Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (May 30th-June 2nd)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing June 2nd, 2023.

In the United States House of Representatives

BUDGET, DEBT LIMIT RANSOM DEMAND LEGISLATION: The House on May 31st passed the so-called Fis­cal Respon­si­bil­i­ty Act (H.R. 3746), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Patrick T. McHen­ry, R‑North Carolina.

The bill would sus­pend the fed­er­al debt lim­it through 2024, can­cel some unspent fund­ing for the Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice and COVID response pro­grams, and cre­ate caps on dis­cre­tionary fed­er­al spend­ing in fis­cal 2024 and fis­cal 2025.

McHen­ry, who helped nego­ti­ate the bill with the White House, con­tend­ed it “con­tains spend­ing cuts that take a step in the right direc­tion toward restor­ing fis­cal san­i­ty in Wash­ing­ton” and curbs reg­u­la­to­ry over­reach by the exec­u­tive branch, while also reform­ing the appro­pri­a­tions process in Congress.

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chip Roy, R‑Texas, said of the bill: “At best, we have a two-year spend­ing freeze that is full of loop­holes and gim­micks that would allow for increased fund­ing for the fed­er­al bureau­cra­cy in order to receive a $4 tril­lion increase in the debt by Jan­u­ary 1, 2025.”

The vote, on May 31st, was 314 yeas to 117 nays.

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

	Vot­ing Yea (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Yea (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Earl Blu­me­nauer and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci and Val Hoyle
	Vot­ing Yea (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jayapal

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 yea votes, 4 nay votes

DEFINING SMALL COMPANIES: The House on May 30th passed the Small Enti­ty Update Act (H.R. 2792), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ann Wag­n­er, R‑Missouri, to require the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion to update, every five years, its def­i­n­i­tion of “small enti­ty” for the pur­pos­es of regulation.

Wag­n­er said the require­ment “will lead to a more tar­get­ed reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work for these enti­ties and help make the Amer­i­can Dream a real­i­ty for all entre­pre­neurs.” The vote was 367 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 (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Rick Larsen and Prami­la Jayapal

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 yea votes, 3 not voting

SHAREHOLDER VOTING PRACTICES: The House on May 30th passed the Enhanc­ing Mul­ti-Class Share Dis­clo­sures Act (H.R. 2795), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gre­go­ry W. Meeks, D‑New York. Under the bill, a pub­licly trad­ed com­pa­ny that has mul­ti­ple class­es of share­hold­ers, with dif­fer­ing amounts of pow­er over the com­pa­ny, would be required to pro­vide more infor­ma­tion about those class­es of share­hold­ers. Meeks said: “More robust infor­ma­tion is always best for investors. This bill will ensure that Main Street can make an informed deci­sion as they look to invest in tomor­row’s next suc­cess­ful business.”

The vote was 347 yeas to 30 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 (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Rick Larsen and Prami­la Jayapal

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 yea votes, 3 not voting

INVESTING IN SMALL BUSINESS: The House on May 30th passed the Pro­mot­ing Oppor­tu­ni­ties for Non-Tra­di­tion­al Cap­i­tal For­ma­tion Act (H.R. 2796), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Max­ine Waters, D‑California.

The bill would require a Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC) office for invest­ment in small busi­ness to expand efforts to help some types of small busi­ness, includ­ing those in rur­al areas and those hurt by nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, raise pri­vate cap­i­tal. Waters said it “will encour­age the SEC to bet­ter serve the needs of under­served small busi­ness­es, coor­di­nate bet­ter with state reg­u­la­tors, all the while pro­tect­ing investors.” The vote was 309 yeas to 67 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (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 (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer,  Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Rick Larsen and Prami­la Jayapal

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 yea votes, 1 nay vote, 3 not voting

RECOGNIZING JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN SOCIETY: The House on May 31st passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 382), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz, D‑Florida, rec­og­niz­ing the con­tri­bu­tions Jews have made to Amer­i­can soci­ety and call­ing on civic, polit­i­cal, and reli­gious lead­ers to oppose anti-Semi­tism. Wasser­man Schultz said: “While this res­o­lu­tion will not stop hate or anti-Semi­tism in its tracks, it uses the full voice of Con­gress to say that there is more that unites us than divides us.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 429 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

QUALIFYING PRIVATE INVESTORS: The House on May 31st passed the Equal Oppor­tu­ni­ty for All Investors Act (H.R. 2797), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Flood, R‑Nebraska, to expand eli­gi­bil­i­ty for indi­vid­u­als to qual­i­fy as an accred­it­ed investor, eli­gi­ble to pur­chase pri­vate­ly offered secu­ri­ties, by pass­ing an exam­i­na­tion from the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Commission.

Flood said the change “brings more investors into the accred­it­ed investor pool but also con­tains guardrails that would fil­ter out indi­vid­u­als that do not ful­ly under­stand pri­vate offer­ings and the invest­ment risks asso­ci­at­ed with them.”

The vote was 383 yeas to 18 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Val Hoyle, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lori Chavez-DeRemer
	Vot­ing Yea (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jayapal

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

In the United States Senate

BUDGET, DEBT LIMIT RANSOM DEMAND LEGISLATION: The Sen­ate on June 1st passed the so-called Fis­cal Respon­si­bil­i­ty Act (H.R. 3746), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Patrick T. McHen­ry, R‑North Car­oli­na. The bill would sus­pend the fed­er­al debt lim­it through 2024, can­cel some unspent fund­ing for the Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice and COVID response pro­grams, and cre­ate caps on dis­cre­tionary fed­er­al spend­ing in fis­cal 2024 and fis­cal 2025. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Chuck Grass­ley, R‑Iowa, called the bill “a bipar­ti­san agree­ment to address the debt ceil­ing while impos­ing mean­ing­ful brakes on gov­ern­ment spend­ing largess.”

