Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (Sept. 28th-October 2nd)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Octo­ber 2nd.

In the United States House of Representatives

APPROVING $2.2 TRILLION FOR CORONAVIRUS RELIEF: Vot­ing 214 for and 207 against, the House on Octo­ber 1st approved an amend­ed $2.2 tril­lion coro­n­avirus relief pack­age (H.R. 925, named the Revised HEROES Act by Democ­rats) that would autho­rize $600 per week in added job­less ben­e­fits through Jan­u­ary and a sec­ond round of stim­u­lus pay­ments of $1,200 to indi­vid­u­als and $2,400 to fam­i­lies up to cer­tain income lev­els, plus expand­ed child tax credits.

The bill also pro­vides, in part:

• $436 bil­lion for state, local, trib­al and ter­ri­to­r­i­al governments;
• $182 bil­lion for K‑12 schools;
• $120 bil­lion for restaurants;
• $75 bil­lion for coro­n­avirus test­ing, trac­ing and isolation;
• $57 bil­lion for child-care centers;
• $50 bil­lion for ten­ants’ rental assistance;
• $50 bil­lion for hos­pi­tals serv­ing poor communities;
• $50 bil­lion in grants to small businesses;
• $39 bil­lion for col­leges and universities;
• $28.3 bil­lion for air­line payrolls;
• $28 bil­lion for vac­cine pro­cure­ment, dis­tri­b­u­tion and education;
• $21 bil­lion in home­own­er mort­gage aid;
• $15 bil­lion to sus­tain the Postal Ser­vice and $3.6 bil­lion to boost bal­lot secu­ri­ty and vot­er par­tic­i­pa­tion in this year’s elections.

As men­tioned, the bill is a reduced ver­sion of the $3 tril­lion HEROES Act, which passed the House May 15th but stalled in the Sen­ate. The House has now passed six COVID-19 relief bills since March 4, four of which have become law.

In oth­er pro­vi­sions, the bill would:

• expand food stamps and nutri­tion­al assistance;
• fund stu­dent-loan for­give­ness of up to $10,000 per borrower;
• expand access to the Patient Pro­tec­tion Act;
• require Occu­pa­tion­al Health and Safe­ty Admin­is­tra­tion coro­n­avirus work­place rules; give the Cen­sus Bureau more time to com­pile data for redraw­ing leg­isla­tive dis­tricts next year;
• pro­vide tax cred­its to incen­tivize employ­ers to retain workers;
• expand earned-income tax cred­its for low-income families;
• sus­pend for one year a cap on deduc­tions for state and local tax pay­ments in cer­tain states and shore up mul­ti-employ­er pen­sion plans in col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing agreements.

Richard Neal, D‑Massachusetts, said the bill “pro­vides access to health care by cre­at­ing a broad open enroll­ment peri­od so indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies can obtain cov­er­age through Afford­able Care Act mar­ket­places… In Amer­i­ca, most work­ers who lose their jobs also lose health insur­ance. This is a safe­ty net to help them main­tain their insur­ance coverage.”

Rod­ney Davis, R‑Illinois, said the bill “is filled with sev­en­ty-one pages of fed­er­al elec­tion man­dates that have noth­ing to do with the coro­n­avirus. It is anoth­er attempt by Democ­rats to fed­er­al­ize our elec­tions” at a time when “more than one mil­lion peo­ple have already vot­ed… It would be a dis­as­ter for elec­tion admin­is­tra­tors and lead to more con­fu­sion sur­round­ing the 2020 election.”

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

	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 (3): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 10 aye votes, 7 nay votes

PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER: Vot­ing 397 for and five against, the House on Sep­tem­ber 29th adopt­ed a mea­sure (House Res­o­lu­tion 1155) affirm­ing “the order­ly and peace­ful trans­fer of pow­er called for by the Con­sti­tu­tion” if Don­ald Trump is vot­ed out of office this year.

