Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (February 7th-11th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 11th, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives

RELIEF AND SUPPORT FOR THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE: The House on Feb­ru­ary 8th passed the Postal Ser­vice Reform Act (H.R. 3076), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Car­olyn B. Mal­oney, D‑New York.

The bill would estab­lish a health ben­e­fits pro­grams for Postal Ser­vice work­ers and retirees while end­ing a require­ment that retire­ment health ben­e­fits be pre­paid, and estab­lish new bud­get and ser­vice report­ing require­ments for the Postal Ser­vice. Mal­oney called the changes an effort “to fix some of the seri­ous prob­lems that have been loom­ing over the post office for years and threat­en­ing its finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty.” The vote was 342 yeas to 92 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 nay votes

KEEPING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OPEN: The House on Feb­ru­ary 8th passed the Fur­ther Addi­tion­al Con­tin­u­ing Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 6617), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rosa L. DeLau­ro, D‑Conn., to extend fund­ing for the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment though March 11th. The vote was 272 yeas to 162 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 aye votes, 3 nay votes

PROTECTING VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND HARASSMENT: On Feb­ru­ary 7th, the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives passed the End­ing Forced Arbi­tra­tion of Sex­u­al Assault and Sex­u­al Harass­ment Act (H.R. 4445), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cheri Bus­tos, D‑Illinois, to bar arbi­tra­tion agree­ments that pre­vent a par­ty to the agree­ment from fil­ing a sex­u­al assault or sex­u­al harass­ment law­suit against anoth­er par­ty to the agreement.

Bus­tos said employ­ment agree­ments that force employ­ees to go to arbi­tra­tion to set­tle such cas­es were unjust “legal traps” used against workers.

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim Jor­dan, R‑Ohio, said the bill was more like­ly to ben­e­fit tri­al lawyers than work­ers, due to encour­ag­ing cost­ly lit­i­ga­tion while block­ing arbi­tra­tion. The vote was 335 yeas to 97 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 nay votes

HOMELAND SECURITY PURCHASING PRACTICES: The House on Feb­ru­ary 7th passed the Pro­mot­ing Rig­or­ous and Inno­v­a­tive Cost Effi­cien­cies for Fed­er­al Pro­cure­ment and Acqui­si­tions (PRICE) Act (S. 583), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Gary C. Peters, D‑Michigan. The bill would require the Home­land Secu­ri­ty Depart­ment to annu­al­ly pub­lish online a report on agency mea­sures to improve its pro­cure­ment sys­tems. The vote was 426 yeas to 5 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

INCREASING PROTECTIONS FOR LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY: The House on Feb­ru­ary 9th passed the Glob­al Respect Act (H.R. 3485), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive David L. Cicilline, D‑Rhode Island, to have the State Depart­ment enact visa-block­ing sanc­tions against for­eign­ers accused of sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, sex, or gen­der iden­ti­ty dis­crim­i­na­tion. Cicilline said: “This bill pro­tects LGBTQI peo­ple from mur­der, tor­ture, and oth­er forms of violence.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Clau­dia Ten­ney, R‑New York, said: “The bil­l’s broad lan­guage has the poten­tial to sweep in non­vi­o­lent con­duct and impose visa restric­tions on indi­vid­u­als engaged in that conduct.”

The vote was 227 yeas to 206 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

In the United States Senate

DONALD TUNNAGE, D.C. SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 7th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Don­ald Tun­nage to serve as a judge on the Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Supe­ri­or Court for a 15-year term. Tun­nage has been a civ­il rights tri­al attor­ney at the Jus­tice Depart­ment since 2009.

The vote was 54 yeas to 39 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

LOREN ALIKHAN, D.C. APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 8th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Loren AliKhan to serve as a judge on the Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Court of Appeals for a 15-year term. AliKhan has been the Dis­tric­t’s solic­i­tor gen­er­al since 2018, was pre­vi­ous­ly its deputy solic­i­tor gen­er­al, and before that was a Jus­tice Depart­ment lawyer.

