Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (March 6th-10th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing March 10th, 2023.

In the United States House of Representatives

REPUBLICAN BILL CONCERNING CENSORSHIP: The House on March 9th passed the “Pro­tect­ing Speech from Gov­ern­ment Inter­fer­ence Act” (H.R. 140), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive James Com­er, R‑Kentucky, to bar employ­ees in the exec­u­tive branch of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment from direct­ly or indi­rect­ly cen­sor­ing speech, with penal­ties imposed if employ­ees cen­sor speech.

Com­er said: “Fed­er­al offi­cials, no mat­ter their rank or resources, must be pro­hib­it­ed from coerc­ing the pri­vate sec­tor to sup­press cer­tain infor­ma­tion or lim­it the abil­i­ty of cit­i­zens to freely express their own views on a pri­vate-sec­tor Inter­net plat­form.” A bill oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Daniel S. Gold­man, D‑New York, said it would allow Rus­sia, Chi­na, and oth­er coun­tries adver­sar­i­al to the U.S. “to con­tin­ue using social media plat­forms unfet­tered to wreak hav­oc on our demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions, includ­ing the integri­ty of our elections.”

The vote was 219 yeas to 206 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes, 11 nay votes, 1 not voting

VOIDING EPA/CORPS RULE ON WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES: The House on March 9th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H.J. Res. 27), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Sam Graves, R‑Missouri., to dis­ap­prove of and void an Army Corps of Engi­neers and Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency rule issued this Jan­u­ary that defines Waters of the Unit­ed States (WOTUS).

Such waters would be sub­ject to reg­u­la­tion under the Clean Water Act. Graves said: “Return­ing to a more cost­ly, bur­den­some, and broad WOTUS def­i­n­i­tion could have a mas­sive impact on local com­mu­ni­ties and Amer­i­cans’ abil­i­ty to do their jobs and man­age their own pri­vate property.”

A res­o­lu­tion oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rick Larsen, D‑Washington, said: “This res­o­lu­tion rep­re­sents a giant step back­ward for clean water, increas­es uncer­tain­ty for farm­ers, home­builders, road­builders, and all Amer­i­can families.”

The vote was 227 yeas to 198 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes, 11 nay votes, 1 not voting

WOUNDED WARRIOR ACCESS ACT: The House on March 7th passed the Wound­ed War­rior Access Act (H.R. 1226), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Pete Aguilar, D‑Calif., to require the Vet­er­ans Affairs (VA) Depart­ment to make a tool on its web­site for vet­er­ans to make requests for records relat­ed to their claims and ben­e­fits sta­tus at the VA. Aguilar said the cur­rent claims fil­ing process is cum­ber­some and time-con­sum­ing, and the web­site tool would be “a com­mon­sense solu­tion that cuts this red tape and will help Amer­i­can veterans.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 422 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 not voting

MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND CYBERSECURITY: The House on March 7th passed the Under­stand­ing Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty of Mobile Net­works Act (H.R. 1123), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Anna G. Eshoo, D‑California, to require a report on the cyber­se­cu­ri­ty of mobile telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions net­works from the Nation­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions and Infor­ma­tion Administration.

Eshoo said the report was need­ed because “we lack a com­pre­hen­sive assess­ment of what vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties exist on these net­works, what issues have been resolved, and where mobile cyber­se­cu­ri­ty pol­i­cy­mak­ing should be focused.”

The vote was 393 yeas to 22 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 not voting

REJECTING RESOLUTION TO WITHDRAW U.S. FORCES FROM SYRIA: The House on March 8th reject­ed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Con. Res. 21), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Matt Gaetz, R‑Florida, that would have required the with­draw­al of all U.S. sol­diers from Syr­ia. Gaetz said: “We have tried this time and again to build a democ­ra­cy out of sand, blood, and Arab mili­tias, and time and again the work we do does not reduce chaos. Often­times it caus­es chaos, the very chaos that then sub­se­quent­ly leads to terrorism.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michael T. McCaul, R‑Texas, said: “Our small deploy­ment of U.S. ser­vice­mem­bers is remark­ably effec­tive at work­ing with local part­ner forces to achieve results and ensure the endur­ing and com­plete defeat of ISIS.” The vote was 103 yeas to 321 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 yea votes, 12 nay votes, 1 not voting

TREATING VA MEDICAL WASTE: The House on March 8th passed the VA COST SAVINGS Enhance­ments Act (H.R. 753), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Bost, R‑Illinois, to require the Vet­er­ans Affairs (VA) Depart­ment to put reg­u­lat­ed med­ical waste treat­ment sys­tems at VA health care facilities.

