Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (June 20th-24th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, June 24th, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives

BIPARTISAN SAFER COMMUNITIES ACT: The House on June 24th gave final approval to the Bipar­ti­san Safer Com­mu­ni­ties Act (S. 2938), a bill that would estab­lish a vari­ety of mea­sures intend­ed to reduce mass shoot­ings, includ­ing spend­ing on behav­ioral health clin­ics, fund­ing for school safe­ty efforts, and restric­tions on gun own­er­ship by ex-con­victs and those found by a court to be men­tal­ly ill. The bill was giv­en swift con­sid­er­a­tion in the House after over­com­ing a fil­i­buster in the Sen­ate (see below). It was signed into law by Pres­i­dent Joe Biden in a cer­e­mo­ny at the White House yes­ter­day morning.

“This pack­age rep­re­sents the most sig­nif­i­cant action to pre­vent gun vio­lence in near­ly three decades. And it is a nec­es­sary step to hon­or our solemn duty as law­mak­ers to pro­tect and defend the Amer­i­can peo­ple,” said Speak­er Pelosi in a floor speech pri­or to final pas­sage of the leg­is­la­tion.

The vote to send the leg­is­la­tion to Pres­i­dent Biden was 234 yeas to 193 nays. Four­teen Repub­li­cans vot­ed yea, but none of them were from our region.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

INDUSTRIAL CYBERSECURITY: The House on June 21st passed the Indus­tri­al Con­trol Sys­tems Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty Train­ing Act (H.R. 7777), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Eric Swal­well, D‑California. The bill would estab­lish an effort at the Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty and Infra­struc­ture Secu­ri­ty Agency for train­ing cyber­se­cu­ri­ty work­ers on how to pro­tect indus­tri­al con­trol sys­tems from cyber attacks.

Swal­well said the effort “will help strength­en small busi­ness­es, par­tic­u­lar­ly those in crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture, who do not yet today have cyber­se­cu­ri­ty defense forces receiv­ing that train­ing.” The vote was 368 yeas to 47 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

MENTAL HEALTH: The House on June 22nd passed the Restor­ing Hope for Men­tal Health and Well-Being Act (H.R. 7666), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Frank Pal­lone Jr., D‑New Jer­sey. The bill would reau­tho­rize, through fis­cal 2027, a num­ber of men­tal and behav­ioral health pro­grams, and expand eli­gi­bil­i­ty for enrolling in opi­oid treat­ment pro­grams. Pal­lone said the reau­tho­riza­tion “is going to help to sup­port the men­tal health and well-being of mil­lions of Amer­i­cans, their fam­i­lies, and com­mu­ni­ties for years to come.” The vote was 402 yeas to 20 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

HEALTH INNOVATIONS AGENCY: The House on June 22nd passed the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health Act (H.R. 5585), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Anna G. Eshoo, D‑California, to cre­ate the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health agency, which would, like sim­i­lar exist­ing agen­cies for the mil­i­tary and ener­gy, fund research into nov­el health and med­i­cine technologies.

Eshoo said of her hopes for the agency: “Even if one dead­ly dis­ease is addressed and cured, we will have suc­ceed­ed. I think we are going to do bet­ter than that.”

The vote was 336 yeas to 85 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 nay votes

ACTIVE SHOOTER ALERT ACT: The House on June 22nd reject­ed the Active Shoot­er Alert Act (H.R. 6538), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive David Cicilline, D‑Rhode Island The bill pro­posed the estab­lish­ment of an Active Shoot­er Alert Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Net­work at the Jus­tice Depart­ment, and have the net­work make plans for send­ing alerts about active shoot­ers by work­ing with local and state gov­ern­ments. Cicilline said that by using fed­er­al resources to set up an alert sys­tem, the net­work “will pro­vide access to an impor­tant tool for law enforce­ment depart­ments across the coun­try, regard­less of their size or location.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim Jor­dan, R‑Ohio, said state and local gov­ern­ments already had ade­quate alert sys­tems, and a fed­er­al pro­gram would be used not for pub­lic safe­ty, but to fur­ther “Demo­c­rat fear-mon­ger­ing that guns are ever-present threats.” The vote was 259 yeas to 162 nays, with a two-thirds thresh­old required for approval.

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 nay votes

SCHOOL MEALS: The House on June 23rd passed the Keep Kids Fed Act (S. 2089), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Jeanne Sha­heen, D‑New Hamp­shire. The bill would extend waivers for fed­er­al child nutri­tion pro­grams that were first issued in response to clos­ing school class­rooms in ear­ly 2020 and have been used to pro­vide free school meals, sum­mer meals, and sub­si­dies for child­care. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bob­by Scott, D‑Virginia, said the exten­sions “would take a crit­i­cal step to sup­port child nutri­tion pro­grams and pre­vent chil­dren from going hun­gry dur­ing the ongo­ing pub­lic health emergency.”

