Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (June 10th-14th)

Hap­py Father’s Day! Here’s how Cas­ca­di­a’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Fri­day, June 14th, 2019.

In the United States House of Representatives

SEEKING COURTS’ HELP TO ENFORCE SUBPOENAS: Vot­ing 229 for and 191 against, the House on June 11th adopt­ed a res­o­lu­tion (H Res 430) autho­riz­ing its com­mit­tees to ask fed­er­al courts to enforce com­mit­tee sub­poe­nas for doc­u­ments and tes­ti­mo­ny from the Trump admin­is­tra­tion and its cur­rent and for­mer offi­cials. The action came in response to the admin­is­tra­tion’s refusals to com­ply with House Democ­rats’ requests for infor­ma­tion and wit­ness appear­ances in more than a dozen areas of inquiry, includ­ing Russ­ian inter­fer­ence in U.S. elec­tions, the addi­tion of a cit­i­zen­ship ques­tion to the 2020 cen­sus, an admin­is­tra­tion-backed law­suit chal­leng­ing the Afford­able Care Act and the sep­a­ra­tion of immi­grant fam­i­lies on the south­west border.

Democ­rats say the sub­poe­nas embody Con­gress’s con­sti­tu­tion­al duty to over­see the exec­u­tive branch, while Pres­i­dent Trump has cit­ed exec­u­tive priv­i­lege to block tes­ti­mo­ny of his cur­rent and for­mer advis­ers and thwart leg­isla­tive-branch scrutiny.

On a relat­ed track, the Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee on May 8 approved civ­il con­tempt of Con­gress charges against Attor­ney Gen­er­al William Barr for not com­ply­ing with its sub­poe­na for the entire unredact­ed report by Spe­cial Coun­sel Robert Mueller and under­ly­ing mate­ri­als. The full House has delayed a vote on cit­ing Barr pend­ing the out­come of nego­ti­a­tions to obtain his vol­un­tary cooperation.

A yes vote was to adopt the res­o­lu­tion, which took effect immediately.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden
	Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Herrera-Beutler

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 5 nay votes, 1 not voting

PUBLIC EDUCATION ABOUT VACCINES: The House on June 12 vot­ed, 341 for and 83 against, to increase spend­ing by $5 mil­lion next fis­cal year on a gov­ern­ment pro­gram to edu­cate the pub­lic about the effec­tive­ness and safe­ty of vac­cines. The amend­ment was intend­ed to com­bat mis­in­for­ma­tion being spread about vac­ci­na­tions on social media. The vote occurred dur­ing debate on a bill (HR 2740) appro­pri­at­ing $99.4 bil­lion for the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices in fis­cal 2020 that remained in debate.

Adam Schiff, D‑California, said: “The sci­en­tif­ic and med­ical com­mu­ni­ties are in over­whelm­ing con­sen­sus that vac­cines are both effec­tive and safe. There is no evi­dence to sug­gest that vac­cines cause life-threat­en­ing or dis­abling dis­eases, and the dis­sem­i­na­tion of unfound­ed or debunked the­o­ries about the dan­gers of vac­ci­na­tion pose a great risk to the pub­lic health.”

No mem­ber spoke against the amendment.

A yes vote was to increase spend­ing on vac­cine education.

	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden
	Vot­ing Aye (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Herrera-Beutler

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

“CONSCIENCE RULE” FOR DENYING HEALTHCARE: Vot­ing 192 for and 230 against, the House on June 12th refused to uphold a pro­posed Trump admin­is­tra­tion rule under which doc­tors and work­ers at hos­pi­tals, clin­ics and oth­er health facil­i­ties could deny care to patients that con­flicts with their reli­gious or moral beliefs. Sched­uled to take effect July 22th, the co-called “con­science rule” would over­ride exist­ing laws and poli­cies that strike a bal­ance between pro­tect­ing the reli­gious con­vic­tions of providers and deliv­er­ing care in areas includ­ing repro­duc­tive ser­vices. On this vote, the House defeat­ed a Repub­li­can-spon­sored attempt to fund the rule as part of H.R. 2740 (above).

Phil Roe, R‑Tennessee, said:

“We have a First Amend­ment right to prac­tice our reli­gion in Amer­i­ca, and the gov­ern­ment forc­ing some­one to act in a way that vio­lates those beliefs is in direct oppo­si­tion to the very foun­da­tion of our Constitution.”

