Bernie Sanders : Net Worth, Family, Wife, Education, Children, Age, Biography and Political Career

Bernard Sanders is an American politician and activist who has served as the junior us senator from Vermont since 2007 and as U.S. Representative for the states at-large district from 1991 to 2007. hes the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history, although he features a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for many of his congressional career. Sanders unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for president of the us in 2016 and 2020, finishing in second place in both campaigns. Before his election to Congress, he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont.

Often considered one among the foremost popular politicians in America, Sanders self-identifies as a democratic socialist and has been credited with influencing a leftward shift within the Democratic Party since his 2016 presidential campaign. An advocate of social democratic and progressive policies, hes known for his opposition to economic inequality and neoliberalism. On domestic policy, he supports labor rights, universal and single-payer healthcare, paid parental leave, tuition-free tertiary education, and an ambitious Green New Deal to make jobs addressing global climate change. On policy , he supports reducing military spending, pursuing more diplomacy and international cooperation, and putting greater emphasis on labor rights and environmental concerns when negotiating international trade agreements. Sanders supports workplace democracy, and has praised elements of the Nordic model. Some commentators have described his politics as aligned with the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and left-wing populism.

Born into a working-class Jewish family and raised within the Brooklyn borough of latest York City, Sanders attended Brooklyn College before graduating from the University of Chicago in 1964. While a student, he was a protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and therefore the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement. After settling in Vermont in 1968, he ran unsuccessful third-party political campaigns within the early to mid-1970s. He was elected mayor of Burlington in 1981 as an independent and was reelected 3 times . He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990, representing Vermonts at-large district, later co-founding the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He served as a U.S. Representative for 16 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. Sanders was reelected to the Senate in 2012 and 2018. He chaired the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee from 2013 to 2015. In January 2021, Sanders became chair of the Senate Budget Committee.

Sanders was a serious candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. Despite initially low expectations, his 2016 campaign generated significant grassroots enthusiasm and funding from small-dollar donors, carrying Sanders to victory against eventual nominee Hillary Clinton in 23 primaries and caucuses before he conceded in July. In 2020, Sanderss strong showing in early primaries and caucuses made him the front-runner during a historically large field of Democratic candidates. In April 2020, he conceded the nomination to Joe Biden, who had won a series of decisive victories because the field narrowed. Sanders supported Clinton and Biden in their election campaigns against Donald Trump while continuing his efforts to maneuver the Democratic Party during a more progressive direction.

Bernard Sanders was born on September 8, 1941 within the Brooklyn borough of latest York City. His father, Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders was born in Słopnice, Galicia, in Austria-Hungary (now a part of Poland), to a Jewish working-class family. In 1921, Elias immigrated to the us , where he became a paint salesman. Bernies mother, Dorothy Sanders, was born in ny City to Jewish immigrant parents from Radzyń Podlaski, in modern-day eastern Poland, and with roots in Russia.

Sanders took an interest in politics at an early age. He said, "A guy named Hitler won an election in 1932. He won an election, and 50 million people died as a results of that election in war II, including six million Jews. So what I learned as a touch kid is that politics is, in fact, vital ." within the 1940s, many of his relatives in German-occupied Poland were murdered within the Holocaust.

Sanders lived in Midwood, Brooklyn. He attended grade school at P.S. 197, where he won a borough championship on the five . He attended Hebrew school within the afternoons, and celebrated his bar mitzvah in 1954. His older brother, Larry, said that in their childhood, the family never lacked for food or clothing, but major purchases, "like curtains or a rug," werent affordable.

Sanders attended Madison highschool , where he was captain of the track team and took third place within the ny City indoor one-mile race. In highschool , he lost his first election, finishing stay of three candidates for the scholar body presidency with a campaign that focused on aiding Korean War orphans. Despite the loss he became active in his schools fundraising activities for Korean orphans, including organizing a charity basketball . Sanders attended highschool with economist Walter Block. shortly after his highschool graduation, his mother died at the age of 46. His father died a couple of years later in 1962, at the age of 57.

Sanders studied at Brooklyn College for a year in 1959–1960 before transferring to the University of Chicago and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics in 1964. He has described himself as a mediocre university student because the classroom was "boring and irrelevant," while the community was more important to his education.

