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For Immediate Release
March, 11 2021, 11:00pm EDT
Thursday March, 11 2021, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Chairman Sanders Announces Senate Budget Hearing on the Income and Wealth Inequality Crisis in America
Worker from Amazon warehouse in bessemer to testify, Bezos invited to appear.
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today announced that on Wednesday, March 17, the Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing on income and wealth inequality in America.
Millions of Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work, while hunger in the country is at the highest level in decades. During the coronavirus pandemic, 63 percent of workers are living paycheck to paycheck, including millions of essential workers who put their lives on the line every day.
Meanwhile, the wealthiest people in the country are becoming much richer, and income and wealth inequality are soaring. Incredibly, during the pandemic, 664 billionaires in America have increased their wealth by $1.3 trillion. Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world, owns more wealth than the bottom 39% of Americans combined.
Mr. Bezos, who was invited by Chairman Sanders to appear at Wednesday’s hearing, is currently engaged in an aggressive union-busting campaign against Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama to stop them from collectively bargaining for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. Jennifer Bates, an Amazon worker at the fulfillment center in Alabama, will provide testimony during the hearing.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, along with other experts, will also speak to the committee.
The hearing, entitled “The Income and Wealth Inequality Crisis in America,” will be livestreamed on the Budget Committee’s website and Sanders’ social media pages.
What: Hearing of the Committee on the Budget to consider “The Income and Wealth Inequality Crisis in America”
When: Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 11:00 AM
Where: Room SH-216.
Who:
Jennifer Bates, Amazon worker at the Bessemer, Alabama fulfillment center
Robert Reich, Carmel P. Friesen’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley
Sarah Anderson, Director, Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.
Scott Winship, Director of Poverty Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Additional witnesses to be determined.
By order of Chairman Bernie Sanders.
LATEST NEWS
Calls to Boycott Disney Explode After ABC Submits to FCC Threats by Ousting Jimmy Kimmel
“You can... send a message to ABC/Disney that we won’t stand for cowardice and corruption,” said progressive organization Indivisible.
Sep 19, 2025
Disney is facing increased boycott calls over its decision to suspend ABC talk show host Jimmy Kimmel after being threatened by the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Progressive advocacy organization Indivisible on Friday encouraged all supporters to cancel their subscriptions to Disney-owned TV streaming services, such as Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu.
Indivisible also recommended that supporters send messages directly to Disney and ABC letting them know their displeasure with their decision to cave under threats from the Trump administration.
"You can... send a message to ABC/Disney that we won’t stand for cowardice and corruption," they said. "If you’re canceling Disney services, postponing a vacation to a Disney theme park, or taking some other action in response to their corporate cravenness, be sure to let them know."
Indivisible is circulating a petition lobbying congressional Democrats to launch an investigation into Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr's pressure campaign to get ABC to take Kimmel off the air.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Thursday filed a motion to to subpoena Carr to testify about his efforts to get Kimmel suspended, although this was voted down by congressional Republicans shortly afterward. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, also said on Thursday that he was opening an investigation into the potential financial aspects of Carr’s pressure campaign on ABC.
50501: The People's Movement echoed Indivisible's call to boycott Disney and shared a document letting supporters know all the ways they could send Disney a message.
While much of 50501's recommendations were similar to Indivisible's, the group also pointed to the role played by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is ABC's largest affiliate, in pushing to get Kimmel off the air.
"Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group own the largest number of local ABC affiliates," 50501 noted. "Nexstar is currently seeking approval from the FCC for business deals. You know who else is seeking approval, ESPN to buy the NFL Network. In other words these media giants have every incentive to bend the knee to authoritarian pressure coming from the FCC and the administration to get their deals across the finish line."
Progressive organizations weren't the only ones calling out Disney on Friday, as former Disney CEO Michael Eisner took to social media platform X to castigate American business, legal, and academic elites for folding in the face of government pressure.
"Where has all the leadership gone?" he asked rhetorically. "If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners, and corporate chief executives standing up against bullies, who then will step up for the First Amendment?"
He then turned his attention specifically to the Kimmel case.
"The 'suspending indefinitely' of Jimmy Kimmel immediately after the chairman of the FCC's aggressive yet hollow threatening of the Disney Company is yet another example of out-of-control intimidation," he said. "Maybe the Constitution should have said, 'Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, except in one’s political or financial self-interest.'"
