WASHINGTON -- Here’s how area members of Congress voted in the week ending April 3. Congress will be in Easter-Passover recess until the week of April 20.
HOUSE
FEDERAL TOBACCO REGULATION: Voting 298 for and 112 against, the House on April 2 sent the Senate a bill (HR 1256) to begin federal regulation of tobacco products. The bill empowers the Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigarette content, require disclosure of product ingredients, ban cigarette marketing to children and require more prominent health warnings. The bill would pre-empt state tobacco laws, require compliance by tribal governments and use fees on manufacturers and importers to finance the new regulatory authority.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said: “Regulating tobacco is the single most important thing we can do right now to curb this deadly toll (from tobacco), and FDA is the only agency with the right combination of scientific expertise, regulatory experience, and public health mission to oversee these products effectively.”
Steve Buyer, R-Ind., said: “Burdening the FDA with additional responsibilities outside the agency’s expertise and core missions...will have dire consequences for the American people and the FDA’s ability to ensure the safety and efficacy of our nation’s food, drugs and medical devices.”
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, Michael Capuano, D-8, Stephen Lynch,
D-9, William Delahunt, D-10
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
ALTERNATIVE TOBACCO BILL: Voting 142 for and 284 against, the House on April 2 defeated a bid to block federal regulation of tobacco products while establishing a new agency that would promote less harmful nicotine-delivery devices, such as smokeless tobacco, as a means of lessening addiction. The amendment to HR 1256 (above) was based on a “harm-reduction strategy” intended to “move people down a continuum of risk” toward a decision to stop smoking.
Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., a physician, said: “All tobacco products are harmful, but the health risks associated with cigarettes are significantly greater than those associated with the use of smoke-free tobacco and nicotine-only products. So, given these facts, an increasing number of public health experts advocate adopting a tobacco `harm-reduction’ approach....”
Todd Platts, R-Pa., said: “The history of low-tar cigarettes illustrates the grave danger to public health caused by fooling consumers into believing unsubstantiated claims that one kind of cigarette is safer than another.” With regulation, “We will not have to wait for the deaths of millions of more Americans to learn whether a so-called `safer’ cigarette is what it claims to be.”
A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: None
Voting no: Olver, Neal (MA), McGovern, Frank
(MA), Tsongas, Tierney, Markey (MA), Capuano,
Lynch, Delahunt
Not voting: None
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION: Voting 247 for and 171 against, the House on April 1 sent the Senate a bill (HR 1664) limiting executive compensation at firms receiving the largest bailouts under the Troubled Assets Relief Program. The bill would repeal authority for American International Group (AIG) bonuses that Democrats put into this year’s stimulus law. It empowers federal regulators to define “unreasonable and excessive” compensation and the performance standards upon which bonuses would be based. Firms covered by the bill would have to report executive-compensation data, but not names, to the Treasury for Internet publication.
Barney Frank, D-Mass., noted AIG “was originally...given money under the Bush administration, by the Bush-appointed head of the Federal Reserve and with the approval of the Bush-appointed secretary of the Treasury.”
John Culberson, R-Texas, called the bill “simply political cover for liberals who rushed their $800 billion stimulus bill through the House, ensuring these AIG bonuses would be paid.”
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal (MA),
McGovern, Frank (MA), Tsongas, Tierney, Markey
(MA), Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
BONUS LAWSUITS: Voting 223 for and 196 against, the House on April 1 failed to reach a two-thirds majority needed to pass a bill (HR 1575) broadening Justice Department authority to file civil suits aimed at recouping bonuses awarded since September 2008 by firms receiving taxpayer bailouts over $10 billion. The suits were to be based on fraudulent-transfer laws now on the books.
Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said the bill “does not rewrite contracts whatsoever. It just gives a court the opportunity in a contested hearing, with the U.S. on one side and the recipient of what is alleged fraudulent transfer or excessive compensation or bonus on the other side, to argue whether that compensation was a fraudulent transfer....”
Lamar Smith, R-Texas, asked: “How could (AIG) bonuses that Congress and the president specifically ratified suddenly be fraudulent? If they were not fraudulent, how can this be anything other than an unconstitutional taking of contractual rights? What is more, this bill is unnecessary. We have already passed tax legislation to recoup the AIG bonuses.”
