Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Unit­ed States Sen­a­tors vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, June 12th, 2020.

The House was in recess.

In the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

MAINTAINING NATIONAL PARKS, CONSERVING PUBLIC SPACES: Vot­ing 79 for and 18 against, the Sen­ate on June 10th agreed to start debate on a bill (H.R. 1957) that would great­ly increase finan­cial sup­port of fed­er­al land agen­cies includ­ing the Nation­al Park Ser­vice and also boost U.S. gov­ern­ment fund­ing of fed­er­al, state and local efforts to pur­chase and pro­tect unspoiled acreage.

To address the dete­ri­o­ra­tion of hun­dreds of nation­al parks and relat­ed areas in recent decades, the bill would allo­cate up to $6.5 bil­lion over five years for repairs and main­te­nance, with fund­ing to come main­ly from pay­ments to the Trea­sury by oil, gas and renew­able-ener­gy com­pa­nies. The bill also would guar­an­tee a $900 mil­lion annu­al bud­get for the Land and Water Con­ser­va­tion Fund, which pro­vides fed­er­al and non-fed­er­al agen­cies with funds for acquir­ing and con­serv­ing unde­vel­oped land. The LWCF is large­ly fund­ed by fees and roy­al­ties col­lect­ed from ener­gy firms engaged in off­shore drilling operations.

Cory Gard­ner, R‑Colorado, spoke in favor of advanc­ing the bill.

“This is an eco­nom­ic and jobs pack­age as much as it is a con­ser­va­tion pack­age. For every $1 mil­lion we spend in the Land and Water Con­ser­va­tion Fund, it sup­ports between six­teen and thir­ty jobs,” Gard­ner said. “It is our chance to not only pro­tect our envi­ron­ment, to catch up on deferred main­te­nance, but also to grow our econ­o­my when our econ­o­my needs the growth.”

No sen­a­tor spoke against the bill.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

CONFIRMING CHARLES BROWN AS AIR FORCE CHIEF: In a unan­i­mous vote of 98 for and none against, the Sen­ate on June 9th con­firmed Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr., as U.S. Air Force chief of staff. The four-star gen­er­al becomes the first African-Amer­i­can to lead a U.S. mil­i­tary ser­vice, and will leave his post as com­man­der of the Pacif­ic Air Forces to assume the four-year term.

A com­mand pilot, Brown has record­ed more than 2,900 fly­ing hours includ­ing 130 hours in com­bat. There was no Sen­ate floor debate on the nomination.

A yes vote was to con­firm Brown to lead the Air Force.

	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 Pat­ty Mur­ray and Maria Cantwell

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

Key votes ahead

The Sen­ate will resume debate in the week of June 15th on a fund­ing bill for the Nation­al Park Ser­vice and Land and Water Con­ser­va­tion Fund (detailed above), while the House will be in recess. The House is expect­ed to take up a bill reform­ing polic­ing prac­tices dur­ing the week of June 22nd.

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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