• Bernie Sanders is the junior U.S. Senator from Vermont. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and Sanders are the only two Senators unaffiliated with either major party.

  On March 3, 2009, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke at a hearing in front of the Senate Budget Committee, Sanders demanded that the central bank publicly disclose the names of financial institutions which have borrowed from the federal government. Sanders introduced legislation which would mandate the central bank to publicly disclose the information and called it "unacceptable" for the government to risk public tax dollars without revealing the banks.Rueters: U.S. senator wants Fed to name loan recipients

• 1. Born: September 8, 1941
  2. Birthplace: New York, New York
  3. Alma Mater: University of Chicago
  4. Spouse: Jane O'Meara
  5. Assumed office: January 3, 2007
  6. Preceded by: Jim Jeffords
  7. First and only self-professed Socialist in the Senate
  8. Caucuses with the Democrats

• Early Life

  Sanders was born and raised in Brooklyn, and after graduating from the University of Chicago in 1964, moved to Vermont. He first became involved in politics with the Liberty Union Party, a political party formed in opposition to the Vietnam War that describes itself as a nonviolent Socialist party.

• National Elective Office

  In 1981, Sanders ran for Mayor of Burlington and won the election by 12 votes. In 1990, Sanders ran for Vermont's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and in an upset, defeated incumbent Peter P. Smith. In 2006, Sanders ran for the Senate seat vacated by Jim Jeffords and won. Despite being an independent, the Democratic Party typically has not funded candidates who run against Sanders since the mid-1990s. Sanders caucuses with the Democrats and votes with them most of the time.

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