Legislative checkup, October 2007 (Congress)

Time for another in my occasional looks at how the people representing Maryland’s Eastern Shore are faring in Congress. The last time I did this was June 23, so we’ll see how much they accomplished with bills they have sponsored and votes they’ve taken since that date. This will include our Congressman, Wayne Gilchrest; and Maryland’s two Senators, Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski.

I’ll begin with Wayne Gilchrest. He has just four bills under his sponsorship, all of which currently langush in committee:

• H.R. 16 is the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Enhancement Act of 2007, which reauthorizes an existing law;
• H.R. 3166 is to “reauthorize the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003”;
• H.R. 3841 is to “prohibit the commercial harvesting of Atlantic menhaden for reduction purposes in the coastal waters and the exclusive economic zone”, and;
• H. Con. Res. 153 “express(es) the sense of the Congress regarding the need for a nationwide diversified energy portfolio, and for other purposes.”

So he’s shown himself as interested in the environment and energy, but we already knew that. With that slim record of sponsorship, it’s probably more useful to see what voting pattern he’s had on some bills of interest. That comes later in the post.

Ben Cardin is much busier, sponsoring a total of 55 pieces of legislation in this session with 33 of these being amendments to other legislation. A few of the recent bills I found interesting were:

• S.1899, “To require every American to have health insurance coverage”;
• S.1934, “A bill to extend the existing provisions regarding the eligibility for essential air service subsidies through fiscal year 2012, and for other purposes”, and;
• S.2115, “A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to extend for 6 months the eligibility period for the ‘Welcome to Medicare’ physical examination and to provide for the coverage and waiver of cost-sharing for preventive services under the Medicare program.”

As with Gilchrest’s bills, all of these are in committee.

In looking at what Senator Mikulski has attempted to get done, there’s nothing truly groundbreaking unless you consider an attempt to create a semipostal stamp for Alzheimer’s research or congratulating Cal Ripken Jr. on his Hall of Fame election groundbreaking. She seems to be the go-to woman for a lot of legislation relating to health care, however. I also found it noteworthy that she introduced a number of amendments to one bill, that bill being the appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice. She’s part of the Conference Committee ironing out the differences between the House and Senate versions.

I suppose in looking at the record of what these three sponsor it’s a case of all three trying to create or at least maintain the federal government as primary regulator and moneychanger for the country. None of them seem to be interested in getting the government off our backs; if anything they’re looking to increase our share of the pie a little bit. Personally, I’d take a smaller pie rather than a bigger slice but that’s just me I suppose.

Looking at some of the votes now, this must be where Wayne Gilchrest racked up a bunch of that 48% of the time he voted with the Democrats. It happened a lot with amendments and with these bills:

• The College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 (passed 273-149, Gilchrest joining 47 Republicans and all 226 Democrats that voted in favoring passage.)
• The Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act (passed 223-201, Gilchrest one of just four Republicans joining a 219-10 Democrat majority in passage.)
• The likely misnamed “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act”, which sought to “provide collective bargaining rights for public safety officers employed by States or their political subdivisions.” (Passed 314-97, Republicans split 98-94 with Gilchrest in favor.)
• The Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act; or, “to provide for the continuation of agricultural programs through fiscal year 2012, and for other purposes.” (Passed 233-191, Gilchrest was one of 19 Republicans voting yes while 177 said no.)
• Wayne also voted for a bill, “To mandate minimum periods of rest and recuperation for units and members of the regular and reserve components of the Armed Forces between deployments for Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom.” (Passed 229-194, Gilchrest one of 6 Republicans joining a 223-4 Democrat majority in favor.)
• Charles Rangel and Nancy Pelosi, respectively, sponsored these two related bills, the “Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007” (passed 221-189, Gilchrest one of 9 GOP members in favor) and the “New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act” (which passed 241-172, Gilchrest being one of 26 Republicans saying yes.)
• The Patent Reform Act of 2007, which Gilchrest voted for and passed 220-175. I note this because it’s one pet issue of Gilchrest opponent Joe Arminio.
• Gilchrest was one of only 16 to vote against the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007 (passed 397-16. By comparison there were 19 who didn’t vote.)
• As we’ve read recently, Wayne voted to reauthorize and expand SCHIP. It passed 265-159 as Wayne was one of 45 GOP members to vote yes.
• Gilchrest also voted with the majority Democrats on the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007 (passed 263-146) and the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 (passed 264-148). More tax dollars thrown at issues better solved by the private sector.
• There is one bill though where a significant number of Republicans defected but Gilchrest wasn’t one. The “Tax Collection Responsibility Act”, an act in part “to repeal the authority of the Internal Revenue Service to use private debt collection companies.” It still passed 232-173 with 22 Republicans in the majority.

You know, I really need to do this more often. There were about 500 or so House roll call votes I had to skim to find the most pertinent ones. It’s much easier to do the Senate for two reasons: one, they do fewer votes; and two, probably 90% of the time Cardin and Mikulski vote as a bloc with their Democrat cohorts. In fact, I looked up all 145 Senate votes since I last did this exercise and our Senators only split votes 5 times – on FISA, confirming OMB Director Jim Nussle, increasing the debt limit, and twice they split votes on troop redeployment where Cardin was the dove and Mikulski the hawk.

Our illustrious Senators also voted as a group for SCHIP supplanting private health insurance, for a rebirth of the Fairness Doctrine, in favor of “card check” rather than a secret ballot for union representation, against limited immunity in cases like the private citizen who uncovered the Fort Dix Six, against requiring voter identification, and for bike paths rather than bridge repairs. Just thought you’d like to know.

It’s amazing the sausage grinding that goes into making laws. I suppose when you have as much of our money to play with as these folks do and act as a group who has long since bypassed the limits placed on their action by our Constitution it’s almost beyond the scope of most people to really care about what happens in Washington. But every so often I get curious and take the time to do so. I have to say though I honestly wish that there wasn’t so much to do on the subject!

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer. View all posts by Michael