A bill oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor James Lank­ford, R‑Oklahoma, said its spend­ing reduc­tions were inad­e­quate and could be illu­so­ry due to var­i­ous escape pro­vi­sions and the abil­i­ty of future Con­gress­es to erase caps on spend­ing after 2025.

The vote was 63 yeas to 36 nays.

A yes vote was to send the leg­is­la­tion to Pres­i­dent Biden, who signed it into law.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 3 yea votes, 3 nay votes

REPUBLICAN SCHEME TO CUT ESSENTIAL SERVICES EVEN FURTHER: The Sen­ate on June 1st reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Dan Sul­li­van, R‑Alaska, to the Fis­cal Respon­si­bil­i­ty Act (H.R. 3746, above), that would have reduced fund­ing for the Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice while increas­ing fund­ing for the Defense Depart­ment. Sul­li­van said more mil­i­tary fund­ing was need­ed because of haz­ards cre­at­ed by Rus­sia and oth­er adver­saries, “and yet this bill cuts defense spend­ing in infla­tion-adjust­ed terms by approx­i­mate­ly three per­cent this year and 5 per­cent next year.”

An oppo­nent, Sen. Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said: “At a time when Con­gress is sup­posed to be debat­ing fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty, this amend­ment dou­ble counts bil­lions and bil­lions of dol­lars by increas­ing the deficit with more spend­ing on defense con­trac­tors and big­ger hand­outs to wealthy tax cheats.” The vote was 49 yeas to 48 nays, with a three-fifths major­i­ty required for approval.

	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

KICKING AMERICANS OFF NUTRITION ASSISTANCE: The Sen­ate on June 1st reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor John Kennedy, R‑Louisiana, to the so-called Fis­cal Respon­si­bil­i­ty Act (H.R. 3746, above), that would have made per­ma­nent a require­ment for sin­gle adults to be employed in order to receive food stamp ben­e­fits. Kennedy said of the ben­e­fit of a work require­ment: “The best social pro­gram is a job. Free enter­prise has lift­ed more peo­ple out of pover­ty than all the social pro­grams put togeth­er.” An amend­ment oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Deb­bie Stabenow, D‑Mich., said “it is very irre­spon­si­ble for us to change some­thing” in the bill and cre­ate the risk of default­ing on the fed­er­al debt by delay­ing a lift­ing of the debt ceil­ing. The vote, on June 1, was 46 yeas to 51 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

REMOVING COVID FUNDING: The Sen­ate on June 1st reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Ted Budd, R‑North Car­oli­na, to the Fis­cal Respon­si­bil­i­ty Act (H.R. 3746, above), that would have can­celled unspent fund­ing for COVID relief pro­grams. Budd said: “If we real­ly want the Fis­cal Respon­si­bil­i­ty Act to live up to its name, the least we can do is to rescind the tax­pay­er dol­lars that remain to fight a pan­dem­ic that every­one knows is over.” An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon, said: “This amend­ment would take an ax to near­ly all of the fund­ing in the Recov­ery Act and sev­er­al oth­er COVID bills, even if the com­mu­ni­ties are still depend­ing or plan­ning on using that money.”

The vote was 47 yeas to 52 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

DARREL PAPILLION, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on May 30th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Dar­rel Papil­lion to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the East­ern Dis­trict of Louisiana. Papil­lion has been a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer in Baton Rogue for more than two decades, focused on civ­il and com­mer­cial law, includ­ing injury and wrong­ful death cases.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said Papil­lion “has deep ties to Louisiana and decades of legal expe­ri­ence that will serve him well on the fed­er­al bench.” The vote was 59 yeas to 31 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mike Crapo Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Jim Risch
	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, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

FORCING STUDENTS TO REPAY LOANS: The Sen­ate on June 1st passed a Repub­li­can res­o­lu­tion (H.J. Res. 45), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bob Good, R‑Virgini, to dis­ap­prove of and void an Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment rule issued last Octo­ber that sus­pend­ed or can­celled pay­ments on stu­dent loans.

A res­o­lu­tion sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor John Cornyn, R‑Texas, said: “It is fun­da­men­tal­ly unfair to expect tax­pay­ers with zero stu­dent debt to cov­er the cost of some­one else’s degree.” An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Eliz­a­beth War­ren, D‑Massachusetts, called it a move “to force near­ly 40 mil­lion hard­work­ing Amer­i­cans to imme­di­ate­ly pay back months of stu­dent loan pay­ments and inter­est and restore an esti­mat­ed $20 bil­lion of stu­dent debt to the bal­ances of tens of thou­sands of pub­lic servants.”

The vote was 52 yeas to 46 nays. A yes vote was to send the res­o­lu­tion to Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, who has promised to veto it.

	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

Key votes ahead

Repub­li­cans in the House are plan­ning to vote on a “mes­sag­ing bill” that will embrace stove­tops that burn petro­le­um gas.

The Sen­ate will work on exec­u­tive and judi­cial nominations.

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