Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (April 26th-30th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Unit­ed States Sen­a­tors vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, April 30th, 2021.

In the United States Senate

OIL & GAS INDUSTRY EMISSIONS: Vot­ing 52 for and 42 against, the Sen­ate on April 28th passed and sent to the House a mea­sure (S J Res 14) to restore the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agen­cy’s abil­i­ty to reg­u­late methane emis­sions from the oil and gas indus­try. The leg­is­la­tion would nul­li­fy a Trump admin­is­tra­tion action that scrapped reg­u­la­tions imposed by the Oba­ma administration.

Methane, the prin­ci­pal com­po­nent of nat­ur­al gas, is a potent con­trib­u­tor to cli­mate change that can escape into the atmos­phere dur­ing oil and gas pro­duc­tion, trans­mis­sion and storage.

To restore the Oba­ma pol­i­cy and EPA’s author­i­ty to poten­tial­ly write addi­tion­al rules, Democ­rats are using the Con­gres­sion­al Review Act, which gives a new Con­gress and pres­i­dent a win­dow of time to leg­isla­tive­ly can­cel reg­u­la­tions from the clos­ing days of the pre­vi­ous administration.

Repub­li­can law­mak­ers and for­mer Pres­i­dent Trump used the pro­ce­dure 14 times in 2017 to wipe out Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion actions.

Mar­tin Hein­rich, D‑New Mex­i­co, said: “Restor­ing and strength­en­ing nation­al stan­dards at the EPA will be one of the most pow­er­ful steps we can take… to con­front the exis­ten­tial threat posed by green­house gas pol­lu­tion and a warm­ing planet.”

Shel­ley Moore Capi­to, R‑West Vir­ginia, called the mea­sure “noth­ing more than polit­i­cal pos­tur­ing: that would “lay the ground­work for a planned reg­u­la­to­ry war on oil and gas.”

A yes vote was to rein­state reg­u­la­tion of methane emissions.

Cas­ca­dia total: 3 aye votes, 2 nay votes, 1 not voting

WATER SYSTEMS FUNDING: Vot­ing 89 for and 2 against, the Sen­ate on April 29th passed a bipar­ti­san bill (S 914) that calls for spend­ing rough­ly $35 bil­lion over five years to improve drink­ing water and waste­water treat­ment infra­struc­ture, pri­mar­i­ly by mak­ing EPA grants and loans to states, local com­mu­ni­ties and tribes to expand and upgrade out­dat­ed systems.

The leg­is­la­tion empha­sizes improv­ing water sys­tems in rur­al and poor com­mu­ni­ties and would help water sys­tems resist dam­age from the increase in severe weath­er attrib­uted to cli­mate change.

The mea­sure includes $710 mil­lion to reduce lead in drink­ing water. Anoth­er $550 mil­lion annu­al­ly is ear­marked to help bring more house­holds onto pub­lic water and sew­er sys­tems or to install or upgrade their own systems.

Tam­my Duck­worth, D‑Illinois, said: “Access to clean water is a human right, and every Amer­i­can deserves access to clean water, no mat­ter their zip code, the col­or of their skin or their income. It’s long past time we turned that right into real­i­ty by invest­ing in projects that would put Amer­i­cans back to work rebuild­ing our crum­bling water infrastructure.”

No sen­a­tor spoke in oppo­si­tion. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 1 not voting

COLIN KAHL, UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Vot­ing 49 for and 45 against, the Sen­ate on April 27th con­firmed Col­in Kahl to be under sec­re­tary for pol­i­cy, the third-rank­ing civil­ian posi­tion in the Depart­ment of Defense.

Kahl, 49, was deputy assis­tant sec­re­tary of defense for the Mid­dle East and lat­er nation­al secu­ri­ty advis­er to the vice pres­i­dent dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion. His nom­i­na­tion drew crit­i­cism from Repub­li­cans who argued that his post­ings on Twit­ter indi­cat­ed he lacked the right tem­pera­ment for a posi­tion of responsibility.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

Cas­ca­dia total: 3 aye votes, 2 nay votes, 1 not voting

JANET MCCABE, EPA DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR: Vot­ing 52 for and 42 against, the Sen­ate on April 27th con­firmed Janet McCabe as deputy admin­is­tra­tor, the sec­ond-rank­ing posi­tion at the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency.

McCabe was an EPA offi­cial dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, serv­ing as act­ing assis­tant admin­is­tra­tor of the Office of Air and Radi­a­tion, where she worked on the admin­is­tra­tion’s plan to reduce car­bon emis­sions from pow­er plants.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

SAMANTHA POWER, USAID ADMINISTRATOR: By a vote of 68 for and 26 against, the Sen­ate on April 28th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Saman­tha Pow­er as admin­is­tra­tor of the Unit­ed States Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Development.

Pow­er, 51, is a for­mer jour­nal­ist and Har­vard pro­fes­sor who was a Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil mem­ber and ambas­sador to the Unit­ed Nations dur­ing the Oba­ma administration.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nomination.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

JASON MILLER, OMB DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR MANAGEMENT: Vot­ing 81 for and 13 against, the Sen­ate on April 27th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Jason Miller to be deputy direc­tor for man­age­ment at the Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get. Miller was deputy assis­tant to the pres­i­dent and deputy direc­tor of the Nation­al Eco­nom­ic Coun­cil dur­ing the Oba­ma administration.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nomination.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

LWIC will be on hiatus next week

No votes are sched­uled in Con­gress dur­ing the week of May 3rd.

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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