NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Sunday, July 21st, 2019

Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (July 15th-19th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cas­ca­di­a’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, July 19th, 2019.

In the United States House of Representatives

Chamber of the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

HOLDING BARR AND ROSS IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS: Vot­ing 230 for and 198 against, the House on July 17th held Attor­ney Gen­er­al William Barr and Com­merce Sec­re­tary Wilbur Ross in crim­i­nal con­tempt of Con­gress over their fail­ure to com­ply with con­gres­sion­al sub­poe­nas for doc­u­ments relat­ed to the admin­is­tra­tion’s reluc­tant­ly aban­doned plan to add a cit­i­zen­ship ques­tion to the 2020 cen­sus. The cita­tion is antic­i­pat­ed to be most­ly sym­bol­ic because the Depart­ment of Jus­tice is unlike­ly to enforce it.

Jamie Raskin, D‑Maryland, said: “The Supreme Court and the fed­er­al courts have said repeat­ed­ly that (Con­gress’s) fact-find­ing pow­er is inex­tri­ca­ble, essen­tial and indis­pens­able to our leg­isla­tive pow­er. We can’t leg­is­late if we can’t get the infor­ma­tion that we need.”

Fred Keller, R‑Pennsylvania., said that since the admin­is­tra­tion no longer is pur­su­ing the cit­i­zen­ship ques­tion, the res­o­lu­tion “is sim­ply a Demo­c­ra­t­ic tac­tic to waste this cham­ber’s time and avoid work­ing on the seri­ous issues fac­ing our nation.”

A yes vote was to hold Barr and Ross in crim­i­nal con­tempt of Congress.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader

Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck

Vot­ing Nay (3): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

CONDEMNING TRUMP’S COMMENTS: Vot­ing 240 for and 187 against, the House on July 16 adopt­ed a mea­sure (House Res­o­lu­tion 489) that “strong­ly con­demns Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s racist com­ments that have legit­imized and increased fear and hatred of new Amer­i­cans and peo­ple of color….”

Repub­li­cans cast all of the votes against the resolution.

The entire Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus vot­ed for it, as did Repub­li­cans Susan Brooks of Indi­ana, Bri­an Fitz­patrick of Penn­syl­va­nia, Fred Upton of Michi­gan and Will Hurd of Texas and inde­pen­dent Justin Amash of Michi­gan. Six Repub­li­cans did not vote. The 435-seat House has two vacancies.

The mea­sure was offered in response to Twit­ter post­ings by the pres­i­dent on July 14 that crit­i­cized an out­spo­ken quar­tet of pro­gres­sive Democ­rats — Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Alexan­dria Oca­sio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Min­neso­ta, Ayan­na Press­ley of Mass­a­chu­setts and Rashi­da Tlaib of Michi­gan. They are women of col­or, and all but Omar, a native Soma­li, were born in the Unit­ed States.

Trump wrote that they have been “loud­ly and vicious­ly telling the peo­ple of the Unit­ed States, the great­est and most pow­er­ful Nation on earth, how our gov­ern­ment is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the total­ly bro­ken and crime infest­ed places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help bad­ly, you can’t leave fast enough.”

Jer­rold Nadler, D‑New York, said: “These were shock­ing com­ments, even from an admin­is­tra­tion that rips chil­dren from the arms of their par­ents and ware­hous­es asy­lum seek­ers in facil­i­ties under inhu­mane con­di­tions. We can­not let this moment pass with­out a force­ful condemnation.”

Tom McClin­tock, R‑California, said the president’s “tone…was unnec­es­sar­i­ly provoca­tive. But his cen­tral point is irrefutable. There is no require­ment for those who hate our coun­try to remain here when there are so many oth­er coun­tries with dif­fer­ent prin­ci­ples and val­ues to choose from….”

A yes vote was to adopt the resolution.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader

Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck

Vot­ing Nay (3): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

CALLING TRUMP TWEETS RACIST: The House on July 16th vot­ed, 231 for and 190 against, to allow Speak­er Nan­cy Pelosi, D‑California, to describe Pres­i­dent Trump’s July 14th Twit­ter post­ings as racist dur­ing debate on House Res­o­lu­tion 489 (above). Speak­er Pelosi said: “Every sin­gle mem­ber of this insti­tu­tion, Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can, should join us in con­demn­ing the pres­i­den­t’s racist tweets. To do any­thing less would be a shock­ing rejec­tion of our val­ues and a shame­ful abdi­ca­tion of our oath of office.”

