Campaign Finance Reform
Despite vigorous efforts by Republican leaders to block reform, the most progress was made in the House, where members of both parties and a grassroots movement teamed up to pass the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill (H.R. 2183). Remarkably, 61 Republicans-more than one quarter of their caucus-bucked months of delay by their leadership to help approve this significant reform bill by a decisive 252-179 margin. In the Senate, a bipartisan team of reform senators, along with reform groups, forced three separate votes on the McCain-Feingold bill, companion legislation to Shays-Meehan. Despite majority support (52 senators), the bill did not garner the 60 votes needed to overcome the Republican leadership's filibuster.

Civil Justice and Legal Rights
The 105th Congress tried to erode the rights of individuals to pursue legal justice against corporate wrong doers. Big Tobacco and its allies in Congress stopped an improved tobacco control bill (S. 1415) that would have increased public health funds, enhanced FDA authority to regulate nicotine, punished the industry if it failed to reduce youth smoking, and not granted the tobacco industry legal immunity for its actions. A Republican tobacco bill that would have done far more harm than good was blocked in the House. Meanwhile, pro-consumer forces managed to defeat a sweeping products liability bill (S. 648) that would have allowed corporations to escape financial responsibility for the harm and damage against innocent people caused by their defective products-a major victory. Unfortunately, other legislation (H.R. 872) became law that exempts suppliers of the raw materials used in the manufacture of implanted medical devices (pacemakers, hip and jaw implants, brain shunts) from legal responsibility for the harm caused by their products. It was sent through both houses of Congress without debate or a recorded vote and signed by President Clinton.

Public Health and Safety
Passage of the so-called "Food and Drug Administration Reform Bill" (S. 830), greased by more than $30 million in contributions from drug and medical device companies in recent election cycles, will hamstring the FDA's ability to protect the public from unsafe and inadequately-tested drugs and medical devices. Two key pro-consumer amendments to the bill (included in this vote chart) were defeated in the Senate. One would have made for-profit companies reviewing proposed new products subject to the same conflict-of-interest standards as FDA staff; the other would have maintained mandatory tracking and surveillance of high-risk, implantable devices (like pacemakers and heart valves), which the bill makes optional, so that people with defective products could be easily notified. The push for a strong Patients' Bill of Rights to protect patients from unscrupulous HMOs and managed care companies was narrowly defeated by House Republicans (212 to 217). Instead, the House passed sham legislation that would prevent injured patients from being able to sue managed care plans under state law for medical negligence and take away their existing rights to collect damages from health care providers who commit medical malpractice. Finally, an important piece of public health legislation, an amendment that would have established a national drunk driving standard at .08 percent blood alcohol content, passed the Senate but was blocked in a House-Senate conference committee.

Safe and Clean Energy
Under the watchful eye of the energy industry, the 105th Congress compiled an abysmal record on safe and renewable energy. Particularly egregious was an attempt to pass the Nuclear Waste "Dump" Act (S. 104/H.R. 1270), which would require the greatest nuclear waste transportation project in human history, sending 95 percent of the nation's radioactive waste across 43 states, violating existing environmental, health and safety standards for disposing of deadly nuclear waste and overburdening the Environmental Protection Agency. Extensive efforts by Public Citizen and other environmental groups assured there would not be enough Senate votes to override President Clinton's promised veto. At the same time Congress was trying to bail out the nuclear power industry, the House was busy sending taxpayer money to major polluters. Three measures that would have ended wasteful, polluting corporate subsidies were rejected by the House. The worst of these-a new nuclear subsidy program for the current decrepit roster of nuclear power plants-was begun when an amendment that would have eliminated funding for the program was defeated. The House initially voted against restoring $40 million for critical energy efficiency programs, but ultimately the money was granted on a voice vote. Finally, in 1997 the House rejected a proposal to stop funding the pyroprocessing program, a dangerous and expensive radioactive waste debacle.

Trade and Economic Globalization
The 105th Congress was a busy one for international trade, investment and globalization issues. The public won a historic victory when "fast-track" trade authority legislation was buried by a bipartisan, 243-180 vote in September 1998. This vote followed a victorious skirmish with big business and the forces of unrestrained globalization when "fast track" was pulled in 1997 due to lack of support. "Fast track" would have allowed expansion of agreements like the North American Free Trade agreement (NAFTA) to other countries that allow changes to U.S. laws without a meaningful role for Congress or the American people. "Fast track" was viewed as a referendum on NAFTA, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the primacy of trade over other social values. A number of other corporate trade initiatives pushed by big business, the GOP and the president were blocked, including an attempt to extend the NAFTA trade-without-regulation model to 27 Latin American and Carribean countries. Called "CBI-NAFTA Parity," the proposal was resoundingly defeated in the House. Unfortunately, the House did not reject the NAFTA model entirely, as a trade bill relaxing regulations with sub-Saharan Africa-dubbed the "NAFTA for Africa" Act-narrowly passed the House. It was stopped in the Senate by a coalition including Public Citizen, TransAfrica and other groups. Commercial interests prevailed over public interest in extending special trading status to China despite its continued abuse of human rights, nuclear weapons proliferation and occupation of Tibet. Another measure voided a popular U.S. dolphin protection law by taking away the right of U.S. consumers to decide whether "dolphin-deadly tuna" can be sold in the United States.

Corporate Welfare
Once again, Congress pushed for reductions in aid to families while serving up billions of taxpayer dollars in corporate pork. The House continued crop insurance subsidies to the tobacco industry and killed two measures that would have curtailed taxpayer handouts to the high-polluting fossil fuel industry. Businesses also got Congress to continue funding for two corporate welfare programs Public Citizen opposed-the Market Promotion Program and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation-that subsidize companies like McDonald's, Sun-Maid, and Pillsbury to sell their products overseas. This vote chart was prepared by Public Citizen to help the public hold their elected representatives individually accountable. The votes indexed in this table are designed to help voters evaluate whether their federal representatives addressed their concerns and the concerns of other citizens, or the narrow agenda of monied interests.

How to Use this Vote Chart
An index of floor votes is never a perfect gauge of a Senator's or Representative's consumer record. This vote chart covers only a small percentage of roll call votes in the 105th Congress and does not attempt to distinguish between members who simply voted one way or the other, and those who took a leadership role in promoting or opposing legislation. Nor does it address crucial issues that never came to a floor vote. For example, consumer advocates derailed a major industry drive to pass Regulatory Rollback legislation that would have imperiled environmental, labor, and health and safety standards. Despite these limitations, the votes included here-Public Citizen's top legislative priorities-reflect the concerns of a broad-based citizens' movement fighting for government and corporate accountability, and offer a useful gauge of a member's commitment to the public interest.