Area Votes in Congress

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area senators voted on major issues last week (House not in session):

Senate

Senate-confirmation reforms. Senators passed, 79-20, a bill (S 679) that would trim from about 1,200 to about 1,000 the number of presidential appointees other than judicial nominees subject to the Senate's lengthy, cumbersome confirmation process. The bill also would end the requirement for the Senate to confirm some 3,000 commissioned officers in the Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Now awaiting House action, the bill also would establish a panel to recommend more efficient ways of conducting FBI background checks and obtaining nominees' financial disclosures.

The Senate then approved a companion measure (S Res 116) to streamline confirmation procedures for nearly 300 specified officials, including appointees to advisory boards, chief financial officers of agencies and assistant secretaries for legislative affairs.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

U.S. support of monetary fund. Voting 44-55, the Senate defeated an amendment to S 679 (above) to cut off a special $100 billion U.S. line of credit to the International Monetary Fund that Congress approved in 2009. The IMF that year used the American credit and similar loans from 19 other countries to inject liquidity into a reeling world economy.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Toomey.

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

Duplicative federal programs. Voting 63-34, senators failed to reach a two-thirds majority needed to change Senate rules to require continual Congressional Research Service studies on whether proposed federal programs would duplicate existing ones. Under the amendment to S Res 116, an individual senator could single-handedly block any bill that lacks a CRS report on its potential for duplicating programs already on the books.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey, and Toomey.

Voting no: Coons, Menendez, and Lautenberg.

CIA Director Petraeus. By a unanimous vote of 94-0, the Senate confirmed Gen. David H. Petraeus, 58, as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Petraeus has been commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and before that he led the U.S. Central Command and directed the 2007 U.S. troop surge in Iraq.

A yes vote was to confirm Petraeus.

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

This week. The House will resume work on the fiscal 2012 defense budget, while the Senate may debate U.S. involvement in the air war over Libya. The Senate canceled its Independence Day recess in deference to the White House-GOP talks on raising the national-debt ceiling.