WASHINGTON – Here’s how Maine’s members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending Nov. 7.

HOUSE Prison industries

Voting 350 for and 65 against, the House on Nov. 6 passed a bill (HR 1829) enabling private companies to compete against the federal prison system for a range of government contracts. Since 1934, Federal Prison Industries Inc., a government corporation, has had the exclusive right to supply the government with certain goods and services produced by inmates. This bill, which awaits Senate action, opens some of the work to competitive bidding. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Rep. Tom Allen, D-1, voted yes. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-2, voted yes.

Prison security

Voting 91 for and 325 against, the House on Nov. 6 defeated an amendment requiring annual Justice Department reviews to determine whether the loss of prison contracts resulting from HR 1829 (above) would endanger security at federal prisons or imperil public safety.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Allen and Michaud voted no.

Medicare privatization

Voting 197 for and 209 against, the House on Nov. 6 defeated a bid by Democrats to repudiate a GOP plan for private insurance competition with Medicare. With their non-binding motion, Democrats urged that the proposal be killed in ongoing House-Senate talks over the final version of a bill (HR 1) adding a drug benefit to Medicare.

Under the GOP plan, starting about 2010, private firms could offer federally subsidized doctor, hospital and drug coverage in direct competition with traditional fee-for-service Medicare. Backers said this would restrain Medicare’s soaring costs while critics said it could lead to the full privatization of Medicare.

A yes vote opposed partial privatization of Medicare.

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

SENATE

Consumer credit rules

Voting 95 for and two against, the Senate on Nov. 5 sent to conference with the House a renewal of a 1996 law that sets uniform national rules for the handling of personal financial information. The bill (HR 2622) seeks to prevent abuses in the way businesses collect and distribute credit histories, financial records and medical information on individuals.

The bill was lauded by the financial services industry as necessary for an efficient economy but criticized by consumer groups over its pre-emption of state laws that better protect privacy rights (next issue).

In part, the bill gives consumers tools for fighting identity theft, sets a national standard for truncating credit card numbers on store receipts, expands access for correcting one’s own credit report, entitles all consumers to a free credit report each year and bans the use of medical histories as a criterion for granting or denying credit

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Sen. Susan Collins, R, voted yes. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R, voted yes.

Data-sharing veto

Voting 70 for and 24 against, the Senate on Nov. 4 denied consumers the authority under HR 2622 to reject, in advance, the sharing of their personal data by loosely related affiliates within a conglomerate.

The amendment did not affect sharing by closely related affiliates, such as those with the same government regulator. It sought to make California’s opt-out standard the law of the land. The standard requires companies to notify customers of data sharing plans. Consumers can opt out at that time or let the sharing proceed.

Large numbers of affiliates under common ownership potentially can share a customer’s data. Citibank, for example, according to debate, has more than 1,700 affiliates in fields such as life insurance, stock brokering, commercial banking, student loans, credit cards and home mortgages.

A yes vote was to kill the opt-out amendment.

Collins and Snowe voted yes.

Data-mining

Voting 61 for and 32 against, the Senate on Nov. 4 tabled (killed) an amendment to HR 2622 (above) requiring federal agencies to report annually to Congress on their data-mining of personal records in government files. The reports, which could be classified, would have to assess the impact of such screening on civil liberties.

Just as financial institutions mine customer databases for business purposes, law enforcement and intelligence agencies do so in search of patterns of and clues to criminal or terrorist activity.

A yes vote was to kill the amendment.

Collins and Snowe voted yes.

Copy the Story Link