The vote was 55 yeas to 41 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

AMY GUTMANN, AMBASSADOR TO GERMANY: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 8th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Amy Gut­mann to serve as U.S. ambas­sador to Ger­many. Gut­mann had been pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia since 2004. The vote was 54 yeas to 42 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

CHANTALE WONG, ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 8th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Chan­tale Wong to serve as the U.S. direc­tor on the Asian Devel­op­ment Bank. Wong was a senior offi­cial at the Mil­len­ni­um Chal­lenge Cor­po­ra­tion dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, and was on the board of the Asian Devel­op­ment Bank dur­ing the Clin­ton administration.

The vote was 66 yeas to 31 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

SCOTT NATHAN, U.S. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FINANCE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 9th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Scott Nathan to be Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer (CEO) of the U.S. Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment Finance Cor­po­ra­tion. Nathan, a long­time exec­u­tive at the Bau­post Group invest­ment firm, was an offi­cial in mul­ti­ple roles dur­ing the Oba­ma administration.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, said Nathan would help the agency “to be com­pet­i­tive with Chi­na’s Belt and Road Ini­tia­tive, to pro­mote renew­able ener­gy devel­op­ment, and to sup­port COVID-19 recov­ery, and, at the same time, to rec­og­nize and grap­ple with the com­plex­i­ty of these challenges.”

The vote was 72 yeas to 24 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

RETA JO, EXPORT-IMPORT BANK: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 9th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Reta Jo Lewis to serve as pres­i­dent of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Lewis, cur­rent­ly a senior offi­cial at the Ger­man Mar­shall Fund, was a State Depart­ment diplo­mat dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, and before that a Cham­ber of Com­merce exec­u­tive and pri­vate prac­tice lawyer.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown, D‑Ohio, called Lewis “the leader we need in the fight to help U.S. man­u­fac­tur­ers com­pete globally.”

The vote was 56 yeas to 40 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

LEONARD STARK, U.S. FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 9th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Leonard Stark to serve as a judge on the U.S. Fed­er­al Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Stark, a U.S. dis­trict court judge in Delaware since 2010, was pre­vi­ous­ly an assis­tant U.S attor­ney and pri­vate prac­tice lawyer in the state. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said of Stark: “His exper­tise in adju­di­cat­ing patents com­bined with his expe­ri­ence hear­ing appeals will be an asset to the Fed­er­al Cir­cuit and to our indus­tri­ous, inven­tive nation.” The vote, on Feb. 9, was 61 yeas to 35 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

NEIL MACBRIDE, U.S. TREASURY GENERAL COUNSEL: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 9th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Neil MacBride to be the Trea­sury Depart­men­t’s gen­er­al coun­sel. MacBride was a Jus­tice Depart­ment lawyer and U.S. attor­ney in Vir­ginia dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, and ear­li­er was chief coun­sel to Sen­a­tor Biden on the Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Committee.

The vote was 61 yeas to 33 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 1 nay vote

MAX VEKICH, MARITIME COMMISSIONER: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 10th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Max Vekich to serve on the Fed­er­al Mar­itime Com­mis­sion for a term end­ing in mid-2026. Vekich, a for­mer Wash­ing­ton state leg­is­la­tor, has since 2004 been an offi­cial at Puget Sound port groups.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, D‑Washington, said Vekich had “spent his life work­ing in the mar­itime indus­try and knows the chal­lenges we face in mar­itime, inter­modal trans­porta­tion, con­ges­tion, and con­tin­u­ing to move for­ward on how we advance our ports.”

The vote was 51 yeas to 43 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

PROTECTING VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND HARASSMENT: Along with this week’s roll call votes, the Sen­ate also passed the End­ing Forced Arbi­tra­tion of Sex­u­al Assault and Sex­u­al Harass­ment Act (H.R. 4445), which had passed the House in a roll call vote ear­li­er in the week.

Key votes ahead

This week, the Sen­ate will take up H.R. 3076 (the Postal Ser­vice Reform Act) and con­sid­er the nom­i­na­tion of Robert McK­in­non to be Com­mis­sion­er of Food and Drugs, Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices. The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives will be in recess, with no floor activ­i­ty planned.

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