Press Releases

A Senate subcommittee on Thursday held a hearing on Sweatshop
Conditions in the Chinese Toy Industry. Americans spent $22.3 billion
on toys and sporting goods last year, and China accounted for 86
percent of U.S. toy imports, according to Charles Kernaghan, director
of the National Labor Committee. “Many parents in America would be
shocked and disturbed if they knew of the abusive sweatshop conditions
under which their children’s toys are being made in China,” he
testified. “Parents, however, have no way of knowing, as toy companies
like Mattel (the largest in the world) hide their 40 or so contract
plants in China, refusing to provide the American people with even the
names and addresses of their plants.” Senator Bernie Sanders is a
cosponsor of the Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act
that would make it unlawful to sell, trade, or advertise sweatshop
goods.

A Senate panel on Wednesday took up global warming legislation. To Vermont’s own Bill McKibben, a national leader on the environment and climate change, it’s about time. “Long after the Nobel-winning reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, long after Hurricane Katrina, long after ‘An Inconvenient Truth, they’re finally taking up the single biggest question that the planet faces,” he wrote. Senator Bernie Sanders, the sponsor of the strongest legislation on climate change, is a

The Senate last night passed the largest increase in the history of the Community Health Center Program. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is a leading advocate for the program and fought for the $250 million increase in funding. “In Vermont in recent years, we have expanded the number of health centers

Days after he vetoed a children’s health insurance program, President Bush asked Congress for almost $196 billion that the Pentagon says is needed to keep combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for another year. The president says, “Our men and women on the front lines should not be caught in the middle of partisan disagreements in Washington, D.C.” Well Mr. President, neither should America’s children.

Judy Daloz is the nurse at St. Johnsbury Elementary School. Every day she sees children who show up for school hungry. She knows parents who dread eye exams because they cannot afford to take their kids to see eye doctors, let alone buy them glasses. She knows some families have trouble scraping together the $15 fee for a birth certificate needed to enroll each of their children in the Dr. Dynassaur program. Nurse Daloz talked about her experiences at a town meeting on poverty that Senator B

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today he will vote against confirmation of Michael B. Mukasey to be attorney general. President Bush’s choice to head the Justice Department, Sanders said, holds views on the sweeping powers of the presidency that are at odds with what the framers of our Constitution intended. The nominee also demonstrated at Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings a