Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (March 1st-6th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Sat­ur­day, March 6th, 2021.

In the United States House of Representatives

EXPANDING VOTING RIGHTS, REFORMING CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Vot­ing 220 for and 210 against, the House on March 3rd passed a bill (H.R. 1) designed to broad­ly expand par­tic­i­pa­tion in U.S. elec­tions and make lim­it­ed changes in the way cam­paigns are financed. The bill would:

• increase reg­is­tra­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties; require vot­ing sys­tems to be backed up with auditable paper ballots;
• qual­i­fy felons who have served their time to vote in fed­er­al elections;
• require pres­i­den­tial and vice-pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates to dis­close per­son­al and any cor­po­rate tax returns; mod­ern­ize vot­ing equip­ment and hard­en sys­tems against cyberattacks;
• and pro­hib­it influ­ence ped­dling by inau­gur­al committees.

The bill would apply pri­mar­i­ly to fed­er­al elec­tions but also affect state and local bal­lot­ing in major ways. In oth­er pro­vi­sions, the bill would:

Ger­ry­man­der­ing: Require states to use 15-mem­ber bipar­ti­san and com­mis­sions rather than par­ti­san ger­ry­man­der­ing to redraw con­gres­sion­al dis­tricts fol­low­ing the decen­ni­al census.

Vot­er reg­is­tra­tion: Autho­rize $750 mil­lion over five years on state pro­grams to make vot­er reg­is­tra­tion eas­i­er. States would have to allow no-excuse absen­tee vot­ing (vote at home); auto­mat­i­cal­ly reg­is­ter res­i­dents who sign up for gov­ern­ment ser­vices includ­ing edu­ca­tion; allow reg­is­tra­tion appli­ca­tions online and in per­son on Elec­tion Day; and pro­vide at least fif­teen days’ ear­ly voting.

Pub­lic cam­paign financ­ing: Impose a sur­charge on penal­ties paid by cor­po­rate and high-income tax cheats and use the pro­ject­ed $2 bil­lion in rev­enue over 10 years to par­tial­ly finance House gen­er­al and pri­ma­ry elec­tion cam­paigns. Incum­bents and chal­lengers who agree to a $200 lim­it on indi­vid­ual con­tri­bu­tions would receive $6 in pub­lic funds for each $1 raised privately.

Tech­nol­o­gy plat­forms: Require large social media net­works (includ­ing Face­book, Google and Twit­ter) to com­pile pub­lic data­bas­es of for­eign actors and oth­er enti­ties seek­ing to pur­chase at least $500 annu­al­ly in polit­i­cal ads and iden­ti­fy anony­mous “dark mon­ey” financiers of polit­i­cal ads to the public.

Lloyd Doggett, D‑Texas, said the bill “restores guardrails to our democ­ra­cy that almost went off the rails as Repub­li­cans pledged their loy­al­ty to the cult of Don­ald Trump. Repub­li­cans have long found suc­cess cre­ative­ly sup­press­ing the votes, restric­tive vot­er ID laws, lim­it­ing vot­er hours, loca­tions, and extreme ger­ry­man­der­ing… Fraud is their descrip­tion of any elec­tion that they lose.”

Clau­dia Ten­ney, R‑New York, brand­ed the bill as “an attempt to destroy democ­ra­cy by fed­er­al­iz­ing aspects of U.S. elec­tions con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly del­e­gat­ed to the states. It would pro­hib­it com­mon­sense vot­er ID rules, encour­age bal­lot har­vest­ing, require no-excuse absen­tee and ear­ly vot­ing, per­mit felons and nonci­t­i­zens to vote, and make col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties… vot­er-reg­is­tra­tion agencies.”

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

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland Vot­ing Nay (3): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

REJECTING AMENDMENT TO REMOVE DEMOCRACY PANEL: Vot­ing 207 for and 218 against, the House on March 2nd refused to remove from H.R. 1 (above) a pro­posed com­mis­sion for pro­tect­ing U.S. demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions against for­eign inter­fer­ence. The amend­ment was spon­sored by Repub­li­cans, who said ample defens­es already are in place to fend off manip­u­la­tion from abroad.

Rod­ney Davis, R‑Illinois, said “absolute­ly no one wants for­eign inter­fer­ence in our elec­tions, but the last thing we need to do is cre­ate a com­mis­sion with anoth­er lay­er of bureau­cra­cy when we have pro­grams in place that have been suc­cess­ful for our local elec­tion officials.”

