Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (October 16th-27th)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Mem­bers of Con­gress vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Octo­ber 27th, 2023.

MIKE JOHNSON’S ELECTION AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The House on Octo­ber 24th elect­ed Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike John­son of Louisiana to be the fifty-sixth Speak­er in Unit­ed States his­to­ry, with all Repub­li­cans who were present vot­ing for his elec­tion. Democ­rats uni­form­ly vot­ed for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

John­son received 220 votes and Jef­fries 209.

John­son sup­port­er Elise Ste­fanik, R‑New York, said: “A deeply respect­ed con­sti­tu­tion­al lawyer, Mike has ded­i­cat­ed his life to pre­serv­ing America’s great prin­ci­ples of life, lib­er­ty and the pur­suit of hap­pi­ness… Amer­i­cans fun­da­men­tal­ly under­stand that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has been ille­gal­ly weaponized against we the peo­ple, shred­ding the Con­sti­tu­tion, tar­get­ing con­ser­v­a­tives and par­ents…  The peo­ple are look­ing to this great cham­ber to save Amer­i­ca and save Amer­i­ca we will.”

Jef­fries sup­port­er Pete Aguilar, D‑California, said: “This has been about one thing. This has been about who can appease Don­ald Trump. House Repub­li­cans have put their names behind some­one who has been called the most impor­tant archi­tect of the elec­toral col­lege objec­tions. He spear­head­ed the legal effort, joined by more than 100 of our col­leagues on the oth­er side of the aisle, in sup­port of a dan­ger­ous and base­less law­suit to over­turn the results of the 2020 election.”

The House was able to resume leg­isla­tive busi­ness fol­low­ing John­son’s election.

Thanks to VoteFacts.com News Reports for the floor debate sum­ma­ry.

	Vot­ing for Mike John­son (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Simp­son and Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing for Hakeem Jef­fries (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Val Hoyle, and Andrea Salinas Vot­ing for Mike John­son (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer
	Vot­ing for Hakeem Jef­fries (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland Vot­ing for Mike John­son (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers

Cas­ca­dia total: 12 votes for Hakeem Jef­fries, 6 votes for Mike Johnson

SUPPORTING ISRAEL IN ITS WAR WITH HAMAS: The House on Octo­ber 25th passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 771), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michael T. McCaul, R‑Texas, to sup­port Israel in its war with Hamas, and con­demn Iran’s sup­port for Hamas and oth­er ter­ror­ist groups.

McCaul said the res­o­lu­tion “will send a clear mes­sage across the world that ter­ror­ists and their spon­sors will be held to account for their atroc­i­ties, their crimes against human­i­ty, their crimes of genocide.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Al Green, D‑Texas, fault­ed the res­o­lu­tion for lack­ing ref­er­ence to “the vision of peace between Israel and Pales­tine by way of a two-state solu­tion.” The vote was 412 yeas to 10 nays, and 6 vot­ing present.

	Vot­ing Yea (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Mike Simp­son and Russ Fulcher
	Vot­ing Yea (6): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Val Hoyle, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer
	Vot­ing Yea (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Kim Schri­er, Adam Smith, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Present (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jayapal

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 vot­ing present

REPUBLICAN APPROPRIATIONS BILL FOR ENERGY, WATER PROGRAMS: The House on Octo­ber 26th passed the Ener­gy and Water Devel­op­ment and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4394), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chuck Fleis­chmann, R‑Tenn., to pro­vide $57 bil­lion of fis­cal 2024 fund­ing for the Ener­gy Depart­ment, Army Corps of Engi­neers, and oth­er water and ener­gy agen­cies. Fleis­chmann said the bill “advances our nation­al secu­ri­ty, our ener­gy secu­ri­ty, and our eco­nom­ic com­pet­i­tive­ness in a fis­cal­ly respon­si­ble manner.”

An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rosa L. DeLau­ro, D‑Connecticut, said: “This bill under­mines growth and mod­ern­iza­tion of our ener­gy infra­struc­ture, weak­ens our nation­al secu­ri­ty, and it would yield lead­er­ship of the world’s ener­gy future to our great­est adver­saries.” The vote was 210 yeas to 199 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz and Lori Chavez-DeRemer Vot­ing Nay (4): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Val Hoyle, and Andrea Salinas
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith

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

AMENDMENT TO APPROPRIATIONS BILL TO SUPPORT FISH RECOVERY: The House on Octo­ber 26th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joe Neguse, D‑Colorado, to the Ener­gy and Water Devel­op­ment and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4394, above), to increase by $1 mil­lion spend­ing on endan­gered fish recov­ery pro­grams in the Upper Col­orado and San Juan Riv­er basins. Neguse said: “The pro­grams work to recov­er and pro­tect four species of endan­gered and threat­ened fish, while pro­vid­ing Endan­gered Species Act com­pli­ance for over 2,500 water projects.”

