Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (December 4th-8th, 2023)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Decem­ber 8th, 2023.

NEW JERSEY TRANSIT OPTIONS: The House on Decem­ber 5th passed the One Seat Ride Act (H.R. 1547), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Thomas H. Kean, R‑N.J., to require the Trans­porta­tion Depart­ment to study com­muter rail ser­vices, includ­ing an analy­sis of the costs and ben­e­fits of estab­lish­ing sin­gle-seat trips on the New Jer­sey Tran­sit Rar­i­tan Val­ley line that don’t require a transfer.

Keane said that cur­rent­ly, New Jer­sey res­i­dents com­mut­ing to and from Man­hat­tan by using mul­ti­ple rail lines “are reg­u­lar­ly frus­trat­ed with unnec­es­sary delays main­ly due to the aged infra­struc­ture, often mak­ing week­ly com­mutes hours longer than they need to be.” The vote was 356 yeas to 61 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 18 yea votes

PAYMENTS TO HOMELESS VETERANS: The House on Decem­ber 5th passed the Hous­ing our Mil­i­tary Vet­er­ans Effec­tive­ly Act (H.R. 3848), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lori Chavez-DeRe­mer, R‑Oregon, to autho­rize the Vet­er­ans Affairs Depart­ment to pro­vide added fund­ing for home­less mil­i­tary vet­er­ans to receive hous­ing and sup­port­ive ser­vices and prod­ucts. Chavez-DeRe­mer said with the bill, “we can empow­er our nation’s heroes and ensure they all have a place to call home.” The vote was 408 yeas to 10 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 18 yea votes

CHANGING VETERANS CAREGIVER PROGRAMS: The House on Decem­ber 5th passed the Eliz­a­beth Dole Home Care Act (H.R. 542), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Julia Brown­ley, D‑California, to make var­i­ous changes to Vet­er­ans Affairs Depart­ment home and com­mu­ni­ty care pro­grams for dis­abled and elder­ly vet­er­ans, includ­ing increased fund­ing for alter­na­tives to nurs­ing home care, and high­er pay­ments to care­givers. Brown­ley said: “The bill will sig­nif­i­cant­ly expand access to the pro­grams dis­abled and aging vet­er­ans need to live their lives at home and with their fam­i­lies.” The vote was 414 yeas to 5 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 18 yea votes

CONDEMNING ANTI-SEMITISM AND REPUDIATING ANTI-ZIONISM: The House on Decem­ber 5th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 894), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive David Kustoff, R‑Tennessee, strong­ly con­demn­ing and denounc­ing the dras­tic rise of anti-Semi­tism in the Unit­ed States and abroad, and stat­ing that anti-Zion­ism is anti-Semitism.

Kustoff said “it is absolute­ly impor­tant that we send a clear and firm mes­sage to the world that the Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives stands shoul­der to shoul­der with the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty here in the Unit­ed States and abroad.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jer­rold Nadler, D‑New York, called the res­o­lu­tion “anoth­er attempt in a long series of veiled efforts by the GOP to weaponize Jew­ish lives for polit­i­cal gains.”

The vote was 311 yeas to 14 nays, with 92 vot­ing present.

Cas­ca­dia total: 10 yea votes, 7 present votes, 1 nay vote

REQUIRING COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES TO REPORT FOREIGN GIFTS: The House on Decem­ber 6th passed the Defend­ing Edu­ca­tion Trans­paren­cy and End­ing Rogue Regimes Engag­ing in Nefar­i­ous Trans­ac­tions Act (H.R. 5933), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michelle Steel, R‑California, to require col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties to inform the Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment when they receive gifts from coun­tries deemed to be of con­cern, includ­ing Rus­sia and Chi­na, and adopt oth­er mea­sures restrict­ing con­tracts and gifts with for­eign sources generally.

Steel said the bill, by impos­ing stricter report­ing require­ments, paired with fines for non­com­pli­ance, took “mean­ing­ful steps to pro­tect our stu­dents, research, and nation­al secu­ri­ty.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bob­by Scott, D‑Virginia, said the report­ing require­ments were “exces­sive and bur­den­some — to say noth­ing about the poten­tial dis­crim­i­na­to­ry effect — and would dis­in­cen­tivize uni­ver­si­ties from con­duct­ing crit­i­cal research using col­lab­o­ra­tive part­ners from around the world.”

The vote was 246 yeas to 170 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 8 yea votes, 10 nay votes

DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT FOR FOREIGN DONORS TO HIGHER EDUCATION: The House on Decem­ber 6th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mar­cus J. Moli­naro, R‑N.Y., to the Defend­ing Edu­ca­tion Trans­paren­cy and End­ing Rogue Regimes Engag­ing in Nefar­i­ous Trans­ac­tions Act (H.R. 5933, above). The amend­ment would require for­eign enti­ties con­tribut­ing to U.S. col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties to dis­close any ties to a ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion, such as Hamas and al-Qaeda.

Moli­naro said the amend­ment was need­ed “in light of the dis­gust­ing­ly cal­lous and vile pro-Hamas demon­stra­tion seen on col­lege cam­pus­es across the coun­try” recent­ly. An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bob­by Scott, D‑Virgina, said: “It is hard to imag­ine how a col­lege could always know exact­ly who has an affil­i­a­tion with what” group des­ig­nat­ed as ter­ror­ist by the government.

The vote was 372 yeas to 39 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 yea votes, 2 nay votes

BARRING EPA FROM EFFORTS TO REQUIRE CLEAN VEHICLES: The House on Decem­ber 6th passed the Choice in Auto­mo­bile Retail Sales Act (H.R. 4468), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tim Wal­berg, R‑Michigan, to bar the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency from final­iz­ing a pro­posed rule restrict­ing emis­sions from pas­sen­ger vehi­cles made from 2027 onward.

