Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (June 24th-28th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cas­ca­di­a’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, June 28th, 2019.

In the United States House of Representatives

PROTECTING U.S. ELECTIONS AGAINST ATTACKS: Vot­ing 225 for and 184 against, the House on June 27th passed a Demo­c­ra­t­ic bill (H.R. 2722) that would autho­rize a $600 mil­lion, mul­ti-year pro­gram to bol­ster state and local vot­ing sys­tems against attacks by adver­saries includ­ing Russia.

In return for fed­er­al grants, author­i­ties would be required to start con­vert­ing vul­ner­a­ble, aging elec­tron­ic vot­ing machines to ones using paper bal­lots, which could be ver­i­fied by vot­ers on the spot and audit­ed by elec­tion officials.

The bill requires vot­ing infra­struc­ture to be man­u­fac­tured in the Unit­ed States and sold from a list of ven­dors cer­ti­fied by the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty and Elec­tion Assis­tance Commission.

In addi­tion, the bill would pro­hib­it Inter­net con­nec­tiv­i­ty to devices on which votes are marked or tab­u­lat­ed, and it would allo­cate $175 mil­lion to states and local­i­ties every two years for main­tain­ing their elec­toral systems.

Jim McGov­ern, D‑Massachusetts, said be bill is need­ed because “our very democ­ra­cy is under attack. No troops have been sent into com­bat. No guns have been fired, but a for­eign adver­sary is turn­ing the Inter­net and the bal­lot box into bat­tle­fields with the integri­ty of the vote at stake.”

Tom Cole, R‑Oklahoma, said: “Tra­di­tion­al­ly, elec­tions are left to the states and local gov­ern­ments to con­duct as they see fit… in a way that best suits the unique needs of each com­mu­ni­ty. [This bill] turns all that on its head.”

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Cas­ca­dia total: 10 aye votes, 6 nay votes, 1 not voting

DISPUTE OVER BALLOT DROP-OFF LAWS: Vot­ing 189 for and 220 against, the House on June 27th defeat­ed a Repub­li­can motion to H.R. 2722 (above) tar­get­ing state bal­lot drop-off laws, which allow home­bound vot­ers to des­ig­nate a helper to per­son­al­ly deliv­er their absen­tee bal­lot to elec­tion officials.

The motion required a state’s chief elec­tion offi­cer to inform the Fed­er­al Elec­tion Com­mis­sion when­ev­er a for­eign nation­al is cho­sen as the helper. Back­ers called this an anti-fraud mea­sure, while crit­ics said it was vot­er suppression.

Rod­ney Davis, R‑Illinois, said the amend­ment is need­ed because “right now, a Russ­ian oper­a­tive could walk freely around states like Cal­i­for­nia, for exam­ple, col­lect­ing and turn­ing in absen­tee bal­lots, com­plete­ly alter­ing the out­come of an election.”

Pete Aguilar, D‑California, said bal­lot drop-off laws allow “greater par­tic­i­pa­tion in elec­tions because some home­bound vot­ers have no fam­i­ly or indi­vid­u­als to del­e­gate that role to. They should not be dis­en­fran­chised by our laws.”

A yes vote was to adopt the motion.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes, 10 nay votes, 1 not voting

$4.5 BILLION FOR SOUTHWEST BORDER: Vot­ing 305 for and 102 against, the House on June 27th approved a bipar­ti­san $4.5 bil­lion emer­gency pack­age to address a human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis on the south­west bor­der cen­tered on hun­dreds of thou­sands of migrants from Cen­tral Amer­i­ca who have entered the Unit­ed States in recent months to apply for asy­lum pro­tec­tions under fed­er­al and inter­na­tion­al law.

The bill (H.R. 3401) allo­cat­ed about $3 bil­lion for shel­ter, food, med­ical care and oth­er ser­vices for unac­com­pa­nied migrant chil­dren held in Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices cus­tody, and as much as $1 bil­lion to agen­cies includ­ing U.S. Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion (CBP) and U.S. Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment (ICE). This was a scaled-back ver­sion of a Demo­c­ra­t­ic bill passed ear­li­er in the week, but then shelved, that raised stan­dards for the admin­is­tra­tion’s treat­ment of migrants and denied fund­ing to ICE.

Kay Granger, R‑Texas, said:

“Chil­dren are sleep­ing on the ground and need to be moved to shel­ters or homes. We need doc­tors and pedi­a­tri­cians and care­givers. This bill gives the agen­cies the funds to care for these chil­dren, to reduce the over­crowd­ing at bor­der facil­i­ties, to repay the states and to add immi­gra­tion judge teams.”

