Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues on July 29th and dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Sep­tem­ber 23rd, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REFORM ACT: The House on Sep­tem­ber 21st passed the Pres­i­den­tial Elec­tion Reform Act (H.R. 8873), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Zoe Lof­gren, D‑California. The bill would make numer­ous changes to Con­gress’s pro­ce­dures for reg­is­ter­ing the Elec­toral Col­lege votes for pres­i­dent, includ­ing requir­ing sup­port from one-third of the mem­bers of both the Sen­ate and House for an objec­tion to the Elec­toral Col­lege vote to be heard.

Lof­gren said: “This bill will make it hard­er to con­vince peo­ple that they have the right to over­throw the elec­tion.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rod­ney Davis, R‑Illinois, said the exist­ing Elec­toral Count Act was an ade­quate law for allow­ing politi­cians “to raise con­sti­tu­tion­al objec­tions to state elec­toral slates if they deter­mine some­thing may be improp­er.” The vote was 229 yeas to 203 nays.

	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 (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Her­rera Beutler Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

STUDENT LOAN RELIEF: The House on Sep­tem­ber 21st passed the Joint Con­sol­i­da­tion Loan Sep­a­ra­tion Act (S. 1098), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Mark Warn­er, D‑Virginia The bill would allow two joint fed­er­al stu­dent loan bor­row­ers to peti­tion the Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment to split the joint loan into two sep­a­rate loans.

A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bob­by Scott, D‑Virginia, said: “The bill pro­vides a path­way for an indi­vid­ual to apply to sep­a­rate a loan from a spouse, a cur­rent spouse or for­mer spouse, includ­ing in the event of an absen­tee or unre­spon­sive spouse, for an act of vio­lence or eco­nom­ic abuse.”

An oppo­nent, Rep. Vir­ginia Foxx, R‑North Car­oli­na, said it would give a joint bor­row­er the abil­i­ty to “use this new leg­is­la­tion as a weapon” by leav­ing the spouse with the bal­ance remain­ing in the sep­a­rat­ed loan.

The vote was 232 yeas to 193 nays.

	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 (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Her­rera Beutler Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

LAW ENFORCEMENT GRANTS FOR SMALL DEPARTMENTS: The House on Sep­tem­ber 22nd passed the Invest to Pro­tect Act (H.R. 6448), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Josh Got­theimer, D‑New Jer­sey, to have the Jus­tice Depart­ment award com­mu­ni­ty-ori­ent­ed polic­ing grants to local gov­ern­ment law enforce­ment agen­cies with few­er than 200 offi­cers. Got­theimer said of the need for more fund­ing: “We must ensure that local police depart­ments across our coun­try have what they need to recruit and retain the finest offi­cers, pro­vide nec­es­sary train­ing, and invest in pro­vid­ing men­tal health resources for our officers.”

A bill oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim Jor­dan, R‑Ohio, said ample Jus­tice Depart­ment grant pro­grams for local polic­ing were already available.

The vote was 360 yeas to 64 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Aye (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 nay vote

MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT GRANTS: The House on Sep­tem­ber 22nd passed the Men­tal Health Jus­tice Act (H.R. 8542), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Katie Porter, D‑California, to estab­lish a grant pro­gram for state and local gov­ern­ments to pro­vide men­tal health treat­ments instead of law enforce­ment respons­es to peo­ple with behav­ioral health problems.

Porter said: “When we send police to peo­ple in cri­sis, we fail to get those peo­ple des­per­ate­ly need­ed health­care, and we take law enforce­ment away from tack­ling the vio­lent crime that they are trained to take on. This hurts every­one in our com­mu­ni­ty.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kel­ly Arm­strong, R‑North Dako­ta, said deploy­ing men­tal health offi­cials instead of police “will endan­ger the men­tal health pro­fes­sion­al, the sus­pect, the per­son expe­ri­enc­ing the men­tal health cri­sis, and the per­son who called 911” due to being in danger.

The vote was 223 yeas to 206 nays.

