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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, March 13th, 2022

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

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

In the United States House of Representatives

Chamber of the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

DHS APPROPRIATIONS LEGISLATION: The House on March 9th passed an amend­ment to a bill (H.R. 2471), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Hakeem S. Jef­fries, D‑New York, to fund the Defense Depart­ment, Home­land Secu­ri­ty Depart­ment, and asso­ci­at­ed mil­i­tary and nation­al secu­ri­ty pro­grams in fis­cal 2022. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kay Granger, R‑Texas, said the spend­ing “pro­vides our mil­i­tary and our troops with the resources they des­per­ate­ly need,” and “also ensures the safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of the Amer­i­can peo­ple by increas­ing over­all fund­ing for Home­land Secu­ri­ty by 11 per­cent.” The vote was 361 yeas to 69 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simp­son and Russ Fulcher

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz

Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Earl Blumenauer

The State of Washington

Vot­ing Aye (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jayapal

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 nay votes

INVESTMENTS IN AMERICA’S FUTURE: The House on March 9th passed an amend­ment to a bill (H.R. 2471, above), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Hakeem S. Jef­fries, D‑New York, that would fund fed­er­al dis­cre­tionary domes­tic pro­grams in fis­cal 2022, includ­ing an 11.8 per­cent increase in fund­ing for the leg­isla­tive branch and 6.7 per­cent over­all increase in fund­ing for non-defense programs.

A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rosa L. DeLau­ro, D‑New York, called the fund­ing an effort to “show just how gov­ern­ment can work for work­ing peo­ple once again and to achieve the bet­ter­ment of humankind.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chip Roy, R‑Texas, said it increased irre­spon­si­ble spend­ing while fail­ing to solve the prob­lem of secu­ri­ty at the bor­der with Mex­i­co. The vote was 260 yeas to 171 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson

Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher

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 (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: 14 aye votes, 3 nay votes

STRICTER ACCREDITATION STANDARDS FOR DHS: The House on March 7th passed the DHS Basic Train­ing Accred­i­ta­tion Improve­ment Act (H.R. 5616), spon­sored by Rep. Val But­ler Dem­ings, D‑Florida, to require the Home­land Secu­ri­ty Depart­ment to send accred­i­ta­tion sta­tus reports on its train­ing pro­grams to Con­gres­sion­al over­sight com­mit­tees. Dem­ings said stricter accred­i­ta­tion stan­dards for new Home­land Secu­ri­ty offi­cers would “posi­tion them to effec­tive­ly safe­guard the Amer­i­can peo­ple, our home­land, and institutions.”

The vote was 390 yeas to 33 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

CYBERSECURITY PARTNERSHIPS: The House on March 7th passed the Nation­al Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty Pre­pared­ness Con­sor­tium Act (S. 658), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor John Cornyn, R‑Texas, to autho­rize the Home­land Secu­ri­ty Depart­ment to part­ner with pri­vate non­prof­it groups on cyber­se­cu­ri­ty train­ing efforts.

A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive John Katko, R‑New York, said the bill “will help pro­vide train­ing, exer­cis­es, tech­ni­cal assis­tance, and oth­er impor­tant resources to state and local gov­ern­ments, crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture, and indus­try partners.”

The vote was 403 yeas to 19 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

RECLASSIFYING ICE OFFICER UNIT: The House on March 8th passed the Shad­ow Wolves Enhance­ment Act (H.R. 5681), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive John Katko, R‑New York, to reclas­si­fy a spe­cial unit of Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment offi­cers (known as “shad­ow wolves”) work­ing on Tohono O’od­ham Nation land in south­ern Ari­zona as spe­cial agents. Katko said the reclas­si­fi­ca­tion would improve pay for the shad­ow wolves and enable recruit­ment of new trib­al mem­bers into the spe­cial unit. The vote was 387 yeas to 33 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

CONDEMNING VIOLENCE AGAINST BLACK COLLEGES: The House on March 8th has passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Con. Res. 70), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Alma S. Adams, D‑North Car­oli­na, con­demn­ing vio­lence against his­tor­i­cal­ly black col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties. Adams called the res­o­lu­tion a need­ed response to “the recent despi­ca­ble, cow­ard­ly bomb threats to more than thir­ty his­tor­i­cal­ly black col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties.” The vote was unan­i­mous with 418 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 (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler and Dan Newhouse

Not Vot­ing (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 not voting

BARRING FOSSIL FUEL IMPORTS FROM RUSSIA: The House on March 9th passed the Sus­pend­ing Ener­gy Imports From Rus­sia Act (H.R. 6968), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lloyd Doggett, D‑Texas, to bar imports from Rus­sia of nat­ur­al gas, oil and petro­le­um prod­ucts, and oth­er ener­gy resources.