In 1963, Sanders and Deborah Shiling Messing, whom he met in college, volunteered for several months on the Israeli kibbutz Shaar HaAmakim. They married in 1964 and purchased a summer range in Vermont. that they had no children and divorced in 1966. His son (and only biological child), Levi Sanders, was born in 1969 to then-girlfriend Susan Campbell Mott.

On May 28, 1988, Sanders married Jane OMeara Driscoll, who later became president of Burlington College, in Burlington, Vermont. The day after their wedding, the couple visited the Soviet Union as a part of a politician delegation in his capacity as mayor. They own a town house in Capitol Hill, a house in Burlingtons New North End neighborhood, and a lakefront summer range in North Hero. He considers Janes three children—Dave Driscoll (born 1975), Carina Driscoll (born 1974), and Heather Titus (née Driscoll; 1971)—to be his own. He also has seven grandchildren, three (including one who was adopted) through his son Levi and 4 through his stepchildren.

Sanderss elder brother, Larry, lives in England. he was a Green Party county councillor, representing the East Oxford division on Oxfordshire administration , until he retired from the council in 2013. Larry ran as a Green Party candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon within the 2015 British election and came in fifth. Bernie Sanders told CNN, "I owe my brother a huge amount. it had been my brother who actually introduced me to tons of my ideas."

Bernie Sanders Net Worth

Bernie Sanders Net Worth is $ 3 Million in 2021.

Bernie Sanders Family

Bernard Sanders was born on September 8, 1941 within the Brooklyn borough of latest York City. His father, Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders was born in Słopnice, Galicia, in Austria-Hungary (now a part of Poland), to a Jewish working-class family. In 1921, Elias immigrated to the us , where he became a paint salesman. Bernies mother, Dorothy Sanders, was born in ny City to Jewish immigrant parents from Radzyń Podlaski, in modern-day eastern Poland, and with roots in Russia.

Bernie Sanders Wife and Children

In 1963, Sanders and Deborah Shiling Messing, whom he met in college, volunteered for several months on the Israeli kibbutz Shaar HaAmakim. They married in 1964 and purchased a summer range in Vermont. that they had no children and divorced in 1966. His son (and only biological child), Levi Sanders, was born in 1969 to then-girlfriend Susan Campbell Mott. On May 28, 1988, Sanders married Jane OMeara Driscoll.

Bernie Sanders Career and Achievement

Political Activism

Sanders later described his time in Chicago as "the major period of intellectual ferment in my life." While there, he joined the Young Peoples Socialist League (the youth affiliate of the Socialist Party of America) and was active within the civil rights movement as a student for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and therefore the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Under his chairmanship, the university chapter of CORE merged with the university chapter of the SNCC. In January 1962, he visited a rally at the University of Chicago administration building to protest university president George Wells Beadles segregated campus housing policy. At the protest, Sanders said, "We feel its an intolerable situation when Negro and white students of the university cannot live together in university-owned apartments". He and 32 other students then entered the building and camped outside the presidents office. After weeks of sit-ins, Beadle and therefore the university formed a commission to research discrimination. After further protests, the University of Chicago ended segregation privately university housing within the summer of 1963.

Joan Mahoney, a member of the University of Chicago CORE chapter at the time and a fellow participant within the sit-ins, described Sanders during a 2016 interview as "a swell guy, a pleasant Jewish boy from Brooklyn, but he wasnt terribly charismatic. one among his strengths, though, was his ability to figure with a good group of individuals , even those he didnt accept as true with ." He once spent each day putting up fliers protesting police brutality, only to note later that Chicago police had shadowed him and brought all of them down. He attended the 1963 advance Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech. That summer, Sanders was fined $25 (equivalent to $211 in 2020) for assault during an indication in Englewood against segregation in Chicagos public schools.

