VOTE ALERT: Congress Bars Nuclear Subsidy to China

http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/06/vote-alert-congress-bars-nuclear.html

VOTE ALERT: Congress Bars Nuclear Subsidy to China

Reuters and the Associated Press both report that the House last night passed the bipartisan amendment prohibiting U.S. taxpayer subsidies from going to help build nuclear plants in China. The amendment, authored by Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders (VT), drew the support of 313 members of the House of Representatives - an overwhelming showing. For background on the amendment, see the earlier post linked below, or Lou Dobbs' interview with Sanders on the matter (transcript below). To see how your Member of Congress voted, go to http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll332.xml.

Notice how many "pro-national security" Republicans voted against this bill. Apparently to them, giving away taxpayer cash to wealthy corporations is more important than securing America.

This legislation follows the House passage of a bipartisan amendment a few weeks ago from Sanders that would reform the Patriot Act. Both of these bills show that with some creativity, progressives can forge new coalitions to press ahead with their agenda.

Stay tuned to see what the Senate does on both amendments - and whether the Republican leadership has the gall to strip out these measures in conference committee.

Sources:
Official roll call vote:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll332.xml
Reuters on the vote:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28419370.htm
AP on the vote:
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/politics/12008733.htm
Dobbs' interview of Sanders about the legislation:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/28/ldt.01.html
Earlier post on the legislation:
http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/06/vote-alert-will-congress-subsidize.html

Why, when China holds so much American debt, would
this country finance nuclear plants there? We aren't
exactly financing nuclear plants in Iran (or maybe
we are privately).