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Congressional Voting Record |
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Monday, 17 April 2006 |
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From raising the minimum wage to protecting pensions to standing up against bad trade deals, your U.S. senators and representative have dozens of chances every year to put their votes where their rhetoric is. Do they support working families or don’t they?
You can find out where your lawmakers stood on more than a dozen key working family issues last year with the AFL-CIO’s 2005 online Congressional Voting Record, an annual legislative scorecard. The record includes votes on job issues, workplace safety, health care, trade, tax cuts for the rich and more. In the House, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) whiffed with a miserable zero for 15 in 2005. His zero percent tops his abysmal lifetime 10 percent right votes for working families. Meanwhile, the record of his House colleague, Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), is 180 degrees different. In 2005, Rush earned a perfect 100 percent and sports a lifetime record of 98 percent. In the Senate, Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) pitched a perfect 100 percent, while Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) struck out each time he had a chance to step to the plate for workers. He batted zero on minimum wage, overtime pay, Social Security, trade, Medicaid and more. The Voting Record is especially handy for working families in some key Senate races this fall. In Ohio, voters will choose between Rep. Sherrod Brown (D), who last year compiled a 93 percent rating to go with his career working family voting record of 97 percent and incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine (R), whose lifetime pro-worker rating is a mere 19 percent. In Florida’s high-profile Senate race, incumbent Bill Nelson (D) faces Rep. Kathleen Harris (R). Harris first gained fame as the Florida secretary of state who paved the way for George W. Bush to claim a disputed 537-vote win in Florida’s questionable 2000 presidential election that put Bush in the White House. Presidential controversy aside, Florida voters will decide between Nelson, who sports an 88 percent lifetime AFL-CIO voting record and Harris, who clocks in at just 12 percent pro-working family votes. So, check it out and see who you want in your congressional lineup, especially in the Fall Classic. No, not the World Series—the November elections. |