	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 (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Her­rera Beutler Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

VIOLENCE PREVENTION GRANTS: The House on Sep­tem­ber 22nd passed the Break the Cycle of Vio­lence Act (H.R. 4118), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Steven Hors­ford, D‑Nevada. The bill would direct the Health and Human Ser­vices Depart­ment to issue grants to com­mu­ni­ties dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly impact­ed by vio­lence, includ­ing homi­cides, and cre­ate sev­er­al enti­ties relat­ed to the grants effort. Hors­ford said the mul­ti­ple bil­lions of dol­lars of grants autho­rized by the bill “will invest in proven, com­mu­ni­ty-based vio­lence inter­ven­tion pro­grams to build safer com­mu­ni­ties.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Matt Gaetz, R‑Florida, said he object­ed to the grants because “the police pow­er is not a pow­er of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, it is a pow­er of our state and local governments.”

The vote was 220 yeas to 207 nays.

	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

GRANTS TO FIGHT VIOLENT CRIME: The House on Sep­tem­ber 22nd passed the Vio­lent Inci­dent Clear­ance and Tech­no­log­i­cal Inves­tiga­tive Meth­ods Act (H.R. 5768), spon­sored by Rep. Val But­ler Dem­ings, D‑Florida, to estab­lish a Jus­tice Depart­ment grant pro­gram for state and local law enforce­ment agencies.

Dem­ings said that by help­ing police inves­ti­gate vio­lent crime, the grants would help “make sure that our men and women in blue — remem­ber, back the blue — have the sup­port they need to do their jobs.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tom McClin­tock, R‑California, ques­tioned whether grants issued by “the increas­ing­ly cor­rupt and politi­cized Depart­ment of Jus­tice” would improve law enforce­ment. The vote was 250 yeas to 178 nays.

	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 (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler and Dan Newhouse Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 13 aye votes, 4 nay votes

REAUTHORIZING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM COMMISSION: The House on Sep­tem­ber 19th passed the Unit­ed States Com­mis­sion on Inter­na­tion­al Reli­gious Free­dom Reau­tho­riza­tion Act (S. 3895), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Mar­co Rubio, R‑Florida, to autho­rize fund­ing for the Com­mis­sion through fis­cal 2024. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tom Mali­nows­ki, D‑New Jer­sey, said sus­tain­ing the Com­mis­sion “is crit­i­cal­ly need­ed to ensure that our coun­try main­tains the tools we need to stand up for human rights and, in par­tic­u­lar, reli­gious free­dom around the world.”

The vote was 402 yeas to 4 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Aye (10): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 not voting

BRIDGING THE GAP FOR NEW AMERICANS ACT: The House on Sep­tem­ber 19th passed the Bridg­ing the Gap for New Amer­i­cans Act (S. 3157), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Amy Klobuchar, D‑Minnesota, to require the Labor Depart­ment to make a study of ways to improve the abil­i­ty of legal aliens and nat­u­ral­ized cit­i­zens to obtain employ­ment that fits their lev­el of skills.

A bill sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bob­by Scott, D‑Virginia, said it “will help us bet­ter under­stand not only the employ­ment bar­ri­ers fac­ing immi­grants and refugees but also steps we can take to ensure that new Amer­i­cans can join our eco­nom­ic growth and pur­sue careers in which they can suc­ceed to their fullest potential.”

The vote was 363 yeas to 52 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Aye (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jayapal

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 2 not voting

PEACE CORPS REAUTHORIZATION: The House on Sep­tem­ber 19th passed the Peace Corps Reau­tho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 1456), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive John Gara­men­di, D‑California, to reau­tho­rize the Peace Corps through fis­cal 2024 and make changes to the pro­gram, includ­ing a zero tol­er­ance drug use pol­i­cy for vol­un­teers and new safe­ty and secu­ri­ty mea­sures for volunteers.

