AFL-CIO
Congressional Voting Record (COPE)
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Ron
Wyden |
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| View the 2003 voting record of Ron Wyden on bills that represent a wide range of the issues most important to working people and their families. |
2003 U.S. Senate
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Right Votes—92%
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Right—12
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Wrong—1 |
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Lifetime Right—84%
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ESTRADA NOMINATION |
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| Cloture—Miguel Estrada is one of many individuals President George W. Bush nominated to the federal appellate courts who have extremely troubling records on workers’ rights, civil rights and the environment. The ultraconservative Estrada, who has never served as a judge on any level, was nominated for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Opponents of Estrada’s nomination began a filibuster after he refused to answer Senate questions about his judicial philosophy and the White House refused to release legal documents Estrada wrote while working at the U.S. Department of Justice. The Republican leaders’ cloture motion to end debate on Estrada, which needed 60 votes to pass, failed March 6, 2003, 55–44: Y=W; N=R (R: 51–0; D: 4–43; I: 0–1) Note: After seven failed cloture votes, Estrada withdrew his nomination Sept. 4, 2003. Wyden's Vote: No | Right Vote |
AMTRAK |
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| S. Con. Res. 23—23—Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail line, carries millions of passengers each year and employs more than 20,000 workers. For fiscal year (FY) 2004, Amtrak estimated it needed $1.8 billion to avoid service cuts, layoffs and the elimination of many key passenger routes. But the Bush administration’s FY 2004 budget request for Amtrak was just half the funding needed. A bipartisan amendment to a Senate budget resolution by Sens. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) increased funding for Amtrak by $912 million to $1.8 billion. The amendment passed March 21, 2003, 51–49: Y=R; N=W (R: 3–48; D: 47–1; I: 1–0) Wyden's Vote: Yes | Right Vote |
TAX CUTS |
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| S. Con. Res. 23—President Bush proposed some $726 billion in tax cuts and restructuring aimed primarily at the wealthy in his FY 2004 budget proposal. The Senate budget resolution mostly mirrored Bush’s tax cut plan. Senate Democrats offered an amendment that would reduce tax cuts in the resolution to $350 billion and allocate $120 billion toward a new Social Security reserve account, with the remainder going toward deficit reduction. The amendment was adopted March 25, 2003, 51–48: Y=R; N=W (R: 3–48; D: 47–0; I: 1–0) Wyden's Vote: Yes | Right Vote |
BUDGET/CONFERENCE REPORT |
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| H. Con. Res. 95—The final version of the FY 2004 budget resolution dropped the Senate’s reduction of President Bush’s tax cut for the wealthy and slashed domestic programs by more than $500 billion to make room for Bush’s $726 billion tax cut (including $364 billion for the corporate dividend tax cut). The budget resolution cut funding for all nondefense programs (including all education, job training and health care programs) by $244 billion over the next 10 years and cut an additional $265 billion in mandatory spending for Medicaid, veteran’s benefits and pensions and benefits for federal employees and railroad employees. The resolution included no funds to help states address their financial crises and inadequate funds for infrastructure investments that can create jobs by rebuilding roads, bridges, schools and water, sewer and transportation systems. Following a 50–50 tie vote, Vice President Dick Cheney, as president of the Senate, cast the deciding vote and the resolution was passed April 11, 2003, 51–50: Y=W; N=R (R: 49–2; D: 1–47; I: 0–1) Wyden's Vote: No | Right Vote |
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BENEFITS EXTENSION |
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| S. 1054—In May 2003, the nation’s unemployment rate stood at 6 percent and some 10 million workers were jobless. More than 1 million long-term jobless workers were nearing the end of their state benefits. At the same time, the federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program was due to expire May 31. The program provides 13 weeks of federal unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to workers who exhaust their state UI benefits. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered an amendment to a tax cut bill that would have extended the expiring TEUC program for another six months, with an additional 13 weeks of benefits for workers who exhaust their federal benefits. The amendment also called for unemployment benefits for low-wage workers and workers seeking part-time employment. The amendment, which required 60 votes for passage, failed May 15, 2003, 50–49: Y=R; N=W (R: 2–48; D: 47–1; I: 1–0) Wyden's Vote: Yes | Right Vote |
BUY AMERICAN |
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| S. 1050—Buy American rules traditionally have required that most U.S. military equipment, defense systems and components be manufactured in the United States. An amendment to the FY 2004 U.S. Department of Defense authorization bill weakened the Buy American requirements. The amendment, offered by Sen. John McCain (R–Ariz.), exempted defense goods from six European countries from Buy American requirements. It passed May 21, 2003, 50–48: Y=W; N=R (R: 49–1; D: 1–46; I: 0–1) Wyden's Vote: No | Right Vote |
MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS/RETIREES |
