Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Unit­ed States Sen­a­tors vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Feb­ru­ary 17th, 2023.

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives was in recess.

In the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

CINDY CHUNG, APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 13th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Cindy K. Chung to be a judge on the U.S. Third Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Over the past two decades Chung has var­i­ous­ly been an attor­ney at the Jus­tice Depart­ment, and a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor and, for the past year, U.S. Attor­ney for the West­ern Dis­trict of Pennsylvania.

The vote was 50 yeas to 44 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

GINA MENDEZ-MIRO, DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 14th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Gina Mendez-Miro to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for Puer­to Rico. Mendez-Miro was a staff attor­ney in Puer­to Rico’s Jus­tice Depart­ment, Sen­ate, and court sys­tem from 2006 to 2016, then became a judge on the ter­ri­to­ry’s appeals court. The vote was 54 yeas to 45 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

LINDSAY JENKINS, DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 14th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Lind­say C. Jenk­ins to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the North­ern Dis­trict of Illi­nois. Jenk­ins was a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer for two years before becom­ing, in 2006, an assis­tant U.S. attor­ney for the North­ern Dis­trict, spe­cial­iz­ing in crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tions. She then returned to pri­vate prac­tice in 2021. The vote, on Feb. 14, was 59 yeas to 40 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

ADRIENNE NELSON, DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 15th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Adri­enne C. Nel­son to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for Ore­gon. Nel­son has been a judge on Ore­gon’s Supreme Court since 2018. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said that in Ore­gon, Nel­son “is laud­ed for her prodi­gious work eth­ic, her integri­ty, and her humility.”

The vote was 52 yeas to 46 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

MATTHEW GARCIA, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 14th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Matthew L. Gar­cia to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for New Mex­i­co. Gar­cia has been gen­er­al coun­sel and then chief of staff to New Mex­i­co’s gov­er­nor since 2018. The vote was 53 yeas to 46 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

ANA REYES, DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 15th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Ana C. Reyes to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Reyes has been a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer at a D.C. law firm for two decades. The vote was 51 yeas to 47 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

DANIEL CALABRETTA, DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 16th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Daniel J. Cal­abret­ta to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the East­ern Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia. Cal­abret­ta has been a coun­ty court judge in Cal­i­for­nia since 2018, and before that was a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer and attor­ney for the state’s gov­er­nor. The vote was 51 yeas to 45 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

LESTER MARTINEZ-LOPEZ, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH: The Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 16th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Lester Mar­tinez-Lopez to be the Defense Depart­men­t’s Assis­tant Sec­re­tary for Health Affairs. Mar­tinez-Lopez has been a hos­pi­tal admin­is­tra­tor in Texas and Flori­da since retir­ing from the Army in 2005. In the Army, he was a research and oper­a­tions man­ag­er, includ­ing hold­ing com­mands of three dif­fer­ent hos­pi­tals. The vote was 61 yeas to 34 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

RESOLUTION CONDEMNING CHINA: Along with roll call votes this week, the Sen­ate also passed via voice vote a res­o­lu­tion (S. Res. 49) con­demn­ing Chi­na’s recent effort to send a sur­veil­lance bal­loon across the Unit­ed States.

LWIC will be on hiatus next week

Both cham­bers of Con­gress will be in recess this week for the Pres­i­dents Day hol­i­day. Last Week In Con­gress will return in March.

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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