Sunday, July 30, 2006

Marriage Protection vote

On July 18, 2006 the members of the House of Representatives voted on the following proposed Constitutional Amendment:

“Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states:

Article

Section 1.  This article may be cited as the ‘Marriage Protection Amendment’.

Section 2.  Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.  Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”

Simple and direct.  The amendment would maintain the civil practice followed in the United States since before the nation was formed.  It is neither revolutionary nor is it oppressive.  It is the continuation of our long historical practice.

It is also necessary to prevent the continued assault on the institution of marriage by those who desire to change that established practice.  The courts in this country have demonstrated a willingness to rewrite the Constitution contrary to the will of the people.  This proposed amendment would prevent libertine courts from destroying a traditional institution that is under attack.  John Dean has been recently quoted as declaring that he and his supporters will not stop trying to change this traditional concept of marriage.  They believe that marriage should not be defined as only between a man and a woman.  They intend to use the courts to bring about their corrupted definition of marriage.

Although the proposed amendment received a majority of the vote, it did not receive the two-thirds vote necessary to continue the process.  Of the 423 votes cast, 236 members of the House of Representatives voted in favor of the amendment.  177 members of the House of Representatives voted no.  With 423 votes cast, it was necessary to have 282 yes votes.  The amendment failed by 46 votes.  202 Republicans voted yes.  27 Republicans voted no.  34 Democrats voted yes.  159 Democrats voted no.  1 Independent voted no.  1 Democrat voted present.  2 Republicans did not vote. 7 Democrats did not vote.  

Obviously, the vast majority of Democrats, who voted, voted against the amendment to preserve the historically traditional definition of marriage in this country.  Just over 82% of the Democrats, who voted, voted against preserving traditional marriage—82%.  In contrast, over 88% of Republicans, who voted, voted in favor of traditional marriage—88%.

If you go to www.house.gov, you can view all the pertinent information.  That website is the official website for the House of Representatives.  The vote was on H J RES 88 and the roll call number is 378.  Check it out.        

The following Democrats voted for the proposed “Marriage Protection Amendment”:

Barrow
Berry
Bishop (Ga.)
Boren
Boucher
Boyd
Chandler
Cooper
Costello
Cramer
Cuellar
Davis (Al.)
Davis (Tn.)
Edwards
Etheridge
Ford
Gordon
Herseth
Holden
Jefferson
Marshall
Matheson
McIntyre
Melancon
Ortiz
Peterson (Mn.)
Rahall
Ross
Scott (Ga.)
Skelton
Spratt
Tanner
Taylor (Ms.)
Thompson (Ms.)

(The representatives’ State is given when there is more than one representative with the same last name.)

The following Republicans voted against the proposed “Marriage Protection Amendment”.

Bass
Biggert
Boehlert
Bono
Castle
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dreier
Fitzpatrick (Pa.)
Foley
Frelinghuysen
Gerlach
Gilchrest
Hobson
Hostettler
Johnson (Ct.)
Kirk
Knollenberg
Kolbe
Leach
Paul
Ros-Lehtinen
Sanders
Schwarz (Mi.)
Shays
Simmons
Sweeney

Since this is an election year, all seats in the House of Representatives are up for reelection.  How did your representative vote?  Did he/she vote to protect traditional marriage or not?  If you don’t know your representative, you can find out on the website www.house.gov using your address and zip code.  

Why would anyone who supports traditional marriage between a man and a woman vote for a representative who does not?????

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home