Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (July 11th-15th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, July 15th, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives

2022 NDAA: The House on July 14th passed the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith, D‑Washington, to autho­rize $850 bil­lion of fis­cal 2023 spend­ing at the Defense Depart­ment and mil­i­tary con­struc­tion pro­grams, and pre­scribe mil­i­tary per­son­nel lev­els for the year. Smith said of the need for the bill: “The men and women who serve must have the tools and the sup­port from us that they need to do that job.”

The vote was 329 yeas to 101 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

PUBLIC ACCESS TO MILITARY COMMISSIONS: The House on July 13th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Schiff, D‑California, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900, above), that would require the Defense Depart­ment to pub­lish on the Inter­net the pro­ceed­ings of mil­i­tary com­mis­sions. Schiff said the require­ment would “show the Amer­i­can peo­ple that we believe they have the right to observe mil­i­tary com­mis­sion pro­ceed­ings, includ­ing those against the indi­vid­u­als who planned the Sep­tem­ber 11th attacks.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Rogers, R‑Alabama, said: “Let­ting hard­ened ter­ror­ists know there is a pub­lic audi­ence for their hate will do far more harm than good.” The vote was 218 yeas to 207 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

CONTRACTOR LABOR PRACTICES: The House on July 13th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mondaire Jones, D‑New York, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900, above), that would bar the Defense Depart­ment from award­ing con­tracts to employ­ers found to have recent­ly engaged in unfair labor prac­tices. Jones said “tax­pay­er dol­lars should go to com­pa­nies that are help­ing to build and strength­en our coun­try, not tear it down.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rick Allen, R‑Georgia, said: “This flawed black­list­ing amend­ment will threat­en fed­er­al con­trac­tors’ due process rights because a fed­er­al con­trac­tor could be pro­hib­it­ed from DOD con­tracts before a charge has been ful­ly adju­di­cat­ed.” The vote was 221 yeas to 207 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

MILITARY LABOR STANDARDS: The House on July 13th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jan­ice Schakowsky, D‑Illinois, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900, above), that would give pref­er­en­tial treat­ment to poten­tial Defense Depart­ment con­trac­tors who meet cer­tain labor rela­tions stan­dards. Schakowsky said the amend­ment was need­ed to pre­vent con­trac­tors “from harass­ing workers.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rick Allen, R‑Georgia, said that by favor­ing con­trac­tors who have signed neu­tral­i­ty agree­ments with work­ers who might union­ize, the amend­ment would “sti­fle employ­ee free choice and pro­hib­it employ­ers from com­mu­ni­cat­ing with their employ­ees about the down­sides of union rep­re­sen­ta­tion.” The vote was 220 yeas to 209 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 10 aye votes, 7 nay votes

REWARDING HIRING LOCALLY IN MILITARY CONTRACTING: The House has passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andy Kim, D‑New Jer­sey, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900, above), that would give pref­er­en­tial treat­ment to poten­tial Defense Depart­ment con­struc­tion con­trac­tors with a major­i­ty of their employ­ees liv­ing near the planned con­struc­tion project.

Kim said the pref­er­en­tial treat­ment “will help small busi­ness­es and high­ly skilled work­ers in the build­ing trades access new oppor­tu­ni­ties and unlock the local eco­nom­ic poten­tial of mil­i­tary bases across the country.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michael Waltz, R‑Florida, said it “would increase time and mon­ey to an already dif­fi­cult, lengthy, and often slow mil­i­tary con­struc­tion process.” The vote, on July 13, was 220 yeas to 207 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

MILITARY HARASSMENT CLAIMS: The House on July 13th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Veron­i­ca Esco­bar, D‑Texas, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900, above), that would require the mil­i­tary to com­plete its reviews of harass­ment and dis­crim­i­na­tion com­plaints with­in six months. Esco­bar said the time lim­it was need­ed “because our ser­vice­mem­bers lack many of the pro­tec­tions and priv­i­leges that their civil­ian coun­ter­parts have when it comes to dis­crim­i­na­tion and harassment.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Rogers, R‑Alabama, said that by over­turn­ing cur­rent mil­i­tary pro­ce­dures for review­ing com­plaints, “this amend­ment cre­ates an exis­ten­tial threat to the good order and dis­ci­pline of the military.”

