NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Sunday, October 3rd, 2021

Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (September 27th-30th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 30th, 2021.

In the United States House of Representatives

Chamber of the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

CONTINUING RESOLUTION TO KEEP FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OPEN: The House on Sep­tem­ber 30th con­curred in the Sen­ate’s amend­ment to the Extend­ing Gov­ern­ment Fund­ing and Deliv­er­ing Emer­gency Assis­tance Act (H.R. 5305), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rosa L. DeLau­ro, D‑Connecticut.

This stop­gap leg­is­la­tion would fund the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment through Decem­ber 3rd and add emer­gency sup­ple­men­tal fund­ing to deal with the with­draw­al from Afghanistan and recent weath­er events. DeLau­ro said it “ensures that vital edu­ca­tion, health, hous­ing, and pub­lic safe­ty pro­grams con­tin­ue to serve those who rely on them.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kay Granger, R‑Texas, said the Sen­ate amend­ment failed to include fund­ing for Israel’s Iron Dome mis­sile defense sys­tem (although the House autho­rized fund­ing for that separately).

The vote was 254 yeas to 175 nays.

A yes vote was to send the mea­sure to Pres­i­dent Biden, who signed it into law.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson

Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader

Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz

The State of Washington

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: 15 aye votes, 2 nay votes

TEMPORARILY SUSPENDING THE DEBT CEILING (AGAIN): The House on Sep­tem­ber 29th passed a bill (S. 1301), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown, D‑Ohio, to sus­pend the fed­er­al gov­ern­men­t’s debt ceil­ing through Decem­ber 16th, 2022. A sup­port­er, Rep. Richard E. Neal, D‑Massachusetts, said: “Ensur­ing that the gov­ern­ment can finance its exist­ing oblig­a­tions is a respon­si­bil­i­ty that we share joint­ly in this cham­ber.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kevin Brady, R‑Calif., said: “It is irre­spon­si­ble to keep rais­ing the debt lim­it, keep on spend­ing with­out any frame­work, or any dis­cus­sion about this explo­sion of Amer­i­ca’s debt.”

The vote was 219 yeas to 212 nays.

A yes vote was to send the leg­is­la­tion back to the Senate.

The State of Idaho

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

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (3): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Peter DeFazio

Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz; Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kurt Schrader

The State of Washington

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: 10 aye votes, 7 nay votes

PROTECTING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN FEDERAL LAW: The House on Sep­tem­ber 24th passed the Wom­en’s Health Pro­tec­tion Act (H.R. 3755), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Judy Chu, D‑California.

The bill would remove var­i­ous restric­tions on abor­tion, includ­ing those based on time after ges­ta­tion, estab­lished by state and local governments.

Chu said: “This bill respects our right and the free­dom to make our own choic­es about our bod­ies, and it leaves those deci­sions up to us and our doctors.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tim Wal­berg, R‑Michigan, said the bill “would ban vir­tu­al­ly all con­science pro­tec­tions for med­ical per­son­nel and enable the use of tax­pay­er mon­ey to fund abor­tion pro­ce­dures, vio­lat­ing sin­cere­ly held beliefs of mil­lions of Amer­i­cans on the sanc­ti­ty of human life.”

The vote was 218 yeas to 211 nays.

The State of Idaho

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

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader

Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz

The State of Washington

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

SANCTIONS IN SUPPORT OF PEACE IN LIBYA: The House on Sep­tem­ber 28th passed the Libya Sta­bi­liza­tion Act (H.R. 1228), spon­sored by Rep. Theodore E. Deutch, D‑Florida, to impose sanc­tions on for­eign­ers believed to have desta­bi­lized Libya and require fed­er­al agen­cies to com­mit resources on behalf of peace and democ­ra­cy in Libya. Deutch said Libyans “deserve a future free from for­eign med­dling, from con­flict and cor­rup­tion, and from eco­nom­ic tur­moil. They deserve to choose their lead­ers in free and fair elections.”

