THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608050047
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 244 lines
Here's how area members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending Aug. 2. HOUSE
Welfare: By a vote of 328 for and 101 against, the House approved the conference report on a bill (HR 3734) ending guaranteed welfare for the poor and shifting most public assistance programs to the states along with lump sum payments and capped spending levels. The bill limits those on welfare to five years of lifetime benefits, and requires most recipients to find work within two years. It keeps Medicaid and food stamps as federal entitlements, but with tightened eligibility. Future immigrants would be denied nearly all welfare in the five years it takes to become a citizen. Present noncitizens would lose most of their benefits, including Supplemental Security Income and food stamps.
Under the bill, teen mothers must live with a responsible adult and stay in school to get welfare, and states can allow them additional benefits based on more babies. States can opt to soften the bill's strictest provisions, for example, by exempting up to 20 percent of their welfare families from the limit of five years of lifetime benefits.
Christopher Shays, R-Conn., said: ``We need to save our children from crippling national debt . . . to make sure that our trust funds like Medicare are there for our children and, most importantly, we need to help our children become independent citizens.
Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said that despite mandating work for welfare recipients, the bill ``does not require the government to create jobs. The result will be the world's wealthiest nation putting families out on the street to fend for themselves.''
A yes vote was to enact the bill.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes
Scott No Sisisky Yes
Clayton No Jones Yes
``Comp time'': By a vote of 225 for and 195 against, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 2391) allowing private sector employers in nonunion shops to offer compensatory time off rather than overtime pay to nonprofessional employees who work more than 40 hours a week. Under present law, these workers must be paid ``time and a half'' for overtime. Under the bill, they could choose either overtime pay or ``comp time'' at a rate of 1.5 hours off for every hour worked over 40. The employer would determine when the worker takes leave.
Sue Myrick, R-N.C., said the bill ``is pro-family, pro-worker, pro-women. . schedules flexible enough to allow them time to devote to family responsibiliities.''
Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., said the bill would ``lengthen the work week with no corresponding increase in pay. Contrary to what the Republicans say, this bill abolishes overtime pay, period.''
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes
Scott No Sisisky Did not vote
Clayton No Jones Yes
Dolphins: The House voted, 316 for and 108 against, to codify a treaty that changes the required level of protection for dolphins inadvertently killed in commercial tuna fishing. The bill (HR 2823) helps to implement the l995 Declaration of Panama concerning yellowfin tuna fishing in the eastern Pacific. The 12-nation treaty replaces a 1992 ban on ``encirclement'' fishing in which tuna nets trap large numbers of dolphins. Supporters said the new treaty reflects the fact that many encirclement techniques now allow dolphins to escape. It permits encirclement while setting per vessel limits on the killing of dolphins and stepping up enforcement to protect dolphins, among other measures.
James Saxton, R-N.J., said it is ``not true'' that the bill could lead to ``wholesale'' dolphin killings. He said the Panama treaty will ``protect the entire ecosystem, including dolphins. The alternative is an increase in (techniques) which result in killing sharks, endangered sea turtles, blue fish and baby tunas. . .''
Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said ``this bill permits the number of dolphin deaths to actually increase up to 5,000 annually, and has no provisions . . . to enforce this limit or specify how it shall decrease over time'' and allows ``injuring or harassing dolphins so long as there is no observed mortality.''
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes
Scott Yes Sisisky Yes
Clayton No Jones Yes
English: Voting 259 for and 169 against, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 123) establishing English as the official United States language. In part, the bill requires the government to conduct most of its official business in English, and outlaws the bilingual ballots now used for federal elections in some locales.
Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said, ``While I cherish every person who comes here legally, I want them to become American, and part of becoming American involves English. All Americans should have access to their government in their common language. It is important that every citizen learn English.''
Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., said the bill ``plays directly to the politics of fear and prejudice'' and ``is reminiscent of the Patrick Buchanan campaign to define which people are more American than the others. . . . If you don't like the way they look, if you don't like the way they sound, then they're not American.''
A yes vote was to establish English as the official U.S. language.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes
Scott No Sisisky Yes
Clayton No Jones Yes
Wage: Voting 354 for and 72 against, the House approved the conference report on a bill (HR 3448) raising the minimum wage by 90 cents and providing $21.4 billion in tax breaks, mainly for small businesses, through 2006. The lost revenue is offset by a 10 percent tax on domestic airline fares and a $6.00 per person tax on international departures.
It raises the base wage for an estimated 10 million workers from $4.25 to $4.75 an hour on Oct. 1 and to $5.15 on Sept. 1, 1997. Among tax breaks are faster equipment write-offs, a $5,000-per-child tax credit for parents who adopt a child, and the right individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for homemakers.
Bill Archer, R-Texas, said the IRAs for those at home ``will end discrimination against homemakers, especially women, that stay in the home and take care of children.''
No member spoke against the legislation.
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes
Scott Yes Sisisky Yes
Clayton Yes Jones No
Drinking water: Voting 392 for and 30 against, the House approved the conference report on a bill (S 1316) authorizing $7.6 billion over seven years in revolving loans to help communities upgrade drinking water systems. The bill also gives state and local officials more leeway in regulating contaminants. Debate centered on $175 million included by GOP leaders for ``earmarked'' water projects that critics derided as pork barrel spending.
