Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing April 21st, 2023.

In the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

GENDER AND SCHOOL SPORTS: The House on April 20th passed the inap­pro­pri­ate­ly-named “Pro­tec­tion of Women and Girls in Sports Act” (H.R. 734), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gre­go­ry W. Steube, R‑Florida, to con­di­tion fed­er­al fund­ing of school ath­let­ic pro­grams on those schools not allow­ing peo­ple whose bio­log­i­cal sex at birth is male to take part in female ath­let­ic programs.

Steube said the bill “pre­serves wom­en’s sports and ensures fair com­pe­ti­tion for gen­er­a­tions of women to come.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mark Takano, D‑California, said: “Con­gress has no busi­ness tar­get­ing trans­gen­der women and girls and impos­ing a nation­wide ban on their par­tic­i­pa­tion in school sports.”

The vote was 219 yeas to 203 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer Vot­ing Nay (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Val Hoyle, and Andrea Salinas
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes, 12 nay votes

RESPONDING TO CHINESE SURVEILLANCE BALLOONS: The House on April 17th passed the Uphold­ing Sov­er­eign­ty of Air­space Act (H.R. 1151), spon­sored by Rep. Gre­go­ry Meeks, D‑New York, to con­demn Chi­na’s sur­veil­lance bal­loon flights over the U.S. since 2017 and have the State Depart­ment work with oth­er coun­tries to oppose such flights as inva­sions of sov­er­eign ter­ri­to­ry. Meeks said of the flights: “Such a vio­la­tion of inter­na­tion­al law and U.S. sov­er­eign­ty will not be tol­er­at­ed and must not hap­pen again.” The vote was 405 yeas to 6 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (6): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Val Hoyle, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer
	Vot­ing Yea (10): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 18 yea votes

RESPONDING TO DRONE ATTACK BY RUSSIA: The House on April 17th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 240), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bran­don Williams, R‑New York, to con­demn Rus­si­a’s recent destruc­tion of a U.S. mil­i­tary drone said to have been fly­ing in inter­na­tion­al air­space over the Black Sea.

Williams said the res­o­lu­tion would “reas­sure our allies that we are com­mit­ted to defend our­selves and our friends, and togeth­er, we will ensure the peace through deter­rence in uni­ty.” The was unan­i­mous with 410 yeas.

	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (6): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Val Hoyle, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer
	Vot­ing Yea (10): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 18 yea votes

FAILED VETO OVERRIDE OF WATERWAYS REGULATION: The House on April 18th failed to over­ride Pres­i­dent Biden’s veto of a res­o­lu­tion (H.J. Res. 27), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Sam Graves, R‑Missouri., that would have void­ed 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 the rule favored “rad­i­cal envi­ron­men­tal activists over Amer­i­ca’s fam­i­lies, small busi­ness­es, farm­ers, builders, and prop­er­ty owners.”

A res­o­lu­tion oppo­nent, the Pacif­ic North­west­’s own Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rick Larsen, D‑Washington, said: “This res­o­lu­tion rep­re­sents a step back­ward for clean water, increas­es uncer­tain­ty for busi­ness­es, and dou­bles down on fight­ing and on chaos.” The vote was 227 yeas to 196 nays, with a two-thirds thresh­old required.

	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer Vot­ing Nay (3): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Val Hoyle Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andrea Salinas
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland

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

OVERRIDING DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LAWMAKING ON POLICE REFORM: The House on April 19th passed a bill (H.J. Res. 42), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andrew Clyde, R‑Georgia, to dis­ap­prove of and void the Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Coun­cil’s adop­tion of a law chang­ing polic­ing poli­cies for D.C. police offi­cers. Clyde said the action was nec­es­sary because “the D.C. Coun­cil’s mis­guid­ed leg­is­la­tion has dri­ven out men and women in blue who pro­tect us, while dis­in­cen­tiviz­ing indi­vid­u­als to join the force.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jamie Raskin, D‑Maryland, said the Coun­cil was only try­ing to “pro­mote account­abil­i­ty for police offi­cers who use exces­sive force or abuse their pow­er, a goal that the vast major­i­ty of Amer­i­cans share.”

The vote was 229 yeas to 189 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer Vot­ing Nay (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Val Hoyle, and Andrea Salinas
	Vot­ing Yea (4): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers; Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives  Marie Glue­senkamp Perez and Kim Schrier Vot­ing Nay (6): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland

Cas­ca­dia total: 8 yea votes, 10 nay votes

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECURITY: The House on April 19th passed the Coun­ter­ing Untrust­ed Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Abroad Act (H.R. 1149), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Susan Wild, D‑Pennsylvania, to require the State Depart­ment to assist telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions infra­struc­ture install­ments that pro­mote U.S. nation­al secu­ri­ty, and require oth­er mea­sures to address secu­ri­ty risks from telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions. Wild said: “Secur­ing these net­works is imper­a­tive when it comes to nation­al secu­ri­ty and human rights, as well as for our eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty.” The vote was 410 yeas to 8 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (6): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Val Hoyle, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer
	Vot­ing Yea (10): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 not voting

