Spectator NZ

Source: United States Senator for Vermont – Bernie Sanders

BURLINGTON, Vt., Dec. 14 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Tuesday evening held a telephone town meeting to hear directly from older Vermonters about the issues that matter most to them and how the federal government can address the needs of seniors and working families. Throughout the year, Sanders has led meetings and public events, in-person and virtually, with over 50,000 Vermonters from across the state. These have included a virtual statewide town meeting, in-person town meetings with the Finnish Ambassador to the U.S., a roundtable discussion with the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and a round table discussion with Vermont affordable housing providers; as well as town meetings focused on issues facing first responders, students, medical professionals, and more.

More than 10,500 Vermont households joined the town meeting, with nearly 300 submitting questions before and throughout the call. During the hour-long meeting, Vermonters from across the state had the opportunity to ask their question live, including callers from Enosburg Falls, Bellows Falls, Lunenburg, Burlington, Stowe, Colchester, Ryegate, Waterville, Rupert, Holland, Jay, and Guilford.

“I don’t have to tell anybody that these are extraordinarily difficult times,” said Sanders in his introductory remarks. “We’re going through what appears to be a never ending COVID pandemic. We’ve got enormous economic problems we’re facing, health care problems, climate change problems, problems facing our seniors, problems facing our kids. There’s a lot to be done, and obviously I can’t do my job well unless I hear from Vermonters telling me what their needs are, and how they would like to go forward.” 

The discussion covered a wide range of issues, from efforts to privatize Medicare, the high cost of prescription drugs, long-term care, and the nursing workforce crisis, to corporate greed and support for dairy farmers. Vermonters also asked questions about climate change and ensuring energy efficient options – like solar panels – are accessible to all, building affordable housing in the state, the impact of burn pits and accessing veterans’ benefits, as well as issues with the postal service, inflation, the cost of food, international affairs, and the need to protect Social Security. 

One Vermonter from Waterville spoke about the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision, and asked, “Do you see any other avenues developing where we could readdress what the Supreme Court obviously messed up in recent years giving corporations more power?”

Sanders responded, “Thank you very much for that question. We could probably discuss that for five hours – this is such a fundamental, serious question. Look, it’s nothing new that big money interests have always had power in society. But what we are seeing now in a number of ways, in my view, is a movement toward oligarchy in the United States where we’re seeing in an unprecedented way the power of the billionaire class. What the election a few weeks ago showed is that the American people are very nervous about people who are trying very hard to undermine American democracy. The threat to American democracy is not only Trump, it’s not only the people who invaded the Capitol on January 6th – it is also the power of money in our political system. It is an issue of enormous consequence, both politically and economically, and it’s an issue that absolutely has to be dealt with.”

Sanders concluded the event, saying, “Let me thank everyone who has been on the phone and the many people who asked questions. Without exception, these are all timely, relevant questions. We are a small state. A state that has in many ways provided leadership to the whole country and that’s what I want to continue to see us do. Let us continue to be involved in the process.”

For this telephone town meeting, older Vermonters with phone numbers on file with Sanders’ Senate office received a call inviting them to participate. The event was also livestreamed on Sanders’ Facebook page for members of the public who were not able to join via telephone. Vermonters who did not receive a call and would like to in the future can sign up here.  

The full audio recording of the event can be found here.  

Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding school choice:

“Against the backdrop of punishing 13.8% cumulative inflation since January 2021, an open borders crisis, spiking deaths from drug overdoses, and surging violent crime from coast to coast, President Biden has decided his A-1 priority needs to be… cracking down on charter schools.

“And harming the educational opportunities available to millions of low-income students in the process.

“Charter schools have long injected a huge dose of choice and competition into the schooling options available to low-income Americans and communities of color. This became especially true and especially important during the pandemic.

“Big Labor teachers’ unions spent the pandemic forcing government-run public schools to keep their doors shut long after private schools, parochial schools, and schools across Europe were all back operating safely in person.

“During this time, charter schools became a haven. They offered an escape rope out of learning loss for kids who would otherwise have been left behind. No wonder that, according to one analysis, charter school enrollment has surged since the pandemic started, even as public school enrollments have fallen off.

“But sadly, whenever kids’ best interests and Big Labor’s pocketbooks come into conflict, we know where most of today’s Democratic Party will come down.