Zoe Lof­gren, D‑California, said that “in light of the evi­dence of for­eign inter­fer­ence in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 fed­er­al elec­tions, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment needs a coor­di­nat­ed approach to pro­tect and secure our democracy.”

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Mike Simp­son and Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Aye (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz Vot­ing Nay (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader
	Vot­ing Aye (3): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 aye votes, 11 nay votes

PREVENTING, PUNISHING MISCONDUCT BY POLICE: The House on March 3rd passed, 220 for and 212 against, a bill (H.R. 1280) that would set fed­er­al rules and guide­lines for polic­ing prac­tices at all lev­els of government.

In addi­tion to address­ing mis­con­duct by fed­er­al offi­cers, the bill would use the high lev­els of police fund­ing in fed­er­al pro­grams to induce state and local reforms. Dubbed the George Floyd Jus­tice in Polic­ing Act, the bill would:

Choke­holds: Pro­hib­it fed­er­al police from using choke­holds or oth­er appli­ca­tions of pres­sure on the carotid arter­ies, throats or wind­pipes of per­sons being restrained, and use fed­er­al finan­cial incen­tives to encour­age state and local police to do the same. The use of choke­holds based on race would be defined as a civ­il rights violation.

No more qual­i­fied immu­ni­ty: Elim­i­nate the “qual­i­fied immu­ni­ty” defense from fed­er­al and non-fed­er­al civ­il lit­i­ga­tion in which a police offi­cer is sued for dam­ages based on mis­con­duct includ­ing exces­sive use of force.

Lynch­ing, no-knock drug war­rants: Make lynch­ing a fed­er­al crime and pro­hib­it no-knock war­rants in fed­er­al drug cas­es while using fed­er­al fund­ing to induce states and local­i­ties to do the same.

Fed­er­al sub­poe­na pow­er: Give the Depart­ment of Jus­tice sub­poe­na pow­er for inves­ti­gat­ing dis­crim­i­na­to­ry and bru­tal pat­terns and prac­tices by local depart­ments, and fund efforts by state attor­neys gen­er­al to inves­ti­gate trou­bled departments.

Reg­istry of mis­con­duct: Estab­lish a Nation­al Police Mis­con­duct Reg­istry of offi­cers fired by local depart­ments for rea­sons includ­ing exces­sive use of force.

Racial, reli­gious pro­fil­ing: Pro­hib­it racial, reli­gious and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry pro­fil­ing by fed­er­al and non­fed­er­al law enforce­ment; aggriev­ed indi­vid­u­als could bring civ­il actions for declara­to­ry or injunc­tive relief.

Use of force: Require police to jus­ti­fy use of force on grounds it was “nec­es­sary” rather than mere­ly “rea­son­able” and require state and local police to report use-of-force data by race, sex, dis­abil­i­ty, reli­gion and age to a Depart­ment of Jus­tice database.

Evi­dence stan­dard: Low­er the crim­i­nal-intent stan­dard of evi­dence in police mis­con­duct pros­e­cu­tions under fed­er­al law from “will­ful” to “reck­less.”

Cam­era rules: Require uni­formed fed­er­al police to wear body cam­eras and marked fed­er­al police cars to mount dash­board cam­eras, while giv­ing state and local depart­ments finan­cial incen­tives to do the same.

Local over­sight: Fund local task forces to devel­op prac­tices based on com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing rather than the use of force.

Mil­i­tary equip­ment: Lim­it the Pen­tagon’s trans­fer of com­bat-lev­el equip­ment to state and local police.

Sex­u­al mis­con­duct: Make it a crime for a fed­er­al offi­cer to engage in sex, even if it is con­sen­su­al, with an indi­vid­ual under arrest or in cus­tody, and use finan­cial incen­tives to encour­age states to enact the same prohibition.

Ritchie Tor­res, D‑New York, said the pur­pose of the bill “is not to sec­ond guess offi­cers who act in good faith [but] to hold liable offi­cers who repeat­ed­ly abuse their pow­er and who rarely, if ever, face con­se­quences for their repeat abus­es. If you are a good offi­cer, you have noth­ing to fear. But if you are a bad offi­cer, you have account­abil­i­ty to fear.…”

Nicole Mallio­takis, R‑New York., said the bill “aims to crip­ple or degrade our law enforce­ment” and would “dimin­ish pub­lic safe­ty and prevent…officers from serv­ing and pro­tect­ing our com­mu­ni­ties, all while try­ing to hold them per­son­al­ly liable. The brave men and women who put on the uni­form every day deserve better.”

