Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (March 27th-31st)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing March 31st, 2023.

In the United States House of Representatives

GIVEAWAY TO OIL COMPANIES LEGISLATION: The House on March 30th passed the Low­er Ener­gy Costs Act (H.R. 1), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Steve Scalise, R‑La., to make a vari­ety of changes to fed­er­al ener­gy policies.

Changes include faster reg­u­la­to­ry reviews of ener­gy devel­op­ment projects, bar­ring the pres­i­dent from ban­ning hydraulic frac­tur­ing (frack­ing) of wells, remov­ing some restric­tions on oil and nat­ur­al gas imports and exports, and end­ing sev­er­al fed­er­al pro­grams sub­si­diz­ing mea­sures such as build­ing ener­gy effi­cien­cy improvements.

Scalise said of the need for the bill: “A lot of the infra­struc­ture that we need to make this coun­try grow is being held up right now from a lot of rad­i­cal reg­u­la­tions on the left and out­side groups that don’t want Amer­i­can energy.”

A bill oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kather­ine M. Clark, D‑Mass., called it a move “to triple down on alle­giance to Big Oil, give away more fed­er­al land, invite more off­shore drilling, unleash more pol­lu­tion into our water and our air and our land, and leave the tax­pay­ers foot­ing the bill.” The vote was 225 yeas to 204 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 7 yea votes, 10 nay votes, 1 not voting

BACKING LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS EXPORT TERMINAL IN OREGON: The House has agreed to an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lau­ren Boe­bert, R‑Colorado, to the Low­er Ener­gy Costs Act (H.R. 1, above), to express the sense of Con­gress as crit­i­ciz­ing the denial of per­mits for the Jor­dan Cove liq­ue­fied nat­ur­al gas (LNG) export ter­mi­nal that would have been built on the Ore­gon coast. Boe­bert said: “A West Coast LNG export ter­mi­nal would have shaved crit­i­cal days and sig­nif­i­cant costs off exports to Asia, elim­i­nat­ed threats asso­ci­at­ed with hur­ri­canes, and reduced our reliance on the Pana­ma Canal, which caus­es sig­nif­i­cant uncer­tain­ty and delays.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Frank Pal­lone Jr., D‑New Jer­sey, said it would be wrong for Con­gress to judge the deci­sion made by Ore­gon’s gov­ern­ment to reject the per­mit appli­ca­tions for Jor­dan Cove.

The vote, on March 29, was 221 yeas to 208 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes, 10 nay votes, 2 not voting

CRITICIZING PROPOSED FOSSIL FUEL TAX INCREASES: The House on March 29th agreed to an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kevin Hern, R‑Oklahoma, to the Low­er Ener­gy Costs Act (H.R. 1, above), to express the sense of Con­gress as crit­i­ciz­ing the tax increas­es on oil and nat­ur­al gas pro­posed in Pres­i­dent Biden’s fis­cal 2024 bud­get request. Hern said the increas­es “will kill jobs, raise fuel prices, and leave Amer­i­ca more depen­dent on for­eign oil.”

An amend­ment oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Frank Pal­lone Jr., D‑New Jer­sey, said the oil and nat­ur­al gas indus­try could weath­er the tax increas­es because in 2022 six of the indus­try’s largest com­pa­nies made $200 bil­lion and spent “bil­lions to enrich their share­hold­ers with stock buy­backs and div­i­dends, all while goug­ing Amer­i­can dri­vers at the pump.”

The vote was 228 yeas to 206 nays.

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

KEEPING AMERICA WEDDED TO PETROLEUM GAS STOVES: The House om March 29th agreed to an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gary J. Palmer, R‑Alabama, to the Low­er Ener­gy Costs Act (H.R. 1, above), to bar the Ener­gy Depart­ment (DOE) from imple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions to block the sale of petro­le­um gas-fueled stoves to consumers.

Palmer said such restric­tions would increase cook­ing costs and be “a direct attack on all nat­ur­al gas use in the coun­try and anoth­er exam­ple of the Biden admin­is­tra­tion’s desire to con­trol every deci­sion we make.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Paul Tonko, D‑New York, said: “This amend­ment would bar DOE from final­iz­ing any future effi­cien­cy stan­dards for gas stoves, lock­ing con­sumers into less effi­cient appli­ances that are cer­tain­ly more cost­ly to use.” The vote,was 251 yeas to 181 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 8 yea votes, 9 nay votes, 1 not voting