In addition to his civil rights activism during the 1960s and 1970s, Sanders was active in several peace and antiwar movements while attending the University of Chicago, becoming a member of the scholar Peace Union. He applied for CO status during the Vietnam War; his application was eventually turned down, by which point he was too old to be drafted. Although he opposed the war, Sanders never criticized those that fought in it, and he has long been a robust supporter of veterans benefits. He also was briefly an organizer with the United Packinghouse Workers of America while in Chicago. He also worked on the reelection campaign of Leon Despres, a prominent Chicago alderman who was against mayor Richard J. Daleys Democratic Party machine. Throughout his student years, Sanders read the works of the many political authors, from Jefferson , Lincoln , and Dewey to Marx and Erich Fromm.

Professional History and Early Years in Vermont

After graduating from college, Sanders returned to ny City, where he worked various jobs, including start teacher, psychiatric aide, and carpenter. In 1968, he moved to Stannard, Vermont, a town small in both area and population (88 residents at the 1970 census) within Vermonts rural Northeast Kingdom region, because he had been "captivated by rural life." While there, he worked as a carpenter, filmmaker, and writer who created and sold "radical film strips" and other educational materials to colleges . He also wrote several articles for the choice publication The Vermont Freeman. He lived within the area for several years before moving to the more populous Chittenden County within the mid-1970s. During his 2018 reelection campaign, he returned to the town to carry an occasion with voters and other candidates.

Liberty Union Campaigns

Sanders began his electoral political career in 1971 as a member of the freedom Union Party, which originated within the campaign and therefore the Peoples Party . He ran because the Liberty Union candidate for governor of Vermont in 1972 and 1976 and as a candidate within the special election for U.S. senator in 1972 and within the election in 1974. within the 1974 senatorial race, he finished third (5,901 votes; 4%), behind 33-year-old Chittenden County state attorney Patrick Leahy (D; 70,629 votes; 49%) and two-term incumbent U.S. Representative Dick Mallary (R; 66,223 votes; 46%).

The 1976 campaign was the zenith of the freedom Unions influence, with Sanders collecting 11,317 votes for governor and therefore the party. His strong performance forced the down-ballot races for elected official and secretary of state to be decided by the state legislature when its vote total prevented either the Republican or Democratic candidate for those offices from garnering a majority of votes. The campaign drained the finances and energy of the freedom Union, however, and in October 1977, but a year after the 1976 campaign concluded, he and therefore the Liberty Union candidate for attorney general, Nancy Kaufman, announced their retirement from the party. During the 1980 presidential election Sanders served together of three electors for the Socialist Workers Party in Vermont.

After his resignation from the freedom Union Party in 1977, Sanders worked as a writer and because the director of the nonprofit American Peoples Historical Society (APHS). While with the APHS, he produced a 30-minute documentary about American leader Eugene V. Debs, who ran for president five times because the Socialist Party candidate.

Mayor of Burlington, Vermont (1981–1989)

Campaigns

On November 8, 1980, Sanders announced his candidacy for mayor. He formally announced his campaign on December 16 at a hall news conference . Sanders selected Linda Niedweske as his campaign manager. The Citizens Party attempted to nominate Greg Guma for mayor, but Guma declined, saying it might be "difficult to run against another progressive candidate". Sanders had been convinced to run the mayoralty by Richard Sugarman, an Orthodox Jewish scholar at the University of Vermont, who had shown him a ward-by-ward breakdown of the 1976 Vermont gubernatorial election, during which Sanders had run, that showed him receiving 12% of the choose Burlington despite only getting 6% statewide.

Sanders initially won the mayoral election by 22 votes against Paquette, Bove, and McGrath, but the margin was later reduced to 10 votes. Paquette didnt contest the results of the recount.

Paquettes loss was attributed to his own shortcomings, as he didnt campaign or promote his candidacy since both Sanders and Independent candidate Richard Bove werent seen as a significant challengers, as Sanders had not previously won an election. Paquette was also considered to possess lost because he proposed an unpopular $0.65 per $100 raise in taxes that Sanders opposed. Sanders spent around $4,000 on his campaign.

Sanders castigated the pro-development incumbent as an ally of prominent shopping mall developer Antonio Pomerleau, while Paquette warned of ruin for Burlington if Sanders were elected. The Sanders campaign was bolstered by a wave of optimistic volunteers also as a series of endorsements from university professors, welfare agencies, and therefore the police union. The result shocked the local political establishment.

