Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (April 12th-16th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, April 16th, 2021.

In the United States House of Representatives

EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN: Vot­ing 217 for and 210 against, the House on April 15th passed a bill (H.R. 7) to tight­en cur­rent fed­er­al law against gen­der-based wage dis­crim­i­na­tion and pre­vent employ­ers from pay­ing women less than men for equiv­a­lent work. Spon­sors of the bill said full-time female work­ers receive eighty-two cents for every dol­lar paid to male counterparts.

The leg­is­la­tion would pro­hib­it wage dis­crim­i­na­tion based on gen­der, sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, gen­der iden­ti­ty, preg­nan­cy or childbirth.

Employ­ers chal­lenged in court would have to show that wage dis­par­i­ties are based on fac­tors oth­er than sex — such as edu­ca­tion, train­ing or expe­ri­ence — and are a busi­ness neces­si­ty. Civ­il penal­ties would be increased, puni­tive and com­pen­sato­ry dam­ages would no longer be capped, class action law­suits would be facil­i­tat­ed, and retal­i­a­tion would be pro­hib­it­ed against work­ers dis­clos­ing pay infor­ma­tion or mak­ing inquiries or complaints.

Salary his­to­ry could not be used in the hir­ing process or in set­ting pay lev­els, so that pay gaps would not fol­low work­ers from one job to the next. Fed­er­al agen­cies would col­lect more pay infor­ma­tion from employers.

Rosa DeLau­ro, D‑Connecticut, said the bill “would give Amer­i­ca’s work­ing women the oppor­tu­ni­ty to fight against wage dis­crim­i­na­tion and receive the pay­check they have right­ful­ly earned.”

Tom Cole, R‑Oklahoma, called the bill “a very blunt instru­ment being used to address a very com­plex issue. It’s a bill writ­ten by tri­al lawyers for the ben­e­fit of tri­al lawyers and ulti­mate­ly caus­ing much big­ger prob­lems for employ­ers and employ­ees alike.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

SELF-POLICING BY EMPLOYERS: By a vote of 183 for and 244 against, the House reject­ed on April 15th a pro­posed amend­ment to H.R. 7 (above) that would have allowed employ­ers accused of wage dis­crim­i­na­tion to avoid penal­ties if dur­ing the pre­vi­ous three years they had con­duct­ed a job and wage analy­sis and tak­en steps to rem­e­dy any dis­par­i­ties based on sex that the audit revealed.

The amend­ment would allow employ­ers to put ground rules on dis­clo­sure and dis­cus­sion of wages. The Gov­ern­ment Account­abil­i­ty Office would be direct­ed to study caus­es and effects of wage dis­par­i­ties among men and women, dis­par­i­ties in nego­ti­at­ing skills among men and women, and the extent to which deci­sions to leave the work­force for par­ent­ing rea­sons affect wages and opportunities.

Mar­i­an­nette Miller-Meeks, R‑Iowa, said the amend­ment “cre­ates a vol­un­tary pay analy­sis sys­tem to encour­age the good-faith efforts of employ­ers to iden­ti­fy and cor­rect any wage dis­par­i­ties should they exist, cre­at­ing an envi­ron­ment of con­sis­tent self-reflection.”

Jahana Hayes, D‑Connecticut, said “Ask­ing the employ­er who may be involved in pay dis­crim­i­na­tion to self-police their prac­tices is a bla­tant con­flict of inter­est… The very idea behind this pro­vi­sion is insid­i­ous. It pre­sumes that employ­ers should be giv­en loop­holes to avoid lia­bil­i­ty after break­ing the law.”

A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 12 nay votes

PROTECTING HEALTHCARE WORKERS FROM VIOLENCE: Vot­ing 254 for and 116 against, the House on April 16th passed a bill (H.R. 1195) to order new Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Admin­is­tra­tion (OSHA) rules pro­tect­ing health­care and social ser­vice employ­ees from work­place violence.

The bil­l’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic spon­sors said those work­ers need spe­cial pro­tec­tion because they are exposed to a par­tic­u­lar­ly high risk of on-the-job vio­lence from those they are work­ing to assist. Oppo­nents said the new rules would be rushed and over­ly rigid. OSHA would have a year to issue an inter­im stan­dard and forty-two months to com­plete the rule­mak­ing process.

Joe Court­ney, D‑Connecticut, said: “Every year we fail to enact this leg­is­la­tion we are con­demn­ing thou­sands of nurs­es, doc­tors, aides, EMTs and social work­ers to suf­fer pre­ventable injuries, some­times fatal.”

Vir­ginia Foxx, R‑North Car­oli­na, said: “This bill would impose yet anoth­er care­less reg­u­la­tion on busi­ness­es that have been hero­ical­ly fight­ing on the front lines to bat­tle the COVID-19 pandemic.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 aye votes, 3 nay votes

In the United States Senate

WENDY SHERMAN, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: By a vote of 56 for and 42 against, the Sen­ate on April 13th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Wendy R. Sher­man to the num­ber two posi­tion at the State Department.

Sher­man, sev­en­ty-one, was a high-rank­ing diplo­mat dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion and was the chief U.S. nego­tia­tor of the 2015 agree­ment (the Joint Com­pre­hen­sive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) that sought to restrict Iran’s nuclear activ­i­ties. Don­ald Trump scrapped that agree­ment, but Pres­i­dent Biden has promised to try to rene­go­ti­ate the mul­ti­lat­er­al pact.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

POLLY TROTTENBERG, DEPUTY TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Vot­ing 82 for and 15 against, the Sen­ate on April 13th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Pol­ly E. Trot­ten­berg, 57, to the sec­ond-rank­ing post at the Trans­porta­tion Depart­ment. Trot­ten­berg was New York City’s trans­porta­tion com­mis­sion­er the past sev­en years and was a senior offi­cial at DOT dur­ing the Oba­ma administration.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

GARY GENSLER, CHAIR OF SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: By a vote of 53 for and 45 against, the Sen­ate on April 14th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Gary Gensler as chair­man of the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion, the body that reg­u­lates Wall Street and pub­licly trad­ed com­pa­nies. Gensler, 63, who chaired the Com­mod­i­ty Futures Trad­ing Com­mis­sion dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion and was an under­sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury in the Clin­ton admin­is­tra­tion, is expect­ed to pro­mote tougher rules and enforcement.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

Key votes ahead

The House will take up a bill con­fer­ring state­hood on the Dis­trict of Colum­bia in the week of April 19th, while the Sen­ate will debate a COVID-relat­ed hate crimes bill that would pro­tect Asian Amer­i­cans and Pacif­ic Islanders.

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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