‘What It Looks Like When ICE Violates’ First Amendment: Candidate Kat Abughazaleh Thrown to Ground
“What ICE just did to me was a violent abuse of power—and it’s still nothing compared to what they’re doing to immigrant communities,” said the Illinois congressional candidate.
Sep 19, 2025
Protests at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Chicago continued on Friday, with ICE and Border Patrol agents tear-gassing, pepper-spraying, and detaining demonstrators—and even throwing congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh to the ground.
“This is what it looks like when ICE violates our First Amendment rights,” Abughazaleh wrote on social media alongside two videos of the incident at the facility in Broadview, Illinois—which is key to ICE’s deadly “Operation Midway Blitz,” launched earlier this month as part of US President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
"What ICE just did to me was a violent abuse of power—and it's still nothing compared to what they're doing to immigrant communities. I've been fighting the right as a journalist and now I'm running for Congress to do the same in DC," said Abughazaleh, a former producer at Media Matters for America and one of several Democrats in the 2026 race to represent Illinois' 9th Congressional District.
"They weren’t showing their faces and almost none had visible badge numbers. There will likely never be any real accountability for the agent who grabbed me and threw me to the ground but we can have accountability for Trump and Tom Homan," she added, referring to the president's border czar. "And that’s why I’m running for office."
In a phone interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, the 26-year-old said ICE agents threw her to the ground twice:
“I wasn’t surprised, and that’s part of why we’re here,” Abughazaleh said. “Everyone here is at least a little bit scared, but mostly I’m angry and we need to get the facility shut down.”
ICE agents used tear gas and shot pepper balls, she said—some of which hit her legs—around 6:00 am, while shouting “your First Amendment rights are on the sidewalk.”
She anticipates a “nasty” bruise on her right side.
“It’s more important than ever to stand with our neighbors, if not just for their basic human dignity,” Abughazaleh said. “I’m not here as a candidate, I’m here as an individual.”
The newspaper noted that "ICE did not respond immediately to specific questions about Abughazaleh, the use of nonlethal chemical agents, and the status of the protesters allegedly arrested during the clash."
Abughazaleh used the incident to create a contrast between herself and some other candidates also hoping to replace Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, an 81-year-old who announced in May that she would not seek reelection.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, another candidate in Democrats' crowded primary race for the 9th District, also joined the protest in Broadview on Friday. He told Block Club Chicago that “I’ve seen shocking violence.”
“I mean, throwing people to the ground, pepper balls, tear gas... It seems gratuitous, right? They’re trying to intimidate. They’ve got guys up there on the roof with cameras," he added. “They’re trying to remind people that this is an administration that names and then targets its political enemies for physical and economic violence.”
Chicago Ald. Andre Vasquez (D-40) and Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton—a Democrat running to replace retiring US Sen. Dick Durbin—were also at the ICE facility on Friday.
Asked about agents' violence toward protesters, Stratton told reporters that "people are here to peacefully protest. Look what we've been seeing over the last several weeks right here in Chicago: people being snatched off the streets, stuffed into unmarked vans, and with no due process."
"We are seeing the Constitution being stomped upon, and just this week, again, attacks on First Amendment rights—and all of us need to be speaking with moral clarity and saying this is not right," she added. "So I'm here to stand with Illinoisans who are protesting peacefully and make sure that I let them know that I stand with them."
Organizers intend to continue demonstrating as long as the ICE operation continues in Chicago and its suburbs. In a statement ahead of Friday's action, protester Britt Hodgdon stressed that “ICE doesn’t make me or my community safer.”
“If exercising my right to free speech gets me tear-gassed, then I’m not safe," Hodgdon continued. "If my neighbors go missing into a deportation system where their families can’t find out where they’ve been taken, then my neighborhood is not safe. If there are ICE agents all over my city and they’re willing to shoot and kill someone who tries to get away from them—as they did in murdering Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez—then none of us are safe.”
Senate Dems, Sanders Call for US Recognition of Palestinian Statehood
“The goal of a Palestinian state can’t be put off any longer if we want the next generation to avoid suffering from the same insecurity and affliction,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley.
