Area Votes in Congress

WASHINGTON - The Senate was in recess the week ending Dec. 6. Here's how area House members voted on major issues:

House

Gun-control renewal. On a non-record "voice" vote, the House on Tuesday renewed for 10 years a statute outlawing firearms capable of evading X-ray machines at airports and walk-through metal detectors used by airports and other facilities. The bill (HR 3626) is now before the Senate, where it is likely to be passed without change and sent to President Obama before the law expires Dec. 9.

Because this was a voice vote, there is no record of where individual members stood on the legislation.

Financial deregulation. Voting 254-159, the House on Wednesday stripped the Dodd-Frank financial-regulation law of its requirement that most private-equity firms register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and meet SEC reporting requirements about their balance sheets. The GOP-sponsored bill (HR 1105) is now before the Senate.

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

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

Voting no: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Matt Cartwright (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), and Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.).

Abusive patent litigation. Voting 325-91, the House on Thursday passed a bill (HR 3309) giving courts more tools for curbing an abusive business and litigation strategy known as "patent trolling." The practice consists of holders of weak patents threatening or filing patent-infringement lawsuits of dubious validity, then collecting settlements because the targeted company cannot afford or chooses not to pay the high cost of lengthy litigation.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate, where it is expected to advance.

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

Voting no: Andrews, Carney, and Cartwright.

This week. Both chambers will take up a bipartisan budget plan. The House will debate Medicare payments to doctors as well as a short-term extension of farm programs and food-stamp funding. The Senate will consider a gun-control measure and resume debate on the 2014 military budget, and may also hold confirmation votes on presidential nominees.