Where The Rubber Meets The Road (1/19/07)

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 don’t have a lot to say about what went on, particularly in the House, aside from the fact that it’s all good.

House

Minimum wage. The House passed, 315-116, and sent to the Senate a bill to raise the minimum wage for the first time since September 1997. The bill (HR 2) would increase the base wage in steps from its present level of $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour over 26 months.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), H. James Saxton (R., N.J.), Allyson Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Voting no: Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.).

Pitts is truly pathetic on so many levels…

Medicare drug prices. The House passed, 255-170, and sent to the Senate a bill (HR 4) requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to use federal purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices for senior citizens enrolled in the Medicare prescription-drug plan.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Andrews, Brady, Castle, Fattah, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

Voting no: Dent, Gerlach, Pitts and Saxton.

Stem cells. The House passed, 253-174, and sent to the Senate a bill to extend federal financing of embryonic stem-cell research far beyond the narrow limits set by President Bush in August 2001.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Andrews, Brady, Castle, Dent, Fattah, Gerlach, Holden, Murphy, Schwartz and Sestak.

Voting no: LoBiondo, Pitts, Saxton and Smith.

You knew Smith would vote no, and at least Gerlach supported some bills but not others.

9/11 Commission. The House voted, 299-128, to put recommendations of the 9/11 Commission into effect. The bill (HR 1), now before the Senate, in part tightens airline explosives checks and requires overseas scanning of all sea cargo shipped to the U.S.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Andrews, Brady, Castle, Dent, Fattah, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

Voting no: Pitts and Saxton.

Intelligence oversight. The House adopted, 239-188, a resolution (H Res 235) to add an intelligence unit to its Appropriations Committee, in response to a 9/11 Commission finding of "dysfunctional" congressional intelligence oversight.

A yes vote backed the resolution.

Voting yes: Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

Voting no: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, Pitts and Saxton.

Do you realize that Joe Pitts is the only representative (“representative” of whom, I wonder?) who voted against every single one of these pieces of legislation? This ranks right up there with that one horrendous week of his last June.

Senate

Lawmakers' families. The Senate killed, 54-41, an amendment to a pending ethics bill (S 1) that would have prohibited immediate family members from being employed for pay on a federal lawmaker's political action committee or campaign committee.

A yes vote was to kill the amendment.

Voting yes: Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.), Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey Jr. (D., Pa.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

Voting no: Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Gee, I wonder why Arlen opposed this one? Could it be because his son Shanin, a trial lawyer (and a Repug? The mind boggles…) has played a major role in some of his past campaigns and could have political aspirations of his own (I have other issues with Specter, and I don’t consider this a big deal anyway).

Earmark disclosure. Voting 51-46, senators kept alive an amendment to S 1 (above) requiring full public disclosure of all earmarks used by members of Congress to direct funds or tax breaks to pet projects and political allies.

A yes vote was to kill the amendment.

Voting yes: Biden, Carper, Casey, Lautenberg and Menendez.

Voting no: Specter

I can’t imagine why Arlen would have a problem with this one either (the $50 million in question was earmarked).

This week, the House debated cutting student-loan interest rates (actually doing so I believe, but we'll find out next week), while the Senate continued to debate ethics reform. Both chambers were scheduled to vote on nonbinding challenges to President Bush's Iraq escalation "strategy."

Update 1/22/07: Commenter 10leggedshadow pointed out something important that I’ll clarify by providing this link (I’d answer with a comment, but the new, improved, oh-so-wonderful Blogger still does a stinky job with embedded links in comments - the Thomas site is flaky; I hope the link works).

The link takes you to information on the bill, including the amendment (6) about family members that Specter voted against sponsored by Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana. To be fair, though, I should point out that Specter voted for S. 1 anyway (the only Nos were Orrin Hatch and Tom Coburn – figures).

Oh, and by the way, please note that Hatch and Coburn are both Repugs, and the only Dem who didn't vote on this was Tim Johnson for a reason we all already know about.