How your U.S. lawmaker voted this week

WASHINGTON — Here's how state members of Congress voted on major issues in the week that ended Friday.

House

Interior Department

Members passed, 247-178, the final version of a $32.2 billion budget for the Department of the Interior and agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010.

Voting yes: Jay Inslee, D-1, Rick Larsen, D-2, Norman Dicks, D-6, Jim McDermott, D-7, Dave Reichert, R-8, Adam Smith, D-9

Voting no: Brian Baird, D-3, Doc Hastings, R-4, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-5

Small Business Administration

By a vote of 389-32, the House on Oct. 29 passed a bill (HR 3854) to raise from $2 million to $3 million the cap on federally guaranteed loans made by banks in the Small Business Administration's main lending program. Taxpayers would back up to 90 percent of each "Section 7(a)" loan. The SBA has many criteria for determining whether a business is small enough to qualify for its programs. Manufacturing and mining companies, for example, are defined as "small" if they have under 500 employees, and retail and construction firms qualify if they have annual sales in the range of $30 million to $40 million.

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

Senate

Extended jobless benefits

By a vote of 87-13, the Senate on Oct. 27 advanced a bill (HR 3548) that would provide 20 more weeks of jobless checks for those whose current allotments have expired or soon will expire and who live in states with at least 8.5 percent unemployment. The bill provides 14 additional weeks of benefits for the long-term jobless in all other states. The $2.4 billion cost would be offset by payroll-tax increases on employers. Jobless checks average $300 per week.

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

Interior Department budget

By a vote of 72-28, the Senate on Oct. 29 sent President Obama the conference report on a bill (HR 2996, above) to appropriate $32.2 billion for the Department of the Interior and other agencies in fiscal 2010. In addition to items noted above, the bill provides $1.5 billion for cleansing toxic-waste sites; $1.1 billion for the Bureau of Land Management; $761 million for the Smithsonian Institution; $475 million for restoring the Great Lakes; $385 million for addressing climate change and $335 million for the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities.

Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray

Roll Call Report Syndicate