Last week's votes in Congress

WASHINGTON — Here’s how members of Congress voted on major issues in the week ending Feb 10.

House of Representatives

Lawmakers’ insider trading. Voting 417 for and two against, the House on Feb. 9 approved its version of a Senate-passed bill (S 2038) that would bar members of Congress and congressional staff from using confidential legislative information in their personal stock trading. But House GOP leaders dropped a Senate provision that would submit "political intelligence" operatives those in the private sector who sell legally obtained policy information to Wall Street — to the same rules that govern lobbyists. The bill contains only a study of this unregulated activity, which is reported to generate at least $100 million annually in revenue from financial firms in search of inside information for guiding their trades.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Robert Hurt, R-5th; Eric I. Cantor, R-7th.

Line-item veto. Voting 254 for and 173 against, the House on Feb. 8 sent the Senate a bill (HR 3521) giving presidents authority to veto individual discretionary spending items in overall appropriations bills if both houses of Congress go along with the proposed cancellations. Under the measure, presidents could send Congress "special messages," or veto packages, disapproving of one or more items in a given spending bill. The House and Senate would be required to promptly vote on these presidential rescissions, with majority votes needed in each chamber to put them into effect.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Hurt, Cantor.

New accounting rules. Voting 245 for and 180 against, the House on Feb. 7 sent the Senate a GOP bill (HR 3581) requiring the government to use private-sector- style accounting rules for figuring the cost of its direct-loan and loan-guarantee programs. This would sharply increase the cost of these programs in government budget calculations and thus make them larger targets for spending cuts. Under the bill, the loan programs would be valued at the fair-market value of the assets to which they are linked. This would replace the existing method of counting money actually spent and revenue actually received to determine the budgetary impact — plus or minus — of specific federal loans and loan guarantees. The bill also would include Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac balance sheets in the federal budget. These giant home-mortgage firms, known as Government Sponsored Enterprises, are privately owned but federally protected.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Hurt, Cantor.

Senate

Federal aviation budget. Voting 75 for and 20 against, the Senate on Feb. 6 sent President Obama a bill (HR 658) to authorize federal aviation programs through Sept. 30, 2015, at a cost of $63.3 billion, including $13.4 billion for airport improvements, tens of billions of dollars for Federal Aviation Administration programs and $190 million annually to subsidize commercial air service to smaller cities The bill was disputed mainly because it raises the threshold workers in the transportation industry must meet to conduct elections on whether to unionize. The bill releases $3 billion annually from the Aviation Trust Fund to finance the gradual transfer of air-traffic- control from a radar-based system to one based on global positioning satellites. The bill gets its funding from a combination of appropriations and user fees such as fuel and passenger-ticket taxes.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Mark R. Warner (D); Jim Webb (D).

Federal transportation budget. Voting 85 for and 11 against, the Senate on Feb. 9 advanced a bill (S 1813) to authorize federal road, bridge, transit and highway-safety programs through Sept. 30, 2013, on a budget of $109 billion. All but $10 billion of the cost would be funded by the Highway Trust Fund, which draws its revenue from the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax and the 24.4 cents-per-gallon federal diesel tax. The bill’s remaining costs would be covered by revenue measures such as higher taxation of Individual Retirement Account inheritances.

A yes vote was to begin debate on the bill.

Voting yes: Warner, Webb.

Thomas Voting Reports Inc.