Sanders formed a coalition between independents and therefore the Citizens Party. On December 3, 1982, he announced that he would seek reelection. On January 22, 1983, the Citizens Party voted unanimously to endorse Sanders, although Sanders ran as an independent. He was reelected, defeating Judith Stephany and James Gilson.

Sanders initially considered not seeking a 3rd term, but announced on December 5, 1984, that he would run. He formally launched his campaign on December 7, and was reelected. On December 1, 1986, Sanders, who had finished third within the 1986 Vermont gubernatorial election, announced that he would seek reelection to a fourth term as mayor of Burlington, despite close associates stating that he was uninterested in being mayor. Sanders defeated Democratic nominee Paul Lafayette within the election. He said he wouldnt seek another mayoral term after the 1987 election: "eight years is enough and that i think its time for brand spanking new leadership, which does exist within the coalition, to return up".

Sanders didnt run a fifth term as mayor. He went on to lecture in politics at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of state that year and at Hamilton College in 1991.

Administration

During his mayoralty, Sanders called himself a socialist and was so described within the press. During his first term, his supporters, including the primary Citizens Party city councilor Terry Bouricius, formed the Progressive Coalition, the forerunner of the Vermont Progressive Party. The Progressives never held quite six seats on the 13-member council , but that they had enough to stay the council from overriding Sanderss vetoes. Under his leadership, Burlington balanced its city budget; attracted a minors team , the Vermont Reds, then the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds became the primary U.S. city to fund community-trust housing and successfully sued the local cable television franchise, thereby winning reduced rates for patrons.

As mayor, Sanders also led extensive downtown revitalization projects. one among his primary achievements was improving Burlingtons Lake Champlain waterfront. In 1981, he campaigned against the unpopular plans by Burlington developer Tony Pomerleau to convert the then-industrial waterfront property owned by the Central Vermont Railway into expensive condominiums, hotels, and offices. He ran under the slogan "Burlington isnt for sale" and successfully supported an idea that redeveloped the waterfront area into a mixed-use district featuring housing, parks, and public spaces.

Sanders was a uniform critic of U.S. policy in Latin America throughout the 1980s. In 1985, Burlington hall hosted a far off policy speech by Chomsky . In his introduction, he praised Chomsky as "a very vocal and important voice within the wilderness of intellectual life in America" and said that he was "delighted to welcome an individual who i feel were all very pleased with ."

Sanders hosted and produced a public-access TV program , Bernie Speaks with the Community, from 1986 to 1988. He collaborated with 30 Vermont musicians to record a folk album, We Shall Overcome, in 1987. that very same year, U.S. News & World Report ranked Sanders one among Americas best mayors. As of 2013, Burlington was considered one among the foremost livable cities within the us.

When Sanders left office in 1989, Bouricius, a member of the Burlington council, said that Sanders had "changed the whole nature of politics in Burlington and also within the state of Vermont".

U.S. House of Representatives (1991–2007)

Elections

In 1988, incumbent Republican congressman Jim Jeffords decided to run the U.S. Senate, vacating the House seat representing Vermonts at-large district . Former elected official Peter P. Smith (R) won the House election with a plurality, securing 41% of the vote. Sanders, who ran as an independent, placed second with 38% of the vote, while Democratic State Representative Paul N. Poirier placed third with 19%. Two years later, he ran for the seat again and defeated Smith by a margin of 56% to 39%.

Sanders was the primary independent elected to the U.S. House of Representatives since Frazier Reams of Ohio won his second term in 1952 also because the first socialist elected to the House since Vito Marcantonio, from the American Labour Party , who won his last term in 1948. Sanders served as a representative from 1991 until he became a senator in 2007, winning reelection by large margins except during the 1994 Republican Revolution, when he won by 3%, with 50% of the vote.

Legislation

During his first year within the House, Sanders often alienated allies and colleagues together with his criticism of both political parties as working totally on behalf of the rich . In 1991, he co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a gaggle of mostly liberal Democrats that he chaired for its first eight years, while still refusing to hitch the Democratic Party or caucus.

