Where The Rubber Meets The Road (5/16/08)

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

Federal mortgage relief. Voting 266-154, the House authorized a program in which mortgage holders would refinance hundreds of thousands of at-risk home loans in return for Federal Housing Administration backing of those loans and other benefits. Now before the Senate, the bill (HR 3221) is designed to rescue up to 500,000 mortgages, totaling $300 billion, that are now headed for default.
A yes vote backed the legislation.

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

Voting no: Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and H. James Saxton (R., N.J.).

This is the work first and foremost of Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services committee, which he crafted after meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke (as noted here).

And as I noted earlier, President No More Golf In “Tribute” To Our Dead And Wounded Service People has threatened a veto because it is “a burdensome bailout that would open taxpayers to too much risk.”

Does he mean “burdensome” financially? If so, I have a question; how much is the Iraq war costing us again?

Homeowner tax breaks. Voting 322-94, the House adopted an amendment to HR 3221 that authorizes $7,500 tax credits for first-time home purchases and allows taxpayers who do not itemize deductions to treat up to $700 of their 2008 property taxes as a federal tax deduction. The measure also authorizes housing authorities to issue $10 billion in tax-exempt bonds to refinance subprime loans and provide low-income rental housing.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

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

Voting no: Pitts and Saxton.

At least Saxton has the decency to be leaving; if Pitts had a speck of integrity, he’d do the same thing (and once more, to help Bruce Slater, click here).

Home foreclosures. Voting 239-188, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 5818) providing $15 billion in grants and loans through 2013 for a program to help communities and nonprofit organizations buy, rehabilitate and occupy vacant, foreclosed homes. Families with incomes below the regional median income would then be offered the properties for purchase or rental.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

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

This was sponsored by Maxine Waters of California, as noted here; also, here is an extended Center for American Progress article about what the organization proposes for the current downturn, including the Waters bill (the party line vote here indicates some continued Repug reality avoidance, which is not surprising at all).

Senate

Wind-damage insurance. Voting 19-74, the Senate defeated an amendment to expand the National Flood Insurance Program to cover wind damage as well as water damage. This occurred during debate on a bill (S 2284) to renew and reform the FEMA-run program, which serves 5.5 million policyholders in 20,000 communities. The bill remained in debate.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

Voting no: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey Jr. (D., Pa.), and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

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

I tend to go along with Chris Dodd and Richard Shelby on this here (amazing I agree with Shelby on anything, I guess) in that it would make the NFIP prohibitively expensive. Of course, the New Jersey senators needed to vote “yes” on this given the state’s ocean exposure, but there was no real need for anyone else to do so.

This week, the House took up an Iraq-Afghanistan war-funding bill (it didn't pass due to a Repug parliamentary gimmick). The Senate debated energy programs and flood insurance, with a possible vote by both chambers on the farm-bill conference report.