Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (Oct. 30th-November 3rd)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Novem­ber 3rd, 2023.

AID TO ISRAEL: The House on Novem­ber 2nd passed the Israel Secu­ri­ty Sup­ple­men­tal Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 6126), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kay Granger, R‑Texas, to pro­vide added fund­ing for the mil­i­tary and State Depart­ment in response to the war between Israel and Hamas, by rescind­ing $14.3 bil­lion of unspent fund­ing for the Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice (IRS).

Granger said: “We must stand firm with our great ally and do all we can to ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rosa L. DeLau­ro, D‑Connecticut, said “it is out­ra­geous that a major emer­gency fund­ing bill in response to the worst attack on Jew­ish peo­ple since the Holo­caust is tied to off­sets” that reduce tax rev­enue and increase the deficit. The vote was 226 yeas to 196 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 yea votes, 12 nay votes, 1 not voting

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS: The House on Novem­ber 1st passed the Leg­isla­tive Branch Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4364), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mark Amod­ei, R‑Nevada, to pro­vide $5.3 bil­lion of fis­cal 2024 fund­ing for the fed­er­al gov­ern­men­t’s leg­isla­tive branch oth­er than the Sen­ate, includ­ing the House and the Library of Con­gress, Capi­tol Police, and Gov­ern­ment Account­abil­i­ty Office. Amod­ei said the bill made a fis­cal­ly respon­si­ble close to five per­cent cut in spend­ing from fis­cal 2023 lev­els while ade­quate­ly fund­ing efforts to pro­vide ser­vices to con­stituents and over­see the exec­u­tive branch.

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adri­ano Espail­lat, D‑New York, said the bill would elim­i­nate pro­grams, such as the House Office of Diver­si­ty and Inclu­sion, “that help to grow and diver­si­fy our coun­try as well as wel­come every­body to the table.” The vote was 214 yeas to 197 nays.

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

TABLING MOTION TO CENSURE REPRESENTATIVE TLAIB: The House on Novem­ber 1st tabled a motion (H. Res. 829), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene, R‑Georgia, that would have base­less­ly cen­sured Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rashi­da Tlaib, D‑Michigan. The vote was 222 yeas to 186 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 yea votes, 5 nay votes, 2 not voting

SYMBOLIC RESOLUTION ON NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION: The House on Novem­ber 1st passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 559), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michael T. McCaul, R‑Texas, to declare it U.S. pol­i­cy to use all nec­es­sary means to pre­vent Iran from obtain­ing nuclear weapons.

McCaul said: “We need to restore deter­rence against Iran. We need to use every tool at our dis­pos­al to keep Iran from hav­ing a nuclear weapon.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joaquin Cas­tro, D‑Texas, said the res­o­lu­tion could lead to the U.S. invad­ing Iran to stop its nuclear weapons pro­gram, and “the lan­guage we are vot­ing on today goes too far” in that direc­tion. The vote was 354 yeas to 53 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 13 yea votes, 3 nay votes, 2 not voting

HAMAS SANCTIONS: The House on Novem­ber 1st passed the Hamas and Oth­er Pales­tin­ian Ter­ror­ist Groups Inter­na­tion­al Financ­ing Pre­ven­tion Act (H.R. 340), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bri­an J. Mast, R‑Florida, to impose sanc­tions on peo­ple affil­i­at­ed with Hamas, Pales­tin­ian Islam­ic Jihad, and sim­i­lar groups found to be tak­ing ter­ror­ist actions against Israel.

Mast said sanc­tions were need­ed to “cut off the mate­r­i­al sup­port, whether that is mon­ey or equip­ment or some­thing that we might label here in Wash­ing­ton as a dual-use item, from mak­ing it to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank or into the hands of Hezbol­lah or some­where else.”

A bill oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joaquin Cas­tro, D‑Texas, cit­ed the absence of “a broad human­i­tar­i­an exemp­tion that would have pro­tect­ed the pro­vi­sion of food, med­i­cine, and oth­er life­sav­ing sup­plies into Gaza.”

