WASHINGTON – Here’s how area members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending Sept. 24.

HOUSE Family travel to Cuba

Voting 225 for and 174 against, the House on Sept. 21 blocked new administration limits on visits by Cuban-Americans with family members in Cuba. The Treasury Department rules permit one 14-day visit every three years and redefine “family” to exclude all but parents and siblings. The previous rules allowed annual visits to aunts, uncles and cousins as well as immediate family. The vote occurred as the House passed a fiscal 2005 spending bill (HR 5025) for Treasury and other agencies.

A yes vote was to repeal new limits on family travel to Cuba.

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

Free Cuba trade

Voting 188 for and 225 against, the House on Sept. 22 refused to end U.S. economic sanctions on Cuba and thus allow free, two-way trade with the Communist state. Under a 43-year embargo, only American medicine and food can be exported to Cuba, but public or private U.S. financing cannot be used for those sales. The vote occurred during debate on HR 5025 (above).

A yes vote backed free, two-way trade with Cuba.

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

Civil Service jobs

The House on Sept. 21 voted, 210 for and 187 against, to require the administration to redraft its plan to privatize hundreds of thousands of federal jobs by means of bidding competition between companies and civil servants. Backers said that sending the program back to the drawing board would add fairness to the process and help civil servants retain their work. Foes said the amendment to HR 5025 would result in a less efficient, more costly delivery of government services.

Issued in May 2003, the so-called “Circular A-76” rules give private companies standing to compete with civil servants for at least 425,000 jobs – a quarter of the federal workforce – that are defined as “commercial” or not inherently governmental.

John Tierney, D-Mass., said: “This administration has been, in fact, waging an all-out assault on the American worker. And now they are…extending those attacks on the benefits and protections of workers who have chosen public service as a career.”

A yes vote was to redraw the privatization program.

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

Cash-balance pensions

The House on Sept. 21 voted, 237 for and 162 against, to prevent the administration from joining IBM in appealing a 2003 federal court ruling that the company’s conversion of defined-benefit pension plans to cash-balance plans is age discrimination. The ruling was by Chief Judge G. Patrick Murphy of the Southern District of Illinois.

Under defined-benefit plans, retirees receive a specific sum for life based on factors such as years with the company and peak salary. In a typical cash-balance plan, workers contribute a set percentage of salary, which draws interest based on fixed or variable rates. Cash-balance plans are portable from job to job. In the hundreds of conversions that have occurred nationwide, many workers have come out ahead while others, particularly older ones nearing their best earning years, have lost pension value.

Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., said: “This precedent-setting court ruling against cash-balance plans confirms what American workers have been saying for years: Cash-balance pension conversions discriminate against workers based on age, are illegal and, without adequate protections for older workers, must be stopped.”

A yes vote backed the amendment to HR 5025.

Allen and Michaud voted yes.

SENATE

Goss confirmation

Voting 77 for and 17 against, the Senate on Sept. 22 confirmed Porter J. Goss, 65, as director of central intelligence. The eight-term GOP congressman has been chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and is a former CIA agent. While supporters said his experience qualifies him to lead the CIA, critics said he has a record of opposing intelligence reforms and waging partisan attacks.

Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said Goss “has the experience, the character, the credibility, the knowledge, the disposition, and the predilection for reform to lead this comprehensive overhaul and restructuring of our entire intelligence community.”

John Reed, D-R.I., said: “It is important that our intelligence not be partisan, yet Mr. Goss has been… fiercely critical of former President Clinton, our colleague Senator Kerry, and the Democratic Party. His comments do not lead me to believe that he will now abandon his partisanship or his political approach….”

A yes vote was to confirm Goss.

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

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