" Student Loan Bill Passes Senate: Borrowing costs for college students and their parents could soon start climbing under a bill the Senate passed overwhelmingly Wednesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders joined 16 Democrats and Republican Sen. Mike Lee to oppose the legislation, The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times reported. “This bill makes a bad situation worse," Sanders said on National Public Radio. He offered an amendment to sunset the legislation in two years, but it was rejected, USA Today and The Washington Post reported. Working Families Betrayed: As the bill was debated, a discordant scene played out as conservative Republicans praised the Democrats they had worked with to strike a deal, and liberal senators like Sanders and Elizabeth Warren accused their colleagues of forcing through a bill that betrayed their party’s promises to working families, The New York Times reported. “What I don’t understand,” Sanders said, “is when you have a Democratic president, a Democratically controlled U.S. Senate, why we are producing a bill which is basically a Republican bill?” Wal-Mart Welfare: Opposition to raising the minimum wage in the United States comes from companies like Wal-Mart. While the family that owns the giant discount retailer is worth about $100 billion, heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune also are “the major welfare recipients in America,” Sen. Sanders told Chris Hayes on MSNBC. The company pays its workers so little that they must resort to Medicaid, food stamps and subsidized housing, Sanders said. VA Backlog: A Senate panel backed eight veterans bills Wednesday. Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Sanders said one of the measures would require the Veterans Affairs Department to report publicly on its progress in reducing the backlog of pending disability benefits claims. “The secretary has outlined a very ambitious goal to address the claims backlog. We want to make sure that he and his staff are meeting those ambitious goals,” Congressional Quarterly reported. Continue reading here: sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9C600D1D-B50D-4582-9387-449B063CA931"
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 22:28:40 +0000
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