Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (June 3rd-7th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cas­ca­di­a’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, June 7th, 2019.

In the United States House of Representatives

LEGAL STATUS FOR DREAMERS, OTHER IMMIGRANTS: Vot­ing 237 for and 187 against, the House on June 4th passed a Demo­c­ra­t­ic bill (H.R. 6) that would grant per­ma­nent legal sta­tus and a path to cit­i­zen­ship to as many as 2.1 mil­lion Dream­ers who were brought ille­gal­ly to the Unit­ed States as chil­dren and face poten­tial depor­ta­tion under a Trump admin­is­tra­tion direc­tive now on hold.

The bill would grant relief to new Amer­i­cans who were younger than eigh­teen when they entered the Unit­ed States; have been con­tin­u­ous­ly present in the Unit­ed States for at least four years; have clean law enforce­ment records and have received a high school or equiv­a­lent degree and met oth­er conditions.

In addi­tion, the bill would pro­vide the same depor­ta­tion pro­tec­tion and cit­i­zen­ship path to a few hun­dred thou­sand aliens who have been allowed to remain in the Unit­ed States in recent decades for human­i­tar­i­an reasons.

They are 3,600 Liberi­ans shield­ed by “deferred enforced depar­ture sta­tus” and 300,000 immi­grants from coun­tries includ­ing El Sal­vador, Nicaragua and Haiti receiv­ing “tem­po­rary pro­tect­ed sta­tus.” Fed­er­al courts have stayed admin­is­tra­tion efforts to des­ig­nate these indi­vid­u­als for deportation.

On Sep­tem­ber 5th, 2017, Don­ald Trump revoked for­mer Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma’s exec­u­tive order known as Deferred Action for Child­hood Arrivals (DACA), which tem­porar­i­ly shield­ed dream­ers from poten­tial depor­ta­tion and gave them the right to work legal­ly. Trump allowed Con­gress six months to either to write pro­tec­tions into law or stand aside as removals go for­ward. He said he would work with Demo­c­ra­t­ic law­mak­ers to enact leg­is­la­tion safe­guard­ing dream­ers, but set terms they would not accept. Courts have tem­porar­i­ly blocked Trump’s order.

Zoe Lof­gren, D‑California, said immi­grants pro­tect­ed by this bill and their house­holds “con­tribute around $17.4 bil­lion per year in fed­er­al tax­es and $9.7 bil­lion per year in state and local tax­es. Annu­al­ly, these house­holds gen­er­ate over $75 bil­lion in spend­ing pow­er. That mon­ey helps to fuel local economies, cre­at­ing new jobs and bring­ing new eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty to every­one liv­ing and work­ing” with these individuals.

Ken Buck, R‑Colorado, said: “Repub­li­cans are for a com­pas­sion­ate solu­tion to help DACA recip­i­ents, but that solu­tion must be paired with com­mon­sense bor­der secu­ri­ty, inte­ri­or enforce­ment and changes in pol­i­cy to stem the tide of ille­gal bor­der cross­ings, human smug­gling and friv­o­lous claims of asy­lum. Trag­i­cal­ly, this bill does noth­ing to address the cri­sis at our south­ern border.”

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

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden
	Vot­ing Aye (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan Newhouse Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Herrera-Beutler

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 4 nay votes, 1 not voting

PROHIBITIONS ON ALIEN GANG MEMBERS: Vot­ing 202 for and 221 against, the House on June 4 defeat­ed a Repub­li­can motion that sought to make it more dif­fi­cult for mem­bers of crim­i­nal gangs to use H.R. 6 (above) as a sub­terfuge for unlaw­ful­ly gain­ing legal sta­tus. Democ­rats said the bill already has safe­guards to pro­hib­it undoc­u­ment­ed aliens who are a threat to nation­al secu­ri­ty, includ­ing gang mem­bers, from obtain­ing green cards and a path to citizenship,

Spon­sor Ben Cline, R‑Virginia, said mem­bers vot­ing against his motion “can­not look their con­stituents in the eye and hon­est­ly say that crim­i­nals will not get green cards.” But Joe Neguse, D‑Colorado, said that by read­ing the bill, Repub­li­cans would learn “that gang mem­bers are not eli­gi­ble even if they have not been con­vict­ed of a crime.” A yes vote was to adopt the motion.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden Vot­ing Nay (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Herrera-Beutler

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

$19.1 BILLION DISASTER AID: Vot­ing 354 for and 58 against, the House on June 3rd approved $19.1 bil­lion in dis­as­ter aid to home­own­ers, farm­ers, busi­ness­es, local gov­ern­ments and oth­er enti­ties in more than 40 states and ter­ri­to­ries struck by nat­ur­al dis­as­ters such as wild­fires, flood­ing, hur­ri­canes and tor­na­does in recent years. In part, the bill pro­vides $1.4 bil­lion to Puer­to Rico, includ­ing $600 mil­lion in food assis­tance, along with aid to repair storm dam­age at mil­i­tary bases and fund­ing to mit­i­gate the impact of future dis­as­ters in and near cities such as Hous­ton. A yes vote was to send H.R. 2157 to Don­ald Trumo.

Nita Lowey, D‑New York, said this vote repu­di­ates “the polit­i­cal stunts and grand­stand­ing that have made it dif­fi­cult to deliv­er much-need­ed dis­as­ter relief to fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties across America.”

Chip Roy, R‑Texas, said it was wrong to “spend $19 bil­lion that is not paid for when we are rack­ing up approx­i­mate­ly $100 mil­lion an hour in nation­al debt.”

A yes vote was to send H.R. 2157 to Don­ald Trump.

	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden
	Vot­ing Aye (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Herrera-Beutler

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

In the United States Senate

ANDREW SAUL, SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISSIONER: Vot­ing 77 for and 16 against, the Sen­ate on June 4 con­firmed Andrew M. Saul, 72, a part­ner in a New York City-based fam­i­ly invest­ment firm, for a six-year term as com­mis­sion­er of Social Secu­ri­ty. Dur­ing the George W. Bush admin­is­tra­tion, Saul was chair­man of the Fed­er­al Retire­ment Thrift Invest­ment Board, which man­ages retire­ment plans for sev­er­al mil­lion active and retired civ­il ser­vants and mil­i­tary personnel.

Saul also served as vice chair­man of the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Tran­sit Author­i­ty in New York, and he has been a Repub­li­can Par­ty fund-rais­er and con­gres­sion­al can­di­date. He drew some Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­si­tion, in part, because of his refusal to take a stand on esca­lat­ing labor man­age­ment dis­putes that he will encounter at the SSA.

Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell, R‑Kentucky, said Saul “has spent decades build­ing a suc­cess­ful career in busi­ness and in pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion,” includ­ing over­sight of retire­ment pro­grams “relied upon by lit­er­al­ly mil­lions of Amer­i­cans” in the fed­er­al workforce.

Chris Van Hollen, D‑Maryland, said that when asked about “attacks on the rights of Social Secu­ri­ty work­ers, Mr. Saul pro­vid­ed only vague state­ments that includ­ed no com­mit­ments to take mean­ing­ful action to improve labor prac­tices at Social Secu­ri­ty.” Hollen led a group of six­teen Democ­rats in oppo­si­tion to Saul.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

Key votes ahead

The House is expect­ed to vote dur­ing the week of June 10th on whether to hold Attor­ney Gen­er­al William Barr and for­mer White House coun­sel Don McGahn in con­tempt of Con­gress, while the Sen­ate will con­sid­er a mea­sure block­ing arms sales to Bahrain and Qatar.

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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