In 2005, Rolling Stone called Sanders the "amendment king" for his ability to urge more utterance amendments passed than the other congressman during the amount since 1995, when Congress was entirely under Republican control. Being an independent allowed him to make coalitions across party lines.

Banking Reform

In 1999, Sanders voted and advocated against rolling back the Glass–Steagall legislation provisions that kept investment banks and commercial banks separate entities. He was a vocal critic of Federal Reserve System Chair Alan Greenspan; in June 2003, during a question-and-answer discussion, Sanders told him he was concerned that Greenspan was "way out of touch" and "that you see your major function in your position because the got to represent the rich and enormous corporations."

Cancer Registries

Concerned by high carcinoma rates in Vermont, on February 7, 1992, Sanders sponsored the Cancer Registries Amendment Act to determine cancer registries to gather data on cancer. Senator Patrick Leahy introduced a companion bill within the Senate on October 2, 1992. The Senate bill was gone by the House on October 6 and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on United Nations Day, 1992.

Firearms and Criminal Justice

In 1993, Sanders voted against the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks when buying guns and imposed a waiting period on firearm purchasers within the United States; the bill gone by a vote of 238–187. He voted against the bill four more times within the 1990s, explaining his Vermont constituents saw waiting-period mandates as more appropriately a state than federal matter.

Sanders did vote for other gun-control measures. for instance , in 1994, he voted for the Violent Crime Control and enforcement Act "because it included the Violence Against Women Act and therefore the ban on certain assault weapons." He was nevertheless critical of the opposite parts of the bill. Although he acknowledged that "clearly, there are some people in our society who are horribly violent, who are deeply sick and sociopathic, and clearly these people must be put behind bars so as to guard society from them," he maintained that governmental policies played an outsized part in "dooming tens of many children to a way forward for bitterness, misery, hopelessness, drugs, crime, and violence" and argued that the repressive policies introduced by the bill werent addressing the causes of violence, saying, "we can create meaningful jobs, rebuilding our society, or we will build more jails."

Sanders has sometimes favored stronger enforcement and sentencing. In 1996, he voted against a bill that might have prohibited police from purchasing tanks and armored carriers. In 1998, he voted for a bill that might have increased minimum sentencing for possessing a gun while committing a federal crime to 10 years in prison, including nonviolent crimes like marijuana possession.

In 2005, Sanders voted for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. the aim of the act was to stop firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held responsible for negligence when crimes are committed with their products. As of 2016, he said that he has since changed his position and would vote for legislation to defeat this bill.

Opposition to the Patriot Act

Sanders was a uniform critic of the Patriot Act. As a member of Congress, he voted against the first Patriot Act legislation. After its 357–66 passage within the House, he sponsored and voted for several subsequent amendments and acts attempting to curtail its effects and voted against each reauthorization. In June 2005, he proposed an amendment to limit Patriot Act provisions that allow the govt to get individuals library and book-buying records. The amendment passed the House by a bipartisan majority, but was removed on November 4 of that year in House–Senate negotiations and never became law.

Opposition to the War in Iraq

Sanders voted against the resolutions authorizing the utilization of force against Iraq in 1991 and 2002, and he opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He voted for the 2001 Authorization to be used of military unit Against Terrorists that has been cited because the legal justification for controversial military actions since the 9/11 attacks. He voted for a non-binding resolution expressing support for troops at the outset of the invasion of Iraq, but gave a floor speech criticizing the partisan nature of the vote and therefore the Bush administrations actions within the run-up to the war. Regarding the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plames identity by a State Department official, he stated: "The revelation that the President authorized the discharge of classified information so as to discredit an Iraq war critic should tell every member of Congress that the time is now for a significant investigation of how we got into the war in Iraq and why Congress can not act as a rubber stamp for the President."

Trade Policy

In February 2005, Sanders introduced a bill that might have withdrawn the permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status that had been extended to China in October 2000. He said to the House, "Anyone who takes an objective check out our national trading policy with China must conclude that its an absolute failure and wishes to be fundamentally overhauled", citing the American jobs being lost to overseas competitors. His bill received 71 co-sponsors but wasnt sent to the ground for a vote.

