Area Votes in Congress

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

House

Upgrade of veterans' health care. By a vote of 420-5, the House on Wednesday adopted the conference report on a bipartisan bill (HR 3230) appropriating $17 billion to help the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) improve its medical services and rebound from a scandal that involved lengthy waits for appointments at DVA hospitals and clinics, falsification of records to give the appearance of prompt care, payment of unwarranted bonuses to managers who covered up problems, and the apparently forced resignation of Eric Shinseki as secretary of Veterans Affairs.

A yes vote was to send the conference report to the Senate, where it was adopted and sent to President Obama for his signature.

Voting yes: Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), John Carney (D., Del.), Matt Cartwright (D., Pa.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., 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.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Regulation of pesticide discharges. Voting 267-161, the House on Thursday passed a bill (HR 935) that would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from requiring permits under the Clean Water Act for discharges into navigable waters of pesticides authorized for use under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Clean Water Act permits still would be required for discharges regulated by that law as municipal or industrial waste or storm water.

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

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

Voting no: Brady, Cartwright, Fattah, and Schwartz.

GOP lawsuit against President Obama. On a nearly party-line vote of 225-201, members on Wednesday authorized a Republican-drafted, House lawsuit against President Obama on grounds that he overstepped his constitutional powers by acting on his own to delay the start of the Affordable Care Act's employer mandate from Jan. 1, 2014, to Jan. 1, 2015, or later. The measure (H Res 676) did not need Senate concurrence and took effect immediately.

A yes vote was to file a civil lawsuit against President Obama in federal court.

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

Voting no: Brady, Carney, Cartwright, Fattah, and Schwartz.

Endangered Species Act hurdles. Voting 233-190, the House on Tuesday passed a Republican-drafted bill (HR 4315) requiring the Department of the Interior to publish online the scientific basis of all new "endangered species" and "threatened species" designations under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. The bill also requires the department to treat data from state, local, and tribal governments as "best available science" in making decisions on species protection.

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

Voting yes: Dent, Gerlach, Meehan, Pitts, and Runyan.

Voting no: Brady, Carney, Cartwright, Fattah, Fitzpatrick, LoBiondo, Schwartz, and Smith.

Senate

Improvements in veterans' care. Voting 91-3, the Senate on Thursday adopted the conference report on a bill (HR 3230, above) to appropriate $17 billion for improvement of veterans' medical care.

A yes vote was to send the bill to President Obama for his signature.

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.).

Funds to ease border crisis. Voting 50-44, the Senate on Thursday failed to reach the 60 votes needed to advance a bill (S 2648) providing emergency appropriations to help agencies deal with tens of thousands of unaccompanied child immigrants from Central America who have illegally entered the United States.

A yes vote supported the bill despite GOP arguments that the spending should be offset by increased revenue or cuts elsewhere rather than added to federal debt.

Voting yes: Booker, Carper, Casey, Coons, and Menendez.

Voting no: Toomey.

New money for highways. Voting 79-18, the Senate on Tuesday sent back to the House a bill (HR 5021) to add $8.1 billion to the Highway Trust Fund to finance road, bridge, and mass-transit construction through Dec. 19. That ending date would provide an incentive for Congress to agree on a more permanent means of adequately funding highway and transit infrastructure as part of a multiyear transportation bill that is on the table.

Toomey said: "The fact is our federal environmental permitting process for infrastructure is broken. It is too cumbersome. It takes too long. It is too costly. It is a huge problem."

A yes vote was to send the bill to the House, where it was promptly rejected.

Voting yes: Booker, Carper, Casey, Coons, and Menendez.

Voting no: Toomey.

State control of transportation. Voting 28-69, the Senate on Tuesday defeated an amendment to HR 5021 (above) that would devolve all federal highway and mass-transit programs except the Interstate Highway System to the states over five years. Under the amendment, the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon would be reduced to 3.7 cents by 2019.

A yes vote was to shift most federal transportation programs to the states and cut the federal gasoline tax by 80 percent.

Voting yes: Toomey.

Voting no: Booker, Carper, Casey, Coons, and Menendez.

Ahead. Congress is in recess until the week of Sept. 8.