Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, July 3rd.

In the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

IMPROVING ACCESS TO CREDIT DATA: Vot­ing 234 for and 179 against, the House on June 29 passed a bill (H.R. 5332) that would require the cred­it bureaus Exper­ian, Tran­sUnion and Equifax to estab­lish a joint online por­tal giv­ing con­sumers free any­time access to infor­ma­tion on their cred­it scores and reports, dis­pute his­to­ries and sale of per­son­al data to third par­ties. Con­sumers now must deal sep­a­rate­ly with the bureaus and they are allowed a lim­it­ed num­ber of free views. The Con­sumer Finan­cial Pro­tec­tion Bureau would over­see the portal.

Josh Got­theimer, D‑New Jer­sey, said: “By cre­at­ing this one-stop por­tal, all three cred­it bureaus will now have to work togeth­er to help pro­tect you and make your lives bet­ter, not the oth­er way around.”

Bar­ry Lou­d­er­milk, R‑Ga., called the Con­sumer Finan­cial Pro­tec­tion Bureau “an unac­count­able reg­u­la­to­ry agency that took many rogue actions under the pre­vi­ous administration.”

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 and Dan Newhouse Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 5 nay votes, 1 not voting

EXPANDING THE PATIENT PROTECTION ACT: Vot­ing 234 for and 179 against, the House on June 29 passed a Demo­c­ra­t­ic bill (H.R. 1425) that would reshape the Patient Pro­tect and Afford­able Care Act (PPA) by steps such as broad­en­ing its Med­ic­aid expan­sion, cap­ping med­ical expen­di­tures for cer­tain cov­er­age lev­els and low­er­ing the cost of pre­scrip­tion drugs.

The bill would raise the nation­al debt by at least $50 bil­lion over 10 years while extend­ing cov­er­age to four mil­lion Amer­i­cans in addi­tion to the 23 mil­lion already using the law to cov­er a large share of their med­ical expenses.

The bill would require states that have not yet joined the PPA’s Med­ic­aid expan­sion to do so or face a cut in the fed­er­al­ly paid share of their basic Med­ic­aid pro­gram. For new­ly join­ing states, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment would cov­er one hun­dred per­cent of added costs for three years and 90 per­cent thereafter.

In addi­tion, the bill stip­u­lates that enrollees in Patient Pro­tec­tion Act Sil­ver plans could not be charged more than 8.5 per­cent of their annu­al income for pre­mi­ums, deductibles and relat­ed charges.

The bill also would require phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies to nego­ti­ate with the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment the prices of approx­i­mate­ly two hun­dred and fifty top-sell­ing pre­scrip­tion drugs offered in Medicare Part D and employ­er plans.

Fur­ther, the bill would nul­li­fy an exec­u­tive order by Don­ald Trump that allows the sale of plans that do not meet Patient Pro­tec­tion Act require­ments such as cov­er­age of pre-exist­ing con­di­tions and the pro­vi­sion of “essen­tial health ben­e­fits” includ­ing mater­ni­ty and pedi­atric care.

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 and Dan Newhouse Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 5 nay votes, 1 not voting

REPUBLICAN AMENDMENT TO DELAY EFFECTIVE DATE OF PPA BILL: Vot­ing 187 for and 223 against, the House on June 29 defeat­ed a Repub­li­can bid to keep H.R. 1425 (above) from tak­ing effect until after fed­er­al health offi­cials cer­ti­fy its low­er­ing of drug prices would not delay the devel­op­ment of COVID-19 vac­cines or ther­a­pies by crimp­ing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies’ research budgets.

Greg Walden, R‑Oregon, said the Con­gres­sion­al Bud­get Office found the bill would hin­der med­ical inno­va­tion and sup­press promis­ing new drugs. “Will that be a cure for Covid or a cure for ALS or a cure for cancer?”

Frank Pal­lone, D‑New Jer­sey, called the mea­sure “cov­er to the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try to con­tin­ue to raise prices, just as we have seen them do on thou­sands of drugs this year alone.”

A yes vote was to adopt the motion.

	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 (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler and Dan Newhouse Vot­ing Nay (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 11 nay votes, 1 not voting

APPROVING $1.5 TRILLION FOR INFRASTRUCTURE: Vot­ing 233 for and 188 against, the House on July 1st approved a $1.5 tril­lion infra­struc­ture pack­age, with one-third allo­cat­ed to improv­ing roads, bridges, mass tran­sit and inter­state rail­ways over five years.

The bill (H.R. 2) con­tains numer­ous green pro­vi­sions to address the cli­mate crisis.

Fund­ing also would be used to:

• upgrade munic­i­pal drink­ing-water systems;
• dredge har­bors;
• add elec­tric vehi­cles to the postal fleet;
• improve rur­al and inner-city broadband;
• build afford­able hous­ing and improve pub­lic facil­i­ties rang­ing from util­i­ties to hos­pi­tals to dis­ad­van­taged schools.

While the bill would derive much of its rev­enue from the High­way Trust Fund, which is sup­port­ed by fuel tax­es, it would rely heav­i­ly on deficit spending.

Brad Schnei­der, D‑Illinois, said the bill treats cli­mate dam­age as “an exis­ten­tial threat. We see it in ris­ing lake lev­els.… We see it across the coun­try in stronger storms and longer hur­ri­cane sea­sons, longer fire sea­sons and dis­rupt­ed grow­ing sea­sons. We have to act now. We have to reduce emissions.”

