Here’s a look at how area members of Congress voted over the previous week.
House votes
UNIONIZATION: The House has passed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (H.R. 842), sponsored by Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. The bill would change laws governing labor practices and unions, with the general goal of making it easier for workers to form unions. Scott said the changes were needed because existing labor law “lacks the teeth to enforce workers’ rights when employers unlawfully retaliate against them for organizing.” A bill opponent, Rep. Fred Keller, R-Pa., said that by needlessly inserting government into the workplace, it “would infringe on workers’ rights and handcuff employers, making it harder for people to make decisions that positively impact their workforce.” The vote, on March 9, was 225 yeas to 206 nays.
YEAS: Neguse D-CO (2nd). NAYS: Buck R-CO (4th).
FINALIZING STIMULUS BILL: The House has agreed to the Senate amendment to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319), sponsored by Rep. John A. Yarmuth, D-Ky. The bill would spend $1.9 trillion on various measures, many of them related to COVID-19, including aid for states, an extension of unemployment benefits, education programs, an increased child tax credit, a higher federal minimum wage, and $1,400 payments for most taxpayers. Yarmuth said it “helps feed hungry Americans and provides financial support so families can afford health coverage during the greatest health crisis of our lifetimes.” An opponent, Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., said the bill failed to focus on efforts to bring students back into classrooms and stamp out COVID-19, and instead ” will reward and incentivize further lockdowns” by sending large amounts of money to states suffering from ongoing emergency rule. The vote, on March 10, was 220 yeas to 211 nays.
YEAS: Neguse. NAYS: Buck.
PRIVATE GUN SALES: The House has passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act (H.R. 8), sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif. The bill would outlaw private sales of firearms by unlicensed gun dealers if the buyer does not first go through a background check. Thompson said the restriction was needed to “close the private gun sale loophole, which has made it easy for felons and other prohibited purchasers to buy a gun online, at gun shows, or in person-to-person sales.” An opponent, Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., questioned the practical impact of background checks, saying: “We must remember that there is no law that stops criminals from getting guns and committing crimes. We would have empty prisons otherwise.” The vote, on March 11, was 227 yeas to 203 nays.
YEAS: Neguse. NAYS: Buck.
BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR GUN PURCHASES: The House has passed the Enhanced Background Checks Act (H.R. 1446), sponsored by Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., to create stricter restrictions on the ability of federally licensed gun dealers to sell guns to buyers who have not passed a Federal Bureau of Investigation background check. Clyburn said the bill’s new background check standard would create a delay of at most one month before a buyer can possess a gun, while working to prevent the criminal use of guns. An opponent, Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., said a tighter standard “does nothing but make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and their families.” The vote, on March 11, was 219 yeas to 210 nays.
YEAS: Neguse. NAYS: Buck.
Senate votes
FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE: The Senate has rejected a motion to waive budgetary discipline for an amendment sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, ID-Vt., to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319). The amendment would have increased the federal minimum wage, in stages, to $15 an hour in 2026. Sanders said of the need for a higher minimum wage: “We can no longer tolerate millions of our workers being unable to feed their families because they are working for starvation wages.” The vote, on March 5, was 42 yeas to 58 nays.
YEAS: Bennet D-CO, Hickenlooper D-CO.
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS: The Senate has approved an amendment sponsored by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319). The amendment would extend unemployment benefits at the $300 a week level, through July 18, a shorter timespan than had been in the bill previously. Portman said excessively generous unemployment benefits ” would make it even more advantageous to be on unemployment and would slow the job creation we all want.” An opponent, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called the amendment “a double whammy on workers–a much faster cutoff of benefits and absolutely no help with the nasty tax surprise millions of working families will find when they file their taxes in the next few weeks.” The vote, on March 5, was 50 yeas to 49 nays.
NAYS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
TAXING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS: The Senate has approved an amendment sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319). The amendment would extend unemployment benefits through September 5, 2021, and block recipients of the benefits from being taxed. Wyden called the extension “an economic lifeline for Americans who would strongly prefer to be back at work.” An opponent, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said a situation in which “if you are on unemployment insurance, you don’t have to pay taxes, but if you are working you do have to pay taxes” would not promote an economic recovery. The vote, on March 6, was 50 yeas to 49 nays.
YEAS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
SCHOOL REOPENING PLANS: The Senate has approved an amendment sponsored by Sen. Margaret Hassan, D-N.H., to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319), to require school districts receiving aid under the bill to take public input for their plans to resume regular, in-person schooling and publish the plans on district websites. Hassan said the requirement would “support an objective that we all share: getting our students safely back in their classrooms.” An opponent, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said that giving districts 30 days to take input while the school year ends in June would create a timeline that “almost ensures we won’t get back to school” before the summer. The vote, on March 6, was 51 yeas to 48 nays.
