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Senator Bernie Sanders, Congressman Peter Welch and a representative of Senator Patrick Leahy announced today the release of $39 million in economic stimulus funds during a press conference at the St. Albans Bay Village Pavilion.The grants and low-interest loans, to be distributed through the Environmental Protection Agency, will go to 41 wastewater clean-up projects and 42 drinking water projects throughout Vermont. The funds, which were made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will help municipalities finance overdue improvements to wastewater and clean drinking water projects essential to protecting public health and the environment, while creating new jobs in Vermont.

Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance program would receive several hundred million dollarsAn energy efficiency program authored by Rep. Peter Welch receives significant funding in a new draft of the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act of 2009, H.R. 2454.The historic climate change and energy bill, which is being considered this week by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, on which Welch serves, would distribute a portion of the funds raised through the sale of cap and trade emissions allowances to Welch's Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) program, a retrofit incentive for homes and commercial buildings. Fully 10 percent of global carbon emissions are emitted by homes and buildings in the United States.

With Rep. Peter Welch's support, the House passed an amended version of the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Wednesday and sent it to President Obama for signature.Welch is a cosponsor of the bill, H.R. 627, which passed on a vote of 361 to 64.H.R. 627 provides basic fairness to credit cardholders and common sense regulation long resisted by card issuers. The bill protects consumers from arbitrary interest rate increases, double-cycle billing and due-date gimmicks. It empowers cardholders to set limits on their credit and requires card companies to fairly allocate payments.

Rep. Peter Welch delivered the following commencement speech at Green Mountain College's graduation exercises Saturday, May 16:Good morning. Thank you, President Fonteyn for your kind introduction and your gracious invitation. Members of the board of trustees, faculty members, parents, students, community members and - most importantly - graduates: thank you for being here and thank you for hosting me.Click here to read the speech in full.