Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (April 4th-8th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, April 8th, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives

SUBPOENAS FOR TRUMP AIDES INVOLVED IN INSURRECTION: The House on April 6th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 1037), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ben­nie G. Thomp­son, D‑Mississippi, to rec­om­mend that Trump admin­is­tra­tion staffers Dan Scav­i­no and Peter Navar­ro be held in con­tempt of Con­gress for not com­ply­ing with sub­poe­nas issued by the House sub­com­mit­tee inves­ti­gat­ing the Jan­u­ary 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Thomp­son said that because Scav­i­no and Navar­ro were gov­ern­ment employ­ees, they should respond to legit­i­mate leg­isla­tive inquiries “about their roles in try­ing to over­turn the 2020 election.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Matt Gaetz, R‑Florida, said: “The rea­son Scav­i­no and Navar­ro should­n’t be held in con­tempt is that the Jan­u­ary 6th Com­mit­tee itself is so per­for­ma­tive, ille­git­i­mate, and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, kick­ing off the Repub­li­cans that Leader McCarthy sent to serve on the committee.”

The vote was 220 yeas to 203 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 10 aye votes, 6 nay votes, 1 not voting

REVOKING RUSSIA AND BELARUS’ MFN STATUS: The House on April 7th passed the Sus­pend­ing Nor­mal Trade Rela­tions with Rus­sia and Belarus Act (H.R. 7108), spon­sored by Richard E. Neal, D‑Massachusetts, to autho­rize the pres­i­dent to increase duties on goods import­ed from Rus­sia or Belarus through 2023, and autho­rize a broad­er stan­dard for apply­ing visa and prop­er­ty-relat­ed sanc­tions against for­eign­ers accused of seri­ous human rights abuses.

The vote was 420 yeas to 3 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

SIMPLIFYING REGISTRATION FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA RESEARCH: The House on April 4th passed the Med­ical Mar­i­jua­na Research Act (H.R. 5657), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Earl Blu­me­nauer, D‑Oregon, to cre­ate a new, less strin­gent fed­er­al reg­is­tra­tion process for research into med­ical marijuana.

The vote was 343 yeas to 75 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 aye votes, 3 nay votes

OBLIGING HEALTH INSURERS TO COVER TREATING BIRTH DEFECTS: The House on April 4th passed the Ensur­ing Last­ing Smiles Act (H.R. 1916), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Anna G. Eshoo, D‑California, to require health insur­ers to cov­er birth defect treat­ments in their plans. Eshoo said the bill was need­ed because “for babies who have oral defects such as cleft palates, skele­tal defects, con­gen­i­tal cataracts, or hear­ing defects, insur­ance com­pa­nies have sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly denied or delayed med­ical­ly nec­es­sary treatments.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive H. Mor­gan Grif­fith, R‑Virginia, said vague lan­guage in the bill meant “that not one per­son can artic­u­late which med­ical pro­ce­dures or treat­ments would be required to be cov­ered by insurance.”

The vote was 310 yeas to 110 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 aye votes, 3 nay votes

TRADE AND ECONOMIC SECURITY ADVISORY COUNCIL AT DHS: The House on April 5th passed the DHS Trade and Eco­nom­ic Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Act (H.R. 4476), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Peter Mei­jer, R‑Michigan, to cre­ate a trade and eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty advi­so­ry coun­cil at the Home­land Secu­ri­ty Depart­ment. Mei­jer said the coun­cil’s work to “iden­ti­fy con­cen­trat­ed eco­nom­ic risks, set pri­or­i­ties, and coor­di­nate enter­prise-wide action on eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty mat­ters” would be of crit­i­cal impor­tance for the coun­try. The vote was 348 yeas to 75 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND DISASTER RECOVERY COORDINATION: The House on April 5th passed the Resilient Assis­tance for Mit­i­ga­tion for Envi­ron­men­tal­ly Resilient Infra­struc­ture and Con­struc­tion by Amer­i­cans Act (H.R. 5689), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Peter DeFazio, D‑Oregon, to change var­i­ous rules for fed­er­al fund­ing to local gov­ern­ments and non­prof­it groups for dis­as­ter haz­ard mit­i­ga­tion and plan­ning pro­grams. DeFazio said: “Fed­er­al pol­i­cy that focus­es on invest­ment in mit­i­ga­tion and bol­ster­ing resilience is basic good gov­er­nance and will lessen the impacts of future disasters.”

The vote was 383 yeas to 41 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

SOLIDARITY WITH NATO AND UKRAINE: The House on April 5th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 831), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ger­ald E. Con­nol­ly, D‑Virginia, to stress the impor­tance of demo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples at the North Atlantic Treaty Orga­ni­za­tion (NATO) and NATO’s com­mit­ment to bol­ster­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions in NATO mem­ber coun­tries. Con­nol­ly said of the need for the res­o­lu­tion: “The val­ues upon which the alliance have been found­ed are being chal­lenged by exter­nal ene­mies of democ­ra­cy, all too trag­i­cal­ly being wit­nessed in the Ukraine.” The vote was 362 yeas to 63 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 nay vote

HOLDING PUTIN’S REGIME ACCOUNTABLE FOR WAR CRIMES: The House on April 6th passed the Ukraine Inva­sion War Crimes Deter­rence and Account­abil­i­ty Act (H.R. 7276), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michael T. McCaul, R‑Texas. The bill would require the pres­i­dent to send to Con­gress a report on war crimes and oth­er atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted dur­ing Rus­si­a’s inva­sion of Ukraine.

