Where The Rubber Meets The Road (5/20/09)

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 (the "turbo version" coming up here).

House

War appropriations. Voting 368-60, the House approved $84.3 billion to fund U.S. combat operations through Sept. 30 and $12 billion for nonmilitary programs. Now awaiting Senate action, the bill (HR 2346) would provide payments to 170,000 troops whose enlistments were extended against their will after 9/11.

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

Hoping that Admiral Joe decides to "primary" Our Man Arlen any day now...

Green school renovations. Voting 275-155, the House passed a bill (HR 2187) authorizing $6.4 billion in fiscal 2010 for public-school renovations that use mostly "green" building materials and increase energy efficiency. The bill also authorizes $600 million for repairing Gulf Coast schools damaged by hurricanes.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

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

Voting no: Castle and Pitts.

So Mike Castle gets to join Joe Pitts in the congressional play pen this week with infantile votes against rebuilding our schools. Have fun banging the chalk out of the erasers, you guys.

Senate

Credit-card interest cap. Voting 33-60, the Senate refused to place a statutory cap on credit-card interest rates. The amendment to HR 627 sought to impose the same 15 percent usury limit on credit cards that applies to credit unions. The underlying bill remained in debate.

A yes vote was to limit interest rates.

Voting yes: Bob Casey Jr. (D., Pa.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

Voting no: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), and Arlen Specter (D., Pa.).

BoA (formerly MBNA, otherwise known as the “banksters”) calls the shots in Delaware (update: they ended up doing this after all - yaaay!)…

Gun rights in parks. The Senate voted, 67-29, to affirm Bush administration regulations ensuring the right to bear loaded guns in the national park system and national wildlife refuge system. The amendment to HR 627 (above) seeks to counter a federal judge's recent ruling to block the regulations.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Casey and Specter.

Voting no: Carper, Kaufman, Lautenberg and Menendez.

…and the NRA calls the shots in PA (hard to tell which vote is worse...Update 6/15: And by the way, never would I have imagined this unholy partnership - boooo!!!).

This week, the Senate resumed debate on new rules for credit cards, while the House took up the Transportation Security Administration budget and a bill to reduce home foreclosures. Next week, Congress is in Memorial Day recess.

And with that, I take my leave for a little while, but I’ll plan to rev this whole thing up again early next week. As to where I’ll be, I’ll merely note that it will not be that far away from Bellevue (insert your snark here).

Courage.