00a0A report released on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center found that the wealth gap between the country\u2019s top earners and the rest of America had stretched to its widest point in at least three decades,\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nNew York Bans Fracking\u00a0New York state will ban hydraulic fracturing after a long-awaited report concluded that the oil and gas extraction method poses health risks,\u00a0Reuters\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nVermont\r\nShumlin Won\u2019t Seek Single-Payer Health in 2015\u00a0Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin says he's abandoning his long-held goal of creating the nation's first single-payer health care system,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported. In a Statehouse news conference Wednesday, Shumlin said the cost of creating the system is more than the state can bear.\u00a0LINK\r\nVeterans Home Cuts The Vermont Veterans' Home Board of Trustees has voted to take steps to reduce the number of patient beds it is licensed for, from 171 beds to 130. The home's administrator, Melissa Jackson, told the Bennington Banner that the average number of veterans served daily at the home is 121. The home also has 13 current job openings, which it will not fill at a savings of more than $750,000 a year. Other cost cuts from reducing the number of beds will bring the total savings to about $1 million a year.", 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/121814"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4829570427536964, "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"}