How your lawmaker voted

Sunday, October 1, 2006 - Page updated at 12:00 AM


How your lawmaker voted

By Thomas Voting Reports

WASHINGTON — Here's how the state's members of Congress voted in the week ending Friday.

HOUSE

National Intelligence Estimate: By a vote of 171-217, the House on Tuesday defeated a Democratic motion for a closed session to consider the latest NIE on terrorism. The document concludes that U.S. military involvement in Iraq has fueled the spread of decentralized global terrorism but states that U.S. counterterrorism efforts have "seriously damaged" al-Qaida leadership. NIEs express the collective judgment of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

Voting yes: Jay Inslee, D-1, Rick Larsen, D-2, Brian Baird, D-3, Norm Dicks, D-6, Jim McDermott, D-7, Adam Smith, D-9.

Voting no: Doc Hastings, R-4, Cathy McMorris, R-5, Dave Reichert, R-8.

Minors' abortions: By a vote of 264-153, the House on Tuesday passed a bill (S 403) that would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion to evade a law in her home state that requires parental notification and approval of planned abortions. The bill would set maximum penalties of a $100,000 fine and one year in jail for those providing the transportation and for providers who fail to notify parents 24 hours in advance of the procedure. The bill does not apply if the abortion is necessary to save the girl's life.

Voting yes: Hastings, McMorris, Reichert.

Voting no: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Establishment clause suits: By a vote of 244-173, the House on Tuesday prohibited courts from reimbursing legal costs of plaintiffs who prevail in lawsuits over taxpayer-funded religious displays such as Nativity scenes and Ten Commandment postings. The bill (HR 2679) is now before the Senate.

Voting yes: Hastings, McMorris, Reichert.


Voting no: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

2007 defense appropriations: By a vote of 394-22, the House on Wednesday approved the conference report on a bill (HR 5631) appropriating $447.6 billion for the Department of Defense in fiscal 2007. The bill would include $70 billion for at least six months of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, a 2.2 percent military pay raise and $9.4 billion for the missile-defense program.

Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Hastings, McMorris, Dicks, Reichert, Smith.

Voting no: McDermott.

Detainees: By a vote of 253-168, the House on Wednesday passed a bill (HR 6166) that would set rules for interrogating foreign detainees, trying terrorist suspects before U.S. military commissions and dealing with other "unlawful enemy combatants" who are in U.S. custody but not charged. Under the bill, those brought to trial are entitled to legal counsel, to see unclassified summaries of evidence and to appeal convictions in federal court on a limited basis, if at all. Prisoners not brought to trial would be denied the habeas corpus right to be formally charged and could be held indefinitely in the United States or abroad.

The bill would embrace Geneva Conventions proscriptions against torture, but would give presidents latitude to approve unspecified harsh techniques short of "grave breaches" of the conventions.

"Unlawful enemy combatant" would be broadly defined to permit detention of individuals, including U.S. citizens not directly engaged in combat or terrorist acts but thought to be supporters of terrorists. U.S. interrogators also would be given retroactive immunity against war crimes committed before 2006, including abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Voting yes: Hastings, McMorris, Reichert.

Voting no: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Expedited Supreme Court review: By a vote of 195-228, the House on Wednesday defeated a bid by Democrats for two major changes in HR 6166 (above). They sought to establish an expedited appeals process so that the Supreme Court could judge the law's constitutionality quickly, and to require after three years a "sunset" and automatic congressional review of the military commissions.

Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Voting no: Hastings, McMorris, Reichert.

Domestic eavesdropping: By a vote of 232-191, the House on Thursday agreed to the administration's program of warrantless domestic eavesdropping outside the limits of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The program entails National Security Agency monitoring of e-mail and international phone calls in which at least one participant is suspected of direct or indirect terrorist links. Current law requires secret FISA-court warrants within 72 hours after surveillance begins. This bill (HR 5825) would permit surveillance for 90 days without warrants and allow warrants to be issued for broad categories of spying rather than on a case-by-case basis as now required.

Voting yes: Hastings, McMorris, Reichert.

Voting no: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Surveillance limits: By a vote of 202-221, the House on Thursday rejected an alternative to HR 5825 (above) that sought, in part, to limit domestic eavesdropping without court warrants to seven days rather than the 90 days allotted by the underlying bill.

Voting yes: Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Voting no: Hastings, McMorris, Reichert.

Not voting: Inslee.

Senate

Terrorism suspects: By a vote of 43-54, the Senate on Wednesday defeated a bill cleared by the Armed Services Committee for interrogating and prosecuting enemy combatants. This advanced a less-restrictive measure (S 3930), drafted later by Senate Republicans and the Bush administration.

Voting yes: Maria Cantwell, D, Patty Murray, D.

Habeas corpus: By a vote of 48-51, the Senate on Thursday refused to establish the right of habeas corpus for terrorism prisoners. This preserved language in S 3930 (above) stripping federal courts of habeas corpus jurisdiction in cases involving U.S.-held terrorism suspects on U.S. soil or abroad.

Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray.

Detainees: By a vote of 65-34, the Senate on Thursday passed a bill (S 3930) that would set new rules for the imprisonment and trial of individuals regarded as U.S. enemies in the fight against terrorism. The bill was nearly identical to HR 6166 (House vote, above), and a combined measure was sent to President Bush for his signature.

Voting no: Cantwell, Murray.

2007 defense appropriations: By a vote of 100-0, the Senate on Thursday sent President Bush the conference report on a bill (HR 5631, above) appropriating $447.6 billion for the Department of Defense in fiscal 2007.

Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray.

Roll Call Report Syndicate

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/p ... all01.html