DATE: Monday, May 19, 1997                  TAG: 9705190032
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:  109 lines

ROLL CALL: HOW AREA MEMBERS OF CONGRESS VOTED.

Here's how area members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending May 16.

HOUSE

Public housing: By a vote of 293-132, the House passed a GOP bill (HR 2) shifting most power over public housing from Washington to the nation's 3,400 housing authorities. Local officials would make their own management decisions within U.S. guidelines and backed by federal funding. The bill seeks to end generational dependency on public shelter, in part by requiring able-bodied adult tenants to perform eight hours' community service work each month or enter job training. A new voucher system would enable some occupants to leave the projects for private sector apartments. Additionally, housing authorities could accept many more ``working poor'' as tenants, in some cases displacing the destitute. The bill eases a longstanding policy that generally limits rents to 30 percent of income, allowing tenants to negotiate flat rents or continue to pay according to their means.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Bateman Yes Pickett Yes

Scott No Sisisky Yes

Clayton No Jones Yes

Special education: Voting 420-3, the House passed legislation (HR 5) giving local school districts additional resources and disciplinary authority for educating the more than 5 million students nationwide with physical, emotional, and learning disabilities. The bill would increase by at least 50 percent the more than $3 billion now spent annually under a 1975 law requiring that disabled students receive an appropriate public education. It gives administrators more power to suspend disruptive students, including those possessing weapons and drugs, and it sets up a framework for increased parent involvement. The bill phases in changes in the per-capita formula for distributing funds, in response to criticism that some schools overcount disabled students, or wrongly classify some students as disabled, to garner more aid.

Robert Scott, D-Va., said the bill ``moves us toward fulfilling the promise we set 22 years ago, to provide a free and appropriate public education for all children with disabilities.''

No member spoke against the legislation.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Bateman No Pickett Yes

Scott Yes Sisisky Yes

Clayton Yes Jones Yes

Spending bill: Voting 244-178, the House passed a bill (HR 1469) providing $5.5 billion in disaster relief for the Upper Midwest and other regions, $2 billion for peacekeeping in Bosnia and the Middle East, and nearly $1 billion for a long list of foreign and domestic programs that need additional funding this fiscal year. President Clinton said he likely will veto the bill over its GOP language to automatically fund the government next fiscal year - at present spending levels - in the event Congress fails to enact regular budget bills by Oct. 1. Sponsors promised the bill would be ``deficit neutral'' by the time it clears a conference committee and reaches the White House.

A yes vote was to pass the $8.4 billion spending bill.

Bateman Yes Pickett Yes

Scott No Sisisky Yes

Clayton Yes Jones No

Shutdown: By a vote of 227-197, the House adopted a GOP amendment to keep the government totally open in fiscal 1998 in the event Congress and the White House fail to agree on regular spending bills by the start of the new budget year Oct. 1. The amendment to HR 1469 (above) would fund programs at fiscal 1997 levels, which would amount to an across-the-board spending cut in at least the first part of the new year.

A yes vote backed a GOP contingency plan for automatic fiscal 1998 funding.

Bateman Yes Pickett No

Scott No Sisisky No

Clayton No Jones Yes

Nutrition: The House voted, 338-89, to double spending in HR 1469 (above) for the Women's, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program. This increased WIC funding in the bill from $38 million to $76 million, with the add-on taken from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration accounts. Backers said it was needed to cover a shortfall in the nutrition program for low-income families. Overall, about $3.7 billion will be spent on WIC this fiscal year, according to floor debate.

A yes vote was to increase WIC spending in the bill from $38 million to $76 million.

Bateman No Pickett Yes

Scott Yes Sisisky Yes

Clayton Yes Jones Yes

SENATE

Abortion: By a vote of 36-64, the Senate rejected an amendment to outlaw late-term abortions performed after the fetus has reached ``viability,'' commonly defined as the ability to live outside the womb with or without life support. The amendment was sponsored by Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Its only exceptions were to allow late-term abortions to save the mother's live or spare her what a doctor certifies to be ``grievous injury'' from continued pregnancy. The amendment was offered to a bill (HR 1122) making it a crime to perform what critics label a ``partial-birth'' abortion, in which the doctor partially extracts the fetus and then aborts it. The underlying bill remained in debate.

A yes vote favored the Daschle amendment.

Robb Yes Warner No

Helms No Faircloth 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.

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