The Senate Votes That Divided Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders
Hillary Rodham Clinton is a liberal Democrat on domestic matters, and Bernie Sanders is a socialist. They voted the same way 93 percent of the time in the two years they shared in the Senate.
In fact, from January 2007 to January 2009, Mrs. Clinton, representing New York, voted with Mr. Sanders about as often as she did with the like-minded Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland.
In many of the cases in which she differed with Mr. Sanders, who represents Vermont and is also running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mrs. Clinton went with the crowd. She voted with an overwhelming majority of her colleagues, including Republicans. Her positions on the votes that differed from Mr. Sanders represented policy differences, but they may have also reflected political calculations by Mrs. Clinton, who was preparing for a presidential run in 2008.
The 31 times that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders disagreed happened to be on some the biggest issues of the day, including measures on continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an immigration reform bill and bank bailouts during the depths of the Great Recession. Mr. Sanders, who formally kicked off his campaign Tuesday evening in Burlington, Vt., was opposed to all these actions.
Photo
Bernie Sanders after speaking at a campaign kickoff rally in Burlington, Vt., on Tuesday evening.CreditBrian Snyder/Reuters
Foreign Policy and Defense
The two disagreed most often on military and foreign policy issues, including approval of the civilian nuclear deal between the United States and India in 2008 — Mrs. Clinton was for it — and the confirmation of George W. Casey Jr. as Army chief of staff (Mrs. Clinton was against it). Mr. Sanders was among a small number of senators who voted to allow Guantánamo detainees to be transferred to American prisons, and he was against developing and deploying a defense system to stop Iranian ballistic missiles.
Seven of the dissenting votes came when the Senate considered an immigration reform bill in 2007, and most of them were cloture votes to advance debate of the proposal. Mr. Sanders voted no on six such votes in an attempt to block the bill from being voted on by the Senate, mainly because of concerns about fraud in guest-worker programs. Mrs. Clinton supported advancing the bill, which would have offered legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants and improved border security.
Date
Issue
Outcome
Sanders
Clinton
June 6, 2007
Remove requirement that Y-1 immigration visa holders leave U.S. before renewal
Mrs. Clinton parted ways with Mr. Sanders over his opposition to the bank bailout bill a month before the November 2008 election. He also voted to deny the Treasury Department the ability to spend the remaining $350 billion in the troubled assets purchase program at the start of the next Congress, while she favored it.
Date
Issue
Outcome
Sanders
Clinton
Oct. 1, 2008
Approve comprehensive amendment to bank bailout bill
Mrs. Clinton supported ethanol production — an issue favored by many voters in Iowa — against livestock industry backers, and backed an attempt to end a tax credit for producing renewable diesel by adding animal fat to petroleum. Opponents of the tax credit said the program, designed to help small businesses, was being exploited by large oil and gas companies.
Mr. Sanders voted to end consideration of three amendments relating to how Homeland Security grants were awarded that pitted small-state senators against senators representing more populous states. Mrs. Clinton favored those amendments, as well as a measure granting limited immunity for reporting suspicious behavior.
The two also disagreed on a 2008 vote that would have barred congressional earmarks — Mrs. Clinton was for an earmark moratorium — and another that would have eliminated a research and development assistance program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. (Opponents like Mr. Sanders considered the program an example of wasteful spending, and it was eventually shut down.) Mr. Sanders was the only senator to oppose the passage of a bill to reauthorize drug and device user fees set by the Food and Drug Administration, and he also opposed expanding estate tax exemptions that Mrs. Clinton supported.
Date
Issue
Outcome
Sanders
Clinton
April 25, 2007
Eliminate National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program
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