Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (October 18th-22nd)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Octo­ber 22nd, 2021.

In the United States House of Representatives

HOLDING STEVE BANNON IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS: The House on Octo­ber 21st passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 730), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ben­nie G. Thomp­son, D‑Mississippi, to find Steve Ban­non in con­tempt of Con­gress for declin­ing to obey a sub­poe­na issued by the House Select Com­mit­tee to Inves­ti­gate the Jan­u­ary 6th Attack on the Unit­ed States Capitol.

Thomp­son said that “unlike oth­er wit­ness­es who have engaged and worked with our team to find a way to coop­er­ate, Mr. Ban­non told us he would­n’t com­ply because the for­mer pres­i­dent told him not to.”

A res­o­lu­tion oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim Banks, R‑Indiana, said: “The Select Com­mit­tee despis­es Steve Ban­non’s pol­i­tics, so they are abus­ing their pow­er to put him in jail.” The vote was 229 yeas to 202 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

REQUIRING GUIDELINES FOR RENTAL CAR COMPANIES: The House on Octo­ber 19th passed the Dar­ren Drake Act (H.R. 4089), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Josh Got­theimer, D‑New Jer­sey, to require the Home­land Secu­ri­ty Depart­ment to issue guide­lines to car rental com­pa­nies on strate­gies for pre­vent­ing acts of ter­ror­ism that use vehi­cles they rent to individuals.

Got­theimer said the guide­lines “will pro­vide rental com­pa­nies and car deal­ers with the vital infor­ma­tion they need to flag and stop poten­tial ter­ror­ist threats in their tracks.” The vote was 379 yeas to 51 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 nay votes

ELIMINATING EVENT PERMIT FEES FOR VETERANS: The House on Octo­ber 19th passed the Free Vet­er­ans from Fees Act (H.R. 1029), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gre­go­ry W. Steube, R‑Florida, to waive spe­cial use per­mit fees for mil­i­tary vet­er­ans events at war memo­ri­als on fed­er­al land in the Wash­ing­ton, D.C., area. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ron Kind, D‑Wisconsin, said: “It is the right thing to do, to try to reduce the cost for a lot of these impor­tant com­mem­o­ra­tive occa­sions hap­pen­ing right here in our nation’s capital.”

The vote was 421 yeas to 3 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

IMPROVING DRUG RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: The House on Octo­ber 19th passed the Nation­al Cen­ters of Excel­lence in Con­tin­u­ous Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Man­u­fac­tur­ing Act (H.R. 4369), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Frank Pal­lone Jr., D‑New Jer­sey. The bill would have the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion des­ig­nate and fund cer­tain col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties as cen­ters for the devel­op­ment of con­tin­u­ous man­u­fac­tur­ing of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drugs.

Pal­lone said estab­lish­ing the cen­ters “will improve the qual­i­ty of our phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, reduce drug short­ages, and help to pro­duce more nim­ble and effi­cient man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es that could be repli­cat­ed through­out the nation.” The vote was 368 yeas to 56 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

OPIOID PREVENTION GRANTS: The House on Octo­ber 20th passed the State Opi­oid Response Grant Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 2379), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive David J. Trone, D‑Maryland, to reau­tho­rize through 2027 the fed­er­al gov­ern­men­t’s opi­oid response pro­gram for send­ing grant mon­ey to states, and expand the pro­gram to include both opi­oid and oth­er forms of sub­stance abuse. Trone said the bill sought to give states “the con­sis­tent, nec­es­sary fund­ing they need to meet their spe­cif­ic needs” for pre­vent­ing abuse.

The vote was 380 yeas to 46 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 nay vote

WAIVING DRUG-FREE COMMUNITIES SUPPORT PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS: The House on Octo­ber 20th passed the Drug-Free Com­mu­ni­ties Pan­dem­ic Relief Act (H.R. 654), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive David P. Joyce, R‑Ohio, to pro­vide for waiv­ing require­ments local gov­ern­ments must meet to receive fed­er­al match­ing fund­ing under the Drug-Free Com­mu­ni­ties Sup­port Pro­gram. Joyce said the waiv­er was need­ed because “with more Amer­i­cans dying from drug over­dos­es than ever before, it is crit­i­cal that we do every­thing we can to sup­port and empow­er those work­ing on the front lines in our com­mu­ni­ties to reduce and pre­vent addic­tion among our children.”

The vote was 395 yeas to 30 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

BETTER EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FOR MEDICAL EMERGENCIES: The House on Octo­ber 20th passed the Strength­en­ing Amer­i­c­as Strate­gic Nation­al Stock­pile Act (H.R. 3635), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Elis­sa Slotkin, D‑Michigan. The bill would change oper­a­tion of the fed­er­al gov­ern­men­t’s stock­pile of equip­ment and drugs for use in med­ical emer­gen­cies, includ­ing set­ting out required stock­pil­ing lev­els and plans for distribution.

The vote was 397 yeas to 22 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 nay vote

HELPING SMALL TELECOMMUNICATIONS FIRMS ROLL OUT 5G RIGHT: The House on Octo­ber 20th passed the Open RAN Out­reach Act (H.R. 4032), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Col­in Z. Allred, D‑Texas, to require the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to work with small telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions providers on their deploy­ment of Open Radio Access Net­work (O‑RAN) wire­less tech­nol­o­gy to their cus­tomers. Allred said the bill sought to help the providers shift away from reliance on Chi­nese equip­ment man­u­fac­tur­ers and instead use Open RAN sys­tems that have a more diverse and com­pet­i­tive set of manufacturers.

