Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (August 1st-5th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues on July 29th and dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing August 5th, 2022.

In the United States House of Representatives (July 29th)

The House was in recess last week, but before it recessed the week before, it took sev­er­al votes that were not in last Sun­day’s report. 

These Fri­day, July 29th votes are shown below. 

WILDFIRES AND WATER MANAGEMENT: The House on July 29th passed the Wild­fire Response and Drought Resilien­cy Act (H.R. 5118), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joe Neguse, D‑Colorado, to autho­rize var­i­ous water man­age­ment projects and change fed­er­al wildlife pro­grams, includ­ing increas­ing fire­fight­er wages. Neguse called the bill “anoth­er major effort to act on cli­mate by respond­ing to record-set­ting wild­fires and drought that are impact­ing com­mu­ni­ties across our coun­try.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bruce West­er­man, R‑Arkansas, said it “does absolute­ly noth­ing to pre­vent wild­fires or sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve our resilien­cy to drought.” The vote was 218 yeas to 199 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (3): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Peter DeFazio Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz and Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kurt Schrader
	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: 10 aye votes, 7 nay votes

REGULATING BIG CATS: The House on July 29th passed the Big Cat Pub­lic Safe­ty Act (H.R. 263), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Quigley, D‑Illinois, to tight­en fed­er­al restric­tions on the trade and use of large feline species, such as lions, tigers, chee­tahs, and moun­tain lions. Quigley said the stricter reg­u­la­tions were need­ed “to pro­tect our neigh­bor­hoods from the threat of wild ani­mals being held cap­tive in dan­ger­ous con­di­tions.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Doug LaMal­fa, R‑Calif., said there were already ade­quate fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions for big cats, and the bill would also over­ride state author­i­ty to leg­is­late on the matter.

The vote was 278 yeas to 134 nays.

	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 (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jaime Her­rera Beutler Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 5 nay votes

RESTORING COAL MINE SITES: The House on July 29th passed the Safe­guard­ing Treat­ment for the Restora­tion of Ecosys­tems from Aban­doned Mines Act (H.R. 7283), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Matt Cartwright, D‑Pennsylvania, to allow states to reserve up to 30 per­cent of their fed­er­al grants for recla­ma­tion of aban­doned coal mines to fund the treat­ment and abate­ment of drainage of acidic water from the mines. Cartwright said: “Clean­ing up acid mine drainage always cre­ates jobs, brings back recre­ation oppor­tu­ni­ties, boosts local economies, and makes com­mu­ni­ties health­i­er and stronger and much more attrac­tive to vis­i­tors and new invest­ments.” The vote was 391 yeas to 9 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Kurt Schrad­er; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Peter DeFazio
	Vot­ing Aye (10): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 aye votes, 1 not voting

COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE REVIEWS: The House on July 29th passed a Repub­li­can bill (S. 3451), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Bill Hager­ty, R‑Tennessee, to speed reg­u­la­to­ry reviews of com­put­er and net­work­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing infra­struc­ture projects. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bruce West­er­man, R‑Arkansas, said stream­lined reviews would sup­port a “robust domes­tic man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor for semi­con­duc­tors and oth­er high-tech applications.”

The vote was 303 yeas to 89 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kurt Schrad­er and Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci and Earl Blumenauer Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Peter DeFazio
	Vot­ing Aye (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, Dan New­house, and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Prami­la Jaya­pal and Adam Smith

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 aye votes, 4 nay votes, 1 not voting

In the United States Senate

FINAL PASSAGE OF THE HONORING OUR PACT ACT: The Sen­ate on August 2nd agreed to the House amend­ments to the Sergeant First Class Heath Robin­son Hon­or­ing our Promise to Address Com­pre­hen­sive Tox­i­cs Act (S. 3373), to increase med­ical ben­e­fits and treat­ments for mil­i­tary vet­er­ans who were exposed to tox­ins in Iraq and Afghanistan. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Jon Tester, D‑Montana, said of the need for the bill: “The longer we delay, the longer we are going to deny health­care for our vet­er­ans and vet­er­ans are going to con­tin­ue to be in cri­sis and they are going to con­tin­ue to die.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky, ques­tioned whether all the treat­ments pro­vid­ed under the bill were actu­al­ly caused by a giv­en vet­er­an’s time in the mil­i­tary, and said it “would cost hun­dreds of bil­lions of dol­lars at a time when the nation­al debt is climb­ing over $30 tril­lion and infla­tion is at a 40-year high.”