The vote was 386 yeas to 35 nays.

The State of Idaho

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

The State of Oregon

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

The State of Washington

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

BOLSTERING REWARDS FOR INFORMATION ON WAR CRIMINALS: The House on Sep­tem­ber 28th passed the War Crimes Rewards Expan­sion Act (H.R. 4250), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Vir­ginia Foxx, R‑North Car­oli­na, to expand author­i­ty for rewards offered by the State Depart­ment for infor­ma­tion that leads to the con­vic­tion of for­eign­ers accused of war crimes. Foxx said the bill “will help make Amer­i­ca safer and bring per­pe­tra­tors of war crimes, crimes against human­i­ty, and geno­cide to jus­tice.” The vote was 412 yeas to 9 nays.

The State of Idaho

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

The State of Oregon

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

The State of Washington

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

REDUCING UNFAIRNESS IN DRUG PROSECUTIONS: The House on Sep­tem­ber 28th passed the Elim­i­nat­ing a Quan­tifi­ably Unjust Appli­ca­tion of the Law Act (H.R. 1693), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Hakeem S. Jef­fries, D‑New York, to change fed­er­al crim­i­nal sen­tenc­ing stan­dards by equal­iz­ing the stan­dards for crack cocaine and pow­der cocaine. Jef­fries said: “There is no pol­i­cy jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for pun­ish­ing crack cocaine offens­es more harsh­ly than the same offense involv­ing pow­der cocaine.” The vote was 361 yeas to 66 nays.

The State of Idaho

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

The State of Oregon

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

The State of Washington

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

TWO-THIRDS THRESHOLD NOT MET FOR D.C. AUTONOMY LEGISLATION: The House on Sep­tem­ber 29th reject­ed the Dis­trict of Colum­bia Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer Salary Home Rule Act (H.R. 1204), spon­sored by Del. Eleanor Holmes Nor­ton, D‑D.C., to allow the gov­ern­ment of Wash­ing­ton, D.C., to set the lev­el of pay for its chief finan­cial officer.

Nor­ton said the Dis­tric­t’s chief finan­cial offi­cer has unusu­al­ly broad pow­ers but also unusu­al­ly low com­pen­sa­tion, and estab­lish­ing com­pet­i­tive com­pen­sa­tion for the posi­tion would help attract bet­ter candidates.

The vote was 259 yeas to 170 nays.

A two-thirds thresh­old was required for approval.

The State of Idaho

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

The State of Oregon

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

The State of Washington

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: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

ADDITIONAL HOUSE VOTES ON LEGISLATION: Along with the week’s roll call votes, the House also passed these mea­sures by voice vote:

  • the K–12 Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty Act (S. 1917), to estab­lish a K–12 edu­ca­tion cyber­se­cu­ri­ty initiative;
  • the Home­land Secu­ri­ty for Chil­dren Act (H.R. 4426), to amend the Home­land Secu­ri­ty Act of 2002 to ensure that the needs of chil­dren are con­sid­ered in home­land secu­ri­ty planning;
  • and the Unmanned Aer­i­al Secu­ri­ty Act (H.R. 4682), to pro­hib­it the Sec­re­tary of Home­land Secu­ri­ty from oper­at­ing or procur­ing cer­tain for­eign-made unmanned air­craft systems.

When a voice vote is tak­en, there is no record of how indi­vid­ual mem­bers voted.

In the United States Senate

Chamber of the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

CONTINUING RESOLUTION TO KEEP FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OPEN: The Sen­ate on Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 30th passed the Extend­ing Gov­ern­ment Fund­ing and Deliv­er­ing Emer­gency Assis­tance Act (H.R. 5305, above), spon­sored by Rep. Rosa L. DeLau­ro, D‑Connecticut. The bill would fund the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment through Decem­ber 3rd and add emer­gency sup­ple­men­tal fund­ing to deal with the with­draw­al from Afghanistan and recent weath­er events.

