The highly polarized first session of the 112^th Congress posed extreme challenges for the advancement of civil and human rights. In fact, in the House of Representatives the number of members who supported The Leadership Conference’s issues on 90 percent or more of the votes in The Leadership Conference Voting Record fell from 217 to 148 this year. In historical terms, the session was one of the least productive on record – and one of the least popular – as Congress’ approval rating plummeted to an all-time low of 9 percent. Even routine business – such as raising the debt ceiling and confirming highly qualified judicial and executive branch nominees – fell victim to obstruction, brinkmanship, and political posturing a year ahead of the 2012 elections and President Obama’s bid for a second term.

The November 2010 midterm elections returned divided government to Washington along with a far more conservative – and sometimes extremist – agenda driven by the tea party movement and its insistence on shrinking government, eliminating regulations, and repealing signature achievements of the 111^th Congress. With tea party support, Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 2006 with 242 members – their largest majority since the 1940s. Democrats maintained control of the Senate, but their majority fell from 59 seats in the 111^th Congress to 53 seats (including the two independents who usually vote with them) in the 112^th Congress.

The tragic assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D. Ariz., in early January in which six people were killed, including U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, spurred a noteworthy gesture of bipartisan civility when Congress agreed for the first time to a nonpartisan seating arrangement during the president’s State of the Union address. But the bipartisan spirit proved fleeting as the new political dynamic fostered paralyzing gridlock and dysfunction in a session that brought the federal government to the brink of shut down on three separate occasions.

Despite a fragile economic recovery and an unemployment rate that hovered around 9 percent – and even higher for African Americans, Latinos and young people – tea party Republicans pushed an agenda focused on cutting government spending to the exclusion of job creation. During the session, the House passed multiple bills to slash funding for crucial federal programs. The House budget resolution also sought to end Medicare’s guarantee of health care for seniors by turning it into an underfunded voucher program. Fortunately, the Senate rejected many of these extreme cuts.

What should have been a routine increase to the debt ceiling ignited the most bruising battle of the year, which brought the government perilously close to a catastrophic default. Using the debt ceiling deadline as leverage, Republicans forced a complicated eleventh-hour deal with the White House to reduce spending by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. The deal created a temporary, bipartisan House-Senate “supercommittee” charged with finding another $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction. The supercommittee’s failure to do so triggered $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts that will begin in January 2013, half of which will come from defense spending. While funding for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and veterans benefits were largely spared, the threat of drastic cuts to education, housing, and other important federal priorities looms large unless Congress revisits the deal in 2012.

The debt ceiling deal also paved the way for the House and Senate to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to balance its budget each year. Most economists warned that such an amendment would threaten significant harm by forcing deep spending cuts or large tax increases during periods when the economy was weak or in recession. The subsequent failure of the amendment in both chambers was one of the few high points of the session.

It wasn’t until September, when President Obama proposed the American Jobs Act in a speech to a joint session of Congress, that the long-awaited debate on job creation finally got underway. The comprehensive jobs package offered by the administration included a mixture of tax cuts, infrastructure funding and state support for teachers and first responders designed to put people back to work and put the nation on more sound economic footing. The Senate made several attempts to bring up the bill or various parts of the bill, but all of the efforts were filibustered, and the House leadership refused to bring the bill up at all. Only a small piece of the bill that provided incentives for hiring veterans became law.

House Republicans made repeal of the Affordable Care Act – Obama’s landmark health reform law – a high priority, and it was one of the first major votes of the session. While the repeal bill passed the House in January, the vote was largely symbolic as it had no chance of being considered in the Senate.

The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, which the 111^th Congress passed to rein in the casino ways of Wall Street that were largely responsible for the nation’s economic woes, came under a more sustained attack. As with health care reform, the House voted to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and made several attempts to cripple the agency through the budget and appropriations process. Senate Republicans vowed to refuse to allow a vote on any nominee to head the CFPB unless the bureau was revamped and weakened. Carrying through on the threat, the nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the CFPB was blocked by a filibuster in December. Undeterred, in January 2012, Obama used his constitutional authority to install Cordray as a recess appointment.

