Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (September 20th-24th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 24th, 2021.

In the United States House of Representatives

CONTINUING RESOLUTION TO KEEP FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OPEN: On Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 21st, the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives passed the Extend­ing Gov­ern­ment Fund­ing and Deliv­er­ing Emer­gency Assis­tance Act (H.R. 5305), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rosa L. DeLau­ro, D‑Connecticut, to fund the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment through Decem­ber 3rd, sus­pend the fed­er­al debt lim­it through 2022, and add emer­gency sup­ple­men­tal fund­ing to deal with the with­draw­al from Afghanistan and recent weath­er events.

DeLau­ro said: “This bill pro­vides tens of bil­lions of dol­lars to sup­port the work­ing mid­dle-class fam­i­lies who live paycheck-to-paycheck.”

A bill oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kay Granger, R‑Texas, crit­i­cized the absence of fund­ing for Israel’s Iron Dome sys­tem for defend­ing against mis­sile attacks and the fail­ure to ade­quate­ly respond to the surge of attempt­ed migra­tion across the bor­der with Mex­i­co. The vote was 220 yeas to 211 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

FUNDING FOR THE U.S. MILITARY: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the House passed the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 4350), spon­sored by our own Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith, D‑Washington, to autho­rize $753 bil­lion of mil­i­tary spend­ing and mil­i­tary con­struc­tion pro­grams for fis­cal 2022, and estab­lish mil­i­tary per­son­nel lev­els for the year.

Smith said the bill would help enhance U.S. nation­al secu­ri­ty, while avoid­ing an exces­sive increase in spend­ing over 2021 levels.

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Alexan­dria Oca­sio-Cortez, D‑New York, said the con­tin­ued increase in funds for the mil­i­tary “is com­ing at the cost of our domes­tic devel­op­ment here at home.”

The vote was 316 yeas to 113 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 13 aye votes, 4 nay votes

DISABILITY AND STUDENT LOANS: On Wednes­day, Sep­tem­ber 22nd, the House adopt­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Madeleine Dean, D‑Pennsylvania, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 4350, above), that would require the can­cel­la­tion of pri­vate stu­dent loans made to bor­row­ers who sub­se­quent­ly become per­ma­nent­ly dis­abled. Dean said the amend­ment “would right a wrong and bring par­i­ty between pro­tec­tions for pri­vate stu­dent loan bor­row­ers and fed­er­al stu­dent loan borrowers.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive War­ren David­son, R‑Ohio, said: “Con­gress should not attempt to leg­is­late the terms of agree­ment to which the par­ties have already agreed.” The vote was 219 yeas to 204 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

VETERANS’ MEDICAL DEBT: On Wednes­day, Sep­tem­ber 22nd, the House adopt­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rashi­da Tlaib, D‑Michigan, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 4350, above).

The amend­ment would keep a mil­i­tary mem­ber’s debts stem­ming from med­ical­ly nec­es­sary pro­ce­dures from appear­ing on a cred­it report, and take oth­er mea­sures to lim­it debt col­lec­tion from vet­er­ans. Tlaib said: “These pro­tec­tions would pro­vide ser­vice­mem­bers much-need­ed clar­i­ty to fig­ure out what they actu­al­ly owe and what the impact will have on their credit.”

An amend­ment oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive War­ren David­son, R‑Ohio, said remov­ing debt from cred­it reports “will under­mine the safe­ty and sound­ness of finan­cial insti­tu­tions and the finan­cial sys­tem more broadly.”

The vote was 222 yeas to 203 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

EXPANDING WILDERNESS IN THE WEST: On Wednes­day, Sep­tem­ber 22nd, the House adopt­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Diana DeGette, D‑Colorado, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 4350, above).

The amend­ment would des­ig­nate close to 1.3 mil­lion acres of fed­er­al land in Wash­ing­ton, Col­orado, and Cal­i­for­nia as wilder­ness or nation­al monuments.

DeGette said: “Pre­serv­ing these untouched pub­lic lands from the threat of future devel­op­ment is more than just pro­tect­ing our envi­ron­ment. It is about pro­tect­ing our econ­o­my and jobs and our west­ern way of life.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Doug Lam­born, R‑Colorado, said the result­ing land use restric­tions “will restrict for­est man­age­ment prac­tices that will ren­der these lands more prone to cat­a­stroph­ic wildfires.”

The vote was 222 yeas to 200 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

WITHDRAWING U.S. SUPPORT FOR CIVIL WAR IN YEMEN: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the House passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ro Khan­na, D‑California, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 4350, above), that would stop fund­ing for the ship­ment of U.S. equip­ment to sup­port Sau­di Ara­bi­an airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Khan­na said: “We are not going to use tax­pay­er dol­lars to give them equip­ment for their planes to bomb Yemeni’s kids.”

An amend­ment oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joe Wil­son, R‑South Car­oli­na, said: “One-sided ini­tia­tives that restrict U.S. sup­port for Sau­di Ara­bia, in word or deed, only tele­graph more vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty that will lead to fur­ther attacks by the Houthis.”