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes
Scott Yes Sisisky Yes
Clayton Yes Jones Yes
Health coverage: By a vote of 421 for and two against, the House approved the conference report on legislation (HR 3103) allowing workers to keep employer-provided health policies when they lose or switch jobs. The bill prevents insurers from denying policies because of pre-existing conditions or canceling policy holders who become ill.
Also, it allows tax deductions of up to $2,500 annually for premiums for home care and long-term care in nursing homes; raises from 30 to 80 percent the tax deductibility of health premiums paid by the self-employed, and begins a four-year pilot program in which 750,000 people who work for themselves or in small businesses will set up IRA-style medical savings accounts (MSAs) to gain more direct control over their health budgets.
Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, called the bill ``a more practical, even-handed approach to reform'' that the administration's failed health care initiative. ``It leaves American individuals in control, not government bureaucrats . . . the portability provisions relieve `job lock.' ''
Pete Stark, D-Calif., said in a press release he voted no because the bill failed to provide equal insurance coverage for mental health disorders, and because it extended for two more years the patent on the arthritis drug Lodine, made by American Home Products. He called the latter a ``multimillion-dollar giveaway to a drug company at the expense of consumers.
Bateman Did not vote Pickett Yes
Scott Yes Sisisky Yes
Clayton Yes Jones Yes
Terrorism: By a vote of 389 for and 22 against, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 3953) to combat domestic and international terrorism by such means as expanding the power of law enforcement to conduct wiretaps and establish security at airports. The bill authorizes a study of whether to require black explosive powder to be manufactured with ``taggants'' to help trace those who plant bombs, and it directs the Justice Department to spend already appropriated funds.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes
Scott Yes Sisisky Yes
Clayton Yes Jones Yes SENATE
To change welfare: By a vote of 78 for and 21 against, the Senate sent a welfare overhaul bill (HR 3734) to President Clinton for his promised signature. It ends the New Deal entitlement program, Aid To Families With Dependent Children (AFDC), replacing it with block grants to states labeled ``temporary assistance for needy families.'' It budgets $700 billion over six years for an array of food, medical, job training and general assistance programs that would originate in Washington or state capitals. (See House issue above.)
Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said much of the bill's $55 billion in savings would result from more efficient delivery of public aid. ``We're going to be pushing people . . . off the rolls and into work, off dependence and into independence'' while providing emergency set-asides to protect the most needy including children, he said.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called the measure ``a cruelly written bill that will push families deeper into poverty with no chance of escape, and the victims will be innocent children. . . .The day it is signed into law must be the day that we roll up our sleeves and start working together to clean up the mess it will bear.''
A yes vote was to overhaul welfare.
Robb Yes Warner Yes
Faircloth Yes Helms Yes
Nuclear waste: The Senate voted, 63 for and 37 against, to build an interim nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The bill (S 1936) allows for the shipment by road and rail of an estimated 60,000 tons of radioactive waste generated by military and civilian reactors nationwide. Shipments are to begin by 2000. The facility would hold waste for several decades, at least, while Congress seeks to legislate a permanent storage solution.
Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said: ``There is dangerous, radioactive nuclear waste stored in cooling pools all over this country. We cannot stick our heads in the sand . . . if we do, we will probably be radioactive. We have to step up to this issue of how we deal with the temporary and permanent storage'' of waste.
Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the bill was ``an abuse of legislative power to relieve the nuclear power generating industry of its responsibility to manage and fund its business. It is outrageous (to) mandate radioactive exposure risks to the people in Nevada. Why do we not simply leave the spent fuel on site. . .?''
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Robb Yes Warner Yes
Faircloth Yes Helms Yes
Congress' budget: By a vote of 93 for and six against, the Senate passed a bill (HR 3754) appropriating $2.17 billion for the legislative branch in fiscal 1997, a slight increase over the comparable 1996 spending bill for Congress and support agencies such as the Library of Congress and General Accounting Office. Compared to 1996, the bill raises the Senate's budget by 3 percent to $441,208 and House spending by almost 2 percent to $683,800. The added money is mainly to increase House and Senate staff salaries.
Connie Mack, R-Fla., called the bill ``an example for the rest of government. If we are going to ask people to spend less and do with less . . . our taking the lead in doing that is setting a good example.''
No senator spoke against the bill.
A yes vote was to approve the budget for Congress.
Robb Yes Warner Yes
Faircloth No Helms Yes
Appalachia: The Senate voted, 69 for and 30 against, for the higher of two pending funding levels for the Appalachian Regional Commission, a Great Society agency that funds economic development in 13 contiguous states from New York to Alabama. The vote killed an amendment to cut ARC funding by $10 million to $155 million next fiscal year. This occurred during debate on a $20.7 billion fiscal year 1997 energy and water appropriations bill (HR 3816) which later was sent to conference with the House.
Bennett Johnston, D-La., said the ARC is ``helping communities put in place the building blocks of social and economic development to create self-sustaining local economies that can become contributors to the nation's resources.''
Rod Grams, R-Minn., said the commission was ``created in 1965 as a temporary response to poverty. (It) has outlived its original mandate. It is ineffective and expensive and simply does not work.''
A yes vote opposed cutting $10 million from the ARC budget.
Robb Yes Warner Yes
Faircloth Yes Helms Yes ILLUSTRATION: [Photos, telephone numbers and addresses of senators
and representatives from Virginia and North Carolina.]
To reach any representative or senator on any issues that concern
you, call (202) 224-3121. by CNB