The vote was 86 yeas to 11 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 3 aye votes, 2 nay votes, 1 not voting

ADMITTING SWEDEN AND FINLAND TO NATO: The Sen­ate on August 3rd agreed to a res­o­lu­tion to have the U.S. rat­i­fy the pro­pos­al for Fin­land and Swe­den to join the North Atlantic Treaty Orga­ni­za­tion (NATO).

A sup­port­er of rat­i­fi­ca­tion, Sen­a­tor Chris Van Hollen, D‑Maryland, said of the two Nordic coun­tries: “Their mem­ber­ship at this moment is crit­i­cal to coun­ter­ing Putin’s threats to glob­al secu­ri­ty — and espe­cial­ly to near­by, vul­ner­a­ble nations.” The vote was 95 yeas to 1 nay.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 1 not voting

ELIZABETH HANES, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on August 2nd con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Eliz­a­beth Hanes to be a judge on the U.S. dis­trict court for the east­ern dis­trict of Vir­ginia. Hanes has been a mag­is­trate judge in the dis­trict for two years, and pre­vi­ous­ly was a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer, and an assis­tant pub­lic defend­er in the dis­trict for sev­en years.

The vote was 59 yeas to 37 nays.

	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

ATTEMPTING TO CANCEL ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS: The Sen­ate on August 4th passed a Repub­li­can joint res­o­lu­tion (S.J. Res. 55) spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Dan Sul­li­van, R‑Alaska, to dis­ap­prove of and can­cel a Coun­cil on Envi­ron­men­tal Qual­i­ty rule, issued this April, chang­ing pro­ce­dures for the devel­op­ment of reg­u­la­tions issued under the Nation­al Envi­ron­men­tal Pol­i­cy Act.

The April rule expand­ed the allow­able scope of such reg­u­la­tions by, for exam­ple, requir­ing reg­u­la­tors to con­sid­er the rea­son­ably fore­see­able indi­rect and cumu­la­tive effects of a giv­en reg­u­la­tion. Sul­li­van said the rule “will clear­ly have the effect of slow­ing down the per­mit­ting of infra­struc­ture, invit­ing end­less lit­i­ga­tion and putting peo­ple out of work.”

An oppo­nent of can­cel­ing the rule, Sen­a­tor Tom Carp­er, D‑Delaware, said it “would ensure that agen­cies con­duct envi­ron­men­tal review process­es in a com­mon­sense, holis­tic man­ner, one that nei­ther sac­ri­fices effi­cien­cy for envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion nor the oth­er way around.”

The vote to can­cel the rule was 50 yeas to 47 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 aye votes, 3 nay votes, 1 not voting

ROOPALI DESAI, U.S. NINTH CIRCUIT APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on August 4th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Roopali Desai to be a judge on the U.S. Ninth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. Desai has been a pri­vate prac­tice lawyer in Phoenix, spe­cial­iz­ing in elec­tions and vot­ing law, since 2007.

The vote was 67 yeas to 29 nays.

	Vot­ing Aye (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Aye (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley
	Vot­ing Aye (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 aye votes, 1 not voting

Key votes ahead

The Sen­ate is cur­rent­ly work­ing on the Infla­tion Reduc­tion Act of 2022, which was nego­ti­at­ed by Sen­a­tor Chuck Schumer and Sen­a­tor Joe Manchin.

The Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic major­i­ty is using Con­gress’ rec­on­cil­i­a­tion pro­ce­dures to move the bill through the leg­isla­tive process with­out Repub­li­can votes. It would low­er health­care costs for Amer­i­cans and invest bil­lions towards cli­mate action. Dur­ing an overnight “vote-a-rama” ses­sion, Repub­li­cans tried to attach poi­son pill amend­ments to bring the bill down, but those efforts have so far failed.

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is slat­ed to return on Fri­day, August 12th to vote on the Infla­tion Reduc­tion Act of 2022, pre­sum­ing the Sen­ate pass­es it today.

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