Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (June 13th-17th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, June 17th, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives

OCEAN SHIPPING REFORM ACT: The House on June 13th passed the Ocean Ship­ping Reform Act (S. 3580), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Amy Klobuchar, D‑Minnesota. The bill would change Fed­er­al Mar­itime Com­mis­sion prac­tices, includ­ing requir­ing the Com­mis­sion to review fines charged by com­mon ocean car­ri­ers, and bar com­mon ocean car­ri­ers from refus­ing to ship goods if they have ade­quate car­go space for the goods. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Peter A. DeFazio, D‑Oregon, called the bill “vital for ensur­ing fair and effi­cient ship­ping, which is inte­gral to the well-being of our economy.”

The vote was 369 yeas to 42 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 not voting

PILOT PROGRAM FOR ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY AIR INFRASTRUCTURE: The House on June 13th passed the Advanced Avi­a­tion Infra­struc­ture Mod­ern­iza­tion Act (H.R. 6270), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rick Larsen, D‑Washington, to autho­rize a $25 mil­lion Trans­porta­tion Depart­ment pilot pro­gram for issu­ing grants to fund advanced air mobil­i­ty infra­struc­ture. Such infra­struc­ture includes ver­ti­cal air­plane take­off and land­ing facil­i­ties, known as ver­ti­ports. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Peter A. DeFazio, D‑Oregon, said the grants would help fed­er­al reg­u­la­tors get ahead of the curve on how to han­dle an emerg­ing tech­nol­o­gy with tremen­dous poten­tial to improve transportation.

The vote, on June 13, was 338 yeas to 73 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 nay vote

POLICE PROTECTION FOR SUPREME COURT JUSTICES’ FAMILY MEMBERS: The House on June 14th passed the Supreme Court Police Par­i­ty Act (S. 4160), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor John Cornyn, R‑Texas, to autho­rize the Supreme Court Police force to pro­vide pro­tec­tion for imme­di­ate rel­a­tives of jus­tices if the court’s mar­shal deems such pro­tec­tion nec­es­sary. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ted Lieu, D‑California, said the pro­tec­tion would help ensure that jus­tices “are free from fear of vio­lence or phys­i­cal intim­i­da­tion to make deci­sions based on the Con­sti­tu­tion and law as applied to the facts of the cas­es before them.”

The vote was 396 yeas to 27 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 nay vote

SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION: The House on June 14th passed the Recov­er­ing Amer­i­ca’s Wildlife Act (H.R. 2773), spon­sored by Rep. Deb­bie Din­gell, D‑Michigan, to pro­vide about $1.4 bil­lion of annu­al sup­ple­men­tal fund­ing for Inte­ri­or Depart­ment efforts to con­serve plant and wildlife species, includ­ing endan­gered species.

Din­gell said: “We have a con­ser­va­tion, eco­nom­ic, and moral ratio­nale to act in order to pro­tect and recov­er Amer­i­ca’s wildlife for future gen­er­a­tions.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bruce West­er­man, R‑Arkansas, crit­i­cized the bil­l’s lack of leg­isla­tive over­sight pro­vi­sions and its increase in deficit spending.

The vote was 231 yeas to 190 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

RURAL RESCUE ACT: The House on June 14th passed the Small State and Rur­al Res­cue Act (H.R. 7211), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive John Katko, R‑New York, to expand the role of the Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agen­cy’s Small State and Rur­al Advo­cate office in review­ing requests for FEMA to pro­vide dis­as­ter assis­tance. Katko said the bill “will go a long way in pro­vid­ing sup­port for the rur­al com­mu­ni­ties and small states” of the U.S. when they endure disasters.

The vote was 396 yeas to 14 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

EQUITY IN FINANCING: The House on June 15th passed the Fed­er­al Reserve Racial and Eco­nom­ic Equi­ty Act (H.R. 2543), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Max­ine Waters, D‑California. The bill would require the Fed­er­al Reserve to pri­or­i­tize elim­i­nat­ing racial and eth­nic eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties in its activities.

A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bar­bara Lee, D‑California, said it “will reori­ent our finan­cial sys­tems to sup­port wealth cre­ation in his­tor­i­cal­ly under­served com­mu­ni­ties.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive John W. Rose, R‑Tennessee, said it “would impose addi­tion­al and bur­den­some report­ing require­ments on pub­lic com­pa­nies, reduce access to cred­it, dis­tract the Fed­er­al Reserve from pur­su­ing its statu­to­ry man­date, and fur­ther politi­cize our reg­u­la­to­ry agencies.”

The vote was 215 yeas to 207 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

ADDRESSING COST OF LIVING INCREASES: The House on June 16th passed the Low­er Food and Fuel Costs Act (H.R. 7606), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Abi­gail Davis Span­berg­er, D‑Virginia. Among oth­er mea­sures, the bill would cre­ate the Office of the Spe­cial Inves­ti­ga­tor for Com­pe­ti­tion Mat­ters at the Agri­cul­ture Depart­ment, and charge the inves­tiga­tive office with pros­e­cut­ing vio­la­tions of meat­pack­ing and poul­try mar­ket­ing laws. Span­berg­er said the bill respond­ed to Amer­i­cans’ desire for “low­er meat prices both now and in the future. They want low­er gas prices and to make bio­fu­els acces­si­ble to more Americans.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Glenn Thomp­son, R‑Pennsylvania, said the bil­l’s new reg­u­la­tions would be decreas­ing “Amer­i­can farm­ers’ abil­i­ties to meet glob­al food demand and dou­bling down on the idea that more spend­ing and big gov­ern­ment will feed the world.” The vote was 221 yeas to 204 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 10 aye votes, 7 nay votes

In the United States Senate

HONORING OUR PACT ACT: The Sen­ate on June 16th passed the Hon­or­ing our Promise to Address Com­pre­hen­sive Tox­i­cs Act (H.R. 3967), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mark Takano, D‑California. The bill would take var­i­ous mea­sures to treat and record health prob­lems in mil­i­tary vet­er­ans who were exposed to tox­ic sub­stances dur­ing their time in the mil­i­tary, includ­ing the war in Iraq.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Jer­ry Moran, R‑Kansas, said the mea­sures would con­nect “tox­ic-exposed vet­er­ans with the care they need and they deserve and to pro­vide vet­er­ans with cer­tain­ty and sup­port.” The vote was 84 yeas to 14 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

ALAN LEVENTHAL, AMBASSADOR TO DENMARK: The Sen­ate on June 15th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Alan M. Lev­en­thal to be the U.S. Ambas­sador to Den­mark. Lev­en­thal is chair­man and CEO of the office prop­er­ties com­pa­ny Bea­con Cap­i­tal, and serves on the board of sev­er­al Boston-area char­i­ties and uni­ver­si­ties. The vote was 63 yeas to 32 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes

Key votes ahead

The House will take up the Restor­ing Hope for Men­tal Health and Well-Being Act of 2022, the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Health Act, LGBTQI+ Data Inclu­sion Act, and debate the Sen­ate amend­ments to the Hon­or­ing our PACT Act.

The Sen­ate will con­sid­er the nom­i­na­tions of Ana Isabel de Alba to be a Unit­ed States Dis­trict Judge for the East­ern Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia and Mary T. Boyle to be a Com­mis­sion­er of the Con­sumer Prod­uct Safe­ty Commission.

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