Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) said the program "systematically forces American consumers to pay much more than the global price for sugar. It is a huge transfer of wealth from consumers, including the poorest American consumers, to a handful of wealthy sugar producers. It is completely wrong, it is ill-conceived in the first place, it is perpetuated in this bill, and I think that is just unconscionable."
A yes vote was to continue the sugar program.
Voting yes: Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).
Voting no: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Chris Coons (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), and Toomey.
Devolving food stamps to states. Voting 65-33, the Senate on Wednesday tabled (killed) a bid to convert food stamps to a block-grant program run by the states while cutting the program's budget nearly in half over 10 years. The amendment to S 3240 (above) sought to reduce spending for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, from $80 billion to $45 billion annually over 10 years and allow officials in each state to take control of the program.
A yes vote was to preserve food stamps as a federal program.
Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Coons, Lautenberg, and Menendez.
Voting no: Toomey.
Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte. Voting 62-37, the Senate on Thursday ended GOP blockage of the nomination of Mari Carmen Aponte as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador. She was then confirmed on a non-record vote. Aponte held the same post for 15 months, until January, as a recess appointee not subject to Senate confirmation. Republicans had blocked her nomination since 2010 mainly because she was romantically involved in the 1990s with a Cuban national alleged to be working for a Cuban spy agency.
Menendez said: "Ambassador Aponte has been an advocate for American national security and democratic values. As a result of her advocacy, El Salvador is again a key ally in Central America. Its troops were the only ones from a Latin American country fighting [with] American troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan."
A yes vote backed the nominee.
Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Coons, Lautenberg, and Menendez.
Voting no: Toomey.
Federal Judge Andrew Hurwitz. Voting 60-31, the Senate ended GOP blockage of the nomination of Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Hurwitz, 64, for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hurwitz was then confirmed on a non-record vote, becoming the 151st of President Obama's appellate and district court nominees to receive Senate confirmation.
A yes vote backed the nominee.
Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Coons, Lautenberg, and Menendez.
Voting no: Toomey.
This week. The House will take up fiscal 2013 appropriations bills, and the Senate will debate farm and food legislation and a renewal of national flood insurance.
