Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (July 22nd-26th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cas­ca­di­a’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, July 26th, 2019.

In the United States House of Representatives

BOYCOTTS, DIVESTITURE, SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL: The House on July 23 vot­ed, 398 for and 17 against, to con­demn the anti-Israel “BDS” move­ment, which is a glob­al cam­paign that encour­ages busi­ness­es, gov­ern­ments and oth­er enti­ties to boy­cott, divest from and sanc­tion Israel and firms owned by Israelis. The non-bind­ing mea­sure (H. Res­o­lu­tion 246) also reaf­firms U.S. sup­port of a nego­ti­at­ed two-state solu­tion to the Israeli-Pales­tin­ian conflict.

How­ev­er, the mea­sure stops short of bind­ing pro­vi­sions approved by the Sen­ate in Feb­ru­ary that give a fed­er­al green light to anti-BDS laws enact­ed by state and local gov­ern­ments in the Unit­ed States. Those laws deny con­tracts and oth­er ben­e­fits to com­pa­nies or indi­vid­u­als sup­port­ing the BDS movement.

Lee Zeldin, R‑New York, said the BDS move­ment “is sup­port­ed by peo­ple who want to see the destruc­tion of the world’s only Jew­ish state, and that is not some­thing that we can stand idly by and watch happen.”

Elliot Engel, D‑New York, said: “Do you want to crit­i­cize a gov­ern­ment? That is your right. Do you want to stop buy­ing prod­ucts from a cer­tain coun­try? That is also your right. But par­tic­i­pat­ing in an inter­na­tion­al com­mer­cial effort that under­mines Israel’s legit­i­ma­cy and scut­tles the chances of a two-state solu­tion isn’t the same as an indi­vid­ual exer­cis­ing First Amend­ment rights.”

No mem­ber spoke against the resolution.

A yes vote was to adopt the resolution.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Earl Blumenauer
	Vot­ing Aye (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jayapal

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 nay votes

SHORING UP MULTIEMPLOYER PENSIONS: Vot­ing 264 for and 169 against, the House on July 24 passed a bill (H.R. 397) that would set up a new lend­ing unit in the Trea­sury Depart­ment to aid up to 160 finan­cial­ly trou­bled mul­ti­em­ploy­er pen­sion plans cov­er­ing 1 mil­lion-plus union workers.

The new Pen­sion Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Admin­is­tra­tion would make 30-year loans at low inter­est rates to help those plans keep their promis­es to retirees.

In mul­ti­em­ploy­er plans, com­pa­nies fund pen­sion plans cov­er­ing mul­ti­ple union locals. The employ­ers pool risk and achieve economies of scale for hold­ing down admin­is­tra­tive and med­ical costs. But the Pen­sion Ben­e­fit Guar­an­ty Corp., the fed­er­al agency that insures pri­vate-sec­tor retire­ment ben­e­fits, has warned that it lacks resources to ade­quate­ly cov­er ben­e­fits at risk in fail­ing mul­ti-employ­er plans.

The Con­gres­sion­al Bud­get Office projects that the pro­gram would cost tax­pay­ers $48.5 bil­lion over its first ten years.

Deb­bie Din­gell, D‑Michigan, said: “Today, we are telling mil­lions of Amer­i­cans who worked a life­time for their pen­sions that are now in jeop­ardy, through no fault of their own, that we are stand­ing with you. We are lis­ten­ing. We are tak­ing action.”

Dusty John­son, R‑South Dako­ta, said the bill “cre­ates a new fed­er­al… bureau­cra­cy. It allows for bil­lions of dol­lars of loans to be just for­giv­en. It pro­vides loan terms that actu­al­ly encour­age not pay­ing down the prin­ci­pal of these loans.”

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 (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

SECOND VOTE ON “BDS” MOVEMENT: Vot­ing 200 for and 232 against, the House on July 24th defeat­ed a motion by Repub­li­cans stat­ing that no pen­sion plans receiv­ing loans under H.R. 397 (above) could par­tic­i­pate in the so-called BDS move­ment against Israel (above).

Back­ers of the motion offered no evi­dence of any union par­tic­i­pa­tion in the move­ment, and crit­ics said they were using Israel as a wedge issue.

