Political positions of Dianne Feinstein

Infobox Officeholder
name = Dianne Feinstein


caption =
jr/sr = Senior Senator
state = California
alongside = Barbara Boxer
term_start = November 10, 1992
term_end =
predecessor = John F. Seymour
successor =
order2 = 38th Mayor of San Francisco
term_start2 = December 4, 1978
term_end2 = January 8, 1988
predecessor2 = George Moscone
successor2 = Art Agnos
birth_date = Birth date and age|1933|6|22|mf=y
birth_place = San Francisco, California
death_date =
death_place =
constituency =
party = Democratic
spouse = Judge Jack Berman (div.)
Bertram Feinstein (deceased)
Richard C. Blum
alma_mater = Stanford University
net worth = $49-110 million (USD) cite web
title = Dianne Feinstein's Personal Finances
publisher = opensecrets.org
date = 2006
url = http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.php?CID=N00007364&year=2006 ]
religion = Jewish


footnotes =

Dianne Feinstein is the current senior senator in the US Senate representing California. Prior to her time in the Senate, she ran for Governor of California and was Mayor of San Francisco. Feinstein tends to be seen as a moderate in the Senate. She has worked to ban assault weapons and to gain passage of the California Desert Protection Act to preserve wilderness. She voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq in 2002 and has stated that she is a supporter of the Patriot Act.

Iraq

Feinstein supported the Iraq war resolution in the vote of October 11, 2002; she has claimed that she was misled by President Bush on the reasons for going to war. However, former UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq Scott Ritter has stated that Feinstein in summer 2002 acknowledged to him that she knew the Bush administration had not provided any convincing intelligence to back up its claims about the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.cite news
last =Ritter
first =Scott
title =What Happened to Iraq's WMD
publisher =San Francisco Chronicle
date =2005-12-04
url =http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/12/04/EDGQIF5U1L1.DTL
accessdate = 2007-05-07 ]

In February 2007, Feinstein warned Republicans not to block consideration of a measure opposing President Bush's troop increase in Iraq, saying it would be a "terrible mistake" to prevent debate on the top issue in America.cite news
title = Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
publisher =CNN
work =transcript
date =2007-02-04
url =http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0702/04/le.01.html
accessdate = 2007-09-15 ]

In May 2007, Feinstein voted for an Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill, which continued to fund the Iraq occupation without a firm timetable for withdrawal. The Senator said "I am deeply disappointed that this bill fails to hold the President accountable for his Administration’s flawed Iraq War policy. The American people have made their voices clear that there must be an exit strategy for Iraq. Yet this President continues to stubbornly adhere to more of the same."cite news
title =Senate Approves FY’07 Supplemental Appropriations Bill
publisher =Senator Feinstein's Official Site
date =2007-05-25
url =http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=c305f6f5-fe02-5c19-36dc-fb51d7e7cc40
accessdate = 2007-05-25 ]

In November 2007, Feinstein was one of only six Democrats to vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General.cite news
title = Senate approves Mukasey nomination
publisher = TheHill.com
date = 2007-11-08
url =http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/senate-approves-mukasey-nomination-2007-11-09.html
accessdate = 2007-11-09 ]

Wiretapping

In August 2007, Feinstein joined Republicans in the Senate in voting to modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by narrowing the scope of its protections to sharply alter the legal limits on the government's ability to monitor phone calls and email messages of American citizens.cite web
title =S.1927 vote tally
publisher =U.S. Senate
date =2007-08-03
url =http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00309
accessdate =2007-08-06 ] Feinstein voted to give the attorney general and the director of national intelligence the power to approve international surveillance of the communications of Americans entirely within the executive branch, rather than through the special intelligence court established by FISA. Many privacy advocates have decried this law and Senator Feinstein's vote in favor of it.cite news
title =Bush Signs Law to Widen Reach for Wiretapping
publisher =New York Times
date =2007-08-06
url =http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/washington/06nsa.html?ex=1344052800&en=5e759f53fc811cd7&ei=5090
accessdate =2007-08-06 ] In February 2008, Feinstein joined Republicans in the Senate in voting "Nay" to strike the provisions providing immunity from civil liability to electronic communication service providers for certain assistance provided to the Government.cite web
title =Dodd Amdt. No. 3907
publisher =U.S. Senate
date =2008-02-12
url=http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00015
accessdate = 2008-02-13 ]

USA PATRIOT Act

Feinstein was the original Democratic cosponsor of a bill to extend the USA PATRIOT Act. In a December 2005 statement, Senator Feinstein stated, "I believe the Patriot Act is vital to the protection of the American people."cite press release
title =Statement on the President’s Comments Regarding Patriot Act and Domestic Spying
publisher =Sen. Dianne Feinstein
date =2005-12-19
url =http://feinstein.senate.gov/05releases/r-expatriot.htm
accessdate = 2007-05-09 ]

Immigration

Feinstein is a supporter and cosponsor of the H-1B Visa program.

