AFL-CIO 2007 Congressional Voting Records Available

by Mike Hall, Mar 10, 2008

Do you want to know how Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted on a move to repeal the federal minimum wage?

Are you interested in Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) vote on a measure to rein in the soaring cost of prescription drugs for seniors and working families?

How about finding out where Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) stood on a bill that would restore the freedom of airport screeners to join a union?

Or maybe you just want to know if your U.S. House member voted with working families last year?

All that information and more about your U.S. senators and representatives is just a click or two away in the AFL-CIO’s final 2007 House and Senate Voting Records. The congressional scorecards track 19 Senate votes and 24 House votes from the first session of the 110th Congress.

All votes were selected because of their importance to working families. “W” indicates a “wrong” vote that would hurt working families; “R” indicates a “right” vote.

If your representative was part of the new big freshman class that helped Democrats win control of the House after a dozen years of Republican rule, find out if he or she lived up to your expectations. Odds they did. The overall freshman class earned a 94 percent pro-working family voting record in 2007. With longtime congressional observers classifying the new representatives as moderate or middle of the road, that must mean pro-labor and pro-working family issues are mainstream. Just like we’ve always said.     

The Voting Record also shows each member’s lifetime record of support for working families. So, for instance, a quick look tells us that McCain has a 16 percent working families voting record, Clinton 94 percent and Obama 98 percent.

You can look up an individual lawmaker’s record or checkout an entire state’s congressional delegation. You also can download the entire 2007 (plus congressional scorecards back to 1996) Voting Record here.

In the coming months, a regularly updated interim voting record also will be available

For the record, McCain voted for an amendment to H.R. 2 (the minimum wage bill) that would have effectively repealed the federal minimum wage in 45 states, including Arizona (Senate vote #2).

Clinton supported a measure that would have helped lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing the importation of those vital medicines from Canada and other countries where the drugs sell for a fraction of the prices charged in the United States. When Republicans filibustered the amendment to that bill, Clinton voted to end the filibuster (Senate vote #5).

Obama backed an amendment to 9/11 Commission recommendations (S. 4) that would have restored bargaining rights the Bush administration took away from 43,000 airport screeners at the Transportation Security Agency (Senate vote #3).

Don’t know about yours, but my House member, Rep. James Moran (D-Va.), had a good year in 2007. He was 23–1 for a 98 percent working families voting record. That pulled his life time percentage to 80 percent.

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