YEAS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
SCHOOLS AND COVID-19: The Senate has rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319). The amendment would have changed the bill’s establishment of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund by increasing payments to school districts in exchange for them having open schools for more days of the week. Rubio said the provision “incentivizes us to get our kids back in school” and reduce the harms created by reliance on remote learning. An opponent, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said: “If we only provide funding to schools that are physically open, schools in communities with high rates of COVID-19 can’t receive the money they need to implement health safety protocols, but they will feel the pressure to reopen even if it is not safe.” The vote, on March 6, was 48 yeas to 51 nays.
NAYS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
DETECTING FENTANYL IMPORTS: The Senate has rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319). The amendment would have increased funding for Customs and Border Protection efforts to detect fentanyl and other drugs by $300 million, and eliminated a bill provision establishing the Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund. Young said: “The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated America’s drug epidemic with synthetic opioids being the primary driver of the 38-percent annual increase in overdose deaths.” An opponent, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said of the leave fund: “If we want to prevent the spread of the virus, we need to make sure those who get it have a chance to stay home and not spread it among their colleagues around the country.” The vote, on March 6, was 48 yeas to 50 nays.
NAYS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
AMTRAK FUNDING: The Senate has rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319). The amendment would have cut funding for Amtrak programs in the Northeast and provided close to $1 billion for the Coast Guard to purchase HC-130J surveillance aircraft. Scott said the funding shift was desirable as a way to improve national security rather than “prop up wasteful and mismanaged transportation systems in New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts.” An opponent, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the Amtrak funding was needed to “fix the COVID crisis on our transportation system.” The vote, on March 6, was 47 yeas to 51 nays.
NAYS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
IN-PERSON SCHOOLS: The Senate has rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319). The amendment would have required public schools receiving funding under the bill to have plans to resume regular in-person schooling for the rest of the 2020-2021 school year and for the 2021-2022 school year. Cruz said that in the absence of in-person schooling, “millions of school kids are falling behind, and it is falling disproportionately on low-income kids, on African-American kids, on Hispanic kids.” An amendment opponent, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the requirement “strips much needed funds from our public schools that want to reopen for in-person learning and implement safety protocols that are aligned with local public health guidance in order to create a voucher program.” The vote, on March 6, was 49 yeas to 50 nays.
NAYS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
STIMULUS CHECKS AND PRISONERS: The Senate has rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., to the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319). The amendment would have blocked prison inmates from receiving the $1,400 checks given to most other Americans under the bill. Cassidy said: “This spending should be on real needs. Stimulus checks for inmates is nontargeted, inappropriate, and is a total waste of money.” An opponent, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said: “Children should not be forced to go hungry because a parent is incarcerated. Relief payments would allow families to replace lost income and pay rent and put food on the table.” The vote, on March 6, was 49 yeas to 50 nays.
NAYS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
STIMULUS SPENDING: The Senate has passed the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319), sponsored by Rep. John A. Yarmuth, D-Ky. The bill would spend $1.9 trillion on various measures, many of them related to COVID-19, including aid for states, an extension of unemployment benefits, education programs, an increased child tax credit, a higher federal minimum wage, and $1,400 payments for most taxpayers. A supporter, Sen. Bernie Sanders, ID-Vt., said the spending was needed “because we are facing a series of unprecedented crises and because the American people are reaching out to us, and they are saying: We are hurting.” An opponent, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that with substantial unspent funds from recent stimulus packages and signs that the novel coronavirus is receding significantly, “it seems to me we would want to slow down and wisely spend the money not spent before we embark on a $1.9 trillion spending spree.” The vote, on March 6, was 50 yeas to 49 nays.
YEAS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
HOUSING SECRETARY: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Marcia Fudge to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Fudge has been a House member, representing an Ohio district, since 2008. A supporter, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Fudge “will lift up the voices of all the people left out of our housing policy, people who work hard to try to keep a roof over their family’s head.” An opponent, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Fudge’s history of “attacking and disparaging the integrity and motives of Republicans with whom she has policy disagreements” raised concerns about whether, if confirmed, she would be able to work productively with Republican members of Congress in operating HUD programs. The vote, on March 10, was 66 yeas to 34 nays.
YEAS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
ATTORNEY GENERAL: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Merrick Garland to serve as U.S. Attorney General. Garland has been a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals judge since 1997. A supporter, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Md., said Garland “will answer the calls for racial justice and refocus the Department [of Justice] on one of its core missions, to protect the civil rights and voting rights of all Americans.” An opponent, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said that based on Garland’s comments at his confirmation hearing, there was a danger “that he will enable extremists in the Department of Justice to undermine our police, our Constitution, and our rule of law.” The vote, on March 10, was 70 yeas to 30 nays.
YEAS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
EPA ADMINISTRATOR: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Michael Regan to serve as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Regan has been the secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality since January 2017, and previously was an EPA official during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. The vote, on March 10, was 66 yeas to 34 nays.
YEAS: Bennet, Hickenlooper.
"how" - Google News
March 13, 2021 at 06:41AM
https://ift.tt/3bGkrOp
How they voted: Longmont-area congressional votes for March 5-11, 2021 - Longmont Times-Call
"how" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2MfXd3I
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "How they voted: Longmont-area congressional votes for March 5-11, 2021 - Longmont Times-Call"
Post a Comment