Congressional roll call for June, July 2010

WASHINGTON — The Votes in Congress Service

WASHINGTON -- Here’s how area members of Congress voted on major roll calls taken in late June and July:

HOUSE

EXTENDED JOBLESS BENEFITS: Voting 272 for and 152 against, the House on July 22 sent President Obama a bill (HR 4213) to provide unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless through November, with the $34 billion cost added to the national debt. The bill will fund payments to those who have exhausted their initial 26-week allotments of state-funded jobless benefits and will deliver lump-sum retroactive payments to qualified individuals who lost eligibility after June 2. The bill keeps 99 weeks as the maximum eligibility period for receiving state-federal unemployment compensation.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said: “I am appalled and my constituents are appalled at the Republicans’ disrespect and cold-heartedness when it comes to extending unemployment benefits for out-of-work Americans. Some Republican members of Congress and candidates in their party have suggested that unemployment insurance makes Americans too lazy to work.”

Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said: “I haven’t heard anybody say we shouldn’t be extending unemployment benefits.... The debate is: Are you going to pay for the unemployment insurance or are you going to take the burden and put it on our children and grandchildren yet again? That is unconscionable, unsustainable and it ought to be immoral.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: John Olver, D-1, Richard Neal, D-2, James McGovern, D-3, Barney Frank, D-4, Niki Tsongas, D-5, John Tierney, D-6, Edward Markey, D-7, Stephen Lynch, D-9, William Delahunt, D-10

Voting no: None

Not voting: Michael Capuano, D-8

TARIFF REDUCTIONS, SUSPENSIONS: Voting 378 for and 43 against, the House on July 21 sent the Senate a bill (HR 4380) reducing or suspending tariffs on the import of thousands of components and raw materials used by U.S. companies to manufacture made-in-America products. The bill is designed to boost production and create jobs in industries such as automobiles, agriculture, chemicals, electronics, machine tools, pharmaceuticals and textiles. GOP foes criticized some of the benefits for specific firms as congressional earmarks. The tariff relief would be structured so that it does not undercut U.S. producers of the same raw materials and components.

Richard Neal, D-Mass., said: “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers and others have said this is a job booster, estimated to increase the (gross domestic product) by -- listen to this -- several billion dollars.”

Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said: “I will vote against this legislation because it violates the letter and the spirit of the Republican moratorium on earmark requests. Congress has to get a handle on earmarks.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank, Tsongas, Tierney, Markey, Lynch, Delahunt

Voting no: None

Not voting: Capuano

FEDERAL WINDSTORM INSURANCE: Voting 228 for and 183 against, the House on July 22 set rules for debating a bill (HR 1264) to add windstorm coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program. The bill remains in debate. Under the bill, residential and commercial property owners and renters would have the option of adding wind protection to existing flood policies or buying a separate wind policy. Windstorm premiums would be priced at market value, in contrast to flood-insurance premiums, which have been subsidized by taxpayers over the program’s 42 years. About 5.6 million U.S. households in 20,000 flood-prone communities have federally required flood insurance.

Gene Taylor, D-Miss., said that under the bill, policyholders “will know that if they paid their premiums, they built their house the way they were supposed to, if something horrible happens, they will get paid.”

Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said the bill represents “the hallmark of this Democrat majority. It is to empower the government against the free enterprise system.”

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank, Tsongas, Markey, Lynch

Voting no: None

Not voting: Tierney, Capuano, Delahunt

WAR, DOMESTIC SPENDING: Voting 239 for and 182 against, the House on July 1 sent the Senate a deficit-neutral $80 billion appropriations bill that includes $33.5 billion to be used mainly to fund President Obama’s 30,000 troop surge in Afghanistan. The fiscal 2010 measure (HR 4899) also provides $13 billion for benefits to victims of Vietnam-era Agent Orange defoliants; $10 billion to avert nationwide teacher layoffs; $5 billion to fund Pell Grants for low-income college students; $700 million to bolster U.S.-Mexico border security; $142 million for fishermen and others who have lost jobs in the Gulf Coast oil spill, and other funding.

