Vermont Update
As I work on the important issues facing our country, I am often reminded that while our state may be one of the smallest, our actions and principles have, in many ways, set an example for the nation. Together, we must continue our fight to make sure the economy works for all Americans and not just the top 1 percent. This newsletter includes just a few of the issues I am working on in Washington that will have an impact on life here in Vermont.
View the 2016 newsletter here.
This fall, Krysta Gingue, 20, became a junior at the University of New Hampshire. The Lyndonville, Vermont, college student credits Upward Bound for helping her get there. “I can absolutely say that it is the best thing that has happened, academically and socially, in my life,” she said. Gingue, who is a first-generation college student, was one of hundreds of students who gathered in Castleton this summer to recognize what they have been able to achieve, thanks to Upward Bound.
Read more here.
Bernie helped lead a 15-year effort to create the National Housing Trust Fund, which is based on the success of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Trust Fund. Vermont is slated to receive $3 million from the fund. Vermont’s share is part of $174 million that is being dispersed nationally to build, preserve, and rehabilitate affordable rental housing. “Since my time as mayor of Burlington, increasing the availability of affordable housing in Vermont has been one of my top priorities,” Bernie said. “After 15 years of fighting for the National Housing Trust Fund, I am very pleased to see all 50 states receive funds to provide housing for people who are most in need.”
Read more in the Burlington Free Press
The Department of Health and Human Services awarded $5.5 million to six community health centers in Vermont. The health centers will use the funds to renovate facilities, increase patient capacity and expand primary care services. The funding comes from the Health Center Trust Fund, which was created by a provision Bernie included in the Affordable Care Act that provides $11 billion for community health centers across the United States.
In 2006, fewer than 10 percent of Vermont residents received their health care at Federally Qualified Health Centers. This year, roughly 1 in 4 Vermonters -- more than 150,000 people -- will receive affordable primary medical, oral and mental health care services and low-cost prescription drugs at more than 50 sites across the state.
Read more in the Rutland Herald
Passenger trains stopped running to Burlington in 1953. A $10 million federal grant will now be deployed to complete rail upgrades between Burlington and Rutland, reestablishing rail service between Vermont’s largest city and New York. “This is a day Burlington has been waiting a long time for. This funding will help not only take us back to a time when passenger rail extended to Burlington, but more importantly, it will take us into the future,” Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg said. The rail service should be complete by 2020, the Burlington Free Press writes.
Read more in the Burlington Free Press
A filibuster delivered by Bernie more than five years ago is giving the Addison County Parent/Child Center a boost. On Dec. 10, 2010, Bernie “took to the podium in the U.S. Senate chambers and launched into an eight-and-a-half-hour filibuster decrying the preservation of the Bush-era tax cuts for the highest wage-earners,” the Addison County Independent writes. Bernie declined any profits associated with the book, “The Speech,” made from the filibuster. Instead, Bernie donated the proceeds to the Addison County Parent/Child Center. So far, nearly $50,000 has been generated for the Vermont charity. “The first few years of a child’s life are incredibly important. I am glad, through these donations, that I have been able to help strengthen an organization that does so much for Vermont families,” Bernie said.
Upward Bound, which is one of the U.S. Education Department’s eight TRIO programs, guides low-income families and first-generation college students through the complex process of seeking financial assistance and applying to college. “I very much wish that when I was your age there was a program like TRIO,” Bernie said. “This whole process of trying to figure out what college to go to and how to pay for it was, for me, very, very difficult.”