The vote was 219 yeas to 209 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

MITIGATING MILITARY HARM TO CIVILIANS: The House on July 13th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ro Khan­na, D‑California, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900), that would autho­rize up to $5 mil­lion of annu­al spend­ing on pro­grams to mit­i­gate civil­ian harm from mil­i­tary actions. Khan­na said the fund­ing would “help make sure we have the resources to track and report and min­i­mize civil­ian casualties.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Rogers, R‑Alabama, said it “diverts crit­i­cal dol­lars need­ed to ensure the readi­ness of our ser­vice­mem­bers to ful­fill unnec­es­sary paper­work requirements.”

The vote, on July 13, was 215 yeas to 212 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 10 aye votes, 7 nay votes

NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION: The House on July 13th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bill Fos­ter, D‑Illinois, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900), that would end lim­its on fund­ing for the Prepara­to­ry Com­mis­sion for the Com­pre­hen­sive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Orga­ni­za­tion. Fos­ter said of the need for increased funding:

“We must con­tin­ue our efforts to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and con­tin­ue long­stand­ing com­mit­ments to our allies.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Doug Lam­born, R‑Colorado, said: “This amend­ment would require Amer­i­can tax­pay­ers to pro­vide mon­ey to an orga­ni­za­tion for a treaty the Unit­ed States is not even a par­ty to.”

The vote was 216 yeas to 209 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

MORE AUTONOMY FOR D.C. NATIONAL GUARD: The House has passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Del. Eleanor Holmes Nor­ton, D‑District of Colum­bia, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900), that would give the may­or of Wash­ing­ton, D.C., author­i­ty over the Dis­tric­t’s Nation­al Guard equal to author­i­ty the gov­er­nors of the fifty states have over their Nation­al Guards.

Nor­ton said that cur­rent­ly, “pres­i­den­tial con­trol over the D.C. Nation­al Guard cre­ates a loop­hole in the Posse Comi­ta­tus Act which lim­its the mil­i­tary’s involve­ment in civ­il law enforcement.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andrew Clyde, R‑Georgia, said: “The D.C. may­or must not have equal author­i­ties as gov­er­nors of states and ter­ri­to­ries have over their Nation­al Guards because the D.C. may­or is not a governor.”

The vote, on July 13th, was 218 yeas to 209 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

COMBATING WHITE SUPREMACY: The House on July 13th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bradley Scott Schnei­der, D‑Illinois, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900, above), that would require the Fed­er­al Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion, Home­land Secu­ri­ty Depart­ment, and Defense Depart­ment to oppose white suprema­cist and neo-Nazi activ­i­ty by agency employees.

Schnei­der said: “Extrem­ism is a threat to us in all seg­ments of soci­ety. There is no rea­son to believe that our mil­i­tary is any dif­fer­ent.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andy Big­gs, R‑Ariz., said: “This amend­ment den­i­grates our men and women in the ser­vice. It is Orwellian in nature.” The vote was 218 yeas to 208 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

IMPROVING REPORTS ON DOMESTIC TERRORISM THREATS: The House on July 13th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep. Kath­leen Rice, D‑New York, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900, above), that would require the Fed­er­al Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion and Home­land Secu­ri­ty Depart­ment to send Con­gress a report on process­es need­ed to improve their reports on domes­tic ter­ror­ism threats. Rice said the report would “ensure that we give our agen­cies the tools they need to give us the best intel­li­gence and information.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andy Big­gs, R‑Arizona, said the amend­ment would enable the Biden admin­is­tra­tion to use “exist­ing coun­tert­er­ror­ism resources as a tool to tar­get and silence cit­i­zens who dis­agree with gov­ern­ment actions.”

The vote was 220 yeas to 205 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

BARRING IMPROPER EVIDENCE: The House on July 14th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Schiff, D‑California, to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7900), that would bar the use, in legal pro­ceed­ings, of evi­dence obtained by mil­i­tary mem­bers in vio­la­tion of the Posse Comi­ta­tus Act, which gov­erns the involve­ment of the mil­i­tary in domes­tic law enforce­ment activities.

Schiff said the mea­sure “would pre­vent any pres­i­dent of either par­ty from unlaw­ful­ly using the mil­i­tary as a domes­tic police force, and it would ensure that evi­dence obtained because of unlaw­ful acts isn’t used against any American.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andy Big­gs, R‑Arizona, raised con­cerns about the pos­si­ble dis­use of evi­dence regard­ing immi­gra­tion law if mem­bers of the mil­i­tary were law­ful­ly used for assis­tance at the bor­der with Mexico.

