Floyd Spence

Oil and Gas Drilling in the Great Lakes. During consideration of the energy and water appropriations bill (H.R. 2311), Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) offered an amendment to ban any new drilling for oil or natural gas beneath the Great Lakes. Congressional Quarterly reported that, "Since 1979, 13 such wells have been drilled in the region, with seven currently in operation."

The House adopted the Bonior amendment on June 28, 2001 by a vote of 265 to 157 (Roll Call 203). We have assigned pluses to the nays.

Education Spending Increase Cut. This amendment by Representative Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) would limit the increase in funding in the elementary and secondary education package "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" to 11.5 percent. That may not sound like much of a limit; and it isn't. But, said Representative Cox, "if we do not adopt this amendment, the rate of increase will be 23.5 percent." Actually, without adoption of the Cox amendment, the underlying $22.8 billion bill would represent a 28 percent increase over the nearly $17.8 billion authorized for fiscal 2001. The vote on the Cox amendment is a useful test for determining which congressmen are willing to waste large amounts of taxpayer monies on unconstitutional federal education boondoggles.

The House rejected the Cox amendment to H.R. 1 on May 23, 2001 by a vote of 101-326 (Roll Call 143). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Tax Cut Reconciliation. This bill consists of President Bush's tax cut proposals. H.R. 1836 would cut all income tax rates slightly and provide $958.3 billion in tax relief over 11 years.

The House passed the bill, H.R. 1836, on May 16, 2001 by a vote of 230-197 (Roll Call 118). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Abortion Funds in Foreign Aid. This amendment would preserve the Mexico City policy that bans the distribution of federal family planning foreign aid to abortion providers and associated groups in the international abortion industry. The Mexico City policy was initiated by the Reagan administration in 1984, but was reversed by the Clinton administration. President Bush reinstated the policy shortly after his inauguration, but this amendment would make the provision law rather than merely an executive decree.

"This amendment will greatly improve the bill by deleting a provision that would re-quire the United States to subsidize abortionists and abortion lobbyists in foreign countries," the amendment's author, Representative Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), explained.

The House adopted the Hyde amendment to H.R. 1646 on May 16, 2001 by a vote of 218-210 (Roll Call 115). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Rejoining UNESCO. This amendment would eliminate the $67 mil-lion which the underlying State Department authorization bill designates toward re-establishing U.S. membership in UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) explained that "in light of our summary exclusion from U.N. Economic and Social Council, the International Narcotics and Drug Control Board and the Commission on Human Rights, now is the time to critically review our existing memberships in the United Nations organizations and not the time to rejoin another U.N. body at enormous expense." This is especially the case with UNESCO, which is in charge of designating the UN's World Heritage sites as well as the sovereignty-sapping Man and the Biosphere project. The U.S. with-drew from UNESCO in 1984 after the organization recommended global press censorship through a "New World Information Order."

The House rejected the amendment to H.R. 1646 on May 10, 2001 by a vote of 193-225 (Roll Call 108). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Withhold UN "Dues." This amendment would withhold the final $244 million payment on the $1 billion balance the U.S. agreed to pay in "back dues" to the UN until such time as the United States is offered a seat on the UN Economic and Social Council's Commission on Human Rights. Although the withholding of the back dues is conditional and motivated upon the flawed premise that the United States should entrench itself ever more deeply into the United Nations, any withholding of funds from the United Nations -- however conditional -- will serve the cause of freedom.

The House adopted the amendment to H.R. 1646 on May 10, 2001 by a vote of 252-165 (Roll Call 107). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

U.S. Government Immunity from International Criminal Court Prosecution. This amendment notes that "any American prosecuted by the International Criminal Court will, under the Rome Statute, he denied procedural protections to which all Americans arc entitled under the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution, such as the right to trial by jury." The amendment therefore prohibits any form of assistance to the ICC, prohibits military foreign aid to the ICC, prohibits the operation of ICC officials on U.S. soil, and prohibits the deployment of U.S. forces to nations that have ratified the ICC treaty or areas where U.S. servicemen are likely to be prosecuted. Nevertheless, this is a weak, milquetoast amendment that does not go nearly far enough. It does not protect the average American citizen from prosecution. Furthermore, it gives the president the option to waive prohibitions in the amendment against prosecuting American officials without a jury trial or constitutionally protected due process if the president determines that "it is in the national interest of the United States for the International Criminal Court's investigation or prosecution of the named individual to proceed."