Continuing a pattern begun in the 111^th Congress, filibusters were a frequent weapon of choice for the Senate minority to block many of the president’s executive and judicial nominees. The confirmation of judicial nominees was especially slow despite a high number of vacancies – about one out of eight – on the federal bench, many of them deemed “judicial emergencies” because of heavy caseloads. Frequently, qualified nominees were forced to wait months for a floor vote, only to pass with unanimous or near unanimous support. For example, it took several months for the Senate to confirm – by voice vote, meaning they were noncontroversial – Andrew Carter to the U.S. District Court of Southern New York and Dana L. Christensen to the U.S. District Court of Montana. The filibuster of other highly qualified nominees was very disappointing. Despite bipartisan support, Goodwin Liu was denied a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit because of a filibuster. Caitlin Halligan, a former New York solicitor general nominated for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was also filibustered. By the end of the year, there were more than 100 current and future federal court vacancies, including 37 judicial emergencies, and 19 nominees pending on the floor.

Congress clearly has much work to do in 2012 – including the completion of overdue reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the surface transportation law – and not much time to do it. Based on the acrimony in the first session, however, it is likely that the second session of the 112^th Congress will look a lot like the first.

Based on these votes, each member of Congress earns a percentage rating for support of The Leadership Conference priorities. This rating cannot indicate the full extent of a legislator’s support for or opposition to The Leadership Conference positions and represents neither endorsement nor condemnation of any member of Congress.

The Leadership Conference has taken a sample of bills considered during the first session of the 112^th Congress. The Leadership Conference Voting Record was created with the bills in this sample. This sample of bills reflects how members of Congress have aligned with The Leadership Conference priority areas from the beginning of the 112^th Congress through December 2011.

A vote in accordance with The Leadership Conference’s position is a “+” vote; a vote contrary to The Leadership Conference’s position is a “-” vote. A “(+)” or “(-)” reflects the announced position of the member, but is not reflected in the overall “report total.” An “x” indicates a yea or nay vote was not cast. An “i” indicates the member of Congress was not in office for the full term. The Leadership Conference Voting Record reflects only roll call votes that were officially recorded on the floor of the U.S. Senate or U.S. House of Representatives.

In the House during the 112^th Congress, Rep. Jane Harmon, D. Calif., resigned in February 2011; Rep. Chris Lee, R. N.Y., resigned in February 2011; Rep. Anthony Weiner, D. N.Y., resigned in June 2011; Rep. David Wu, D. Ore., resigned in August 2011; Rep. Mark Amodei, R. Nev., won a special election in May 2011; Rep. Kathleen Hocul, D. N.Y., won a special election in May 2011; Rep. Janice Hahn, D. Calif., won a special election in July 2011; and Rep. Robert Turner, R. N.Y., won a special election in September 2011.

In the Senate during the 112^th Congress, Sen. John Ensign, R. Nev., resigned in May 2011, and Sen. Dean Heller, R. Nev., was appointed in May 2011.

The votes of the District of Columbia (D.C.) delegate do not appear in The Leadership Conference Voting Record because although District residents must pay federal taxes, they are not given voting representation in Congress.

The Leadership Conference Voting Record for the first session of the 112^th Congress reflects positions taken by every senator and representative on the legislative priorities of The Leadership Conference and its coalition members.

The Leadership Conference can count on 148 House members and 48 senators to support its priorities on 90 percent or more of the votes in The Leadership Conference Voting Record.

For more information, please contact The Leadership Conference’s Public Policy Department at 202.466.3311.

About The Leadership Conference

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. Through advocacy and outreach to targeted constituencies, The Leadership Conference works toward the goal of a more open and just society – an America as good as its ideals. Founded in 1950, The Leadership Conference works to effect meaningful legislation, policies, and executive branch appointments, and to ensure the proper enforcement of civil rights laws to unite us as a nation true to its promise of equal justice, equal opportunity, and mutual respect.