The vote was 219 yeas to 207 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

ETHICS IN FEDERAL CONTRACTING: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the House adopt­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jamaal Bow­man, D‑New York, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 4350), that would bar the pres­i­dent, vice pres­i­dent, and Cab­i­net offi­cials from con­tract­ing to pro­vide goods or ser­vices to the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment (as Biden’s pre­de­ces­sor did).

Bow­man said that with the ban “we can ensure that every elect­ed offi­cial is free from the con­flict of inter­est asso­ci­at­ed with both decid­ing who gets fed­er­al con­tracts and then ben­e­fit­ing from those contracts.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michelle Fis­chbach, R‑Minnesota, said: “The amend­ment adds broad new lan­guage to the crim­i­nal code and could dis­cour­age peo­ple from enter­ing fed­er­al ser­vice.” The vote was 234 yeas to 183 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

ELIMINATING PRINT VERSION OF EXECUTIVE BRANCH DIRECTORY: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the House adopt­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Car­olyn B. Mal­oney, D‑New York, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 4350, above), that would replace a con­gres­sion­al print direc­to­ry of senior offi­cials in the exec­u­tive branch with an online, con­stant­ly updat­ed pub­lic directory.

Mal­oney said that because the print direc­to­ry is pub­lished only once every four years, “cur­rent infor­ma­tion about senior admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials is often out­dat­ed and dif­fi­cult to find,” mak­ing a change desirable.

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Pat Fal­lon, R‑Texas, said the direc­to­ry was already post­ed online, and the pro­posed expand­ed direc­to­ry would con­tain per­son­al infor­ma­tion about the exec­u­tive branch offi­cials “that can be read­i­ly exploit­ed by polit­i­cal activists to track down and tar­get polit­i­cal­ly appoint­ed leaders.”

The vote was 223 yeas to 202 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the House adopt­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tere­sa Leg­er Fer­nan­dez, D‑New Mex­i­co, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 4350, above), that would pro­vide an apol­o­gy to peo­ple in twelve West­ern states and two U.S. Pacif­ic Ocean ter­ri­to­ries for radi­a­tion expo­sures that result­ed from test­ing nuclear weapons. Leg­er Fer­nan­dez said: “As a result of the expo­sure, tens of thou­sands of down­winders con­tract­ed can­cers and oth­er diseases.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tom McClin­tock, R‑California, said: “The sci­ence does not sup­port the asser­tion that atom­ic weapons test­ing caused wide­spread instances of can­cer.” The vote was 240 yeas to 185 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

FIREARMS EXPORT REQUIREMENTS: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the House adopt­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nor­ma J. Tor­res, D‑California, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 4350, above), that would require the Com­merce Depart­ment to noti­fy Con­gress when the agency issues licens­es for the export of firearms.

Tor­res said the noti­fi­ca­tion require­ment would “ensure that for­eign muni­tions sales receive the care­ful scruti­ny they deserve.”

An amend­ment oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Scott Per­ry, R‑Pa., said the House already had over­sight of export licens­es, and a redun­dant require­ment would only make it hard­er “for us to sell our allies things that they want to have from us and we want to sell to them.” The vote was 215 yeas to 213 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 10 aye votes, 7 nay votes

VETERANS DENTAL AND HEALTH BENEFITS: On Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 20th, the House passed the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs Expir­ing Author­i­ties Act (H.R. 5293), spon­sored by Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D‑Indiana, to per­ma­nent­ly autho­rize the VA’s den­tal insur­ance pro­gram and extend statu­to­ry author­i­ty for two oth­er VA pro­grams. The vote was unan­i­mous with 423 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

INFLATION AND DISABILITY BENEFITS: On Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 20th, the House passed the Vet­er­ans Com­pen­sa­tion Cost-of-Liv­ing Adjust­ment Act (S. 189), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor John Thune, R‑South Dakota.

The bill would require the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs to match the lev­el of cost-of-liv­ing Social Secu­ri­ty ben­e­fits increas­es for vet­er­ans’ dis­abil­i­ty and sur­vivors’ ben­e­fits programs.

A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mark Takano, D‑California, called the ben­e­fit increas­es “a qual­i­ty-of-life guar­an­tee in the retire­ment years, espe­cial­ly for vet­er­ans suf­fer­ing with ser­vice-con­nect­ed dis­abil­i­ties and ailments.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 423 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

ADDRESSING INJURIES CAUSED BY HAVANA SYNDROME: On Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 21st, the House passed the Help­ing Amer­i­can Vic­tims Afflict­ed by Neu­ro­log­i­cal Attacks Act (S. 1828), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Susan M. Collins, R‑Maine, to pro­vide pay­ments to fed­er­al gov­ern­ment employ­ees as com­pen­sa­tion for brain injuries suf­fered in ser­vice over­seas or domestically.