David Obey, D-Wis., said of the $10 billion for teachers: “I think people need to ask themselves one question: Are they interested in simply standing by and allowing teachers to be fired day after

day for the next three months all around the country, or are they willing to do something about it? I hope the answer is the latter.”

Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said the nearly $50 billion in non-military spending should be considered separately in order to speed the troop funding. “Let’s support our troops, pass a clean version...on a broad, bipartisan basis and get this package to the commander-in-chief,” he said.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank, Tsongas, Tierney, Markey, Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt

Voting no: None

Not voting: None

AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: Voting 100 for and 321 against, the House on July 1 defeated an amendment to require the military funding in HR 4899 (above) to be spent on orderly U.S. troop withdrawals from Afghanistan instead of combat operations.

Sponsor Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said her amendment “provides for the safe and orderly withdrawal of our troops ... because the reality is that there is no military solution to Afghanistan. In fact, the occupation of Afghanistan is making us less safe.”

Howard McKeon, R-Calif., said American personnel in Afghanistan are “in the midst of a tough fight that’s critical to the U.S. national security. Cutting off their funding in the middle of that fight is tantamount to abandonment.”

A yes vote backed withdrawal from Afghanistan.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank, Tsongas, Tierney, Markey, Capuano, Delahunt

Voting no: Lynch

Not voting: None

HOME-PURCHASE TAX CREDIT: Voting 409 for and five against, the House on June 29 passed a deficit-neutral bill (HR 5623) extending from June 30 to Sept. 30 the deadline for first-time homebuyers to close their purchases and remain eligible for an $8,000 tax credit previously enacted by Congress. The Senate then sent the bill to President Obama, preserving the credit for

180,000 home buyers who missed the June 30 closing deadline. The credit is available for purchase contracts signed by April 30.

Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Pa., said: “Due to the turmoil in the housing market and the overwhelming success of the tax credit, lenders and federal programs have not been able to keep up with the demand, and that is what has created the backlog. The (bill) will provide time to clear this bottleneck” so that “these new homeowners are not punished for delays that are out of their control.”

No member spoke against the bill.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank,, Tsongas, Tierney, Markey, Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt

Voting no: None

Not voting: None

FIREARMS TAXES: Voting 412 for and six against, the House on June 29 sent the Senate a deficit-neutral bill (HR 5552) enabling manufacturers of firearms and ammunition to shift from a biweekly to quarterly schedule for depositing federal excise-tax collections with the Treasury. With rates of 10 percent for handgun sales and 11 percent for long-gun and ammunition sales, and applied to U.S. sales of $4 billion-plus annually, the tax generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year in dedicated revenue to the federal Wildlife Restoration Trust Fund. The bill puts firearms and ammunition manufacturers on the same quarterly deposit schedule that applies to other companies submitting excise taxes to the Treasury.

Thomas Kind, D-Wis., said the bill “is supported by every major conservation group along with the firearms industry. It is, in short, a win-win-win for families, businesses and conservation efforts across the country.”

No member spoke against the bill.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank, Tsongas, Tierney, Markey, Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt

Voting no: None

Not voting: None

FINANCIAL REGULATIONS: Voting 237 for and 192 against, the House on June 30 approved the conference report on a bill (HR 4173) to impose new financial rules on Wall Street in hopes of preventing further U.S. economic meltdowns. The bill outlaws or regulates many of the reckless practices that led to the Great Recession’s investment-bank failures, taxpayer bailouts and epidemic of mortgage foreclosures. In part, the bill establishes a new agency to protect financial consumers, cracks down on credit-rating agencies, outlaws many types of easy-credit mortgages, limits banks’ direct investments in the stock market and requires hedge funds and other private-equity firms to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The bill creates a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with powers to write and enforce rules against home-mortgage lenders, payday lenders and other firms that sell financial services on the retail level. But the bureau is barred from regulating auto dealerships or banks with less than $10 billion in assets. Though based in the Federal Reserve, the bureau would operate independently with its own budget and a chairman nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The bill empowers the federal Comptroller of the Currency to override state consumer-protection laws that are stronger than federal ones.

