Good morning! Here’s how Cascadia’s Members of Congress voted on major issues on July 29th and during the legislative week ending August 12th, 2022.
In the United States House of Representatives
INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: The House of Representatives on August 12th concurred in the Senate amendments to H.R. 5376, sending to President Joe Biden a major climate and health focused bill that would allow Medicare to begin negotiating prescription drug costs and make major investments in combating the climate crisis. The legislation was adopted along party lines, with every Democrat voting yea and every present Republican voting nay.
Four Republicans missed the vote.
“These monumental investments are – for families, in health care – are fully paid for, ensuring the biggest corporations and wealthiest pay their fair share. And that is an estimate of about $160 billion a year of taxes they are unlawfully not paying,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi during floor debate on the legislation. “Right now, families are being harmed by corporate profiteering.”
“I urge all my colleagues to reject this out-of-touch bill. Reject the crushing new taxes. Reject the ballooning of government. Reject the spending on things we don’t need with money we don’t have,” said top Republican Kevin McCarthy.
A yes vote was to send the legislation to President Biden.
 | Voting Nay (2): Republican Representatives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson |
 | Voting Aye (4): Democratic Representatives Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader Voting Nay (1): Republican Representative Cliff Bentz |
 | Voting Aye (7): Democratic Representatives Suzan DelBene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Pramila Jayapal, Kim Schrier, Adam Smith, and Marilyn Strickland Voting Nay (3): Republican Representatives Jaime Herrera Beutler, Dan Newhouse, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers |
Cascadia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes
In the United States Senate
INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: The Senate on August 7th passed a climate and health focused budget bill (H.R. 5376, above), sponsored by Representative John A. Yarmuth, D‑Kentucky. The bill’s provisions include changes to Medicare prescription drug programs and various subsidies for non-fossil fuel sources of energy and energy efficiency programs, while its tax policy changes include a fifteen percent alternative minimum tax on large companies and about $80 billion of increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service.
A supporter, Senator Mark Warner, D‑Virginia, said it “will help fight inflation, invest in domestic energy production and manufacturing, reduce carbon emissions, and lower healthcare costs for millions of Americans.”
An opponent, Senator Chuck Grassley, R‑Iowa, called the bill “a long list of reckless tax increases and spending.” The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting a 51st tiebreaking yea vote.
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Aye (2): |
Cascadia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes
IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM CLAIMS: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above) the Senate on August 6th rejected a motion to waive a point of order applied to an amendment sponsored by Senator Jon Tester, D‑Montana, to H.R. 5376. The amendment would have required the Surgeon General to develop a plan for handling changes in immigration levels that would result from ending a suspension of asylum claims due to the federal government’s declared Covid emergency. The vote was 56 yeas to 44 nays, with a three-fifths (sixty vote threshold) required for approval.
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
Cascadia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes
REPUBLICAN AMENDMENT TO RESTRICT IRS’ AUDITING POWERS: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above), the Senate on August 6th rejected an amendment sponsored by Senator Mike Crapo, R‑Idaho, to H.R. 5376, that would have barred the Internal Revenue Service from using the bill’s increase in agency funding to audit taxpayers with annual taxable incomes below $400 thousand. Crapo said in the absence of such a limitation, “supersized IRS funding will squeeze billions from the middle-class workers and small businesses through ramped-up audits.”
An opponent, Senator Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said: “Billionaires often have little or no taxable income for years on end. So under this amendment, the billionaires who live off their borrowings would be immune from audit.” The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice President Harris casting a 51st tiebreaking nay vote.
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
Cascadia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes
WEAKENING MEDICARE’S AUTHORIZATION TO NEGOTIATE DRUG PRICES: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above), the Senate on August 7th rejected an amendment sponsored by Senator Roger Marshall, R‑Kansas, to H.R. 5376 that would have excluded certain Medicare Part D prescription drugs and breakthrough therapy drugs from the bill’s drug pricing provisions. Marshall said the exclusion would promote the development of “new innovative drugs for life-threatening illnesses, like Alzheimer’s and cancers.”
An opponent, Senator Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said it “would water down the new negotiations program, so it would be harder to negotiate over the most expensive drugs in Medicare today.” The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice President Harris casting a 51st tiebreaking nay vote.
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
Cascadia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes
EASING APPROVAL FOR FOSSIL FUEL PROJECTS: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above), the Senate on August 7th rejected a motion to waive a budgetary point of order against an amendment sponsored by Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R‑West Virginia, to H.R. 5376. The amendment would have streamlined permitting for infrastructure and energy projects such as petroleum gas pipelines. Capito said faster project reviews would ease “inflation, permitting, and energy supply challenges” that are hurting the United States.
