Where The Rubber Meets The Road (8/10/07)

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.

House

Soldiers' rest. The House passed, 229-194, and sent to the Senate a bill to set minimum periods between soldiers' tours in Iraq and their time at home. The bill would require at least as much time back home as at war.

A yes vote was to pass HR 3159.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Schwartz (D., Pa.) and Joe Sestak (D., Pa.).

Voting no: Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), H. James Saxton (R., N.J.) and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

To every Repug who opposed this (with the notable exception of Mike Castle), I dedicate this post from Digby, particularly this excerpt…

I hear so much from the right about how they love the troops. But they don't seem to love the actual human beings who wear the uniform, they love those little GI Joe dolls they played with as children which they could dress up in little costumes and contort into pretzels for their fun and amusement. If they loved the actual troops they wouldn't require them to be like two dimensional John Waynes, withholding their real experiences and feelings for fear that a virtual armchair lynch mob would come after them.

Thank God Joseph Heller and James Jones and Erich Maria Remarque and countless others aren't trying to write their books today. They'd be burned as heretics by a bunch of nasty boys and girls who have fetishized "the troops" into a strange form of Boy Band eroticism --- that empty, nonthreatening form of masculinity the tweens use to bridge the scary gap between puberty and adolescence. Private Peter Pan reporting for duty.

The real men for them are the civilians on 24 torturing suspected terrorists for an hour each week, keeping the lil'est tough guys safe from harm with hard sadism and easy answers. That's where this wingnut war is really being fought. With popcorn.

Take a bow, you “No” voters. Our military thanks you.

Ethics, lobbying rules. The House passed, 411-8, and the Senate passed, 83-14, a bill to tighten congressional ethics and lobbying rules. The bill, in part, requires lobbyists' fund-raising for lawmakers to be reported on the Internet, bans most gifts by lobbyists to lawmakers, requires advance disclosure by members of earmarks they sponsor, and sets time intervals on how soon ex-members can return to lobby in the House and Senate.

All Philadelphia-area representatives and senators voted for the bill (S 1), which now goes to President Bush.

Pay-bias suits. The House voted, 225-199, to give workers more time for filing pay-discrimination suits than allowed by the Supreme Court in its Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire ruling. The bill, now before the Senate, would allow plaintiffs to file suits within 180 days of the latest alleged pay infraction; the court ruled that suits must be filed within 180 days of the original infraction.

A yes vote was to pass HR 2831.

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

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

And of course, President Don’t Call It Vacation has threatened to veto that also (assuming it gets past the Senate and the likely battle with Mr. Elaine Chao).

Children's health care. The House passed, 225-204, a bill to triple funding over five years for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, a U.S.-state program mainly for poor youth unqualified for Medicaid. The bill would raise spending for the SCHIP from $25 billion to $75 billion over five years and expand coverage from the present 6.6 million children to 11.6 million children.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

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

Not sure why LoBiondo did the right thing here, but good for him (and as far as the threatened veto from President Stupid Head is concerned, see the post from Kagro X above).

Alternative energy. The House passed, 241-172, and sent to the Senate a bill providing incentives for renewable energy sources and conservation. The bill also requires electric utilities to use more renewable energy to generate power.

A yes vote was to pass HR 3221.

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

Voting no: Pitts.

Not voting: Saxton.

Is it too easy of a shot to call Joe Pitts a “dim bulb” on this one?

Energy taxes. The House passed, 221-189, and sent to the Senate a bill raising taxes on oil companies by about $16 billion. The bill also would provide an array of loan guarantees, federal grants and tax breaks for alternative energy programs.

A yes vote was to pass HR 2776.

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

Voting no: Dent, Gerlach and Pitts.

Not voting: Saxton.

Makes sense, right? Somehow, LoBiondo, Castle and Smith along with the Dems think so too.

But of course, the trick will be to get this out of the Senate with a veto-proof majority, since you KNOW one will be coming for this one (and the Pinecone-In-Chief at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will blame the Dems for playing political games as usual).

Senate

Government surveillance. The Senate voted, 60-28, to give U.S. government agencies expanded authority for six months under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In part, the bill would permit spying without individualized warrants on foreign communications passing through the U.S. The bill, now before the House, also lowers or removes the standard of evidence needed for warrantless surveillance on foreign phone calls, e-mails and other communications to persons in the United States.

A yes vote was to pass S 1927.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

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

Uh, yeah – I know.

Children's health care. The Senate passed, 68-31, a bill that would more than double spending over five years, to $60 billion, for the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The bill would raise tobacco taxes to pay for expanding the health-insurance program for poor children. The issue now goes to conference with the House.

All Philadelphia-area senators voted for HR 976.

Ahead. Congress is in recess until Sept. 3.

And I hope every Democrat on that list who caved on FISA is getting it both barrels from his or her constituents (and, once again, Washington State residents of the 8th U.S. Congressional District, Darcy Burner gets it).