In the United States Senate

The Sen­ate cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

FIRE GRANTS AND SAFETY ACT: The Sen­ate on April 20th passed the Fire Grants and Safe­ty Act (S. 870), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Gary C. Peters, D‑Michigan, to reau­tho­rize through fis­cal 2030 sev­er­al fed­er­al fire­fight­ing and fire man­age­ment pro­grams. Peters said: “Fire depart­ments depend on these pro­grams to address staffing needs, replace out­dat­ed equip­ment, fund fire train­ing and edu­ca­tion pro­grams, and invest in health screen­ings for fire­fight­ers in the line of duty.” The vote was 95 yeas to 2 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (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: 6 yea votes

REJECTION OF RAND PAUL’S ANTI-VACCINE AMENDMENT: The Sen­ate on April 18th reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen. Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky, to the Fire Grants and Safe­ty Act (S. 870, above), that would have made grants to local fire depart­ments con­tin­gent on those depart­ments not hav­ing imposed COVID vac­ci­na­tion require­ments on their employees.

Paul said: “Fire­men and EMTs who chose not to be vac­ci­nat­ed were nev­er a threat to any­one, nev­er a threat to their com­mu­ni­ties. On the con­trary, these fire­fight­ers served their com­mu­ni­ties brave­ly and made their neigh­bors safe.”

An oppo­nent, Sen. Gary C. Peters, D‑Michigan, said: “This amend­ment would inter­fere with state and local gov­ern­ments’ abil­i­ty to deter­mine health poli­cies for their own employ­ees and how to best keep their com­mu­ni­ties safe.”

The vote was 45 yeas to 54 nays.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

REJECTION OF RICK SCOTT’S COVID REDIRECTION FUNDS AMENDMENT: The Sen­ate on April 18th reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Rick Scott, R‑Florida, to the Fire Grants and Safe­ty Act (S. 870, above) that would have used unspent COVID relief funds to help cov­er the cost of the bil­l’s fire­fight­ing grants pro­gram. Scott said that giv­en the more than $31 tril­lion of gov­ern­ment indebt­ed­ness, it would be finan­cial­ly pru­dent to redi­rect unob­lig­at­ed funds to sup­port fire­fight­ers, rather than add to deficit spending.

An amend­ment oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Gary C. Peters, D‑Michigan, said: “Redis­trib­ut­ing this fund­ing could weak­en our nation’s abil­i­ty to con­tin­ue respond­ing to and recov­er­ing from the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and would pull funds from a pro­gram that is sup­port­ing our com­mu­ni­ties, fam­i­lies, and small busi­ness­es in impor­tant ways.” The vote was 47 yeas to 49 nays.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

RADHA IEYNGAR PLUMB, UNDERSECRETARY: The Sen­ate on April 18th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Rad­ha Iyen­gar Plumb to be Deputy Under Sec­re­tary of Defense for Acqui­si­tion and Sus­tain­ment. Plumb, cur­rent­ly chief of staff to Defense’s deputy sec­re­tary, was for­mer­ly an exec­u­tive at Google and at Face­book, and a nation­al secu­ri­ty staffer at sev­er­al fed­er­al agencies.

The vote was 68 yeas to 30 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

AMY LEFKOWITZ SOLOMON, AAG: The Sen­ate on April 18th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Amy Lefkowitz Solomon to be the Jus­tice Depart­men­t’s Assis­tant Attor­ney Gen­er­al for the Office of Jus­tice Pro­grams (OJP). A senior offi­cial at OJP since the start of the Biden admin­is­tra­tion, Solomon was in sim­i­lar roles at OJP dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion as well. A sup­port­er, Sen. Dick Durbin, D‑Ill., called Solomon “a devot­ed pub­lic ser­vant whose pol­i­cy exper­tise and com­mit­ment to the rule of law will serve the Jus­tice Depart­ment and com­mu­ni­ties across Amer­i­ca.” The vote, on April 18, 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

Key votes ahead

The House plans to take up a res­o­lu­tion dis­ap­prov­ing the rule sub­mit­ted by the Depart­ment of Com­merce relat­ing to “Pro­ce­dures Cov­er­ing Sus­pen­sion of Liq­ui­da­tion, Duties and Esti­mat­ed Duties in Accord With Pres­i­den­tial Procla­ma­tion 10414” along with sev­er­al oth­er bills and res­o­lu­tions, such as the Secure Space Act and the Advanced, Local Emer­gency Response Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Par­i­ty Act.

The Sen­ate will take up the nom­i­na­tion of Joshua David Jacobs, of Wash­ing­ton, to be Under Sec­re­tary for Ben­e­fits of the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs. It will also con­sid­er a motion relat­ing to S.326, the leg­isla­tive vehi­cle for a vet­er­ans package.

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