Here's where we are: Republicans have shut down the government. Why? They won't negotiate. They want to pass a bill that will allow the Trump administration to throw 15 million Americans off their health care & double premiums for 20 million Americans. We won't let them. -- Senator Bernie Sanders is the senior senator from Vermont. He is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history and the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).