Where The Rubber Meets The Road (7/3/08)

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.

Disabilities act expansion. Voting 402-17, the House passed a bill (HR 3195) to negate Supreme Court decisions that have narrowed the types of disabilities and number of disabled workers protected by the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act. The bill awaits Senate action.

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.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), 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.).

A commendable show of unanimity, if I do say so myself.

Alternative minimum tax. Voting 233-189, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 6275) to exempt 22 million middle-income households from the alternative minimum tax (AMT) this year. To offset the Treasury's loss of $61.5 billion in revenue, the bill would, in part, repeal certain tax breaks for oil and gas companies; change "carried interest" rules so that managers of investment partnerships and hedge funds would pay taxes at a 35 percent rather than 15 percent rate; and set the stage for more timely tax collection on payments from credit-card firms to merchants.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

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

It looks like about three different Repug core constituencies would take a hit if this bill were signed into law in its present form (though not under Commander Codpiece; if he hasn’t threatened a veto on this, I’m sure he will shortly).

And this is another gutsy vote by Chris Smith, by the way; he also had some words about Dubya going to Beijing in August here. It’s a shame he’s such an anti-choice zealot, because he sure “stands up” on other issues.

(God, Dubya is a numbskull, especially considering this).

Commuter-fare subsidies. Voting 322-98, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 6052) authorizing $1.7 billion in fiscal 2008-2009 for grants that public transit authorities would use to either reduce fares or expand services, with nearly 90 percent of the outlay allocated to urban areas of at least 50,000 population. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

I have to admit that I’m getting disappointed with Joe Pitts; he hasn’t given me a really stupid No vote to pillory him over for a little while now (to help Bruce Slater, click here).

And by the way, as long as I’m giving plugs, here’s one for Bob Roggio running against Jim Gerlach in PA-06 (wonder if Jim will need those dead-of-night robo calls against his opponent this time?).

Senate

Housing-recovery package. Voting 83-9, the Senate agreed to debate a housing-recovery package (HR 3221) that would enable lenders to refinance hundreds of thousands of at-risk mortgages in return for government backing of the new loans.

A yes vote was to debate the bill.

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

War funding, GI bill. Voting 92-6, the Senate passed a bill (HR 2642) that would appropriate $162.5 billion to pay Iraq-Afghanistan war costs well into 2009. The bill also would establish a new GI bill, which would pay four years' college tuition for veterans with at least three years' duty who enlisted after 9/11. The bill also would fund 13 more weeks of jobless checks for the long-term unemployed, along with programs such as flood relief in the Midwest, levee rebuilding in New Orleans, global food aid, and Census Bureau upgrades.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Biden, Carper, Casey, Lautenberg, Menendez and Specter.

And Clueless George gives credit to McCain even though “Senator Honor And Virtue” opposed it (and in the process, as this story notes, Dubya didn’t even mention that four years of books, tuition, and room and board would be paid for).

Almost at 199 days…

This week, Congress is in Independence Day recess until the week of July 7, when the Senate will resume debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The House schedule has not been announced.