Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (September 18th-22nd)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Sep­tem­ber 22nd, 2023.

PROCEDURAL MOTION ON REPUBLICAN MILITARY APPROPRIATIONS BILL: The House on Sep­tem­ber 21st reject­ed a res­o­lu­tion to con­sid­er the Depart­ment of Defense Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4365), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ken Calvert, R‑California, as well as two oth­er bills.

The appro­pri­a­tions bill would spend $826 bil­lion on mil­i­tary pro­grams in fis­cal 2024, includ­ing a 5.2 per­cent pay increase for mil­i­tary members.

A res­o­lu­tion sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tom Cole, R‑Oklahoma, said: “Pro­vid­ing fund­ing for our nation­al defense is both Con­gress’ priv­i­lege and its respon­si­bil­i­ty. In order for our brave men and women in uni­form to do their jobs, Con­gress must do its job.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive James P. McGov­ern, D‑Massachusetts, said: “This bill has hor­ri­ble, harm­ful pol­i­cy rid­ers that strip peo­ple’s rights and push MAGA cul­ture wars.” The vote was 212 yeas to 216 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes, 12 nay votes

OVERSIGHT OF EDUCATION FOR VETERANS: The House on Sep­tem­ber 18th passed the Isak­son-Roe Edu­ca­tion Over­sight Expan­sion Act (H.R. 3981), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mor­gan McGar­vey, D‑Kentucky, to adopt added require­ments for edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions with mil­i­tary vet­er­ans who are using GI Bill ben­e­fits to help pay for their tuition. McGar­vey said the bill sought to ensure “that the men and women who put on the uni­form of our coun­try aren’t defraud­ed by dis­hon­est insti­tu­tions that fail to set our vet­er­ans up for success.”

The vote was unan­i­mous with 410 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 yea votes, 2 not voting

INDIGENOUS FAMILY SAFETY PROGRAMS: The House on Sep­tem­ber 18th passed the Native Amer­i­can Child Pro­tec­tion Act (H.R. 663), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ruben Gal­lego, D‑Arizona, to reau­tho­rize, through fis­cal 2028, sev­er­al pro­grams hav­ing to do with Amer­i­can Indi­an child pro­tec­tion and fam­i­ly vio­lence pro­grams, and make cer­tain revi­sions to the programs.

Gal­lego said the pro­grams “give tribes the tools to treat, pre­vent, inves­ti­gate, and pros­e­cute child abuse and fam­i­ly vio­lence involv­ing Native Amer­i­can children.”

The vote was 378 yeas to 32 nays.

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

HELPING CHILDREN OF VETERANS BORN WITH SPINA BIFIDA: The House on Sep­tem­ber 19th passed a bill (S. 112), spon­sored by Sen­atir Mike Braun, R‑Indiana, to pro­vide Vet­er­ans Affairs Depart­ment ben­e­fits to off­spring of Viet­nam War vet­er­ans who were born with spina bifi­da or oth­er birth defects.

A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Bost, R‑Illinois, said the bill would improve on the VA’s cur­rent pro­gram “by estab­lish­ing care and coor­di­na­tion teams for these chil­dren to ensure they have the care and sup­port and con­tin­ued con­nec­tions that they need for their entire lives.” The vote was unan­i­mous with 422 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 not voting

DISABILITY BENEFITS FOR VETERANS: The House on Sep­tem­ber 20th passed the Vet­er­ans Ben­e­fits Improve­ment Act (H.R. 1530), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mor­gan Lut­trell, R‑Texas, to require changes to Vet­er­ans Affairs Depart­ment pro­ce­dures for deter­min­ing whether a giv­en vet­er­an qual­i­fies for med­ical dis­abil­i­ty ben­e­fits. Lut­trell cit­ed the cur­rent road­blocks to qual­i­fy­ing for dis­abil­i­ty ben­e­fits, and said the bill “takes impor­tant steps to iden­ti­fy and break down these bar­ri­ers in the dis­abil­i­ty exam process, ensur­ing our vet­er­ans receive the high­est qual­i­ty care and sup­port.” The vote was unan­i­mous with 423 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 18 yea votes

In the United States Senate

VERNON OLIVER, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 19th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Ver­non D. Oliv­er to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for Con­necti­cut. Oliv­er has been a supe­ri­or court judge in the state since 2009; pre­vi­ous­ly, he was an attor­ney in Con­necti­cut’s gov­ern­ment. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Richard Blu­men­thal, D‑Connecticut, said Oliv­er “is a phe­nom­e­nal per­son, not just an extra­or­di­nary judge.”

The vote was 53 yeas to 44 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

RITA LIN, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 19th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Rita Lin to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the North­ern Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia. Lin spent 10 years as a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer; since then, she has been a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor in the North­ern Dis­trict and, for the past five years, a coun­ty supe­ri­or court judge in San Francisco.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said: “Her even­hand­ed approach to judi­cial deci­sion­mak­ing and sig­nif­i­cant expe­ri­ence lit­i­gat­ing both civ­il and crim­i­nal mat­ters in fed­er­al court will serve the North­ern Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia well.”

The vote was 52 yeas to 45 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

CHARLES BROWN, JR., CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 20th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Charles Q. Brown, Jr., to be appoint­ed as chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to be appoint­ed as a gen­er­al in the Air Force. Brown, cur­rent­ly a mem­ber of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and chief of staff for the Air Force, has been a pilot and senior offi­cer in the Air Force since 1984. The vote was 83 yeas to 11 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes

RANDY GEORGE, ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 21st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Randy George to be the Army’s chief of staff. George had reg­i­ment and divi­sion com­man­der roles in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; he had been the Army’s vice chief of staff for 13 months.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Joni Ernst, R‑Iowa, said: “I have full con­fi­dence that he will con­tin­ue to mod­ern­ize the Army and main­tain our high­ly trained and lethal force to fight and win our nation’s wars.”

The vote was 96 yeas to 1 nay.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes

ERIC SMITH, MARINE CORPS COMMANDANT: The Sen­ate on Sep­tem­ber 21st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Eric Smith to be Com­man­dant of the Marine Corps. Smith, who has been act­ing com­man­dant for the past two months, was pre­vi­ous­ly assis­tant com­man­dant, and has been a com­mis­sioned offi­cer in the Marines since 1987, includ­ing ser­vice in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dan Sul­li­van, R‑Alaska, said Smith had com­mand expe­ri­ence at every lev­el of the Marines, and his sub­stan­tial com­bat expe­ri­ence in Iraq and Afghanistan high­light­ed a stel­lar career thus far.

The vote was unan­i­mous with 96 yeas.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes

Key votes ahead

The House­’s sched­ule is dif­fi­cult to antic­i­pate because many Repub­li­can mem­bers have been defy­ing Kevin McCarthy and vot­ing against pro­ce­dur­al motions, thus bring­ing McCarthy and Scalise’s plans to an abrupt halt. Scalise’s office says there will be votes start­ing Tues­day on a set of annu­al appro­pri­a­tions bills, but whether those votes actu­al­ly hap­pen or not remains to be seen. Con­gress is rapid­ly run­ning out of time to avert a gov­ern­ment shutdown.

The Sen­ate plans on Tues­day to take up H.R.3935, a bill to amend title 49, Unit­ed States Code, to reau­tho­rize and improve the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion and oth­er civ­il avi­a­tion pro­grams. This is an appro­pri­a­tions bill.

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