Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (Nov. 30th — Dec. 4th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Decem­ber 4th, 2020.

In the United States House of Representatives

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA UNDER FEDERAL LAW: Vot­ing 228 for and 164 against, the House on Decem­ber 4th passed a bill (H.R. 3884) that would allow mar­i­jua­na to be used legal­ly for med­i­c­i­nal and recre­ation­al pur­pos­es under fed­er­al law while allow­ing states to con­tin­ue to set their own mar­i­jua­na policies.

The bill would fed­er­al­ly decrim­i­nal­ize mar­i­jua­na, or cannabis, by remov­ing it from the 1970 Con­trolled Sub­stances Act, which out­laws pos­ses­sion, sale and cul­ti­va­tion and impos­es stiff fines and poten­tial jail time for all but the most minor offens­es. In addi­tion, the bill would:

• Impose a five to eight per­cent sales tax on cannabis prod­ucts, which would fund pro­grams in com­mu­ni­ties dev­as­tat­ed by drug abuse as well as Small Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion lend­ing to com­mer­cial mar­i­jua­na operations;
• Allow the Vet­er­ans Health Admin­is­tra­tion to write mar­i­jua­na pre­scrip­tions in states and ter­ri­to­ries where med­i­c­i­nal use is legal;
• Require the expunge­ment and seal­ing of fed­er­al mar­i­jua­na con­vic­tions and a review of sen­tences for those serv­ing time for offens­es includ­ing the pos­ses­sion of small amounts;
• Require the Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion to devel­op best prac­tices to guide local, state and fed­er­al law enforce­ment in test­ing and rec­og­niz­ing dri­vers impaired by marijuana;
• Pro­hib­it any denial of ben­e­fits or pro­tec­tions under immi­gra­tion law based on fed­er­al mar­i­jua­na convictions;
• Require the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics to reg­u­lar­ly pub­lish demo­graph­ic data on mar­i­jua­na enterprises.

At least thir­ty-six states and ter­ri­to­ries autho­rize the med­i­c­i­nal use of mar­i­jua­na, near­ly a third of which also per­mit recre­ation­al use. Sev­er­al oth­er states have eased mar­i­jua­na rules to a less­er degree and six states — Alaba­ma, Ida­ho, Kansas, South Car­oli­na, Ten­nessee and Wyoming — total­ly out­law cannabis.

Mary Gay Scan­lon, D‑Pennsylvania., the fed­er­al mar­i­jua­na pol­i­cy “has failed our youth, failed to stem more harm­ful drug usage and, most notably, has failed com­mu­ni­ties of col­or.… because when it comes to mar­i­jua­na, there are two jus­tice sys­tems in the Unit­ed States — a gen­tler, more under­stand­ing sys­tem most­ly avail­able to White Amer­i­cans and the puni­tive, less for­giv­ing sys­tem pri­mar­i­ly enforced against Black and brown Americans.”

Gre­go­ry Mur­phy, R‑North Car­oli­na, said the bill fails to pre­vent “edi­bles from get­ting in the hands of ado­les­cents and young adults whose brains are still growing.…Marijuana is a gate­way drug [that] undoubt­ed­ly leads to fur­ther and much more dan­ger­ous drug use, and while I do believe that med­ical mar­i­jua­na can [help] in chron­ic pain or those with can­cer, this bill sim­ply goes way too far.”

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

REJECTING WORKPLACE MARIJUANA TESTING: Vot­ing 174 for and 218 against, the House on Decem­ber 4th defeat­ed a Repub­li­can mea­sure to guar­an­tee that employ­ers, under the terms of H.R. 3884 (above), would have the right to test job appli­cants and employ­ees for mar­i­jua­na impair­ment to ensure the safe­ty of the work­place. 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 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

SPEEDING ALS DISABILITY BENEFITS: Vot­ing 96 for and one against, the Sen­ate on Decem­ber 2nd passed a bill (S. 578) that would enable vic­tims of ALS (amy­otroph­ic lat­er­al scle­ro­sis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s dis­ease) to start receiv­ing Social Secu­ri­ty dis­abil­i­ty ben­e­fits at the time of their diagnosis.

This would waive the statu­to­ry five-month wait peri­od for receiv­ing Old Age, Sur­vivors, and Dis­abil­i­ty Insur­ance ben­e­fits. The bill awaits House action.

The neg­a­tive vote was cast by Mike Lee, R‑Utah.

Tom Cot­ton, R‑Arkansas, said the bill would ensure that ALS vic­tims “don’t have to wor­ry about ben­e­fits and can focus instead on the things that real­ly mat­ter dur­ing what could be their final months on earth.”

No sen­a­tor spoke against the bill.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

	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

CONFIRMING FEDERAL RESERVE GOVERNOR: Vot­ing 48 for and 47 against, the Sen­ate on Decem­ber 3rd con­firmed Christo­pher J. Waller, six­ty-one, for a term on the Fed­er­al Reserve Sys­tem board of gov­er­nors due to expire in Jan­u­ary 2030. Waller had been exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent and direc­tor of research at the Fed­er­al Reserve Bank of St. Louis. His con­fir­ma­tion leaves one vacan­cy on the sev­en-mem­ber board. 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

Key votes ahead

Con­gress will debate reg­u­lar 2021 appro­pri­a­tions and the 2021 mil­i­tary bud­get in the week of Decem­ber 7th and could also vote on a coro­n­avirus relief package.

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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