A sup­port­er, Rep. Devin Nunes, R‑California, said the bill respond­ed to injuries that began in diplo­mat­ic facil­i­ties in Havana in 2016 by tak­ing “impor­tant steps to assist the vic­tims of these attacks and ensure that our peo­ple will be com­pen­sat­ed for their brain injuries.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 427 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 not voting

ISRAELI MISSILE DEFENSE: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the House passed the Iron Dome Sup­ple­men­tal Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 5323), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rosa DeLau­ro, D‑Connecticut, to pro­vide $1 bil­lion in fis­cal 2022 for Israel’s gov­ern­ment to main­tain its Iron Dome sys­tem for coun­ter­ing short-range mis­sile attacks on the coun­try. DeLau­ro said the fund­ing “ful­fills our moral imper­a­tive to pro­tect the lives of inno­cent civil­ians and helps build the foun­da­tions for peace” between Israelis and Palestinians.

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rashi­da Tlaib, D‑Michigan, called the bill “an effort to enable and sup­port war crimes, human rights abus­es, and vio­lence” by Israel’s gov­ern­ment. The vote was 420 yeas to 9 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

In the United States Senate

VERONICA ROSSMAN, U.S. COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE: On Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 20th, the Sen­ate con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Veron­i­ca S. Ross­man to serve as a judge on the U.S. Tenth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals.

Ross­man has been a pub­lic defend­er for the fed­er­al dis­trict courts of Col­orado and Wyoming since 2010. A sup­port­er, Sen. Michael F. Ben­net, D‑Colorado, said: “We need more judges like Veron­i­ca, who are not only high­ly qual­i­fied, but who know what it means to be on the wrong end of the legal sys­tem that too often fails the most vul­ner­a­ble in our soci­ety.” The vote to con­firm was 50 yeas to 42 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

MARGARET STRICKLAND, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: On Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 21st, the Sen­ate con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Mar­garet Strick­land to serve as a judge on the U.S. dis­trict court for New Mexico.

Strick­land has been a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer at her own law firm in Las Cruces since 2011; pre­vi­ous­ly, she was a pub­lic defend­er in the state.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said of Strick­land: “She has demon­strat­ed an unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to equal jus­tice under the law, and as a judge, she will ensure that every voice is heard in the courtroom.”

The vote to con­firm was 52 yeas to 45 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

LILY BATCHELDER, ASSISTANT TREASURY SECRETARY: On Wednes­day, Sep­tem­ber 22nd, the Sen­ate con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Lily Batchelder to serve as the Trea­sury Depart­men­t’s assis­tant sec­re­tary for tax policy.

Batchelder was chief tax coun­sel for the Demo­c­ra­t­ic major­i­ty on the Sen­ate Finance Com­mit­tee from 2010 to 2014; since then, she has been a law pro­fes­sor at New York Uni­ver­si­ty. In prais­ing Batchelder, a sup­port­er, our own Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said she under­stood “that if you real­ly want to tack­le big chal­lenges, if you want to come up with big solu­tions and make them sus­tain­able, you have to find com­mon ground.” The vote was 64 yeas to 34 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 1 nay vote

JAYME WHITE, DEPUTY U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: On Wednes­day, Sep­tem­ber 22nd, the Sen­ate con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Jayme White to serve as a deputy U.S. trade rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the West­ern Hemi­sphere, Europe, Mid­dle East, Labor, and Envi­ron­ment. White has been a trade pol­i­cy advi­sor on the Sen­ate Finance Com­mit­tee since 2014, and from 2009 to 2014 was a staffer for Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon. Wyden cit­ed White’s record of bring­ing leg­is­la­tors togeth­er to help cre­ate durable trade poli­cies that improve trans­paren­cy and account­abil­i­ty in trade mat­ters, and cre­ate more oppor­tu­ni­ties for U.S. exports.

The vote was 80 yeas to 18 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

FLORENCE PAN, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the Sen­ate con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Flo­rence Y. Pan to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Pan has been a judge on the Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Supe­ri­or Court since 2009, and was pre­vi­ous­ly a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor in the Dis­trict. The vote was 68 yeas to 30 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

SARAH BIANCHI, DEPUTY U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the Sen­ate con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Sarah Bianchi to serve as a deputy U.S. trade rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Asia, Africa, Invest­ment, Ser­vices, Tex­tiles, and Indus­tri­al Com­pet­i­tive­ness. Bianchi was a senior eco­nom­ic and domes­tic pol­i­cy aide to Vice Pres­i­dent Biden from 2011 to 2014, then became a senior advi­sor at the Biden Insti­tute at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Delaware.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said Bianchi “has helped build a strong Biden eco­nom­ic agen­da that is focused on mak­ing sure that all Amer­i­cans have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get ahead.” The vote was 85 yeas to 11 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

DANIEL KRITENBRINK, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: On Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd, the Sen­ate con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Daniel J. Kriten­brink to serve as an assis­tant sec­re­tary of state for East Asian and Pacif­ic Affairs. Kriten­brink, the U.S. ambas­sador to Viet­nam since 2017, had pre­vi­ous­ly served as a diplo­mat in Chi­na and Japan, begin­ning in 1994.

The vote was 72 yeas to 14 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 1 not voting

Key votes ahead

The House will be work­ing on infra­struc­ture and Pres­i­dent Biden’s Build Back Bet­ter omnibus pack­age next week, while the Sen­ate will be attempt­ing to raise the debt ceil­ing, a move Repub­li­cans say they will filibuster. 

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