Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (November 1st-5th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Novem­ber 5th, 2021.

In the United States House of Representatives

BARRING AGE DISCRIMINATION IN HIRING: The House on Novem­ber 4th passed the Pro­tect Old­er Job Appli­cants Act (H.R. 3992), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Sylvia R. Gar­cia, D‑Texas, to bar poten­tial employ­ers from lim­it­ing, seg­re­gat­ing, or clas­si­fy­ing job appli­cants based on their age.

Gar­cia said “some hir­ing prac­tices might seem age-neu­tral on their face, but they actu­al­ly impact job appli­cants that are old­er disproportionately.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bob Good, R‑Virginia, said the bill “aban­dons con­gres­sion­al prece­dence and impru­dent­ly allows dis­parate impact claims by job appli­cants.” The vote was 224 yeas to 200 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

ADVOCACY FOR FAIR ELECTIONS IN NICARAGUA: The House on Novem­ber 3rd passed the Rein­forc­ing Nicaragua’s Adher­ence to Con­di­tions for Elec­toral Reform Act (S. 1064), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jersey.

The bill would direct U.S. diplo­ma­cy to be used to encour­age free, fair elec­tions in Nicaragua on Novem­ber 7th and uphold human rights in the coun­try. A sup­port­er, Rep. Theodore Deutch, D‑Florida, said the bill “makes clear that the Unit­ed States will not sit by qui­et­ly as anoth­er coun­try in our hemi­sphere slides fur­ther away from our demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues.” The vote was 387 yeas to 35 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 13 aye votes, 2 nay votes, 1 present vote, 1 not voting

RESOLUTION ON DETAINEES IN CUBA: The House on Novem­ber 3rd passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 760), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz, D‑Florida, to call for Cuba’s gov­ern­ment to release arbi­trar­i­ly detained cit­i­zens and stop repress­ing the citizenry.

Schultz said the res­o­lu­tion would “send a mes­sage to the brave Cubans who are des­per­ate­ly yearn­ing for free­dom and legit­i­mate self-gov­er­nance: The Amer­i­can peo­ple are firm­ly by your side.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bar­bara Lee, D‑California, said Con­gress should instead “have an hon­est debate about a new Cuban pol­i­cy that talks about and sup­ports what real human rights for the Cuban peo­ple mean.” The vote was 382 yeas to 40 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 13 aye votes, 2 nay votes, 1 present vote, 1 not voting

RECOGNIZING THE LUMBEE TRIBE: The House on Novem­ber 1st passed the Lum­bee Recog­ni­tion Act (H.R. 2758), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive G.K. But­ter­field, D‑North Car­oli­na, to fed­er­al­ly rec­og­nize the Lum­bee Indi­an tribe in North Car­oli­na, with asso­ci­at­ed mem­ber eli­gi­bil­i­ty for ben­e­fits and the poten­tial for­ma­tion of a trib­al reser­va­tion. But­ter­field said the Lum­bee’s case for recog­ni­tion was not in dis­pute, so “it is long past time for Con­gress to give the Lum­bee the respect they deserve and to treat them with the fun­da­men­tal fair­ness that has been with­held for so many years.” The vote was 357 yeas to 59 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

DESIGNATING TRIBAL LAND IN CALIFORNIA: The House on Novem­ber 2nd passed the Pala Band of Mis­sion Indi­ans Land Trans­fer Act (H.R. 1975), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dar­rell E. Issa, R‑California, to have 721 acres in San Diego Coun­ty already owned by the Pala Band des­ig­nat­ed as part of the band’s reser­va­tion. The vote was 397 yeas to 25 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 not voting

DESIGNATING TRIBAL LAND IN ARIZONA: The House on Novem­ber 2nd passed the Old Pas­cua Com­mu­ni­ty Land Acqui­si­tion Act (H.R. 4881), spon­sored by Rep. Raul M. Gri­jal­va, D‑Arizona. The bill would assign to the Pas­cua Yaqui Indi­an trib­al reser­va­tion cer­tain lands in Pima Coun­ty. Gri­jal­va said it “will raise the trib­al stan­dard of liv­ing, improve sys­tem coor­di­na­tion and inte­gra­tion of ser­vice deliv­ery, and pro­mote the ongo­ing trans­mis­sion of Yaqui knowl­edge, cul­ture, his­to­ry, and tra­di­tions for future gen­er­a­tions.” The vote was 375 yeas to 45 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

DESIGNATING TRIBAL LAND IN TENNESSEE: The House on Novem­ber 2nd passed the East­ern Band of Chero­kee His­toric Lands Reac­qui­si­tion Act (H.R. 2088), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chuck Fleis­chmann, R‑Tennessee, to add sev­en­ty-six acres of land, includ­ing two memo­ri­als and one muse­um, to the East­ern Band’s reser­va­tion. The vote was 407 yeas to 16 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

EASING INVESTMENT IN SMALL BUSINESSES: The House on Novem­ber 2nd passed the Invest­ing in Main Street Act (H.R. 4256), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Judy Chu, D‑California to increase the amount of mon­ey that banks can invest in small busi­ness invest­ment com­pa­nies, which fund small com­pa­nies. Chu said the change “will deliv­er more invest­ments and more financ­ing to our small busi­ness­es for whom even small invest­ments can mean so much.”