The vote was 363 yeas to 46 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 yea votes, 2 nay votes, 2 not voting

CONDEMNING INTIMIDATING DEMONSTRATIONS AT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES: The House on Novem­ber 2nd passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 798), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Burgess Owens, R‑Utah, to con­demn sup­port for Hamas and oth­er anti-Israel enti­ties at uni­ver­si­ties and col­leges and the sup­port­’s poten­tial to cre­ate a hos­tile envi­ron­ment for Jew­ish fac­ul­ty and stu­dents. Owens cit­ed an event at Coop­er Union col­lege in New York City in say­ing: “No stu­dents, regard­less of race, creed, col­or, or reli­gion, should ever have to use the back door of a cam­pus library out of fear for their safety.”

The vote was 396 yeas to 23 nays.

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

FAILING TO EXPEL GEORGE SANTOS: The House on Novem­ber 1st reject­ed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 773), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Antho­ny D’E­s­pos­i­to, R‑New York, that would have expelled Rep­re­sen­ta­tive George San­tos, R‑New York, from the House. D’E­s­pos­i­to cit­ed the fil­ing of twen­ty-three crim­i­nal charges against San­tos, and said he had lied about “his edu­ca­tion, his work his­to­ry, his faith, the fact that he was Jew­ish.” San­tos said: “Vot­ing for expul­sion at this point would cir­cum­vent the judi­cial sys­tem’s right to due process that I am enti­tled to and desanc­ti­fy the long-held premise that one is pre­sumed inno­cent until proven guilty.” The vote was 179 yeas to 213 nays, with 19 vot­ing present.

Cas­ca­dia total: 9 yea votes, 7 nay votes, 2 not voting

PROHIBITING FUNDING FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT DETERMINATIONS: The House on Novem­ber 2nd passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lau­ren Boe­bert, R‑Colorado, to the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or, Envi­ron­ment, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4821).

The amend­ment would pro­hib­it fund­ing for the final­iza­tion of three pro­posed Endan­gered Species Act rules pub­lished this June. Boe­bert said adopt­ing the rules “will only result in fur­ther one-size-fits-all respons­es to threat­ened and endan­gered species that will ben­e­fit absolute­ly nobody, includ­ing the species.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chel­lie Pin­gree, D‑Maine, said the rules were mere­ly “intend­ed to improve and clar­i­fy the inter­a­gency con­sul­ta­tion process­es; list­ing, delist­ing, and reclas­si­fi­ca­tion deci­sions; and des­ig­na­tion of crit­i­cal habitat.”

The vote was 213 yeas to 212 nays.

Marie Glue­senkamp Perez pro­vid­ed the decid­ing vote to pass the amendment.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 yea votes, 12 nay votes, 1 not voting

BLOCKING FUNDING FOR BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDER ON FEDERAL LANDS: The House on Novem­ber 2nd passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher, R‑Idaho, to the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or, Envi­ron­ment, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4821), to block fund­ing for a Biden admin­is­tra­tion exec­u­tive order that would seek to put thir­ty per­cent of U.S. lands and waters under fed­er­al juris­dic­tion by 2030.

Fulcher said the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment was already over­whelmed by the attempt to man­age its exist­ing lands, and an increase would fur­ther degrade land man­age­ment. The vote was 212 yeas to 202 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 yea votes, 10 nay votes, 3 not voting

BLOCKING FUNDING FOR BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDERS: The House on Novem­ber 2nd passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Richard McCormick, R‑Georgia, to the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or, Envi­ron­ment, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4821).

The amend­ment would block fund­ing to imple­ment sev­er­al Biden admin­is­tra­tion exec­u­tive orders regard­ing renew­able ener­gy, elec­tric vehi­cles, and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice poli­cies in poor and minor­i­ty communities.

McCormick said the orders were unfea­si­ble and too cost­ly, and would impose a dis­parate bur­den on poor com­mu­ni­ties. An amend­ment oppo­nent, Rep. Bet­ty McCol­lum, D‑Minesota, said the envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice order aimed to make sure “that every­body gets the same degree of pro­tec­tion from envi­ron­men­tal health haz­ards.” The vote was 217 yeas to 202 nays.

