Political positions of Dianne Feinstein

Main article: Dianne Feinstein

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator from California
Incumbent
Assumed office November 10, 1992 Serving with Barbara Boxer
Preceded by	John F. Seymour
38th Mayor of San Francisco
In office December 4, 1978 – January 8, 1988
Preceded by	George Moscone
Succeeded by	Art Agnos
Personal details
Born	June 22, 1933 (1933-06-22) San Francisco, California
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Judge Jack Berman (div.) Bertram Feinstein (deceased) Richard C. Blum
Alma mater	Stanford University
Religion	Jewish

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.

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.

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."

In November 2007, Feinstein was one of only six Democrats to vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General.

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. 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. In February 2008, Feinstein joined Republicans in the Senate in voting against removing the provisions which provided immunity from civil liability to electronic communication service providers for certain assistance (most notably, access without warrants to fiber-optic cables carrying bulk transmissions for the purposes of interception and monitoring) provided to the Government.

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."

Immigration

Feinstein is a supporter and cosponsor of the H-1B Visa program. After strongly opposing the AgJobs immigration provisions in 2005, warning that they would encourage illegal immigration from Mexico, she reversed her position, when the measures were proposed again, in 2008.

LGBT issues

The Human Rights Campaign gave Feinstein a 75% rating in the 110th Congress, indicating some support of the HRC's slate for pro-gay rights legislative issues.

She does not support the Uniting American Families Act, but introduced a private bill to keep together a binational same-sex couple.

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 7,661,089 acres (31,003 km²) of California's desert lands as wilderness and national parks. 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 275,830 acres (1,116 km²) of federal land as wilderness and 21 miles (34 km) of stream as a wild and scenic river, including such popular areas as the King Range and Cache Creek. 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. More recently, Feinstein has not taken a stand on the widely criticized subsidies in the 2007 U.S. 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.

She also voted for the McCain-Feingold legislation.

In 2007, Feinstein was asked in a Fox News interview whether she would revive the Fairness Doctrine and she replied that she was looking at it.

In 2010 Dianne Feinstein voted in favour of unilateral US censorship of the Internet by voting in favour of COICA. Also in 2010, Dianne Feinstein said in reference to Cablegate, "Whoever released this information should be punished severely."

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."

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.

Feinstein possessed a concealed handgun permit in the early 70's "And, I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I'd walk to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon. I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out, I was going to take them with me." -- 27 April 1995

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. Feinstein's consistent backing of the content industry and attacks on fair use have earned her poor marks with the EFF and IPac.

Bailout

On October 1, 2008, Feinstein voted in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act

Victims' Rights

Senator Feinstein has been one of Congress's strongest advocates for victims' rights. In the 1990s, Senator Feinstein was one of the original sponsors, along with Republican Senator Jon Kyl, of an effort to amend the United States Constitution to protect victims' rights in trial. Though the constitutional amendment ultimately failed, Senators Kyl and Feinstein authored the 2004 Scott Campbell, Stephanie Roper, Wendy Preston, Louarna Gillis, and Nila Lynn Crime Victims' Rights Act which listed a victims' bill of rights and provided mandamus relief in appellate court for any victim denied those rights. The act also offered sanctions against government officials who wantonly and willfully refused to comply with the Crime Victims' Rights Act. Both Senators Kyl and Feinstein described their collaboration as a high point of bipartisan collaboration in their careers. In front of the Senate, Senator Kyl said "This legislation would not be before us today without Senator Feinstein. That is simply a fact. For all of the hard work we have put in with her cooperation and her commitment to this, I thank Senator Feinstein deeply. She knows that bond of trust will continue to exist between us."

Congressional scorecards

See

• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart

PIPA

Senator Feinstein supports PIPA. Recorded at the Library of Congress