Important Votes, US Congress.



SENATE VOTES:

Motion to proceed to the Marriage Protection Amendment
This one is a really big issue. I was disappointed to see this one fail. The vote was rejected 49-48, with Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chuck Hagel (R=NE), and John Rockefeller (D-WV) not voting.
No big surprise here with the vote. Harkin voted against it, and Grassley voted for it. We failed again to get the 60 votes needed. I hope we can gain some seats, which i think we can (check my election 06 section witch will be up this weekend).

Motion to Proceed to Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act
This one i think is a really important issue. We work our entire lives, pay taxes on income, capital gains, and anything else they can find. If you are lucky, and are able to leave a large estate to your children, they have to pay a tax on that. Well people see this as a rich person only tax, but isn't that what america is about, making money? Why should i work my ass off to make money, only to have a large percentage of it taken away for taxes. This vote was rejected by a vote of 57-41 with Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and John Rockefeller (D-WV) not voting. Again, no surprise to see Harkin vote against, and Grassley vote for it.

Motion to Proceed To Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act
This one was presented by Daniel Akaka (D-HI), and this bill would have granted the indigenous peoples of hawaii the right of self-governance. This vote was rejected 56-41, with Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and John Rockefeller (D-WV) not voting. Both of our senators voted for this bill, but presidential hopeful Sam Brownback (R-KS) voted against it. No democrats voted against the bill, and a total of 13 republicans voted for the act.

HOUSE VOTES

Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act:
This bill is a given. The government will always raise fines, as that means more money to them selves. This bill gives final approval to raising the fines that can be levied against broadcasters who violate decency rules. This was passes 379-35, with 18 not voting. Ron Paul (R-TX) the only republican not voting for this bill. Leonard Boswell (R-IA), voted for this bill tho. I think that this bill is a good idea, television is getting more graphic, and we need to limit children's access to this material. We can only achieve this by getting these broadcasters where it hurts, their pocket books.

Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006
This was passed 321-101, with 11 not voting, including 8 republicans, Jim Nussle (R-IA), and tom DeLay (R-TX) included in the not voting group. Boswell did vote for this bill. This bill would allow telephone companies to offer video services. I think we went the right way with this bill, but we need to be careful of what we allow the telephone companies to do. We need to keep the internet untaxed and non regulated. Anything but that will take away what makes the internet the open network of free ideas it is now.

Upcoming Votes:

National Defense Authorization Act, FY2007
The senate is scheduled to take up this bill authorizing $467.7 billion in defense spending for the upcoming fiscal year. I think we will have Harkin voting against this one, and Grassley voting for this one. We need to keep the defense department funded to be able to protect us.

Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act:
The House is scheduled to begin consideration for the conference report approving $94.5 billion in emergency funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for hurricane relief.

Posted: Wed - June 14, 2006 at 01:39 AM          

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