Doggett said: “To take the ener­gy out of Putin’s bru­tal assault, we place ener­gy on our sanc­tions list. It may cost more to fill your tank, but we must work to stop Putin’s tanks from crush­ing fam­i­lies and freedom.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Louie Gohmert, R‑Texas, said: “There is no way I could vote to exchange get­ting oil from Putin for get­ting oil from some oth­er tyrant who wants to destroy Amer­i­ca.” The vote was 414 yeas to 17 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

ADDITIONAL VOTE: Along with roll call votes this week, the House also passed the Exten­sion of Con­tin­u­ing Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.J. Res. 75), mak­ing fur­ther con­tin­u­ing appro­pri­a­tions for the fis­cal year end­ing Sep­tem­ber 30th, 2022.

In the United States Senate

Chamber of the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

APPROPRIATIONS FOR 2022: The Sen­ate on March 10th agreed to the House amend­ments to the Con­sol­i­dat­ed Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 2471), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Hakeem S. Jef­fries, D‑New York, that would fund pub­lic ser­vices and the Unit­ed States mil­i­tary through the end of the cur­rent fis­cal year.

A sup­port­er, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, called the leg­is­la­tion “the strongest, bold­est, and most sig­nif­i­cant gov­ern­ment fund­ing pack­age we have seen in a very long time.” The vote was 68 yeas to 31 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

PROHIBITING EARMARKED APPROPRIATIONS: The Sen­ate on March 10th reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Mike Braun, R‑Indiana, to the Con­sol­i­dat­ed Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 2471, above) that would have barred fund­ing for ear­mark spend­ing on indi­vid­ual appro­pri­a­tions at the request of a mem­ber of Con­gress. Braun said the draft­ing of the spend­ing bill just before it was sent to Con­gress meant there had been no time for leg­is­la­tors to review pro­posed ear­mark spend­ing. An amend­ment oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Patrick J. Leahy, D‑Vermont, said details about ear­marked items had been pub­licly avail­able on the Inter­net since sum­mer 2021. The vote was 35 yeas to 64 nays.

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

RELIEF AND SUPPORT FOR THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE: The Sen­ate on March 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.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Lisa Murkows­ki, R‑Alaska, said the bill sought to “give the Postal Ser­vice the tools that it needs to be suc­cess­ful and to ful­fill its essen­tial mis­sion and to hold the USPS account­able for improved performance.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Mike Lee, R‑Utah, said it failed to ade­quate­ly improve the Postal Ser­vice’s finances while shift­ing the cost of pro­vid­ing retiree health ben­e­fits onto tax­pay­ers. The vote was 79 yeas to 19 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

MARIA PAGAN, DEPUTY U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: The Sen­ate on March 10th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Maria L. Pagan to be a Deputy U.S. Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Pagan, cur­rent­ly a legal offi­cial at the Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Office, has been a trade lawyer for the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment since the 1990s. A sup­port­er, Sen. Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said Pagan “is an expert on a host of issues from trade in ser­vices to gov­ern­ment pro­cure­ment, and she has lit­i­gat­ed sev­er­al dis­putes before the WTO.” The vote was 80 yeas to 19 nays.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing Aye (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: 6 aye votes

Key votes ahead

This week, the Sen­ate will resume con­sid­er­ing the nom­i­na­tion of Sha­lan­da D. Young to be Direc­tor of the Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get and debate S.J. Res. 37, the Paul Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Mask Require­ment Res­o­lu­tion of Dis­ap­proval. The Sen­ate also plans to vote on the nom­i­na­tion of Susan Tsui Grund­mann to be a mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Labor Rela­tions Author­i­ty for a term of five years. The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is slat­ed to take up H.R. 963, the Forced Arbi­tra­tion Injus­tice Repeal Act of 2022 as well as H.R. 2116, the Cre­at­ing a Respect­ful and Open World for Nat­ur­al Hair Act of 2021.

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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