Top Sen­ate Repub­li­can Mitch McConnell, R‑Kentucky, praised the with­draw­al of “the poi­son pill of a debt lim­it increase” from the ver­sion of the bill that had pre­vi­ous­ly passed the House. Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer said: “We have more work to do: just as our Repub­li­can col­leagues real­ize that a gov­ern­ment shut­down would be cat­a­stroph­ic, they should real­ize that a default on the nation­al debt would be even worse. I will have more to say on this later.”

The vote was 65 yeas to 35 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

REJECTING REPUBLICAN AMENDMENT TO BLOCK COVID-19 VACCINE MANDATES: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 30th reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Roger Mar­shall, R‑Kansas, to the Extend­ing Gov­ern­ment Fund­ing and Deliv­er­ing Emer­gency Assis­tance Act (H.R. 5305, above).

The amend­ment would have barred fund­ing for the adop­tion of gov­ern­men­tal COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion require­ments for pri­vate employers.

Mar­shall said: “No prece­dent exists in Amer­i­can his­to­ry for pun­ish­ing pri­vate employ­ers that don’t enforce gov­ern­ment vac­ci­na­tion edicts.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Patrick J. Leahy, D‑Vermont, said: “We need to end this pan­dem­ic, and get­ting peo­ple vac­ci­nat­ed is one of the most impor­tant things we can do to accom­plish that.” The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with a three-fifths thresh­old (six­ty votes) required for approval.

The State of Idaho

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

The State of Oregon

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

The State of Washington

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

KAREN DONFRIED, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 28th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Karen Eri­ka Don­fried to serve as the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for Euro­pean Affairs and Eurasian Affairs. Don­fried has been pres­i­dent of the Ger­man Mar­shall Fund of the Unit­ed States for sev­en years. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, called Don­fried’s nom­i­na­tion “a tes­ta­ment to the Biden admin­is­tra­tion’s effort to rebuild the transat­lantic rela­tion­ship” with Europe.

The vote was 73 yeas to 26 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (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: 6 aye votes

JESSICA LEWIS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 29th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Jes­si­ca Lewis to serve as Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for Polit­i­cal-Mil­i­tary Affairs. Lewis has been a staffer on Sen­ate and House for­eign pol­i­cy com­mit­tees and to indi­vid­ual sen­a­tors since 2002.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey., said Lewis “is rec­og­nized across par­ty lines as one of the most effec­tive and trust­ed lead­ers on Capi­tol Hill.”

The vote was 70 yeas to 27 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Jim Risch

Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor 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: 5 aye votes, 1 not voting

ROBERT ANDERSON, INTERIOR DEPARTMENT SOLICITOR: The Sen­ate has con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Robert Ander­son to serve as the Inte­ri­or Depart­men­t’s solic­i­tor. Ander­son has been Inte­ri­or’s prin­ci­pal deputy solic­i­tor since the start of the Biden admin­is­tra­tion. An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor John Bar­ras­so, R‑Wyo., crit­i­cized Ander­son for indi­cat­ing that he might move to end exist­ing pro­grams for leas­ing fed­er­al lands for oil and nat­ur­al gas pro­duc­tion, which Bar­ras­so said “sim­ply and unfor­tu­nate­ly but tru­ly ignores the law of the land.”

The vote was 53 yeas to 44 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Jim Risch

Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor 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, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

TODD ROBINSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 28th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Todd D. Robin­son to serve as the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for Inter­na­tion­al Nar­cotics and Law Enforce­ment Affairs. Robin­son has served as a diplo­mat in numer­ous Latin Amer­i­can and Euro­pean coun­tries, includ­ing, from 2014 to 2017, ambas­sador to Guatemala.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, said con­firm­ing Robin­son “is crit­i­cal to our inter­na­tion­al efforts to com­bat nar­cotics, to deal with fen­tanyl, and to deal with the traf­fick­ing routes that extend through Mex­i­co and all the way back to Chi­na.” The vote was 53 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

MARY PHEE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 28th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Mary Phee to serve as Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for African Affairs. Phee was ambas­sador to South Sudan from 2015 to 2017; her oth­er diplo­mat­ic post­ings include posi­tions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ethiopia. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, said Phee would “be pro­mot­ing the views of Amer­i­ca’s democ­ra­cy, human rights, rule of law, invest­ment, trade, and oppor­tu­ni­ty” at a vital time for Africa.

