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n USE IT OR LOSE IT: Voting 223 for and 195 against, the House on June 26 defeated a bill (HR 6251) placing a "use it or lose it" mandate for oil companies to either drill on federal land they have leased or relinquish the right to do so. The bill was directed at dormant leases covering 68 million acres in the West and Alaska. The bill would deny new federal leases to companies not drilling on acreage already leased. A yes vote was to pass the bill, which required a two-thirds majority for passage under shortcut parliamentary rules.

VOTING YES: Butterfield, Etheridge, Price, McIntyre, Hayes, Shuler, Melvin, Watt, Miller,

VOTING NO: Jones, Foxx, Coble, Myrick, McHenry

n COMMUTER-FARE SUBSIDIES: Voting 322 for and 98 against, the House on June 26 sent the Senate a bill (HR 6052) authorizing $1.7 billion in fiscal 2008-2009 for grants that public transit authorities would use to either reduce fares or expand services, with nearly 90 percent of the outlay allocated to urban areas of at least 50,000 population. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

VOTING YES: Butterfield, Etheridge, Jones, Price, Coble, McIntyre, Hayes, Shuler, Watt, Miller

VOTING NO: Foxx, Myrick, McHenry

n SCHOOL-BUS FUEL COSTS: voting 199 for and 221 against, the House on June 26 defeated a Republican bid to expand HR 6052 (above) to include subsidies for the fuel costs of school buses. The motion stipulated that funding priority in the bill would go to districts curtailing bus services because of high fuel costs. A yes vote backed the GOP motion.

VOTING YES: Jones, Foxx, Coble, McIntyre, Hayes, Myrick, McHenry, Shuler

VOTING NO: Butterfield, Etheridge, Price, Watt, Miller

n OIL-MARKET SPECULATION: Voting 402 for and 19 against, the House on June 26 sent the Senate a bill (HR 6377) directing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to root out "excessive speculation" in the oil-futures market. The bill did not define that term. The agency has authority under existing law to determine whether market prices for commodities accurately reflect supply and demand. No member spoke against the bill. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

VOTING YES: Butterfield, Etheridge, Jones, Price, Foxx, Coble, McIntyre, Hayes, Myrick, McHenry, Shuler, Watt, Miller

U.S. SENATE

n HOUSING-RECOVERY PACKAGE: Voting 83 for and nine against, the Senate on June 24 agreed to debate a housing-recovery package (HR 3221) that would enable lenders to refinance hundreds of thousands of at-risk mortgages in return for government backing of the new loans. The bill also would grant refundable tax credits of $8,000 to first-time buyers of unoccupied homes; allow taxpayers who do not itemize deductions to treat up to $700 of their 2008 property taxes as a federal tax deduction and provide at least $4 billion in grants to help communities and nonprofit groups buy foreclosed homes for sale or rental to families below the region's median-income level. A yes vote was to debate the bill.

VOTING YES: Elizabeth Dole,R; Richard Burr, R

n MEDICARE DOCTOR PAYMENTS: Voting 58 for and 40 against, the Senate on June 26 failed to reach 60 votes needed to end Republican blockage of a House-passed bill (HR 6331) that would avert the administration's 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments set for July 1. A yes vote was to advance the bill.

VOTING YES: Dole

VOTING NO: Burr

n WAR FUNDING, GI BILL: Voting 92 for and six against, the Senate on June 26 passed a bill (HR 2642) that would appropriate $162.5 billion to pay Iraq-Afghanistan war costs well into 2009. The bill also would establish a new GI Bill, which would pay four years' college tuition for veterans with at least three years of duty who enlisted after Sept. 11, 2001. The bill also would fund 13 more weeks of jobless checks for the long-term unemployed, along with programs such as flood relief in the Midwest, levee rebuilding in New Orleans, global food aid and Census Bureau upgrades. The overall $257.5 billion cost would be added to the national debt. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

VOTING YES: Dole, Burr

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