“The Biden Administration has dutifully written a harsh new regulation that would intentionally chip away at the federal charter schools program and strip funding from many public charter schools.

“President Biden and his team are trying to force charter schools to conform to a whole new set of top-down, one-size-fits-all rules that the teachers’ unions want forced onto their competitors.

“The Democrats’ rule is designed to hamstring charter schools and leave them more reliant on government bureaucracies in everything from what they teach to how kids get to school in the morning.

“Perhaps worst of all, they want charter schools’ federal funding to be heavily contingent on whether the Democrats’ federal bureaucracy agrees there is a ‘need’ for their existence.

“This is a plan to take options away from parents, to take opportunities away from kids, to take choice away from families… and transfer that power directly to Big Labor bosses and Big Government bureaucrats.

“Yet another example of Democrats trying every trick to make end-runs around parents’ rights in education. Stripping power away from parents and handing it to bureaucrats.

“I commend the junior Senator for South Carolina, Senator Scott, for bringing forward a Congressional Review Act resolution to right this wrong.

“I urge every member of this body to put families first and vote for the Senator’s commonsense resolution.”

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Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding government funding:

“Today is December the 14th. Senate Republicans have spent months — literally months — begging our Democratic colleagues to stop fiddling with partisan nonsense and focus on two core things: The NDAA and government funding.

“I have been talking about the need for a strong National Defense Authorization Act all year long. I’m glad we are finally going to wrap up that basic governing duty in the next few days.

“With respect to government funding: I was glad to hear Senator Shelby announce yesterday evening that negotiators have reached a bipartisan, bicameral framework for a full-year government funding bill. Long-term continuing resolutions cheat our Armed Forces out of the resources and the certainty that our commanders and civilian leaders need to keep modernizing our forces, investing in crucial weapons, and outcompeting adversaries such as China.

“I am glad that our Democratic colleagues finally accepted reality and conceded to the Republican position that we need to prioritize our national security. Republicans simply were not going to lavish extra liberal spending on the Commander-in-Chief’s own party as a reward for adequately funding the national defense. It wasn’t going to happen.

“Funding defense is a basic, bipartisan duty of government — not something that earns Democrats special treats.

“As Senator Shelby stated last night, this framework agreement doesn’t mean the hard work is over; it means the hard work can finally start. It will take seriousness and good faith on both sides to produce actual legislation that follows this framework. Poison pills, especially far-left demands to overturn longstanding and commonsense policy riders, will need to stay far away from this process.

“And even then, the calendar will still make this a challenging sprint. Our side has made it clear that the Senate has until December 22nd to complete either a full-year funding bill or a short-term C.R. into early next year. That is the deadline, and those are the two options.

“If a truly bipartisan full-year bill without poison pills is ready for final Senate passage by late next week, I’ll support it for our Armed Forces. Otherwise, we’ll be passing a short-term continuing resolution into the new year.”

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Source: United States Senator John Kennedy (Louisiana)

WASHINGTON – Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator, Anne Milgram,  urging the DEA to apply its authorities to prevent and limit the pharmaceutical industry’s excessively high opioid production levels. 

Today’s letter comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that fatal drug overdoses increased in 2021 to the highest ever level. The opioid epidemic stems from the overproduction of prescription opioids as well as extremely high levels of illegal opioids, including fentanyl, flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border.

On the domestic front, the DEA is responsible for establishing annual quotas determining the exact amount of each opioid drug that is permitted to be produced in the U.S. each year. Between 1993 and 2015, the DEA allowed aggregate production quotas for oxycodone to increase 39-fold, hydrocodone to increase 12-fold, hydromorphone to increase 23-fold and fentanyl to increase 25-fold. As a result, tens of billions of painkillers flooded the market in every corner of the nation, which ignited the current opioid epidemic. 

In 2018, Durbin and Kennedy authored legislation that enhanced DEA’s opioid quota-setting authority by improving transparency and enabling DEA to adjust quotas to prevent opioid diversion and abuse while ensuring an adequate supply for legitimate medical needs. 

“Section 3282 of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act (P.L. 115-271) strengthened DEA’s statutory quota-setting authority by enhancing transparency and requiring opioid quotas to be adjusted to reflect diversion, overdose deaths, and public health.  As the bipartisan authors of that section, we strongly encourage you to continue using this authority to rein in the pharmaceutical industry’s incessant demand for excessive levels of opioid production,” the senators wrote.