The vote was 413 yeas to 10 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

SUPPORTING ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY: The House on Novem­ber 4th passed the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Coor­di­na­tion and Lead­er­ship Act (H.R. 1339), spon­sored by Rep. Sharice Davids, D‑Kan., to estab­lish an inter­a­gency work­ing group in the Trans­porta­tion Depart­ment that will sup­port advanced air mobil­i­ty, a term that refers to small air­planes with ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing capac­i­ty and elec­tric propul­sion. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Sam Graves, R‑Missouri, said the new avi­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy could “con­nect cities, towns, and neigh­bor­hoods all across the coun­try in a very safe, qui­et, and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly way.”

The vote was 383 yeas to 41 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

WHAT ABOUT THE INFRASTRUCTURE VOTE? 

The House­’s vote on the Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment and Jobs Act came after Tar­get­ed News Ser­vice com­piled this week’s votes. Accord­ing­ly, it will be in next week’s install­ment of Last Week In Con­gress. The roll call is, how­ev­er, avail­able now in this Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate post sum­ma­riz­ing the break­ing news.

In the United States Senate

PROCEDURAL VOTE ON JOHN R. LEWIS VOTING RIGHTS ADVANCEMENT ACT: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 3rd reject­ed a clo­ture motion to end debate on a motion to con­sid­er the John R. Lewis Vot­ing Rights Advance­ment Act (S. 4), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Patrick J. Leahy, D‑Vermont.

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 25 years.

The vote was 50 yeas to 49 nays, with a three-fifths thresh­old required to end debate. Lisa Murkows­ki was the only Repub­li­can to vote aye.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

BETH ROBINSON, APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 1st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Beth Robin­son to serve as a judge on the U.S. Sec­ond Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Robin­son has been a jus­tice on the Ver­mont Supreme Court since 2011. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Patrick J. Leahy, D‑Vermont, said: “Her unwa­ver­ing, decade-long ded­i­ca­tion as a jurist and her loy­al­ty to the law above all else has made Beth Robin­son an out­stand­ing Ver­mont Supreme Court jus­tice.” The vote was 51 yeas to 45 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

TOBY HEYTENS, APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 1st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Toby J. Heytens to serve as a judge on the U.S. Fourth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Heytens, Vir­gini­a’s solic­i­tor gen­er­al since 2018, was pre­vi­ous­ly a law pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­ginia and lawyer in the U.S. Solic­i­tor Gen­er­al’s Office. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, called Heytens “an accom­plished appel­late advo­cate, with a depth of expe­ri­ence and a fair-mind­ed­ness that would make him an asset to the Fourth Circuit.”

The vote was 53 yeas to 43 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

ISABEL COLEMAN, USAID: The Sen­ate has con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Iso­bel Cole­man to be deputy admin­is­tra­tor for pol­i­cy and pro­gram­ming at the U.S. Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment. Cole­man has been a long­time senior fel­low at the Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions and a pol­i­cy ambas­sador to the Unit­ed Nations dur­ing Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s sec­ond term. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, called Cole­man “a well-known and trust­ed for­eign affairs pro­fes­sion­al, and I am con­fi­dent she will exe­cute her duties with distinction.”

The vote was 59 yeas to 39 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

JEFFREY PRIETO, EPA GENERAL COUNSEL: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 3rd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Jef­frey Pri­eto to serve as gen­er­al coun­sel for the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency. Pri­eto was the Agri­cul­ture Depart­men­t’s gen­er­al coun­sel in the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion’s sec­ond term; cur­rent­ly, he is gen­er­al coun­sel for the Los Ange­les Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege Dis­trict. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Tom Carp­er, D‑Delaware, said Pri­eto “has the intel­lect, tem­pera­ment, and expe­ri­ence to serve in this impor­tant role.” The vote was 54 yeas to 44 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

RAJESH NAYAK, ASSISTANT LABOR SECRETARY: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 3rd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Rajesh Nayak to serve as assis­tant sec­re­tary for pol­i­cy at the Labor Depart­ment. Nayak, a senior offi­cial at the agency dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, this year returned to the agency as a senior advi­sor. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, D‑Washington, said: “As an advo­cate and a pol­i­cy­mak­er, he has shown time and again his com­mit­ment to empow­er­ing work­ers, sup­port­ing fam­i­lies, and advanc­ing equity.”

The vote was 52 yeas to 45 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

ROBERT SANTOS, CENSUS DIRECTOR: The Sen­ate has con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Robert San­tos to serve as direc­tor of the U.S. Cen­sus Bureau for a term end­ing at the close of 2026. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Gary Peters, D‑Michigan, said San­tos, cur­rent­ly vice pres­i­dent of the Urban Insti­tute, “brings over forty years of expe­ri­ence in both the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors as a man­ag­er and expert in the field of sur­vey design and sta­tis­ti­cal research.”

The vote was 58 yeas to 35 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

Key votes ahead

The Sen­ate is slat­ed to be in recess this week. The House­’s plans were to be announced, but House lead­er­ship antic­i­pates hold­ing a vote on the Build Back Bet­ter frame­work by Novem­ber 15th under Con­gress’ rec­on­cil­i­a­tion rules.

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