Where The Rubber Meets The Road (6/27/08)

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

2009 space budget. The House passed, 409-15, a bill (HR 6063) authorizing a $20.2 billion budget for NASA in fiscal 2009, up from $17.3 billion in 2008. In part, the bill funds U.S. support of the International Space Station, climate research, Mars exploration, space-shuttle missions through 2010, and the development of a new manned space vehicle scheduled for launch in 2015. The bill is now before the Senate.

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.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., 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: Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.).

I haven’t been able to determine why LoBiondo voted No, but he was only one of the 15 Repugs who opposed it (as noted here).

Government spy powers. Voting 293-129, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 6304) to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) through 2012 and grant conditional immunity to certain telecommunications firms that helped the government spy on Americans after 9/11 outside the limits of FISA.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Fattah and Schwartz.

As a sad reminder of this travesty, here is last Friday’s post from Glenn Greenwald with updates.

And aside from complimenting Rob Andrews (even he knew to vote against this, Patrick!), Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah and Allyson Schwartz for casting no-brainer No votes, I have a message for Tim Holden.

I started doing these congressional vote summary posts in May 2006 (for better or worse), and since then, I have watched you cast some truly awful votes on a range of issues affecting core Democratic Party constituencies.

As I’ve said, I have a big disagreement with Patrick Murphy over this, but it is the first truly bad vote, I believe, that he has ever cast. You, however, have cast so many that I don’t even bother to count anymore.

Do us a favor; click on this link and make it official, OK?

(And P.S., Inky and everybody else - the telcos were trying to do their spying before 9/11, OK?)

War funding. The House approved, 268-155, an amendment to HR 2642 that would appropriate $162.5 billion to pay Iraq-Afghanistan war costs well into 2009. Now before the Senate, the bill prohibits the construction of permanent U.S. bases in Iraq and requires the Iraqi government to match U.S.-taxpayer funding of Iraq reconstruction projects.

A yes vote backed the war funding.

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

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Fattah and Murphy.

As far as I’m concerned, between this and the FISA vote, Admiral Joe completely fell off my radar (and it sounds like Allyson Schwartz just loves “Commander Codpiece” and his war without end; what a pity).

And Patrick redeems himself somewhat here, remaining steadfast on the most important issue of them all.

Farm bill veto. The House voted, 317-109, to override President Bush's veto of a $289 billion, five-year farm bill (HR 6124) that renews subsidies for growers of major crops while also funding conservation and nutrition programs and taxpayer support for fruit and vegetable growers, among hundreds of other programs. This vote followed a House vote last month that overrode a presidential veto of essentially the same bill.

A yes vote was to override the veto.

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

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

I know there are problems with this bill, but I love how the opponents blame farmers for “propping up” commodity prices when they have nothing to say about futures traders who are the real culprits as far as I’m concerned have more of a hand in this (trying to be a little more precise here). And there is more good in this bill that outweighs the bad.

Yes, prices will remain high because of the food shortage, but I love how Incurious George complains about “fiscally imprudent” provisions here.

And speaking of “fiscally imprudent,” how much is that Iraq war costing us again?

Senate

Farm bill veto. The Senate joined the House (above) in overriding, 80-14, Bush's veto of a five-year farm bill (HR 6124).

A yes vote was to enact the bill.

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

Mortgage program. Voting 21-69, the Senate refused to kill a proposed new program in which mortgage holders would refinance hundreds of thousands of at-risk home loans in return for Federal Housing Administration backing of the reworked loans. The vote retained the program as part of a pending bill (HR 3221) to help homeowners, lenders and communities recover from the U.S. housing collapse.

A yes vote was to kill the program.

Voting no: Biden, Carper, Casey, Lautenberg, Menendez and Specter.

This brainless amendment was sponsored by Repug Kit Bond of Missouri – case closed.

This week, the House took up bills to tighten rules for energy speculators, subsidize mass-transit commuter fares, and require oil firms to use or lose leases for drilling on federal land. The Senate debated war funding, government surveillance, and the U.S. housing collapse.