Where The Rubber Meets The Road (9/28/07)

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.

(The Inky is back to the correct order of House and then Senate – that makes someone like me with a touch of OCD happy.)

House

Terrorism insurance. The House passed, 312-110, and sent to the Senate a 15-year renewal of the program that provides taxpayer backing to help the insurance industry meet the catastrophic costs of any future terrorist attacks. The bill expands the program to cover nuclear and chemical attacks.

A yes vote was to pass HR 2761.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), 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: Michael N. Castle (R., Del.) and Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.).

Oh, and speaking of that waste of space in U.S. PA-16 (Pitts, of course), I should note that President Brainless is coming to Lancaster County next Wednesday, which is appropriate because that beautiful area has lots of farmland, and if there’s anyone who’s good at creating manure, it’s Dubya. And I’m sure he’ll thank Pancake Joe for toeing the Bushco line so slavishly.

And by the way (as noted here), our friends in the insurance industry oppose providing “terrorism insurance,” unless we pick up the tab, of course.

Food and drug safety. The House passed, 405-7, and sent to the Senate a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration new authority to protect consumers against unsafe food, drugs and devices. The bill empowers the FDA for the first time to continually review drugs after they go on the market and order quick corrective action when harmful side effects come to light.

A yes vote was to pass the bill (HR 3580).

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

Not voting: Andrews.

Only slightly in advance of the problems noted in this story – once more, a great big raspberry goes out to the 109th Congress for letting this matter go unresolved.

Home mortgages. The House passed, 348-72, and sent to the Senate a bill giving the Federal Housing Administration more power to stimulate residential housing, including measures to help holders of subprime mortgages keep their homes.

A yes vote was to pass HR 1852.

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

Not voting: Andrews.

Better not tell Dubya about this, since it involves that baad government coming to the aid of the private sector in a crisis (his whole supposed rationale against SCHIP). When the time comes to get him to sign off on this, just bury the bill in a bunch of fine print, OK?

Aviation budget. The House passed, 267-151, and sent to the Senate a $68 billion four-year budget for the Federal Aviation Administration that includes $16 billion for improving airports and $13 billion for revamping traffic-control technology. The bill codifies a passengers' bill of rights, increases levies including fuel taxes on corporate aircraft, and requires the FAA to renegotiate its labor contract with air-traffic controllers.

A yes vote was to pass HR 2881.

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

Voting no: Castle and Pitts.

There goes that bad “activist government” again, actually looking out for airline passengers and trying to avert a crisis between the agency and the air traffic controllers (as noted here).

Kind of makes the Repugs long for the glory days of The Sainted Ronnie R I suppose, who would have merely fired the air traffic controllers and then retired to his private screening room at the White House to watch old Hollywood movies for the rest of the day.

Senate

Combat deployments. In a 56-44 vote, the Senate failed to reach the 60 votes needed to advance an amendment setting longer periods between soldiers' tours in combat and time at home. The amendment to the defense budget (HR 1585) would have required at least as much time back home as in the war theater.

A yes vote backed 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.).

Once more, here is the story on the matter of the 60 votes, used in this case to kill the amendment sponsored by Jim Webb of Virginia (and I would have had more sympathy for Webb had he not signed off on that stupid resolution condemning that ad).

And by the way…as Atrios noted (I believe), I’ll await the Senate resolution in response that surely will come in the wake of Flush Limbore’s remark about “phony soldiers,” which was particularly stupid even for him. Hey, they set the precedent, and fair is fair, right?

Update: Holy mother of God (Mark Udall has "brass ones")...

Oh, and one more thing – as always, screw you Arlen.

Iraq funds cutoff. Senators rejected, 70-28, a proposal to cut off funds for combat in Iraq on June 30, 2008, except for spending to pursue terrorists, protect U.S. personnel and infrastructure, and train Iraqi forces. The vote occurred during debate on the defense budget (HR 1585).

A yes vote was to cut off funds for combat in Iraq.

Voting yes: Lautenberg and Menendez.

Voting no: Carper, Casey and Specter.

Not voting: Biden.

This was the amendment sponsored by Russ Feingold, which was brought up again after a vote earlier this year in which 29 senators voted yes (so, as you can see, it actually lost a vote between then and now).

And in response, I have only this to say.

Given a choice of a Senate hopelessly outnumbered by Repugs to the tune of, say, 90-10 versus our current state, I actually would take the former if I knew for an absolute certainty that those 10 would represent me consistently on every issue and stand tall in the face of all the Repug demagoguery through which they would be assaulted. I would accept this because I knew that, over time, enough people would recognize that the Democratic Party understood who and what it stood for and would eventually come over to our side, to the point where a majority would be ensured. Such a process would likely take years, but the foundation that would be built would endure and last far into the future.

But as for now and at this minute, I cannot possibly imagine why I am continuing to support an organization that tolerates the continued presence of people such as Tom Carper and Bob Casey.

Habeas corpus. Senators failed, 56-43, to reach the 60 votes to advance a bid to establish habeas-corpus rights for terrorism suspects held in U.S. military prisons. Written into Article I of the Constitution, habeas corpus gives prisoners the right to be brought into open court to be formally charged.

All Philadelphia-area senators voted in favor of habeas-corpus rights for military detainees.

This again is pathetic, but I can’t blame any of the six senators here for that.

D.C. congressional seat. Senators failed, 57-42, to reach the 60 votes needed to advance a House-passed bill declaring the District of Columbia a congressional district and granting Utah one more House seat.

All Philadelphia-area senators voted to advance S 1257.

See above.

This week, both chambers took up the conference report on expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The Senate continued to debate the 2008 military budget and Iraq policy.