Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Unit­ed States Sen­a­tors vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, May 22nd, 2020.

The House was in recess.

In the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

CONFIRMING RATCLIFFE AS INTELLIGENCE CHIEF: On a par­ty-line vote of 49 for and 44 against, the Sen­ate on May 21st con­firmed Rep­re­sen­ta­tive John L. Rat­cliffe, R‑Texas, as the nation’s top intel­li­gence official.

He becomes the sixth direc­tor of nation­al intel­li­gence (DNI) since the office was cre­at­ed after ⁹⁄₁₁ to improve coor­di­na­tion among the sev­en­teen U.S. civil­ian and mil­i­tary intel­li­gence agen­cies. Rat­cliffe, 54, ardent­ly defend­ed Don­ald Trump dur­ing House impeach­ment hear­ings last year, prompt­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic sen­a­tors to ques­tion whether he would inde­pen­dent­ly over­look the Amer­i­can spy appa­ra­tus or, instead, shape intel­li­gence to please the White House.

Repub­li­cans said his mem­ber­ship on the House Select Com­mit­tee on Intel­li­gence and back­ground as a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor qual­i­fy him to become DNI, and they point­ed to his pledge of inde­pen­dence dur­ing Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion hearings.

Dur­ing brief debate before the con­fir­ma­tion vote, no Repub­li­can sup­port­er cit­ed Rat­clif­fe’s qual­i­fi­ca­tions for the position.

Charles Grass­ley, R‑Iowa, said: “With this new posi­tion comes great respon­si­bil­i­ty. [Rat­cliffe] will have tremen­dous pow­er to do good and to be trans­par­ent. I would like to remind [him][that]transparency brings account­abil­i­ty, and the pub­lic’s busi­ness ought to be pub­lic. In con­clu­sion, please, Con­gress­man Rat­cliffe and, please, the greater intel­li­gence com­mu­ni­ty, remem­ber you were cre­at­ed by statute, but Con­gress was cre­at­ed by the Constitution.”

Our own Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said: “With Don­ald Trump as pres­i­dent and William Barr as attor­ney gen­er­al, the lead­er­ship of the intel­li­gence com­mu­ni­ty is one of democ­ra­cy’s last lines of defense. That is why the Amer­i­can peo­ple need a [DNI] who under­stands how the law pro­tects their rights.… Noth­ing that John Rat­cliffe has said dur­ing his con­fir­ma­tion process or through­out his career pro­vides a glim­mer of hope that he is a per­son who would speak truth to pow­er and stand up for the rights of Americans.”

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 Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 3 nay votes, 1 not voting

CONFIRMING TRAINOR AS ELECTION COMMISSIONER: On a par­ty-line vote of 49 for and 43 against, the Sen­ate on May 19th con­firmed James E. Train­or III of Austin, Texas, for a seat on the Fed­er­al Elec­tion Commission.

The FEC is a post-Water­gate pan­el charged with enforc­ing cam­paign-finance laws in fed­er­al con­tests. It pub­lish­es can­di­dates’ cam­paign finance data, enforces rules for cam­paign con­tri­bu­tions and spend­ing and super­vis­es the pub­lic fund­ing of pres­i­den­tial elec­tions. An attor­ney spe­cial­iz­ing in elec­tion law, Train­or advised Don­ald Trump’s 2016 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign. He becomes the fourth mem­ber of the six-mem­ber FEC, giv­ing it a quo­rum for con­duct­ing busi­ness for the first time since late August. There was no Sen­ate floor debate on Train­or’s nomination.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

Key votes ahead

The House will vote in the week of May 25th on extend­ing the For­eign Intel­li­gence Sur­veil­lance Act, while the Sen­ate will be in recess.

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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