Bost said installing on-site waste incin­er­a­tors could save the VA tens of mil­lions of dol­lars per year and “cre­ate a safer and clean­er envi­ron­ment at our VA hospitals.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 426 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 not voting

In the United States Senate

ROBERT STEWART BALLOU, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 7th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Robert Stew­art Bal­lou to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the West­ern Dis­trict of Vir­ginia. A mag­is­trate judge in the dis­trict since 2011, for the pre­vi­ous two decades Bal­lou had been a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer in Vir­ginia. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Tim­o­thy Kaine, D‑Virginia, said: “Judge Bal­lou enjoys broad and deep sup­port across the Vir­ginia legal com­mu­ni­ty.” The vote was 59 yeas to 37 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

ANDREW SCHOPLER, U.S. DISTRICRT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 7th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Andrew G. Schopler to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the South­ern Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia. Schopler was a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor in the dis­trict from 2004 to 2016, then assumed his cur­rent role as a mag­is­trate judge in the dis­trict. The vote was 56 yeas to 39 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

ARUN SUBRAMANIAN, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 7th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Arun Sub­ra­man­ian to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the South­ern Dis­trict of New York. Sub­ra­man­ian has been a lawyer at a New York City law firm since 2008, spe­cial­iz­ing in com­mer­cial lit­i­ga­tion. A sup­port­er, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, called Sub­ra­man­ian “an expert in con­sumer pro­tec­tion, with years of expe­ri­ence defend­ing those injured by unfair, ille­gal prac­tices. He also defend­ed vic­tims of child traf­fick­ing and pornog­ra­phy.” The vote was 59 yeas to 37 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

VOIDING CHANGES TO D.C. CRIMINAL CODE: The Sen­ate on March 8th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H.J. Res. 26), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andrew S. Clyde, R‑Georgia, to dis­ap­prove of and void a Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Coun­cil law that made var­i­ous changes to the Dis­tric­t’s crim­i­nal laws, includ­ing reduc­ing pun­ish­ments and expand­ing the right to a jury tri­al for mis­de­meanor cases.

A sup­port­er, Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell, R‑Kentucky, said the D.C. law was “going even soft­er on crime and putting vio­lent con­victs back on the streets even more rapid­ly” even as crime rates have climbed to high levels.

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Chris Van Hollen, D‑Maryland, said: “Con­gress should not be over­rid­ing the will of the peo­ple of D.C. as reflect­ed in their elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives.” The vote was 81 yeas to 14 nays.

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

DANIEL WERFEL, IRS COMMISSIONER: The Sen­ate on March 9th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Daniel Wer­fel to be Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice (IRS) Com­mis­sion­er for a term end­ing in late 2027.

Wer­fel was the IRS’s act­ing com­mis­sion­er late in the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, and pre­vi­ous­ly was the Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get’s controller.

For the last nine years he has been at the Boston Con­sult­ing Group. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said Wer­fel would “bring trans­paren­cy to the job. That includes how the IRS will spend fund­ing to improve tax­pay­er ser­vices, upgrade infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, and crack down on those wealthy tax cheats.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Mar­sha Black­burn, R‑Tenn., said Wer­fel’s answers to inquiries about his nom­i­na­tion “did lit­tle to inspire con­fi­dence in his will­ing­ness to take back con­trol of this agency” and stop what Black­burn called harass­ing audits of tax­pay­ers. The vote was 54 yeas to 42 nays.

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

JAMES SIMMONS, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 9th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of James Sim­mons to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. A coun­ty court judge in San Diego since 2017, Sim­mons was pre­vi­ous­ly a pros­e­cu­tor for the Cal­i­for­nia gov­ern­ment there.

The vote was 51 yeas to 43 nays.

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

MARIA ARAUJO KAHN, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on March 9th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Maria Arau­jo Kahn to be a judge on the U.S. Sec­ond Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Since 2006, Kahn has suc­ces­sive­ly been a coun­ty supe­ri­or court, state appeals court, and state supreme court judge in Con­necti­cut; pre­vi­ous­ly, she was an assis­tant U.S. attor­ney in the state.

The vote was 51 yeas to 42 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 not voting

Key votes ahead

The House is in recess and will not meet for floor votes this week.

The Sen­ate will recon­vene on Tues­day and con­sid­er the nom­i­na­tion of Brent Neiman, of Illi­nois, to be a Deputy Under Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury. Addi­tion­al votes on nom­i­na­tions or leg­isla­tive items are possible.

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