Ideology and Voting

According to The Washington Post, Pat Roberts was present for 88% of 484 votes in the 112th Congress.   Not surprisingly (considering they are both republicans), Roberts and other Kansas Senator Jerry Moran vote together on almost all issues.  I could only find two instances where they have cast opposite votes (although Senator Moran has missed quite a few votes this session).  

Roberts' interest group scores are, for the most part, what would be expected.  According to Project Vote Smart, he has scores of 100% from groups such as the National Right to Life Committee and a score of 0% from the NARAL Pro-Choice America.  However, somewhat surprisingly, Roberts has a score of 11% from Planned Parenthood-Positions (February 26, 2013) and a score of 8% from Planned Parenthood-Positions (2012).  Although this scores are still very low, it makes me wonder what he has done recently to make Planned Parenthood give him a marginally higher rating. I don't know if this change in his ratings has anything to do with the upcoming election, but it does seem interesting that Roberts had a solid 0% rating until the last 2 years.  Roberts was the only Congressman from Kansas to get anything other than a 0% rating from Planned Parenthood.  

Another surprising finding was the indecisiveness of most of Roberts scores.  Although he did have some clear cut, either 100% or 0%, quite a few scores that were in between.  Roberts almost had more indecisive scores than he did decisive ones.  Even on some of his bigger issues such as education and agriculture, he did not have an overwhelming amount of clear-cut scores.  These indecisive scores are surprising to me considering how closely he votes along party lines.  

Roberts typically votes along party lines.  I could not find any major votes that Roberts made that went against what would be expected.  In fact, according to PoliGu.com, Roberts often votes along party lines more often than the average Republican in the Senate.  In 2012, Roberts voted along party lines 90% of the time, which was a fairly low percentage for him when compared to other years.  His lowest score since he has been in the senate was 86.2%, and his average overall since 1997 is 93.1%.

An interesting fact not directly related to voting: Roberts and Senator Tim Johnson introduced a bill to "ensure that hundreds of rural communities across the nation remain eligible for rural housing development programs administered by the USDA".  The bill would grandfather the existing USDA rural housing areas until the 2020 census but would also raise the population cap from 25,000 to 35,000.  

Sources:

http://votesmart.org/candidate/evaluations/26866/pat-roberts#.UXoDa-B3rRo

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/R000307

http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Senate/Kansas/Pat_Roberts/VotingStatistics/

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/113/senate/1/votes/103/

http://www.roberts.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=8ae3a27d-9ca7-4884-bb57-317665636f17&ContentType_id=ae7a6475-a01f-4da5-aa94-0a98973de620&Group_id=d8ddb455-1e23-48dd-addd-949f9b6a4c1f

http://www.examiner.com/article/senators-johnson-and-roberts-introduce-rural-housing-bill

Committees

Committee Membership

According to www.govtrack.us, Robert's currently serves on 5 committees and is a member of four of those committees (he serves as a ranking member on oneof those committees).  His committee assignments are as follows:

-Committee on Rules and Administration: The Rules and Administration Committee is one of the oldest committees and deals with all of the organizational and administrative details of the Senate.  The committee involves 18 members (9 democrats, 8 republicans, and 1 independent) and Roberts serves as a ranking member with Charles Schumer (D-NY) as the chairman.   

-Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry: The committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry deals with many various issues such as agricultural economics, research, prices and commodities, school nutrition programs, nutrition programs, forestry and forest reserves.  The committee also deals with issues relating to food, nutrition and hunger, both in the United States and foreign countries.  The committee has meetings on the first and third Wednesday of each month when Congress is in session.  Debbie Stabenow is the chairwoman of the committee and Thad Cochran is the ranking member.  The committee consists of 20 members  Fun fact: Roberts serves on this committee with John Thune, Mitch McConnell, and Tom Harkin.  

Roberts meeting with members of the Kansas Farm Bureau (top picture) and the Agriculture Future of America (bottom picture) during National Agriculture Day. 

-Committee on Finance: The Finance Committee deals with taxation and other revenue issues, debt, customs and collections.  They have Shared or sole jurisdiction over several agencies and offices such as the Executive Office of the President, the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Labor, and Treasury. The committee involves 24 members, 13 Democrats and 11 Republicans.  

-Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) deals with issues relating to the four subject areas.  Their jurisdiction encompasses most of the programs and agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services .  They also work to ensure that the country's workforce is equipped to deal with issues relating to a 21st century workplace.  They also deal with federal and labor employment laws and pension plans.  The committee has 22 members, 11 Democrats, 10 Republicans, and 1 Independent.  