The bill would start federal regulation of the $600 trillion derivatives industry that was at the heart of the economic meltdown. These rules require contracts to be traded on exchanges and cleared by a third party; force banks and investment firms to spin off certain derivatives units if they wish to qualify for Federal Reserve borrowing rates; establish real-time transparency for the prices of derivatives contracts; require trades to be reported as they occur to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and require derivatives buyers to post adequate reserves against potential losses.

Additionally, the bill establishes a Financial Stability Oversight Council to foresee and contain systemic risks to the economy, and gives federal regulators tools for liquidating failed institutions in an orderly fashion that does not shift costs to taxpayers or contaminate the broader economy.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., blamed the current economic crisis on “the Wall Street culture of reckless gambling and a culture of regulatory neglect” in Washington. He added: “Never again should Wall Street greed bring such suffering to our country. And never again should Washington stand by as that greed manifests itself as irresponsible risk-taking where a few share the profits but Main Street bears the brunt of Wall Street’s lost bets.”

Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., called the bill “a clear attack on capital formation in America. It purports to prevent the next financial crisis, but it does so by vastly expanding the power of the same regulators who failed to stop the last one. (The bill) is the product of a tired and discredited philosophy. It’s the notion that you can solve a problem by reflexively piling vast new layers of bureaucracy, regulatory costs and taxes on it.”

A yes vote was to approve the conference report.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank, Tsongas, Tierney, Markey, Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt

Voting no: None

Not voting: None

FEDERAL RESERVE AUDITS: Voting 198 for and 229 against, the House on June 30 defeated a Republican bid to change several sections of HR 4173 (above). In part, the motion sought to restore a Government Accountability Office audit of the Federal Reserve that was originally voted by the House but removed from the final version of the bill. The GAO, an arm of Congress, would review Fed decisions on interest rates and other aspects of monetary policy -- deliberations that historically had been protected against congressional interference.

Ron Paul, R-Texas, said: “The problems that we’re facing come from a deeply flawed monetary system....If we don’t eventually address the Federal Reserve in depth, we will never fully understand how financial bubbles are formed and why more regulations tend to fail. If the financial markets were pleased with what we’re doing here today ... they wouldn’t be reeling as they are at this very moment.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said: “As we cast our votes today, each member of this body faces a choice. We have had these choices before. Democrats wanted to rein in health-insurance companies; the Republicans said no. Democrats wanted to rein in big oil; the Republicans said no. Democrats want to rein in the recklessness of some on Wall Street; the Republicans are saying no.”

A yes vote backed the GOP motion.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: None

Voting no: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank, Tsongas, Tierney, Markey, Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt

Not voting: None

EXTENDED JOBLESS BENEFITS: Voting 270 for and 153 against, the House on July 1 passed a bill (HR 5618) to provide extended jobless benefits through November at a cost of $34 billion in deficit spending. Senate Republicans (below) blocked a similar bill. Both bills would immediately send checks to an estimated two million persons whose eligibility for jobless benefits expired June 1 or later. Congress will revisit the issue after it returns July 12 from its current recess. Republicans in both chambers object to the flow of red ink, while Democrats say both parties traditionally have added emergency jobless spending to the national debt.

Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., said: “We have not seen times like this since the Great Depression. These are extraordinary circumstances and they call for extraordinary measures. ... Without this bill, more people will lose their homes, more people will fall behind on their bills and will be unable to feed their families.”

Mike Pence, R-Ind., objected to the deficit spending and said: “By passing a fiscally responsible extension of unemployment insurance, we would send the message that we get it, we know people are hurting, but we want to practice fiscal responsibility and, for heaven’s sake, let’s stop saying the stimulus worked. Let’s try some new ideas.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank, Tsongas, Tierney, Markey, Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt

Voting no: None

Not voting: None

SENATE

EXTENDED JOBLESS BENEFITS: Voting 59 for and 39 against, the Senate on July 21 sent the House a $34 billion deficit-spending bill (HR 4213, above) to provide jobless checks through November for persons out of work six months or longer. The bill also provides retroactive, lump-sum payments to an estimated 2.5 million persons whose checks were cut off June 2 or later because of a Senate funding dispute. Republicans delayed the bill for two months while asking Democrats to find a way to pay for it. Democrats said both parties have always treated extended jobless payments as emergency, or deficit, spending.