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| S.1—The Senate version of the Medicare prescription drug legislation penalizes seniors with employer-provided drug coverage, because the portions of their drug costs paid for by the coverage would not count toward meeting the various spending levels seniors must spend on prescription drugs before the Medicare drug benefits take effect. This trick definition of out-of-pocket costs would force most seniors and their employer-provided plans to pay more of the cost of prescription drugs before the Medicare coverage takes effect. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill’s definition of out-of-pocket expenses would prompt employers to drop retiree health benefits for 4.4 million seniors. Senate Democrats offered to expand the definition of out-of-pocket expenses in the bill to include payments made by employers for retiree drug coverage and other third-party coverage not already included in the bill. A motion to table (defeat) the amendment passed June 24, 2003, 52–43: Y=W; N=R (R: 49–0; D: 3–42; I: 0–1) Wyden's Vote: No | Right Vote |
TRADE: U.S.–SINGAPORE |
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| H.R. 2739—U.S. and international labor and human rights activists long have fought to include strong and enforceable workers’ rights standards, including the freedom of association, in trade agreements. The U.S.–Singapore Free Trade Agreement negotiated by the Bush administration did not include enforceable core labor standards. The agreement also contained a new temporary guest-worker program for professional workers entering the United States from Singapore. The bill passed July 31, 2003, 66–32: Y=W; N=R (R: 44–7; D: 22–24; I: 0–1) Wyden's Vote: No | Right Vote |
TRADE: U.S.–CHILE |
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| H.R. 2738—U.S. and international labor and human rights activists long have fought to include strong and enforceable workers’ rights standards, including the freedom of association, in trade agreements. The U.S.–Chile Free Trade Agreement negotiated by the Bush administration did not include enforceable core labor standards. The agreement also contained a new temporary guest-worker program for professional workers entering the United States from Chile. The bill passed July 31, 2003, 65–32: Y=W; N=R (R: 43–7; D: 22–24; I: 0–1) Wyden's Vote: No | Right Vote |
OVERTIME |
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| H.R. 2660—In March 2003, the Bush administration announced a plan to make changes in the Fair Labor Standards Act that could eliminate overtime pay eligibility for 8 million or more workers. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) offered an amendment to the FY Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill to guarantee workers’ overtime pay eligibility by prohibiting the U.S. Department of Labor from using funds to promulgate or implement any regulation that would take away overtime protection from workers who currently qualify. The amendment passed on Sept. 10, 2003, 54–45: Y=R; N=W (R: 6–44; D: 47–1; I: 1–0) Wyden's Vote: Yes | Right Vote |
PRIVATIZATION |
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| H .R. 2989—In 2002, the Bush administration announced plans to privatize and contract out more than 850,000 federal jobs. In May, the Office of Management and Budget announced new rules that gutted previous regulations designed to create a level playing field between private contractors seeking government work and the agencies and workers performing the work—and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent well. Senate Democrats offered an amendment to the FY 2004 Treasury, Transportation and Independent Agencies appropriations bill that would have blocked implementation of the new pro-contractor privatization process. The amendment failed Sept. 23, 2003, 47–48: Y=R; N=W (R: 3–47; D: 43–1; I: 1–0) Wyden's Vote: Yes | Right Vote |
FAA REAUTHORIZATION/CLOTURE |
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| H.R. 2115—In the summer of 2003, the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives approved versions of the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill that contained provisions to guard against a Bush administration plan to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system. But those provisions were dropped in the Republican-dominated conference committee that merged the legislation. Along with allowing air traffic control privatization, the conference report included provisions that allowed foreign air cargo companies to raid U.S. domestic markets in violation of longstanding cabotage laws that govern foreign participation in the domestic airline market and gutted flight attendant anti-terrorism training requirements in defiance of a bipartisan mandate embodied initially in the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Senators opposed to the privatization scheme and the other provisions staged a filibuster against the bill. The cloture motion to limit debate and end the filibuster—which required 60 votes to pass—failed Nov. 17, 2003, 45–43: Y=W; N=R (R: 42–3; D: 3–39; I: 0–1) Wyden's Vote: No | Right Vote |
MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS/POINT OF ORDER |
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| H R. 1—The final version of the Medicare prescription drug bill moved Medicare toward privatization, steered seniors to private HMOs, forced 32.5 million current beneficiaries to pay higher premiums and other Medicare costs, opened the doors to $139 billion in profits for the pharmaceutical industry, prevented the government from negotiating for lower drug prices, did nothing to rein soaring prescription drug costs for seniors and threatened the employer-provided drug coverage of millions of retirees. To slow passage of the bill and gain another opportunity to make improvements, Democrats raised a budget point of order against the bill. In a parliamentary maneuver, Republicans offered a motion that in effect would block the point of order. The motion, which required 60 votes to pass, was approved Nov. 24, 2003, 61–39: Y=W; N=R (R: 49–2; D: 11–37; I: 1–0) Wyden's Vote: Yes | Wrong Vote |
| Voting record compiled and provided by the AFL-CIO. |