Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Decem­ber 20th.

(For a recap of Wednes­day’s impeach­ment votes, please see this spe­cial report.)

In the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

SETTING NEW RULES FOR NORTH AMERICAN TRADE: Vot­ing 385 for and 41 against, the House on Decem­ber 19th passed a bill (H.R. 5430) giv­ing con­gres­sion­al approval to the Unit­ed States-Mex­i­co-Cana­da Agree­ment (USMCA), which would replace the 25-year-old North Amer­i­can Free Trade Agree­ment (NAFTA) as the frame­work for com­merce among the three countries.

The agree­ment:

• requires Mex­i­co to guar­an­tee work­ers the right to join unions and engage in col­lec­tive bargaining;
• autho­rizes fast-track probes of labor vio­la­tions in Mex­i­co and fac­to­ry-spe­cif­ic penal­ties when trans­gres­sions are found;
• gives U.S. dairy and poul­try farm­ers and to a less­er extent wine­mak­ers more access to Cana­di­an markets;
• rais­es envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards but does not address cli­mate change;
• reduces patent pro­tec­tions for cer­tain pharmaceuticals;
• expands domes­tic-con­tent rules to ben­e­fit automak­ers and parts man­u­fac­tur­ers in the three countries;
• sets wage require­ments that ben­e­fit U.S. and Cana­di­an auto fac­to­ries over those in Mexico;
• pro­hibits duties on dig­i­tal prod­ucts includ­ing music and e‑books;
• … and pro­tects Inter­net com­pa­nies against lia­bil­i­ty for their users’ content.

Kevin Brady, R‑Texas, said the agree­ment “will set the stage for bil­lions more in eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty. It cre­ates, for the first time, rules for com­pet­ing in the dig­i­tal econ­o­my…. ends the race to the bot­tom cre­at­ed by what had been Mexico’s poor labor laws…[and] “best of all, is enforce­able, allow­ing us to chal­lenge vio­la­tions and to stop coun­tries from block­ing these chal­lenges, hold­ing Mex­i­co and Cana­da account­able for these new rules.”

Andy Levin, D‑Michigan, said the agree­ment “will not be enough to over­haul the entrenched sys­tem in Mex­i­co that denies work­ers their rights, keeps wages uncon­scionably low, and, con­se­quent­ly, incen­tivizes com­pa­nies to ship jobs to Mexico.”

A yes vote was to approve the trade agreement.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Mike Simp­son and Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Peter DeFazio
	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

RAISING CAP ON STATE AND LOCAL TAX DEDUCTIONS: Vot­ing 218 for and 206 against, the House on Decem­ber 19th passed a bill (H.R. 5377) that would tem­porar­i­ly lift the 2017 tax law’s cap on deduc­tions for state and local tax­es (SALT). To off­set the result­ing loss in Trea­sury rev­enue, the bill would raise the top income-tax rate for indi­vid­u­als from 37% to 39.6%  for the 2020–2025 tax years and low­er income thresh­olds at which the top rate takes effect.

The bill would raise the state and local tax cap in 2019 from $10,000 to $20,000 for mar­ried cou­ples fil­ing joint­ly and from $5,000 to $10,000 for mar­ried tax­pay­ers fil­ing sep­a­rate­ly, and elim­i­nate it for all tax­pay­ers in 2020 and 2021.

(The cap would, how­ev­er, be allowed to return in 2023.)

In addi­tion, the bill would per­ma­nent­ly increase from $250 to $500 the tax deduc­tion for teach­ers buy­ing school sup­plies and index the deduc­tion for infla­tion. The bill also would cre­ate a per­ma­nent $500 deduc­tion indexed for infla­tion for work-relat­ed expens­es by first respon­ders includ­ing fire­fight­ers, police offi­cers, para­medics and emer­gency tech­ni­cians. The bill is pro­ject­ed to increase fed­er­al rev­enue by $2.4 bil­lion between 2020–2029.

Nor­ma Tor­res, D‑California, said: “In 2017, the Repub­li­cans gave away almost $2 tril­lion in tax cuts to cor­po­ra­tions and the wealthy. They paid for this tax scam on the backs of hard­work­ing Amer­i­can fam­i­lies. Thir­ty-six mil­lion mid­dle-class fam­i­lies saw their tax­es increase” as a result of the cap on SALT deductions.

Tom Cole, R‑Oklahoma, said: “This is not a mid­dle-class bill. This is not even an upper-mid­dle-class bill. This is a bill for pret­ty wealthy peo­ple. Nine­ty-six per­cent of the ben­e­fits go to house­holds that make more than $200,000 a year.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

	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

RETAINING DEDUCTION CAP FOR THE ULTRA-RICH: Vot­ing 388 for and 36 against, the House on Decem­ber 19th approved a Repub­li­can amend­ment to H.R. 5377 (above) that would retain the $10,000 cap on deduc­tions for state and local tax­es for tax­pay­ers earn­ing $100 mil­lion or more per year and use the rev­enue to fund work-relat­ed tax deduc­tions for teach­ers and first responders.