Repub­li­cans asked for the char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of Don­ald Trump’s com­ments as racist to be strick­en from the Con­gres­sion­al Record under the House­’s rules of deco­rum, and the par­lia­men­tar­i­an upheld their request.

Democ­rats over­turned the rul­ing on this vote. A yes vote was to let Pelosi’s label­ing of Trump’s lan­guage appear in the offi­cial record.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader

Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck

Vot­ing Nay (3): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

SHELVING TRUMP IMPEACHMENT: Vot­ing 332 for and 95 against, the House on July 17 tabled (killed) a res­o­lu­tion (H Res 498) call­ing for impeach­ment of Pres­i­dent Trump on grounds he has demon­strat­ed he is man­i­fest­ly unfit for the office. Repub­li­cans vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to kill the res­o­lu­tion, as did one hun­dred and thir­ty-sev­en Democ­rats and the cham­ber’s one inde­pen­dent (Justin Amash). Democ­rats cast all of the 95 votes to pro­ceed with impeachment.

The Con­sti­tu­tion allows Con­gress to remove a pres­i­dent for trea­son, bribery or “oth­er high crimes and mis­de­meanors.” Should the House vote to impeach, or essen­tial­ly bring charges, the Sen­ate would con­duct a tri­al, with a two-thirds vote need­ed for con­vic­tion and removal from office.

The res­o­lu­tion tabled by the House accused Trump of “high mis­de­meanors.” It cit­ed the pres­i­den­t’s demean­ing of immi­grants and asy­lum seek­ers and point­ed to the House­’s con­dem­na­tion (above) of the pres­i­den­t’s July 14th Twit­ter attacks against four first-term House Democ­rats, all women of col­or, who have urged their par­ty to vig­or­ous­ly pur­sue a pro­gres­sive agenda.

In part, the call for impeach­ment said Trump has brought “con­tempt, ridicule, dis­grace, and dis­re­pute” to the presidency.

As a priv­i­leged res­o­lu­tion, the mea­sure was not debatable.

A yes vote was in oppo­si­tion to start­ing impeach­ment proceedings.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden and Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kurt Schrader

Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci and Earl Blumenauer

Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Peter DeFazio

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Rick Larsen and Prami­la Jayapal

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

PASSING FISCAL 2020 INTELLIGENCE BUDGET: Vot­ing 397 for and 31 against, the House on July 17th approved a fis­cal 2020 bud­get (HR 3494) esti­mat­ed at $85 bil­lion or more for the 16 U.S. civil­ian and mil­i­tary intel­li­gence agen­cies, with the actu­al fig­ure classified.

In part, the bill would:

  • fund steps to pro­tect U.S. elec­tions from for­eign inter­fer­ence and the domes­tic ener­gy grid from cyberattacks;
  • require mea­sures to counter the spread of domes­tic ter­ror­ism includ­ing actions by white supremacists;
  • step up intel­li­gence col­lec­tions on drug and human traf­fick­ing in Mex­i­co and the North­ern Tri­an­gle coun­tries of El Sal­vador, Guatemala and Honduras;
  • allo­cate resources for reduc­ing a deep back­log of appli­cants for top secu­ri­ty clearances;
  • give pri­or­i­ty to col­lec­tion and ana­lyt­ic capa­bil­i­ties against Chi­na, Rus­sia, Iran and North Korea;
  • require the FBI to noti­fy Con­gress of any coun­ter­in­tel­li­gence probes relat­ed to fed­er­al elections;
  • … and recruit pri­vate-sec­tor exper­tise for devel­op­ing coun­ter­mea­sures to the forged and manip­u­lat­ed dig­i­tal con­tent known as “deep­fakes.”

To attract and retain a skilled intel­li­gence-com­mu­ni­ty work­force, the bill would help employ­ees dis­charge stu­dent loans and estab­lish twelve weeks’ paid fam­i­ly and med­ical leave to accom­mo­date cir­cum­stances includ­ing child­birth, adop­tions and fos­ter place­ments. The bill would assure com­pen­sa­tion for fam­i­ly mem­bers of Cen­tral Intel­li­gence Agency (CIA) employ­ees killed while in service.