Adri­ano Espail­lat, D‑New York, said:

“I am deeply trou­bled by the way the Trump admin­is­tra­tion has han­dled the treat­ment of migrants, par­tic­u­lar­ly chil­dren, at the border.…”

A yes vote was to send the bill to Don­ald Trump.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 5 nay votes, 1 not voting

$4.5 BILLION FOR SOUTHWEST BORDER: Vot­ing 230 for and 195 against, the House on June 25th approved a $4.5 bil­lion emer­gency pack­age to address a human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis cen­tered on hun­dreds of thou­sands of migrants who have arrived in the Unit­ed States in recent months, main­ly from Cen­tral America.

Draft­ed by Democ­rats, the bill exclud­ed fund­ing of Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment (ICE) pro­ce­dures for deal­ing with indi­vid­u­als seek­ing asy­lum in the Unit­ed States. But the House lat­er shelved this mea­sure and, instead, sent Don­ald Trump a Sen­ate-adopt­ed ver­sion of H.R. 3401 (see final House roll call vote on H.R. 3401 above, see final Sen­ate roll call vote below) that fund­ed both human­i­tar­i­an needs and his immi­gra­tion-enforce­ment policies.

This ver­sion of the bill allo­cat­ed about $3 bil­lion for shel­ter, food, med­ical care and oth­er ser­vices for unac­com­pa­nied migrant chil­dren held in Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices cus­tody. In addi­tion, the bill pro­vid­ed about $1 bil­lion to U.S. Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion for deal­ing with the deten­tion, care and pro­cess­ing of indi­vid­u­als apply­ing for asy­lum under fed­er­al and inter­na­tion­al law.

The bill would have required stricter over­sight of pri­vate firms oper­at­ing deten­tion cen­ters, allow mem­bers of Con­gress to con­duct unan­nounced inspec­tions of hold­ing facil­i­ties and require Con­gress to be noti­fied with­in twen­ty-four hours when a migrant child dies in fed­er­al custody.

In addi­tion, the bill would have pro­vid­ed $200 mil­lion to devel­op more order­ly and humane pro­ce­dures for over­see­ing migrant fam­i­lies and unac­com­pa­nied chil­dren, enlist­ing the help of non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions in the effort.

Nita Lowey, D‑New York, said: “The pres­i­den­t’s cru­el immi­gra­tion poli­cies that tear apart fam­i­lies and ter­ror­ize com­mu­ni­ties demand the strin­gent safe­guards in this bill to ensure these funds are used for human­i­tar­i­an needs only — not for immi­gra­tion raids, not for deten­tion beds, not for a bor­der wall.”

Call­ing the mea­sure “a sham bill,” Minor­i­ty Leader Kevin McCarthy, R‑California, said Democ­rats “are far more inter­est­ed in appear­ing to help chil­dren than in actu­al­ly help­ing them. The pace and vol­ume at which chil­dren have crossed our bor­der over the last year have com­plete­ly over­whelmed our exist­ing resources.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

$383.3 BILLION APPROPRIATIONS PACKAGE: Vot­ing 227 for and 194 against, the House on June 25th approved a $383.3 bil­lion pack­age con­sist­ing of five of the twelve appro­pri­a­tions bills that will fund gov­ern­ment oper­a­tions in fis­cal 2020, which starts Octo­ber 1st. In part, the bill (H.R. 3055) provides:

• $80.4 bil­lion for vet­er­ans health care;
• $50.1 bil­lion for the Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Development;
• $32 bil­lion for the Depart­ment of Jus­tice (includ­ing $9.46 bil­lion for Fed­er­al Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion salaries and expenses);
• $22.3 bil­lion for the Nation­al Aero­nau­tics and Space Administration;
• $17.7 bil­lion for the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Administration;
• $16.4 bil­lion for the Depart­ment of Com­merce (includ­ing $8.45 bil­lion for the Cen­sus Bureau);
• … and $9.5 bil­lion for the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency.

Address­ing gun vio­lence, the bill ful­ly funds the FBI’s Nation­al Instant Crim­i­nal Back­ground Check Sys­tem, while pro­vid­ing $80 mil­lion in grants to help states sup­ply data to the sys­tem, $125 mil­lion to fund the STOP School Vio­lence Act; $100 mil­lion for youth-men­tor­ing pro­grams and $20 mil­lion for police pro­grams in active-shoot­er train­ing. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

HIRING MORE IMMIGRATION JUDGES: Vot­ing 201 for and 220 against, the House on June 25th defeat­ed a Repub­li­can motion to add $75 mil­lion to H.R. 3055 (above) for hir­ing more immi­gra­tion judges and expand­ing court­room capac­i­ty. The funds were to be tak­en from the 2020 cen­sus bud­get. The under­ly­ing bill already pro­vides $110 mil­lion over 2019 lev­els to address a back­log of 800,000 immi­gra­tion cas­es, many of which involve asy­lum seek­ers from Cen­tral Amer­i­ca or per­sons who have over­stayed their visas or entered the Unit­ed States illegally.