Wal­berg called the rule an elec­tric vehi­cle man­date that was both breath­tak­ing fed­er­al reg­u­la­tion of the auto indus­try and “unaf­ford­able, unat­tain­able, and unre­al­is­tic for Amer­i­can consumers.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Haley M. Stevens, D‑Michigan, called the bill “dan­ger­ous leg­is­la­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly because the EPA serves as a crit­i­cal part­ner to our automak­ers dur­ing this very trans­for­ma­tive time” of tran­si­tion­ing away from inter­nal com­bus­tion engines. The vote was 221 yeas to 197 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes, 12 nay votes

CENSURING REPRESENTATIVE BOWMAN: The House on Decem­ber 7th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 914), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lisa C. McClain, R‑Michigan, to cen­sure Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jamaal Bow­man, D‑New York, for pulling a fire alarm in the Capi­tol build­ing in late Sep­tem­ber and there­by dis­rupt­ing a House vote, and vio­lat­ing Wash­ing­ton, D.C., law as well.

McClain said: “As con­vic­tion demon­strates, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bow­man sought to cause pan­ic to delay offi­cial pro­ceed­ings of this House.”

Bow­man said: “The legal process on this mat­ter has played out. In no way did I obstruct offi­cial proceedings.”

The vote was 214 yeas to 191 nays, with 5 vot­ing present.

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

VOIDING REVISED STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS PLAN: The House on Decem­ber 7th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H.J. Res. 88), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lisa C. McClain, R‑Michigan, to dis­ap­prove of and void an Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment rule issued this sum­mer that cre­at­ed an income-based plan, Sav­ing on a Valu­able Edu­ca­tion, for repay­ing high­er edu­ca­tion loans.

McClain said the rule is “the most expen­sive reg­u­la­tion in our nation’s his­to­ry and is a back­door attempt to ram the admin­is­tra­tion’s social­ist free col­lege fan­ta­sy down the throats of hard­work­ing tax­pay­ers.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bob­by Scott, D‑Virginia, said: “House Repub­li­cans are try­ing to sad­dle mil­lions of Amer­i­cans and future bor­row­ers with more debt by repeal­ing the SAVE Plan.”

The vote was 210 yeas to 189 nays.

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

In the United States Senate

IRMA CARRILLO RAMIREZ, U.S. APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Decem­ber 4th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Irma Car­ril­lo Ramirez to be a judge on the U.S. Fifth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Ramirez has been a U.S. dis­trict court judge in north Texas for two decades, after hav­ing been an assis­tant U.S. attor­ney in Dal­las for 7 years. The vote was 80 yeas to 12 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

LOREN K. ALIKHAN, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Decem­ber 5th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Loren L. AliKhan to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for Wash­ing­ton, D.C. AliKhan has been a judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals for just under 2 years; pre­vi­ous­ly, she was the Dis­tric­t’s solic­i­tor gen­er­al, a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer in the Dis­trict, and a Jus­tice Depart­ment lawyer. The vote was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice Pres­i­dent Har­ris cast­ing a 51st yea vote.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

NATHALIE RAYES, AMBASSADOR TO CROATIA: The Sen­ate on Decem­ber 6th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Nathalie Rayes to be the U.S. ambas­sador to Croa­t­ia. Rayes has been a senior offi­cial at numer­ous His­pan­ic groups, and is cur­rent­ly a board mem­ber on the U.S. Insti­tute of Peace.

The vote was 53 yeas to 47 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

REJECTING MOTION TO CONSIDER SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS: The Sen­ate on Decem­ber 6th reject­ed a motion to invoke clo­ture and pro­ceed to a bill (H.R. 815) that would pro­vide sup­ple­men­tal appro­pri­a­tions for fed­er­al gov­ern­ment spend­ing, includ­ing fur­ther aid to Ukraine for its war with Rus­sia. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said the bill offered “crit­i­cal mil­i­tary assis­tance to keep Ukraine from falling to Russ­ian tyranny.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell, R‑Kentucky, said it “fails to address Amer­i­ca’s top nation­al secu­ri­ty pri­or­i­ties in a seri­ous way,” includ­ing the lack of mea­sures to secure the bor­der with Mexico.

The vote to pro­ceed was 49 yeas to 51 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

INTERVENTION IN SYRIA: The Sen­ate on Decem­ber 7th reject­ed a motion to dis­charge from com­mit­tee a res­o­lu­tion (S.J. Res. 51), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky, to order the removal from Syr­ia of U.S. sol­diers absent Con­gres­sion­al autho­riza­tion for their pres­ence there. Paul said the War Pow­ers Act required a vote in Con­gress “on whether or not troops should be put into har­m’s way or into a con­flict with­out the approval of this body.”

The vote to dis­charge was 13 yeas to 84 nays.

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

ADDITIONAL VOTES BY VOICE: The Sen­ate also con­firmed sev­er­al hun­dred senior offi­cer nom­i­na­tions in the mil­i­tary’s var­i­ous branches.

Key votes ahead

The House will con­sid­er the Air­port and Air­way Exten­sion Act (H.R. 6503), leg­is­la­tion to extend autho­riza­tion for sev­er­al FAA pro­grams, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act (H.R. 1147), and join the Sen­ate in giv­ing final con­sid­er­a­tion to the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act (H.R. 2670).

The Sen­ate will work on judi­cial nom­i­na­tions in addi­tion to the NDAA.

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