U.S. Senate (2007–Present)

Elections

Sanders entered the race for the U.S. Senate on April 21, 2005, after Senator Jim Jeffords announced that he wouldnt seek a fourth term. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, endorsed Sanders, a critical move that meant no Democrat running against him could expect financial help from the party. He was also endorsed by Senate legislator Harry Reid and Democratic National Committee chairman and former Vermont governor Howard Dean. Dean said in May 2005 that he considered Sanders an ally who "votes with the Democrats 98% of the time." Then-Senator Barack Obama also campaigned for him in Vermont in March 2006. Sanders entered into an agreement with the Democratic Party , very much like he had as a congressman, to be listed in their primary but to say no the nomination should he win, which he did.

In the costliest political campaign in Vermonts history, Sanders defeated businessman Rich Tarrant by an almost 2-to-1 margin. Many national media outlets projected him because the winner just after the polls closed, before any returns came in. He was reelected in 2012 with 71% of the vote and in 2018 with 67% of the vote.

Legislation

While a member of Congress, Sanders sponsored 15 concurrent resolutions and 15 Senate resolutions. of these he co-sponsored, 218 became law. While he has consistently advocated for progressive causes, Politico wrote that he has "rarely forged actual legislation or left a big imprint thereon ." consistent with The ny Times, "Big legislation largely eludes Mr. Sanders because his ideas are usually far to the left of the bulk of the Senate… Mr. Sanders has largely found ways to press his agenda through appending small provisions to the larger bills of others." During his time within the Senate, he had lower legislative effectiveness than the typical senator, as measured by the amount of sponsored bills that passed and successful amendments made. Nevertheless, he has sponsored over 500 amendments to bills, many of which became law. The results of those amendments include a ban on imported goods made by child labor; $100 million in funding for community health centers; $10 million for an outreach program for servicemembers affected by posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression, panic attacks, and other mental disorders; a public database of senior Department of Defense officials seeking employment with defense contractors; and including autism treatment within the military healthcare program.

Finance and Monetary Policy

In 2008 and 2009, Sanders voted against the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a program to get toxic banking assets and supply loans to banks that were in free-fall. On February 4, 2009, he sponsored an amendment to make sure that TARP funds wouldnt displace U.S. workers. The amendment passed and was added to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Among his proposed financial reforms is auditing the Federal Reserve System , which might reduce its independence in monetary policy deliberations; Federal Reserve System System officials say that "Audit the Fed" legislation would expose the Federal Reserve to undue political pressure from lawmakers who dont like its decisions.

On December 10, 2010, Sanders delivered an 8+1⁄2–hour speech against the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, which proposed extending the Bush-era tax rates. He argued that the legislation would favor the wealthiest Americans. "Enough is enough!… what percentage homes are you able to own?" he asked. Nevertheless, the bill passed the Senate with a robust majority and was signed into law every week later. In February 2011, Nation Books published the speech because the Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and therefore the Decline of Our bourgeoisie , with authorial proceeds getting to Vermont nonprofit charitable organizations.

In 2016, Sanders voted for the Federal Reserve System Transparency Act, including proposals for a reformed audit of the Federal Reserve System System.

Foreign Policy

On June 12, 2017, U.S. senators agreed to legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia and Iran. The bill was opposed only by Sanders and Republican Rand Paul. He supported the sanctions on Russia, but voted against the bill because he believed the sanctions could endanger the Iran nuclear deal.

In 2018, Sanders sponsored a bill and was joined by Senators Chris Murphy (D–CT) and Mike Lee (R–UT) to invoke the 1973 War Powers Resolution to finish U.S. support for the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, which has resulted in many thousands of civilian casualties and "millions more affected by starvation and disease". After the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 (which was ordered by Saudi prince Mohammad bin Salman, consistent with multiple intelligence agencies), his bill attracted bipartisan co-sponsors and support, and therefore the Senate passed it by a vote of 56–41. The bill passed the House in February 2019 by a 247–175 vote and President Trump vetoed it in March, saying: "This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous plan to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of yank citizens and brave service members, both today and within the future."

