Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (December 18th-22nd, 2023)

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cascadia’s Unit­ed States Sen­a­tors vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Decem­ber 22nd, 2023.

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives was in recess.

In the United States Senate

MARTIN O’MALLEY, SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISSIONER: The Sen­ate on Decem­ber 18th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Mar­tin O’Mal­ley to be Social Secu­ri­ty Com­mis­sion­er for a term end­ing in Jan­u­ary 2025. O’Mal­ley was the gov­er­nor of Mary­land from 2007 through 2014, after hav­ing been may­or of Bal­ti­more for sev­en years. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin Cardin, D‑Maryland, said O’Mal­ley would be focused on improv­ing pub­lic inter­ac­tions with the Social Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion and improv­ing morale among agency work­ers, and cit­ed O’Mal­ley’s expe­ri­ence han­dling the diverse, dif­fi­cult chal­lenges that a may­or and gov­er­nor face.

The vote was 50 yeas to 11 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mike Crapo Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Jim Risch
	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, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

CHRISTOPHER FONZONE, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: The Sen­ate on Decem­ber 19th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Christo­pher Fon­zone to be the Jus­tice Depart­men­t’s Assis­tant Attor­ney Gen­er­al of the Office of Legal Coun­sel (OLC). Fon­zone has been the gen­er­al coun­sel for the Office of the Direc­tor of Nation­al Intel­li­gence since 2021; he was a legal offi­cial in the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, and in the mil­i­tary and at the Jus­tice Depart­ment before then. A sup­port­er, Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin, D‑Illinois, said Fon­zone’s “demon­strat­ed track record advis­ing the U.S. gov­ern­ment and clients on a range of com­plex legal issues will serve him well when he is con­firmed to lead OLC.”

The vote was 50 yeas to 17 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mike Crapo Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Jim Risch
	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, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

SARA HILL, U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: The Sen­ate on Decem­ber 19th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Sara Hill to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the North­ern Dis­trict of Okla­homa. Hill was a lawyer for the Chero­kee Nation Indi­an tribe in Okla­homa from 2003 to this year. The vote was 52 yeas to 14 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mike Crapo Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Jim Risch
	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, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

ELIZABETH RICHARD, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT COORDINATOR: The Sen­ate on Decem­ber 19th con­firmed the nom­i­na­tion of Eliz­a­beth Richard to be the State Depart­men­t’s Coor­di­na­tor for Coun­tert­er­ror­ism. A career mem­ber of the Senior For­eign Ser­vice at State, Richard has been a diplo­mat in Italy, South­east Asia, Ecuador, and the Mid­dle East, includ­ing a stint as ambas­sador to Lebanon. The vote was 49 yeas to 15 nays.

	Vot­ing Nay (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mike Crapo Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Jim Risch
	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, 1 nay vote, 1 not voting

ADDITIONAL VOTES BY VOICE: This week, the Sen­ate also passed these pieces of leg­is­la­tion with­out a roll call vote:

• the GAO Data­base Mod­ern­iza­tion Act (S. 679), to require fed­er­al agen­cies to sub­mit to the Comp­trol­ler Gen­er­al of the Unit­ed States a report on rules that are revoked, sus­pend­ed, replaced, amend­ed, or oth­er­wise made ineffective;
• the Air­port and Air­way Exten­sion Act (H.R. 6503), to extend into ear­ly March autho­riza­tion for sev­er­al Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion pro­grams, includ­ing tax­es that fund the Air­port and Air­way Trust Fund;
• the NWR Mod­ern­iza­tion Act (S. 1416), to pro­vide guid­ance for and invest­ment in the upgrade and mod­ern­iza­tion of the Nation­al Ocean­ic and Atmos­pher­ic Admin­is­tra­tion Weath­er Radio All Haz­ards Network;
• the Nation­al Weath­er Ser­vice Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Improve­ment Act (S. 1414), to improve the instant mes­sag­ing ser­vice used by the Nation­al Weath­er Service;
• and the Reuse Excess Prop­er­ty Act (S. 2685), to make data and inter­nal guid­ance on excess per­son­al prop­er­ty pub­licly available.

It also con­firmed by voice the nom­i­na­tion of John David Rus­sell to be a judge on the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the North­ern Dis­trict of Oklahoma.

LWIC will be on hiatus until 2024

Con­gress will be in recess through the remain­der of the year for the win­ter hol­i­days. There will not be a new install­ment of LWIC until 2024.

Edi­tor’s Note: The infor­ma­tion in NPI’s week­ly How Cas­ca­di­a’s U.S. law­mak­ers vot­ed fea­ture is pro­vid­ed by Tar­get­ed News Ser­vice. 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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