Where The Rubber Meets The Road (09/18/09)

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.

(Yes, they're baaack, but I don't have much again.)

House

Chesapeake Bay watershed. Voting 311-107, the House passed a bill (HR 965) making permanent a federal-state program that promotes citizen involvement in restoring the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York. Overseen by the National Park Service at a budget of about $1 million annually, the program provides funds and technical assistance for the conservation of water trails, wildlife refuges, historic sites, and other units in the ecosystem, which is the nation's largest estuary.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

Senate

Tourism in America. Voting 79-19, the Senate passed a bill (S 1023) that would establish a federal corporation to increase foreign travel to the United States and expand existing Department of Commerce tourism programs. The Corporation for Travel Promotion would be funded by assessments of about $20 million annually on the U.S. hospitality industry and $160 million annually in fees received by the Department of Homeland Security for granting visa waivers to foreign travelers. The bill awaits House action.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Arlen Specter (D., Pa.).

Cass Sunstein nomination. The Senate confirmed, 57-40, professor Cass R. Sunstein of the Harvard Law School to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Established by the 1980 Paperwork Reduction Act, the agency has final say on the wording of new regulations, oversees the federal regulatory process, and directs executive-branch policies in areas such as technology, privacy, and statistics.

A yes vote was to confirm Sunstein.

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

Looks like Glenn “Lonesome Rhodes” Beck will have to find some other Obama Administration figure to demagogue over (as noted here, Sunstein was confirmed by a 57-40 vote, with Dems Blanche Lincoln, Jim Webb, Mark Begich and Mark Pryor voting against the nomination for some reason, while only five Republicans supported it…and I thought this had some interesting information – tells you how desperate the wingnuts are that they would go after him since he, after all, is probably the closest they’ll get in this administration to someone like them, excluding Larry Summers of course).

This week, the House took up bills to improve vehicle technologies and overhaul student aid, while the Senate debated fiscal 2009 appropriations bills.