Health Care

In mid-December 2009, Sanders successfully added a provision to the Affordable Care Act to fund $11 billion to community health centers, especially those in rural areas. the supply brought together Democrats on the left with Democrats from conservative, rural areas, helping to secure the 60 votes needed for passage. On May 4, 2017, in response to the House vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, he predicted "thousands of usa citizens would die" from not having access to health care. PolitiFact rated his statement "mostly true."

In September 2017, Sanders along side 15 Senate co-sponsors submitted the Medicare for All bill, a single-payer healthcare plan. The bill covers vision and care , unlike Medicare. Some Republicans have called the bill "Berniecare" and "the latest Democratic push for socialized medicine and better taxes." He responded that the Republican Party has no credibility on the difficulty of health care after voting for legislation that might take insurance faraway from 32 million Americans under the Affordable Care Act.

As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, Sanders has introduced legislation to reauthorize and strengthen the Older Americans Act, which supports Meals on Wheels and other programs for seniors.

Immigration Policy

In 2007, Sanders helped kill a bill introducing comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that its guest-worker program would depress wages for American workers. In 2010, he supported the DREAM Act, which might have provided a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who had been delivered to the us as minors. In 2013, he supported the Gang of Eights comprehensive immigration reform bill after securing a $1.5 billion youth jobs program provision, which he argued would offset the harm of market competition with immigrants.

Income and Wealth Distribution

In April 2017, Sanders introduced a bill that might raise the wage for federal contract workers to $15 an hour, a rise over an earlier Democratic $12 an hour proposal. On May 9, 2018, he introduced the Workplace Democracy Act, a bill that might expand labor rights by making it easier for workers to hitch a union, ban right-to-work laws and a few anti-union provisions of the Taft–Hartley Act, and outlaw some union-busting tactics. Announcing the legislation, he said, "If we are serious about reducing income and wealth inequality and rebuilding the center class, weve need to substantially increase the amount of union jobs during this country."

Sanders opposed the 2018 us federal budget proposed by the Trump administration, calling it "a allow the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, and for the wealthiest people during this country… nothing but a huge transfer of wealth from working families, the elderly, children, the sick and therefore the poor to the highest 1%."

After the November 2017 revelations from the Paradise Papers and a recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies which says just three people (Jeff Bezos, Gates , and Warren Buffett) own more wealth than rock bottom half the U.S. population, Sanders stated that "we must end global oligarchy" which "we need, within the us and throughout the planet , a legal system which is fair, progressive and transparent."

On September 5, 2018, Sanders partnered with Ro Khanna to introduce the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act, which might require large corporations to buy the food stamps and Medicaid benefits that their employees receive, relieving the burden on taxpayers.

Veterans Affairs

On June 9, 2014, Sanders sponsored the Veterans Access to worry through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014 to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs within the wake of the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014. He worked with Senator John McCain, who co-sponsored the bill. His bill was incorporated into the House version of the bill, which passed both chambers on July 31, 2014, and was signed into law by President Obama on August 7, 2014.

Supreme Court Nominees

On St Patricks Day, 2016, Sanders said he would support Merrick Garlands nomination to the Supreme Court, though he added, "there are some more progressive judges out there." He opposed Neil Gorsuchs nomination to the Court, saying that Gorsuch had "refused to answer legitimate questions." He also objected to Senate Republicans using the nuclear choice to "choke off debate and ram the nomination through the Senate." He voted against Gorsuchs confirmation as an associate justice.

Committee Assignments

As an independent, Sanders figured out a affect the Senate Democratic leadership during which he agreed to vote with the Democrats on all procedural matters unless the Democratic whip, Dick Durbin, agreed that he neednt (a request rarely made or granted). reciprocally he was allowed to stay his seniority and received the committee seats that might are available to him as a Democrat; in 2013–14 he was chairman of the us Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs (during the Veterans Health Administration scandal).

Sanders became the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee in 2015 and therefore the chair in 2021; he previously chaired the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee for 2 years. Since 2017, he has been chair of the Senate Democratic Outreach Committee. He appointed economics professor Stephanie Kelton, a contemporary monetary theory scholar, because the chief economic adviser for the committees Democratic minority and presented a report about helping "rebuild the disappearing middle class" that included proposals to boost the wage , boost infrastructure spending, and increase Social Security payments.