Al D'Amato

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 1, 1937 in Brooklyn, NY

Education:

Career:

Elected Office:

Key Senate Vote Data for Al D'Amato in 1987

Date	Subject	Result	Conserv. Position	D'Amato Voted
1987-02-04	Clean Water Act Override [HR1]	Veto Overridden (86-14)
Passage, over President Reagan's Jan 30. veto, of the budget-busting bill to amend and reauthorize the Clean Water Act of 1972 authorizing appropriations of $18 billion through fiscal 1994 in federal aid to state and local governments for construction of sewage treatment plants and authorizing more than $2.14 billion for other water pollution control programs.
1987-03-18	Contra Aid Disapproval [SJRES81]	Defeated (48-52)
Passage of the joint resolution to disapprove the use of $40 million in remaining fiscal 1987 funds for U.S. aid to the Freedom Fighters battling Nicaragua's leftist (i.e., Communist) government.
1987-04-02	Highway Bill Veto Override [HR2]	Veto Overridden (67-33)
Passage, over President Reagan's March 27 veto, of the pork-laden bill authorizing $88 billion for highway and mass transit programs through fiscal 1991.
1987-05-21	Prohibit AIDS Testing of Immigrants [HR1827]	Agreed To (63-32)
Danforth (R-MO) motion to table (kill) the Helms (R-NC) amendment to provide for mandatory testing for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) for all immigrants and to require states to have mandatory AIDS testing for marriage license applicants, if state residents are to qualify for new AIDS assistance provided under the bill.
1987-06-27	New "Homeless" Bureaucracy [HR558]	Agreed To (65-8)
Adoption of the conference report on the bill to authorize $443 million in fiscal 1987 and $616 million in fiscal 1988 to provide housing, health, food, job training and other assistance for the nation's homeless, and to set up an interagency homeless council to oversee federal homeless-aid programs. This budget-busting bill federalizes the problem of the homeless by creating a new administrative arm to oversee and control these vast new federal expenditures.
1987-07-09	Delete Plant Closing Notification [S1420]	Rejected (40-60)
Quayle (R-IN) amendment to strike from the bill a provision forcing all employers of 100 or more workers to give 60 days' advance notice before plant closings or mass layoffs involving at least one-third of the work force.
1987-07-31	Line-Item Veto [HJRES324]	Rejected (41-48)
Evans (R-WA) amendment to provide, for a two-year period, that individual titles in a continuing appropriations resolution (an omnibus bill to continue funding of government programs into a new fiscal year) be subject to presidential veto. This would in effect give the President a limited line item veto power whenever Congress combines multiple appropriations bills into a single massive continuing resolution.
1987-07-31	Congressional Salary Increase [HJRES324]	Agreed To (49-40)
Packwood (R-OR) motion to table (kill) the Humphrey (R-NH) amendment to repeal the 1987 pay increase for members of Congress and certain executive branch officers, but not for federal judges.
1987-09-09	Wells Nomination	Confirmed (64-24)		No Vote
Vote on President Reagan's controversial nomination of State Department careerist Melissa Foelsch Wells of New York to be ambassador to the People's Republic of Mozambique.
1987-09-17	Maintain SDI Testing Limitations [S1174]	Agreed To (58-38)
Nunn (D-GA) motion to table (kill) the Warner (R-VA) amendment to strike a provision limiting the development or testing of space-based and other anti-ballistic missile systems. This motion to table the Warner amendment effectively allowed continued limitations on SDI development.
1987-09-17	Contra Aid [S1174]	Agreed To (61-31)
Nunn (D-GA) motion to table (kill) the Helms (R-NC) amendment to authorize $310 million for military aid for the Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters unless the President certifies that the Sandinista government has met certain conditions including proving that it respects human rights, poses no military threat to its neighbors, and does not harbor Soviet, Cuban or Communist bases within Nicaraguan borders.
