Area Votes in Congress

WASHINGTON - The House conducted no major votes last week. Here is how Philadelphia-area senators voted on major issues:

Senate

Disabilities treaty rejection. Voting 61-38, the Senate on Tuesday failed to reach a two-thirds majority needed to ratify an international treaty to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. The treaty is modeled after the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, which guarantees equal treatment for the disabled with respect to employment, government services, telecommunications, public accommodations such as transportation, and other "major life activities." More than 154 nations have ratified the treaty.

A yes vote was to ratify the treaty.

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

Voting no: Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).

2013 military budget. Voting 98-0, the Senate on Tuesday authorized a $631.6 billion military budget for fiscal 2013, including $88.5 billion for actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, $17.8 billion for nuclear-weapons programs run by the Department of Energy, $10.5 billion for the U.S. Special Operations Command, and $9.7 billion for space- and land-based missile defenses. The bill (S 3254) funds a 1.7 percent military pay raise, rejects the Pentagon's request for further rounds of base closings, beefs up Marine security at U.S. diplomatic facilities overseas, and provides Israel with $210 million for bolstering its Iron Dome defenses against incoming rockets.

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

Military options in Syria. Senators on Tuesday voted 92-6 to require the Pentagon to provide the Senate within 90 days with a classified assessment of U.S. military options in Syria, including the possibility of establishing no-fly zones enforced by American air power. The amendment was added to S 3254 (above).

Coons said the amendment ruled out U.S. ground troops in Syria and "will only look at a means that might be used by the United States or our allies to stop" Syria's air attacks on its own citizens.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

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

Normal trade with Russia. Voting 92-4, the Senate on Thursday sent President Obama a bill (HR 6156) to establish permanent, normal U.S. trade relations with Russia and Moldova under World Trade Organization rules that promote free trade and provide a forum for settling disputes. The bill repeals the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Act, a Cold War law that levied U.S. trade penalties on the Soviet Union and Russia over their restricting the emigration of Jewish dissidents. But the bill imposes new sanctions, such as U.S. visa and banking restrictions, on individual Russians linked by the State Department to human-rights abuses and corruption.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the White House.

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

This week. Congress could take up a fiscal cliff bill before this month's adjournment. Votes also could occur soon on bills to provide aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy, give final approval to the 2013 military budget, renew the Violence Against Women Act, pass a five-year farm bill, and reform the U.S. Postal Service.