Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (March 21st — 25th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Unit­ed States Sen­a­tors vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, March 25th, 2022.

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives was in recess.

In the United States Senate

ALISON NATHAN, COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 23rd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Ali­son Nathan to serve as a judge on the U.S. Sec­ond Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Nathan has been a judge on the U.S. South­ern Dis­trict of New York court since 2011. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said: “She has proven, with­out a doubt, that she under­stands the dif­fer­ence between a pol­i­cy advo­cate and a judge, and I am cer­tain that she will con­tin­ue to admin­is­ter jus­tice in a thought­ful, even­hand­ed manner.”

The vote was 49 yeas to 47 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

JOHN CHUN, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 23rd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of John Chun to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the West­ern Dis­trict of Wash­ing­ton. Chun, a judge on the Wash­ing­ton state appeals court since 2018, was pre­vi­ous­ly a coun­ty court judge and a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer in Seat­tle. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said Chun’s “demon­stra­ble com­mit­ment to jus­tice and the rule of law will serve him well as a dis­trict court judge.” The vote was 49 yeas to 47 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

RUTH BERMUDEZ MONTENEGRO, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 22nd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Ruth Bermudez Mon­tene­gro to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the South­ern Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia. Mon­tene­gro was an attor­ney at a Cal­i­for­nia school dis­trict before, in 2014, becom­ing a Cal­i­for­nia state judge and then, in 2018, becom­ing a mag­is­trate judge in the south­ern dis­trict. The vote was 55 yeas to 41 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

VICTORIA CALVERT, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 22nd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Vic­to­ria Calvert to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the North­ern Dis­trict of Geor­gia. Calvert has been a pub­lic defend­er for the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, based in Atlanta, since 2012.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, called Calvert “a high­ly expe­ri­enced lit­i­ga­tor with a proven com­mit­ment to ensur­ing equal jus­tice for all.”

The vote was 50 yeas to 46 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

JULIE RUBIN, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 23rd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Julie Rubin to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for Mary­land. Rubin, a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer in Bal­ti­more from 2000 to 2013, then became a judge in Bal­ti­more’s cir­cuit court. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, cit­ed Rubin’s “wealth of tri­al expe­ri­ence on and off the bench.”

The vote was 51 yeas to 46 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

HECTOR GONZALEZ, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 23rd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Hec­tor Gon­za­lez to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the East­ern Dis­trict of New York. Gon­za­lez has been a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer in New York City since 1999. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said: “In addi­tion to the crim­i­nal law exper­tise he devel­oped as a pros­e­cu­tor, Mr. Gon­za­lez has also gained con­sid­er­able civ­il lit­i­ga­tion expe­ri­ence, man­ag­ing com­plex lit­i­ga­tion mat­ters involv­ing bank­rupt­cy, antitrust, and pro­fes­sion­al lia­bil­i­ty.” The vote was 52 yeas to 45 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

CRISTINA SILVA, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate has con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Cristi­na D. Sil­va to serve as a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for Neva­da. Sil­va became a judge in Neva­da in 2019; pri­or to that, she was a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor in Neva­da start­ing in 2010. The vote was 50 yeas to 46 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

ANNE RACHEL TRAUM, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 23rd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Anne Rachel Traum to serve as a judge on the U.S. dis­trict court for Neva­da. Traum has been a law pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Neva­da, Las Vegas since 2014, and pre­vi­ous­ly was a fed­er­al gov­ern­ment lawyer in Neva­da. The vote was 49 yeas to 47 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

ANDREW LUGER, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR MINNESOTA: The Sen­ate on March 24th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Andrew Luger to be the U.S. Attor­ney for Min­neso­ta. Luger had served in the same role from 2014 to 2017; oth­er­wise, he has been a law firm part­ner in Min­neapo­lis since 1996.

The vote was 60 yeas to 36 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 of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives will take up the Mar­i­jua­na Oppor­tu­ni­ty Rein­vest­ment and Expunge­ment Act (MORE Act) and will pre­pare to con­sid­er more than a dozen bills, such as the Bet­ter Cyber­crime Met­rics Act and the Safe­guard­ing Tomor­row through Ongo­ing Risk Mit­i­ga­tion Tech­ni­cal Cor­rec­tions Act.

The Sen­ate will con­tin­ue to con­sid­er H.R. 4521, the Unit­ed States Inno­va­tion and Com­pe­ti­tion Act. Clo­ture was filed last week on a sub­sti­tute amend­ment offered by Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer as well as the under­ly­ing bill. The Sen­ate may also vote to con­firm Nani A. Col­oret­ti to be Deputy Direc­tor of the Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get and to con­firm C.S. Eliot Kang to be an Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State (Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty and Non-Proliferation).

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