KEY VOTES AHEAD
Congress will be in Presidents Day recess the week of Feb. 20.
Here's how Arizona members of Congress voted on major issues in the week ending Feb 17.
HOUSE
PAYROLL TAXES, JOBLESS BENEFITS
Voting 293 for and 132 against, the House on Feb. 17 sent the Senate a bill (HR 3630) extending through December a payroll-tax cut under which 160 million U.S. workers for the past 14 months have been contributing 4.2 percent of their pay to Social Security, down from the standard 6.2 percent. Deficit spending would pay the projected $100 billion cost. The bill also prevents cuts in payment levels to doctors serving Medicare patients and extends jobless benefits through December for millions of the long-term jobless. The bill's Medicare and jobless sections are projected to cost $50 billion, to be paid for by revenue measures such as selling public airwaves for use in expanding broadband services, increasing pension contributions by newly hired federal workers and scaling back the preventive-care section of the 2010 heath law.
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A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Yes: Ed Pastor, D-4, David Schweikert, R-5, Raul Grijalva, D-7
No: Trent Franks, R-2, Ben Quayle, R-3, Jeff Flake, R-6
Not voting: Paul Gosar, R-1
EXPANDED OIL AND GAS DRILLING
By a vote of 237 for and 187 against, the House on Feb. 16 passed a bill (HR 3408) to nearly triple America's offshore oil and gas production by 2027, authorize the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline, open a small area of the 20-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling and start commercial energy extraction from oil-shale deposits on federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The bill would require the administration to open certain expanses off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to energy exploration and to conduct lease sales in areas off the Virginia and Alaska shores and in the central and western Gulf of Mexico. Royalties on these energy measures would provide $4.3 billion to the Treasury over ten years. The revenue would be used to defray less than 2 percent of the $260 billion cost of a companion bill to fund highway and mass-transit projects over five years.
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Yes: Gosar, Franks, Quayle, Schweikert, Flake
No: Pastor, Grijalva
KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE
Voting 173 for and 254 against, the House on Feb. 15 refused to require that petroleum products made from crude oil shipped in the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline be sold in the United States. The amendment was offered to HR 3408 (above), a bill that "deems" the pipeline to have federal approval. The administration last month denied an application by TransCanada Corp. to build the pipeline, saying it could not meet a tight deadline imposed by Congress. President Obama invited the company to submit a new application.
A yes vote backed the amendment.
Yes: Pastor
No: Gosar, Franks, Quayle, Schweikert, Flake, Grijalva
EVERGLADES, GREAT LAKES DRILLING BAN
Voting 176 for and 241 against, the House on Feb. 16 defeated a Democratic motion to bar oil and natural-gas drilling authorized by HR 3408 (above) within five miles of the Florida Everglades or the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes (Ontario, Erie, Huron, Superior and Michigan) border eight states in the Northeast and Midwest and hold about 20 percent of the fresh water on the earth's surface.
A yes vote backed the motion.
Yes: Pastor, Grijalva
No: Gosar, Franks, Quayle, Schweikert, Flake
CALIFORNIA OFFSHORE DRILLING
Voting 160 for and 267 against, the House on Feb. 15 defeated an amendment to strip HR 3408 (above) of its mandate that oil and gas drilling be resumed on idle platforms offshore from Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in Southern California, areas where drilling has been banned since a 1969 spill in Santa Barbara Channel.
A yes opposed the drilling mandate.
Yes: Pastor, Grijalva
No: Gosar, Franks, Quayle, Schweikert, Flake
OIL-SPILL ECONOMIC DAMAGES
Voting 188 for and 236 against, the House on Feb. 15 defeated an amendment requiring applications for oil and gas leases under HR 3408 (above) to include worst-case projections of economic damages in the event of an oil spill. This would be in addition to projections of environmental harm.
A yes vote backed the amendment.
Yes: Pastor, Grijalva
No: Gosar, Franks, Quayle, Schweikert, Flake
SENATE
PAYROLL TAXES, JOBLESS BENEFITS
By a vote of 60 for and 36 against, the Senate on Feb. 17 sent President Obama a bill (HR 3630, see House vote above) extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, sustaining current Medicare payment levels to doctors and extending until Dec. 31 a law allowing workers to contribute 4.2 percent of their pay to Social Security, down from the usual 6.2 percent. The bill's $50 billion in Medicare and jobless spending will be offset by revenue measures such as government sales of publicly owned spectrum for wireless communications and increased pension contributions by new federal workers. The remaining $100 billion, financing the Social Security tax cut for ten months, will be deficit spending.
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
No: John McCain, R, Jon Kyl, R
JUDGE ADALBERTO JOSE JORDAN
Voting 94 for and five against, the Senate on Feb. 16 confirmed Judge Adalberto Jose Jordan to sit on the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Jordan, 50, a federal judge for the Southern District of Florida since 1999, becomes the first Cuban-born judge on the Atlanta-based appeals court, which serves Florida, Georgia and Alabama. After clearing the Judiciary Committee without objection in October, Jordan's nomination was stalled by GOP senators for reasons unrelated to his qualifications. For example, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, sidetracked the nomination to protest President Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., delayed it to advance his amendment toughening U.S. policies toward Egypt.
A yes vote was to confirm Judge Jordan.
Yes: McCain, Kyl