Lois Frankel, D‑Florida, said:

“Under this Trump rule, a phar­ma­cist could refuse to fill a pre­scrip­tion for birth con­trol, a recep­tion­ist could refuse to sched­ule an abor­tion for a child rape vic­tim, an ambu­lance dri­ver could refuse to take a patient suf­fer­ing from mis­car­riage to the hos­pi­tal, all based upon their per­son­al beliefs, not the patien­t’s welfare.”

A yes vote was to allow the rule to take effect next month.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden Vot­ing Nay (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Herrera-Beutler

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 11 nay votes, 1 not voting

CLAMPDOWN ON FETAL TISSUE RESEARCH: The House on June 13th vot­ed, 225 for and 193 against, to block fund­ing to imple­ment a new­ly announced clam­p­down by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion on fed­er­al sup­port of fetal tis­sue research. The vote occurred dur­ing debate on HR 2740 (above).

In part, the pol­i­cy would pro­hib­it Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health sci­en­tists from con­duct­ing such research while sub­ject­ing aca­d­e­m­ic sci­en­tists to an addi­tion­al lay­er of ethics and bureau­crat­ic review when they apply for NIH research grants.

Under a 1993 law, the NIH last year fund­ed more than 150 projects by uni­ver­si­ty sci­en­tists using fetal tis­sue donat­ed after elec­tive abor­tions to pur­sue treat­ments and cures for dis­eases includ­ing Alzheimer’s, ALS and Parkinson’s.

Rosa DeLau­ro, D‑Connecticut, said the admin­is­tra­tion’s new pol­i­cy puts “per­son­al ide­ol­o­gy ahead of pub­lic health.”

Andy Har­ris, R‑Maryland, said addi­tion­al ethics review is war­rant­ed for “one of the most con­tro­ver­sial areas of research.”

A yes vote was to adopt the amend­ment in sup­port of fetal tis­sue research.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden
	Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Herrera-Beutler

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 5 nay votes, 1 not voting

REPORTING MIGRANT CHILDREN’S DEATHS: Vot­ing 355 for and 68 against, the House on June 13 adopt­ed an amend­ment to H.R. 2740 (above) requir­ing the Office of Refugee Reset­tle­ment in the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices to prompt­ly inform Con­gress and the pub­lic when migrant chil­dren die while in the cus­tody of U.S. immi­gra­tion officials.

Spon­sor Joaquin Cas­tro, D‑Texas, said that in Sep­tem­ber 2018, “a young 10-year-old girl died. This Con­gress and the Amer­i­can peo­ple were not told for sev­en or eight months about that young girl’s death.”

Andy Har­ris, R‑Maryland, called the amend­ment “make-believe” because “this admin­is­tra­tion reports the deaths” of migrant children.

A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simpson Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Aye (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Greg Walden
	Vot­ing Aye (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Den­ny Heck; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Herrera-Beutler

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 aye votes, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

In the United States Senate

$300 MILLION ARMS TO BAHRAIN: Vot­ing 43 for and 56 against, the Sen­ate on June 13 turned back a mea­sure (S.J. Res 20) that sought to block the admin­is­tra­tion’s planned sale of $300 mil­lion in U.S. arms to Bahrain. The pack­age con­sists main­ly of sur­face-to-sur­face mis­siles and mobile rock­et launch­ing units along with Amer­i­can tech­ni­cal sup­port. Bahrain, which belongs to a Sau­di-led coali­tion wag­ing war in Yemen, is host to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. Back­ers called this a proxy vote against Amer­i­can involve­ment in Yemen’s civ­il war, while advo­cates of the arms sale it would ben­e­fit a key U.S. ally in the Mid­dle East.

A yes vote was to advance a mea­sure block­ing the arms sale.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 aye votes, 2 nay votes

Key votes ahead

The House will debate fis­cal 2020 appro­pri­a­tions bills in the week of June 17th, while the Sen­ate will vote on judi­cial nominations.

Edi­tor’s Note: The infor­ma­tion in NPI’s week­ly How Cas­ca­di­a’s U.S. law­mak­ers vot­ed fea­ture is pro­vid­ed by Votera­ma in Con­gress, a ser­vice of Thomas Vot­ing Reports. All rights are reserved. Repro­duc­tion of this post is not per­mit­ted, not even with attri­bu­tion. Use the per­ma­nent link to this post to share it… thanks!

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