A yes vote sup­port­ed the amendment.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Mike Simp­son and 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, 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: 16 aye votes, 1 nay vote

APPROVING 2020 DOMESTIC SPENDING: Vot­ing 297 for and 120 against, the House on Decem­ber 17th approved a pack­age of eight appro­pri­a­tions bills (H.R. 1865) that would fund non-defense agen­cies and depart­ments for the remain­ing nine months of fis­cal 2020 at an annu­al­ized lev­el of $632 billion.

The bill would raise the min­i­mum age for buy­ing tobac­co prod­ucts from 18 to 21 years, fund fed­er­al gun-vio­lence research for the first time since 1996 and repeal the Patient Pro­tec­tion Act’s tax on high-end insur­ance plans and excise tax on sales of med­ical devices. In addi­tion, the bill would:

• pre­serve coal min­ers’ health­care and pen­sion benefits;
• pro­vide elec­tion-secu­ri­ty grants to states;
• reau­tho­rize the Export-Import Bank and Ter­ror­ism Risk Insur­ance Pro­gram for sev­en years each;
• pro­hib­it pay rais­es for mem­bers of Con­gress while increas­ing House mem­bers’ staff budgets;
• grant fed­er­al civil­ian work­ers a 3.1 per­cent pay raise;
• … and fund two car­bon-free nuclear-ener­gy reac­tors by the mid-2020s while boost­ing out­lays for renew­able ener­gy devel­op­ment and cli­mate research.

Kay Granger, R‑Texas, said the bill “pro­vides fund­ing to the Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health to con­tin­ue their ground­break­ing research in the areas of Alzheimer’s dis­ease and can­cer research. It com­bats the opi­oid and metham­phet­a­mine epi­dem­ic by pro­vid­ing funds for pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, recov­ery, and research into alter­na­tive ther­a­pies for pain management.”

Chip Roy, R‑Texas, said the bill “changes the tobac­co age nation­wide, turn­ing fed­er­al­ism on its head, with nary a whim­per from Repub­li­cans who like to talk about the 10th Amend­ment in speech­es back home. The bill funds bureau­crats who wish to tar­get your Sec­ond Amend­ment rights. It funds abor­tion through [Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act] plans.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 nay votes

In the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

APPROVING $738 BILLION FOR MILITARY IN 2020: Vot­ing eighty-six for and eight against, the Sen­ate on Decem­ber 17th gave final con­gres­sion­al approval to a $738 bil­lion mil­i­tary pol­i­cy bud­get (S. 1790) for fis­cal 2020, up $23 bil­lion from 2019. The bud­get, also known as a Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act, or NDAA, received a vote in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives last week.

The bill:

• autho­rizes $71.5 bil­lion for com­bat oper­a­tions and at least $57 bil­lion for active-duty and retiree health care;
• sets a 3.1 per­cent pay raise for uni­formed personnel;
• cre­ates the U.S. Space Force as the sixth branch of the military;
• ends the “wid­ow’s tax” on Pen­ta­gon death ben­e­fits received by an esti­mat­ed 65,000 sur­vivors who also receive vet­er­ans’ sur­vivor benefits;
• estab­lish­es 12 weeks’ paid fam­i­ly and med­ical leave for the fed­er­al civil­ian workforce;
• con­fronts glob­al warm­ing as a nation­al-secu­ri­ty threat;
• requires Pen­ta­gon strate­gies for coun­ter­ing Russ­ian inter­fer­ence in U.S. elections;
• … and funds pro­grams for mil­i­tary vic­tims of sex­u­al assault.

Major­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell, R‑Kentucky, said: “For the third con­sec­u­tive year, Pres­i­dent Trump and Repub­li­cans in Con­gress will deliv­er on our com­mit­ment to con­tin­ue rebuild­ing Amer­i­ca’s mil­i­tary after near­ly a decade of forced belt-tight­en­ing,” while neglect­ing to men­tion Repub­li­cans’ role in sequestration.

Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky (McConnel­l’s seat­mate) said: “We spend more on our mil­i­tary than the next sev­en largest mil­i­taries com­bined. Over the past six years, mil­i­tary spend­ing has risen over $120 bil­lion. Many so-called con­ser­v­a­tives will hail this bloat­ed mil­i­tary spend­ing, but in truth, there is noth­ing fis­cal­ly con­ser­v­a­tive about bor­row­ing mon­ey from Chi­na to pay for our military.”

A yes vote was to approve the fis­cal 2020 mil­i­tary budget.

	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

That’s it for 2019!

Con­gress has com­plet­ed its leg­isla­tive year and will recon­vene on Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 6th, 2020 for the sec­ond ses­sion of the 116th Congress.

Last Week In Con­gress will return on Jan­u­ary 12th.

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.