Area Votes in Congress

WASHINGTON - Here's how area members of Congress voted on major issues in the week ending Nov. 22.

House

Regulation of hydraulic fracturing. Voting 235 for and 187 against, the House on Wednesday passed a GOP bill (HR 2728) to prohibit federal regulation on federal and tribal lands of the energy-extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, a boom industry in many states in which chemical fluids are injected deep into the earth to break loose previously unrecoverable oil and gas deposits. Now before the Senate, the bill would give states sole authority to regulate fracking, as the process is called, on or under federal and tribal lands within their boundaries.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate, where it is likely to die.

Voting yes: Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), Michael Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.).

Voting no: John Carney (D., Del.), Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Jon Runyan (R., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Matt Cartwright (D., Pa.).

Senate

"Nuclear option" rules change. Voting 52 for and 48 against, the Senate on Nov. 21 weakened its filibuster rules to set a simple-majority, up-or-down vote as the new standard for advancing executive-branch nominees as well as judicial nominees other than Supreme Court selections. This virtually erased the 60-vote threshold for invoking cloture and thus ending filibusters against presidential nominees. But the 60-vote hurdle will continue to apply to filibusters against legislation. This rules change was dubbed "the nuclear option" because it is a politically explosive rollback of long-standing minority rights in the Senate.

A yes vote was to immediately put into effect a simple-majority standard for advancing presidential nominees.

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

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

Patricia Millett filibuster: Voting 55 for and 43 against, the Senate on Thursday invoked cloture on a previously successful Republican filibuster of the nomination of Patricia Ann Millett to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This was the Senate's first vote on a nominee after it changed its filibuster rules (above). The vote cleared the way for a simple-majority, up-or-down vote next month on Millett's nomination.

A yes vote was to end a GOP filibuster against Millett.

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

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

This week.

Congress is in Thanksgiving recess.