Gara­men­di said the bill “will rein­vig­o­rate the Peace Corps and ensure that its essen­tial work can con­tin­ue to shape and inspire peo­ple around the world for years to come.” An oppo­nent, Rep. Vir­ginia Foxx, R‑North Car­oli­na, crit­i­cized the bil­l’s increase in the pay and gov­ern­ment ben­e­fits grade lev­el assigned to Peace Corps vol­un­teers, which she said “sets a ter­ri­ble prece­dent for oth­er pro­grams that will inevitably ask for an increase in” benefits.

The vote was 290 yeas to 125 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive 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 (10): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 aye votes, 2 nay votes, 1 not voting

MULTI-BILL PACKAGE: The House on Sep­tem­ber 20th adopt­ed a motion spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ste­ny Hoy­er, D‑Maryland, to pass a set of ten bills en bloc, with­out sep­a­rate roll call votes. The bills addressed such issues as: Syr­i­a’s exports of nar­cot­ic drugs, sanc­tions against Rus­si­a’s gov­ern­ment and Russ­ian indi­vid­u­als, and glob­al telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions systems.

The vote was 361 yeas to 69 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Aye (10): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

NEW NPS UNIT AT SITE OF BLACKWELL SCHOOL: The House on Sep­tem­ber 20th passed the Black­well School Nation­al His­toric Site Act (S. 2490), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor John Cornyn, R‑Texas, to estab­lish a Nation­al Park Sys­tem unit in Mar­fa, Texas, memo­ri­al­iz­ing the Black­well School, which taught Mex­i­can-Amer­i­cans from 1885 to 1965.

A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tony Gon­za­lez, R‑Texas, said: “Des­ig­nat­ing the Black­well School as a nation­al park site would improve the abil­i­ty of the Park Ser­vice to over­see con­ser­va­tion efforts, pro­mote region­al tourism, and share impor­tant sto­ries about the Mex­i­can-Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty in the U.S.”

The vote was 414 yeas to 12 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Aye (10): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 aye votes

ADDITIONAL HOUSE VOTES TAKEN BY VOICE: Along with this week’s roll call votes, the House also passed these mea­sures by voice vote:

• the Stop Human Traf­fick­ing in School Zones Act (H.R. 7566), to increase the pun­ish­ment for human traf­fick­ing in a school zone;
• the Human Traf­fick­ing Pre­ven­tion Act (H.R. 7181), to direct the Sec­re­tary of Trans­porta­tion to seek to pro­vide for the post­ing of con­tact infor­ma­tion of the nation­al human traf­fick­ing hot­line in the restrooms of each air­craft, air­port, over-the-road bus, bus sta­tion, pas­sen­ger train, and pas­sen­ger rail­road sta­tion oper­at­ing with­in the Unit­ed States;
• the Pro­tect Reporters from Exploita­tive State Spy­ing Act (H.R. 4330), to main­tain the free flow of infor­ma­tion to the pub­lic by estab­lish­ing appro­pri­ate lim­its on the fed­er­al­ly com­pelled dis­clo­sure of infor­ma­tion obtained as part of engag­ing in journalism;
• … and the Keep Amer­i­ca’s Refuges Oper­a­tional Act (H.R. 6734), to reau­tho­rize the vol­un­teer ser­vices, com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ship, and refuge edu­ca­tion pro­grams of the Nation­al Wildlife Refuge System.

When a vote is tak­en by voice, there is no record of how indi­vid­ual mem­bers vot­ed. Voice votes are some­times used to pass bipar­ti­san bills.

In the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

KIGALI AMENDMENT TO THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 21st rat­i­fied the Kigali Amend­ment to the Mon­tre­al Pro­to­col on Sub­stances that Deplete the Ozone Lay­er, a treaty reached in 2016 that would have indus­tri­al coun­tries seek to cut hydro­flu­o­ro­car­bon (HFC) use by eighty per­cent or more by 2050 in order to reduce glob­al warming.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Tom Carp­er, D‑Delaware, said: “Kigali rat­i­fi­ca­tion will ensure U.S. com­pa­nies con­tin­ue to have access to inter­na­tion­al mar­kets so that mod­ern, effi­cient, eco­nom­i­cal air-con­di­tion­ers and refrig­er­a­tors across the world will be stamped ‘Made in Amer­i­ca,’ not ‘Made in China.’ ”

A treaty oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Mike Lee, R‑Utah, said “HFCs con­tribute only five one-hun­dredths of 1 degree Cel­sius to pro­ject­ed increas­es in glob­al temperature.”

