NPI's Cascadia Advocate

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

Sunday, January 23rd, 2022

Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (January 17th-21st)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 21st, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives

Chamber of the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

EASIER ACCESS TO BENEFITS FOR VETERANS: The House on Jan­u­ary 20th passed the Ensur­ing Vet­er­ans’ Smooth Tran­si­tion Act (H.R. 4673), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mark Takano, D‑California, to have the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs auto­mat­i­cal­ly enroll eli­gi­ble vet­er­ans, with the vet­er­ans’ con­sent, into the agen­cy’s health care sys­tem. Takano said auto­mat­ic enroll­ment “helps sim­pli­fy the process and pre­vents vet­er­ans from poten­tial­ly miss­ing out on life­sav­ing care.”

A bill oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Bost, R‑Illinois, cit­ed an esti­mat­ed $3.1 bil­lion cost, and said the pro­gram could take away from oth­er VA services.

The vote was 265 yeas to 163 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 (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Her­rera Beutler

Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

AID TO K‑12 SCHOOLS: The House on Jan­u­ary 18th passed the Sup­ple­men­tal Impact Aid Flex­i­bil­i­ty Act (S. 2959), spon­sored by Sen. John Thune, R‑South Dako­ta, to change pro­ce­dures for local edu­ca­tion­al agen­cies to apply for fed­er­al Impact Aid funds in fis­cal 2023. The vote was 414 yeas to 6 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

RECOGNIZING BLACK HOCKEY PLAYER: The House on Jan­u­ary 19th passed the Willie O’Ree Con­gres­sion­al Gold Medal Act (S. 452), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Deb­bie Stabenow, D‑Michigan, to award a Con­gres­sion­al Gold Medal to Willie O’Ree, the first black Nation­al Hock­ey League player.

The vote was unan­i­mous with 426 yeas.

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

In the United States Senate

Chamber of the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

REPUBLICANS DEFEAT FILIBUSTER REFORM WITH MANCHIN AND SINEMA: The Sen­ate on Jan­u­ary 19th agreed to uphold a rul­ing by the Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore that allowed sen­a­tors to offer amend­ments and raise points of order regard­ing the Free­dom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act (H.R. 5746).

Reject­ing the rul­ing could have result­ed in sen­a­tors being required to engage in a talk­ing fil­i­buster in order to avoid a vote on the bill.

A sup­port­er of the rul­ing, Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell, R‑Kentucky, claimed it was need­ed to foil “a direct assault on the core iden­ti­ty of the Sen­ate” by end­ing the need for super-major­i­ty approval to bring leg­is­la­tion to a vote.

An oppo­nent, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, claimed that Repub­li­can sen­a­tors were tak­ing part in a “reac­tionary back­lash” against expand­ed vot­ing and try­ing to make it hard­er for Amer­i­cans to par­tic­i­pate in elec­tions. The vote was 52 yeas to 48 nays.

(Pri­or to this vote, the Sen­ate had vot­ed fifty to fifty to end debate on H.R. 5746, which was ten votes short of the six­ty vote thresh­old required to suc­cess­ful­ly invoke clo­ture, with Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris presiding.)

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

HOLLY THOMAS, NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Jan­u­ary 20th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Hol­ly Thomas to serve as a judge on the U.S. Ninth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Thomas, a Cal­i­for­nia Supe­ri­or Court judge for Los Ange­les Coun­ty since 2018, pre­vi­ous­ly worked for the Jus­tice Depart­ment and was a lawyer for the gov­ern­ment of New York.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dianne Fein­stein (D‑California) said: “Judge Thomas has a breadth of expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge that would make her well-suit­ed to sit on the Ninth Cir­cuit.” An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Dan Sul­li­van, R‑Alaska, said sen­a­tors were being denied the chance to meet with Thomas and oth­er judi­cial nom­i­nees to eval­u­ate them before a con­fir­ma­tion vote. The vote was 48 yeas to 40 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 House will be in recess this week; no floor votes are planned.

The Sen­ate is slat­ed to vote on more than half a dozen judi­cial nom­i­na­tions, includ­ing sev­er­al judges for the north­ern Ohio bench and the low­er courts of the Dis­trict of Colum­bia. Exec­u­tive nom­i­na­tions will also be con­sid­ered for mil­i­tary posi­tions and ambas­sador­ships in the Biden administration.

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!

© 2022 Tar­get­ed News Ser­vice, LLC. 

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