Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 4th, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

STRENGTHENING MARITIME REGULATIONS: The House on Feb­ru­ary 3rd passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive John Gara­men­di, D‑California, to the Bioe­con­o­my Research and Devel­op­ment Act (H.R. 4521).

The amend­ment insert­ed into the bill the Ocean Ship­ping Reform Act, which would change var­i­ous fed­er­al poli­cies reg­u­lat­ing ocean­ic goods ship­ments with the intent of pro­mot­ing U.S. exports. Gara­men­di said the amend­ment aimed at “ensur­ing rec­i­p­ro­cal trade to help reduce the Unit­ed States’ long­stand­ing trade imbal­ance with export-dri­ven coun­tries,” includ­ing Chi­na and South Korea.

The vote was 367 yeas to 59 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	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

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

BRIDGET BRENNAN, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 1st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Brid­get Bren­nan to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for north­ern Ohio. A fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor in the dis­trict since 2007, Bren­nan is cur­rent­ly its act­ing U.S. attor­ney. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown, D‑Ohio, called Bren­nan “some­one whose com­mit­ment to jus­tice is obvi­ous to all of those who deal with her.” The vote was 61 yeas to 35 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

CHARLES FLEMING, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 1st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Charles Flem­ing to serve as a judge on the U.S. dis­trict court for north­ern Ohio. Flem­ing has been a crim­i­nal pub­lic defend­er in the dis­trict since 1991. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown, D‑Ohio, said Flem­ing “has received uni­form­ly enthu­si­as­tic reviews from judges he has appeared before and from attor­neys he has tried cas­es against.”

The vote was 56 yeas to 42 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

DAVID RUIZ, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 1st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of David Ruiz to serve as a judge on the U.S. dis­trict court for north­ern Ohio. Ruiz, a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor in the dis­trict from 2010 to 2016, has, since 2016, been a mag­is­trate judge in the district.

The vote was 62 yeas to 35 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

RUPA PUTTAGUNTA, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 2nd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Rupa Put­ta­gun­ta to serve as an asso­ciate judge on the supe­ri­or court for Wash­ing­ton, D.C., for a fif­teen year term. Put­ta­gun­ta has been a law clerk, pri­vate prac­tice lawyer, and, cur­rent­ly, admin­is­tra­tive judge in the Dis­trict. The vote was 57 yeas to 38 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

SEOANE LOPEZ, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 2nd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Seoane Lopez to serve as an asso­ciate judge on the supe­ri­or court for Wash­ing­ton, D.C., for a fif­teen year term. Lopez has been a mag­is­trate judge on the supe­ri­or court since 2013.

The vote was 59 yeas to 38 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

SEAN STAPLES, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 2nd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Sean C. Sta­ples to serve as an asso­ciate judge on the supe­ri­or court for Wash­ing­ton, D.C., for a fif­teen year term. Sta­ples, a mag­is­trate judge on the court since 2013, was pre­vi­ous­ly an assis­tant pub­lic defend­er and one of the court’s law clerks.

The vote was 59 yeas to 38 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

Key votes ahead

The House will debate and vote on the Postal Ser­vice Reform Act of 2021 (H.R. 3076), as well as the Glob­al Respect Act (H.R. 3485) and the End­ing Forced Arbi­tra­tion of Sex­u­al Assault and Sex­u­al Harass­ment Act of 2021 (H.R. 4445).

The Sen­ate will take up the nom­i­na­tions of Dou­glas R. Bush to be Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of the Army and Max Vekich of Wash­ing­ton State to be a Fed­er­al Mar­itime Com­mis­sion­er, as well as nom­i­na­tions for Samuel R. Bagen­stos to be Gen­er­al Coun­sel of the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices and for Neil Har­vey MacBride to be Gen­er­al Coun­sel for the Depart­ment of the Treasury.

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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