Legislative Advocacy

Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (August 23rd-27th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tives vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, August 27th, 2021.

The Unit­ed States Sen­ate was in recess.

In the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO VOTE: The House on August 24th passed the John R. Lewis Vot­ing Rights Advance­ment Act (H.R. 4), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ter­ri A. Sewell, D‑Alabama.

The bill would change the cri­te­ria for fed­er­al review of changes to vot­ing pro­ce­dures by state and local gov­ern­ments by requir­ing those gov­ern­ments to seek fed­er­al preap­proval, before mak­ing changes, if they are found to have vio­lat­ed vot­ing rights too many times in the past twen­ty-five years.

Sewell said of the need for greater fed­er­al oversight:

“While lit­er­a­cy tests and poll tax­es no longer exist, cer­tain states and local juris­dic­tions have passed laws that are mod­ern-day bar­ri­ers to voting.”

A bill oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bud­dy Carter, R‑Georgia, called it “a rad­i­cal and unprece­dent­ed fed­er­al pow­er grab over state-admin­is­tered elec­tions under the guise of updat­ing the Vot­ing Rights Act of 1965.”

The vote was 219 ayes to 212 nays.

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 Cliff Bentz

Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

ADVANCING THE JOHN LEWIS VOTING RIGHTS ACT AND PROVIDING FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE AMERICAN JOBS & FAMILIES PLAN THROUGH RECONCILIATION: The House on August 24th adopt­ed a res­o­lu­tion bring­ing the John R. Lewis Vot­ing Rights Act (above) for­ward to a final vote, while also pro­vid­ing for the adop­tion of a con­cur­rent res­o­lu­tion (S. Con. Res. 14) that sets up the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion process for the com­bined Amer­i­can Jobs & Fam­i­lies Plan. All of the cham­ber’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­bers vot­ed aye and all of the Repub­li­can mem­bers vot­ed nay, for a vote of 220–212.

The vote took place after nine par­tial­ly con­ser­v­a­tive Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­bers relent­ed from insist­ing that the Amer­i­can Jobs & Fam­i­lies Plan be con­sid­ered after the bipar­ti­san infra­struc­ture bill recent­ly agreed to by 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 Cliff Bentz

Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

BUDGETING TRANSPARENCY: The House on August 23rd passed the Con­gres­sion­al Bud­get Jus­ti­fi­ca­tion Trans­paren­cy Act (S. 272), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Gary C. Peters, D‑Mich., to require fed­er­al gov­ern­ment agen­cies to pub­lish their bud­get jus­ti­fi­ca­tion mate­ri­als on the Internet.

A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive James Com­er, R‑Kentucky., said: “Requir­ing each agency to pro­vide detailed plain lan­guage expla­na­tions of how they intend to spend tax­pay­er dol­lars ensures Amer­i­cans can review those deci­sions at any time.” The vote was 423 ayes to 1 nay.

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

EXTENDING TIMEFRAME TO RESEARCH POLICY DIRECTIONS THAT COULD BENEFIT TRIBAL CHILDREN: The House on August 23rd passed a bill (S. 325), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Lisa Murkows­ki, R‑Alaska, to extend to five years the dead­line for the Alyce Spot­ted Bear and Wal­ter Sobol­eff Com­mis­sion on Native Chil­dren to sub­mit its report to the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment on fed­er­al pro­grams and poli­cies that involve Amer­i­can Indi­an children.

A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Don Young, R‑Alaska, said the exten­sion would give the Com­mis­sion need­ed time to meet with tribes and oth­er par­ties to make well-con­sid­ered rec­om­men­da­tions. The vote was 418 ayes to 7 nays.

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

Last Week In Congress will be on hiatus next week

The Unit­ed States House and Unit­ed States Sen­ate are sched­uled to be in recess next week. Last Week In Con­gress will return lat­er in September.

Edi­tor’s Note: The infor­ma­tion in NPI’s week­ly How Cas­ca­di­a’s U.S. law­mak­ers vot­ed fea­ture is pro­vid­ed by Tar­get­ed News Ser­vice. 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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