Anti-poverty group rates Congress
Bingaman and Udall top NM's delegation, Wilson third
Characterizing the United States 37 million people living in the “state of poverty” as the “largest state in the nation,” the Shriver National Center on Poverty Law issued their annual report on how members of congress voted on what the Center considers the most “significant poverty-related proposed legislation of 2007.”
The Center compiled voting records on 29 bills between the Senate and the House that addressed a range of topics: affordable housing, budget and tax, civil rights, early and higher education, health care, immigrants, labor, legal services, prisoner reentry, and rural poverty. New Mexico’s five member delegation was fully rated in the report on their votes, with only one voting absence noted by Steve Pearce. The anti-poverty rating given by the Center for each legislator is based on a combination of "yes" and "no" votes, with fourteen of the bills in the Senate, and 15 in the House. In the Senate, Jeff Bingaman gave an anti-poverty vote on all fourteen of the bills. Pete Domenici gave an anti-poverty vote on four of the fourteen. In the House, Tom Udall had a 100 percent voting record in support of anti-poverty legislation. Heather Wilson gave an anti-poverty vote on nine of the fifteen bills and Steve Pearce voted in support of anti-poverty on three of the fifteen opportunities. You can see the report, which includes the methodology used by the Center and summaries of the bills included in the ratings, here.
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