HOW YOUR CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATES VOTED
For the week ending January 19
Contact your legislators at the U.S. Capitol Zip codes: House 20515, Senate 20510 Capitol operator: (202) 224-3121 By Voterama In Congress © 2018 Thomas Reports Inc. FUNDING TO KEEP GOVERNMENT OPEN:
Voting 230 for and 197 against, the House on Jan. 18 passed a GOP-drafted bill (HR 195) that would fund agencies from Jan. 20 through Feb. 16 while renewing the Children`s Health Insurance Program for six years. The measure was intended to avert a partial government shutdown at midnight the next day. It was the fourth stopgap bill offered by the Republican majority after having failed to garner enough votes to pass a regular budget for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1, 2017.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate. YES: PEARCE NO: LUJAN GRISHAM, LUJÁN
CALL FOR IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT
TRUMP: Voting 355 for and 66 against, the House on Jan. 19 tabled (killed) a resolution (H Res 705) calling for the impeachment of President Trump based on “high misdemeanors” primarily involving the president’s inflammatory and defamatory Twitter postings and public and private statements. The measure was sponsored by Al Green, D-Texas, under a House rule that entitles any member, on two days’ notice, to offer a “privileged resolution” from the floor within broad limits on subject matter. There was no debate on the resolution.
A yes vote was in opposition to consideration of the impeachment measure.
YES: LUJAN GRISHAM, PEARCE, LUJÁN
POST-ABORTION CRIMINAL PENALTIES: Voting 241 for and 183 against, the House on Jan. 19 passed a GOP-drafted bill (HR 4712) that restates a 2002 law intended to protect fetuses that survive an attempted abortion. The bill adds criminal penalties for doctors and nurses who fail to provide postabortion medical treatment defined by Congress. Existing law makes it a federal crime for any health practitioner to fail to provide adequate care to a fetus that is alive outside the womb following an attempted abortion. The law defines a fetus in those circumstances as a person with full legal protections regardless of their stage of development.
The current bill, the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, requires surviving fetuses to be immediately transported to a hospital and makes doctors and nurses subject to prison terms if they fail to do so. It would shield the mother from prosecution. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, “born alive” means a fetus which after removal from the mother “breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut.”
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate. YES: PEARCE NO: LUJAN GRISHAM, LUJÁN FINANCIAL PENALTIES ON WORLD BANK: Voting 237 for and 184 against, the House on Jan. 17 passed a bill (HR 3326) that would slash U.S. support of the International Development Association unless it changes its criteria for delivering economic aid to impoverished nations. A World Bank agency, the IDA provides grants and loans to the world’s 77 poorest countries with populations totaling 450 million. The bill authorizes a $3.65 billion U.S. payment to the bank over three years. But it would withhold up to 30 percent of the outlay until the Treasury Department certifies reforms are underway, including an emphasis on quality over quantity in the disbursement of funds.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate. YES: PEARCE NO: LUJAN GRISHAM, LUJÁN
EXTENSION OF WARRANTLESS
SURVEILLANCE: Voting 65 for and 34 against, the Senate on Jan. 18 gave final congressional approval to a six-year extension (S 139) of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The post9/11 law is a key government tool for detecting and preventing foreignbased terrorist activity, but also a target of criticism that it imperils the privacy rights of innocent Americans.
The law gives agencies including the National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI warrantless access to commercial databases of foreigners’ voice and digital communications — phone calls, emails, online chats, text messaging and social-media postings — that pass through wireless and landline facilities in the United States. If agencies use the databases to target Americans suspected of terrorist connections, they must obtain FISA-court warrants based on probable cause. When the government inadvertently sweeps up innocent Americans’ communications, the information must be expunged or disregarded, although the law lacks a means for outsiders to see if that has occurred.
A yes vote was to send the bill to President Trump. NO: UDALL, HEINRICH