Frank Lucas, R‑Oklahoma, said: “We are in the mid­dle of a pan­dem­ic [and] if there was ever a time for Con­gress to set aside par­ti­san­ship and work togeth­er to cre­ate thought­ful leg­is­la­tion, it is now. Yet here we are, debat­ing a $1.5 tril­lion ‘Green New Deal’ wish list instead of a smart infra­struc­ture bill.”

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

BARRING HELP FOR CHINA: By a vote of 224 for and 193 against, the House on July 1st approved a Repub­li­can motion that would pro­hib­it fund­ing in H.R. 2 (above) from being used to line the pock­ets of state-owned Chi­nese com­pa­nies or build prison camps for Chi­na’s pop­u­la­tion of Mus­lim Uighurs.

Rick Craw­ford, R‑Arkansas, said: “Chi­na’s indus­tri­al plan makes their goal clear: Dom­i­nate glob­al inno­va­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing by any means nec­es­sary. Chi­na is buy­ing and steal­ing Amer­i­can tech­nol­o­gy explic­it­ly to over­take our semi­con­duc­tor, robot­ic and elec­tric vehi­cle industries.”

The Pacif­ic North­west­’s own Peter DeFazio, D‑Oregon, said: “If only we had a pres­i­dent who would take mean­ing­ful action against Chi­na.… Yeah, we just recent­ly found out that he begged Pre­mier Xi Jin­ping to buy more farm prod­ucts to help his reelec­tion. And by the way, he said he liked the prison camps, he thought they were a good idea. He actu­al­ly said that.”

A yes vote was to adopt the motion.

	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 (4): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers; Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kim Schrier Vot­ing Nay (6): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck

Cas­ca­dia total: 7 aye votes, 10 nay votes

EXTENDING EVICTIONS FREEZE: Vot­ing 232 for and 180 against, the House on June 29th passed a bill (H.R. 7301) that would extend until mid-2021 a freeze on evic­tions and fore­clo­sures linked to finan­cial hard­ship caused by the coro­n­avirus. The cur­rent mora­to­ri­um will expire July 25th.

The bill also would cre­ate a $100 bil­lion fund to help ten­ants pay rent and util­i­ty bills dur­ing the pandemic.

David Cicilline, D‑Rhode Island, said: “Mil­lions of Amer­i­cans have lost their jobs and are dan­ger­ous­ly close to los­ing their homes. The relief this Con­gress pro­vid­ed has kept mil­lions of Amer­i­cans housed. We must con­tin­ue to act.”

Bill Huizen­ga, R‑Michigan, said the bill allo­cates more than $119 bil­lion to the Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment but “fails to pro­vide any over­sight for that new funding.”

A yes vote was to extend the mora­to­ri­um while mak­ing the relief avail­able to a wider swath of households.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (3): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Peter DeFazio Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden; Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kurt Schrader
	Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler and Dan Newhouse Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 5 nay votes, 1 not voting

BARRING AID TO UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS: Vot­ing 191 for and 219 against, the House on June 29th defeat­ed a Repub­li­can bid to amend H.R. 7301 (above) in order to increase over­sight of the Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment and pro­hib­it undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants from receiv­ing benefits.

Bill Huizen­ga, R‑Michigan, said “we should not be spend­ing mon­ey on those who are unlaw­ful­ly present in the Unit­ed States at a time when mil­lions of Amer­i­cans and legal res­i­dents are out of work… and fight­ing to do more with less.”

Max­ine Waters, D‑California, spoke of the one in two mem­bers of Con­gress who are mil­lion­aires, say­ing: “While they are in Wash­ing­ton, they don’t pay any rent, many of them. They sleep in their offices at night. And yet they are talk­ing about deny­ing peo­ple rent who don’t have anoth­er dime.”

A yes vote was to adopt the motion.

	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 (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler and Dan Newhouse Vot­ing Nay (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 11 nay votes, 1 not voting

In the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

GOING ON RECORD IN FAVOR OF TOTAL WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN: Vot­ing 60 for and 33 against, the Sen­ate on July 1st tabled (killed) an amend­ment to the fis­cal 2021 mil­i­tary bud­get (S. 4049) requir­ing a com­plete with­draw­al over one year of the 8,600 U.S. com­bat troops in Afghanistan. The under­ly­ing bill, which remained in debate, oppos­es any “pre­cip­i­tous” end­ing of Amer­i­ca’s twen­ty-year mil­i­tary involve­ment there, and Don­ald Trump has called for reduc­ing the troop lev­el to 4,500 by year’s end but has not set a with­draw­al date.

Jim Inhofe, R‑Oklahoma, said: “While I dis­agree with the sub­stance of the amend­ment, I think the Sen­ate should vote on it.”

Amend­ment spon­sor Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky, not­ed that the deploy­ment is cost­ing $50 bil­lion per year, and asked his fel­low sen­a­tors if they sup­port “stay­ing in Afghanistan for anoth­er gen­er­a­tion.” Asked Paul: “Are you for con­tin­u­ing a war that has lost its pur­pose? Today, we get to vote up or down: Are you for the war or against the war? Does the war still have a mission?”

A yes vote was in oppo­si­tion to the troop-with­draw­al amendment.

	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

LWIC will be on hiatus for a couple weeks

Both cham­bers are expect­ed to be in recess until the week of July 20th. Last Week In Con­gress will resume late this month after Con­gress has reconvened.

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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