Area Votes in Congress

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major roll calls last week.

House

Farm bill.

Members passed, 318-106, the conference report on a five-year, $289 billion farm bill renewing subsidies for major crops while funding nutrition, conservation programs.

A yes vote was to pass HR 2419.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Joe Sestak (D., Pa.)

Voting no: Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), H. James Saxton (R., N.J.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Not voting: Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.).

Strategic oil reserve.

Members voted, 385-25, to require the administration to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the rest of the year or until the price of crude oil drops below $75 a barrel.

A yes vote was to pass HR 6022.

Voting yes: Brady, Castle, Dent, Fattah, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Pitts, Saxton, Schwartz, Sestak, and Smith.

Not voting: Andrews and Gerlach.

New GI Bill.

Members established, 256-166, a GI Bill to pay post-9/11 veterans' college costs and use tax hikes on individual incomes over $500,000 and joint incomes over $1 million to pay for the program.

A yes vote was to also approve new domestic spending measures (HR 2642).

Voting yes: Andrews, Brady, Castle, Dent, Fattah, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak, Smith.

Voting no: Pitts, Saxton.

Not voting: Gerlach.

War funding.

Members defeated, 141-149, an amendment to HR 2642 that sought to appropriate $162.5 billion for additional war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many GOP members sat out the vote to protest being frozen out of deliberations.

A yes vote was to approve the war funding.

Voting yes: Castle, Dent, Holden, LoBiondo, Schwartz, and Sestak.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Fattah, and Murphy.

Voting present: Pitts, Saxton, and Smith.

Not voting: Gerlach.

Senate

Farm bill.

The Senate voted, 81-15, to join the House in passing a five-year farm bill renewing subsidies for growers of major crops.

A yes vote was to pass the bill (HR 2419).

Voting yes: Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.), Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Strategic oil reserve.

Senators voted, 97-1, to join the House in requiring the administration to suspend its filling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the end of the year or when crude oil drops below $75 a barrel for 90 days.

A yes vote backed the requirement (S 2284).

Voting yes: Biden, Carper, Casey, Menendez, Lautenberg, and Specter.

Ahead.

The House will take up the 2009 defense budget.