Andre Car­son, D‑Indiana, said:

“At a time when this pres­i­dent is ignor­ing the truth about domes­tic ter­ror­ism, and his admin­is­tra­tion is con­ceal­ing and hid­ing the pro­lif­er­a­tion of white suprema­cist-inspired inci­dents, Con­gress and the pub­lic urgent­ly need more infor­ma­tion to bet­ter under­stand and pre­vent domes­tic terrorism.”

Elsie Ste­fanik, R‑New York, said the bill estab­lish­es “mean­ing­ful over­sight over the FBI’s coun­ter­in­tel­li­gence oper­a­tions” while pro­vid­ing “the Amer­i­can peo­ple with the com­fort that the FBI is sub­ject to the same types of scruti­ny as oth­er intel­li­gence agen­cies.” No mem­ber spoke against the bill.

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

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (3): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden

Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Earl Blu­me­nauer and Peter DeFazio

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Suzan DelBene

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 aye votes, 3 nay votes

REMOVING CLIMATE COUNCIL FROM INTELLIGENCE BUDGET: Vot­ing 178 for and 255 against, the House on July 17th refused to strip HR 3494 (above) of fund­ing to estab­lish a Cli­mate Secu­ri­ty Advi­so­ry Coun­cil, which would coor­di­nate efforts by U.S. intel­li­gence agen­cies to mon­i­tor the glob­al impact of cli­mate break­downs on nation­al secu­ri­ty. The coun­cil would be estab­lished in the Office of the Direc­tor of Nation­al Intelligence.

Spon­sor Jeff Dun­can, R‑South Car­oli­na, said it would be “extreme­ly irre­spon­si­ble” to down­play “known and proven threats to Amer­i­can nation­al secu­ri­ty and divert those funds and atten­tion to cli­mate change. The intel­li­gence com­mu­ni­ty should not bear the bur­den of sil­ly, polit­i­cal­ly cor­rect, left-wing social policy.”

Den­ny Heck, D‑Washington, said “ris­ing sea lev­els, high­er tem­per­a­tures, more fre­quent extreme weath­er events, new stres­sors on nat­ur­al resources and agri­cul­ture have tan­gi­ble impacts that exac­er­bate eco­nom­ic dis­tress, human inse­cu­ri­ty, polit­i­cal insta­bil­i­ty and oth­er human­i­tar­i­an con­di­tions detri­men­tal to our nation­al secu­ri­ty. The smart thing to do is to be prepared.”

A yes vote was to defund the bil­l’s advi­so­ry coun­cil on cli­mate change.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden

Vot­ing Nay (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Vot­ing Nay (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Herrera-Beutler

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 12 nay votes

RAISING FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE: Vot­ing 231 for and 199 against, the House on July 18th passed a bill (H.R. 582) that would grad­u­al­ly increase the fed­er­al min­i­mum wage from its present lev­el of $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour start­ing in 2025. The $15 fig­ure would be indexed to keep pace with increas­es in the medi­an hourly wage as mea­sured by the Depart­ment of Labor.

In addi­tion, the bill would phase out sep­a­rate min­i­mum wages for dis­abled and tipped employ­ees and new hires younger than 20 so that these indi­vid­u­als even­tu­al­ly receive the same base wage as the rest of the pri­vate-sec­tor workforce.

Bob­by Scott, D‑Virgina, said: “The ben­e­fits of this leg­is­la­tion are sig­nif­i­cant and wide­spread. Eco­nom­ic analy­sis esti­mates that the (bill) would increase wages for up to 33 mil­lion work­ers and lift 1.3 mil­lion Amer­i­cans out of poverty.”

Vir­ginia Foxx, R‑North Car­oli­na, said: “Increas­ing the fed­er­al min­i­mum wage by 107 per­cent is a harm­ful and unprece­dent­ed man­date that would result in mil­lions of job loss­es for vul­ner­a­ble Amer­i­cans, small busi­ness clo­sures and sig­nif­i­cant dam­age to the U.S. economy.”

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

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (3): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Peter DeFazio

Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden; Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kurt Schrader

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck

Vot­ing Nay (3): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 10 aye votes, 7 nay votes

EXEMPTING MOM-AND-POP FIRMS: Vot­ing 210 for and 218 against, the House on July 18th defeat­ed a Repub­li­can motion that sought to exempt estab­lish­ments with few­er than ten employ­ees or annu­al sales under $1 mil­lion from the min­i­mum-wage require­ments of H.R. 582 (above).

