THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 22, 1996 TAG: 9607220060
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 138 lines
Here's how area members of Congress voted for the week ending July 19. HOUSE
Congressional pay: The House voted 352-67 to deny cost-of-living salary increases to members of Congress, federal judges, the vice president, Cabinet members and top executive branch officials. This killed a proposed raise of about $3,000 for lawmakers, keeping their salary at $133,600 for the fifth year. The vote occurred during debate on a fiscal 1997 appropriations bill (HR 3756) for the Treasury Department and other government operations that was later sent to the Senate.
Jack Metcalf, R-Wash., said that if lawmakers give themselves a raise ``at the same time we ask the rest of our country to suffer reductions in government spending, we will lose credibility with America's taxpayers and voters. . . . This Congress has only just begun the important job of making the tough decisions necessary for the future of our country. We have not accomplished enough this session to justify a pay raise.''
Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said freshmen lawmakers sponsoring the freeze ``really are cutting off the future opportunity of their families to have a decent standard of living. . . . Indeed, we are leaving the House to people who are either born with a silver spoon in their mouth and they have got their own millions, or people who could not get better jobs in the first place.''
A yes vote was to freeze certain salaries in all three federal branches.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes Scott Yes Sisisky Yes Clayton No Jones Yes
Welfare: By a vote of 256-170, the House passed a bill to end welfare as a federal entitlement and send Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) and other assistance programs to the states along with block grants to cap spending.
The bill (HR 3734) retains some federal controls, including limiting nondisabled people to five years of benefits and requiring most welfare recipients to obtain job training or a private or government paycheck within two years. It requires unwed teenage mothers on welfare to attend school and live with a responsible adult, and discontinues expanded benefits based on more babies. Nondisabled, unemployed adults under 50 without dependent children will be virtually removed from the food stamp program (see issue below), and most future legal immigrants and some present ones will be denied most forms of public assistance.
The bill would curb the growth of federal spending on welfare by an estimated $66 billion over six years.
David Camp, R-Mich., said: ``For too long, the federal government has maintained policies which have created a culture of poverty, dependence and despair. . . . Personal responsibility is the focus of this legislation. Individuals must accept responsibility for their actions and work with government programs to improve their lives.''
Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said welfare ``has become the political football in this election year. Children and families are going to be hurt if this bill is signed into law. . . . Some politicians will use this bill to get re-elected rather than spend their time to produce credible, sensible welfare reform.''
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes Scott No Sisisky Yes Clayton No Jones Yes
Substitute: The House rejected, 258-168, a welfare proposal by Michael Castle, R-Del., and John Tanner, D-Tenn., that sought support from both parties.
Among its differences with the underlying GOP bill (HR 3734, above), the bi-partisan substitute funded vouchers so that children could continue to receive benefits after parents were removed from welfare, spent more for work programs, was less restrictive with food stamps, and gave states less leeway in spending their Washington block grants.
Bill Orton, D-Utah, said ``welfare reform should not hurt innocent children who have no choice whether they are born or whether their parents can find work.''
Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the substitute had loopholes in its work requirements and puts states ``in a straitjacket, giving them very little freedom to design their own reform programs.''
A yes vote supported the substitute. Bateman No Pickett Yes Scott Yes Sisisky Yes Clayton Yes Jones No
Food stamps: The House voted 239-184 to limit access to food stamps by nondisabled adults who are unemployed, under 50 years and not raising children. Under the amendment to HR 3734 (above), they could receive stamps for only three months during a lifetime in addition to months in which they are in ``workfare'' or employed at least halftime.
The vote tightened underlying language in the bill that already limited these individuals to four months' eligibility for stamps in a given year.
Bob Ney, R-Ohio, said: ``If you want assistance from your government and you are 18 to 50 years old, and you don't have dependents, and you are capable of working, then you have simply to work'' to get food stamps.
Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, said the ``extreme'' measure wrongly assumes ``that for every person cut off from food stamps there is a job. Common sense tells us that is not the case.''
A yes vote was to further tighten the bill's restrictions on nondisabled people who receive food stamps.
Bateman Yes Pickett No Scott No Sisisky Yes Clayton No Jones Yes SENATE
Defense budget: By a vote of 72-27, the Senate sent to conference with the House a bill (HR 3610) to appropriate $244.7 billion for the Department of Defense in fiscal 1997, about $10 billion more than sought by President Clinton.
On a unanimous vote, senators added $150 million for a crash program to help the United States prevent or cope with a terrorist attack using ``weapons of mass destruction.''
The bill funds a 3 percent military pay raise and budgets $3.65 billion for developing anti-missile defenses on land and sea and in space, about 33 percent more than the president requested for 1997.
Sam Nunn, D-Ga., said the $150 million anti-terrorist initiative was added ``not to frighten anyone'' but because ``the threat of attack on American cities and towns by terrorists, malcontents or representatives of hostile powers using radiological, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, in my view, is a top and vital national security interest of this country.''
Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, objected to a Pentagon policy, which he unsuccessfully sought to amend, that allows defense contractors to pass through corporate acquisition costs to taxpayers. ``You heard me right,'' he said. ``Any defense contractor that merges, acquires other companies, the taxpayers get to pick up the bill'' at an estimated cost of $300 million in recent years.
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Helms Yes Faircloth Yes Robb Yes Warner Yes
Democratic plan: By a vote of 53-46, the Senate rejected a Democratic substitute to an underlying GOP welfare overhaul bill (S 1956) that remained in debate. Among major differences, Democrats funded a guaranteed level of medical and social services on the state level for welfare children, and set a faster timetable for requiring welfare recipients to find a private sector or government paycheck. The Democratic approach saved about $15 billion less than the GOP plan's $66 billion over six years.
Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the Democratic approach ``is tough on parents, but not on children,'' while the Republicans failed to guarantee child care or health care for youngsters.
``Their idea of a safety net is a sieve,'' he added.
Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., said the GOP bill would ``strike a balance between giving power to the states and to local communities to set expectations for work and responsibility . . . and maintaining a safety net for children and hardship cases.''
A yes vote supported the Democrats' plan to overhaul welfare.
Helms No Faircloth No Robb Yes Warner No ILLUSTRATION: [Photos, telephone numbers and addresses of senators
and representatives from Virginia and North Carolina.]
To reach any representative or senator on any issues that concern
you, call (202) 224-3121. by CNB