The House adopted the amendment to H.R. 1646 on May 10, 2001 by a vote of 282-137 (Roll Call 106). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Death Tax Repeal. This legislation g would phase out and completely repeal the Marxist federal inheritance tax that has been on the statute books since 1916. While opponents of the legislation painted the bill as a means of helping the rich, the truth is that this tax traditionally has put poor people out of work by liquidating family farms and small privately owned businesses that are asset "rich" but cash poor. No other tax contributes more to the trend toward the amalgamation of business into huge corporate empires than the death tax; the only way many small businesses and farms can stay in operation after the death of the owner is either through incorporation or through the sale of the private firm to a large corporation.

The House passed the bill on April 4, 2001 by a vote of 274-154 (Roll Call 84). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Marriage Penalty Elimination. This bill would eliminate the "marriage penalty" in the income tax laws by the year 2009 and double the per child income tax credit to $1,000 by the year 2006. Representative Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) explained that the bill was needed because the "current Tax Code punishes married couples where both partners work by driving them into a higher tax bracket. The marriage penalty taxes the income of the second wage earner at a much higher rate than if they were taxed as an individual...." The current tax code, said Gilman, "penalizes marriage and encourages couples to live together without any formal legal commitment to each other."

The House passed H.R. 6 on March 29, 2001 by a vote of 282-144 (Roll Call 75). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Fiscal 2002 Budget -- Conservative Substitute. This conservative substitute to the big-spending Republican majority's 10-year budget resolution would trim discretionary spending by about $150 billion and increase the tax cut from $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion. The conservative budget substitute would still increase overall federal spending, but it is significantly better than the Republican leadership budget it would replace.

The House rejected the substitute to H. Con, Res. 83 on March 28, 2001 by a vote of 81-341 (Roll Call 68). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Fiscal 2002 Budget -- House Progressive Caucus Substitute. The annual budget proposal by the House Progressive Caucus, a group affiliated with the Socialist International, would slash military spending but increase overall spending in the already bloated Republican leadership budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 83) by about $180 billion over 10 years. The substitute would also gut the $1.6 trillion tax cut. The Progressive Caucus substitute is an important litmus test of radical socialism for members of Congress.

The House rejected the substitute to H. Con. Res. 83 on March 28, 2001 by a vote of 79-343 (Roll Call 66). We have assigned pluses to the nays.

Bush Tax Cut Bill. Under this measure (H.R. 3), the number of tax brackets would be ratcheted down from five to four, resulting in tax brackets of 10 percent, 15 percent, 25 percent, and 33 percent. The legislation, part of President Bush's tax cut plan, would cut taxes by $947.4 billion over fiscal years 2001-11. The income tax cut would gradually reduce all income tax brackets over the 2001-11 period, and a rate reduction for the lowest bracket would be retroactive to the beginning of the 2001 calendar year.

The House passed H.R. 3 on March 8, 2001 by a vote of 230-198 (Roll Call 45). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Ergonomics Regulation Repeal. Congress had long demonstrated a complete lack of interest in enacting ex-pensive and unconstitutional national ergonomics standards. So President Bill Clinton dumped onerous OSHA-instituted ergonomics rules on the American people in the closing days of his administration, and arranged for those rules to take effect a mere four days before the inauguration of George W. Bush. "Ergonomics" is the design of equipment and work environments to best suit a worker's health and productivity, and ergonomic regulations are generally federal rules mandating standards of worker comfort in the workplace. Representative Tom Davis (R-Va.) described the expansive scope of the OSHA regulations: "By OSHA's own estimates, this ergonomic rule will cover over 102 million employees, 18 million jobs, and 6.1 million businesses and cost almost $100 billion a year to implement." Passage of S. J. Res. 6 would provide congressional disapproval of the OSHA ergonomics rule and declare that the "rule shall have no force or effect."

The House adopted S. J. Res. 6 on March 7, 2001 by a vote of 223-206 (Roll Call 33). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.

Bankruptcy Reform. As the National Chamber of Commerce noted in its analysis of the bankruptcy reform bill, this legislation was aimed at the "more than 100,000 bankruptcy filers [who] are abusing the system every year by discharging debts that they have the ability to repay." Under this underlying bipartisan bill, "Abusers of the bankruptcy system, those median income who earn more than the and can afford to repay a significant portion of their debts, will be required to pay back what they can afford." This legislation would allow persons saddled with unexpected medical bills or other hardships a fresh start through bankruptcy while generally preventing the abusive or habitual use of bankruptcy by sheltering fewer assets from seizure under bankruptcy proceedings.

The House passed H.R. 333 on March 1, 2001 by a vote of 306-108 (Roll Call 25). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.