Voterama in Congress for the week ending Jan. 27

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How Illinois lawmakers voted in Congress Week ending January 27

Updated: January 27, 2012 12:08PM

War Memorial, FDR Prayer: Voting 386-26, members required the World War II Memorial in Washington to be engraved with the 527-word “Let Our Hearts Be Stout” prayer read by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a U.S. radio audience on June 6, 1944, which was D-Day. The bill bars the use of government funds to prepare or install the wording. A yes vote was to send HR 2070 to the Senate.

Debt-Limit Rollback: Senators refused, 44-52, to block a $1.2 trillion increase in Treasury borrowing authority needed by Jan. 27 to keep the government from defaulting on debt already incurred. Defeat of this measure (HJ Res 98) allowed the U.S. debt ceiling to rise from $15.2 trillion to $16.4 trillion. A yes vote was to roll back a debt-limit rise enacted last year by Congress as part of the Budget Control Act.

Judge John Gerrard: Senators confirmed, 74-16, Nebraska Supreme Court Justice John M. Gerrard, 58, as a federal judge in that state. He drew opposition over a ruling by the state court that Nebraska’s use of the electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment. Gerrard voted with the majority in that 6-1 decision. A yes vote was to confirm Gerrard.

Key votes ahead

In the week of Jan. 30, the House will seek repeal of a section of the 2010 health law concerning long-term care, while the Senate will take up a prohibition on members of Congress using inside legislative information as the basis of buying and selling stocks.