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

In the United States Senate

MATTHEW MADDOX, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 31st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Matthew Mad­dox to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for Mary­land. For nine years, Mad­dox was a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer and then a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor in Mary­land; for the past year and a half he has been a fed­er­al mag­is­trate judge for the Mary­land district.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin, D‑Maryland, said: “I am con­fi­dent that Judge Mad­dox will safe­guard the rights of all Mary­lan­ders, uphold the Con­sti­tu­tion and rule of law, and faith­ful­ly fol­low the judi­cial oath to ‘do equal right to the poor and to the rich.’ ”

The vote was 55 yeas to 42 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

JACOB LEW, AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 31st con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Jacob J. Lew to be ambas­sador to Israel. Lew was Trea­sury Sec­re­tary for Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s sec­ond term, then became a part­ner at the Lind­say Gold­berg pri­vate equi­ty firm. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin, D‑Md., said there was “no ques­tion about his qual­i­fi­ca­tions, no ques­tion about his pres­ence being wel­comed by our Israeli friends, no ques­tion about his knowl­edge and com­mit­ment to these issues” fac­ing Israel and the U.S.

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Tom Cot­ton, R‑Arkansas, said at the Trea­sury Depart­ment, Lew “act­ed as the de fac­to busi­ness invest­ment banker and busi­ness agent for the blood-thirsty aya­tol­lahs” in Iran. The vote was 53 yeas to 43 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR SEVERAL U.S. DEPARTMENTS: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 1st passed the Con­sol­i­dat­ed Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive John R. Carter, R‑Texas. The bill would pro­vide fis­cal 2024 fund­ing for the Vet­er­ans Affairs Depart­ment, Agri­cul­ture Depart­ment, Trans­porta­tion Depart­ment, and Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment agency, as well as about $17.5 bil­lion for mil­i­tary con­struc­tion pro­grams. A sup­port­er, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, said the bil­l’s pro­vi­sions “deliv­er big wins for Amer­i­ca’s farm­ers, for our infra­struc­ture, for hous­ing, and for our mil­i­tary bases and vet­er­ans and more.”

The vote  was 82 yeas to 15 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

BARRING FUNDING FROM ENTITIES LINKED TO PRC GOVERNMENT: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 31st passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Josh Haw­ley, R‑Missouri, to the Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion, Vet­er­ans Affairs (VA), and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366, above). The amend­ment would bar fund­ing of any enti­ty linked to Chi­na and Chi­na’s government.

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, D‑Washington, said the fund­ing ban “could have far-reach­ing, unin­tend­ed con­se­quences,” includ­ing harm­ing the abil­i­ty of the VA’s “obtain­ing prod­ucts for essen­tial mis­sion needs, like phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, med­ical devices, and IT.” The vote was 61 yeas to 36 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

REJECTING CRUZ AMENDMENT TO DENY PAY TO ANNE CARLSON: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 31st reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Ted Cruz, R‑Texas, to the Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion, Vet­er­ans Affairs, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366, above).

The amend­ment would have blocked fund­ing to pay Nation­al High­way Traf­fic Safe­ty Admin­is­tra­tion Act­ing Admin­is­tra­tor Ann Carl­son, because Carl­son’s nom­i­na­tion as per­ma­nent admin­is­tra­tor was with­drawn by Pres­i­dent Biden. Cruz said: “The appoint­ments clause of the Con­sti­tu­tion is a crit­i­cal check on exec­u­tive pow­er. The Sen­ate must pro­tect its pre­rog­a­tive to review the pres­i­den­t’s nom­i­nees to pow­er­ful, unelect­ed posi­tions in the fed­er­al government.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Bri­an Schatz, D‑Hawaii, said can­celling Carl­son’s salary would set the alarm­ing prece­dent that “if you have a polit­i­cal or pol­i­cy dis­agree­ment with a par­tic­u­lar admin­is­tra­tion pol­i­cy, you can take the pub­lic ser­vant who is in charge of imple­ment­ing it and take their salary hostage.”

The vote was 47 yeas to 49 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

REJECTING BUDD AMENDMENT TO PROHIBIT VOTER REGISTRATION FUNDING: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 31st reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen. Ted Budd, R‑N.C., to the Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion, Vet­er­ans Affairs, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366, above). The amend­ment would have blocked fund­ing for imple­ment­ing a Pres­i­dent Biden exec­u­tive order to have gov­ern­ment agen­cies pro­mote vot­er reg­is­tra­tion. Budd said the order, by hav­ing agen­cies part­ner with poten­tial­ly par­ti­san non-gov­ern­ment groups, could mean “using offi­cial tax­pay­er resources to advance par­ti­san politics.”

An amend­ment oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said “expand­ing the num­ber of vot­ers makes the democ­ra­cy stronger.”

