THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 16, 1996 TAG: 9609160050
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 132 lines
Here's how area members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending Sept. 13.
Corporations: The House defeated, 157 for and 260 against, a bill (HR 3759) to renew the Overseas Private Investment Corp. for five years while doubling its capacity to support foreign investments by U.S. corporations. Using taxpayer funds, OPIC provides loan guarantees and insurance for companies investing in unstable regions abroad. While the agency puts billions at risk, it always has generated annual profits for the Treasury. But foes said doubling of its loan and insurance authority, to about $45 billion, was ``welfare'' for blue-chip corporations. The bill also sought to reauthorize other trade agencies.
Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., said: ``The charge of corporate welfare is simply wrong. . . . (It) would be an appropriate label if OPIC gave away something for free, but it does not. The programs are fully paid for by the corporations which participate through fees and through premiums.''
Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., said: ``We cannot continue to underwrite the foreign investments of America's largest corporations. . . . We just ended welfare, government assistance, to millions of poor people, yet we are providing government assistance to companies to invest in foreign countries.''
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Bateman Yes Pickett Yes
Scott Didn't vote Sisisky Yes
Clayton Yes Jones No Senate
Same-sex marriages: Voting 85 for and 14 against, the Senate sent President Clinton a bill (HR 3396) empowering states not to recognize marriages between two people of the same sex. Also, the measure defines marriage in federal law as a union between one man and one woman, thus preventing gay partners from obtaining federal spousal benefits.
Anticipating that Hawaii soon will legalize homosexual marriages, the bill gives the other 49 states a legal basis for disregarding those unions. It says, in effect, that the Constitution's ``full faith and credit'' clause does not require a state to recognize a same-sex marriage from another state.
Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said: ``It is incomprehensible to me that federal legislation would be needed to provide a definition'' of marriage. ``To insist that male-male or female-female relationships must have the same status as the marriage relationship is more than unwise, it is patently absurd.''
Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., said: ``Based on the level of rhetoric from some members of Congress, you would think that the federal government's principal responsibility is issuing marriage licenses. . . . The federal government's only legitimate role in this area is to protect individual liberty and choice, not to restrict it.''
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Robb No Warner Yes
Faircloth Yes Helms Yes
Discrimination at work: By a vote of 49 for and 50 against, the Senate defeated a bill (S 2056) to protect homosexuals against discrimination at work based on their lifestyle. The measure sought to make it illegal for an employer to base hiring, firing, promotions or pay levels on an employee's sexual orientation. Religious organizations and the armed forces were among employers exempted from the bill.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said ``this act will eliminate job discrimination against gays and lesbians, and it represents the next major chapter in the American struggle to secure civil rights for all of our citizens.''
Orrin Hatch, R-Utah., said the bill ``represents a massive increase in federal power . . . bureaucrats, federal courts and plaintiffs' lawyers will be given enormous new sway over our nation's private employers, as well as state and local governments.''
Robb Yes Warner No
Faircloth No Helms No
Tagging explosives: Voting 57 for and 42 against, senators tabled (killed) a proposed study into requiring ``taggants,'' or tracing materials, as a standard ingredient of explosives. This occurred during debate on a fiscal 1997 appropriations bill for the Treasury Department and other agencies. The $23 billion measure (HR 3756) awaited final passage. Congress already has ordered a limited study of putting taggants in explosives. The amendment killed by this vote sought to expand it to cover the black and smokeless powder favored by some terrorists.
Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who voted to table the proposal, said it was wrong to pay for the $21 million taggants study by reducing the budget of the Internal Revenue Service. He said the agency already is ``imploring us to put some more money in the IRS.''
John Kerry, D-Mass., said: ``The ability to track the origin of explosive materials is an invaluable tool for criminal investigations, and I hope my colleagues will join me in adding black and smokeless powder to the study.''
A yes vote opposed the amendment expanding the taggants study.
Robb No Warner Yes
Faircloth Yes Helms Yes
Travel office: The Senate voted to reimburse about $500,000 in legal fees incurred by six White House Travel Office aides after they were fired by President Clinton's staff in May 1993. Senators refused, 46 for and 52 against, to remove the money from HR 3756 (above). Most of the payment would go to Billy Dale, the former office head, who won acquittal of criminal charges stemming from the episode.
Carl Levin, D-Mich., asked: ``What kind of a precedent would we set by including, in an appropriations bill, a payment for somebody's (Billy Dale's) attorney's fees who was rightfully indicted and was acquitted by a jury, which happens in our system?''
Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the reimbursement was in order because the ``Clinton White House victimized Billy Dale and the other members of the Travel Office, leading to an unprecedented political prosecution costing Mr. Dale upward of $500,000 in legal fees.''
A yes vote opposed paying legal fees of fired White House Travel Office aides.
Robb Yes Warner No
Faircloth No Helms No
Gun-free zones: The Senate made it a federal crime to possess a gun within 1,000 feet of a school, if the gun has moved in interstate commerce. This occurred when senators failed, on a vote of 27 for and 72 against, to table the so-called Gun-Free School Zones Act. The anti-gun language was added to HR 3756 (above), a fiscal 1997 appropriations bill that remained in debate.
Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., who voted to table the measure, said he, too, is concerned about ``the growing problem we have about guns in schools, but I simply believe we cannot afford to start federalizing every offense that states have traditionally been called upon to handle.''
Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said the federal government ``has a crucial role to play in dealing with the gun traffic that leads right into our classrooms. . . . Not every state has a law. And not every state law is adequately crafted to do the job.''
A yes vote opposed making it a federal crime to possess a gun within 1,000 feet of a school.
Robb No Warner No
Faircloth Yes Helms No ILLUSTRATION: Photos
KEYWORDS: SAME SEX MARRIAGE GAY MARRIAGE U.S SENATE VOTE by CNB