Environment

Feinstein and her predecessor Senator Alan Cranston worked for over 10 years to pass the California Desert Protection Act. The bill was signed in to law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. The bill protected convert|7661089|acre|km2|0 of California's desert lands as wilderness and national parks. [http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=pubLawLibResults] The Act doubled the size of the National Wilderness Preservation System in California, and was the largest wilderness bill in California's history.

Senators Feinstein and Barbara Boxer were the champions of the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, which was signed in to law by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. The bill protected convert|275830|acre|km2|0 of federal land as wilderness and convert|21|mi|km|0 of stream as a wild and scenic river, including such popular areas as the King Range and Cache Creek. [http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=pubLawLibResults&PLID=150&WID=0] Senators Feinstein and Boxer worked with Representative Mike Thompson, the sponsor of the bill in the House, in the 5-year effort to pass the legislation.

Feinstein along with her colleague Boxer voted in favor of subsidy payments to conventional commodity farm producers at the cost of subsidies for conservation-oriented farming. [cite web | title = California Farmers Reconsidering Opposition To Subsidies | author = Becker, Elizabeth | publisher = New York Times | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E1DC123DF93BA35757C0A9649C8B63 ] More recently, Feinstein has not taken a stand on the widely criticized subsidies in the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill. [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/01/MNJ2SQAL3.DTL Boxer, Feinstein have yet to reveal where they stand on farm bill ] ]

Death penalty

Feinstein is a supporter of capital punishment.

Free speech

She was the main Democratic sponsor of the failed 2006 constitutional Flag Desecration Amendment.cite press release
title =Statement in Support of Flag Protection Amendment
publisher =Sen. Dianne Feinstein
date =2006-06-27
url =http://feinstein.senate.gov/06releases/r-flag-protect.htm
accessdate = 2007-05-09 ]

She also voted for the McCain-Feingold legislation.

After heavily supporting President Bush's Immigration Reform Bill, she mentioned that she was "looking into revising" the Fairness Doctrine, specifically targeting talk radio.cite press release
title =Dianne Feinstein on FOX News to Support the Fairness Doctrine
publisher =FOX News
date =2007-06-27
url =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe22Vn6wJEM accessdate = 2007-06-27 ]

Gun politics

She is opposed by gun rights organizations, who say that her proposals on gun control are unconstitutional.

In 1993, Feinstein, along with then-Representative Charles Schumer (D-NY), led the fight to ban many semi-automatic firearms and restrict the sale of firearm magazines deemed assault weapons. The ban was passed as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. In 2004, when the ban was set to expire, Feinstein sponsored a 10-year extension of the ban as an amendment to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act; while the amendment was successfully added, the act itself failed. The act was then revived in 2005, and, despite Feinstein's best efforts, was passed without an extension of the assault weapons ban.

Feinstein said on CBS-TV's 60 Minutes, February 5, 1995, "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them . . . Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in, I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here."cite news | url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/07/EDGIV5EQ6B1.DTL | title=2nd Amendment Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in | author=Chris W. Cox | publisher="The San Francisco Chronicle" | date=2004-03-07 | accessdate=2008-04-18]

In July 2006, Feinstein voted against the Vitter Amendment to prohibit Federal funds being used for the confiscation of lawfully owned firearms during a disaster. [cite web
title = U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 2nd Session
publisher =US Senate
date=2006-07-13
url =http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00202
accessdate = 2007-05-12 ] [cite web
title = NRA clout is outgunning Feinstein: Assault weapons ban renewal in doubt
publisher = San Francisco Chronicle
date=2004-6-28
url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/06/28/MNGQK7D4RU1.DTL
accessdate = 2007-11-11 ]

Copyright

Feinstein has supported Hollywood and the content industry when it has come into conflict with technology and fair use on intellectual property issues. In 2006 she cosponsored the "PERFORM Act" or the "Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2006" to the Senate, which would require satellite, cable and internet broadcasters to incorporate digital rights management technologies into their transmission. Over the air broadcasting would not be affected.cite web
title =Testimony of Mr. Edgar Bronfman
publisher =US Senate Judiciary Committee
date =2006-04-26
url =http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=1853&wit_id=5267
accessdate = 2007-05-12 ] Feinstein's consistent backing of the content industry and attacks on fair use have earned her poor marks with the EFF and [http://www.ipaction.org/ IPac] .

Bailout

On October 1, 2008, Feinstein voted in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (the $700 billion bailout). [ [http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00213] ]

Congressional scorecards

See CongLinks | votesmart=53273

Footnotes