The vote was 277 yeas to 142 nays.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 14 yea votes, 3 nay votes, 1 not voting

ATTEMPTING TO DEFUND AMERICAN CLIMATE CORPS: The House on Octo­ber 26th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ralph Nor­man, R‑South Car­oli­na, to the Ener­gy and Water Devel­op­ment and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4394, above), that would pro­hib­it fund­ing for the Amer­i­can Cli­mate Corps. Nor­man asked: “Instead of fund­ing Democ­rats’ woke cli­mate agen­da, why don’t you focus on a pro-growth agen­da that spurs the econ­o­my and pri­or­i­tizes Amer­i­can ener­gy independence?”

An amend­ment oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mar­cy Kap­tur, D‑Ohio, said: “This pro­gram will give a new gen­er­a­tion of Amer­i­cans the skills that our grand­par­ents had, which are nec­es­sary to access good-pay­ing jobs that are aligned with high-qual­i­ty employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties after they com­plete their paid train­ing and ser­vice.” The vote was 207 yeas to 204 nays.

	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson
	Vot­ing Yea (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Cliff Bentz Vot­ing Nay (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Earl Blu­me­nauer, Val Hoyle, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lori Chavez-DeRemer
	Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers Vot­ing Nay (7): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Derek Kilmer, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith

Cas­ca­dia total: 5 yea votes, 12 nay votes, 1 not voting

In the United States Senate

MICHAEL G. WHITAKER, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 24th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Michael G. Whitak­er to be the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion’s admin­is­tra­tor for a five-year term. Whitak­er was the FAA’s deputy admin­is­tra­tor from 2013 to 2016; he had been an exec­u­tive at Unit­ed Air­lines, and the CEO of Inter­Globe Enter­pris­es, an India air­line company.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, D‑Washington, said Whitak­er had com­mit­ted to “build a strong safe­ty cul­ture, attract new tal­ent, and keep pace with tech­nol­o­gy trans­for­ma­tion” in avi­a­tion at the FAA.

The vote was unan­i­mous with 98 yeas.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes

JESSICA LOOMAN, ADMINISTRATOR OF WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION AT LABOR DEPARTMENT: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 25th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Jes­si­ca Looman to be admin­is­tra­tor of the Labor Depart­men­t’s Wage and Hour Divi­sion. Looman has been a deputy admin­is­tra­tor at the Divi­sion since the start of Pres­i­dent Biden’s term; pre­vi­ous­ly, she was a con­struc­tion labor union exec­u­tive direc­tor, and Min­neso­ta Com­merce Commissioner.

A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Tina Smith, D‑Minnesota, said Looman “is respect­ed for her skill lead­ing large, com­plex orga­ni­za­tions and get­ting results and work­ing pro­duc­tive­ly with diverse groups of peo­ple to find good solu­tions and com­mon ground.” The vote was 51 yeas to 46 nays.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 4 yea votes, 2 nay votes

AMENDMENT BARRING TRANSPORTATION MASK MANDATES: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 25th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor J.D. Vance, R‑Ohio, to the Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion, Vet­er­ans Affairs, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366). The amend­ment would bar fis­cal 2024 fund­ing for the Trans­porta­tion Depart­ment to enforce face mask man­dates in response to the nov­el coro­n­avirus. Vance said: “The era of mask man­dates caused a lot of prob­lems. It caused prob­lems for our kids. It caused devel­op­men­tal delays for school chil­dren. It caused a lot of ran­cor and a lot of division.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Bri­an Schatz, D‑Hawaii, said that if a much more vir­u­lent and haz­ardous ver­sion of the coro­n­avirus emerges, “pub­lic health offi­cials should be able to con­sult with agen­cies to try to fig­ure out what mea­sures ought to work.” The vote was 59 yeas to 38 nays.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

AMENDMENT WORSENING GUN SAFETY: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 25th passed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor John Kennedy, R‑Louisiana, to the Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion, Vet­er­ans Affairs, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366). The amend­ment would bar fund­ing for the Vet­er­ans Affairs Depart­ment (VA) to report the men­tal incom­pe­tence of a vet­er­an to the Nation­al Instant Crim­i­nal Back­ground Check Sys­tem (NICS) in the absence of an order from a judi­cial author­i­ty. Kennedy said cur­rent VA poli­cies mean that when­ev­er a vet­er­an needs a finan­cial fidu­cia­ry, that infor­ma­tion is sent to the NICS and the vet­er­an los­es the right to have a firearm with­out due process.

An amend­ment oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Christo­pher Mur­phy, D‑Connecticut, said it “gives gun rights back to every sin­gle seri­ous­ly men­tal­ly ill vet­er­an who has been judged to be men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent, even those who are active­ly suicidal.”