Sep 19, 2025
As some of the United States’ closest allies join most of the world’s nations in officially recognizing Palestinian statehood amid Israel’s worsening genocide and famine in Gaza, US Sen. Jeff Merkley and seven colleagues on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to follow suit.
The senators introduced a nonbinding resolution calling on the president “to recognize a demilitarized state of Palestine, as consistent with international law and the principles of a two-state solution, alongside a secure state of Israel.”
The resolution—which is cosponsored by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)—repeatedly mentions Hamas "terrorism" while ignoring the alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes for which fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The resolution's demands are "first, an immediate ceasefire, return of all hostages, and influx of aid. But then, a foundation for peace and prosperity for the future—and the only viable path for that is two states for two peoples," said Merkley, who was the first senator to back a Gaza ceasefire.
"The goal of a Palestinian state can’t be put off any longer if we want the next generation to avoid suffering from the same insecurity and affliction," Merkley added.
I’m leading the first-ever Senate resolution in support of Palestinian statehood. There is only one pathway that builds security, peace, and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. That path is two states for two peoples.
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— Senator Jeff Merkley (@merkley.senate.gov) September 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Van Hollen—who has been one of the Senate's strongest critics of US complicity in Israel's obliteration of Gaza and even tried to visit the strip with Merkley last month—said, "The most viable way to create some light at the end of the very dark tunnel in the Middle East, and assure security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians alike, is a two-state solution."
"Given that the Netanyahu government has obstructed that goal and the Trump administration has abandoned it, the Congress must make its position clear," he added.
Kaine said: "The US supported a historic United Nations resolution in 1947 to establish two states—Israel and Palestine. After nearly 80 years, the world has only kept one of those two promises and the lack of progress toward Palestinian autonomy has been a source of continuing tension in the region."
"Since July 2024 when the Israeli Knesset voted to deny a path to Palestinian statehood and made clear that Israel would not accept Palestinian autonomy, I have believed the US should no longer condition recognition on Israeli assent but rather on Palestinian willingness to live in peace with its neighbors," he added.
Approximately 150 of the UN’s 193 member states have officially recognized Palestine. Since October 2023, countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and Spain have either recognized Palestine or announced their intent to do so.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have openly boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood. The prime minister has made clear his intention for Israel to control "from the river to the sea"—meaning all of Palestine—as envisioned in the founding platform of his Likud party.
Last month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—who, like many of his far-right compatriots, denies the very existence of the Palestinian people—proposed another expansion of Israel's illegal settler colonization of the occupied West Bank, asserting that the construction of thousands of new apartheid homes "buries the idea of a Palestinian state."
Netanyahu signed the proposal last week, declaring that "there will be no Palestinian state"—a position shared by all 15 Likud ministers, who want the prime minister to annex the entire West Bank by year's end.
Smotrich is also among the Israeli officials who favor annexing Gaza, ethnically cleansing its Palestinian population, and opening the strip for Israeli colonization. Trump, meanwhile, has proposed US control of Gaza and transformation of its Mediterranean coast into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Lawmakers in Israel's Knesset, or Parliament, have also worked to block progress toward a two-state solution. In July, they hosted a conference titled "The Gaza Riviera–From Vision to Reality" advocating the conquest of Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in order to make the strip what Smotrich called "an inseparable part of Israel."
Critics allege that the ultimate goal of some Israeli leaders is the realization of a so-called "Greater Israel" stretching from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq.
The senators' resolution comes as more and more congressional Democrats accuse Israel of genocide, and reflects the wishes of a majority of Americans, according to recent polling.
On Wednesday, Sanders became the first upper chamber lawmaker to say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza following the publication of a United Nations commission report that reached the same conclusion. Israel is currently facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice launched by South Africa and backed by around two dozen countries.
However, on the whole, the US government—which provides Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid and diplomatic support—continues to back Israel. On Thursday, the US for the sixth time vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire and release of all hostages held by Hamas.
This, as Israeli forces intensified their bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza City during Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign of conquest, occupation, and ethnic cleansing that aims to leave Israel fully in control of the strip.
Israeli forces killed dozens more Palestinians on Friday, the 714th day of a genocide that's left more than 240,000 Gazans dead, maimed, or missing and hundreds of thousands more starving, with no end in sight.
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