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Sunday, September 19th, 2021

Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (September 13th-17th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Unit­ed States Sen­a­tors vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 17th, 2021.

The Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives was in recess.

In the United States Senate

Chamber of the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

JAMES KVAAL, UNDERSECRETARY FOR EDUCATION: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 14th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of James Kvaal to serve as the Edu­ca­tion Depart­men­t’s under secretary.

Kvaal, a staffer in both the Clin­ton and Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tions, was pres­i­dent of the Insti­tute for Col­lege Access and Suc­cess start­ing in 2018.

A sup­port­er, our own Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, D‑Washington, said: “Kvaal’s back­ground reflects a deep com­mit­ment to our nation’s stu­dents and the expe­ri­ence need­ed to hit the ground run­ning on day one.”

The vote was 58 yeas to 37 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Nay (2):
Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (2):
Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (2):
Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

DAVID ESTUDILLO, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 14th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of David Estudil­lo to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the West­ern Dis­trict of Washington.

Estudil­lo has been a supe­ri­or court judge in Grant Coun­ty, Wash­ing­ton, since 2015; pre­vi­ous­ly, he was a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer spe­cial­iz­ing in immi­gra­tion law.

A sup­port­er, our own Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, D‑Washington, said “his strong char­ac­ter and respect for the rule of law, a sense of jus­tice, fair­ness, humil­i­ty, empa­thy, and capac­i­ty for com­pas­sion and under­stand­ing would be a ben­e­fit to the court and all the par­ties con­cerned.” The vote was 54 yeas to 41 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Nay (2):
Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (2):
Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (2):
Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

ANGEL KELLEY, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate has con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Angel Kel­ley to serve as a judge on the U.S. dis­trict court for Mass­a­chu­setts. Kel­ley has been a judge on the Mass­a­chu­setts dis­trict and then supe­ri­or courts since 2009. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Edward Markey, D‑Massachusetts, said that Kel­ley “has through­out her career demon­strat­ed one thing above all else, and that is an abid­ing com­mit­ment to our nation’s promise of equal jus­tice under the law.” The vote was 52 yeas to 44 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Nay (2):
Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (2):
Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (2):
Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

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!

© 2021 Tar­get­ed News Ser­vice, LLC. 

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