Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (November 16th-20th)

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

In the United States House of Representatives

EXPANDING FEDERALLY FUNDED APPRENTICESHIPS: Vot­ing 246 for and 140 against, the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Novem­ber 20th passed a bill (H.R. 8294) that would autho­rize $3.5 bil­lion over five years to expand fed­er­al­ly fund­ed appren­tice­ship programs.

While the bill would pre­pare work­ers for jobs in tra­di­tion­al indus­tries such as man­u­fac­tur­ing, trans­porta­tion and con­struc­tion, it also would fund instruc­tion and on-the-job train­ing for spe­cial­ized fields such as ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion, advanced health care and green energy.

In addi­tion, the bill would pro­mote work oppor­tu­ni­ties for per­sons with diverse back­grounds and crim­i­nal records tra­di­tion­al­ly left out of appren­tice­ship programs.

The bill drew Repub­li­can oppo­si­tion, in part, because it would quash Trump’s Indus­try Rec­og­nized Appren­tice­ship Pro­grams (IRAPs), which receive fed­er­al fund­ing but oper­ate with few reg­u­la­tions and are not wel­com­ing to unions.

Jahana Hayes, D‑Connecticut, said the bill “would cre­ate one mil­lion appren­tice­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties… with an aver­age start­ing salary after com­ple­tion of around $70,000” free of of stu­dent debt.

“It ensures busi­ness­es can fill key vacan­cies with cre­den­tialed, skilled employ­ees — in short, putting peo­ple back to work,” Hayes said.

Vir­ginia Foxx, R‑North Car­oli­na, said the bill “rein­forces the idea, there’s only one way to do things, the gov­ern­men­t’s way. When will the Democ­rats learn that the Amer­i­can peo­ple are not inter­est­ed in gov­ern­ment-man­dat­ed social­ist poli­cies. Once again, Democ­rats are choos­ing to bend to the will of ‘big labor’ instead of putting Amer­i­can work­ers first.”

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, and 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 (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan Newhouse

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

DEFEATING REPUBLICAN APPRENTICESHIPS PLAN: Vot­ing 142 for and 243 against, the House on Novem­ber 20th defeat­ed a Repub­li­can alter­na­tive to HR 8294 (above). The amend­ment sought to shift the focus of fed­er­al­ly fund­ed appren­tice­ships from Depart­ment of Labor-reg­is­tered pro­grams, which issue nation­al­ly rec­og­nized work cre­den­tials and allow exten­sive union involve­ment, toward region­al busi­ness-run Indus­try Rec­og­nized Appren­tice­ship Programs.

IRAPs receive tax­pay­er fund­ing but oper­ate with few fed­er­al rules and dimin­ished or non-exis­tent union par­tic­i­pa­tion. The Repub­li­can mea­sure also would slash fund­ing lev­els in the under­ly­ing bill and end coor­di­na­tion between the depart­ments of labor and edu­ca­tion in struc­tur­ing apprenticeships.

Vir­ginia Foxx, R‑North Car­oli­na, said the Repub­li­can alter­na­tive removes “bar­ri­ers that have developed…in the cur­rent [eighty-year-old] sys­tem, cre­ates par­i­ty between union and non-union spon­sored pro­grams and makes it eas­i­er for every­one to par­tic­i­pate, par­tic­u­lar­ly the small businesses.…”

Bob­by Scott, D‑Virginia, said the pro­pos­al backed by Foxx and her col­leagues “under­mines the core premise…to cre­ate one mil­lion more [appren­tice­ships] over the next five years. There is a 77 per­cent reduc­tion in fund­ing” in the Repub­li­can plan, “result­ing in only 219,000 mil­lion new appren­tice­ship opportunities.…”

A yes vote was to adopt the Repub­li­can plan.

	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 Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers 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 Dan Newhouse

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

In the United States Senate

BLOCKING JUDY SHELTON AS FED GOVERNOR: Vot­ing 47 for and 50 against, the Sen­ate on Novem­ber 17th failed to advance the nom­i­na­tion of lib­er­tar­i­an econ­o­mist Judy L. Shel­ton, 66, to the Fed­er­al Reserve Sys­tem Board of Gov­er­nors. But Repub­li­cans left open the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a revote this year on her appoint­ment to the sev­en-mem­ber board that sets U.S. mon­e­tary policy.

Shel­ton served under Don­ald Trump as U.S. envoy to the Euro­pean Bank for Recon­struc­tion and Devel­op­ment. She has been affil­i­at­ed with con­ser­v­a­tive orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing the Hoover Insti­tu­tion and the Atlas Net­work and numer­ous “sound mon­ey” and “free mar­ket” causes.

Although Shel­ton pre­sent­ed her­self to the Sen­ate as an ortho­dox econ­o­mist, she has endorsed a return to the gold stan­dard; called for abol­ish­ing the Fed; ques­tioned whether the Fed should remain inde­pen­dent; doubt­ed the accu­ra­cy of gov­ern­ment sta­tis­tics; advo­cat­ed a sin­gle North Amer­i­can cur­ren­cy; urged the elim­i­na­tion of fed­er­al deposit insur­ance; and both sup­port­ed and opposed the cen­tral bank’s use of low inter­est rates and bond pur­chas­es to fight reces­sions. She has walked back some of her most provoca­tive com­ments on eco­nom­ic policy.

Nobody spoke on behalf of Shel­ton on the Sen­ate floor.

Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑N.Y., said Shel­ton’s crit­i­cism of fed­er­al deposit insur­ance, “an insti­tu­tion that has pro­tect­ed Amer­i­can sav­ings since the 1930s,” helps explain why “over one hun­dred and thir­ty of the nation’s top econ­o­mists, includ­ing sev­en Nobel lau­re­ates, have opposed her nom­i­na­tion, as have count­less alum­ni of the Fed­er­al Reserve Board of Governors.”

A yes vote was to advance the nom­i­na­tion to a final vote.

	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 Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

CONFIRMING STEPHEN VADEN AS U.S. TRADE JUDGE: Vot­ing 49 for and 43 against, the Sen­ate on Novem­ber 18th con­firmed Stephen A. Vaden, thir­ty-eight, the Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture gen­er­al coun­sel, for a life­time appoint­ment to the Unit­ed States Court of Inter­na­tion­al Trade.

A spe­cial­ized unit of the fed­er­al judi­cia­ry, the nine-judge pan­el adju­di­cates trade and cus­toms-law dis­putes involv­ing fed­er­al agen­cies, cor­po­ra­tions, labor unions, pri­vate cit­i­zens, for­eign gov­ern­ments and oth­er litigants.

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 Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

LWIC will be on hiatus again until December

Con­gress is in Thanks­giv­ing recess until the week of Novem­ber 30th.

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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