Dan Meuser, R‑Pennsylvania, said: “If this amend­ment is adopt­ed, mom-and-pop shops across the coun­try will be pro­tect­ed from this bil­l’s extreme and unnec­es­sary one-size-fits-all Wash­ing­ton mandate.”

Stephanie Mur­phy, D‑Florida., called this “a Repub­li­can attempt to defeat this bill because they oppose any increase to the fed­er­al min­i­mum wage. Some oppose the con­cept of a min­i­mum wage at all.”

A yes vote was to exclude mom-and-pop firms from the bill.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden and Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kurt Schrader

Vot­ing Nay (3): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Peter DeFazio

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (3): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, 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

Cas­ca­dia total: 7 aye votes, 10 nay votes

REPEAL OF TAX ON GENEROUS HEALTHCARE PLANS: Vot­ing 419 for and six against, the House on July 17th passed a bill (H.R. 748) that would per­ma­nent­ly remove from the Patient Pro­tec­tion Act Act the pejo­ra­tive­ly named “Cadil­lac tax” on employ­er-spon­sored health plans hav­ing high costs and gen­er­ous ben­e­fits. Sched­uled to take effect on 2022, the forty per­cent excise tax, to be paid by employ­ers and insur­ers, would be levied ini­tial­ly on the val­ue of plans above $11,200 for indi­vid­u­als and $30,000 for families.

The tax is intend­ed to con­tain health­care costs while gen­er­at­ing rev­enue to finance oth­er parts of the 2010 health law. But crit­ics say it would harm pol­i­cy­hold­ers as employ­ers reduce ben­e­fits and increase out-of-pock­et costs to skirt trig­ger­ing thresh­olds. Because the bill lacks a “pay for” mech­a­nism, it would add $197 bil­lion to nation­al debt through 2029, accord­ing to the Con­gres­sion­al Bud­get Office.

Richard Neal, D‑Massachusetts, said: “At a time when Amer­i­can fam­i­lies are already wor­ried about the health­care costs that apply to them, the Cadil­lac tax has had the effect of increas­ing deductibles and out-of-pock­et costs as employ­ers make changes in their plans designed to avoid the tax.”

No mem­ber spoke against the bill.

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

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (10): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

In the United States Senate

Chamber of the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

LYNDA BLANCHARD, AMBASSADOR TO SLOVENIA: Vot­ing 55 for and 41 against, the Sen­ate on July 18th con­firmed Lyn­da Blan­chard of Mont­gomery, Alaba­ma, as U.S. ambas­sador to the Repub­lic of Slovenia.

Blan­chard is co-founder of a real estate invest­ment firm and a non-prof­it for help­ing impov­er­ished chil­dren in the Unit­ed States and devel­op­ing coun­tries, and she is also known for cir­cu­lat­ing mur­der­ous con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries about Bill and Hillary Clin­ton on Face­book. A Repub­li­can Par­ty donor, she received her ambas­sado­r­i­al nom­i­na­tion in June 2018 after her hus­band, John, donat­ed more than $500,000 to the Trump inau­gur­al fund, accord­ing to NBC News.

No sen­a­tor spoke for Blan­chard dur­ing brief dis­cus­sion of her nom­i­na­tion on the Sen­ate floor. Oppo­nent Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, said Blan­chard “has a his­to­ry of using Face­book as a plat­form to post incen­di­ary, false arti­cles and dis­turb­ing state­ments,” includ­ing “res­ur­rect­ing the vicious lie and pre­pos­ter­ous con­spir­a­cy the­o­ry that Pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton and Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton have sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly mur­dered polit­i­cal oppo­nents and associates.”

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (2):
Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Nay (2):
Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Nay (2):
Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

Key votes ahead

The House will take up bills on bor­der secu­ri­ty and humane treat­ment of migrants in the week of July 22nd, while the Sen­ate will vote on com­pen­sat­ing Sep­tem­ber 11th vic­tims. Con­gress could also debate rais­ing the nation­al debt lim­it and set­ting mil­i­tary vs. domes­tic spend­ing lev­els in future budgets.

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!

© 2019 Thomas Vot­ing Reports. 

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