The vote was 376 yeas to 42 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

MENTAL HEALTH AT COLLEGES: The House on June 23rd passed the Enhanc­ing Men­tal Health and Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Through Cam­pus Plan­ning Act (H.R. 5407), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Susan Wild, D‑Pennsylvania, to require the Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment to pro­mote men­tal health and sui­cide pre­ven­tion plans at col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties. Wild said of the need for such plans: “In the last sev­er­al years, young Amer­i­cans have faced unprece­dent­ed chal­lenges result­ing in a rise in men­tal health needs.” The vote was 405 yeas to 16 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

COLLEGIATE DRUG USE: The House on June 23rd passed the Cam­pus Pre­ven­tion and Recov­ery Ser­vices for Stu­dents Act (H.R. 6493), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tere­sa Leg­er Fer­nan­dez, D‑New Mexico.

The bill would reau­tho­rize, through fis­cal 2028, the fed­er­al illic­it drug and alco­hol abuse pre­ven­tion pro­gram for col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties, and pro­vide $15 mil­lion of annu­al fund­ing for grants and oth­er efforts to pre­vent alco­hol and sub­stance mis­use at those campuses.

Leg­er Fer­nan­dez said it “will help to cut the chains of addic­tion and unlock access to treat­ment and pre­ven­tion for count­less stu­dents across the Unit­ed States.”

The vote was 371 yeas to 49 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

INCLUSIVE DATA PRACTICES: The House on June 23rd passed the LGBTQI+ Data Inclu­sion Act (H.R. 4176), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Raul Gri­jal­va, D‑Arizona. The bill would require fed­er­al agen­cies to include infor­ma­tion about peo­ple who aren’t straight in sur­veys that cov­er demo­graph­ic data.

Gri­jal­va said: “The LGBTQI+ com­mu­ni­ty deserves to be vis­i­ble and heard so pub­lic pol­i­cy can bet­ter reflect their needs.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive James Com­er, R‑Kentucky, said: “Fed­er­al sur­veys are no place to con­front the Amer­i­can peo­ple or their chil­dren with intru­sive ques­tions and con­cerns about sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion or gen­der identity.”

The vote was 220 yeas to 201 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

In the United States Senate

COMBATING GUN VIOLENCE: The Sen­ate on June 23rd agreed to pass the Bipar­ti­san Safer Com­mu­ni­ties Act (S. 2938, above) that would estab­lish a vari­ety of mea­sures intend­ed to reduce mass shoot­ings, includ­ing spend­ing on behav­ioral health clin­ics, fund­ing for school safe­ty efforts, and restric­tions on gun own­er­ship by ex-con­victs and those found by a court to be men­tal­ly ill.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor John Cornyn, R‑Texas, said the amend­ment sought to “cre­ate real changes in com­mu­ni­ties across this country–safer, health­i­er com­mu­ni­ties; stronger, more secure schools; sav­ing lives.” An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky, argued that the restric­tions would infringe “the con­sti­tu­tion­al right to bear arms for the inno­cent.” The vote was 65 yeas to 33 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

ANA ISABEL DE ALBA, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate has con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Ana Isabel de Alba to be a judge on the U.S. dis­trict court for the east­ern dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia. de Alba has been a supe­ri­or court judge in Fres­no Coun­ty since 2018; for a decade pre­vi­ous, she was a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Alex Padil­la, D‑California, called de Alba “a ded­i­cat­ed, fair, and uni­ver­sal­ly respect­ed pub­lic ser­vant, respect­ed by her colleagues.”

The vote, on June 21st, was 53 yeas to 45 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

MARY BOYLE, CONSUMER PRODUCTS COMMISSIONER: The Sen­ate has con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Mary Boyle to be on the Con­sumer Prod­uct Safe­ty Com­mis­sion (CPSC) for a 7‑year term end­ing in fall 2025. Boyle, cur­rent­ly the com­mis­sion’s exec­u­tive direc­tor, has been at the CPSC for more than a decade.

A sup­port­er, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D‑Minnesota, said Boyle “is deeply knowl­edge­able about con­sumer prod­uct safe­ty and the func­tion­ing of the CPSC. I have every con­fi­dence that she will be ready to lead on day one.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Roger Wick­er, R‑Mississippi, cit­ed “sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns about major admin­is­tra­tive fail­ures at the agency dur­ing Ms. Boyle’s tenure as exec­u­tive direc­tor there, includ­ing the improp­er dis­clo­sure of unredact­ed man­u­fac­tur­er and con­sumer data.” The vote was 50 yeas to 48 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

ADDITIONAL SENATE VOTE: Along with the week’s roll call votes, the Sen­ate also passed one mea­sure by voice vote: the Fix­ing Our Reg­u­la­to­ry May­hem Upset­ting Lit­tle Amer­i­cans Act (S. 4261), to sus­pend duties and oth­er restric­tions on the impor­ta­tion of infant for­mu­la to address the short­age of infant for­mu­la in the Unit­ed States. The long name allows the bill to have the acronym “FORMULA.”

LWIC will be on hiatus until mid-July

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Sen­ate have begun their Inde­pen­dence Day recess­es, so Last Week In Con­gress will be on hia­tus for the next two Sundays.

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