The vote was 67 yeas to 31 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (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: 6 aye votes

MONICA MEDINA, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: The Sen­ate has con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Mon­i­ca Med­i­na to serve as Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for Oceans and Inter­na­tion­al Envi­ron­men­tal and Sci­en­tif­ic Affairs.

Med­i­na has been a senior offi­cial at the Com­merce Depart­ment, Defense Depart­ment, and oth­er gov­ern­men­tal and pri­vate groups.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, cit­ed Med­i­na’s expe­ri­ence “in a broad vari­ety of lead­er­ship roles focused on ocean con­ser­va­tion, envi­ron­men­tal pol­i­cy, and sci­ence.” The vote was 61 yeas to 36 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (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: 6 aye votes

ROHIT CHOPRA, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 30th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Rohit Chopra to serve as direc­tor of the Bureau of Con­sumer Finan­cial Pro­tec­tion for a five-year term.

The CFPB, the brain­child of Sen­a­tor Eliz­a­beth War­ren (D‑Massachusetts), has saved Amer­i­cans bil­lions of dol­lars since its for­ma­tion in 2010.

Chopra has served on the Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion since May 2018; pre­vi­ous­ly, he was an assis­tant direc­tor at the Bureau. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown, D‑Ohio, said Chopra “has a deep under­stand­ing of finan­cial mar­kets, a strong record of pro­tect­ing con­sumers and work­ers and small busi­ness­es, pro­mot­ing com­pet­i­tive mar­kets, and hold­ing bad actors accountable.”

An oppo­nent, Sen. Pat Toomey, R‑Pennsylvania, said that as direc­tor, “Chopra would very like­ly return the CFPB to the rogue, unac­count­able, anti-busi­ness agency it was dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion. We have every rea­son to believe he would con­tin­ue to dis­re­gard legit­i­mate con­gres­sion­al over­sight requests.”

The vote was 50 yeas to 48 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

TRACY STONE-MANNING, BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 30th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Tra­cy Stone-Man­ning to serve as direc­tor of the Bureau of Land Man­age­ment (BLM), a DOI agency.

Stone-Man­ning was a senior aide to Sen­a­tor Jon Tester, D‑Montana, from 2007 to 2012; since then, she has been a senior offi­cial in Mon­tana’s state gov­ern­ment and at the Nation­al Wildlife Federation.

Tester said Stone-Man­ning “can get the job done. She can bring peo­ple togeth­er of all polit­i­cal ilks, and she can do what is nec­es­sary for the Amer­i­can people.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor John Bar­ras­so, R‑Wyoming, said Stone-Man­ning had “col­lab­o­rat­ed with ecoter­ror­ists, lied to the U.S. Sen­ate, wrote in favor of pop­u­la­tion con­trol as a prob­lem relat­ed to the cli­mate, and pro­mot­ed the idea that homes built in the for­est should be left to burn.”

The vote was 50 yeas to 45 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

Key votes ahead

The Sen­ate will hold con­fir­ma­tion votes on sev­er­al Biden nom­i­nees, includ­ing Lau­ren J. King, who has been nom­i­nat­ed to join the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the West­ern Dis­trict of Wash­ing­ton. If con­firmed, King would be only the third cur­rent­ly serv­ing Native Amer­i­can fed­er­al dis­trict court judge and the fifth Native Amer­i­can judge in the his­to­ry of the fed­er­al judiciary.

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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