Will Hurd, R‑Texas, said: “Our cur­rent short­age of immi­gra­tion judges delays jus­tice for indi­vid­u­als who have valid immi­gra­tion claims, while pre­serv­ing many years of con­tin­ued ille­gal pres­ence for oth­ers who do not.”

Pete Aguilar, D‑California, said: “We need every dol­lar in this cen­sus because the admin­is­tra­tion is fear-mon­ger­ing, try­ing to force an under­count with the inclu­sion of the cit­i­zen­ship question.”

A yes vote was to trans­fer $75 mil­lion from cen­sus to immi­gra­tion accounts.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes, 11 nay votes

In the United States Senate

$4.5 BILLION FOR SOUTHWEST BORDER: Vot­ing eighty-four in favor and eight against, the Sen­ate on June 26 passed a bill (H.R. 3401) that would appro­pri­ate $4.5 bil­lion in emer­gency fund­ing to help U.S. Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion, U.S. Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment and the depart­ments of Health and Human Ser­vices and Defense cope with an influx this year of hun­dreds of thou­sands of migrants on the south­west bor­der. The bill com­bines human­i­tar­i­an aid with fund­ing to car­ry out admin­is­tra­tion poli­cies for deal­ing with indi­vid­u­als main­ly from Cen­tral Amer­i­ca who seek asy­lum in the Unit­ed States.

Mitch McConnell, R‑Kentucky, said “there are no poi­son pills — just a clean bill to pro­vide the emer­gency appro­pri­a­tions the White House request­ed two long months ago.”

Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑N.Y., said: “Pres­i­dent Trump, if you want to know the real rea­son there is chaos at the bor­der, look in the mirror.”

A yes vote was to pass a bill that the House lat­er approved and sent to Trump.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

$750 BILLION FOR MILITARY: Vot­ing eighty-six for and eight against, the Sen­ate on June 27th autho­rized a $750 bil­lion mil­i­tary bud­get for fis­cal 2020, includ­ing $75.9 bil­lion for war-fight­ing over­seas and more than $57 bil­lion for active-duty and retiree health care. The bill (S. 1790) would:

• estab­lish a Unit­ed States Space Force with­in the Air Force;
• set a 3.1 per­cent pay raise for uni­formed personnel;
• autho­rize $10 bil­lion for procur­ing nine­ty-four fifth-gen­er­a­tion Joint Strike Fight­er (F‑35 Light­ning II) aircraft;
• expand and mod­ern­ize the U.S. nuclear arsenal;
• fund pro­grams for mil­i­tary vic­tims of sex­u­al assault and replace $3.6 bil­lion Don­ald Trump divert­ed from mil­i­tary pro­grams to wall construction.

John Thune, R‑South Dako­ta, said the bill would “mod­ern­ize our nuclear arse­nal to max­i­mize our deter­rence capa­bil­i­ties. It also focus­es on ensur­ing that we are equipped to meet new threats on new fronts, includ­ing in space and cyber domains.” Mike Lee, R‑Utah, object­ed to bil­l’s $75.9 bil­lion out­lay for com­bat oper­a­tions being exempt­ed from bud­get caps that apply to the rest of the mil­i­tary bud­get. He called this “an unac­count­able slush fund for the Pentagon.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

AUTHORIZATION OF MILITARY FORCE AGAINST IRAN: Vot­ing fifty in favor and forty against, the Sen­ate on June 28th failed to reach six­ty votes need­ed to advance an amend­ment to S. 1790 (above) that sought to require the admin­is­tra­tion to receive con­gres­sion­al autho­riza­tion in advance of any mil­i­tary action Don­ald Trump orders against Iran.

Mazie Hirono, D‑Hawaii, said the amend­ment “makes clear that only Con­gress can autho­rize the use of mil­i­tary force against Iran, and would pro­vide a clear check on Don­ald Trump, John Bolton and oth­er hawks in the administration.”

Tom Cot­ton, R‑Arkansas, called the amend­ment “sim­ply an act of appease­ment against the aya­tol­lahs who are cur­rent­ly con­duct­ing attacks against the Unit­ed States and our inter­ests on a reg­u­lar and grow­ing basis.”

A yes vote was to require a con­gres­sion­al autho­riza­tion for use of mil­i­tary force against Iran.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

Last Week In Congress will be on hiatus next week

Con­gress will be in Fourth of July recess until the week of July 6th., so there will be not be an install­ment of Last Week In Con­gress next Sunday.

Edi­tor’s Note: The infor­ma­tion in NPI’s week­ly How Cas­ca­di­a’s U.S. law­mak­ers vot­ed fea­ture is pro­vid­ed by Votera­ma in Con­gress, a ser­vice of Thomas Vot­ing Reports. All rights are reserved. Repro­duc­tion of this post is not per­mit­ted, not even with attri­bu­tion. Use the per­ma­nent link to this post to share it… thanks!

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