Where The Rubber Meets The Road (3/23/07)

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.

(By the way, based on how this Congressional session has progressed thus far, I may rename these posts “The ‘Voting No: Joe Pitts’ Show”).

House

Presidential records. The House passed, 333-93, and sent to the Senate a bill (HR 1255) nullifying a 2001 order by President Bush to deny or strictly limit access to presidential and vice presidential papers archived in libraries.

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.), Allyson Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

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

Not voting: H. James Saxton (R., N.J.).

So Joe Pitts supports Bushco’s efforts to hide the presidential archives, huh? I can’t think of a word to describe how pathetic this truly is (and it’s bad when I can’t think of a word for something, I’ll admit).

Freedom of information. The House passed, 308-117, and sent to the Senate a bill that would require agencies to be more responsive to requests filed under the 1967 Freedom of Information Act. The bill (HR 1309) gives agencies 20 days to respond to requests and starts a public database to track requests.

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.

Not voting: Saxton.

I have an idea for the residents of the 16th Congressional District in PA; why don’t you all take up a collection and buy a mannequin and have it mechanically rigged to automatically say “no” when the time comes for it to cast a vote? It would function at least as well as Joe Pitts.

Presidential library donors. The House passed, 390-34, and sent to the Senate a bill (HR 1254) to require public disclosure of those who contribute more than $200 toward the funding of presidential libraries, which rely on private donations and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to establish.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

Not voting: Saxton.

Well, spank me! I checked and this actually ISN’T a typo – Pitts actually voted YES for something! I guess he was just testing us.

Whistle-blowers. The House passed, 331-94, and sent to the Senate a bill to extend whistle-blower protections to civil servants at national security agencies, employees of government contractors, and federal workers who expose the distortion of scientific data for political purposes.

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.

Not voting: Saxton.

Contracts oversight. The House passed, 347-73, and sent to the Senate a bill (HR 1362) to tighten federal contracting rules with a focus on the sole-source awards that have figured into allegedly fraudulent contracts for work in Iraq.

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.

Not voting: Saxton.

So…Joe Pitts is against access to presidential and vice-presidential records; he doesn’t support the Freedom of Information Act; he opposes whistle-blower protections to civil servants, national security workers, government employees and contractors; and he opposes tightening federal contractor rules to eliminate more “sole source” awards.

However, he DOES support disclosure of those who donate more than $200 for presidential libraries.

Is this man senile?

(And by the way, if it seems like I’m singling him out, it’s because I can do that since our other area House members are doing such a good job of representing us, as opposed to Pancake Joe, a one-trick pony who will never change.)

Campus military recruiting. The House voted, 309-114, to add language to HR 1362 (above) prohibiting the award of federal contracts to colleges or universities that ban or impede on-campus military recruiting.

A yes vote was to add the prohibition.

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

Voting no: Brady and Fattah.

Not voting: Saxton.

I have a bit of a problem with this, but the House in this congress has done a lot of good so far, so I’m going to look the other way for now; I don’t see why colleges should be punished for not allowing military recruiting on campus, but Patrick Murphy and Joe Sestak, for example, are merely being consistent here given their exemplary service records, so this is good politics to not give the Repugs an opportunity to beat them up (and of course, Joe Pitts is ALL OVER something like this).

Senate

Iraq troop withdrawal. The Senate defeated, 50-48, a measure (SJ Res 9) to start U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq within four months of enactment. The resolution would have set a goal of completing the pullout of all but a residual American force by March 31, 2008.

A yes vote was to pass the resolution.

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

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

This isn’t the end of it, Arlen, and you know it.

9/11 Commission. The Senate passed, 60-38, a bill to enact several recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and provide federal airport screeners with collective-bargaining rights, but not the right to strike. The bill (S 4) now goes to conference with the House.

All Philadelphia-area senators voted for the bill.

By the way, one of the 38 dissenting votes came from Chuck Hagel (never have a doubt about how he will vote despite his public protestations), and I’ll have more to say about another prominent Repug who missed this vote shortly.

This week, the House considered Iraq war funding and troop withdrawals; the Senate debated procedures for appointing U.S. attorneys and possibly take up the 2008 budget resolution.