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

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Aye (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland Vot­ing Nay (3): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes

In the United States Senate

APPROVING $1.9 TRILLION IN VIRUS RELIEF: Vot­ing 50 for and 49 against, the Sen­ate on March 6 approved a $1.9 tril­lion coro­n­avirus relief pack­age (H.R. 1319, the Amer­i­can Res­cue Plan) that would:

• expand unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits by $300 per week from March 14th through Sep­tem­ber 6th;
• deliv­er pay­ments of $1,400 per per­son to indi­vid­u­als with incomes up to $75,000, sin­gle par­ents earn­ing up to $112,500 and cou­ples up to $150,000;
• increase the Child Tax Cred­it in a way designed to even­tu­al­ly cut child pover­ty near­ly in half;
• deliv­er $350 bil­lion to state, coun­ty, city, trib­al and ter­ri­to­r­i­al governments;
• estab­lish a $25 bil­lion grant pro­gram for the restau­rant industry;
• increase Patient Pro­tec­tion Act pre­mi­um sub­si­dies for a large num­ber of the uninsured;
• fund the reopen­ing of K‑12 schools;
• pro­vide $25 bil­lion in rental aid to avert evic­tions and $10 bil­lion to help land­lords meet their expenses;
• and fund pro­grams to vac­ci­nate against COVID-19 and slow the spread of the virus.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the House.

	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

ADVANCING VIRUS RELIEF: By a tal­ly of 51 for and 50 against, with Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris cast­ing the decid­ing vote, the Sen­ate on March 4th advanced the Amer­i­can Res­cue Plan (H.R. 1319, above) toward a vote on final pas­sage, which then occurred on Sat­ur­day, March 5th.

Unlike the House-passed ver­sion, the bill would leave the $7.25 per hour fed­er­al min­i­mum wage unchanged. A yes vote was to advance the bill.

	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

KEEPING FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE AT $7.25: Vot­ing 42 for and 58 against, the Sen­ate on March 5th failed to reach six­ty votes need­ed to include a pro­posed raise in the fed­er­al min­i­mum wage — from $7.25 per hour at present to $15 per hour by 2025 — in H.R. 1319 (above).

The amend­ment, spear­head­ed by Bernie Sanders, sought to over­come a par­lia­men­tary rul­ing that found the wage hike to be not ger­mane to the bill.

A yes vote was to grad­u­al­ly raise the fed­er­al min­i­mum wage.

	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

MIGUEL CARDONA, SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: Vot­ing 64 for and 33 against, the Sen­ate on March 1st con­firmed Miguel A. Car­dona, forty-five, as sec­re­tary of edu­ca­tion, the first Lati­no to hold that position.

An edu­ca­tor in pub­lic schools for twen­ty years, he served most recent­ly as Con­necti­cut’s com­mis­sion­er of edu­ca­tion. A bilin­gual son of Puer­to Rican par­ents, he was raised in pub­lic hous­ing in Connecticut.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

	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

GINA RAIMONDO, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: Vot­ing 84 for and 15 against, the Sen­ate on March 2nd con­firmed Gina M. Rai­mon­do, forty-nine, the first woman gov­er­nor of Rhode Island, as sec­re­tary of commerce.

For­mer­ly a ven­ture cap­i­tal­ist, she has an under­grad­u­ate degree in eco­nom­ics from Har­vard Col­lege and is a grad­u­ate of Yale Law School.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

	Vot­ing Aye (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: 6 aye votes

CECILIA ROUSE, CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: Vot­ing 95 for and 4 against, the Sen­ate on March 2nd con­firmed Cecil­ia E. Rouse, fifty-sev­en, as chair of the Coun­cil of Eco­nom­ic Advis­ers, a White House unit that deter­mines admin­is­tra­tion eco­nom­ic poli­cies. The dean of the Prince­ton School of Pub­lic and Inter­na­tion­al Affairs and a spe­cial­ist in labor eco­nom­ics, Rouse also served for­mer pres­i­dents Bill Clin­ton and Barack Oba­ma as an eco­nom­ic adviser.

A yes vote was to con­firm the nominee.

	Vot­ing Aye (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: 6 aye votes

Key votes ahead

The House and Sen­ate leg­isla­tive sched­ules for the week of March 8th have yet to be announced, but both cham­bers will be in session.

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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