by Mike Hall, Jul 20, 2009

Our new AFL-CIO Voting Record online tool makes it faster and easier to access congressional votes on key working family issues and offers a range of options to fine-tune your search.

The congressional scorecard tracks every vote cast on important working family issues since 2000. Find out if your U.S. House member supported the jobs-creating economic recovery package this past February or whether your senator was on the side of low-wage workers in the 2007 vote on a minimum wage increase.

With the online tool, you can:

• Search by ZIP Code, year, state or key word.
• Find voting records by individual and congressional delegation.
• Get current and lifetime voting records.
• Read detailed descriptions.
• Keep up to date with this year’s interim voting record.

Here are some of the specific actions you can take.

Individual voting record: To see how your representative and senators voted, the quickest method is to search by ZIP Code. If your ZIP Code is split across two congressional districts, you’ll be asked to enter your street address to get the right representative.

Congressional delegation: Check out the voting record for the entire state’s congressional delegation. Just go into the pull-down menu, select a chamber (House or Senate), a Congress by year and the state.

Current and lifetime voting records: You’ll get a list of the bills for the year you indicate and a chart showing whether the selected lawmaker supported the AFL-CIO position (a blue checkmark) or opposed (a red X). It also shows the lawmaker’s percentage of votes for the year you select and his or her lifetime record of supporting or opposing working families.

Bill details: If you are looking for more detailed information on the particular bill, click on the bill’s title above the chart, and it will provide you with a more thorough description.

Interim voting record: The new site also contains a regularly updated interim voting record that tracks votes cast so far this year.

ROBERT B. REICH

BERKELEY, Calif.

WHY IS THIS recession so deep, and what can be done to reverse it?