Today the House voted on a slew of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act, a bill authorizing hundreds of billions of dollars for the Pentagon and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for fiscal year 2012. This provided a great opportunity for our allies in Congress to work to impact key issues like military spending, the wars in Afghanistan and Libya, nuclear weapons and more.

The biggest story out the House today is the growth in support for ending the war in Afghanistan. Efforts to end the war in Afghanistan got more votes than ever before, and key members of the Democratic leadership Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer spoke in favor of the McGovern/Jones amendment to set a timeline for withdrawal. This sends a clear message to the administration at a critical time. The Pentagon is pushing for an insignificant withdrawal in July, and President Obama needs strong support to move toward a serious, sizable withdrawal from Afghanistan.

I’m glad to announce the release of Peace Action West’s 2010 Congressional Voting Record.

Last year was a big one. It had its triumphs, like when determined senators pushed through the first major arms control treaty in decades. And it had its disgraces, with a group of Republicans blocking a bipartisan bill to help stop forced child marriage. How did your representatives measure up? Find out with our 2010 Congressional Voting Record.

Was your senator one of the nuclear hawks who tried desperately to kill New START? Did your representative call for getting all the troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year? Our 2010 voting record highlights key votes in the House and Senate on everything from Afghanistan to nuclear weapons, from wasteful military spending to sanctions on Iran. You can also check out our picks for the “best and worst” things Congress did for peace in 2010.

Our political team spent a couple of days last week making the rounds of key congressional offices to strategize, feel out the new political landscape, and push for action on ending the war in Afghanistan, taking further steps to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons, and building out the development and diplomatic tools we need to deal with conflict peacefully.

Being so early in the year, and with committee assignments not even settled yet, there was still a lot up in the air. Here are a few of the interesting questions that surfaced and that will inform our organizing and lobbying in 2011.

After the historic 2008 election, we had a new political landscape before us full of possibility for real foreign policy change.

Did your representatives in Congress help move that vision forward, or stand in the way? Find out with Peace Action West’s 2009 congressional voting record.

You and I know that an election isn’t enough to make change. We need to be congressional watchdogs—making sure our representatives are living up to their responsibility to represent our best interests in Washington. We combed through all the votes that happened in the first year of Obama’s presidency and the new 111th Congress so you’d have the tools you need to hold them accountable.