The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Volume 9 Number 1

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights has released its Voting Record for the 104th Congress rating both the House and Senate on key legislative floor votes on civil rights and social and economic justice issues of concern to LCCR member organizations.

Six Democratic Senators received perfect scores (100%): Senators Edward Kennedy (MA), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Patrick Leahy (VT), Daniel Patrick Moynihan (NY), Paul Sarbanes (MD), and Paul Wellstone (MN). The six top ranking Republicans are: Senators Jim Jeffords (VT) with 70 percent; Mark Hatfield (OR), Olympia Snowe (ME) and Arlen Specter (PA) with 65 percent, and Senator Chaffee with 55 percent. Thirty-six Senators received scores of 80% or better and 36 received scores of 20 percent or lower.

In the House 132 Representatives received a score of 80 percent or better with 40 receiving a perfect score of 100 percent. On the other end 170 Representatives received voting scores of 20% or below.

Included among the votes analyzed in the report is the final vote on the Overhaul of the Welfare System in both the Senate and House. The final conference report on the bill that was voted on as part of the Budget Reconciliation Package provided for the reduction of spending over six years by about $54.1 billion, mostly by cutting aid to legal immigrants through scaling back food stamp and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) spending. The bill ends the federal guarantee of welfare benefits, give states b road discretion over their own programs through block grants, generally requires welfare recipients to work within two years of receiving benefits and limits recipients to five years of welfare benefits. The bill imposes tighter eligibility standards on low-income children seeking SSI and food stamp benefits due to disability. The bill also denies most legal immigrants SSI and food stamp benefits and gives states the option to further restrict access to Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and other programs. LCCR strongly opposed ending the federal guarantee of welfare benefits to those in need and the denial of SSI and food stamp benefits to legal immigrants. The conference report was adopted by the House on July 31, 1996 by a v ote of 328-101, and by the Senate on August 1, 1996 by a vote of 78-21.

Another issue considered in the voting record is affirmative action. In the Senate during the 104th Congress there were several failed attempts to limit federal affirmative action by attaching anti-affirmative action riders to appropriation bills. The " Equal Opportunity Act" introduced by Senator Robert Dole which would have eliminated all federal affirmative action programs died in committee. The voting record includes the vote on Senator Phil Gramm's (R-TX) amendment to the Legislative Branch Appropr iations to prohibit any money in the bill from being used toward federal contracts based on the race, color, national origin or gender of the contractor. The amendment was rejected on July 20, 1995 by a vote of 36-61.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Act introduced in the House by Charles Canady (R-FL) was also not considered by the full House. The only affirmative action measure considered in the House, which is included in the Voting Record, was a vote to end a Fed eral Communications Commission program that sought to increase the number of minority owned television and radio stations and thus provide "a diversity of expression over the airwaves" by giving a tax break to companies that sell such businesses to minori ties. Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) offered an amendment to narrow, rather than eliminate, the tax benefits for the sale of broadcast licenses to minorities to transactions under $50 million and to require minority broadcasters to hold the property for three years. The amendment failed 191-234. LCCR supported the amendment.

Copies of the report are available by writing to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, 1629 K Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20006.