McCaul said: “We can­not wait for the next atroc­i­ty before we act. We must do what we can now to deter Russ­ian lead­ers, com­man­ders, and troops in the field from com­mit­ting fur­ther war crimes.” The vote was 418 yeas to 7 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

RESUSCITATING THE RESTAURANT REVITALIZATION FUND: The House on April 7th passed the Restau­rant Revi­tal­iza­tion Fund Replen­ish­ment Act (H.R. 3807), spon­sored by Rep. Earl Blu­me­nauer, D‑Oregon, to add $55 bil­lion to the Restau­rant Revi­tal­iza­tion Fund, a COVID relief grant pro­gram that began in spring 2021. Blu­me­nauer said: “Our small, inde­pen­dent restau­rants and oth­er busi­ness­es have not ful­ly recov­ered. This is why the leg­is­la­tion is critical.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Byron Don­alds, R‑Florida, said rather than appro­pri­at­ing bil­lions of dol­lars of new funds and fur­ther­ing infla­tion, Con­gress should use already appro­pri­at­ed funds to assist the restau­rant industry.

The vote was 223 yeas to 203 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

BARRING ENERGY IMPORTS FROM RUSSIA: The House on April 7th passed the Sus­pend­ing Ener­gy Imports from Rus­sia Act (H.R. 6968), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lloyd Doggett, D‑Texas, to bar the impor­ta­tion from Rus­sia of a set of ener­gy prod­ucts, includ­ing petro­le­um and nat­ur­al gas, with a poten­tial waiv­er of the ban if U.S. inter­ests war­rant a waiv­er. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kevin Brady, R‑Texas, said the ban was need­ed to end “the flow of Amer­i­can dol­lars toward Russ­ian oil that acts as a trea­sury for Rus­si­a’s war machine.”

The vote was 413 yeas to 9 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 not voting

In the United States Senate

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT: The Sen­ate on April 7th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Ketan­ji Brown Jack­son to serve as a jus­tice on the Supreme Court. Jack­son, a judge on the Dis­trict of Colum­bia Cir­cuit Court of Appeals since June 2021, was ear­li­er a U.S. dis­trict court for Wash­ing­ton, D.C., start­ing in 2013, and a com­mis­sion­er on the U.S. Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion from 2010 to 2013.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Mazie Hirono, D‑Hawaii, said: “Judge Jack­son has the intel­lect, the integri­ty, and the tem­pera­ment befit­ting an asso­ciate jus­tice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and she does­n’t have an ide­o­log­i­cal axe to grind.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Rick Scott, R‑Florida, cit­ed “her record as a fed­er­al judge, which includes numer­ous instances of the type of judi­cial activism that we can­not and should not tol­er­ate from the fed­er­al judiciary.”

The vote was 53 yeas to 47 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

REVOKING RUSSIA AND BELARUS’ MFN STATUS: The Sen­ate on April 7th passed the Sus­pend­ing Nor­mal Trade Rela­tions with Rus­sia and Belarus Act (H.R. 7108, above), to autho­rize the pres­i­dent to increase duties on goods import­ed from Rus­sia or Belarus through 2023, and autho­rize a broad­er stan­dard for apply­ing visa and prop­er­ty-relat­ed sanc­tions against for­eign­ers accused of seri­ous human rights abus­es. A sup­port­er, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, said: “The leg­is­la­tion will go a long way to land­ing a painful, severe blow on Putin’s econ­o­my. It will hin­der his abil­i­ty to keep fund­ing his war machine.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 100 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

BARRING ENERGY IMPORTS FROM RUSSIA: The Sen­ate on April 7th passed the Sus­pend­ing Ener­gy Imports from Rus­sia Act (H.R. 6968, above), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lloyd Doggett, D‑Texas, to bar the impor­ta­tion from Rus­sia of a set of ener­gy prod­ucts, includ­ing petro­le­um and nat­ur­al gas, with a poten­tial waiv­er of the ban if U.S. inter­ests war­rant a waiver.

The vote was unan­i­mous with 100 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

JAMES O’BRIEN, STATE DEPARTMENT: The Sen­ate on April 6th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of James O’Brien to be the head of the State Depart­men­t’s Office of Sanc­tions Coor­di­na­tion. O’Brien, a State Depart­ment staffer and offi­cial start­ing in 1989, has, since 2017, been an exec­u­tive at the Albright Stone­bridge Group, a glob­al busi­ness con­sul­tan­cy. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, said that at State, O’Brien “led a large and suc­cess­ful sanc­tions pro­gram and advised on a range of issues, includ­ing peace nego­ti­a­tions in Europe, sci­en­tif­ic and envi­ron­men­tal agree­ments, and ini­tia­tives to inves­ti­gate and pros­e­cute per­sons respon­si­ble for war crimes.” The vote was 71 yeas to 26 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

ADDITIONAL SENATE VOTES: Along with this week’s roll call votes, the Sen­ate also passed the fol­low­ing mea­sures by voice vote: the Strength­en­ing Over­sight for Vet­er­ans Act (S. 2687), to give the Inspec­tor Gen­er­al of the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs tes­ti­mo­ni­al sub­poe­na author­i­ty; and a res­o­lu­tion (S. Res. 503), express­ing the sense of the Sen­ate that Chi­na’s gov­ern­ment should imme­di­ate­ly guar­an­tee the safe­ty and free­dom of ten­nis star Peng Shuai.

LWIC will be on hiatus until May

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Sen­ate have begun their East­er recess and will not be in ses­sion until the Mon­day after East­er. There­fore, Last Week In Con­gress will be on hia­tus until the first Sun­day in May (May 1st). Pro for­ma ses­sions will be held at var­i­ous times in between now and when Con­gress recon­venes. The Sen­ate is expect­ed to con­sid­er some of Pres­i­dent Biden’s Fed nom­i­nees when it returns, while the House­’s sched­ule was to be announced.

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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