Bri­an Mast, R‑Florida, said: “If you are one of the 398 mem­bers who vot­ed last night to con­demn the BDS move­ment, then you should sup­port this (motion), stand with our ally Israel.…”

Bradley Schnei­der, D‑Illinois, called the motion “a cyn­i­cal, par­ti­san gim­mick, con­tin­u­ing a dan­ger­ous effort to make Israel a wedge issue. It must stop.”

A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

	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, and Kurt Schrader
	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: 6 aye votes, 11 nay votes

REQUIRING HUMANE TREATMENT OF MIGRANTS: Vot­ing 233 for and 195 against, the House on July 24th passed a bill (H.R. 3239) set­ting min­i­mal stan­dards for the gov­ern­men­t’s treat­ment of migrants in its custody.

The bill would require Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion (CBP) — the agency pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for bor­der con­trols — to con­duct med­ical screen­ings of migrants with­in twelve hours of their deten­tion, or three hours for chil­dren, the dis­abled, and preg­nant women, and pro­vide health­care as warranted.

In addi­tion, CBP would have to pro­vide appro­pri­ate hygien­ic care includ­ing access to toi­lets, reg­u­lar show­ers and drink­ing water and ade­quate cloth­ing, bed­ding and incar­cer­a­tion space. The bill also would require CBP to enlist child wel­fare and health care pro­fes­sion­als for deal­ing with unac­com­pa­nied chil­dren and to pro­vide inter­preters, chap­er­ones and men­tal health care as warranted.

The bill directs the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty inspec­tor gen­er­al to con­duct unan­nounced inspec­tions at ports of entry, bor­der patrol posts and deten­tion facil­i­ties and report its find­ings to Congress.

Bar­bara Lee, D‑California, said:

“We can no longer allow indi­vid­u­als to suf­fer, be abused or die under CBP. Our val­ues demand that we take this action. It is past time for us to pro­tect adults and chil­dren flee­ing vio­lence, seek­ing a safe haven in America.”

Gre­go­ry Steube, R‑Florida, said the bill “does not address the root caus­es of the con­di­tions at CBP facil­i­ties,” which are that U.S. Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment and the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices “do not have enough space avail­able to take cus­tody of these individuals.”

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 (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

GRANTING TEMPORARY LEGAL STATUS TO VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS: Vot­ing 272 for and 158 against, the House on July 25th passed a bill (H.R. 549) con­fer­ring Tem­po­rary Pro­tect­ed Sta­tus on as many as 200,000 Venezue­lan cit­i­zens who have tak­en refuge in the Unit­ed States from domes­tic tur­moil in their coun­try. The Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty occa­sion­al­ly grants TPS to migrants from coun­tries beset by war or nat­ur­al disasters.

After pay­ing a $360 fee, recip­i­ents acquire legal U.S. res­i­den­cy for eigh­teen months and can apply for work per­mits and Social Secu­ri­ty numbers.

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, and Kurt Schrader Vot­ing Nay (1): 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 Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan Newhouse

Cas­ca­dia total: 13 aye votes, 4 nay votes

APPROVING TWO-YEAR BUDGET DEAL: Vot­ing 284 for and 149 against, the House on July 25th approved a two-year bud­get deal (H.R. 3877) that would raise the nation­al debt ceil­ing to accom­mo­date addi­tion­al deficit spend­ing through July 31st, 2021. The bill would allow mil­i­tary spend­ing to increase by $46.5 bil­lion and dis­cre­tionary non-mil­i­tary spend­ing by $56.5 bil­lion over fis­cal 2019 levels.

In addi­tion, the bill pro­hibits tax increas­es but makes slight cuts to pub­lic ser­vices over two years to par­tial­ly off­set ris­ing red ink.

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

	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Aye (3): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci and Peter DeFazio; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Earl Blu­me­nauer and Kurt Schrader
	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

In the United States Senate

SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIMS’ COMPENSATION: By a vote of 97 for and two against, the Sen­ate on July 23rd gave final con­gres­sion­al approval to a bill (H.R. 1327) that would reau­tho­rize the Sep­tem­ber 11th Vic­tims Com­pen­sa­tion Fund through fis­cal 2090. The bill orig­i­nat­ed in the House.

