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{"id":27626,"date":"2026-10-26T09:04:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T09:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-sanders-could-soon-get-a-senate-bully-pulpit\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T09:04:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T09:04:50","slug":"capitol-agenda-sanders-could-soon-get-a-senate-bully-pulpit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-sanders-could-soon-get-a-senate-bully-pulpit\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Sanders could soon get a Senate bully pulpit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Bernie Sanders is already the most prominent voice on the American left. Now he\u2019s on the brink of getting a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/26\/bernie-sanders-help-chairman-01134518\" target=\"_blank\"><u>powerful perch to do something about it<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders is poised to lead Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions if Democrats flip the chamber next week \u2014 a chance to push the party further left and shape the next presidential contest in which he\u2019s signaled he\u2019s unlikely to be a candidate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I have anything to say about it \u2026 the agenda of the Democratic Party is going to be extremely bold,\u201d the 85-year-old independent said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to do what the American people want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sanders\u2019 term runs through 2030, and with President Donald Trump in the White House for at least two more years, it\u2019s unlikely many of his sweeping legislative dreams will be fulfilled anytime soon. But with a role atop the health panel, Sanders could leverage any Trump veto of his legislation along with his own oversight powers to paint the party\u2019s priorities for voters heading into 2028.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s already signaling he would make a \u201cMedicare for All\u201d universal health plan <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenSanders\/status\/2111517604678639820?s=20\" target=\"_blank\"><u>a signature push<\/u><\/a> next year.<\/p>\n<p>As for labor matters, Sanders has said he would try to raise the minimum wage, advance legislation that would expand employees\u2019 ability to unionize and also protect workers from artificial-intelligence-driven job loss.<\/p>\n<p>On education, Sanders has called to make four-year public college tuition-free and to raise teacher pay.<\/p>\n<p>During his first round with the HELP gavel in 2023 and 2024, Sanders\u2019 legislative plans were stymied by a GOP-controlled House and more moderate Democratic colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>But the Senate Democratic Caucus and the party writ large have moved closer toward Sanders since then, and several of the Senate\u2019s 2028 White House hopefuls are from the left.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders may also find himself with a GOP counterpart more willing to play ball to hold administration officials accountable. Sen. Lisa Murkowski \u2014 who has raised concerns about Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. \u2014 could become the top Republican on HELP if Sen. Rand Paul continues to lead Homeland Security.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Geevarghese \u2014 the executive director of Our Revolution, which Sanders founded but is now an independent organization \u2014 added that a Chair Sanders \u201cwould put the affordability crisis at the center of what an opposition party should be doing\u201d while extracting concessions from the Trump administration for working families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn that sense, he could become the party\u2019s de facto leader,\u201d Geevarghese added.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 DEMS PLAN TRUMP TARGET FOR EPSTEIN PROBE \u2014\u00a0<\/b>House Democrats are making increasingly clear <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/10\/26\/congress\/new-epstein-report-01135138\" target=\"_blank\"><u>they have no plans to abandon<\/u><\/a> their line of inquiry into whether Trump was involved in Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking ring, should they retake the majority in the midterms. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/f\/?id=000001a1-7412-db5d-a7fb-f71f5f490002\" target=\"_blank\"><u>new report<\/u><\/a>, titled \u201cThe Case Against Donald Trump Emerging in the Epstein Files and DOJ\u2019s Desperate Efforts to Cover It Up,\u201d lists five women who have accused Trump \u201cof raping or sexually assaulting them\u201d in the company of Epstein.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 BLANCHE ON ALASKA: \u2018THERE COULD BE A CRIME\u2019<\/b> \u2014 Attorney General Todd Blanche <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/25\/blanche-alaska-lawsuit-could-be-crime-01134861\" target=\"_blank\"><u>defended the newly filed lawsuit<\/u><\/a> to prevent Alaska state officials from certifying November\u2019s election results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. In a Sunday BLN interview, host Dana Bash asked what crime the administration was arguing was being committed, Blanche replied, \u201cIt depends.\u201d \u201cThere could be a crime,\u201d said Blanche. \u201cBut the real wrong here is that Alaskans are going to be confused and will not have their vote heard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Jordain Carney, Chris Marquette, Cheyanne M. Daniels contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bernie Sanders is already the most prominent voice on the American left. Now he\u2019s on the brink of getting a powerful perch to do something about it. Sanders is poised to lead Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions if Democrats flip the chamber next week \u2014 a chance to push the party further left and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}