WASHINGTON – Here’s how Maine’s members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending July 16.

HOUSE Bioterror response

Voting 414 for and two against, the House on July 14 sent President Bush a bill (S 15) to begin a $5.6 billion, 10-year federal program to spur the development and stockpiling of drugs and vaccines for protecting the populace against biological, chemical, nuclear or radiological attacks. The bill streamlines contracting rules and provides financial incentives to encourage firms to develop pharmaceuticals and other countermeasures that have no broad commercial application. In extreme circumstances, it allows antidotes unapproved by the Food and Drug Administration to be administered on a large scale to victims of attacks.

A yes vote was to enact Project Bioshield.

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

Farmers’ markets

Voting 206 for and 213 against, the House on July 13 refused to shift nearly $6 million from a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administrative account to a program that helps small farmers sell directly to consumers at farmers’ markets. This occurred during debate on a bill (HR 4766), later passed, that appropriates $16.8 billion for the USDA, the Food and Drug Administration and related agencies in fiscal 2005.

A yes vote backed a six-fold increase for farmers’ markets.

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

Minority farmers

Voting 205 for and 209 against, the House on July 13 refused to transfer $3.5 million in HR 4766 (above) from rural development to initiatives to help minority farmers and ranchers receive the full benefit of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and, if need be, to file discrimination complaints. The amendment sought to increase the bill’s targeted funding for minorities from $14.3 million to $17.8 million.

A yes vote was to increase targeted funding for minorities by 25 percent.

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

Agribusiness subsidies

Voting 72 for and 347 against, the House on July 13 refused to end the Market Access Program (MAP), which uses taxpayer funds to help U.S. agribusinesses advertise overseas. The amendment sought to remove the program’s $125 million budget from HR 4766 (above).

Backers say the MAP mainly helps specialty-crop cooperatives compete against heavily subsidized foreign competitors, while critics denounce it as corporate welfare in a time of deficits. The MAP subsidizes groups such as the U.S. Meat Export Federation, the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin and the National Watermelon Promotion Board.

A yes vote was to kill the program.

Allen and Michaud voted no.

Food stamps

Voting 156 for and 262 against, the House on July 13 refused to require sponsors of legal immigrants to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for the immigrants’ use of Food Stamps. Such sponsors usually are family members. The amendment to HR 4766 (above) sought to require federal authorities to enforce an existing law that requires sponsors to keep immigrants from becoming “a public charge” with respect to welfare programs.

Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said “we should not be in the business of admitting people into the country for the purpose of allowing them to become a drain on the public Treasury. The fact is that we have a law on the books. It is not being upheld.”

No member spoke against the amendment.

A yes vote was to require Food Stamp reimbursement by immigrants’ sponsors.

Allen and Michaud voted no.

SENATE

Same-sex marriage

Voting 48 for and 50 against, the Senate on July 14 failed to reach the 60 votes needed to advance a proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriages (SJ Res 40). Had GOP sponsors won this procedural vote, they would have needed a two-thirds majority (67 votes with all senators voting) to gain approval of the amendment. While the measure appears dead this year in the Senate, the House plans to debate it in September.

The “Federal Marriage Amendment” states: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”

A yes vote was to advance the constitutional amendment.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R, voted no. Sen. Susan Collins, R, voted no.

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