Admin­is­tered by a spe­cial mas­ter, the fund pays eco­nom­ic and non-eco­nom­ic dam­ages to ⁹⁄₁₁ first respon­ders and their sur­vivors as well as to those afflict­ed by health prob­lems as a result of tak­ing in ⁹⁄₁₁ cleanup efforts, and to their sur­vivors. In addi­tion, the bill would allow claims to be filed until Octo­ber 2089, remove a cap on non-eco­nom­ic dam­ages in cer­tain cir­cum­stances and index for infla­tion the pro­gram’s annu­al lim­its on com­pen­sa­tion for eco­nom­ic losses.

Although the bill is pro­ject­ed to cost $10.2 bil­lion in its first ten years, and count­less bil­lions after that as can­cers and oth­er latent dis­eases emerge, it does not include a “pay for” mech­a­nism or long-term fund­ing means.

Kirsten Gilli­brand, D‑New York, said: “Our ⁹⁄₁₁ heroes deserve this pro­gram as it is writ­ten in the bill, with­out these amend­ments, which will only force them to have to come back here again and again.”

Mike Lee, R‑Utah, said the bill “has a pecu­liar fea­ture” in that it “autho­rizes the pro­gram for sev­en­ty-two years and does not spec­i­fy a dol­lar amount. In oth­er words, with­out any finite autho­riza­tion, it offers no way to ensure that the mon­ey actu­al­ly gets to its intend­ed ben­e­fi­cia­ries and is not lost in gov­ern­ment bureau­cra­cy or misuse.”

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

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

BUDGET CUTS TO FINANCE ⁹⁄₁₁ COMPENSATION: Vot­ing 22 for and 77 against, the Sen­ate on July 23rd failed to reach 60 votes need­ed to advance a mea­sure that sought to cut manda­to­ry spend­ing (except for Medicare, Social Secu­ri­ty and vet­er­ans) by less than one per­cent over 10 years to help pay the cost of H.R. 1327 (above). The defeat of this amend­ment means that all Trea­sury pay­ments into the ⁹⁄₁₁ com­pen­sa­tion fund will be deficit spending.

Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky, said:

“The Repub­li­cans and Democ­rats agree on one thing: Spend­ing mon­ey is the most impor­tant thing they can do. The deficit does­n’t matter.”

Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, said: “Some sen­a­tors [like Rand Paul] vot­ed proud­ly for tax cuts, unpaid for, to the wealth­i­est of Amer­i­cans, but demand­ed off­sets for these folks who had served us.”

A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

CONFIRMING MARK ESPER AS SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Vot­ing 90 for and eight against, the Sen­ate on July 23rd con­firmed Mark T. Esper as the 27th sec­re­tary of defense since the office was estab­lished in 1947.

He becomes the first con­firmed defense sec­re­tary since James Mat­tis resigned in Decem­ber 2018. Esper, fifty-five, joined the admin­is­tra­tion in 2017 as sec­re­tary of the Army, and before that he was a lob­by­ist for the U.S. defense con­trac­tor Raytheon. He was an infantry offi­cer with the 101st Air­borne Divi­sion dur­ing the Gulf War in 1990–91 and served as chief of staff to the Her­itage Foun­da­tion, a con­ser­v­a­tive think-tank, from 1996–98. He was a deputy assis­tant sec­re­tary of defense in the George W. Bush administration.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

CONFIRMING GENERAL MARK MILLEY AS JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Vot­ing 89 for and one against, the Sen­ate on July 25th con­firmed Army Gen. Mark Mil­ley to become chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Sep­tem­ber, replac­ing Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dun­ford as the nation’s top leader in uniform.

Mil­ley has been an infantry offi­cer and com­man­der of Spe­cial Forces units in a career that has includ­ed ser­vice in the Iraq War and a multi­na­tion­al mis­sion in Bosnia-Herze­gov­ina to imple­ment the Day­ton Accords peace agree­ment. The lone neg­a­tive vote was cast by Jeff Merkley, D‑Oregon.

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 (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 1 nay vote

Key votes ahead

Next week, the Sen­ate will vote on a bill set­ting mil­i­tary and domes­tic spend­ing lev­els through Sep­tem­ber 2021 and rais­ing the nation­al debt lim­it through July 2021. The House is in recess until the week of Sep­tem­ber 9th.

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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