1987-09-22	SDI Funding Reductions [S1174]	Failed (50-50)
Exon (D-NE) motion to table (kill) the Johnston (D-LA) amendment to cut back funding to only $3.7 billion in fiscal 1988 for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
1987-09-22	Permit Anti-Satellite Missile Testing [S1174]	Agreed To (51-47)
Quayle (R-IN) motion to table (kill) the Kerry (D-MA) amendment to bar tests against a target in space of the anti-satellite missile.
1987-09-24	Nullify Soviet Embassy Agreement [S1174]	Agreed To (70-27)
Symms (R-ID) amendment to recommend that the United States nullify its existing agreement with the Soviet Union under which each country is building a new embassy in the other's capital and negotiate a new agreement barring the Russians from building their new embassy on ground more than 90 feet above sea level. This would have kept the Soviets from occupying their strategically located embassy on Mount Alto in Washington, D.C., a location from which the Soviets would be capable of intercepting key U.S. communications and data transmissions.
1987-09-24	Permit Testing of Nuclear Explosives [S1174]	Agreed To (61-36)
Reid (D-NV) motion to table (kill) the Hatfield (R-OR) amendment to prohibit in fiscal 1988-89 nuclear test explosions with an explosive power of more than 1 kiloton, subject to certain conditions.
1987-09-24	Soviet Nuclear Treaty Violations [S1174]	Agreed To (62-28)
Dixon (D-IL) motion to table (kill) the Helms (R-NC) amendment to express the sense of the Senate that no treaty with the Soviet Union on intermediate-range nuclear-force missiles should be concluded unless it is "unquestionably" verifiable and unless the President certifies to Congress that the Soviet Union no longer is violating the 1972 treaty limiting anti-ballistic missile weapons.
1987-09-29	Limit Davis-Bacon Exemptions [S1174]	Agreed To (56-41)
Dixon (D-IL) motion to table (kill) the Gramm (R-TX) amendment to increase from $2,000 to $250,000 the value below which military construction contracts would be exempt from the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that persons employed under the contract be paid no less than the locally prevailing wage.
1987-09-30	D.C. Abortion Funding [HR2713]	Agreed To (60-39)
Harkin (D-IA) motion to table (kill) the Nickles (R-OK) amendment to prohibit the use of federal or District funds for abortions except where the life of the mother is endangered.
1987-10-02	SALT II Treaty Compliance [S1174]	Agreed To (57-41)
Bumpers (D-AR) amendment to force U.S. compliance with the unratified SALT II treaty and bar the deployment of more than 820 multiple-warhead ICBMs, more than 1,200 multiple-warhead strategic missiles of any sort, or more than 1,320 multiple-warhead strategic missiles and missile-armed bombers.
1987-10-23	Bork Nomination	Rejected (42-58)
Confirmation of President Reagan's nomination of Robert H. Bork of the District of Columbia to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court.
1987-12-10	Tax Increases / Deficit Reduction [S1920]	Agreed To (72-24)
Chiles (D-FL) motion to table (kill) the Gramm (R-TX) amendment to the Byrd (D-WV) amendment. The Gramm amendment would have eliminated the tax increases in the bill and would have kept defense and domestic spending at 1987 levels, thus rejecting the White House-Congress budget summit deal while still meeting the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction requirements.
1987-12-11	Legal Services Corporation [HJRES395]	Agreed To (70-28)
Rudman (R-NH) motion to table (kill) the Gramm (R-TX) amendment to restrict funding for support centers of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) by requiring that 97 percent of the $310 million provided for the LSC be spent directly on legal services for the poor. The remaining 3 percent was to be spent on LSC administration -- leaving no funds available to be used for the LSC's habitual left-wing lobbying and advocacy.

Represents a "Yes" vote.   Represents a "No" vote.   Indicates that this member voted against the conservative position on a particular vote. "No vote" means that this member did not cast a vote (or voted 'Present' instead of Yes or No).