How your U.S. lawmaker voted
WASHINGTON - Here’s how the state’s members of Congress voted on major roll calls in the week ending Friday.
House
War funds, Iraq pullout
By a vote of 218-203, the House on Wednesday sent the Senate a bill (HR 4156) that would couple $50 billion in war appropriations with a nonbinding call for most U.S. troops to be removed from Iraq by Dec. 15, 2008. The bill would require civilian and military interrogators to obey the Army Field Manual’s ban on the torture of prisoners. The $50 billion outlay, funding combat through Feb. 1, is an installment on President Bush’s request of $196 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 2008.
Voting yes: Jay Inslee, D-1, Rick Larsen, D-2, Norm Dicks, D-6, Jim McDermott, D-7, Adam Smith, D-9.
Voting no: Brian Baird, D-3, Doc Hastings, R-4, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-5, Dave Reichert, R-8.
Warrantless surveillance
By a vote of 227-189, the House on Thursday passed a bill (HR 3773) giving federal judges a stronger role than the executive branch in approving electronic spying under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). A FISA rewrite enacted in August permits the U.S. attorney general or director of national intelligence to order warrantless surveillance of terrorism targets, even when one party in the communication is domestically based. This bill would transfer final authority to the secret FISA court, which would issue warrants for spying on domestic targets based on probable cause of terrorism activity. In emergencies, the administration could begin spying immediately and obtain a warrant later.
The bill would allow the FISA court to issue blanket warrants for strictly foreign surveillance. The bill, which awaits Senate action, stops short of granting retroactive immunity to U.S. telecom companies that secretly helped the administration conduct warrantless surveillance.
Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.
Voting no: Hastings, McMorris Rodgers, Reichert.
Home mortgages
By a vote of 291-127, the House on Thursday sent the Senate a bill (HR 3915) that would crack down on easy-credit practices that have devastated segments of the housing market. In part, the bill would require states to license all types of mortgage providers; give borrowers standing to sue institutions that knowingly repackage unsound loans into securities; require lenders to certify that borrowers have a reasonable ability to pay based on factors such as credit rating, indebtedness and documented assets; scale back prepayment penalties on prime as well as subprime loans; ban commissions to brokers for steering borrowers to unaffordable mortgages, and require states to toughen lending rules or submit to federal rules.
Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Reichert, Smith.
Voting no: Hastings, McMorris Rodgers.
Bush veto upheld
By a vote of 277-141, the House on Thursday failed to reach a two-thirds majority for overriding President Bush’s veto of a bill (HR 3043) appropriating $606 billion in fiscal 2008 for the departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services. Congress has upheld five of Bush’s six legislative vetoes.
Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Reichert, Smith.
Voting no: Hastings, McMorris Rodgers.
Senate
War funds, Iraq pullout
By a vote of 53-45, the Senate on Friday failed to reach 60 votes needed to advance a House-passed bill (HR 4156, above) to appropriate an additional $50 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while requiring troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin within 30 days of enactment. The bill set a goal of completing the pullout by Dec. 15, 2008, set training and equipment standards for Iraq-bound troops, and required U.S. civilian as well as military interrogators to obey the Army Field Manual’s ban on the torture of prisoners.
Voting yes: Maria Cantwell, D, Patty Murray, D.
Republican war bill
By a vote of 45-53, the Senate on Friday rejected a Republican alternative to HR 4156 (above). The GOP measure sought to appropriate $70 billion, with no strings attached, for funding war in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early months of fiscal 2008.
Voting no: Cantwell, Murray.
Five-year farm bill
By a vote of 55-42, the Senate on Friday failed to reach 60 votes for advancing a bill (HR 2419) to revamp and renew federal farm programs. Republicans blocked the bill in a dispute over the number and content of amendments allowed by the Democratic majority, which Democrats called a veiled attempt to kill the bill. Costing $288 billion over five years, the bill would extend the current system of payments and subsidies for growers of major crops such as cotton, corn, rice, wheat and soybeans; renew nutrition programs such as food stamps; promote land conservation and rural development, and provide special funding for fruit and vegetable growers.
Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray.
Roll Call Report Syndicate