The vote was 45 yeas to 50 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

REJECTING AMENDMENT TO REQUIRE AN AUDIT OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 1st reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky, to the Con­sol­i­dat­ed Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366), that would have required the U.S. Comp­trol­ler Gen­er­al to make a full audit of the Fed­er­al Reserve. Paul said an audit was need­ed because “the Fed­er­al Reserve effec­tive­ly con­trols the econ­o­my but with­out scruti­ny. No oth­er insti­tu­tion has so much unchecked pow­er.” An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown, D‑Ohio, said: “This amend­ment would make the Fed less effec­tive. It would open it up to all kinds of nefar­i­ous polit­i­cal pres­sure.” The vote was 46 yeas to 51 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

REJECTING CRUZ AMENDMENT CONCERNING DIRECTIVES TO STATE DEPARTMENT: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 1st reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Ted Cruz, R‑Texas, to the Con­sol­i­dat­ed Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366), that would have required the State Depart­ment to pres­sure Mex­i­co to com­ply with a 1944 treaty with the U.S. on allo­cat­ing between the two coun­tries the waters of the Rio Grande, Col­orado and Tijua­na Rivers. Cruz said the amend­ment, by ask­ing Mex­i­co to meet a treaty oblig­a­tion to pro­vide 350,000 acre-feet of water per year to the U.S. side of the Rio Grande Val­ley, would aid farm­ers who need that water due to a drought in the Val­ley. The vote was 52 yeas to 45 nays, with a three-fifths major­i­ty required for approval.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

REJECTING PAUL AMENDMENT TO REQUIRE CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL OF MOST MAJOR REGULATIONS: The Sen­ate has reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky, to the Con­sol­i­dat­ed Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366), that would have required Con­gres­sion­al approval of all new agency rules esti­mat­ed to have at least a $100 mil­lion annu­al impact on the U.S. econ­o­my. Paul said of the effect of pass­ing the amend­ment: “The Amer­i­can peo­ple, through their elect­ed offi­cials, will reclaim the abil­i­ty to pre­vent unnec­es­sary gov­ern­ment inter­fer­ence in every­day life.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Gary C. Peters, D‑Michigan, said the amend­ment “would endan­ger a range of pub­lic pro­tec­tions for the envi­ron­ment, Amer­i­can work­ers, and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties.” The vote was 46 yeas to 51 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

REJECTING AGRICULTURE RELIEF BLOCK GRANTS: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 1st reject­ed the Block Grant Assis­tance Act (H.R. 662), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive C. Scott Franklin, R‑Florida, which would have autho­rized the Agri­cul­ture Depart­ment to issue block grants to states for assis­tance to farm­ers who suf­fered loss­es from nat­ur­al dis­as­ters in 2022.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Rick Scott, R‑Florida., said the autho­riza­tion would “give cer­tain­ty to grow­ers and ranch­ers in all of our states that they have a reli­able part­ner in the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to make sure they can recov­er from nat­ur­al disasters.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Mar­tin Hein­rich, D‑New Mex­i­co, said block grants to states were already autho­rized, and the bill would delay fund­ing to farm­ers, mak­ing it “both coun­ter­pro­duc­tive and unnecessary.”

The vote was 43 yeas to 53 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

DAVID W. ALLVIN, AIR FORCE CHIEF OF STAFF: The Sen­ate on Novem­ber 2nd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of David W. Allvin to be chief of staff of the Air Force. Allvin had been the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, and has a 37-year career in the Air Force as a com­mand pilot and as a senior officer.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Jack Reed, D‑Rhode Island, said Allvin “has helped lead the ser­vice through a crit­i­cal peri­od of mod­ern­iza­tion, and he is well posi­tioned to con­tin­ue that progress.” The vote was 95 yeas to 1 nay.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes

Key votes ahead

The House will con­sid­er sev­er­al bills autho­riz­ing the sit­ing of mon­u­ments on the Nation­al Mall. It is also slat­ed to con­tin­ue work­ing on the Trans­porta­tion, Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act, 2024, a Repub­li­can gov­ern­ment fund­ing bill. 

The Sen­ate will take up the nom­i­na­tion of Mon­i­ca M. Bertag­nol­li, of Mass­a­chu­setts, to be Direc­tor of the Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health. The Sen­ate is also expect­ed to work on a fund­ing pack­age for Israel, Ukraine, and bor­der security.

Con­gress has until Novem­ber 18th to adopt a plan to keep the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment open, oth­er­wise there will be a par­tial gov­ern­ment shutdown.

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