An amendment opponent, Senator Tom Carper, D‑Delaware, said it “would undermine protection of our water quality, weaken air quality protections, harm wildlife, and would have significant impacts on vulnerable communities.”
The vote was 49 yeas to 50 nays.
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
Cascadia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes
OFFSHORE OIL AND PETROLEUM GAS PRODUCTION: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above), the Senate on August 7th rejected an amendment sponsored by Senator John Kennedy, R‑Louisiana, to H.R. 5376 that would have required the Interior Department to hold at least ten sales of leases, over the next five years, to produce oil and petroleum gas in offshore waters that are part of the Outer Continental Shelf. The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice President Harris casting a 51st tiebreaking nay vote.
NAYS: Cantwell D‑WA, Murray D‑WA, Merkley D‑OR, Wyden D‑OR
YEAS: Risch R‑ID, Crapo R‑ID
GUTTING PROPOSED IRS INVESTMENTS: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above), the Senate on August 7th rejected an amendment sponsored by Senator Ted Cruz, R‑Texas, to H.R. 5376 that would have removed the bill’s increase in funding for the Internal Revenue Service.
Cruz called the increase a “terrible idea” that would “make the IRS larger than the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI, and the Border Patrol all combined.”
An opponent, Senator Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said the new staffers were needed to ensure that “wealthy tax cheats” do not “get away with breaking the law scot-free.” The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice President Harris casting a 51st tiebreaking nay vote.
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
Cascadia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes
INSULIN SUBSIDIES POISON PILL AMENDMENT: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above), the Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy, R‑Louisiana, to H.R. 5376 that would have reinstated a federal government rule, repealed by the Biden administration, to authorize health centers funded by the government to provide deeply discounted supplies of insulin and epinephrine to patients at the centers.
Kennedy said the rule “would substantially and dramatically lower the cost of insulin for millions of Americans.”
An opponent, Senator Patty Murray, D‑Wash., called the amendment part of a Republican effort to derail the attempt to pass the underlying bill. The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice President Harris casting a 51st tiebreaking nay vote.
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
Cascadia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes
REPUBLICAN BORDER SECURITY AMENDMENT: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above), the Senate on August 7th rejected an amendment sponsored by Senator Dan Sullivan, R‑Alaska, to H.R. 5376 that would have provided $500 million for building pedestrian fencing and barriers on the border with Mexico.
Sullivan said the spending was needed to prevent “crime; victims of human trafficking, many of them children; a fentanyl epidemic killing our young people; chaos–all fueled by a lawless border.”
An opponent, Senator Gary C. Peters, D‑Michigan, said the offsetting cut in spending at the Homeland Security Department would derail an effort to protect government workers from harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice president Harris casting a tiebreaking 51st nay vote.
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
Cascadia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes
SMALL BUSINESS TAX PROVISIONS: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above), the Senate on August 7th passed an amendment sponsored by Senator John Thune, R‑South Dakota, to H.R. 5376 that would exempt aggregations of businesses that are owned by a single entity from the bill’s minimum corporate book tax, and extend by 1 year a cap on the allowable state and local tax deduction for federal income tax payers. Thune said the amendment would “help ensure our nation’s small- and medium-size businesses aren’t hit with a misguided and entirely inappropriate $35 billion tax hike.” ’
An opponent, Senator Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said “there are no tax increases on small businesses in our bill.” The vote was 57 yeas to 43 nays.
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Nay (2): |
Cascadia total: 2 aye votes, 4 nay votes
EVEN MORE SMALL BUSINESS TAX PROVISIONS: As part of the vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (above), the Senate on August 7th passed an amendment sponsored by Senator Mark Warner, D‑Virginia, to H.R. 5376 that would strike the one year extension of a cap on the allowable state and local tax deduction for federal income tax payers and replace it with a two year extension of the cap on excess business losses. Warner said the amendment “will allow us to move forward on this historic legislation.”
An opponent, Senator John Thune, R‑South Dakota., said the one year extension he had proposed in a separate amendment was the better policy. The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice President Harris casting a 51st tie breaking yea vote.
| Voting Nay (2): |
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Aye (2): |
Cascadia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes
CONSTANCE MILSTEIN, AMBASSADOR TO MALTA: The Senate on August 6th confirmed the nomination of Constance J. Milstein to be the U.S. ambassador to Malta. Milstein, currently an executive at Ogden CAP Properties, a New York City real estate company, was an aide to the Army secretary in the Obama administration. The vote was 57 yeas to 34 nays.
| Voting Nay (1): Republican Senator Jim Risch Not Voting (1): Republican Senator Mike Crapo |
| Voting Aye (2): |
| Voting Aye (2): |
Cascadia total: 4 aye votes, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting
LWIC will be on hiatus for a few weeks
Congress is not expected to reconvene for several weeks, which means Last Week In Congress will be on hiatus until September.
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