Frank Lautenberg - Political Positions and Votes

Political Positions and Votes

Transportation

Senator Lautenberg has supported federal funding of public transportation, such as Amtrak and New Jersey Transit.

Homeland security

Lautenberg is a proponent of the Container Security Initiative which would screen cargo containers bound for the United States for radiological contents. This policy is intended to identify threats before they arrive at U.S. ports. The Bush administration has argued that the policy would be too expensive to implement (U.S. inspection teams, with equipment, would need to be installed in 700 foreign ports).

Agriculture

In 2007, Lautenberg voted for an amendment to the 2007 farm bill which would have limited the amount of subsidies that a married couple could receive to $250,000; the amendment failed. However, he has voted against eliminating farm price supports and eventually voted for the 2007 farm bill as well. He has supported increasing the minimum wage in the past.

Civil liberties

Lautenberg was not in the Senate at the time of the original Patriot Act in 2001; when the 2005 reauthorization came to the Senate floor, Lautenberg voted against cloture but voted in favor of accepting the conference report. In March 2011, he stated to an assembled group of constituents that Republicans "don't deserve the freedoms that are in the Constitution...but we'll give them to them anyway."

Foreign policy

In 1996, Lautenberg voted against a bill that eliminated the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the United States Information Agency, the Agency for International Development, and the International Development Cooperation Agency and allowed the President to withhold 20% of funds appropriated to the United Nations if any agency of the organization does not implement consensus-based decision-making procedures on budgetary matters that assure that significant attention is given to the specific interests of the United States. He has opposed capping foreign aid and has voted to give billions of dollars to the International Monetary Fund. He voted against implementing both the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement. He has called for action to be taken at the World Trade Organization against members of the OPEC cartel which sets production quotas that raise prices for crude oil, and consequentially America's gasoline. Lautenberg is an opponent of the Iraq War.

Environment and energy

Senator Lautenberg, who has a pro-environment voting record, co-sponsored the Consumer First Energy Act of 2008, which would have repealed $17 billion in tax breaks for oil companies and reinvested the $17 billion in renewable energy development and energy efficiency technology. However, the Senate rejected a cloture motion on the bill in June 2008. Lautenberg favors alternative energy sources and has voted in favor of giving tax incentives to those who use them.

Social issues

Lautenberg is pro-choice and has voted against banning partial-birth abortions in 1999. He has voted in favor of expanding embryonic stem cell research. The NAACP gave him a 100% rating, indicating his strong support for affirmative action. He is a consistent supporter of gun control.

Lautenberg is a strong supporter of gay marriage, and also voted to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation and to expand the federal definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation. He voted against a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and has expressed his support for equal marriage rights for LGBT couples in recent years. Lautenberg did, however, vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. The Human Rights Campaign has given him a 100% rating, indicating his strong support for gay rights.

Tax policy

Lautenberg has voted against repealing and restricting the Alternative Minimum Tax and estate tax. Lautenberg voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which contained $280 billion in tax breaks by expanding the earned income tax credit, child tax credit, home energy credit, and college credit, introducing a homebuyer credit and a credit for workers earning less than $75,000, along with an increased ceiling for the AMT and extended tax credits to companies for renewable energy production, along with a new policy making more companies eligible for a certain tax refund. In 2008 he voted to raise taxes on those earning more than $1,000,000 per year. In 2006 he voted in favor of repealing the Bush tax cut on capital gains. He is a proponent of progressive taxation.

Miscellaneous

Since the advent of the late 2000s recession, Lautenberg has supported a number of Democratic bills designed to deal with the resulting problems plaguing Americans. In 2009, he voted in favor of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, popularly dubbed the stimulus bill. He later voted for the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights and the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009.

The railroad terminal in Secaucus, New Jersey is named for him because he helped allocate federal funds to build it.