As mentioned earlier this week, it’s been downright scary keeping an eye on Washington D.C. lately. With 14 Dirty Water bills and riders out there, the threats to our nation’s waters and the health of our communities are stronger than ever. So who’s to blame? Well, start with this list.
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The Clean Water Network, a national coalition of more than 1,200 local, state and national non-profit public interest organizations working together to protect the health, safety and quality of our nation’s waters, just released a preliminary analysis and spread sheet on the votes taken by the U.S. House of Representatives on 14 Dirty Water bills and riders. The votes took place from February – July 2011.
The spreadsheet shows how each member voted on each bill or rider, and the analysis explains each bill or rider with a determination of which way was voting for clean water. Needless to say, the analysis is scary as hell… and even in Washington state which has traditionally had a decent history in regards to protecting water quality.
Here’s a quick note from CWN explaining where they’re at and what they would like to see happen: “CWN will be adding to and modifying the overall chart and analysis, but we wanted to get this information out to Network groups while Congress is on recess. It is our hope everyone can check the chart to see how their Representative voted. If your Member voted for clean water please take time to tell her or him thank you. Alternatively if your Member of Congress did not support clean water let them know you are disappointed.”
The excel chart with all of the votes and a more detailed analysis and details on the 14 votes can be found HERE.
Before I get in to how our local reps voted, consider these scary findings from the analysis:
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- 170 Members in the U.S. House of Representatives did not cast ONE vote in favor of clean water during the 112th Congress. These 170 members were exclusively Republicans and had a clean water voting score of 0. This is almost 40% of the entire House of Representatives.
- More than half of all the members in the House voted in favor of clean water less than 25% of the time. This group was comprised of mostly Republicans, though also included 6 Democrats: Jim Costa (CA-20), Jerry Costello (IL-12), Mark Critz (PA-12), Tim Holden (PA-17) and Collin Peterson (MN-7).
- Ranking democratic member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Nick Rahall (D-WVA), who was a co-sponsor of dirty water bill HR 2018, had a voting record of 36% on clean water. In contrast, ranking member of the Committee of Appropriations Interior and Environment subcommittee James Moran (D-VA) had a 100% voting record on clean water.
- During the 112 Congress, 105 members in the House voted 100% of the time in favor of clean water during the 112th Congress (all Democrats).
- 165 members in the House voted in favor of clean water at least 75% of the time. This is less than 40% of the 435 member House of Representatives, (not including members representing DC and other federal territories such as Guam and Puerto Rico). Of these 165 members, all were Democrats, except for Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8) and Christopher Smith (NJ-4).
- Aside from Representatives Fitzpatrick and Smith, 8 other Republicans voted in favor of clean water at least 50% of the time – Charlie Bass (NH-2), Nan Hayworth (NY-19), Tim Johnson (IL-15), Leonard Lance (NJ-7), Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2), David Reichert (WA-8), Robert Wittman (VA-1) and Frank Wolf (VA-10).
Let’s have a look at our local reps.
In Washington, Reps Norm Dicks (D-6th), Jay Inslee (D- 1st) and Adam Smith (D-9th) had a perfect voting record, voting for clean water all 14 times. Reps Jim McDermott (D-7th) and Rick Larsen (D-2nd) voted for clean water 13 of 14 times, and Rep Dave Reichart (D-8th) voted for clean water 9 of 14 times. On the contrary, Reps Doc Hastings (R-4th), Jaime Herrera-Beutler (R-3rd) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5th) all voted for dirty water each time.
In Idaho, Reps Raul Labrador (R-1st) and Michael Simpson (R-2nd) voted for dirty water 13 of 14 times.
Again, you can see the entire analysis HERE, and the entire spreadsheet HERE.