The vote was 53 yeas to 45 nays.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

AMENDMENT CONCERNING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 25th reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor James Lank­ford, R‑Okla., to the Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion, Vet­er­ans Affairs, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366). The amend­ment would have stip­u­lat­ed that Con­gress remain in ses­sion, work­ing on spend­ing leg­is­la­tion, when­ev­er it has failed to pass bills that main­tain fund­ing for the fed­er­al government.

Lank­ford said the amend­ment sought “to change the sta­tus quo and to begin the process of end­ing gov­ern­ment shut­downs for­ev­er.” An amend­ment oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, D‑Washington, said it would mean “abdi­cat­ing Con­gress’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to con­trol the pow­ers of the purse and avoid­ing the hard work of com­pro­mise by putting fund­ing on per­pet­u­al autopi­lot.” The vote was 56 yeas to 42 nays, with a three-fifths major­i­ty required for approval.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

FAILURE OF AMENDMENT TO PROHIBIT EARMARKS: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 26th reject­ed an amend­ment spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Mike Braun, R‑Indiana, to the Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion, Vet­er­ans Affairs, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act (H.R. 4366), that would have barred fund­ing for so-called ear­mark projects, which are spend­ing on spe­cif­ic projects that have been insert­ed into leg­is­la­tion by indi­vid­ual mem­bers of Congress.

Braun said: “Ear­marks give rep­re­sen­ta­tives, give sen­a­tors, the incen­tive to be big spenders. We should cut every ear­mark out of this bill and ban them per­ma­nent­ly and quit load­ing up our kids and grand­kids with the debt to pay for all this.”

An oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Susan M. Collins, R‑Maine, said ear­marks give mem­bers “who under­stand the needs of their con­stituents far bet­ter than every fed­er­al agency to advo­cate for spe­cif­ic invest­ments in their local communities.”

The vote was 35 yeas to 62 nays.

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

Cas­ca­dia total: 2 yea votes, 4 nay votes

REJECTING RAND PAUL RESOLUTION ON WITHDRAWAL FROM NIGER: The Sen­ate on Octo­ber 26th reject­ed a motion to dis­charge from com­mit­tee a res­o­lu­tion (S.J. Res. 44), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Rand Paul, R‑Kentucky, that would have ordered the removal of U.S. sol­diers from Niger due to the lack of Con­gres­sion­al autho­riza­tion for that deployment.

Paul said: “We are in the mid­dle of a poten­tial war, with 1,100 troops in Niger, where a demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed pres­i­dent has been deposed, and they are being ruled by a mil­i­tary jun­ta and still our troops are there.” A res­o­lu­tion oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin, D‑Maryland, said: “The U.S. pres­ence is help­ing save lives and to con­tain ter­ror­ism. Our part­ners in Africa want us there to deal with that threat.” The vote to dis­charge was 11 yeas to 86 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (2): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo
	Vot­ing Yea (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden
	Vot­ing Nay (2): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Maria Cantwell and Pat­ty Murray

Cas­ca­dia total: 1 yea vote, 5 nay votes

ADDITIONAL VOTE BY VOICE: Along with roll call votes this week, the Sen­ate also passed, by voice vote, a res­o­lu­tion (S. Res. 418) con­demn­ing Hamas and anti­se­mit­ic stu­dent activ­i­ties on col­lege cam­pus­es in the U.S.

Key votes ahead

The House will decide whether to expel George San­tos and debate sev­er­al appro­pri­a­tions bills. Addi­tion­al­ly, it will con­sid­er a res­o­lu­tion declar­ing it is the pol­i­cy of the Unit­ed States that a nuclear Iran is unac­cept­able, as well as leg­is­la­tion intend­ed to hin­der Hamas’ access to mon­ey. A bill from Brad Sher­man, the Peace and Tol­er­ance in Pales­tin­ian Edu­ca­tion Act, may be tak­en up. And duel­ing res­o­lu­tions to cen­sure Rashi­da Tlaib and Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene could be vot­ed on. (Greene is spon­sor­ing the res­o­lu­tion to cen­sure Tlaib.)

The Sen­ate will resume debate on H.R. 4366, the Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion, Vet­er­ans Affairs, and Relat­ed Agen­cies Appro­pri­a­tions Act, 2024.

Addi­tion­al­ly, the Sen­ate will con­sid­er the nom­i­na­tions of Matthew James Mad­dox, of Mary­land, to be Unit­ed States Dis­trict Judge for the Dis­trict of Mary­land and Jacob J. Lew, of New York, to be Ambas­sador Extra­or­di­nary and Plenipo­ten­tiary of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca to the State of Israel.

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