Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (June 5th-8th)

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

In the United States House of Representatives

FACILITATING OFFERINGS OF COMPANY STOCK: The House on June 5th passed the Encour­ag­ing Pub­lic Offer­ings Act (H.R. 2793), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ann Wag­n­er, R‑Missouri, to expand the abil­i­ty of com­pa­nies issu­ing stock to the pub­lic to use stream­lined reg­u­la­to­ry procedures.

Wag­n­er said: “This bill will make list­ing on exchanges more attrac­tive, strength­en­ing our finan­cial mar­kets and pro­vid­ing Main Street investors with more oppor­tu­ni­ties to grow their nest eggs.” The vote was 384 yeas to 13 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Val Hoyle, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lori Chavez-DeRemer Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Yea (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jayapal Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rick Larsen

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

MIDDLE MARKET IPO COST ACT: The House on June 5th passed the Mid­dle Mar­ket IPO Cost Act (H.R. 2812), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive James A. Himes, D‑Connecticut, to require the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion to report to Con­gress on the costs for small and mid-sized com­pa­nies of ini­tial pub­lic offer­ings (IPOs), and ways to poten­tial­ly reduce those costs.

Himes said the com­pa­nies usu­al­ly pay IPO under­writ­ers a fee of 7 per­cent of the mon­ey raised in the IPO despite falling costs for tech­nolo­gies used in IPOs, and “I strong­ly believe that this remark­ably sta­ble 7 per­cent gross spread is fair sub­ject for scruti­ny.” The vote was 390 yeas to 10 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Val Hoyle, Earl Blu­me­nauer, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lori Chavez-DeRemer Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz
	Vot­ing Yea (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rick Larsen

Cas­ca­dia total: 16 yea votes, 2 not voting

ADDITIONAL VOTES BY VOICE: Along with the roll call votes this week, the House also passed these mea­sures by voice vote:

• the Nation­al Senior Investor Ini­tia­tive Act (H.R. 2593), to cre­ate an inter­di­vi­sion­al task­force at the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion for senior investors;
• a bill (H.R. 2608), to spec­i­fy the peri­ods for which finan­cial state­ments are required to be pro­vid­ed by an emerg­ing growth company;
• and a bill (H.R. 2610), to per­mit secu­ri­ties issuers to file draft reg­is­tra­tion state­ments with the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion for con­fi­den­tial review.

In the United States Senate

DAVID CRANE, UNDER SECRETARY AT ENERGY: The Sen­ate on June 7th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of David Crane to be the Ener­gy Depart­men­t’s Under Sec­re­tary for Infra­struc­ture. Crane was the CEO of NRG, a large elec­tric pow­er gen­er­a­tion com­pa­ny, for twelve years; more recent­ly, he has been a board mem­ber of sev­er­al renew­able ener­gy and steel companies.

A sup­port­er, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑New York, said Crane “has a wealth of knowl­edge from the pri­vate sec­tor as a for­mer CEO of a lead­ing ener­gy com­pa­ny and is one of Amer­i­ca’s lead­ing voic­es in the fight for clean ener­gy.” An oppo­nent, Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell, R‑Kentucky, said “Crane’s nom­i­na­tion is bad news for Ken­tucky, for coal coun­try, and for any Amer­i­can who enjoys mak­ing their own choic­es about which cars to dri­ve, which prod­ucts to con­sume, and how to earn a living.”

The vote, on June 7, was 56 yeas to 43 nays.

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

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

DILAWAR SYED, SBA DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR: The Sen­ate on June 8th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Dilawar Syed to be the Small Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion deputy admin­is­tra­tor. Syed was an offi­cial in var­i­ous busi­ness and econ­o­my roles in the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, and is cur­rent­ly the CEO of Lumi­a­ta, a health­care arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence com­pa­ny. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Tam­my Duck­worth, D‑Illinois, said Syed “has expe­ri­ence work­ing direct­ly with small busi­ness own­ers and has led efforts to dri­ve eco­nom­ic growth at the local, state, and fed­er­al levels.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Joni Ernst, R‑Iowa, said: “Based on our expe­ri­ence with Mr. Syed over the past two and half years while his nom­i­na­tion has been under con­sid­er­a­tion, he has resist­ed full trans­paren­cy at every turn.”

The vote was 54 yeas to 42 nays.

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

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

MILLY R. SILFEN, U.S. COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS: The Sen­ate on June 8th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Mil­ly R. Sil­fen to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Fed­er­al Claims for a 15-year term. Sil­fen has been a solic­i­tor attor­ney in the U.S. Patent & Trade­mark Office since 2013, when she left a pri­vate prac­tice law firm.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, cit­ed Sil­fen’s “exten­sive expe­ri­ence at all lev­els of the fed­er­al judi­cial sys­tem, along with her com­mit­ment to pub­lic ser­vice.” The vote was 55 yeas to 39 nays.

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

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

Key votes ahead

It’s unclear how pro­ceed­ings in the House will go this week, after hard­line mem­bers of Kevin McCarthy’s cau­cus dis­rupt­ed lead­er­ship’s plans for the pre­vi­ous week by vot­ing no on pro­ce­dur­al motions, which brought busi­ness to a halt.

Begin­ning June 12th, the Sen­ate will con­sid­er sev­er­al nominations.

On Mon­day, a vote is expect­ed on the nom­i­na­tion of Eliz­a­beth Allen, of New York, to be Under Sec­re­tary of State for Pub­lic Diplo­ma­cy. This will be fol­lowed by votes on the nom­i­na­tions of Her­nan D. Vera to be Unit­ed States Dis­trict Judge for the Cen­tral Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia, P. Casey Pitts, of Cal­i­for­nia, to be Unit­ed States Dis­trict Judge for the North­ern Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia, and Jared Bern­stein to be Chair­man of the Pres­i­den­t’s Coun­cil of Eco­nom­ic Advisers.

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