                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994                   TAG: 9407030146
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
                                             LENGTH: Long  :  115 lines

CONGRESSIONAL ROLL CALL

Here's how area House members were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending July 1.

HOUSE

RELIGION: The House voted 366 for and 37 against to block proposed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations dealing with religion. This amendment to HR 4603, an appropriations bill, concerned an EEOC proposal to combat harassment at the workplace based on religion as well as race, gender, national origin, age or disability. Groups from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Christian Coalition question the constitutionality of a federal agency seeking to protect religious expression on the job.

A yes vote was to block EEOC regulations concerning religion in the workplace.

Herbert H. Bateman, R-Va. Yes

Owen B. Pickett, D-Va. Yes

Robert A. Scott, D-Va. Yes

Norman Sisisky, D-Va. Yes

Eva Clayton, D-N.C. Yes

H. Martin Lancaster, D-N.C. Yes

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: By a vote of 339 for and 89 against, the House sent the Senate a FY '95 appropriations bill (HR 4606) for the departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services and related agencies. The $252.3 billion measure is the second most-costly of the 13 appropriations bills that fund the federal government, after the approximately $263 billion Defense Department budget. Nearly three out of four dollars in the bill is mandatory spending for entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, black lung benefits, railroad pensions and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. The bill also funds a long list of agencies and boards such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Labor Relations Board and National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Bateman Yes

Pickett Yes

Scott Yes

Sisisky Yes

Clayton Yes

Lancaster Yes

TRADE SCHOOL LOANS: By a vote of 63 for and 365 against, the House rejected an amendment requiring trade schools to obtain at least 15 percent of their revenue from sources other than the U.S. Treasury, as a condition of receiving federal loan money for their students. The vote during debate on HR 4606 (above) postponed for one year - until July 1995 - the effective date of a law passed in 1992 to crack down on schools with poor loan repayment records. Student loan defaults and fraud cost taxpayers more than $3 billion annually, with trade schools accounting for the majority of the loss.

A yes vote supported immediate enforcement of a law denying federal funds to certain trade schools.

Bateman No

Pickett No

Scott No

Sisisky No

Clayton No

Lancaster Did not vote

NATIVE HAWAIIANS: By a vote of 188 for and 233 against, the House rejected an amendment to eliminate the Native Hawaiian Education Program's entire $8 million budget. This kept the money in the Department of Education budget for FY '95 (HR 4606; above). The $8 million is in addition to standard federal education grants that Hawaii receives along with the other states.

A yes vote opposed the Native Hawaiian Education Program.

Bateman Did not vote

Pickett No

Scott No

Sisisky No

Clayton No

Lancaster No

SENATE

HAITI: By a vote of 34 for and 65 against, the Senate rejected an amendment requiring President Clinton to obtain prior Congressional approval of any planned U.S. military invasion of Haiti. The vote occurred during debate on a FY '95 foreign operations appropriations bill (HR 4426).

Sponsor Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said: ``I do not think we should further aggravate an already poor policy with a dramatically worse policy of putting American lives at risk and invading a neighboring country in order to try to correct initiatives which have been taken by this administration which have failed.''

Opponent Carol Mosely-Braun, D-Ill., said the amendment ``hamstrings the president, empowers the thugs that are now in power in Haiti . . . and at the same time turns our back on and is a rejection of the democratic values that were expressed by the people of Haiti in electing president Aristide.

A yes vote sought prior Congressional approval of any U.S. invasion of Haiti.

John W. Warner, R-Va. No

Charles S. Robb, D-Va. No

Jesse A. Helms, R-N.C. Yes

Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C. Yes

PRODUCT LIABILITY: By a vote of 57 for and 41 against, the Senate fell short of the three-fifths majority it needed to end a filibuster against product liability legislation. This shelving of the bill was a victory for consumer and trial lawyers' groups that opposed it and a defeat for business organizations that supported it.

The bill strengthens federal tort law at the expense of state law on product liability. It seeks speed litigation, and to give manufacturers relief from high insurance premiums and frivolous lawsuits over allegedly defective products.

A yes vote was to move toward passage of the product liability bill.

Warner Yes

Robb Yes

Helms Yes

Faircloth Yes