Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (January 10th-14th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 14th, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives

PROTECTING VOTING RIGHTS AND ELECTION INTEGRITY: The House on Jan­u­ary 13th passed the Free­dom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act (H.R. 5746), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Don­ald S. Bey­er Jr., D‑Virginia.

The bill would make numer­ous changes to vot­ing and elec­tion pro­ce­dures for fed­er­al offices, includ­ing mak­ing the Novem­ber elec­tion day a legal hol­i­day and requir­ing that for­mer­ly impris­oned crim­i­nals be able to vote.

Bey­er called the bill a “stand against efforts to manip­u­late vot­ing rules in favor of the few and take our essen­tial demo­c­ra­t­ic priv­i­lege away from all Americans.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Byron Don­alds, R‑Florida, said that giv­ing Con­gress direct con­trol of elec­tions admin­is­tered by the states was a vio­la­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion. The vote was 220 yeas to 203 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

GUARD AND RESERVE GI BILL PARITY ACT: The House on Jan­u­ary 12th passed the Guard and Reserve GI Bill Par­i­ty Act (H.R. 1836), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Levin, D‑California. The bill would include ser­vice time in the Nation­al Guard or the mil­i­tary’s reserves as count­ing toward a mil­i­tary mem­ber’s eli­gi­bil­i­ty to receive funds to help pay for the mem­ber’s education.

Levin said the change would work “to deliv­er some basic fair­ness in the way we pro­vide GI Bill ben­e­fits for the men and women who serve our nation.”

The vote was 287 yeas to 135 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 13 aye votes, 4 nay votes

In the United States Senate

ALAN DAVIDSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: The Sen­ate on Jan­u­ary 11th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Alan David­son to serve as the Com­merce Depart­men­t’s assis­tant sec­re­tary for com­mu­ni­ca­tions and information.

David­son was a lob­by­ist for Google from 2005 to 2012, then was a senior offi­cial at the Com­merce Depart­ment and at the Mozil­la Foundation.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, D‑Washington, said David­son had abun­dant expe­ri­ence in the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors, and he would “help effec­tive­ly and speed­i­ly to get broad­band deployed to both sec­tors of our economy.”

The vote was 60 yeas to 31 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 3 aye votes, 2 nay votes, 1 not voting

AMITABHA BOSE, FRA ADMINISTRATOR: The Sen­ate on Jan­u­ary 12th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Amitab­ha Bose to serve as admin­is­tra­tor of the Fed­er­al Rail­road Admin­is­tra­tion (FRA). Bose has been a senior offi­cial at the FRA and the Trans­porta­tion Depart­ment, and before that, the New Jer­sey government.

The vote was 68 yeas to 29 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

GABRIEL SANCHEZ, NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Jan­u­ary 12th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Gabriel Sanchez to serve as a judge on the Ninth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. A Cal­i­for­nia state appeals court judge since 2018, Sanchez was pre­vi­ous­ly a legal affairs offi­cial in that state’s guber­na­to­r­i­al branch and a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer. A sup­port­er, Sen. Alex Padil­la, D‑California, said Sanchez “has long been held in high esteem in Cal­i­for­ni­a’s legal cir­cles. He brings thought­ful­ness and empa­thy to every deci­sion that he makes.”

The vote was 52 yeas to 47 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

REJECTING CRUZ’S PROPOSED NORDSTREAM PIPELINE SANCTIONS: The Sen­ate on Jan­u­ary 13th reject­ed the Pro­tect­ing Europe’s Ener­gy Secu­ri­ty Imple­men­ta­tion Act (S. 3436), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Ted Cruz, R‑Texas. The bill would have required the impo­si­tion of sanc­tions against enti­ties build­ing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would car­ry gas from Rus­sia to Germany.

Cruz said that by help­ing block the pipeline, the sanc­tions would aid Ukraine in its strug­gle to pre­vent dom­i­na­tion and pos­si­ble inva­sion by Russia.

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Jeanne Sha­heen, D‑New Hamp­shire, said that by cut­ting off talks with Europe on how to oppose Rus­sia, the sanc­tions “would dri­ve a wedge between us and our allies, par­tic­u­lar­ly between the Unit­ed States and Ger­many, at a time that we can­not afford it.” The vote was 55 yeas to 44 nays, with a three-fifths thresh­old (six­ty votes out of one hun­dred) required for approval.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

Key votes ahead

This week, the House plans to take up the Sup­ple­men­tal Impact Aid Flex­i­bil­i­ty Act, the Puer­to Rico Recov­ery Accu­ra­cy in Dis­clo­sures Act of 2021, and the EVEST Act, plus the Ghost Army and Willie O’Ree Con­gres­sion­al Gold Medal Acts. The Sen­ate is expect­ed to vote on Hol­ly Thomas’ nom­i­na­tion to the Ninth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals, with addi­tion­al floor action to be announced.

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!

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