Where The Rubber Meets The Road (3/7/09)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes for the week ending Friday February 27th.

House

Fiscal 2009 budget and congressional pay. Voting 245-178, the House on Wednesday sent the Senate a $410 billion appropriations bill (HR 1105) to fund agencies now on stopgap budgets. The Democratic-led Congress last year approved regular 2009 defense, veterans and homeland-security budgets, but delayed this bill to await a Democratic president. The bill denies a congressional pay raise in 2009.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Voting yes: John Adler (D., N.J.), 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.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Joe Sestak (D., Pa.).

Voting no: Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.) and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Jumping ahead a bit, I should note that this ended up getting stalled in the Senate over earmarks (please…yes, I know it’s not the best practice, but that’s a fight for another day, people), and in addition to the typical Repug suspects, Evan Bayh and (shockingly) Russ Feingold have their finger prints all over this one (here).

The last I heard, Senate and House Dems were scrambling to pass a five-day emergency funding bill (with the Repugs yammering about a “spending freeze”…I thought Rachel Maddow and Ana Marie Cox hammered that one pretty well here).

And if you guessed that this was this week’s stupid “No” vote by Joe Pitts (with Chris Smith as an equally seamy collaborator), then you win a free commemorative “As A Dutiful Republican, I Pledged My Loyalty To Party Leader Rush Limbaugh And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt” T-Shirt.

Ethics and earmarks. Voting 226-182, the House on Wednesday killed a motion (H Res 189) to open an Ethics Committee probe of any suspect links between House members' receipt of campaign contributions and their sponsorship of earmarks that benefit the contributor.

A yes vote was to table the motion.

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

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

Not voting: Dent

Gee, this would’ve been nice to have during that seamy little business here with former House Speaker Denny Hastert and that little earmark episode involving the Prairie Parkway in Illinois, huh?

Oh, and speaking of earmark hypocrisy...

Bankruptcy in mortgage cases. Voting 224-198, the House on Thursday set debate rules for a bill (HR 1106) that gives bankruptcy courts authority to ease the terms of mortgages on principal residences in Chapter 13 proceedings. Final action on this part of President Obama's anti-foreclosure plan was then delayed for several days. The bill would permanently raise to $250,000 per depositor per institution the level of government insurance on checking, savings and money-market accounts and certificates of deposit.

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

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

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

And to learn more about why this is necessary, click here to read about the Orwellian-sounding "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005" (and even though Biden is VP now, he and Carper will never be able to erase their fingerprints from this one, along with the Repugs of course).

Primates as pets. Voting 323-95, the House on Tuesday sent the Senate a bill (HR 80) to ban interstate commerce in non-human primates such as chimpanzees. The bill was in response to a pet chimp's recent mauling of a woman in Stamford, Conn. While it would outlaw only interstate trafficking, sponsors noted that 20 states have laws making it illegal to keep non-human primates as pets.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

All Philadelphia-area representatives voted yes except for Pitts, who voted no.

I didn’t know there was a “pro-mauling chimpanzee primate” lobby out there; I guess Pancake Joe can count on them for a campaign donation next year.

Senate

Secretary of Labor. Voting 80-17, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed Hilda L. Solis, 51, a House member from California, as the 25th U.S. secretary of labor.

A yes vote was to confirm Solis.

All Philadelphia-area senators voted yes.

About freaking time, as Down With Tyranny tells us here.

House seat for D.C. The Senate on Thursday passed, 61-37, a bill (S 160) expanding the House of Representatives from 435 to 437 seats by establishing the District of Columbia as a congressional district (with voting power) and awarding Utah a fourth district. D.C. presumably would elect a Democrat and Utah a Republican. The new members would take office in 2011.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the House.

All Philadelphia-area senators voted yes.

D.C. gun law amendment. Voting 62-36, the Senate on Thursday amended S 160 (above) to deny the District of Columbia government authority to enact laws restricting private ownership or use of firearms. It would negate laws such as D.C.'s ban on gun ownership by persons voluntarily committed to mental institutions and its bans on armor-piercing sniper rifles and military-style semiautomatic weapons.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Bob Casey (D., Pa.) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Voting no: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

This was an uncharacteristically terrible vote by Bob Casey, and I left a message at his web site telling him so. He’s usually pretty good about responding; if and when I hear from him, I’ll let you know.

Last week, the House debated voting rights in Congress for the District of Columbia and a bill concerning bankruptcies and foreclosures. The Senate took up a $410 billion appropriations bill for fiscal 2009.