WASHINGTON -- Here’s how area members of Congress voted in the week ending Oct. 2.
HOUSE
ENERGY, WATER APPROPRIATIONS: Voting 308 for and 114 against, the House on Oct. 1 adopted the conference report on a bill (HR 3183) to appropriate $33.5 billion for energy, water and nuclear programs in fiscal 2010. In part, the bill provides $6.4 billion for maintaining the U.S. nuclear stockpile; $5.6 billion for environmental clean-up at nuclear sites; $5.4 billion for Army Corps of Engineers public works; $4.9 billion for research into long-term energy needs; $2.1 billion to counter the spread of nuclear arms overseas; $311 million for clean-vehicle technologies; $225 million for solar energy and $172 million for upgrading the nation’s electrical grid.
Additionally, the bill funds the administration’s decision to permanently bar nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and establishes a commission to evaluate alternatives for disposing of the nation’s radioactive waste.
Debbie Wasserman Shultz, D-Fla., praised the bill’s $80 million outlay for Everglades restoration, saying “we must move forward in saving this unique national treasure, Time is our enemy and we have delayed too long.”
Steve Scalise, R-La., faulted the bill’s New Orleans flood-protection policy. “If we have learned anything from...Katrina, it’s that the federal levees that failed us before cannot be rebuilt the same way they were,” he said.
A yes vote backed the conference report.
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
GUANTANAMO PRISONERS: Voting 258 for and 163 against, the House on Oct. 1 urged the administration not to use funds in the 2010 Department of Homeland Security budget (HR 2892) to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to United States prisons. The non-binding measure also recommended against any public release of photos showing U.S. military abuse of prisoners.
John Carter, R-Texas, said: “As we bring these people here and we put them in the American justice system, defense lawyers will be able to use the discovery process to find out about covert operations of United States intelligence,” which would be “absolutely a travesty of justice.”
Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said: “Why not bring them to the United States and let the world know...we are big enough, Democratic enough to bring people to trial here, within our territory? We have nothing to fear.” He added: “These folks will probably be the most guarded people in the history of the world.”
A yes vote backed the non-binding motion.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: Lynch
Voting no: Olver, Neal (MA), McGovern, Frank
(MA), Tsongas, Tierney, Markey (MA), Delahunt
Not voting: Capuano
SENATE
HEARINGS ON AFGHANISTAN: Voting 60 for and 39 against, the Senate on Oct. 1 agreed to conduct hearings on U.S. operations in Afghanistan after President Obama resets his policy there. The amendment was added to HR 3326. Obama is expected to respond by year’s end to the military’s request for tens of thousands of additional troops in Afghanistan, and Senate hearings would occur after his announcement. In part, the session would involve testimony by top commanders such as Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal and civilian leaders such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Armed Service Committee hearings should be set “in the same way as was done when President Bush was deliberating on a surge strategy for Iraq. That is when the president has received his recommendations and has made a decision.”
John McCain, R-Ariz., urged hearings by mid-November, saying “we cannot afford to leisurely address this issue.”
A yes vote was to hold hearings after Obama’s announcement.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: John Kerry, D, Paul Kirk, D
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
AFGHAN HEARINGS DEADLINE: Voting 40 for and 59 against, the Senate on Oct. 1 refused to set a Nov. 15 deadline for Senate hearings on U.S. operations in Afghanistan, even if President Obama has not responded by then to the military’s request for a troop surge. The amendment was offered to the 2010 defense budget (HR 3326), which remained in debate.
John McCain, R-Ariz., said: “The American people need to know” what military commanders think. “This is an urgent situation. This is not a decision as to whether to send troops into harm’s way. Troops are already in harm’s way.”
Carl Levin, D-Mich., said it took President Bush three of four months to decide on a troop surge in Iraq. “We should be treating...President Obama with the same respect for the deliberative process that we provided to President Bush,” he said.
A yes vote was to require hearings by Nov. 15.
MASSACHUSETTS Voting yes: None
Voting no: Kerry, Kirk
Not voting: None
C-17 FUNDING DISPUTE: The Senate on Sept. 30 refused, 34 for and 64 against, to strip HR 3326 (above) of its $2.5 billion for buying 10 C-17 cargo planes not wanted by the Pentagon. The amendment sought to transfer the C-17 money to accounts that more directly support troops, military families and combat operations. Costing $250 million each, the politically popular C-17 is built mainly in California with suppliers in about 40 states.
John McCain, R-Ariz., said the choice was “we can either continue to fund an airplane that the military neither wants nor needs, or we can (fund) operations and maintenance which, according to the testimony of every military leader, is badly needed and wanted.”
Christopher Bond, R-Mo., called the C-17 “a proven, combat-tested airlift capability that is essential to the fight we are in right now, and it has been a workhorse in Iraq and Afghanistan....With the war in Afghanistan heating up and the war in Iraq continuing, our airlift needs are only growing.”
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