Todays news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): Working Families: President Barack Obama on Monday called for paid parental leave and other family-friendly policies during the first White House Summit on Working Families. Three Vermont advocates for fair workplace practices – state Rep. Tom Stevens of Waterbury, Cary Brown of the Vermont Commission on Women and Lindsay DesLauriers of the Main Street Alliance – made up the state’s delegation to the conference. The summit focused on bills addressing workplace issues like ones by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and make employers accommodate pregnant workers, the Rutland Herald and Times Argus reported. VA Whistleblowers: An independent investigator found that the VA ignored problems cited by whistleblowers, including unsanitary medical instruments and psychiatric patients who went for years without evaluations. “Legitimate concerns must not be covered up or papered over by administrators, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders said, according to USA Today and The Associated Press. In The Washington Post, Sanders expressed his hope that a conference committee which meets today will iron out differences in Senate- and the House-passed legislation to “significantly improve the quality and timeliness of care.” VA Reform: A House and Senate conference committee meets today to resolve differences between separate approaches to VA reform legislation. Sen. Sanders said his “goal is to get this legislation onto the president’s desk as soon as we possibly can.” Sanders will co-chair the conference with Rep. Jeff Miller, who launched an aggressive schedule of hearings and investigations into wrongdoings at the VA, according to The Washington Post. Global Warming: More than a million homes and businesses along the nation’s coasts could flood before ultimately being destroyed. Entire states in the Southeast and the Corn Belt may lose farms as agriculture production shifts northward, according to a report by a bipartisan coalition that includes Republicans George P. Shultz, who served under President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan and Henry M. Paulson Jr., who served under President George W. Bush. Robert E. Rubin, a Democrat in the Clinton administration, also is part of the group that endorsed putting a price on greenhouse gases, most likely by taxing emissions, The New York Times reported. Continue reading here: sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/062414
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 14:30:44 +0000