Votes

The House on Tuesday evening approved a non-controversial bill aimed at keeping state taxes low on wireless phone service companies.

By voice vote, the House approved H.R. 1002, the Wireless Fairness Act. That bill would impose a five-year moratorium on new "discretionary" state and local taxes. Supporters of the bill argue that states have jacked up taxes on these companies over the last decade, and that the companies suffer from a local tax burden that is several times higher than other companies face.

More than 70 Democrats supported the bill, and as such, passage under a suspension of House rules was not in doubt.

It’s the first time the House has approved a provision included in President Obama’s jobs package.

Passage was made even easier after the Obama administration announced it supported the bill.

Legislation creating a commemorative coin to mark the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Baseball Hall of Fame was approved by the House Wednesday, in a 416-3 vote.

All three "no" votes came from Republicans: Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Paul Broun (Ga.), and Ron Paul (Texas).

Tuesday debate on the bill was marked by friendly ribbing between Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and William Clay (D-Mo.). The Texas Rangers are leading the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 in the World Series; game six was postponed until Thursday night due to rain in St. Louis.

The House on Wednesday evening approved a rule that will allow members to consider two bills — one to repeal a widely opposed withholding tax requirement, and another bill to pay for that repeal. Members approved the rule in a 253-172 vote.

The main repeal bill is H.R. 674, which would eliminate the current requirement that government at all levels withhold 3 percent of payments to government contractors in order to ensure proper tax payments. That rule has never been implemented, and Republicans and Democrats are generally together in seeking to repeal it completely.

Democrats argued the bill could benefit Iran because of a company involved in the land swap.

The House on Tuesday approved legislation that would grant the congressional gold medal to the Montford Point marines, the first black marines recruited in World War II.

The bill, H.R. 2447, was approved unanimously in a 422-0 vote after debate earlier in the day in which several members noted that the Montford Point marines were trained separately in Montford Point, North Carolina, while their white counterparts were trained in Paris Island, South Carolina.

The House on Tuesday afternoon approved a rule for a bill that would allow a land swap between the federal government and a foreign-owned mining company, which would allow that company to extract copper from a massive copper deposit in southeast Arizona.

The rule was approved in a 245-178 vote in which less than a dozen Democrats voted for it. Democrats lodged several protests against the bill, including that it would only help foreign owned companies. Resolution Copper Mining LLC would be permitted to mine the copper, and that company is owned by Rio Tinto and BHP-Billiton, which both have headquarters and major offices in Britain and Australia.

The House on Monday evening approved two more bills in recorded votes, and was preparing to hear general speeches for the rest of the night.

The lower chamber quickly approved the legislation with both Democrats and Republicans supporting the measure.