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal (MA),
McGovern, Frank (MA), Tierney, Markey (MA),
Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt
Voting no: Tsongas
Not voting: None
COMMITTEE SPENDING INCREASE: Voting 288 for and 136 against, the House on March 31 approved a 10 percent increase in committee funding for the 111th Congress to $304.5 million over two years. The measure (H Res 279) will fund staff salaries and operating expenses for 21 panels. Some of the largest increases are for committees dealing with health care, energy, climate change, bank bailouts, stimulus spending, financial regulations, small businesses and House ethics.
Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., said the funding resolution “strikes a responsible balance between the expanded oversight duties of the 111th Congress and the realities of our current economic climate.”
Darryl Issa, R-Calif., said the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is denied resources it needs to adequately scrutinize the executive branch. “There will be not be transparency in the Obama administration if in fact (the committee) isn’t properly funded to do its job,” he said.
A yes vote backed the committee budget.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal (MA),
McGovern, Frank (MA), Tsongas, Tierney, Markey
(MA), Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
AMERICORPS EXPANSION: Voting 275 for and 149 against, the House on March 31 sent President Obama a bill (HR 1388) that would more than triple the ranks of AmeriCorps, Volunteers in Service to America and the National Civilian Community Corps -- to 225,000 participants by 2014 -- while expanding their missions to areas such as health care and clean energy.
Doris Matsui, D-Hawaii, said the bill “answers President Obama’s call for Americans of all generations to help get the country through the economic crisis by serving and volunteering in their communities.”
Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said: “Regrettably, the good is far outweighed by the bad and I must oppose this misguided legislation.”
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Olver, Neal (MA),
McGovern, Frank (MA), Tsongas, Tierney, Markey
(MA), Capuano, Lynch, Delahunt
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
2010-2014 FEDERAL BUDGET: Voting 233 for and 196 against, the House on April 2 approved a five-year Democratic budget (H Con Res 85) that for 2010 projects $3.55 trillion in spending, a $1.2 trillion deficit, $284 billion in interest payments on the national debt and $130 billion for war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Over five years the measure embraces President Obama’s major initiatives in areas such as health care, renewable energy and education; fully funds his defense and national security requests and extends his recently enacted middle-class tax cuts if means are found to pay for them. The budget allows Bush-era tax cuts for high-income payers to expire after 2010.
The budget’s ten largest spending categories for 2010 are Social Security ($701 billion), defense ($606 billion), income security ($540 billion), Medicare ($450) billion), health ($389 billion), debt service ($284 billion), veterans ($106 billion), education and training ($140 billion), transportation ($96 billion) and commerce and housing credit ($89 billion).
The budget sets “reconciliation” procedures under which Senate Democrats would need 51 rather than 60 votes to pass administration proposals such as overhauling health care and education programs. The Senate (below) excluded reconciliation from its budget plan.
Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said “let’s remember one thing: The Obama administration inherited an economy in a deep recession, with a projected annual deficit of over $1 trillion. This deficit...was the direct result of the policies of the Bush administration, along with their Republican allies in Congress, who inherited a large surplus and then proceeded to squander it.”
David Dreier, R-Calif., said: “It is either amusing or tragic...to hear (Democrats) whine that they inherited deficits....Yes, there were budget deficits when Republicans controlled Congress. But what twisted and contorted logic it is it to say: `Republican deficits were bad, so we are responding by making them four times worse.’”
A yes vote was to adopt the Democrats’ budget.
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, Michael Capuano, D-8, Stephen Lynch,
D-, William Delahunt, D-10
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
GOP BUDGET ALTERNATIVE: Voting 137 for and 293 against, the House on April 2 defeated a Republican alternative to the Democratic budget plan (HJ Res 85, above) that differed, in part, by permanently extending the full range of Bush-era tax cuts, freezing most non-defense discretionary spending for five years and repealing the recently enacted economic stimulus bill except for its jobless benefits.
