Where The Rubber Meets The Road (9/28)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week.

(I’d better make these writeups short if I hope to publish today – Blogger is being particularly cranky at this moment.)

House

Voter ID. The House passed, 228-196, and sent to the Senate a bill to require photo identification as a condition of voting in federal elections starting in 2008. The bill (HR 4844) also requires that by 2010, voters must show proof of citizenship along with their photos.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), H. James Saxton (R., N.J.), Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.) and Curt Weldon (R., Pa.).

Voting no: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.) and Allyson Schwartz (D., Pa.).

If the Repugs really cared about the integrity of our elections, they’d do everything they could to make sure that our voting machines don’t get hacked instead of passing this farce of a bill (which, so far, isn’t standing up to court challenges anyway).

Border tunnels. The House passed, 422-0, and sent to the Senate a bill to require up to 20 years in prison for people convicted of building tunnels for illegal entry into the United States. The bill (HR 4830) also mandates up to 10 years in prison for property owners convicted of authorizing such tunnels on their land.

All Philadelphia-area representatives voted for the bill.

It’s a shame that they didn’t pass a bill mandating 20 years in prison for individuals working for companies that hire these people without doing their due diligence, isn’t it (oh, but we can even think of something like that, because it’s class warfare, right?).

9/11 Commission. Members blocked, 225-195, a Democratic bid for a vote on their bill to enact every 9/11 Commission proposal for securing the United States' international borders. The vote occurred during debate on HR 4830 (above).

A yes vote opposed the Democratic bid.

Voting yes: Castle, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Pitts, Saxton, Smith and Weldon.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Holden and Schwartz.

Dissent against the almighty Repugs is squashed once again.

Senate

Oman trade pact. The Senate passed, 62-32, and sent to President Bush a bill (HR 5684) to approve a free-trade accord with the Persian Gulf nation of Oman.

A yes vote was to approve the trade pact.

Voting yes: Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Voting no: Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.), Thomas Carper (D., Del.) and Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.).

Not voting: Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

It’s hard to determine what is substantively different between this bill that was passed and signed into law and the bill that was passed a couple of months ago, but I hope it addressed the prior concerns that were raised about the possibility of slave labor in Oman (the Dubai Ports World deal blew up with a bang, of course, but this took place with barely a whimper; let’s see if it poses a similar threat).