Where The Rubber Meets The Road (8/1/08)

Here are the recent Area Votes in Congress from our Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware legislators as reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

I’m going to try and do a two-fer here, since I’m at least a week behind; here is the week ending 7/20.

House

"Use it or lose it." Voting 244-173, the House failed to reach a two-thirds majority needed to pass a bill (HR 6515) giving oil companies a "use it or lose it" mandate to either drill on federal land they have leased or give up the right to do so. The bill was directed at dormant leases covering 68 million acres, including 33 million offshore acres. The bill also required expanded drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and called upon President Bush to gradually put on the market 10 percent of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve's 700 million barrels.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

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

Not voting: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.)

Nice to see Joe Pitts still in form, and Saxton can’t depart soon enough either; this bill is largely symbolic, though, since, truth be told, no politician can really tell any of our energy industry geniuses what to do (nice try, though).

And by the way, to help Bruce Slater, click here (remember, even the RNC has admitted that no Repug seat is safe in this election).

Intelligence budget, energy. Voting 200-225, the House refused to send the 2009 intelligence budget (HR 5959) back to committee, where it would be changed to require a National Intelligence Estimate of the impact of global energy conditions on U.S. security. The budget for the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies was then passed on a non-record vote. The classified sum is unofficially reported at $50 billion or higher.

A yes vote backed the GOP motion.

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

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Holden, Murphy, Schwartz and Sestak.

My guess is that this vote transpired the way it did because the Dems wanted to wrap it up before the break, and they didn’t want to get a PR black eye from the Repugs screaming about how this congress supposedly can’t do anything (that’s not true, of course; they’ve done a great job of caving to Dubya on impeachment, FISA and the Iraq war – snark mode off).

Bush Medicare veto. Voting 383-41, the House overrode President Bush's veto of a bill (HR 6331) that would cancel the administration's 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. The bill's projected cost of $19.8 billion over six years would be offset mainly by cuts in the privately run, federally subsidized Medicare Advantage program.

A yes vote was to override the veto.

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

Senate

Bush Medicare veto. Voting 70-26, the Senate joined the House (above) in overriding President Bush's veto of a bill (HR 6331) to continue Medicare reimbursement rates to doctors at their current level this year and raise them by 1.1 percent in January. The bill then became law.

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.).

Global aids funds. Voting 80-16, the Senate passed a bill (HR 5501) authorizing $50 billion over five years for U.S. support of global programs to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

Not much else to say about that; now here’s the summary for the week ending 7/27.

House

Housing rescue. Voting 272-152, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 3221) that authorizes a standby taxpayer bailout of the private firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, allows up to 400,000 mortgages to be reworked into government-backed loans, allows $7,500 tax credits to certain first-time home buyers, and grants $4 billion to help communities and nonprofits acquire and market vacant properties.

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.), Chaka Fattah (D., 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: Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and H. James Saxton (R., N.J.).

Atrios, among others, is of the mind that we shouldn’t worry so much about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even to the point where they could go under but be reformed as new public entities (he’s the economist, not me, so I’ll defer to him on the details). I tend to agree, particularly since people like Chris Dodd of the Senate Banking Committee continue to insist that these institutions are solvent (in rare, albeit slight, disagreement with Paul Krugman on this).

However, we know why this was almost a party-line vote (though kudos once again to Chris Smith for doing the right thing, and, surprisingly, Mike Castle also). And that is because the Repugs, generally, don’t want to do a damn thing to help homeowners stuck with ARMs ticking ever upward or first-time home buyers (if those opposing this truly had any sense, though, they’d realize that a stimulus where it’s needed to help people buy homes is a good start to help dig us out of this mess).

Global AIDS funding. Voting 303-115, the House passed a bill (HR 5501) authorizing $50 billion over five years for U.S. support of international programs to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

Voting no: LoBiondo and Pitts.

Not voting: Saxton.

Gosh, I’m shocked over this, since Pancake Joe is supposedly such a champion of heterosexual human rights, as noted here (and once again, to help Bruce Slater, click here).

Bridge-safety inspections. Voting 367-55, the House passed a bill (HR 3999) to upgrade bridge inspections at a cost of $2 billion between 2008-2012. The bill awaits Senate action.

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.

Senate

Housing rescue. Voting 72-13, the Senate approved a House-passed bill (HR 3221) that would potentially bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and provide mortgage relief for homeowners. President Bush has said he will sign the measure.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

Not voting: Thomas Carper (D., Del.).

Interesting vote for Carper to miss, I must say.

Oil-market speculation. Voting 50-43, the Senate failed to reach 60 votes needed to end GOP blockage of a bill (S 3268) directing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to curb "excessive speculation" in the oil-futures market, in part by setting higher margin requirements, requiring more public disclosure and working more closely with other countries' regulators.

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

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

Voting no: Specter.

One of these posts simply would not be complete without the obligatory “screw you, Arlen” citation, so please allow me to provide one.

Screw you, Arlen.

This week, the House took up energy measures and a bill concerning pay discrimination, while the Senate debated the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program.