Additionally, the GOP fiscal plan would generate less red ink over five years; give states new authority to set Medicaid policies; require means-testing for Medicare Part B (doctors’ fees) eligibility; switch Medicare for persons now under 55 to a system based on private insurance; scale back Social Security for persons now under 55; permanently stop the creep of the Alternative Minimum Tax into middle-class brackets and cut the corporate tax rate to 25 percent.
Adam Putnam, R-Fla., said the GOP budget “offers no new taxes, lower spending, and lower deficits, and a lesser burden on future generations, who are going to be expected to carry America into the 21st century as a strong capitalistic and free society and not (on) the Venezuelan model that we are creeping ever closer to each day.”
Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said the GOP budget “is the last thing our economy needs now or down the road, the kind of drastic cuts to essential services that will raise costs, which will destroy our ability to compete and to grow. It’s a relic of eight long years of a failed economic policy of the Bush administration. The American people rejected it.”
A yes vote backed the Republican budget.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: None
Voting no: Olver, Neal (MA), McGovern, Frank
(MA), Tsongas, Tierney, Markey (MA), Capuano,
Lynch, Delahunt
Not voting: None
SENATE
NATIONAL DEBT GROWTH: Voting 43 for and 54 against, the Senate on March 31 defeated a GOP bid to effectively bar debate on the Democrats’ budget plan (S Con Res 13) on grounds that it authorizes more national debt over the next ten years than the U.S. accrued from 1789 to Jan. 20, 2009.
Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the Obama budget would “pass on to our children an unsustainable government and a debt which will essentially put them in a position where their quality of life will be dramatically reduced because of...the federal deficits that have been run up.”
Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said President Obama “inherits the colossal mess left behind by the previous administration, a debt that had more than doubled...and the worst economic slowdown since the Great Depression,” yet Republicans “act as though he is responsible for debt runup during the previous administration....That has zero credibility.”
A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: None
Voting no: John Kerry, D
Not voting: Edward Kennedy, D
2010-2014 FEDERAL BUDGET: Voting 55 for and 43 against, the Senate on April 3 approved a five-year Democratic budget (S Con Res 13) that, for 2010, projects $3.5 trillion in spending and a $1.2 trillion deficit. In key differences with the House Democrats’ plan (above), the Senate budget rules out the use of “reconciliation” for advancing key administration proposals and spends about $80 billion less over five years on non-defense discretionary programs.
The budget is designed to cut the 2009 deficit of $1.75 trillion to about $500 billion by 2013, but relies on promissory reserve funds rather than committed revenues to reach that goal. It continues the pay-as-you-go rule that requires new tax cuts or entitlement-spending increases to be kept deficit-neutral.
Bill Nelson, D-Fla., praised the budget’s $646 billion down payment on President Obama’s health care proposals, saying “unless we can get a health care reform enacted into law, we will have very little chance of getting our arms around an exploding budget in the future....”
John McCain, R-Ariz., said: “The president’s budget numbers are simply staggering. On average, he adds $1 trillion to the debt every year for the next ten years.” The Obama budget also “resurrects the death tax and...discourages investment in our economy by raising the top rate on capital gains and dividends by one-third.”
A yes vote backed the Democrats’ budget.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Edward Kennedy, D,
John Kerry, D
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
RECONCILIATION BAN: The Senate on April 1 voted, 67 for and 31 against, to prohibit the use of “reconciliation” in S Con Res 13 (above) to advance President Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Republicans said reconciliation would deny them a chance to filibuster a proposal they see as a crippling tax on key industries.
Under cap-and-trade, large-scale polluters would receive government permits limiting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Firms with unused capacity could sell credits to companies that need larger allowances. The policy would gradually reduce total U.S. industrial emissions while raising at least $50 billion annually for initiatives such as revamping health care.
John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said: “Budget reconciliation was designed to facilitate passage of legislation to reduce the deficit with a simple majority. It was never meant to pass major policy initiatives such as cap and trade,” which “would be one of the most dramatic expansions of government in American history. It is a trillion-dollar climate bailout scheme.”
Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said: “The party of reconciliation is the Republican Party. They have used it 13 times. They used it for George Bush’s tax cuts for billionaires....Yet they come to the floor, as innocent as lambs, to say: `Oh, my gosh, what a terrible thing it would be if we used reconciliation (to protect) the planet from climate change....’”
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