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How area members of Congress voted

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major issues last week: House Keystone pipeline, climate change. Voting 270-152, the House on Wednesday sent the White House a bill (S 1) giving final federal approval of the Keystone XL pipeline while declaring "climate change is real and not a hoax." The bill approves a pi

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

House

Keystone pipeline, climate change. Voting 270-152, the House on Wednesday sent the White House a bill (S 1) giving final federal approval of the Keystone XL pipeline while declaring "climate change is real and not a hoax." The bill approves a pipeline leg reaching more than 900 miles from the Canadian border to Steele City, Neb. This would be the final link in a nearly 4,000-mile Keystone network for shipping tar-sands crude from Hardisty, Alberta, to refineries in Texas and the Midwest and ports on the Texas Gulf Coast.

A yes vote was to send the bill to President Obama, who said he would veto it.

Voting yes: Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Ryan Costello (R., Pa.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Tom MacArthur (R., N.J.), Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), Donald Norcross (D., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Voting no: Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.), John Carney (D., Del.), and Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.).

Not voting: Matt Cartwright (D., Pa.) and Michael Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.).

Liability for oil spills. By a vote of 181-241, the House on Wednesday refused to require the Keystone XL pipeline to pay into the government's Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. Sponsored by Democrats, this motion to S 1 (above) sought to void an IRS ruling under which crude extracted from tar sands is exempted from mandatory support of the oil-spill fund.

A yes vote was to require the Keystone XL pipeline to contribute to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

Voting yes: Boyle, Brady, Carney, Fattah, and Norcross.

Voting no: Costello, Dent, LoBiondo, MacArthur, Meehan, Pitts, and Smith.

Not voting: Cartwright and Fitzpatrick.

Charitable deductions, national debt. By a vote of 279-137, the House on Thursday passed a GOP-drafted bill (HR 644) giving permanent status to tax deductions received by businesses for donating food inventories to charitable organizations. Because the bill is not paid for, it is projected by the Joint Committee on Taxation to add $2.2 billion to the national debt through fiscal 2025.

Separately, the bill gives permanent status to tax deductions for conservation easements and allows contributions to be made from Individual Retirement Accounts to charities.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate, where it may face a 60-vote hurdle.

Voting yes: Boyle, Costello, Dent, Fitzpatrick, LoBiondo, MacArthur, Meehan, Pitts, and Smith.

Voting no: Brady, Carney, Fattah, and Norcross.

Not voting: Cartwright.

Depreciation breaks, federal deficits. By a vote of 272-142, the House on Friday passed a GOP-drafted bill (HR 636) giving permanent status to tax-code provisions that allow small and medium-size businesses to immediately depreciate the full cost of equipment and certain other property. Because the bill is not paid for, it is projected to add $77 billion to federal deficits through fiscal 2025. The bill would allow companies to depreciate up to $500,000 annually in qualified property, with a limit of $2 million per year in total write-offs.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate, where it may face a 60-vote hurdle.

Voting yes: Costello, Dent, Fitzpatrick, LoBiondo, MacArthur, Meehan, Pitts, and Smith.

Voting no: Boyle, Brady, Carney, Fattah, and Norcross.

Not voting: Cartwright.

Senate

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. By a vote of 93-5, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Ashton B. Carter, 60, as the nation's 25th secretary of defense. A physicist, Carter served from 2009-13 as deputy secretary of defense and undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. He is a former department chair at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and has been an adviser to Goldman Sachs and a partner in Global Technology Partners, a Beltway investment-advice firm. Carter was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Abington.

A yes vote was to confirm Carter as the fourth secretary of defense under President Obama.

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

Ahead. Congress is in recess next week. It returns Feb. 24 to face a deadline three days later for either funding the Department of Homeland Security or allowing parts of it to shut down.