Right & left: congressional votes

Insight on the News, April 1, 2003

1. Cuba's Links to Terrorism S 1731 (Amendment)

An early version of last year's Farm Security and Rural Investment Act included a provision calling for repeal or existing statutory restrictions on the private financing of food and medicine sales to Cuba. Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) offered an amendment that would have required, as a pre-condition for such transactions, certification by the president that the Castro regime was not supporting acts of international terrorism. During the debate, Smith reminded his colleagues that as recently as 1999 the State Department had listed Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, and Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) noted that Havana had "maintained ties to other state sponsors of terrorism," and that "Colombia's two largest terrorist organizations, the FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] and the ELN [Army of National Liberation], maintain a permanent presence on the island."

On Dec. 13, 2001, the Senate tabled (killed) the Smith amendment 61 (Left) to 33 (Right), Roll Call 375.

2. FISA Roving Wiretaps S 1510 (Amendment)

When the Senate had considered an early version of the USA PATRIOT Act, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) expressed concern about a provision to add roving (multiple-site) wiretap authority to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). He agreed that such surveillance was necessary in an age of computers and cell phones, but contended that it should be conducted in a way that narrowly targets legitimate suspects and protects the constitutional rights of innocents.

Existing roving-wiretap authority in criminal cases includes safeguards that preclude taps until the suspect begins, or manifests an intention to begin, a conversation. Feingold sought to add a similar proviso to FISA. During the debate, he presented this scenario: "Suppose a target of a FISA investigation has the practice of using a neighbor's or relative's phone. Under my amendment, the government would not be able to listen in on all calls from that phone, but only those taking place when the target is in that person's home. Likewise, if the government believes that the target uses computers in a library, it can only monitor the one that the terrorist is actually using, not all the computers in that facility even when the terrorist is not there."

On Oct. 11, 2001, the Senate voted to table (kill) the amendment, 90 (Left) to 7 (Right), Roll Call 300.

3. Renewable-Resource Power Penalty S 517 (Amendment)

With the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) under siege by homosexual activists (and other advocates of so-called "gay rights") for standing firm in its traditional mission of, among other things, helping scouts keep themselves "morally straight," Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) proposed an amendment to the Senate's early version of legislation reauthorizing the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It called for barring federal funds for any school, or state or local educational agency, that discriminates against the BSA or other youth groups by denying them equal access to school grounds or facilities. The amendment narrowly passed on May 14, 2001, by a tally of 51 (Right) to 49 (Left), Roll Call 189.

House

1. Partial-Birth Abortion Exception HR 4965 (Amendment)

Last year, the House once again approved legislation to ban the monstrous partial-birth abortion procedure (and the Senate once again let it die). During the House debate, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) sought to neuter the bin with an amendment that would have allowed the grisly technique to continue "where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother." But as Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) pointed out, "The overwhelming weight of the evidence ... indicates that partial-birth abortions are never necessary to preserve the health of a woman." And eminent medical authorities have stated that a partial-birth abortion is never required to save the mother's life.

Chabot also noted that the author of the standard textbook on abortion procedure has argued that any pregnancy is a threat to a woman's life-and could cause grievous injury to her physical health, so with the Baldwin amendment it "would not ban a single partial-birth abortion."

The killer amendment was defeated on July 24, 2002, by a vote of 187 (Left) to 241 (Right), Roll Call 342.

2. Abortion "Conscience Clause" HR 4691 (Amendment)

In 1996, Congress approved a public-health bill that included a "conscience clause" precluding governments at all levels from discriminating against physicians and certain other health-care entities that refuse to perform or otherwise participate in abortions. The law gradually has been eroded since by activist federal judges. Last year, the House (but not the Senate) approved legislation clarifying the meaning of "health-care entities" in the 1996 statute. During the debate, Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) moved to recommit the bill to the Energy and Commerce Committee with instructions to report it back with amendments declaring that the measure "shall not be construed" as "authorizing any institution to withhold medically appropriate information or services from a patient." As Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) observed, the motion to recommit "reverses the intent of conscience protection and takes us further back than we are to right now."