Congressional votes for Jan. 8

Here's a look at how area members of Congress voted over the last week.

The House returned from its holiday recess this week, but the Senate did not. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene on Monday the 11th.

HOUSE VOTES

CURBING HEALTH CARE REFORM: The House agreed to a motion sponsored by Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to concur in the Senate amendment to the Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act (H.R. 3762). The bill would repeal the health-care reform law's medical device excise tax, repeal the employer health-insurance mandate, repeal the individual health-insurance mandate and block funding for Planned Parenthood. The vote, on Jan. 6, was 240 yeas to 181 nays.

YEAS: Graves (MO) R-MO (6th), Hartzler R-MO (4th), Long R-MO (7th), Luetkemeyer R-MO (3rd), Smith (MO) R-MO (8th), Wagner R-MO (2nd)

NAYS: Clay D-MO (1st)

NOT VOTING: Cleaver D-MO (5th)

DISCLOSURE OF REGULATORY LITIGATION: The House passed the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act (H.R. 712), sponsored by Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga. The bill would require federal regulatory agencies to increase disclosure of their settlements of lawsuits brought by state and local governments and private groups in opposition to agency regulations. The vote, on Jan. 7, was 244 yeas to 173 nays.

YEAS: Graves (MO) R-MO (6th), Hartzler R-MO (4th), Long R-MO (7th), Luetkemeyer R-MO (3rd), Smith (MO) R-MO (8th), Wagner R-MO (2nd)

NAYS: Clay D-MO (1st)

NOT VOTING: Cleaver D-MO (5th)

CHANGING REGULATIONS: The House passed the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act (H.R. 1155), sponsored by Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo. The bill would establish the Retrospective Regulatory Review Commission, a group that would review federal regulations, especially those with an estimated annual cost of $100 million or more, and advise Congress on the potential repeal of regulations that have excessive costs and place unnecessary burdens on those regulated. Smith said the outsized growth of burdensome regulations has created the need for a special group to study regulatory reductions that "make government smaller, more efficient, and accountable" to its citizens. A bill opponent, Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., said agencies already had methods to reform their regulations, and the bill could make it nearly impossible for agencies to establish new regulations because they would have to offset the cost of the new regulation with the repeal of an existing regulation. The vote, on Jan. 7, was 245 yeas to 174 nays.

YEAS: Graves (MO) R-MO (6th), Hartzler R-MO (4th), Long R-MO (7th), Luetkemeyer R-MO (3rd), Smith (MO) R-MO (8th), Wagner R-MO (2nd)

NAYS: Clay D-MO (1st)

NOT VOTING: Cleaver D-MO (5th)

There were no key votes in the Senate last week.