Area Votes in Congress

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major issues last week:

House

Dodd-Frank financial rules. Voting 235-161, the House on Friday passed a bill (HR 1062) imposing time-consuming requirements on the Securities and Exchange Commission as it puts the 2010 financial-regulation law known as Dodd-Frank into effect. In part, the bill would require the SEC, an independent agency, to conduct cost-benefit analyses of Dodd-Frank's impact on free-market forces such as capital formation and market liquidity.

The bill also requires the SEC to conduct cost-benefit analyses every five years of every regulation it has issued on any subject since 1933. The bill provides no new funding to cover its projected cost of $26 million and addition of 20 SEC staff members.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Voting yes: Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Michael Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), Jon Runyan (R., N.J.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Voting no: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), John Carney (D., Del.), Matt Cartwright (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), and Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.).

2010 health-law repeal. Voting 229-195, the House on Thursday passed a GOP bill (HR 45) to repeal the sweeping health law enacted in 2010 and upheld last year by the Supreme Court. House Republicans now have conducted three votes to repeal the law and more than 30 to change it.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Voting yes: Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan, and Smith.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Carney, Cartwright, Fattah, and Schwartz.

Senate

Corps of Engineers projects. Voting 83-14, the Senate on Wednesday passed a bill (S 601) overseeing nearly 700 Army Corps of Engineers water projects costing tens of billions of dollars that directly benefit every state. Now awaiting House action, the bill authorizes or reauthorizes projects for flood control, navigation, shoreline protection, environmental restoration, harbor maintenance, levee safety, wastewater treatment, and lock and dam upgrades. It authorizes $12.5 billion over 10 years for new projects on top of a backlog of unfinished projects budgeted at $60 billion.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Chris Coons (D., Del.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).

Not voting: Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.).

Medicare, Medicaid administration. Voting 91-7, the Senate on Wednesday confirmed Marilyn B. Tavenner, 61, as chief of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency with jurisdiction over health care for one in three Americans.

A yes vote was to confirm Tavenner.

Voting yes: Carper, Coons, Menendez, and Toomey.

Noting voting: Casey and Lautenberg.

This week. The Senate will take up a five-year farm bill, while the House schedule was to be announced.