Only July 24th, The Amash Amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill was voted down 217 to 205. The amendment would of revoked authority “for the blanket collection of records under the Patriot Act. It would also bar the NSA and other agencies from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect records, including telephone call records, that pertain to persons who are not subject to an investigation under Section 215” of the Patriot Act.

A very simple amendment which should of passed by a large margin, but we now live in a time when defense contractors own our elected officials. A report came out late last week by MapLight “voting to continue the NSA’s dragnet surveillance programs received on average 122 percent more money ($41,635) from defense contractors and other defense industry interests than did representatives who voted to end the programs (18,765).”

I live in NJ, so I took a look at the 12 Representatives from my state to see how they voted, and who from the defense industry donated to their campaigns.

Robert Andrews (D) (1st District) voted against The Amash Amendment

Northrop Grumman $11,000, Lockheed Martin $10,200, Honeywell International $10,000, Boeing Co. $8,500, BAE Systems $7,000, Raytheon Co. $6,000

Frank LoBiondo (R) (2nd District) voted against The Amash Amendment

Northrop Grumman $12,000, Boeing Co. $10,000, Honeywell International $10,000, Raytheon Co. $10,000, General Dynamics $9,000, BAE Systems $8,000, Lockheed Martin $8,000

Jon Runyan (R) (3rd District) voted against The Amash Amendment

Northrop Grumman $20,000 , Honeywell International $13,498, Lockheed Martin $10,300, Boeing Co. $10,000, General Dynamics $5,000

Chris Smith (R) (4th District) voted for The Amash Amendment

Lockheed Martin $2,000

Scott Garrett (R) (5th District) voted for The Amash Amendment

Honeywell International $5,000

Frank Pallone (D) (6th District) did not vote

Honeywell International $7,500

Leonard Lance (R) (7th District) voted against The Amash Amendment

Honeywell International $5,000

Albio Sires (D) (8th District) voted against The Amash Amendment

Honeywell International $10,000, Lockheed Martin $2,000

Bill Pascrell Jr. (D) (9th District) voted for The Amash Amendment

BAE Systems $1,000, Boeing Co. $1,000, Honeywell International $1,000

Donald Payne Jr. (D) (10th District) voted against The Amash Amendment

Honeywell International $4,500,

Rodney Frelinghuysen (R) (11th District) voted against The Amash Amendment

Northrup Grumman $20,000, Honeywell International $13,900, BAE Systems $10,500, Boeing Co. $10,000, Lockheed Martin $10,000, Raytheon Co. $10,000, General Atomics $8,500, General Dynamics $8,000, SAIC Inc. $8,000,

Rush Holt (D) (12th District) voted for The Amash Amendment

Honeywell International $12,750, Lockheed Martin $4,000, General Atomics $4,000

In total 7 out of 12 Reps. voted against the Amash Amendment in NJ, four voted for it, and one did not vote. Out of the four who voted to end Unconstitutional NSA program that collects US Citizens Emails, Text, Phones Calls etc. they received a TOTAL of $30,750 from the top defense contractors in the country. That is only 32% of what Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R/NJ-11th) received on his own ($98,900). The seven Reps. who voted against The Amash Amendment received a total of $298,898 from defense contractors, an average of $42,700 for each Representative. The four men who voted for The Amash Amendment received a total of $30,750 from defense contractors, an average of $7,688 for each Representative. Seems pretty clear who these men are looking out for, and it is not their constituents.