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Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Sunday, January 8th, 2023

Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (January 3rd-7th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Jan­u­ary 7th, 2023.

In the United States House of Representatives

Chamber of the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

ELECTION OF KEVIN MCCARTHY AS SPEAKER: Rep­re­sen­ta­tive-elect Kevin McCarthy, R‑California, was elect­ed House speak­er on Jan­u­ary 7th, 2023 (East­ern Time), with 216 mem­bers vot­ing to sup­port his can­di­da­cy, 212 sup­port­ing Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Hakeem Jef­fries, D‑New York, and six declar­ing “present.”

McCarthy’s elec­tion came on the fif­teenth bal­lot in an intra­party pow­er strug­gle stretch­ing over four days. The rules of the cham­ber require a major­i­ty vote to elect the House speak­er, who is sec­ond in line for the presidency.

After this vote, House mem­bers were sworn into office and the cham­ber began offi­cial­ly func­tion­ing as part of the 118th Congress.

McCarthy backer James Com­er, R‑Kentucky, said: “For the past two years, one-par­ty Demo­c­rat [sic] rule has result­ed in mul­ti­ple crises that are harm­ing Amer­i­cans with­out any over­sight or account­abil­i­ty from this body…. In a Repub­li­can major­i­ty under Speak­er Kevin McCarthy, this bro­ken Con­gress will final­ly be fixed, we will return to reg­u­lar order and we will drag those sen­a­tors kick­ing and scream­ing along with us every step of the way.”

Jef­fries backer Veron­i­ca Esco­bar, D‑Texas, said:

“I shud­der to think what a Repub­li­can majority’s inabil­i­ty to gov­ern would have meant on [Jan­u­ary 6th, 2021] and what it could mean in the future for those of us who believe in defend­ing our democ­ra­cy abroad, and now, more than ever, here at home. On this painful anniver­sary, thank­ful­ly, the hon­or­able Hakeem Jef­fries made sure that we came togeth­er to mark the moment… and ensure that we recom­mit to our repub­lic and our democracy.”

All Repub­li­cans vot­ing sup­port­ed McCarthy. All Democ­rats vot­ing sup­port­ed Jef­fries. The six mem­bers who effec­tive­ly did not vote by declar­ing “present” were GOP Rep.-elects Andy Big­gs and Eli Crane of Ari­zona, Lau­ren Boe­bert of Col­orado, Matt Gaetz of Flori­da, Bob Good of Vir­ginia and Matthew Rosendale of Montana.

The State of Idaho

Vot­ing for McCarthy (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives-elect Mike Simp­son and Russ Fulcher

The State of Oregon

Vot­ing for Jef­fries (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives-elect Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Val Hoyle, and Andrea Salinas

Vot­ing for McCarthy (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives-elect Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer

The State of Washington

Vot­ing for Jef­fries (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives-elect Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland

Vot­ing for McCarthy (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives-elect Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers and Dan Newhouse

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 votes for Jef­fries, 6 for McCarthy

OTHER VOTES: A total of twen­ty roll call votes were tak­en this week. Most of those were votes for Speak­er that end­ed in a dead­lock, but there were also five motions to adjourn the House. No roll call votes on leg­is­la­tion have been tak­en yet in the 118th Con­gress, and there will be none until next week at the earliest.

Key votes ahead

On Tues­day, the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is sched­uled to recon­vene and is expect­ed to take up a rules pack­age cre­at­ed by the Repub­li­can majority.

The Sen­ate will be in recess, and does not plan to recon­vene until Jan­u­ary 23rd, at which point it will con­sid­er one of Pres­i­dent Biden’s exec­u­tive nominations.

Edi­tor’s Note: The infor­ma­tion in this edi­tion of How Cas­ca­di­a’s U.S. law­mak­ers vot­ed fea­ture was pro­vid­ed by Vote­Facts News Reports. 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!

© 2023 VoteFacts.com News Reports. 

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