They Didn't Vote: Credit Cards

Each sidelined, Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, both D-W.Va., did not vote in the passage of the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2009.

The measure would "prohibit credit card companies from arbitrarily raising a person's interest rate and charging many of the exorbitant fees that have become customary — and crippling — to cash-strapped consumers," The Associated Press reports.

"The overwhelming bipartisan vote of 90-5 was lawmakers' way of telling Americans that they haven't been forgotten amid a recession that has left hundreds of thousands jobless or facing foreclosure," the article said.