WASHINGTON – Here’s how area members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending June 25.

HOUSE 2005 miliary appropriations

The House on June 22 approved, 403 for and 17 against, $417 billion in U.S. military appropriations for fiscal 2005. In part, the bill (HR 4613) includes $25 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan; funds deployment of National Missile Defense interceptors this year at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and Fort Greely in Alaska; funds a 3.5 percent military pay raise and expands the Army by 20,000 troops and the Marine Corps by 9,000 troops. A non-military provision raises the national debt ceiling by $690 billion to more than $8 trillion.

In a two-stage process, the House and Senate first authorize the defense budget and then take up separate bills to appropriate, or actually spend, most but not all of the authorized level. In a vote below, the Senate passed the 2005 defense authorization bill.

Objecting to the National Missile Defense, Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said methods of future attacks “have already been demonstrated at the World Trade Center…the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the U.S.S. Cole, the U.S. embassies in Africa, the trains in Madrid and the subway in Tokyo. A nuclear weapon is much more likely to be delivered on a truck than a ballistic missile.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Rep. Tom Allen,D, and Rep. Michael Michaud, D, voted yes.

Collective bargaining

Voting 202 for and 218 against, the House on June 22 defeated an amendment to HR 4613 (above) to guarantee the collective-bargaining rights of 700,000 civilian employees covered by new personnel rules at the Department of Defense. The rules are part of a government-wide administrative easing of civil service protections in order to give supervisors more leeway to hire, fire, transfer and set the pay levels of their staffs. Backers call the rules necessary to improve the performance of the federal workforce while opponents call them an attempt to privatize and thus weaken the civil service.

Sponsor Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said his amendment insures “that the 700,000 men and women who are so ably performing their duties today as part of our war against terrorism…retain their American rights of collective bargaining…of appeal if they have been abused on the job….”

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

SENATE

2005 defense budget

Voting 97 for and none against, the Senate on June 23 passed a bill (S 2400) authorizing $447.2 billion in fiscal 2005 defense spending, including $25 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill expands the Army by 20,000 soldiers to a total deployment of 502,400 by 2007; funds a 3.5 percent military pay raise; affirms a new round of domestic base closures; upholds the Pentagon’s use of private contractors to interrogate prisoners; extends a ban on privately financed abortions at U.S. military hospitals abroad and provides $36.5 million for developing tactical nuclear bombs known as “mini-nukes” and “bunker-busters,” both designed for possible use on battlefields.

Also, the bill authorizes $10.2 billion to advance the National Missile Defense while allowing the system to be deployed before it is operationally tested; expands the federal law against hate crimes in both military and civilian life and extends the military health plan to all National Guard and Army Reserve members, not just those activated.

In non-military provisions, the bill increases fines for broadcast indecency ninefold to $275,000 per incident and continues the ban in most communities on one company owning both a newspaper and a broadcast station.

A yes vote was to send the bill to negotiation with the House.

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

G.I coffin secrecy

Voting 39 for and 54 against, the Senate on June 21 refused to overturn the administration ban on news photographs of flag-draped coffins as they leave Iraq or arrive in the United States. The vote occurred during debate on S 2400 (above).

Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said the “this directive requiring strict censorship issued just as the Iraq war began prevents the American people from seeing the truth about what is happening.”

John Warner, R-Va., said that protecting “the privacy of the families” deserves precedence over “greater scrutiny by the press” of Iraq war coffins.

A yes vote backed news coverage of Iraq war coffins.

Snowe voted yes, Collins voted no.

Missile defense cut

Voting 44 for and 56 against, the Senate on June 22 refused to shift $515 million in S 2400 (above) from the soon-to-be-deployed National Missile Defense to anti-terrorism programs such as those aimed at developing technology for detecting explosive devices from a distance; intensifying screening for weapons of mass destruction in cargo at U.S. ports, and preventing terrorists from obtaining any of the weapons-grade plutonium and uranium now loose in the world.

A yes vote was to shift funds from missile defense to anti-terrorism programs.

Snowe and Collins both voted no.

Veterans’ entitlement

Senators on June 23 failed, 49 for and 48 against, to reach 60 votes needed to change veterans’ health care to an entitlement alongside Medicare and Social Security.

The amendment to S 2400 sought mandatory funding for veterans’ care in place of the uncertainty of annual, discretionary appropriations. The entitlement was to start at $30 billion per year with yearly adjustments for inflation.

Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the administration has been “taking any and all steps necessary to restrict the number of veterans treated…including rationing care, sending the bill collectors after veterans and blocking enrollments….That is not a policy, that is a disgrace….”

A yes vote was to make veterans’ health care an entitlement program.

Snowe and Collins voted yes.