The senators also noted in their letter that they have previously expressed concerns that DEA was not properly following their law’s requirements to consult with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary and to consider reliable information on overdose rates, abuse and overall public health impact in order to estimate the amount of diversion and make appropriate quota reductions. 

“Given that one of the most common sources of prescription drug misuse is through access from friends and family, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, we believe DEA must refine its methodologies for approximating diversion through legitimate channels. While we appreciate the challenges in directly linking patient misuse and overdose to a specific controlled substance, DEA should consult with states, HHS, and other public health experts to estimate or create proxies—based upon survey and research data—on the volume of dispensed opioids contributing to addiction and abuse,” continued the senators.

“As DEA implements the schedule II opioid production quotas for 2023 and beyond, we urge you to apply DEA’s statutory authorities to prevent and limit opioid diversion due to excessively high production levels,” they concluded.

After two decades of dramatic increases to the volume of opioids allowed to come to the market, the DEA has heeded Durbin and Kennedy’s call over the past six years to help prevent opioid addiction by responsibly reducing nearly all opioid quotas. 

Unfortunately, the leading killer of Americans ages 18-45 is the fentanyl crossing the border illegally. Kennedy introduced the Ending the Fentanyl Crisis Act to address the epidemic on this front and has repeatedly called on the president to secure the border.

Last year, President Biden also signed Kennedy’s DUMP Opioids Act into law, which will help local communities get unused prescription opioids off of their streets via secure drop boxes at Veterans Affairs sites.

The full letter is available here.

Source: United States Senator Mike Braun (Indiana)

WASHINGTON— Senators Braun, Burr and Thune are leading a bicameral letter with Rep. Foxx (R-N.C.) urging the Department of Labor (DOL) not to move forward with its proposed rule for determining independent contractor classification due to the negative impact on workers and business, the test’s lack of clarity and the devastating consequences for the U.S. economy. They are joined by Sens. Hagerty, Romney, T. Scott, Cramer, Johnson, Barrasso, Cassidy, Lankford, Marshall, Hoeven, Blackburn, Boozman, Tuberville, Young, Lummis, Lee, R. Scott, Inhofe, Graham, Fischer, Ernst, Shelby and Rounds as well as Reps. Wilson, Thompson, Walberg, Grothman, Stefanik, Allen, Banks, Comer, Fulcher, Keller, Miller-Meeks, Owens, Good, McClain, Harshbarger, Miller, Spartz, Fitzgerald, Steel, and Pete Sessions.
 
“The independent contractor proposed rule would have immediate and long-term disruptive effects on millions of workers and thousands of businesses at a time when the economy is facing high inflation rates. A study by Upwork estimates that 59 million Americans performed freelance work in 2021 and contributed $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy.  Small and large businesses in hospitality, healthcare, education, agriculture, transportation, construction, finance, law, housing, entertainment, and more utilize independent contractors to meet their needs. This allows businesses to have a dynamic workforce while giving workers the autonomy and flexibility they prefer. It is clear the proposed rule’s attempt to restrict this flexibility for businesses and workers will be disruptive,” the lawmakers wrote.
 
“We urge DOL not to move forward with its proposed rule for determining independent contractor classification due to this negative impact on workers and businesses, the test’s lack of clarity, and the devastating consequences for the U.S. economy. The proposed rule will jeopardize millions of individuals’ independent contractor status under the FLSA. Instead, DOL should maintain the 2021 rule, which was designed for the modern economy and brought clarity to workers and businesses,” the lawmakers continued.
  
Read the full letter HERE
 
Background
 

• On October 13, 2022, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking entitled “Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act” which would rescind and replace the independent contractor rule adopted in 2021 by the Trump Administration. 

• In its place, DOL proposes a six-factor economic reality test to determine whether a worker is “economically dependent” on a company under a totality of the circumstances. Similar to the ABC test found in the PRO Act, the rule is extremely restrictive. The rule argues that theoretical control is enough to give DOL the ability to make employment determinations.

• According to the Institute for the American Worker, “such a broad interpretation would have a chilling effect on self-employment, putting conceivably all independent contracting work in jeopardy.”

 
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