PROHIBITING CHINESE PURCHASES OF FARMLAND: The House on March 30th approved an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bruce West­er­man, R‑Arkansas, to the Low­er Ener­gy Costs Act (H.R. 1, above), that would bar Chi­na’s Com­mu­nist Par­ty from buy­ing Amer­i­can farm­land or land used to gen­er­ate renew­able ener­gy. West­er­man said: “Our coun­try’s food secu­ri­ty and ener­gy inde­pen­dence are at stake, and we must take action to pro­tect our crit­i­cal resources.” The vote was 407 yeas to 26 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 yea votes, 2 nay votes, 1 not voting

STOPPING FORCED ORGAN HARVESTING: The House on March 27th passed the Stop Forced Organ Har­vest­ing Act (H.R. 1154), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Christo­pher H. Smith, R‑New Jer­sey, to direct the pres­i­dent to impose sanc­tions on for­eign­ers who traf­fic in organs tak­en from peo­ple forcibly, and have the State Depart­ment revoke the pass­ports of peo­ple con­vict­ed of forced organ traf­fick­ing crimes. Smith said Chi­na’s annu­al tak­ing of organs from tens of thou­sands of young adults, includ­ing for trans­plan­ta­tion into senior Com­mu­nist Par­ty offi­cials, showed “no signs of abat­ing, which is why we and the rest of the world need to step up” and pun­ish such cru­el­ty. The vote, on March 27, was 413 yeas to 2 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 18 yea votes

COUNTERING CHINA: The House has passed the PRC Is Not a Devel­op­ing Coun­try Act (H.R. 1107), spon­sored by Rere­sen­ta­tive Young Kim, R‑California, to direct the State Depart­ment to advo­cate that inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions stop clas­si­fy­ing Chi­na (for­mal­ly known as the PRC) as a devel­op­ing coun­try, which results in ben­e­fi­cial treat­ment by those organizations.

Kim said: “We can­not let the PRC con­tin­ue exploit­ing coun­tries in need and take unfair advan­tage of inter­na­tion­al treaties and organizations.”

The vote, on March 27, was unan­i­mous with 415 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 18 yea votes

ADDITIONAL VOTE, TAKEN BY VOICE: Along with the week’s roll call votes, the House also passed the fol­low­ing mea­sure by voice vote: the Under­sea Cable Con­trol Act (H.R. 1189), to require the devel­op­ment of a strat­e­gy for elim­i­nat­ing the avail­abil­i­ty to for­eign adver­saries of prod­ucts and tech­nolo­gies for deploy­ing under­sea telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions cables.

In the United States Senate

REPEALING AUTHORIZATIONS FOR USE OF FORCE IN IRAQ: The Sen­ate on March 29th passed a bill (S. 316), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Tim­o­thy Kaine, D‑Virginia, to repeal the 1991 and 2002 res­o­lu­tions that autho­rized use of mil­i­tary force against Iraq. Kaine said the 2002 res­o­lu­tion in par­tic­u­lar was rushed through the Sen­ate with­out prop­er delib­er­a­tion before embark­ing on a lengthy war.

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor James E. Risch, R‑Idaho, said keep­ing the res­o­lu­tions would enhance Con­gres­sion­al over­sight of mil­i­tary actions against Iran-backed mili­tias in Iraq. The vote was 66 yeas to 30 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

RESTRICTIONS ON PANDEMIC RESPONSE TREATIES: The Sen­ate on March 28th reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Ron John­son, R‑Wisconsin, to a bill (S. 316, above) that would have required Sen­ate rat­i­fi­ca­tion before the U.S. joined any con­ven­tion or agree­ment on pan­dem­ic pre­ven­tion, pre­pared­ness, and response reached by the World Health Assem­bly, which is part of the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion. John­son said Con­gress should “no longer allow the admin­is­tra­tion to go ahead and nego­ti­ate agree­ments that can have a dra­mat­ic impact on our sov­er­eign­ty and bypass the Sen­ate entirely.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Tim­o­thy Kaine, D‑Virginia, said the bill should remain focused on the Iraq inva­sion autho­riza­tions and not include extra­ne­ous mat­ter such as would be intro­duced by the amendment.

The vote was 47 yeas to 49 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

CRUZ WARMONGERING AMENDMENT: The Sen­ate has reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen. Ted Cruz, R‑Texas, to a bill (S. 316, above) that would have stat­ed that the pres­i­dent retains author­i­ty to use mil­i­tary force against Iran’s mil­i­tary and its actions against U.S. sol­diers in the Mid­dle East. Cruz said the amend­ment was need­ed because “I don’t want to give an excuse for the Biden admin­is­tra­tion, the next time Iran attacks, to do noth­ing” in response.

