Bernard Sanders

📞 (202) 224-5141

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Key Figures

The Senate defeated Sen. Bernie Sanders's joint resolutions to block $446.8 million in US arms sales to Israel, voting 40-59 against the first measure covering $295 million in Caterpillar D9R and D9T bulldozers and 36-63 against the second covering $151.8 million in 1,000-pound gravity bombs. Forty of 47 Senate Democrats voted for the bulldozer measure, the highest Democratic support ever recorded for blocking Israel arms sales, but seven Democrats including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer voted with Republicans. Sanders filed the disapproval resolutions under the Arms Export Control Act.

President Biden signs legislation imposing a labor agreement on freight railroad workers after four of twelve unions rejected the White House-brokered contract due to the lack of paid sick leave. The bill, which passed the Senate 80-15 and the House on near-party-line votes, invokes the 1926 Railway Labor Act to force workers to accept the contract and prevents a strike that Biden says would cost 765,000 jobs and $2 billion per day. The Senate separately votes 52-43 to add seven days of paid sick leave, failing to reach the 60-vote threshold needed for passage. Rail unions condemn Biden for blocking their strike right despite his "most pro-union president" label. The East Palestine, Ohio train derailment occurs two months later.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announces on Fox News Sunday that he will vote no on the Build Back Better Act, Biden's $1.75 trillion social safety net and climate package, citing concerns about inflation and adding to the national debt. His announcement collapses months of negotiations and kills Biden's most ambitious domestic agenda item. The bill would have funded universal pre-K, expanded Medicare to cover hearing, created new housing vouchers, and invested $555 billion in climate programs. Progressive Democrats express fury. Biden issues a statement expressing "disappointment." Many of BBB's individual provisions eventually pass piecemeal in the Inflation Reduction Act months later.

Congress passes S.J.Res.7, a war powers resolution directing President Trump to end U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen, by 54-46 in the Senate and 247-175 in the House. The historic vote marks the first time Congress has successfully invoked the War Powers Resolution to end an unauthorized military operation. Trump vetoes the measure on April 16, 2019, and Congress fails to override the veto.