Where The Rubber Meets The Road (11/13/09)

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 (another slow week).

House

Extended jobless benefits. Voting 403-12, the House sent President Obama a bill (HR 3548) that would provide 20 more weeks of jobless checks for those whose allotments have expired or soon will expire and who live in states with at least 8.5 percent unemployment. The bill provides 14 additional weeks of benefits for the long-term jobless in all other states. The $2.4 billion cost would be offset by payroll-tax increases on employers. Jobless checks average $300 per week.

The bill also extends for five months an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers that is set to expire Nov. 30 and increases income limits for eligibility from $150,000 to $225,000 for couples and from $75,000 to $150,000 for individuals. The bill creates a $6,500 credit for some homebuyers who already own homes.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: John Adler (D., N.J.), Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), 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.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Not voting: Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.) and Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.).

You know this is a no-brainer when even Joe Pitts votes Yes (maybe trying to lay low after sponsoring that horrible amendment with Stupak - ???).

Update 11/14/09: And speaking of Stupak, this tells us that he signed onto the "forcible rape" amendment sponsored by PA-16's waste of protoplasm (Atrios said Stupak is a monster, and he's right, but Stupak only signed on after the fact; Pitts is the one who authored this to begin with - the man is mentally ill.)

Credit-card rules. Voting 331-92, the House passed a bill (HR 3639) giving credit-card firms a tighter deadline for starting pro-consumer policies enacted by Congress in May. Under the bill, changes originally required to be in place by Feb. 22, 2010, would be advanced to Dec. 1. The rationale is that the sooner the rules take effect, the easier it will be for cardholders to cope with recession.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Dent, Fattah, Holden LoBiondo, Schwartz, Sestak, and Smith.

Voting no: Castle and Pitts.

Not voting: Gerlach and Murphy.

I seriously hope the people working for Beau Biden are keeping track of some of these dumb votes by Castle (I smell a 30-second attack ad, people!).

Chemical-plant security. Voting 230-193, the House passed a bill (HR 2868) to permanently extend chemical-plant security requirements that otherwise would expire in October 2010.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

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

Not voting: Murphy.

Based on this, I believe the Repugs had a problem with the whistleblower protection in the bill and the fact that states could implement their own security standards if they were stricter than the federal government (uh, and which is the “states rights” party again?).

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers opposed it. From that point on, the job of our congressional Repug delegation was pretty much done here.

Senate

Jobless benefits, tax breaks. Voting 98-0, the Senate sent the House a bill (HR 3548, above) that would provide at least 14 more weeks of jobless checks to the long-term unemployed in all states and 20 more weeks to people in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent.

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.).

Justice Department budget. Voting 71-28, the Senate sent to conference with the House a bill (HR 2847) appropriating $64.4 billion for the fiscal 2010 budgets of the Justice and Commerce Departments, NASA, and several other agencies. The bill represents a 12 percent spending increase over 2009.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

The House is in recess this week (I believe), and the Senate debated the 2010 military-construction budget over the last few days.