Carl Levin, D-Mich., said the Republicans’ opposition on deficit grounds “is an odd position to take after having supported proposals, such as the Bush tax cuts, that added far more to the deficit than this legislation would add.”

Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said: “I hope we can reach the right result, one that responds to our constituents’ pleas that we stop spending and taxing and focus on job creation and economic growth.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: John Kerry, D

Voting no: Scott Brown, R

Not voting: None

SMALL-BUSINESS CREDIT: Voting 60 for and 37 against, the Senate on July 22 ended Republican blockage of a taxpayer-backed lending program to help small businesses expand and create jobs. The vote advanced a measure authorizing the Treasury to lend up to $30 billion to community banks to leverage up to $300 billion over ten years in new credit for small businesses. As collateral, the Treasury would receive dividend-paying preferred stock redeemable within ten years. The program would be available to banks with assets under $10 billion that are rated as strong institutions. Democrats said the House-passed bill would boost economic recovery on Main Street, while Republicans said the program appears to be a TARP-like bailout. The bill (HR 5297) remained in debate.

Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said “this is not a bailout. This is about a lending program for small business to save Main Street and save our economy, because ...job creation happens from small business....but right now they can’t get access to capital.”

Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said: “The lack of credit for small business is a problem that needs to be addressed....I do not, however, believe we should try to solve this problem with another expensive and bureaucratic government program..”

A yes vote backed the lending program.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Kerry

Voting no: Brown

Not voting: None

GEN. PETRAEUS CONFIRMATION: Voting 99 for and none against, the Senate on June 30 confirmed Gen. David H. Petraeus, 57, to lead U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Petraeus is stepping down as chief of the United States Central Command to assume the post. He replaces Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who was dismissed by President Obama after he and his aides criticized their civilian leadership in a magazine article.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Petraeus “is the right choice” because he “demonstrated (in Iraq) that he can effectively carry out a counter-insurgency strategy and prepare local forces to take over the U.S. combat mission.”

John McCain, R-Ariz., said: “We must give Gen. Petraeus every opportunity to succeed,” which means “stating clearly that the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan must be determined solely by conditions on the ground.”

A yes vote was to confirm Petraeus.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Brown, Kerry

Voting no: None

Not voting: None

EXTENDED JOBLESS BENEFITS: Voting 58 for and 38 against, the Senate on June 30 failed to reach 60 votes for ending a GOP filibuster against a bill (HR 4213) that would, in part, extend jobless checks for the long-term unemployed through November at a cost of $34 billion that would be added to U.S. debt.

The bill also has provisions that are paid for, including renewals of dozens of corporate and individual tax breaks at a ten-year cost of more than $32 billion and funding for 300,000 youth jobs this summer.

Mary Landrieu, D-La., said that if Republicans oppose the bill, “it is completely at their feet that people in America today, who have no benefits, will not get them for the Fourth of July....” She added that Republicans “never paid for even one year of any war they helped lead us into when their party was in charge.”

John Ensign, R-Nev., said: “Despite what (Democrats) may say...there is no debate on extending the benefits for those who have fallen victim to our down-turned economy. The debate...lies with the fact that (Democrats) want to take the easy way out, and they want to avoid paying for this important legislation because it is tough to make cuts.”

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Kerry

Voting no: Brown

Not voting: None

SMALL-BUSINESS CREDIT: Voting 66 for and 33 against, the Senate on June 29 agreed to debate a deficit-neutral bill (HR 5297) authorizing the Treasury to lend up to $30 billion to community and regional banks in order to leverage $300 billion in new credit for small businesses. As collateral, the Treasury would receive dividend-paying preferred stock redeemable within ten years. Banks with assets under $10 billion would be eligible for the program.

Max Baucus, D-Mont., said: “The Great Recession has been a major difficulty for American workers and small businesses, but we can seize a major opportunity by helping small businesses and getting Americans back to work.”

Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, called the measure “a good bill with solid initiatives for small business,” but said it could be made “even more effective if we could address the uncertainty a small business faces on the tax front.”

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Brown, Kerry

Voting no: None

Not voting: None

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