What was the full roll-call vote breakdown for the Maritime Drug Enforcement Act of 1986 in the Senate?

1. Why you can’t get a definitive “full roll‑call” from the sources shown

The materials returned in this search document the bill language and summarize that the Maritime Drug provisions were part of H.R.5484 (Anti‑Drug Abuse Act of 1986) and related Senate bills (S.2850, S.2878) but do not publish a senator‑by‑senator roll‑call specifically for the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act itself; Congress.gov shows the legislative text and summaries ^{[3] [1] [4]} while GovTrack provides a roll call for the final Senate action on the overall bill and cautions about transcription inaccuracies from its VoteView source ^[2]. In short: the bill’s text and chapter citations are present in the record ^[1], but an authoritative, complete named roll‑call breakdown for the MDLEA as a freestanding item is not contained in the provided sources ^{[3] [1] [2]}.

2. What the available legislative records do show about passage

Congress passed maritime jurisdiction provisions as part of the Anti‑Drug Abuse Act package in 1986; H.R.5484 included Subtitle C — the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Prosecution Improvements Act — which criminalized drug manufacture, distribution or possession with intent aboard U.S. vessels or vessels subject to U.S. jurisdiction ^[1]. The Senate voted on the broader bill (the legislative vehicle that carried the MDLEA language) and historical roll‑call data are accessible in digitized form (GovTrack’s Senate Vote #683 for Sept. 30, 1986), but the GovTrack entry warns about potential errors introduced when paper records were converted to digital format ^[2].

3. Public claims about a 97–2 Senate vote: what the sources say and don’t say

Some public posts assert the Senate approved the measure 97–2 and similarly state the House vote was 392–16; the search results include a social‑media claim repeating “Senate approved it 97‑2” but supply no primary Senate roll‑call document that confirms the 97–2 figure for the MDLEA specifically ^[5]. Congress.gov and related legislative summaries document the statutory changes and identify the bill numbers that enacted the MDLEA language ^{[3] [1] [4]}, but those sources in this set do not reproduce a named 97–2 roll call tied directly to the MDLEA text. Therefore: available sources do not mention a senator‑by‑senator roll call showing 97‑2 for the MDLEA itemized in these search results ^{[3] [1] [5] [2]}.

4. How to get the definitive roll‑call if you need it (context and next steps)

The evidence here points to two concrete next steps that the sources themselves imply but do not execute: consult the official Senate roll‑call records from the Congressional Record for Sept. 1986 or the Senate Historical Office for the specific floor vote on H.R.5484 or its Senate amendment/consent action; Congress.gov and GovInfo host bill texts but the precise senator‑by‑senator vote detail for that date is not in the supplied snippets ^{[1] [6] [2]}. Check VoteView/ProQuest Congressional or the official Senate roll call on govinfo.gov for the authenticated list — GovTrack warns that its digitized file may include transcription artifacts, so cross‑checking with primary Congressional Record pages is essential ^{[2] [6]}.

5. Competing perspectives and why the discrepancy matters

Advocates who cite a 97–2 Senate margin present the MDLEA as a near‑unanimous, bipartisan response to a recognized maritime drug threat; that framing is consistent with the broad legislative package described in Congress.gov ^{[3] [1]}. Critics caution that the law expanded U.S. reach on the high seas and has been subject to legal scrutiny and constitutional challenge — academic analyses (e.g., Neumayr) trace that tension and the act’s departure from traditional territorial limits ^[7]. The lack of a verified senator‑by‑senator roll‑call in the provided sources underlines a transparency gap: quoting a specific numeric margin without the underlying roll‑call risks misleading precision when digital transcriptions may be flawed ^[2].

Limitations: this report relies only on the listed search results; the exact, named Senate roll‑call breakdown for the MDLEA was not present in those items. If you want the authoritative senator‑by‑senator vote list, I can guide a search targeted at the Congressional Record or the Senate’s official roll‑call archive and cross‑check VoteView and GovInfo entries.