This week, those we chose just didn’t get a whole lot done. The House took up exactly one floor vote, and the Senate deadlocked on the Minimum Wage bill that the House sent to them last week.
By a vote of 226-191, the House extended limited voting rights on the House floor to delegates from
In the Senate, they failed to achieve the magic number of 60 to overcome GOP opposition and advance the bill that would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour. GOP Senators opposed the House version of the bill because it omitted tax breaks for small businesses that might be forced to pay higher wages. The vote was 54 against to 43 for. A Yea vote was to pass the measure.
The Senate also voted 28 for and 69 against abolishing the federal minimum wage and sending the issue to the states. (D.C. and 29 states have a minimum wage higher than the federally mandated minimum.) A Yea was to abolish the federal minimum.
Voting 49 for and 48 against, the Senate also failed to achieve the 60 votes needed to advance a proposal that would empower presidents to block entitlements and discretionary spending in a line-item basis. Under the GOP sponsored amendment, presidents would be able to reject individual items within overall spending packages approved by the Congress. Such rescissions would be sent back to Capitol Hill where a simple majority in both chambers, conducted within eight days would be required to ratify the cuts. Under the legislation, presidents would have been able to exercise the line-item rescission four times per year. A Yea vote was for passage.
Next week the House will take up stopgap appropriations for agencies still operating without regular budgets for FY 2007 after the 109th congress failed to pass the budget.
The Senate will be taking up floor debate on the presidents proposed troop escalation in
Your handy-dandy reference chart on how each member of the
| Senators | House: HR 78 | Senate HR 2 | Senate HR 2 (amnd) | Senate (HR 2) |
| | | | | |
| Bond (Rep) | | Nay | Yea | Yea |
| McCaskill (Dem) | | Yea | Nay | Nay |
| | | | | |
| Representatives | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Clay (Dem) | Yea | | | |
| Akin (Rep) | Nay | | | |
| Carnahan (Dem) | Yea | | | |
| Skelton (Dem) | Yea | | | |
| Cleaver (Dem) | Yea | | | |
| | Nay | | | |
| Blunt (Rep) | Nay | | | |
| Emerson (Rep) | Nay | | | |
| Hulsof (Dem) | Nay | | | |