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Tim­o­thy Kaine, D‑Virginia, said it would be a mis­take to autho­rize esca­lat­ing action against Iran via a briefly con­sid­ered amend­ment to an unre­lat­ed bill. The vote was 41 yeas to 55 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

INVESTIGATION OF AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: The Sen­ate on March 28th reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Rick Scott, R‑Florida, to a bill (S. 316, above) that would have estab­lished a Joint Select Com­mit­tee on Afghanistan in Con­gress to make an inves­ti­ga­tion into the U.S. mil­i­tary’s with­draw­al from Afghanistan in sum­mer 2021. Scott said the select com­mit­tee was the best way to have account­abil­i­ty for the mis­takes that cre­at­ed “Amer­i­ca’s most stun­ning, unforced, and humil­i­at­ing defeat in decades.” An amend­ment oppo­nent, Sen. Todd Young, R‑Indiana, said the bill “is not the right venue for estab­lish­ing a com­mit­tee of this nature.” The vote was 33 yeas to 62 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 nay votes

UNNECESSARY OVERSIGHT OF UKRAINE AID: The Sen­ate on March 28th reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Josh Haw­ley, R‑Missouri, to a bill (S. 316, above) that would have estab­lished an Office of the Spe­cial Inspec­tor Gen­er­al for Ukraine Assis­tance, to be charged with over­see­ing the use of aid sent to Ukraine in its war with Rus­sia. Haw­ley said hav­ing a sin­gle gov­ern­ment watch­dog han­dle over­sight would help avoid repeat­ing the bil­lions of dol­lars of waste that occurred dur­ing the war in Afghanistan. An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor James E. Risch, R‑Idaho, said “there are already six­ty-four ongo­ing or planned audits and reports on U.S. assis­tance to Ukraine,” mak­ing the amend­ment unnecessary.

The vote was 26 yeas to 68 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 nay votes

OVERTURNING WOTUS RULE: The Sen­ate on March 29th 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. A sup­port­er, Sen. Roger Mar­shall, R‑Kansas, said over­turn­ing the rule was need­ed to “ensure agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­ers and oth­er stake­hold­ers have the reg­u­la­to­ry cer­tain­ty to take care of our nation’s land and water resources, the lands and waters that we love.” An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin Cardin, D‑Maryland, said of the WOTUS rule: “This com­mon­sense, sci­ence-based approach rec­og­nizes that pol­lu­tion upstream can have down­stream impacts, so we must pro­tect the sys­tem to safe­guard down­stream com­mu­ni­ties and our environment.”

The vote was 53 yeas to 43 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

ENDING NATIONAL COVID EMERGENCY: The Sen­ate on March 29th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H.J. Res. 7), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Paul A. Gosar, R‑Arizona, to end the nation­al emer­gency in response to COVID that was declared by Pres­i­dent Trump on March 13, 2020. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Roger Mar­shall, R‑Kansas, said: “It is time to end any and all author­i­tar­i­an con­trol and uni­lat­er­al spend­ing deci­sions with­out con­gres­sion­al consent.”

The vote was 68 yeas to 23 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

RICHARD VERMA, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: The Sen­ate on March 30th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Richard Ver­ma to be Deputy Sec­re­tary of State for Man­age­ment and Resources. Ver­ma, U.S. ambas­sador to India dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, is cur­rent­ly Mas­ter­card’s chief legal offi­cer and head of glob­al pub­lic pol­i­cy. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Robert Menen­dez, D‑New Jer­sey, said Ver­ma’s “long pub­lic sec­tor career, which includes ser­vice in the Air Force, the Sen­ate, and the State Depart­ment, will help him be an effec­tive leader who can advance the Depart­men­t’s mod­ern­iza­tion agenda.”

The vote was 67 yeas to 26 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes

LAURA TAYLOR-KALE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The Sen­ate on March 30th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Lau­ra Tay­lor-Kale to be Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense for Indus­tri­al Base Pol­i­cy. Tay­lor-Kale has been a senior offi­cial at the World Bank, an offi­cial in the sec­ond Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, and most recent­ly was a Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions research fel­low for inno­va­tion and eco­nom­ic com­pet­i­tive­ness. The vote was 63 yeas to 27 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

ADDITIONAL VOTE, TAKEN BY VOICE: This week, the Sen­ate also passed the Vet­er­ans’ Com­pen­sa­tion Cost-of-Liv­ing Adjust­ment Act (S. 777), to increase, effec­tive Decem­ber 1st, 2023, the rates of com­pen­sa­tion for vet­er­ans with ser­vice-con­nect­ed dis­abil­i­ties and the rates of depen­den­cy and indem­ni­ty com­pen­sa­tion for the sur­vivors of cer­tain dis­abled veterans.

LWIC will be on hiatus during the Easter / Passover recess

The House and Sen­ate are in recess until the sec­ond half of April.

Last Week In Con­gress will return on April 23rd.

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