Introduction
The second session of the 110th Congress convened in January 2008. Much of this session was characterized by partisan jockeying and legislative gridlock on many key issues. The narrow nature of the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the need to get 60 votes in the Senate to overcome filibusters, and the fact that 2008 was an election year, all contributed to the highly political nature of many legislative debates. As a result, when Congress adjourned in early October, very little had been accomplished on many key issues.
As always, the UAW worked with otherunions and progressive allies on a wide rangeof measures. These included initiatives dealingwith the economy, worker rights, trade,health care, budget/taxes, and civil and humanrights.
Economy
For much of the year, the House and Senate debated measures to respond to the deterioration in the economy and the turmoil in the housing and financial markets. Early in the year, the Bush administration and House Democratic leaders reached agreement on an economic stimulus package that mostly provided tax rebates to individuals. This measure was quickly approved by the House and Senate.
The UAW, other unions and progressive groups urged Congress to pass additional measures to create jobs and stimulate the economy, including extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for laid-off workers, assistance to hard pressed states and localities, increased spending on job-creating infrastructure projects, and heating and food assistance for low-income families. However, the Bush administration and GOP congressional leaders opposed these initiatives and stopped them from being included in the original economic stimulus package.
The UAW backed an amendment that would have added extended UI benefits to this package, but Senate Republicans used a filibuster to block this effort.
As the economic downturn grew worse, public pressure for extending UI benefits increased. In May Senate Democratic leaders offered an amendment to add extended UI benefits to a supplemental appropriations bill. With the UAW’s strong support, this amendment was adopted and the extended UI benefits were ultimately enacted into law. Because of opposition from the Bush administration, however, the extension did not include even more weeks of benefits for laid-off workers in high unemployment states such as Michigan and Ohio.
Congress also approved legislation to respond to the mortgage foreclosure crisis. During consideration of this legislation, the UAW and other progressive groups supported an amendment to allow bankruptcy courts to modify the terms of sub-prime mortgages to provide relief to individuals struggling to avoid foreclosure. But the banking industry and Senate Republicans killed this amendment.
In response to the continuing deterioration in the economy and the growing financial crisis, in September Democratic congressional leaders renewed their efforts to pass a broad economic stimulus package. With our strong support, the House approved a new stimulus package that included many of the initiatives that the UAW and our allies had called for earlier in the year. But Senate Republicans blocked an effort to take up a similar stimulus package in the Senate.
Worker Rights
During 2008 Democratic congressional leaders continued to advance various progressive measures dealing with worker rights. With the support of the UAW and other unions, in January the House approved legislation to strengthen safety requirements for our nation’s mines to prevent fatalities, injuries and illnesses. In April, the House also passed a UAW-backed measure to require OSHA to issue rules regulating combustible industrial dusts to prevent explosions that have killed many workers. Unfortunately, because of GOP opposition, the Senate never took up either of these measures.
The Senate did consider legislation that would have established minimum standards that all states would have to meet regarding collective bargaining rights for firefighters, police officers and emergency medical personnel. GOP opponents tried to block this bill, but there was sufficient bipartisan support to invoke cloture to cut off the filibuster. In the end, however, there was not enough time to complete action on this measure.
Trade
During 2008 the UAW and the rest of the labor movement continued to oppose unfair, dangerous trade deals negotiated by the Bush administration with Korea and Colombia. We opposed the Korea free trade deal because it would trigger a surge in automotive imports from Korea, while allowing Korea to maintain a variety of non-tariff barriers that keep its market closed to U.S.-built automotive products. As a result, this trade deal would exacerbate the already lopsided U.S. automotive trade deficit with Korea, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of additional jobs for American workers.
The UAW opposed the Colombia free trade deal because of the continuing violence against trade unionists in that country. We believe that there must be a sustained halt to this violence before the U.S. considers any free trade agreement with Colombia.
Democratic congressional leaders joined us in opposing these flawed trade deals. In the end, the Korea and Colombia free trade agreements were never taken up by Congress.
The Bush administration tried to force the House to consider the Colombia free trade deal under fast-track procedures requiring an up-or-down vote after limited debate, with no opportunity for any filibusters or amendments. But House Democratic leaders offered a resolution suspending the fast-track procedures for considering the Colombia free trade agreement. With the support of the labor movement, the House approved this resolution, thereby blocking consideration of this trade deal.
Health Care
In 2007 the House and Senate approved legislation that would have expanded the State Children’s health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover 4 million uninsured children. But President Bush vetoed this legislation because he opposed an expansion of government health care programs.
With our support, in January 2008 House Democrats tried to override this ill-advised veto. But they failed to get the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto because most Republicans voted to sustain it.
Budget/Taxes
Democratic congressional leaders crafted a progressive budget plan for FY 2009. This plan rejected the Bush administration’s proposals to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the rich, and to make enormous cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. At the same time, this budget plan provided increased funding for health care, education, infrastructure, veterans and other important domestic programs. It also included increased funding for green-collar jobs initiatives, including the program backed by the UAW to provide low-interest loans to help encourage auto manufacturers to retool facilities in the U.S. to produce advanced technology vehicles and their key components. With our strong support the House and Senate approved this budget plan in June.
During consideration of the budget plan, Senate Republicans offered an amendment to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich. The UAW and other progressive groups strongly opposed this amendment and it was rejected.
Civil and Human Rights
The UAW and our allies in the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights strongly supported the Fair Pay Restoration Act, which would restore longstanding protections against pay discrimination that had been undermined by the terrible Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber. But Senate Republicans used a filibuster to block this legislation.
The UAW and our civil rights allies also supported the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would update and strengthen the Equal Pay Act in order to help close the pay gap between men and women and to ensure equal pay for equal work. The House passed this important civil rights measure. But it was never taken up by the Senate.
Conclusion
This voting record includes votes during 2008 in the second session of the 110th Congress.
The UAW was involved in many more issues than those covered by this voting record. However, on many important issues there were no votes, or else key votes were unrecorded (i.e., voice votes) or were too lopsided to be instructive.
Our voting record is designed to help UAW members assess the performances of their representatives and senators. Keep in mind, however, that this record is only one basis for evaluating the performance of members of Congress.
For example, a number of representatives and senators provided assistance and support to UAW organizing drives. These members of Congress were: Senators Dodd, Menendez, and Obama, and Representatives Andrews, Courtney, DeLauro, Kildee, Larson, LoBiondo, Chris Murphy, Shays, and Chris Smith. These members deserve our special thanks for this assistance.
The 2008 Voting Record contains a column at the end showing the overall 2008 UAW Support Percentage for each representative and senator. This percentage is calculated based on the number of right votes divided by the total number of votes actually cast by that representative or senator
