Representative Zachary Space, 21% Progressive

Progressive Action: support for legislation in the promotion of freedom, knowledge and security. Freedom is achieved when constitutional protections are respected and when people are treated with equality under law. Knowledge is pursued through rigorous support for science and education. Security comes from the protection of environmental resources, the strengthening of economic opportunity for people and the preservation of peace from erosion by wasteful, destructive militarism.

Rep. Zack T. Space’s Progressive Action Score: 21

A score of 21 means that Representative Space has positively acted to support 21% of a slate of progressive policies in the 111th Congress.

The following are positive progressive actions taken by Congressman Space during the 111th Congress:

H.R. 11

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is a decent bill that seeks to amend an injustice and provide a fair shot at equality in the workplace. It simply says that workers cannot be expected to file suit for compensation for wage discrimination before they actually find out that they’ve been discriminated against. A previous court case, decided against a worker named Lilly Ledbetter, had declared that workers must file a lawsuit within a few months of the time that wage discrimination begins, even if they are unaware of the discrimination at the time. H.R. 11 seeks to remove this preposterous restriction on workplace equality.

Rep. Space has acted progressively by voting YES to pass this measure.

H.R. 1106, The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, is a bill passed by the House that would allow bankruptcy judges to restructure mortgages on family homes to make them more affordable. Judicial modification is already possible in bankruptcy for loans covering luxury yachts and the vacation homes of the wealthy. If the terms of those sorts of loans can be restructured during bankruptcy proceedings, then why shouldn’t the mortgages on the homes they live in be similarly protected? H.R. 1106 includes a number of protections against mortgage fraud and limits coverage to those who have made good-faith efforts to stay current on their mortgage payments. This sort of policy would be beneficial to bankers as much as to homeowners, maximizing the likelihood that home loans will be repaid rather than abandoned and restoring stability to the U.S. housing market. A YES vote is cast in the direction of fairness. A NO vote preserves renegotiation for yachts and luxury villas but denies it to everyday Americans just trying to get by.

Rep. Space has acted progressively by voting YES to pass this measure.

Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 makes 4 million children who currently without health insurance eligible to be added to the rolls of the the State Children Health Insurance Program. This legislation isn’t some kind of entitlement to a group of people who are somehow responsible for their own economic vulnerability. It’s a wise investment in America’s future, because healthy children grow up to become productive adults.

Rep. Space has acted progressively by voting YES to pass this measure.

Corporations do not exist to benefit themselves. They are given existence by their charters on the condition that the behavior of corporations provides benefit to shareholders and the public. When corporate honchos authorize huge executive compensation for themselves without due opportunity for shareholder approval, they pervert the conditions those of corporate charters.

H.R. 3269, the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act, is a piece of legislation designed to “to prevent perverse incentives in the compensation practices of financial institutions.” The bill prohibits executive compensation packages that put the financial health of their companies at risk, and requires a separate shareholder vote to approve executive compensation packages.

Rep. Space has acted progressively by voting YES to pass this measure.

Essential to the structure of the Constitution is the concept of the balance of powers between the three branches of government. That balance was disturbed in November of 2001, when George W. Bush issued Executive Order No. 13233. That executive order thwarted the intention of the law by declaring that sitting presidents, former presidents, and even the heirs of former presidents, would have the power to deny the release of public White House records.

Congress and the Judicial Branch cannot check the power of the White House without knowledge of the Executive apparatus that the White House has put into place. Bush executive order interfered with the system of government oversight and review the Constitution put into place. The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2009, H.R. 35, ended this interference by specifically counteracting Executive Order No. 13233.

Rep. Space has acted progressively by voting YES to pass this measure.

On March 12, 2009, the House of Representatives voted on the Mack Amendment, which if passed would have slapped aside the usual rule for federally-funded projects that construction workers be paid at least the prevailing wage of the area in compensation for their labor. That prevailing wage standard is not high to begin with, at poverty-level compensation in many places. But for 140 members of the House of Representatives, poverty-level pay for wasn’t low enough. In the middle of the worst economic recession in over a generation, those who voted for the Mack Amendment acted to slash the wages of working-class Americans. They tried to push construction workers’ wages further down at the historical moment when their economic security was at its lowest.

Rep. Space has acted progressively by voting NO, against this regressive measure.

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This information is found here: http://thatsmycongress.com/house/repSpaceOH18111.html

To read more about the Progressive Movement take a look at this article from The Heritage Foundation:

The link is here: http://www.heritage.org/research/thought/fp12.cfm