Thursday, July 11, 2013

The GOP Energy Bill cuts $2.1B from the DOE. Which Dems Voted for it?

Yesterday, I wrote a diary on the amendments to the Energy and Water appropriations bill. Democratic attempts to restore the funding for renewable energy that the GOP cut out of the bill all failed, often because of the opposition of nuke-friendly Democrats to the reallocation of funds away from the upkeep of our unneeded nuclear arsenal.

As reported by The Hill, nonsecurity funding was cut by $2.5 billion. The GOP bill cuts $100 million from civil works programs in the Army Corps of Engineers, another $100 million from the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation, and $2.1 billion from the Department of Energy. About half of those cuts to the DOE come from renewable energy programs.

I plan to write another diary later today to address the amendments on which Congress voted after I wrote my last diary. A total of 33 amendments received a vote.  Others passed on voice vote, and a few were rejected through points of order.

However, I thought I would quickly address the vote on the final passage of the bill.
It passed 227 to 198. 9 Republicans voted against it.  8 Democrats--mainly Conservadems--voted for it.

The 9 Republicans who voted against it were the following:

Justin Amash (MI-03)
Mark Amodei (NV-02)
Trent Franks (AZ-08)
Chris Gibson (NY-19)
Joe Heck (NV-03)
Walter Jones (NC-03)
Tom Massie (KY-04)
Jim Sensenbrenner (WI-05)
Pat Tiberi (OH-12)

Amash, Franks, and Massie are anti-spending zealots.  Gibson and Jones are relatively moderate as far as GOPers go these days.

The 8 Democrats who voted for the bill were the following:

John Barrow (GA-12)
Joe Garcia (FL-26)
Gene Green (TX-29)
Patrick Murphy (FL-18)
Bill Owens (NY-21)
Ed Pastor (AZ-07)
Nick Rahall (WV-03)
Filemon Vela (TX-34)

Ed Pastor is the only member of the Progressive Caucus there. I'd assume that it has something to do with Phoenix Nuclear Labs. Barrow, Murphy, Owens, Rahall, and Vela are all Conservadems. Murphy is particularly disappointing because a number of progressive groups backed him last cycle when he ran against Allen West.  Once in Congress, he proceeded to vote like the Republican he previously was.

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