WASHINGTON – Here’s how area members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending May 14.

HOUSE

Ten percent bracket

Voting 344 for and 76 against, the House on May 13 passed a bill (HR 4275) to make permanent the ten percent bracket for personal income. For singles the rate would apply to the first $7,000 of taxable income, and for couples the first $14,000, with the thresholds indexed to inflation. The bill is now before the Senate.

Because its cost to the Treasury is not offset, the bill would add $218 billion to the $7 trillion-plus national debt over ten years, while saving taxpayers the same amount. Enacted as part of President Bush’s 2001 tax cuts, the 10 percent bracket is scheduled to expire after 2010.

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

Wealth surtax

Voting 190 for and 227 against, the House on May 13 rejected a Democratic plan to use a surtax on the wealthy to offset the $218 billion cost of HR 4275 (above).

The surtax was to apply until Congress enacted legislation to balance the budget by 2014 without raiding Social Security and Medicare surpluses. Under the surtax, marginal rates were to rise by 1.9 percent through 2010.

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

SENATE

Educating the disabled

Voting 95 for and three against, the Senate on May 13 passed a bill (S 1248) extending through fiscal 2009 the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, which guarantees a mainstream education for the nearly seven million K-12 students with disabilities.

When it enacted IDEA in 1975, Congress pledged to cover 40 percent of the additional cost of special education. But its share of these extra state and local costs now stands at only 19 percent. This bill, now headed to a House-Senate conference, authorizes Congress to increase federal support by $2.2 billion annually in hopes of reaching the 40 percent share by 2011. But actual increases will depend on later votes.

Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the bill increases funding, cuts bureaucracy and gives teachers more tools for disciplining disruptive special-education students – but “without uniquely penalizing a child whose disruption is a function” of his or her disability.

Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., objected to Congress’s failure to meet its 40 percent obligation.

He said the shortfall “must be supplied by the state and local governments, which usually translates to higher property taxes” and can breed resentment against disabled students. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

Mandatory spending

Voting 56 for and 41 against, the Senate on May 12 failed to reach 60 votes needed to begin mandatory funding of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (S 1248).

The amendment sought to guarantee that by 2011 Congress will have kept its 1975 promise to cover 40 percent of the added cost of providing a mainstream education for disabled children.

Snowe and Collins voted yes.

Corporate tax breaks

Voting 92 for and five against, the Senate on May 11 passed a bill (S 1637) providing $170 billion over 10 years in corporate tax breaks.

Backers said the 900-page bill would not add to the national debt because it contains offsets such as closing tax loopholes.

But critics said the same offsets have been spoken for in other Senate-passed bills, such as the highway bill.

About $5 billion in the bill would offset the loss of export subsidies ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.

The bill provides $65 billion in tax incentives to encourage companies to manufacture products in the United States; a $39 billion cut in taxes on income earned overseas and a cut of at least $15 billion for energy firms.

Among other beneficiaries are pharmaceutical companies, railroads, timber companies, Nascar track owners, Oldsmobile dealers, cruise-ship owners, bow-and-arrow makers and a hotel in Sioux City, Iowa.

Snowe and Collins voted yes.



Energy subsidies

The Senate on May 11 failed, 13 for and 85 against, to strip S 1637 (above) of at least $15 billion in tax breaks for oil and gas companies and makers of corn-based ethanol.

The targeted provisions, covering 319 pages, are ones that Congress has been unable to enact in recent years as a stand-alone energy bill.

John McCain, R-Ariz., said that with “a half-trillion- dollar (annual) deficit…we are enacting new tax credits, for – guess who? -the oil and gas industry in America which, the last time I checked, is doing pretty well.”

Collins and Snowe voted no.



NEW HAMPSHIRE Voting yes: Sununu, Gregg

Voting no: None

Not voting: None

NEW JERSEY Voting yes: Corzine, Lautenberg

Voting no: None

Not voting: None

NEW YORK Voting yes: None

Voting no: Clinton, Schumer

Not voting: None

OHIO Voting yes: None

Voting no: DeWine, Voinovich

Not voting: None

PENNSYLVANIA Voting yes: None

Voting no: Specter, Santorum

Not voting: None

RHODE ISLAND Voting yes: None

Voting no: Reed, Chafee

Not voting: None

VIRGINIA Voting yes: None

Voting no: Warner, Allen

Not voting: None

VERMONT Voting yes: None

Voting no: Leahy, Jeffords

Not voting: None

WEST VIRGINIA Voting yes: None

Voting no: Byrd, Rockefeller

Not voting: None -30- Copyright 2004, Roll Call Report Syndicate

AP-NY-05-14-04 1527EDT