Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (February 28th-March 4th)

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

In the United States House of Representatives

GOLD MEDALS FOR WORLD WAR II BATTALION: The House on Feb­ru­ary 28th passed the Six Triple Eight Con­gres­sion­al Gold Medal Act (S. 321), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Jer­ry Moran, R‑Kansas, to award a Con­gres­sion­al Gold Medal in hon­or of women in the 6888th Cen­tral Postal Direc­to­ry Bat­tal­ion in Europe dur­ing World War II. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ed Perl­mut­ter, D‑Colorado, said: “As the largest con­tin­gent of African-Amer­i­can women to serve over­seas dur­ing World War II, the Six Triple Eight demon­strat­ed suc­cess­ful­ly that African-Amer­i­can women could and should be includ­ed in the ranks of the military.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 422 yeas.

	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

FINALLY DESIGNATING LYNCHINGS AS HATE CRIMES: The House on Feb­ru­ary 28th passed the Emmett Till Anti­lynch­ing Act (H.R. 55), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bob­by L. Rush, D‑Illinois, to deem acts that involve lynch­ing to be hate crimes, with asso­ci­at­ed crim­i­nal penal­ties. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim Jor­dan, R‑Ohio, said: “Lynch­ing is an espe­cial­ly hor­ri­ble act of vio­lence. It was and is as wrong as wrong can be.” The vote was 422 yeas to 3 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

BARRING DISCRIMINATION BASED ON HAIRSTYLE: The House on Feb­ru­ary 28th passed the Cre­at­ing a Respect­ful and Open World for Nat­ur­al Hair Act (H.R. 2116), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bon­nie Cole­man Wat­son, D‑New Jer­sey, to pro­hib­it dis­crim­i­na­tion in the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment based on a hair tex­ture or hair­style that is tied to eth­nic­i­ty or race.

Wat­son Cole­man said: “Far too often, black peo­ple, espe­cial­ly black women and girls, are derid­ed or deemed unpro­fes­sion­al sim­ply because their hair does not con­form to white beau­ty standards.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim Jor­dan, R‑Ohio, said the bill was unnec­es­sary because “under cur­rent law, if a per­son­’s hair­style or hair tex­ture is asso­ci­at­ed with a per­son­’s race or nation­al ori­gin and is used as a pre­text for dis­crim­i­na­tion, that con­duct is unlaw­ful.” The vote was 235 yeas to 188 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Aye (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler and Dan Newhouse Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 13 aye votes, 4 nay votes

CONDEMNING PUTIN’S INVASION OF UKRAINE: The House on March 2nd passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 956), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gre­go­ry W. Meeks, D‑New York, call­ing for Rus­sia to with­draw its sol­diers from Ukraine, sup­port­ing sanc­tions against Rus­si­a’s gov­ern­ment, and urg­ing that the U.S. and its allies send mil­i­tary aid to Ukraine. Meeks called the res­o­lu­tion “a very strong mes­sage, a uni­fied mes­sage, to sup­port the peo­ple of Ukraine.”

The vote was 426 yeas to 3 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

PROTECTING VETERANS: The House has passed the Hon­or­ing Our PACT Act (H.R. 3967), spon­sored by Rep. Mark Takano, D‑California, to require the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs to take mea­sures to increase detec­tion of and treat­ment for vet­er­ans’ poten­tial tox­ins expo­sures while enlisted.

Takano said: “This bill address­es the true cost of war, and oppos­ing it would be a vote against our ser­vice­mem­bers and vet­er­ans.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mar­i­an­nette Miller-Meeks, R‑Iowa, said the bill lacked sci­en­tif­ic cri­te­ria for deter­min­ing whether a vet­er­an’s med­ical prob­lem derived from expo­sure to tox­ins, and claimed it would over­whelm the VA with more than a mil­lion dis­abil­i­ty claims. The vote was 256 yeas to 174 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	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

In the United States Senate

SABOTAGING COVID VACCINATION REQUIREMENTS: The Sen­ate on March 2nd passed a res­o­lu­tion (S.J. Res. 32), spon­sored by Sen. Roger Mar­shall, R‑Kan., to dis­ap­prove of and void the Cen­ters for Medicare and Med­ic­aid Ser­vices rule requir­ing vac­ci­na­tions against COVID-19 of staff at health care facil­i­ties doing busi­ness with Medicare and Med­ic­aid. Mar­shall said of the require­ment: “Not only is it coer­cive and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, the man­date does not take into account the fact that nat­ur­al immu­ni­ty is as effec­tive as the vac­cines and that vac­cines do not pre­vent trans­mis­sion of the Omi­cron variant.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said: “Vac­cine require­ments aren’t any­thing new for health­care work­ers. Flu shot require­ments have been com­mon for a long time.” The vote was 49 yeas to 44 nays.

The res­o­lu­tion is not expect­ed to be tak­en up in the House.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

ENDING THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARED IN RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC: The Sen­ate on March 3rd passed a res­o­lu­tion (S.J. Res. 38), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Roger Mar­shall, R‑Kansas, that would end the nation­al pan­dem­ic-relat­ed emer­gency declared by Don­ald Trump on March 13th, 2020.

Mar­shall said efforts by the Biden admin­is­tra­tion to sus­tain the emer­gency dec­la­ra­tion were “a bla­tant effort to fur­ther extend the mas­sive accu­mu­la­tion of pow­er that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has extend­ed across Amer­i­ca for the last two years.”

A res­o­lu­tion oppo­nent, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, said it would “hand­i­cap the Biden admin­is­tra­tion’s abil­i­ty to fight the pan­dem­ic and height­en the dan­ger that all our progress is sud­den­ly unrav­eled in the future.”

The vote was 48 yeas to 47 nays.

The res­o­lu­tion is not expect­ed to be tak­en up in the House.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes

Key votes ahead

This week, the Sen­ate is expect­ed to con­sid­er H.R. 3076 (the Postal Ser­vice Reform Act). Both the House and Sen­ate face a dead­line late next week to send Pres­i­dent Biden appro­pri­a­tions leg­is­la­tion that would keep the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment open and fund­ed. Unlike pre­vi­ous fund­ing mea­sures, this is antic­i­pat­ed to be a nor­mal bud­get bill as opposed to a short-term “con­tin­u­ing resolution.”

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