How your U.S. lawmaker voted

WASHINGTON — Here's how the state's members of Congress voted on major roll calls in the week ending Friday.

HOUSE

D.C. congressional seat: By a vote of 241-177, the House on Thursday voted to expand the House from 435 to 437 seats by establishing the District of Columbia as a congressional district and awarding Utah a fourth congressional district. D.C. presumably would elect a Democratic representative and Utah a Republican. The bill (HR 1905) is now before the Senate. The federal city has no voice in the Senate and is represented in the House by a delegate with limited powers.

Voting yes: Jay Inslee, D-1; Rick Larsen, D-2; Brian Baird, D-3; Norm Dicks, D-6; Jim McDermott, D-7; Adam Smith, D-9.

Voting no: Doc Hastings, R-4; Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-5; Dave Reichert, R-8.

Expedited judicial review: By a vote of 193-227, the House on Thursday defeated a Republican motion requiring expedited judicial review of HR 1905 (above). The procedure allows challenges to go directly to a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia and then to the Supreme Court.

Voting yes: Hastings, McMorris Rodgers, Reichert.

Voting no: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

GOP disaster-aid motion: By a vote of 204-218, the House on Wednesday defeated a Republican motion to deny small-business assistance in HR 1361 to felons.

Voting yes: Hastings, McMorris Rodgers, Reichert.

Voting no: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Iraq troop withdrawals: By a vote of 215-199, the House on Thursday upheld a previous vote that mandates a March 1, 2008, start for withdrawing most U.S. forces from Iraq. This occurred in advance of a House-Senate conference on a war appropriations bill (HR 1591) that sets timelines for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq.

Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Voting no: Hastings, McMorris Rodgers, Reichert.

Executive pay votes: By a vote of 269-134, the House on Friday passed a bill (HR 1257) empowering shareholders of publicly traded corporations to conduct nonbinding votes approving or disapproving of corporate executives' pay packages. The bill, which awaits Senate action, follows a new Securities and Exchange Commission rule that corporations publicly report the total compensation of top executives.

Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, McMorris Rodgers, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Voting no: Hastings, Reichert.

Pay vote exclusion: By a vote of 155-244, the House on Friday defeated an amendment to exclude from HR 1257 (above) those corporations whose executive pay is within 10 percent of the norm for comparable industries with comparable market capitalizations.

Voting yes: Hastings, McMorris Rodgers, Reichert.

Voting no: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Water projects: By a vote of 394-25, the House on Thursday sent the Senate a bill (HR 1495) authorizing $14 billion over several years for nearly 700 Army Corps of Engineers projects such as flood control, navigation, shoreline protection and environmental restoration.

Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Hastings, McMorris Rodgers, Dicks, McDermott, Reichert, Smith.

SENATE

Medicare drug prices: By a vote of 55-42, the Senate on Wednesday failed to reach 60 votes needed to advance a bill (S 3) that would require the Department of Health and Human Services to use federal purchasing power to achieve lower drug prices in the Medicare prescription-drug plan.

Voting yes: Maria Cantwell, D; Patty Murray, D.

2007 intelligence budget: By a vote of 50-45, the Senate on Tuesday failed to reach 60 votes for ending a Republican filibuster against the fiscal 2007 U.S. intelligence budget (S 372). The classified budget, unofficially estimated at $44 billion, already has been funded for the year. This dispute centered instead on policy changes sought by the Senate's new Democratic majority. In part, the bill would require the CIA to inform Congress of locations of secret U.S. prisons overseas; disclose to Congress interrogation techniques used at these prisons; declassify the single figure that represents the U.S. intelligence budget; require spy agencies to comply with congressional document requests within 30 days unless the president asserts "executive privilege"; require Senate confirmation of several top-ranking intelligence officials, and increase from 10 to 15 years the maximum sentence for those convicted of revealing names of covert agents.

(We mistakenly reported last Sunday that the Senate voted to end a filibuster against the 2007 intelligence budget. In fact, the vote only cleared the way for a follow-up vote on Tuesday, reported above, on whether to invoke cloture and thus end the filibuster.)

Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray.

Federal court security: By a vote of 97-0, the Senate on Thursday passed a bill (S 378) that would increase security for federal judges and their families, prosecutors, witnesses and other participants in the federal criminal justice system.

Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray.

Roll Call Report Syndicate