Very few veterans’ bills come up for a roll call vote. Most votes on veterans’ issues are “voice” votes—that is, there is no record of how each elected official voted.
The votes listed under the “Key Votes” section of the DAV web site are recorded roll call votes. They are related to important issues, such as:
- Budget
- Appropriations
- Amendments to increase funding
- Emergency supplemental funding for VA
In most cases, with recorded votes, we have notified members of Congress of what our position is, how we wanted them to vote, and why.
It is possible that elected officials supported other veteran-related issues that have not been recorded on our site. Our site is not a comprehensive voting record.
DAV is a non-partisan organization. It is not our intent to be political or to endorse or oppose any candidate for public office by posting these votes; simply to report the facts—how they voted on issues important to us and our members, and that, in most cases, we have made our interest known.
Within the “Key Votes” section of the web site, there are two major features, the actual votes, and the “Federal Vote Scorecard.”
The first feature, the list of actual votes, can be accessed in the by clicking on this link: http://capwiz.com/dav/keyvotes.xc/?lvl=C or by following these steps:
- Go to www.dav.org
- Click on Legislative Action Center
- Click on “Issues”
- Click on “Key Votes”
- Enter your zip code
- A list of all DAV’s recorded votes will come up, Senate first, then House, with a check mark or an “x” corresponding to how each elected official voted.
The second feature, the “Vote Scorecard” can be accessed by using this link:
http://capwiz.com/dav/keyvotes.xc/?lvl=C and scrolling to the bottom of the page, or by following these steps:
- Go to www.dav.org
- Click on Legislative Action Center
- Click on “Issues”
- Click on “Key Votes”
- Scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see “Vote Scorecard.”
- Choose a session of Congress (we are currently in the 109th Congress, second Session; they are also marked by year). Click “Go.”
- Choose your state in the drop-down box on the right.
- The votes used to generate the scorecard are listed; you can choose a full description of the vote by clicking “show all vote descriptions.” The default position is a short title of the vote.
- Each member of Congress is given a percentage based on how they voted on the issues listed in the “Key Votes” section. No other criteria are used for these ratings.
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