wfn.org | UCC agency publishes voting record

[powellb@ucc.org]

April 9, 1996

Office of Communication
United Church of Christ

Contacts:
Hans Holznagel, (216) 736-2214
Jay Lintner, (202) 543-1517

On the World Wide Web:
http://www.apk.net/ucc

National church agency publishes how members of Congress voted
on 12 key issues

      CLEVELAND -- A national agency of the United Church of
Christ today released the voting record of members of Congress
on 12 issues related to "the needs of the poor" and "government
for the common good."
      The record of 1995 votes -- on issues ranging from the
women, infants and children food program to the B-2 bomber --
appears in the April issue of United Church News, the national
newspaper of the 1.5-million-member denomination.
      One reason for publishing the voting record is to point
out the potential for damage to society's "safety net" in the
rush to cut federal programs, says Valerie Russell, executive
director of the Cleveland-based agency that did the analysis,
the Office for Church in Society of the United Church of Christ.
      "This past year saw a devastating attack on governmental
programs that serve poor people and exist for the common good,"
Russell said.  "In the necessary and worthy goal of moving
toward a balanced budget, many cuts in programs have been
proposed with no thought to what is really working and what is
not."
      The Rev. Jay Lintner, director of the church agency's
office in Washington, D.C., noted the contrast between House and
Senate voting records.  He said:  "We owe a debt of gratitude to
Senate Republican moderates, such as Senators Jeffords, Chaffee,
Cohen and Snowe, who have worked to protect various programs
that deserve to remain entitlements:  food stamps, school
lunches and Medicaid."
      The record lists each Senator's and Representative's votes
on these 1995 issues:

House
      -- Welfare reform: HR 4
      -- Food stamps: Hostetler amendment to HR 4
      -- Women, infants and children food program: Hall
            amendment to agriculture appropriations bill
      -- Budget reconciliation fairness: Sabo motion
      -- Budget reconciliation bill
      -- Clean-water regulations: HR 961
      -- Regulatory moratorium: HR 450
      -- Reproductive choice: DeLauro amendment to Defense
            Authorization bill
      -- Silencing nonprofit organizations: Skaggs amendment to
            labor, health and human services and education
            appropriations bill
      -- Africa development aid: Hastings amendment
      -- Restricting U.N. peacekeeping: Leach amendment to 
            National Security Act
      -- HR 7
      -- Defense, B-2 bomber: Kasich amendment

Senate
      -- Welfare and child care: motion to defeat Dodd amendment
            to welfare bill
      -- Food stamps: Ashcroft amendment to welfare bill
      -- Tax fairness: motion to defeat Breaux amendment to
            budget reconciliation bill
      -- Medicaid: Gramm amendment to budget reconciliation bill
      -- Welfare benefits for naturalized citizens: Feinstein
            amendment to welfare bill
      -- Education: motion to support Harkin amendment
      -- Budget reconciliation
      -- Arctic wildlife refuge: Domenici motion
      -- Regulatory moratorium: motion to end filibuster on a
            bill to weaken federal regulations
      -- Access to abortion services for federal employees
      -- Agency for international development: motion to end
            filibuster on State Department authorization bill
      -- Defense, B-2 bomber
                              #  #  #

[EDITORS and PRODUCERS:  For a copy of the voting record,
contact Jay Lintner at the Washington number on Page 1 of this
release.  Also, members of the United Church of Christ in
several Congressional districts will soon be speaking out
locally on their representatives' records.  For details, call
one of the contact people named on Page 1 of this release.]      
#  #  #