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Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Youth Jobs Act that would create 400,000 new jobs scored a major victory in the Senate when it was passed as part of the Border Surge amendment.

Sen. Sanders said, “At a time when real unemployment is close to 14 percent and even higher among young people and minorities, it is absolutely imperative that we create millions of decent-paying jobs in our country.”

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The Sanders plan would provide $1.5 billion over two years for states and local communities to help find summertime and year-round jobs for more than 400,000 16- to 24-year-olds.

The Sanders Youth Jobs Plan is designed to balance out a provision in the immigration bill that would allow students from colleges other countries, and other guest workers to take American jobs. As Sen. Sanders said, “Today the J-1 program has morphed into a low-wage jobs program to allow corporations like Hershey’s and McDonald’s and many others to replace young American workers with cheaper labor from abroad.”

We have been following the progress of the Youth Jobs Act, since Sen. Sanders introduced it. With each hurdle that the legislation overcomes, Sen. Sanders is showing that he is not only an effective voice for the voiceless, but also an effective legislator.

The Youth Jobs Plan is based on both the stimulus and the American Jobs Act, and it may be the first piece of real job creation legislation to come out of the Senate since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was passed early in President Obama’s first term. The American Jobs Act was killed by Republicans who didn’t not want to give President Obama a win before the 2012 election, so it is ironic that some of these same Republicans are desperate for a win on immigration would help to pass an amendment that is modeled after legislation that they claimed to despise.

Immigration reform and the Youth Jobs Plan may meet an untimely demise at the hands of the sociopathic institutional dysfunction that has gripped the House, but today by a margin of 67-27, the Senate advanced a bit of jobs legislation that could help 400,000 people.

It is moment that reminds us what government can do when it is functioning properly. The fact that the Youth Jobs Plan cleared this hurdle should give us hope that the darkness of partisan gridlock and dysfunction may someday come to an end, and our government will one day return to putting people first. If this ever happens, much of the credit should go to the few members of the House and Senate, like Bernie Sanders who have never stopped fighting for the real America that doesn’t have billions of dollars, superPACs, or lobbyists at their disposal.