Thursday, January 18, 2007

House Voting Not Partisan

I have CSPAN on in the background and see that there are several votes on the Oil Tax Bill. They seem to be falling completely along party lines. I wondered for this new Congress and these contentious first 100 hours if the votes have really been partisan.

You can find the voting record here. Clicking on teh Roll Call number (the first column) shows the vote break down). Of the first 31 votes (rolls 2-33):

10 are unanimous or off by just 1-2 votes
7 are purely along party lines
4 are close to partisan with 1-9 Republicans voting with Democrats
2 are close to partisan with 1-2 Democrats voting with Republicans
6 are split with 24-124 Republicans voting with Democrats
2 are split with neither party voting as a solid block

Some of the unanimous ones were easy, honoring Gerald Ford or Muhammad Ali (really) or the "Commending the Boise State University Broncos football team for winning the 2007 Fiesta Bowl and completing an undefeated season." (really really).

The two completely split votes were on Stem Cell Research. The 6 votes that large blocks of Republicans voting with Democrats varied in topics from House Rules, Implementing the 9/11 Commision Report, Increasing the Minimum Wage, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act, and the College Student Relief Act.

For all the complaints that the Republicans have about the first 100 hours and how the Democrats are not letting them do things, they aren't presenting a unified front. Perhaps the Democrats are in fact doing good things where as the last Congress couldn't manage to pass virtually anything of significance. Go Nancy.

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