This was a response to Trump’s repeat­ed refusal to com­mit to relin­quish­ing pow­er on Jan­u­ary 20th, 2021, should he lose the Novem­ber elec­tion. The five neg­a­tive votes were cast by Repub­li­cans Matt Gaetz of Flori­da, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Clay Hig­gins of Louisiana, Steve King of Iowa and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

Eric Swal­well, D‑California, called it “beyond unset­tling to hear [Trump] sug­gest that the only result he will accept is the one where he wins… Sad­ly, the world is replete with exam­ples of dic­ta­tors and despots and their refusal to leave office and the chaos it caus­es… In Amer­i­ca, how­ev­er, it is not one per­son, but we, the peo­ple; we, the peo­ple, who rule.”

Gohmert said “as long as every­thing is legal and fair, you betcha, [Trump] will have a smooth tran­si­tion of power.…He just wants fair­ness in the vote, and he will fol­low the will of the peo­ple. It is a real shame that [Democ­rats] would­n’t allow an amend­ment, so we could say to both sides: ‘Fol­low the will of the peo­ple; have a prop­er tran­si­tion of pow­er.’ But, no, they would­n’t go there.”

A yes vote was to adopt the resolution.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

CONDEMNING SURGICAL PROCEDURES ON IMMIGRANT WOMEN: Vot­ing 232 for and 157 against, the House on Octo­ber 2nd adopt­ed a non-bind­ing con­dem­na­tion (House Res­o­lu­tion 1153) of unwant­ed gyne­co­log­i­cal surgery alleged­ly per­formed in recent years on numer­ous women held for immi­gra­tion offens­es at the Irwin Coun­ty Deten­tion Cen­ter in Georgia.

The Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment (ICE) facil­i­ty is man­aged by the pri­vate firm LaSalle Cor­rec­tions, and the oper­a­tions report­ed­ly were per­formed at a near­by hos­pi­tal. The Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty inspec­tor gen­er­al recent­ly opened an inves­ti­ga­tion of the alle­ga­tions, which were raised in a nurse’s whistle­blow­er complaint.

Mary Gay Scan­lon, D‑Pennsylvania, a pro­po­nent of the res­o­lu­tion, said it was nec­es­sary to con­demn and inves­ti­gate “some of the most repul­sive and inhu­mane alle­ga­tions ever direct­ed at a U.S. fed­er­al agency.”

Deb­bie Lesko., R‑Arizona, said: “If the accu­sa­tions are true, they’re obvi­ous­ly hor­rif­ic… How­ev­er, we don’t know any­thing for cer­tain yet” while await­ing the out­come of the inspec­tor gen­er­al’s investigation.

A yes vote was to adopt the resolution.

	Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrad­er; 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 (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan Newhouse

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 3 nay votes, 2 not voting

In the United States Senate

APPROVING STOPGAP FEDERAL BUDGET BILL: Vot­ing 84 for and 10 against, the Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 30th passed a bill (H.R. 8337) to fund the gov­ern­ment on a stop­gap basis in the open­ing weeks of fis­cal 2021, which began Octo­ber 1st. The bill, which became nec­es­sary when Con­gress failed to pass reg­u­lar appro­pri­a­tions bills for the new bud­get year, will fund agen­cies at 2020 spend­ing lev­els through Decem­ber 11th, 2020, avert­ing a gov­ern­ment shutdown.

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

HEALTH LAW BEFORE SUPREME COURT: Vot­ing 51 for and 43 against, the Sen­ate on Octo­ber 1st turned back a Demo­c­ra­t­ic attempt to end the Trump admin­is­tra­tion’s advo­ca­cy before the Supreme Court of lit­i­ga­tion to strike down the Afford­able Care Act. The bill (S. 4653) need­ed six­ty-three votes to advance. The court is sched­uled to hear oral argu­ments Novem­ber 10th in the law­suit Texas v. Unit­ed States that would kill the 2010 health law, and the Depart­ment of Jus­tice has filed a brief in sup­port of the suit.

A yes vote was to end admin­is­tra­tion involve­ment in the repeal lawsuit.

	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 Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

LWIC will be on hiatus until later this month

Con­gress is sched­uled to be in recess next week. Bar­ring an unsched­uled ses­sion of the House or Sen­ate, there will be no Last Week In Con­gress next Sunday.

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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