Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (April 24th-28th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing April 28th, 2023.

In the United States House of Representatives

“DEFAULT ON AMERICA” ACT: The House on April 26th passed the Repub­li­can-named “Lim­it, Save, Grow Act” (H.R. 2811), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jodey C. Arring­ton, R‑Texas. The bill would sus­pend the fed­er­al debt lim­it until spring 2024 and make numer­ous spend­ing and pol­i­cy changes, includ­ing rescind­ing unob­lig­at­ed fund­ing for COVID and Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice pro­grams, estab­lish­ing work require­ments for Med­ic­aid and food stamp pro­grams, and reduc­ing sub­si­dies for elec­tric vehi­cles and ener­gy effi­cien­cy and renew­able energy.

Arring­ton called the bil­l’s $4.8‑trillion spend­ing cut “an impor­tant first step to get­ting our fis­cal house in order and a good faith effort to bring the pres­i­dent to the nego­ti­at­ing table” for bud­get talks.

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bren­dan F. Boyle, D‑Pennsylvania, said the bill made risky cuts to pub­lic safe­ty, health, and food pro­grams, and rep­re­sent­ed “reck­less brinkman­ship” by rais­ing doubts about whether the U.S. will pay its debt oblig­a­tions. The vote was 217 yeas to 215 nays.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes, 12 nay votes

CALLING FOR THE RELEASE OF MARK SWIDAN: The House on April 25th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 90), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michael Cloud, R‑Texas, to demand that Chi­na’s gov­ern­ment imme­di­ate­ly release from prison Mark Swidan, a U.S. cit­i­zen whom Chi­na sen­tenced to death in 2012 after being con­vict­ed of drug traf­fick­ing charges.

Cloud said Swidan has been severe­ly mis­treat­ed while in prison, and that “no drugs were ever found on Swidan or in his hotel room, and the pros­e­cu­tion did not pro­duce any evi­dence tying him to the drugs.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 418 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 18 yea votes

ENCOURAGING EXPANSION OF ABRAHAM ACCORDS: The House on April 25th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 311), spon­sored by Rep. Ann Wag­n­er, R‑Mo., to encour­age Mid­dle East coun­tries to join the Abra­ham Accords for improv­ing rela­tions between Israel and neigh­bor­ing countries.

Wag­n­er said: “Israel is a force for peace and a bea­con of democ­ra­cy in a chal­leng­ing region. At a time of height­ened anti-Semi­tism across the globe, it is more impor­tant than ever that we main­tain our strong con­nec­tion to this very key ally.” The vote was 401 yeas to 19 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 nay vote

IMPROVING EMERGENCY TELECOMMUNICATIONS: The House on April 26th passed the Advanced, Local Emer­gency Response Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Par­i­ty Act (H.R. 1353), spon­sored by Rep. Bill John­son, R‑Ohio.

The bill would require the Fed­er­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion (FCC) to take mea­sures to improve emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions ser­vices, such as 9–1‑1 calls, in areas of the coun­try that lack ade­quate ser­vices. John­son said the bill would help “ensure every­one has access to crit­i­cal life­sav­ing emer­gency ser­vices regard­less of where they live or trav­el.” The vote was 422 yeas to 1 nay.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 not voting

UPDATING REGULATIONS TO ENABLE PRECISION AGRICULTURE: The House on April 26th passed the Pre­ci­sion Agri­cul­ture Satel­lite Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Act (H.R. 1339), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Robert E. Lat­ta, R‑Ohio, to require the Fed­er­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion to eval­u­ate poten­tial changes to its rules gov­ern­ing the use of satel­lites to enable pre­ci­sion agri­cul­ture prac­tices. Lat­ta said of the ben­e­fit of such changes: “Farm­ers use infor­ma­tion in real time to make smarter deci­sions on how to opti­mize inputs and whether and when to plant or har­vest. When ter­res­tri­al or cel­lu­lar net­works are not avail­able, satel­lite broad­band steps in to make these tech­nolo­gies work.” The vote was 409 yeas to 11 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 not voting

FAILED ATTEMPT TO INSIST ON WITHDRAWAL FROM SOMALIA: The House on April 27th reject­ed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Con. Res. 30), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Matt Gaetz, R‑Florida, that would have ordered the removal of U.S. sol­diers sta­tioned in Soma­lia with­in one year. Gaetz said: “I have yet to see the evi­dence that U.S. troops are the essen­tial ele­ment to fus­ing rela­tion­ships among war­ring African war­lords, clans, and tribes” and suc­ceed in sta­bi­liz­ing Somalia.