The vote was 215 yeas to 213 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

BOLSTERING TIES WITH CARIBBEAN NATIONS: The House on July 12th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 1168), spon­sored by Del­e­gate Stacey E. Plas­kett, D‑Virgin Islands, stat­ing the need to strength­en U.S. eco­nom­ic part­ner­ships with Caribbean coun­tries. Plas­kett said the part­ner­ships “sup­port bud­ding democ­ra­cies at our doorstep and cre­ate mutu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty with our neigh­bors.” The vote was 351 yeas to 64 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 not voting

FEDERAL WORKER BENEFITS: The House on July 12th passed the First Respon­der Fair Return for Employ­ees on Their Ini­tial Retire­ment Earned Act (H.R. 521), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ger­ald E. Con­nol­ly, D‑Virginia. The bill would keep fed­er­al gov­ern­ment work­ers clas­si­fied as first respon­ders for the pur­pos­es of receiv­ing retire­ment ben­e­fits if those work­ers are dis­abled on the job and then move to non-first respon­der jobs with­in the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. Con­nol­ly said: “We want to incen­tivize our first respon­ders to con­tin­ue their ser­vice to this nation. We should­n’t pun­ish them for injuries they sus­tained pro­tect­ing us.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 417 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 not voting

CYBERSECURITY TRAINING: The House on July 13th passed the Nation­al Com­put­er Foren­sics Insti­tute Reau­tho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 7174), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Elis­sa Slotkin, D‑Michigan. The bill would reau­tho­rize, through 2032, the U.S. Secret Ser­vice’s Nation­al Com­put­er Foren­sics Insti­tute, which trains state and local law enforce­ment agen­cies in address­ing cyber­se­cu­ri­ty and elec­tron­ic crime. The vote was 410 yeas to 16 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 nay vote

PROTECTING CBP WORKERS FROM FENTANYL EXPOSURES: The House on July 13th passed the Pre­vent Expo­sure to Nar­cotics and Tox­i­cs Act (H.R. 5274), spon­sored by Rep. David P. Joyce, R‑Ohio, to require the Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion agency to dis­trib­ute con­tain­ment devices to its work­ers to pre­vent their expo­sure to fen­tanyl. Joyce called the require­ment “a sim­ple but nec­es­sary exten­sion of the tools we pro­vide those who defend our bor­ders” and help them do their jobs safe­ly. The vote was unan­i­mous with 429 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

ACTIVE SHOOTER ALERTS: The House on July 13th passed the Active Shoot­er Alert Act (H.R. 6538), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive David N. Cicilline, D‑Rhode Island. The bill would estab­lish 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 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 called the bill “anoth­er failed attempt by Democ­rats to ‘do some­thing’ about the surge in vio­lence and crime across the coun­try.” The vote was 260 yeas to 169 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 aye votes, 3 nay votes

HONORING OUR PACT ACT: The House on July 13th passed the Sergeant First Class Heath Robin­son Hon­or­ing our Promise to Address Com­pre­hen­sive Tox­i­cs Act (S. 3373), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Tim Kaine, D‑Virginia, to increase med­ical ben­e­fits and treat­ments for mil­i­tary vet­er­ans who were exposed to tox­ins in Iraq and Afghanistan. A bill sup­port­er, Rep. Mike Bost, R‑Illinois, said it “will help mil­lions of vet­er­ans, ser­vice­mem­bers, sur­vivors, and mil­i­tary families.”

The vote was 342 yeas to 88 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 13 aye votes, 4 nay votes

U.S. LEADERSHIP IN 5G NETWORKING: The House on July 14th passed the Pro­mot­ing Unit­ed States Inter­na­tion­al Lead­er­ship in 5G Act (H.R. 1934), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michael T. McCaul, R‑Texas, to require the pres­i­dent to form an inter­a­gency gov­ern­ment work­ing group for sup­port­ing U.S. 5th gen­er­a­tion (5G) mobile telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions sys­tems. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Young Kim, R‑California, said: “This bill will help ensure that the Unit­ed States is doing all we can to stop Russ­ian and Chi­nese malign influ­ence tak­ing con­trol of the world’s 5G net­works.” The vote was 405 yeas to 20 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

DENOUNCING COUP IN SUDAN: The House has passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Con. Res. 59), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gre­go­ry W. Meeks, D‑New York, con­demn­ing last Octo­ber’s mil­i­tary coup in Sudan and call­ing for the restora­tion of the coun­try’s con­sti­tu­tion­al lead­ers. The vote was 417 yeas to 7 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

VETERANS’ RECORDS: The House on July 14th passed the Access for Vet­er­ans to Records Act (H.R. 7337), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Car­olyn B. Mal­oney, D‑New York, to require the U.S. Office of the Archivist to send Con­gress a plan for ways to reduce the back­log of pro­cess­ing vet­er­ans’ requests for Nation­al Per­son­nel Records Cen­ter doc­u­ments, and autho­rize $60 mil­lion of spend­ing on that effort. Mal­oney said the cur­rent back­log of about 500 thou­sand records requests has left vet­er­ans and their fam­i­lies strug­gling as they wait to receive mate­r­i­al need­ed to access hous­ing, health­care, and oth­er gov­ern­ment services.

