I have read of some votes of interest coming out of the Congress recently. One involved GOP legislation that would begin the debate on cutting $ 60 billion or more from the budget for 2011. It was approved by a vote of 256 to 165. However, the democrats wanted a provision added that would "deny federal contracts to any company that the Department of Labor finds to be outsourcing its jobs". That provision was defeated by the GOP including Scott Garrett from my district. Why would the GOP oppose a plan to keep jobs in this country? This was in HR-38. Another piece of legislation that failed due to GOP opposition was a provision to require "TV attack ads and other campaign spots to identify the corporation, union or foreign government paying for it". The vote was 228 to 173. The bill is H 359. Votes in the Senate were also disturbing. They both were on filibusters. The first vote defeated legislation that would have required Senators to be "present and talking" while conducting a filibuster that was aimed at "killing a bill or nomination". Does this mean a senator can be in the "john" while filibustering? I guess he can fart it to death. This was SR 21. The second bill would have allowed for the reduction of votes needed to end a filibuster from 60 votes to 51-a simple majority. It failed by a vote of 84 to 12 with one of the 12 being Frank Lautenberg of NJ. Maybe this is what passes for bi-partisanship in the Senate.
(Source: "North Jersey Tally: How your US lawmakers voted" In The Record on 1/30/11)
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