Area Votes in Congress

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major issues last week:

House

Lawmakers' insider trading. Voting 417-2, the House on Thursday approved its version of a Senate-passed bill (S 2038) that would bar members of Congress and congressional staff from using confidential legislative information in their personal stock trading. But House GOP leaders dropped a Senate provision that would submit "political intelligence" operatives - those in the private sector who sell legally obtained policy information to Wall Street - to the same rules that govern lobbyists. The bill contains only a study of this unregulated activity, which is reported to generate at least $100 million annually in revenue from financial firms in search of inside information for guiding their trades.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Michael Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), Jon Runyan (R., N.J.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Not voting: John Carney (D., Del.).

Line-item veto. Voting 254-173, the House on Wednesday sent the Senate a bill (HR 3521) giving presidents authority to veto individual discretionary-spending items in overall appropriations bills if both houses of Congress go along with the proposed cancellations. Under the measure, presidents could send Congress "special messages," or veto packages, disapproving of one or more items in a given spending bill. The House and Senate would be required to promptly vote on these presidential rescissions, with majority votes needed in each chamber to put them into effect.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Andrews, Carney, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan, Schwartz, and Smith.

Voting no: Brady, Fattah, and Holden.

New accounting rules. Voting 245-180, the House on Tuesday sent the Senate a GOP bill (HR 3581) requiring the government to use private-sector-style accounting rules for figuring the cost of its direct-loan and loan-guarantee programs. This would sharply increase the cost of these programs in government budget calculations and thus make them larger targets for spending cuts. Under the bill, the loan programs would be valued at the fair-market value of the assets to which they are linked.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan, and Smith.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Carney, Fattah, Holden, and Schwartz.

Senate

Federal aviation budget. Voting 75-20, the Senate on Monday sent President Obama a bill (HR 658) to authorize federal aviation programs through Sept. 30, 2015, at a cost of $63.3 billion, including $13.4 billion for airport improvements, tens of billions of dollars for Federal Aviation Administration programs, and $190 million annually to subsidize commercial air service to smaller cities.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Chris Coons (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).

Voting no: Bob Casey (D., Pa.).

Federal transportation budget. Voting 85-11, the Senate on Thursday advanced a bill (S 1813) to authorize federal road, bridge, transit and highway-safety programs through Sept. 30, 2013, on a budget of $109 billion. All but $10 billion of the cost would be funded by the Highway Trust Fund, which draws its revenue from the 18.4 cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax and the 24.4 cent-per-gallon federal diesel tax. The bill's remaining costs would be covered by revenue measures such as higher taxation of Individual Retirement Account inheritances.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Coons, Lautenberg, Menendez and Toomey.

This week. Both chambers will debate bills to fund federal transportation programs through September 2013. Congress will be in Presidents Day recess the following week.