The U.S. House takes many votes on resolutions which congratulate or commend different groups for their achievements.  While many are non-controversial, those dealing with high profile college sports programs are interesting to look at.

Last week the House voted on three of those:

Commending the Boise State University Broncos football team for winning the 2010 Fiesta Bowl
Congratulating and commending the University of Idaho football team for winning the 2009 Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho
* Congratulating the Duke University men's basketball team for winning the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship

Apart from the obvious question of why time is being spent on such resolutions, taking a look at the vote breakdowns is always interesting on these, because there is usally someone who votes 'No' or 'Present' for a variety of reasons.

Take for example a vote on House Resolution 1079, which congratulated the NFL Super Bowl winner New Orleans Saints.  The vote was 375-1 with 3 members voting Present.

The only 'No' vote came from Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL), who evidently didn't like the Saints.

Three members voted 'Present' - Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA), Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN).

Oberstar is an interesting case, because he votes 'Present' on all of these resolutions that congratulate and/or commend a specific university or college.

This past week, Oberstar voted 'Present' on the three of the resolutions dealing with Boise State, the University of Idaho and Duke.

Duke was the most controversial, as even though no one voted against the resolution honoring the NCAA hoops champs, 12 House members voted 'Present'.

Ironically, none of those votes came from Indiana, which was where Butler University is located, the squad that fell just short in the final game against Duke.

Usually that's what happens - the lawmaker from the home area of the losing school in a certain game can't bring him or herself to say "congrats" to the team that won the game, becuase the folks back home in the college town are still in mourning.

One House member voted against both the Boise State and Idaho resolutions - Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA).  Altmire was a standout high school football player who suffered injuries that kept him from playing college football at Florida State University.

So he voted for the fellow ACC team in basketball, but against the Idaho teams in football.  Interesting.

Just a little look inside the vote breakdowns for you on some less than controversial legislation in Congress.

If you want to look at House votes, start here on the House web site - http://bit.ly/a0nMk9 .