The Week in Review

The National Security Agency has overstepped its legal authority, according to an audit cited in published reports on Friday. “We have got to do everything we can to combat terrorism and protect the American people,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said on The Thom Hartmann Program, but he renewed his call for legislation to limit surveillance to cases when intelligence and law enforcement authorities have specific reasons to be suspicious of someone. Around the world, it was a week of bloodshed in Egypt as government security forces cracked down on demonstrations loyal to the elected leader deposed by the military. In this country, Sanders applauded students who gathered petitions from people all over Vermont supporting legislation to require labels on food made from genetically engineered ingredients. He pressed the case for modernizing the Postal Service instead of cutting services. And in a Monday op-ed written with Sen. Elizabeth Warren for The Huffington Post, Sanders and weighed into the debate over the Federal Reserve’s role in restoring full employment.

NSA Domestic Spying The Washington Post broke the story on National Security Agency infractions based on top-secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The violations, many of them accidental, mostly involved unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States. Both are restricted by law and executive order. Sanders has introduced the Restore Our Privacy Act to put strict limits on sweeping powers used by the NSA and Federal Bureau of Investigation to secretly track telephone calls by millions of innocent Americans who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. "We must give our intelligence and law enforcement agencies all of the tools that they need to combat terrorism but we must do so in a way that protects our freedom and respects the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches," Sanders said. Sign a petition supporting Sanders’ bill»

Bloodbath in Egypt Dozens of people were reportedly killed in renewed clashes on Friday as thousands of followers of the embattled Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets of Cairo and other cities facing police officers authorized to use lethal force if threatened. President Obama announced Thursday that the United States had canceled joint military exercises with Egypt in the wake of a crackdown on Wednesday by security forces left 640 people dead. Obama asked his staff to “reassess” U.S. aid to Egypt, but he held back from actually reducing or canceling the $1.3 billion in annual aid, much of which goes to the military.

Food Labels Vermont Public Interest Research Group organizers on Thursday celebrated the largest-ever summer outreach campaign. VPIRG canvassers went door-to-door in cities, towns and villages throughout Vermont and collected about 30,000 signatures in support of legislation to require labels on food that contain genetically modified organisms. Sanders, who introduced legislation in Washington to make it clear that states have the right to require GMO food labels, spoke to the volunteers outside the Statehouse in Montpelier. “The truth of matter is that labeling of GMOs is not radical concept. It's done throughout Europe and dozens and dozens of countries throughout world, so if people tell you it can't be done – it's too complicated – they're not telling you the truth,” the senator said. Watch a report on WPTZ-TV »

USPS The Postal Service would have posted a profit for last quarter without the "unnecessary burden" imposed during the Bush administration that it must sock away more than $5 billion a year in a fund that already has more than enough set aside to pay for future retirees’ health care, Sen. Sanders told Ed Schultz on Thursday. Listen to the interview»

The Fed As President Obama weighs a replacement for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Sens. Sanders and Elizabeth Warren said the next central banker must address whether the Fed’s top priority is meeting its full-employment mandate, whether to break up “too-big-to-fail” banks, whether the deregulation of Wall Street contributed to the recession and whether $2 trillion that financial institutions have parked at the Fed should be used to help small- and medium-size businesses create jobs. Read the column for The Huffington Post »

Vermont Students Head to Pine Ridge Reservation Seven students and a teacher from Mt. Mansfield Union High School in Jericho, Vt., are leaving on Saturday for a trip to one of the poorest counties in the United States. Their goal is to help the Oglala Lakota Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Working with a non-profit organization, the Vermont students will spend several days learning about the history and people of the South Dakota Black Hills. Senior Ana Wright said she wanted to make the trip because these families “are living in terrible conditions” and “we should definitely help them because no one should be living like this.” Sanders praised the students for their willingness to confront such challenges. Read a Vt. Bernie Buzz article »