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The Week in Review

America changed. A throng of up to 2 million jubilant people braved frigid temperatures as they gathered Tuesday on the National Mall to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama. By week’s end, the Senate had confirmed most of the new president’s cabinet nominees, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Throughout the week, both houses of Congress ramped up work on an economic recovery package. “There is a real sense on the part of the American people about how we have got to go forward in the midst of the greatest financial crisis that this country has experienced since the Great Depression,” Sanders said.

Inauguration Day As Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, he promised to “begin again the work of remaking America.” Obama recited the oath with his hand on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used at his inauguration 148 years ago. (He did it a second time the next day at the White House because Chief Justice Roberts muffed the oath the first time). “From where I sat on the inaugural platform, the mass of people stretched further than the eye could see.  The hope I saw in the eyes of people was very exciting,” Sanders said afterward. “With the first African-American being sworn in as president, America has come a very long way since Vermont became the first state to outlaw slavery.  Today was an affirmation of the promise and potential of our country, for if the son of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother could become president, what can’t our nation accomplish? What crises can’t we solve?” To watch the senator’s reaction to the ceremony, click here.

Economic Recovery “The challenge now is to keep this country from going from a deep recession into a depression,” Sanders told Thom Hartmann on Friday on Air America Radio. “Our country is in crisis,” he added. “People are losing their jobs and losing their health care.” The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose last week to a 26-year high, according to a government report released Thursday. The Labor Department said that initial filings for state jobless benefits rose 62,000 to 589,000 for the week ended Jan. 17. To read the depressing details, click here.

Health Centers “As Congress and the new administration take on both our economic and health care crises, putting significantly more resources into community health centers would be a smart way to save money, create jobs and help millions of Americans stay healthy,” Senator Sanders and Rep. Jim Clyburn wrote in an op-ed published by Politico. To read the column, click here.

Civil Rights The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to undo a Supreme Court ruling that made it much harder for people to challenge discrimination in employment, education and housing. “This is a struggle that has gone on for decades. We are making some progress, but we have a long way to go,” Senator Bernie Sanders said in a Senate floor speech. “It is imperative that we pass the Ledbetter legislation.” Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at a Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden, Ala. She discovered near the end of an almost 20-year career that she had been paid less than all 16 men, including some with less seniority, at the same management level at the same plant.  The court ruled that she waited too long to complain. To read Sen. Sanders’ statement in the Congressional Record on the legislation, click here. To read the Supreme Court decision and Justice Ginsburg’s dissent in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., click here.