The vote to rat­i­fy the treaty was 69 yeas to 27 nays.

	Not Vot­ing (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 not voting

CHINA’S STATUS/CLASSIFICATION WITH RESPECT TO KIGALI AMENDMENT: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 21st passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Dan Sul­li­van, R‑Alaska, to the Kigali Amend­ment on hydro­flu­o­ro­car­bons (above) that would declare that Chi­na is not a devel­op­ing coun­try for the pur­pos­es of imple­ment­ing the Kigali Amend­ment. Sul­li­van said the amend­ment right­ly rec­og­nized Chi­na’s cur­rent eco­nom­ic sta­tus and the coun­try’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to meet the same treaty oblig­a­tions that the U.S., Japan, and oth­er peer nations have. The vote  was unan­i­mous with 96 yeas.

	Not Vot­ing (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 not voting

FLORENCE PAN, U.S. APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 20th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Flo­rence Pan to be a judge on the Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Pan has been a U.S. Dis­trict Court judge for D.C. for a year, and pre­vi­ous­ly was a D.C. Supe­ri­or Court judge and fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor in the Dis­trict. A sup­port­er, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, called Pan “expe­ri­enced, bal­anced, and above all, com­mit­ted to the rule of law.”

The vote was 52 yeas to 42 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mike Crapo Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Jim Risch
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

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

AMANDA BENNETT, GLOBAL MEDIA CEO: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 22nd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Aman­da Ben­nett to be Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of the U.S. Agency for Glob­al Media (USAGM), which over­sees six gov­ern­ment media enti­ties, includ­ing Voice of Amer­i­ca and Radio Free Europe.

Ben­nett was direc­tor of Voice of Amer­i­ca from ear­ly 2016 to June 2020, and pre­vi­ous­ly was an edi­tor at var­i­ous news­pa­pers and a Wall Street Jour­nal reporter.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, said Ben­nett “will be a tire­less advo­cate for the jour­nal­ists work­ing at USAGM and an effec­tive stew­ard of its oper­a­tions.” The vote was 60 yeas to 36 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Jim Risch Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 1 not voting

ARATI PRABHAKAR, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 22nd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Arati Prab­hakar to be Direc­tor of the Office of Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy Pol­i­cy, a White House enti­ty that advis­es the pres­i­dent. Prab­hakar has head­ed the Nation­al Insti­tute of Stan­dards and Tech­nol­o­gy and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and been an exec­u­tive at tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies and a ven­ture cap­i­tal firm.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, D‑Washington, said Prab­hakar “has the exact expe­ri­ence we need to advise the pres­i­dent on semi­con­duc­tor man­u­fac­tur­ing, on bring­ing the sup­ply chain and secu­ri­ty that we need here in the Unit­ed States, and on con­tin­ued growth in sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy jobs that come along with it.”

The vote was 56 yeas to 40 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mike Jim Risch Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (1):  Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 3 aye votes, 1 nay vote, 2 not voting

Key votes ahead

Upon its return, the Sen­ate is slat­ed to resume con­sid­er­a­tion of the motion to pro­ceed to H.R. 6833, the leg­isla­tive vehi­cle for a con­tin­u­ing res­o­lu­tion to keep the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment open and funded.

The House will take up the Men­tal Health Mat­ters Act, Merg­er Fil­ing Fee Mod­ern­iza­tion Act of 2022, and the PAVA Pro­gram Inclu­sion Act in addi­tion to the con­tin­u­ing res­o­lu­tion to keep the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment open and fund­ed. Leg­is­la­tion relat­ed to the STOCK Act may also be considered.

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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