The vote was 406 yeas to 21 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

In the United States Senate

STEVEN DETTELBACH, ATF DIRECTOR: The Sen­ate on July 12th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Steven M. Det­tel­bach to be head of the Bureau of Alco­hol, Tobac­co, Firearms, and Explo­sives. Det­tel­bach was a U.S. attor­ney in Ohio for most of the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion and, since 2016, has been a part­ner at the Bak­er­Hostetler law firm. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown, D‑Ohio, called Det­tel­bach “a career pros­e­cu­tor with decades of expe­ri­ence fight­ing crime, reli­gion-moti­vat­ed vio­lence, gun traf­fick­ing, and he is a proven con­sen­sus-builder with bipar­ti­san sup­port.” The vote was 48 yeas to 46 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

MICHAEL BARR, FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD: The Sen­ate on July 13th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Michael Barr to be a mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Reserve’s board of gov­er­nors for a 14-year term end­ing in 2032.

Barr, an assis­tant sec­re­tary at the Trea­sury Depart­ment dur­ing part of the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, has since been a finance and pub­lic pol­i­cy pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown, D‑Ohio, said Barr “has worked for a quar­ter cen­tu­ry to make our finan­cial sys­tem safer and fair­er.” The vote, on July 13, was 66 yeas to 28 nays.

Barr was then con­firmed, in a sep­a­rate 66–28 vote, to also be the board­’s vice chair­man for super­vi­sion for a four-year term.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

OWEN HERNSTADT, EXPORT-IMPORT BANK: The Sen­ate on July 13th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Owen Her­rn­stadt to be a mem­ber of the board of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Her­rn­stadt, cur­rent­ly an exec­u­tive at the Inter­na­tion­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Machin­ists and Aero­space Work­ers union, is also an employ­ment and labor law pro­fes­sor at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty, and was for­mer­ly a Fed­er­al Reserve offi­cial. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown, D‑Ohio, praised Her­rn­sat­dt as “a thir­ty-year-long labor activist, fight­ing for workers.”

The vote was 51 yeas to 44 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

KATE HEINZELMAN, CIA GENERAL COUNSEL: The Sen­ate on July 14th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Kate Heinzel­man to be the Cen­tral Intel­li­gence Agen­cy’s gen­er­al coun­sel. Cur­rent­ly a senior aide in the attor­ney gen­er­al’s office, Heinzel­man had been a part­ner at a Wash­ing­ton, D.C., law firm, and a legal offi­cial in the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion in var­i­ous roles.

The vote was 50 yeas to 41 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

ASHISH VAZIRANI, DEPUTY UNDERSECRETARY: The Sen­ate on July 12th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Ashish Vazi­rani to be the Defense Depart­men­t’s Deputy Under Sec­re­tary for Per­son­nel and Readi­ness. Vazi­rani, a long­time man­age­ment con­sul­tant and for­mer naval offi­cer, is a senior offi­cial at the A2O Strate­gies busi­ness con­sul­tan­cy, and pre­vi­ous­ly was CEO of the Nation­al Mil­i­tary Fam­i­ly Asso­ci­a­tion. The vote was 73 yeas to 21 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 1 not voting

Key votes ahead

This week, the House will vote on the Right to Con­tra­cep­tion Act along with an omnibus appro­pri­a­tions bill — the Trans­porta­tion, Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment, Agri­cul­ture, Rur­al Devel­op­ment, Ener­gy and Water Devel­op­ment, Finan­cial Ser­vices and Gen­er­al Gov­ern­ment, Inte­ri­or, Envi­ron­ment, Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion, and Vet­er­ans Affairs Appro­pri­a­tions Act, 2023.

The Sen­ate, mean­while, will take up the nom­i­na­tion of Nina Nin-Yuen Wang to be a Unit­ed States Dis­trict Judge for the Dis­trict of Colorado.

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