AFL-CIO
Congressional Voting Record (COPE)
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Gordon
Smith |
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| View the voting record of Gordon Smith on bills that represent a wide range of the issues most important to working people and their families. |
1998 U.S. Senate
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Right
Votes—0%
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Right—0
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Wrong—8 |
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Lifetime
Right—0%
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PAYCHECK
DECEPTION
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| S. 1663—California and Oregon voters turned back big businesses' 1997 attempts to silence working families voice in politics, as did judges and state legislatures around the country. But that didn't deter the enemies of working families from backing federal legislation that would have placed incredible burdens on unions before they could spend their funds representing working families through political or legislative activity. Under the guise of campaign finance reform, S. 1663's rules applied only to unions—not to the corporations, which outspend unions 11-1 on politics. The bill's backers could not end a filibuster against the legislation by pro-working family senators and failed to win a three-fifths majority needed for cloture, 45-54. Y=W, N=R (DEM: 0-44; REP: 45-10).Smith's Vote: Yes |
Wrong
Vote |
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AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION, TRANSPORTATION
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| S. 1173—The assault on affirmative action programs—which help people of color and women gain fair and equal access to educational, business and other opportunities they traditionally have been denied—continued in the Senate's major transportation funding bill, ISTEA. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered an amendment to weaken the highly successful Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, which has increased participation of women and minorities in building highways, bridges, transit systems and other ISTEA-funded projects. A motion to table, or kill, the amendment passed 58-37, March 6, 1998. Y=R, N=W (DEM:43-1; REP: 15-36) Smith's Vote: No |
Wrong
Vote |
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MEDICARE/BUDGET
RESOLUTION
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| S.C.R. 86—More than 39 million elderly and disabled people rely on Medicare for guaranteed health insurance. But the Medicare Trust Fund will begin experiencing shortfalls by the year 2015. The AFL-CIO and other health care proponents offered several suggestions to shore up Medicare's financial future, such as setting aside 15 percent of the budget surplus for Medicare solvency. But GOP congressional leaders did little to address the issue in 1998. In fact, an amendment to the budget resolution would have removed balanced billing protections and allowed seniors to be charged extra for Medicare services. It passed 51-47, April 1, 1998. Y=W, N=R (DEM: 1-42; REP: 50-5) Smith's Vote: Yes |
Wrong
Vote |
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SCHOOL
VOUCHERS
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| H.R. 2646—The Senate approved House-passed legislation that would allow wealthy parents, earning up to $160,000 a year, to set aside up to $2,000 annually in Individual Retirement Accounts and allow those funds to be withdrawn tax-free for kindergarten through grade 12 education expenses, including private school tuition. But more than 90 percent of America's school children attend public schools. Congress's own Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that 70 percent of the tax-free benefits would go to the richest 20 percent of the nation's families, essentially providing voucher-like subsidies for private education for the rich and denying tax money to public schools. The bill passed April 23, 1998, 56-43. Y=W, N=R (DEM: 5-40; REP: 51-3) Smith's Vote: Yes |
Wrong
Vote |
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IMMIGRATION
(H1B)
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| S. 1723—The information technology industry claims there is a shortage of skilled, high-tech U.S. workers and long has sought to import lower-paid foreign workers under the immigration law's H1B visa program. However, the General Accounting Office said the industry reports were so flawed that it could not verify a labor shortage. The Senate nonetheless took up an industry-backed bill to allow some 230,000 more H1B workers into the country. The legislation contained no legal recourse for US workers fired and replaced by H1B workers or for US job applicants whose resumes never are considered because the employer is holding positions open for lower-cost H1B workers. Nor did the bill contain any effective or efficient training programs for US workers. S. 1723 was approved 78-20, May 18, 1998. Y=W, N=R (DEM: 27-18; REP: 51-2) Smith's Vote: Yes |
Wrong
Vote |
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IMMIGRATION/AGRICULTURE
WORKERS
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| S. 2260—Many large agribusinesses commonly use the excuse of labor shortages to push for relaxed immigration rules to allow them to import more foreign agricultural workers. But many times, employers use these workers, or the threat of bringing in new immigrants, to thwart organizing attempts and keep wages and benefits low. At the same time, many newly arrived workers are unaware of their rights and are easy targets for employer exploitation. Legislation to allow agriculture employers an almost unlimited number of foreign workers under the immigration law's H2A program, and to gut existing worker protections, passed 68-31, July 23, 1998. Y=W, N=R (DEM: 14-31; REP: 54-0) Smith's Vote: Yes |
Wrong
Vote |
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FREEDOM
TO CHOOSE A UNION
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| S. 1981—One of the basic principles of the National Labor Relations Act is the right of workers to choose a union without management interference. But employers regularly trample that right. Some 10,000 workers a year are fired for attempts to form unions in their workplaces. Employers spend an estimated $300 million a year on union-busting consultants, and 91 percent of businesses where workers are trying to form unions force employees to attend meetings behind closed doors designed to change their minds. Half of employers threaten to shut down if workers choose a union. The bill would put up additional roadblocks by banning union organizers from applying for and holding jobs for the purpose of organizing a particular workplace (salting), making single-unit organizing of a multisite employer more difficult and shifting the NLRB case cost from the employer to the board. On a procedural vote requiring a three-fifths majority, the legislation died 55-42, Sept. 14, 1998. Y=W, N=R (DEM: 0-41; REP: 52-1) Smith's Vote: Yes |
Wrong
Vote |
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MINIMUM
WAGE
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| S. 1301—While CEOs reap mega-bonuses for downsizing workers out of jobs and stock market high-rollers pocket astronomical profits, America's minimum-wage workers struggle to get by in a booming economy. During the past 20 years, 80 percent of the income increase in the nation has gone to those already in the top 20 percent of wealth, and most of that has gone to the top 1 percent. The wage gap is so obvious that polls showed 80 percent of Americans support rasing the minimum wage. But the Senate, in a 55-44 near party-line vote Sept. 22, 1998, tabled a bankruptcy bill amendment by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would have boosted the minimum wage to $6.15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2000, in two 50-cent increases. Y=W, N=R (DEM: 2-42; REP: 53-2) Smith's Vote: Yes |
Wrong
Vote |
| Voting record compiled and provided by the AFL-CIO. |