The vote was 410 yeas to 17 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

IMPROVING U.S. TECHNOLOGICAL STRATEGY: The House on Octo­ber 20th passed the Infor­ma­tion and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Strat­e­gy Act (H.R. 4028), spon­sored by Rep. Bil­ly Long, R‑Missouri, to require the Com­merce Depart­ment to cre­ate a gov­ern­ment-wide strat­e­gy for improv­ing the U.S. infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nol­o­gy sec­tor. Long said of the need for a strat­e­gy: “With all the sup­ply chain dis­rup­tions we have seen this past year, it is impor­tant to know how our domes­tic pro­duc­tion of this cru­cial equip­ment can be strength­ened in the future.” The vote  was 413 yeas to 14 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 not voting

In the United States Senate

SENATE FAILS TO BREAK A FILIBUSTER OF THE FREEDOM TO VOTE ACT: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 20th reject­ed a clo­ture motion to end debate on a motion to con­sid­er the Free­dom to Vote Act (S. 2747), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Amy Klobuchar, D‑Minnesota.

The bill would make numer­ous changes to vot­ing and elec­tion pro­ce­dures, includ­ing declar­ing Elec­tion Day in Novem­ber as a fed­er­al hol­i­day, stip­u­lat­ing that only felons cur­rent­ly under sen­tence can be deemed inel­i­gi­ble to vote due to crim­i­nal offens­es, and estab­lish­ing new crim­i­nal offens­es for hin­der­ing peo­ple from vot­ing. Klobuchar said the bill was need­ed “because the free­dom to vote is fun­da­men­tal to all of our free­doms, and it is cur­rent­ly under attack.”

A bill oppo­nent, Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell, R‑Kentucky, said it was a wrong­ful attempt to have the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment usurp states’ author­i­ty over elec­tions and vot­ing law. The vote was 49 yeas to 51 nays.

Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer tac­ti­cal­ly vot­ed with the Repub­li­cans so that he could bring the bill back up again at a lat­er date. Because Schumer sup­ports the bill, there were actu­al­ly fifty votes for it rather than forty-nine.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

GUSTAVO GELPI, APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 18th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Gus­ta­vo A. Gelpi to serve as a judge on the U.S. First Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Gelpi has been a fed­er­al dis­trict judge in Puer­to Rico since 2006. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said of Gelpi: “Lead­ers on both sides of the aisle trust that he will rule impar­tial­ly and with­out regard for par­ti­san­ship.” The vote was 52 yeas to 41 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

CHRISTINE O’HEARN, NEW JERSEY U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate has con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Chris­tine P. O’Hearn to serve as a judge on the U.S. dis­trict court for New Jer­sey. O’Hearn has been a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer in Cam­den since 1993, spe­cial­iz­ing in labor and employ­ment law. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, said O’Hearn’s “pro­fes­sion­al cre­den­tials, com­bined with her com­pas­sion and com­mit­ment to the fair and impar­tial admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice, will make her an out­stand­ing judge.”

The vote was 53 yeas to 44 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

CHATHERINE LHAMON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 20th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Chather­ine Lha­mon to be assis­tant sec­re­tary for civ­il rights at the Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment. Lha­mon served in the same post dur­ing Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s sec­ond term, is a for­mer chair of the U.S. Com­mis­sion on Civ­il Rights, and, since 2019, has been Cal­i­for­ni­a’s legal affairs secretary.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, D‑Washington, said Lha­mon “has a long track record that proves she is a cham­pi­on for stu­dents through and through, and that is exact­ly what our stu­dents need.” The vote was 51 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice Pres­i­dent Har­ris cast­ing a 51st yea vote.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

TANA LIN, WASHINGTON U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 21st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Tana Lin to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the West­ern Dis­trict of Wash­ing­ton. Lin has been a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer at a Seat­tle law firm since 2004. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, D‑Washington, said Lin “will bring integri­ty, inde­pen­dence, and com­pas­sion to the Seat­tle cour­t­house.” The vote was 52 yeas to 45 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

PRISON CAMERA REFORM ACT: Along with this week’s roll call votes, the Sen­ate also passed the Prison Cam­era Reform Act (S. 2899), to require the Direc­tor of the Bureau of Pris­ons to address defi­cien­cies and make nec­es­sary upgrades to the secu­ri­ty cam­era and radio sys­tems of the Bureau of Pris­ons to ensure the health and safe­ty of employ­ees and inmates.

Key votes ahead

This week, the Sen­ate is sched­uled to con­sid­er more of Pres­i­dent Biden’s judi­cial nom­i­nees, includ­ing judges for the Dis­trict of Colum­bia, Vir­ginia, Con­necti­cut, and New Jer­sey. The Sen­ate may also recon­sid­er the Free­dom To Vote Act. The House will con­sid­er sev­er­al bills, includ­ing the Finan­cial Exploita­tion Pre­ven­tion Act of 2021 and the Fam­i­ly Vio­lence Pre­ven­tion and Ser­vices Improve­ment Act of 2021. The House may also con­sid­er The Build Back Bet­ter Act.

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