-Select Committee on Ethics: The Committee on Ethics has many duties such as determining the Rules and Proceedings, punishing members for disorderly behavior, receive and investigate improper conduct, and setting standards of conduct.  The committee consists of 6 members including Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and ranking member John Isakson.  

-Subcommittees: Roberts is currently a member of 8 subcommittees and is a ranking member of 2 of those committees.  Robert's 8 subcommittees are 

• Livestock, Dairy, Poultry, Marketing and Agriculture Security (Ranking Member)
• Commodities, Markets, Trade and Risk Management
• Conservation, Forestry and Natural Resources
• Health Care (Ranking Member)
• International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness 
• Taxation and IRS Oversight
• Children and Families
• Primary Health and Aging 

Although it seems as though Roberts is staying busy (how can you not when you are on that many committees and subcommittees?), I wonder how he is balancing his time.  Is it truly possible to go to all of the committee meetings and truly know what the major issues are in each one?  Maybe this is typical of all Senators, but it seems as though their time would be better spent participating in less committees, but truly devoting themselves to the ones they are involved in.  

Random Fact: I was not able to find Roberts' March Madness Bracket (either he refrained from filling one out or was not confident enough with his choices) but I can only assume that he would be cheering for both Wichita State and Kansas State (and I'm guessing he's pretty pleased with Wichita's upset).  He did post on both Facebook and Twitter saying good luck to Wichita State before their game started.

Sources:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/pat_roberts/300083

http://www.ethics.senate.gov/public/

http://www.rules.senate.gov/public/

http://www.agriculture.senate.gov/

http://www.help.senate.gov/

http://www.finance.senate.gov/

https://www.facebook.com/SenPatRoberts?fref=ts   

Blog #3

Lately, Senator Roberts has done quite a bit of traveling within Kansas.  During the President's Day Congressional work period, Roberts spent his time traveling through the state visiting different town hall meetings.  One of these town hall meetings included a joint session with Senator Jerry Moran and Congressman Kevin Yoder where the three men addressed and questions and concerns the citizens had.  Roberts consistently makes trips back to Kansas to meet with constituents and discuss their issues and concerns.  Roberts posts his upcoming stops on his website (http://www.roberts.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Home), he doesn't seem to give much notice.  His last visit started on February 18th, and he posted an update to his website on the 15th of February.  Although it is good that he is going home to address the concerns of his constituents, it seems to me that it would be more beneficial to give more advanced notice.  

Roberts at a town hall meeting in Olathe on February 20th.

Roberts keeps his constituents up to date with his affairs through updates on his website and through social media with the use of Facebook and Twitter.  He posts "Roberts Report" to his website usually about twice a month, although he often skips months.  These reports detail what he has been working on and his thoughts on various pieces of legislation or other important matters.  In his most recent report, Roberts discussed Obama's State of the Union address and openly criticized his ideas and plans for the future.  Roberts relayed the message that the people of Kansas are tired of government regulations, taxes, and uncertainty of the future of Healthcare.  He seems very pessimistic about the country's future under Obama and says, "If it was the President’s intention to lead the nation to an economic recovery, I am afraid the President missed the mark."  I think it is good that Roberts tells his constituents his feelings about what is happening in Washington and what he plans to do to change it in the future.  

Picture of article Roberts posted in one of his newsletters

Roberts has sponsored 13 and co-sponsored 143 bills in the 112th session.  A few of the bills he has sponsored include the Regulatory Responsibility for our Economy Act of 2011, Restoring Access to Medication Act, Freedom to Breathe Act of 2011, and the Underground Gas Storage Facility Safety Act of 2011.  Roberts has tried twice to introduce A bill to authorize and request the President to award the Medal of Honor posthumously to Captain Emil Kapaun of the United States Army for acts of valor during the Korean War.  He recently announced on his Facebook page that Kapaun will receive the Medal of Honor.  Roberts spends much of his time with bills that will impact Kansas directly, often dealing with issues that relate directly back it his constituents.  So far, in the new session of Congress, Roberts has sponsored five bills.  

Sources:
http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Senate/Kansas/Pat_Roberts/Bills/112/ 
https://www.facebook.com/SenPatRoberts?fref=ts
http://www.roberts.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=NewsletterArchive
https://twitter.com/SenPatRoberts
http://www.roberts.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=SponsoredBills