Where The Rubber Meets The Road (3/18/10)

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 (I have to get a little more creative with these things due to technical issues - also, I posted some stuff here)...

House

Afghanistan withdrawal. Voting 65-356, the House defeated a measure (H Con Res 248) to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan by Dec. 31 under the 1973 War Powers Act. That law requires presidents to end combat operations after 90 days unless Congress authorizes the deployment. Opponents of withdrawal argued that the U.S. action in Afghanistan is legal under the "use of force" resolution enacted Sept. 18, 2001.

All Philadelphia-area representatives voted no.

From a legal perspective, I suppose those opposing the withdrawal were covered. However, just because Obama is in the White House instead of Dubya now doesn’t mean that Number 44, or any president, should have carte blanche when it comes to open-ended deployments (call me naïve, but I honestly think Obama gets that).

Make no mistake, though – I oppose the Afghanistan escalation now as I always have. However, I don’t oppose Obama’s right to make what he believes is the best decision (and debate over this brought the following moment from Patrick Kennedy, by the way).

Judge's impeachment. The House approved, 423-0, an article of impeachment (H Res 1031) charging that U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous, of the Eastern District of Louisiana, lied under oath to the FBI and Senate during his confirmation process in 1994 to become a federal judge. The House unanimously approved three other articles against Porteous, including charges that as a state judge he repeatedly accepted payments from those whose cases he handled. The impeachment now moves to a Senate trial.

A yes vote was to impeach Porteous.

All Philadelphia-area representatives voted yes.

It’s a shame this guy turned out to be a bad apple; one reason why is because he overturned Louisiana’s “partial birth” abortion ban in 1999 (and he had some bad luck too, losing his home in Hurricane Katrina prior to the death of his wife).

I never thought Bill Clinton did too many things that were actually bad, but appointing this guy would have to qualify as one of them.

Rep. Massa investigation. Voting 402-1, the House ordered its ethics committee to investigate the Democratic leadership's handling of allegations against former Rep. Eric Massa (D., N.Y.). Massa resigned last Monday following reports of misconduct such as his groping of male staffers. In part, the probe will examine whether Democratic leaders were slow in responding to complaints about his behavior. This vote occurred on H Res 1164, which, as a privileged resolution, was not debatable.

A yes vote backed the investigation.

Voting yes: John Adler (D., N.J.), Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), 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.).

Voting no: Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.)

Voting present: Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.).

I have to tell you that I’ve really been pondering this one. One the one hand, I give Fattah credit for, as noted here, opposing this vote because he knows Congress has more important things to do. I think Eric Massa just turned out to be an utter train-wreck-waiting-to-happen of a human being, and it’s possible that he may be completely innocent of wrongdoing (it’s not like the Beltway doesn’t go into a feeding frenzy on this stuff when it smells blood in the water, as they say).

However, it’s possible that there actually could be something to these charges of “misconduct towards male staffers.” I have a feeling there’s nothing there, but it needs to be looked at in case there is (and I think Charlie Dent’s “present” vote is pretty interesting also – can’t find an explanation on that one).

Bankruptcy judges. Voting 345-5, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 4506) establishing 13 new bankruptcy judgeships and converting 22 temporary ones to permanent status. The expansion is designed to help courts cope with a sharp rise in the number and complexity of bankruptcy filings.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

All Philadelphia-area representatives voted yes.

Let’s see if the Senate does to this bill what they did to the cramdown legislation last year (here), which would have given those newly-minted judges the power to modify mortgages in bankruptcy. My guess would be that they won’t.

Senate

Safety-net benefits. Voting 62-36, the Senate sent the House a $140 billion bill (HR 4213) that would extend until Dec. 31 several safety-net benefits, tax breaks, and other programs for individuals and businesses. It extends employment benefits for the long-term jobless, funds COBRA health insurance for the unemployed, and eases the federal poverty definition to protect the value of benefits such as Medicaid and food stamps.

Also, the bill extends research-and-development tax breaks for businesses; renews authority for satellite TV to broadcast local stations to rural customers; funds national flood insurance; continues certain small-business loan programs; averts cuts in Medicare payments to doctors; helps states meet Medicaid obligations; eases the timetable for employers to fund pension plans; enables teachers to continue deducting the cost of buying classroom materials, and extends tuition tax credits for higher education.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

All Philadelphia-area senators voted yes.

Summer jobs, needy families. Voting 55-45, the Senate failed to reach 60 votes needed to extend two programs in last year's $787 billion stimulus law. This denied $1.3 billion to provide summer jobs for young people and several billions of dollars for renewing the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program until March 2011. Opponents said both extensions would require deficit spending.

A yes vote was to extend the two programs.

All Philadelphia-area senators voted yes.

By the way, the four Democratic traitors who helped to sink this bill were Claire McCaskill, Ben Nelson, Mark Warner and Jim Webb, as noted here (and of course, not a single Repug favored spending the relative pittance of 1.3 billion – more here – and it’s really a hoot to hear them whine about “deficit spending” when they’re about, oh, five to seven years late on showing up for the party…didn’t matter when they passed tax breaks for millionaires, had no clue about how to fund Medicare Part D and, of course, brought us war without end in Mesopotamia and war on the cheap in Afghanistan).

Maybe the bill would have failed with 59 votes anyway, but that doesn't give an excuse for the actions of the four corpocrat Dems in question.

This week, the Senate will continue debating the Federal Aviation Administration budget. The House schedule was to be announced, with health care possibly up for a vote.