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Richard McCormick, R‑Georgia, voiced con­cerns that if the U.S. mil­i­tary leaves Soma­lia, “we will have an increase in ter­ror­ist activ­i­ties” and there­fore an increased threat to U.S. security.

The vote was 102 yeas to 321 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 3 yea votes, 15 nay votes

In the United States Senate

EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT: Vot­ing 51 for and 47 against, the Sen­ate on April 27th failed to reach 60 votes need­ed to advance a mea­sure (SJ Res 4) aimed at push­ing the Equal Rights Amend­ment (ERA) clos­er to rat­i­fi­ca­tion into the Con­sti­tu­tion. The res­o­lu­tion sought to replace a 1982 dead­line for states to vote on rat­i­fi­ca­tion with an open-end­ed rat­i­fi­ca­tion period.

This poten­tial­ly would val­i­date rat­i­fi­ca­tion votes by Neva­da, Illi­nois and Vir­ginia that occurred after 1982 but leave unre­solved the sta­tus of rat­i­fi­ca­tion votes by five states dur­ing the 1970s that they have since rescinded.

The ERA states: “Equal­i­ty of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the Unit­ed States or by any state on account of sex.”

Ben Cardin, D‑Maryland, said ERA rat­i­fi­ca­tion is need­ed because “there are still sys­temic chal­lenges based upon sex in our work­place, in health care and domes­tic vio­lence.” No sen­a­tor spoke against this attempt to advance the ERA.

A yes vote was to clear the way for ERA ratification.

Edi­tor’s Note: This Equal Rights Amend­ment vote sum­ma­ry was pro­vid­ed by VoteFacts.com News Reports, a strict­ly non­par­ti­san, fact-based news site whose mis­sion is to help civic mind­ed indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions track the most con­se­quen­tial and news­wor­thy issues debat­ed in the U.S. House and Sen­ate in the 117th Con­gress (2021–2022) and 118th Con­gress (2023–2024).

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

JOSHUA DAVID JACOBS, VA UNDERSECRETARY: The Sen­ate on April 26th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Joshua David Jacobs to be the Vet­er­ans Affairs Depart­men­t’s Under Sec­re­tary for Ben­e­fits. Jacobs is cur­rent­ly a senior ben­e­fits man­age­ment advi­so­ry offi­cial at the VA, and was in a sim­i­lar role at the VA dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, D‑Washington, said Jacobs’ expe­ri­ence at the VA “shows his deep com­mit­ment to serv­ing those who served our nation and why he is such a strong fit and trust­ed choice for this role.”

The vote was 74 yeas to 25 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

VOIDING ANOTHER EPA RULE: The Sen­ate on April 26th passed a res­o­lu­tion (S.J. Res. 11), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Deb Fis­ch­er, R‑Nebraska, to dis­ap­prove of and void an Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency rule lim­it­ing nitro­gen oxide air emis­sions from heavy-duty engines. Fis­ch­er said: “The tech­nol­o­gy required to meet this new rule’s stan­dards will cost between approx­i­mate­ly $2,500 and $8,500 per vehi­cle. This means that many truck­ers will choose to keep their old heavy-duty vehi­cles, which do have high­er rates of emis­sions, instead of buy­ing vehi­cles that are both afford­able and more climate-conscious.”

A res­o­lu­tion oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Alex Padil­la, D‑California, said: “For the sake of clean air, for the sake of our envi­ron­ment, and for the sake of the health of all com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try, I urge you to oppose this repeal.”

The vote, on April 26, was 50 yeas to 49 nays. The res­o­lu­tion was able to pass thanks to the absence of Sen­a­tor Dianne Fein­stein of Cal­i­for­nia and the defec­tion of Sen­a­tor Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

Key votes ahead

The House will be in recess this week, with no floor votes expected.

The Sen­ate will be in ses­sion and work­ing on judi­cial nominations.

Votes are expect­ed to con­firm Michael Far­biarz and Robert Kirsch to the fed­er­al bench in New Jer­sey and Ore­lia Ele­ta Mer­chant to the fed­er­al bench in New York.

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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