Where The Rubber Meets The Road (11/16/07)

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

Bush veto override. In a 361-54 vote, the House reached the two-thirds majority required to override President Bush's Nov. 2 veto of a bill authorizing $23.2 billion over 15 years for more than 900 Army Corps of Engineers water projects for purposes such as flood control, coastal protection, storm recovery and navigation. The Senate later followed suit and the bill became law.

A yes vote was to enact the bill (HR 1495).

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), 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 Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

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

Not voting: Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.)

As important as this is, I can barely hide my disgust over the fact that this survived the veto from George W. Milhous Bush but SCHIP didn’t.

And Joe Pitts could have phone in this “No” vote – guess the Army Corps of Engineers will never need to work on projects in PA-16. How lucky can one Repug hammerhead U.S. congressional rep be?

Workplace discrimination. In a 235-184 vote, the House sent the Senate a bill to outlaw workplace discrimination based on an employee's sexual orientation. The bill protects the rights of homosexuals, bisexuals and heterosexuals but not transsexuals. The bill exempts religious organizations, allowing them to continue to hire and fire based on one's religious beliefs, and also exempts the personnel practices of the military, businesses with 15 or fewer employees, and private membership clubs.

A yes vote was to pass the bill (HR 3685).

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

Voting no: Pitts and Smith

This was the ENDA bill championed so passionately by Barney Frank of Massachusetts (don’t have to note the party, I’m sure). And apparently, there are no LGBT Americans in PA-16 either (and the otherwise moderate and intelligent Chris Smith does a somersault once more into wingnuttia on a “pro-life” issue).

Passage of the bill, weakened as it is, is still a watershed moment. Frank has promised to revisit some of the discrepancies noted here, and I for one believe him.

Peru trade agreement. The House approved, 285-132, a bill to implement a U.S.-Peru free-trade accord that requires Peru to meet certain labor and environmental standards. The agreement would lock in duty-free Peruvian access to U.S. markets while immediately lifting Peruvian duties on 80 percent of U.S. agricultural and consumer-product exports and 67 percent of U.S. farm exports.

A yes vote backed the measure (HR 3688).

Voting yes: Castle, Dent, Fattah, Gerlach, Pitts, Saxton, Schwartz and Sestak.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy and Smith.

Kudos to Patrick Murphy for doing the right thing (and Chris Smith returns to reality); I know this had been in the pipeline for a little while now and is probably the only trade bill that will get passed from this congress (Columbia, South Korea and Panama are the others, as noted here) but the people who will be affected most in this country know that “free” trade will never truly be free.

I’m surprised Allyson Schwartz didn’t realize that, and this may come back to haunt Admiral Joe, unfortunately.

2008 defense appropriations. The House approved, 400-15, the conference report on a partial military budget of $459.3 billion for fiscal 2008, up 10 percent from the comparable 2007 figure. Congress later will add Iraq and Afghanistan war funds to this appropriations bill.

All Philadelphia-area representatives voted to approve the conference report (HR 3222).

Senate

Attorney General Mukasey. The Senate confirmed, in a 53-40 vote, Michael B. Mukasey as the 81st U.S. attorney general.

A yes vote was to confirm Mukasey.

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

Voting no: Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) and Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.).

Not voting: Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.).

Good job by Casey to do the right thing here; also, please take note that the “60 votes needed for passage” rule doesn’t apply because there was no chance of the Repugs filibustering Casey (surprised no Dem did, to be honest with you, echoing Glenn Greenwald here), so the 60-vote requirement to break a Repug filibuster over legislation or an appointment that they don’t like doesn’t apply.

And as always, screw you, Arlen (and Carper should just make it official one day and become a Republican - kind of an important vote for Biden to miss here in pursuit of the Dem presidential nomination - must...resist...snark...).

This week, the House took up Iraq war funding and the Senate continued to debate a new five-year farm bill.