HOW YOUR CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATES VOTED
For the week ending Feb. 15
Contact your legislators at the U.S. Capitol Zip codes: House 20515, Senate 20510 Capitol operator: (202) 224-3121
By Voterama In Congress
© 2019 Thomas Reports Inc. WASHINGTON — Here’s how area members of Congress voted during the legislative week ending Feb. 15. $333 BILLION APPROPRIATIONS PACKAGE: Voting 300 for and 128 against, the House on Feb. 14 gave final congressional approval to a $333 billion appropriations package (HJ Res 31) that would fund eight Cabinet
departments and numerous agencies in fiscal
2019, ending the prospect
of another government
shutdown. The bill would
provide $49.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, including $7.6 billion for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE); $1.325 billion for building 55 miles of physical barriers along the southwest border; $564 million for electronic drug inspections of vehicles and cargo at ports of entry from Mexico, $415 million in humanitarian aid, including medical care for immigrants detained at the border and funding for an annual average of 45,274 beds for immigrants being held while their status is under review. In addition, the bill requires ICE to grant admission to any member of Congress border facilities where children are being housed, publicly report the number and types of immigrants in its custody, and preserve all records of sexual assaults occurring under their custody.
A yes vote was to send the bill to President Trump.
YES: Deb Haaland, D-1, Xochitl Torres Small, D-2 and Ben Ray Luján, D-3
U.S. WITHDRAWAL FROM YEMEN: The House on Feb. 13 passed, 248 for and 177 against, a measure (HJ Res 37) that would withdraw American military support of Yemen’s civil war unless Congress approves the deployment in keeping with its constitutional authority to declare war. If the Senate were to go along, it would mark the first time Congress has used the 1973 War Powers Resolution to stop a military action. A bipartisan coalition of senators last year passed a similar measure, but it never reached a vote in the Republican-led House. The U.S. involvement has consisted mainly of providing logistical and intelligence support, and until recently aerial refueling, to a Saudi-led bombing campaign against Houthi rebels backed by Iran who are battling the Yemeni military. The four-year-old conflict has caused what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
A yes vote was to send the measure to the Senate. YES: Haaland, Torres Small and Luján
STATEMENT AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM: By a unanimous vote of 424 for and none against, the House on Feb. 13 adopted a Republican-sponsored motion to HJ Res 37 (above) stating, in part, that anti-Semitism is a challenge to the basic principles of tolerance, pluralism and democracy and the shared values that bind Americans together, and that it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to continue to emphasize the importance of combatting anti-Semitism in our bilateral and multilateral relations around the globe. The bill was then amended to include the repudiation of anti-Semitism.
A yes vote was to adopt the motion. YES: Haaland, Torres Small and Luján WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Voting 54 for and 45 against, the Senate on Feb. 14 confirmed William Barr as the 85th U.S. attorney general. Barr, 68, also served as the 77th attorney general from 199193 under President George H.W. Bush, and he was employed most recently in private practice in Washington. Barr will assume jurisdiction over special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Republicans expressed confidence that he will act properly in bridging the gap between Trump and Mueller. But Democrats criticized him over a memo he wrote last June asserting Mueller lacks authority to investigate Trump for obstruction of justice, and they faulted him for refusing to commit to publicly releasing the special counsel’s final report.
A yes vote was to confirm the nominee. NO: Tom Udall, D, Martin Heinrich, D
$333 BILLION APPROPRIATIONS PACKAGE: Voting 83 for and 16 against, the Senate on Feb. 13 adopted the conference report on a measure (HJ Res 31, above) that would appropriate $333 billion in fiscal 2019 for the departments of Homeland Security, Treasury, Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, State, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and also fund scores of agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Security Administration. The bill would fund a 1.9 percent pay raise for federal civilian workers while appropriating $3.82 billion for conducting the 2020 Census; $17 billion for improving roads, bridges, highways, railways and mass transit; $16.6 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency; $12 billion in disaster relief; $73.5 billion for the income-support program known as food stamps; $159 million for climate research by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration; $9.6 billion for the Federal Bureau of Investigation; $2.3 billion for the Drug Enforcement Administration; $75 million for upgrading the National Instant Criminal Background Check System for gun purchases; $21.5 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; $3.22 billion for the National Park Service; $5.1 billion for the Department of State and $1.05 billion for food-safety inspections.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the House. YES: Udall, Heinrich
PROTECTING NATURAL RESOURCES ON FEDERAL LANDS: Voting 92 for and eight against, the Senate on Feb. 12 approved a 662-page package (S 47) of over 100 bills that would improve the management and conservation of natural resources on federal lands including national parks, wilderness areas, national monuments, wild and scenic rivers, and wildlife preserves. The bill would set aside 1.3 million acres for wilderness protection; create 367 miles of wild and scenic rivers; establish four new national monuments; prohibit mining near national parks in Montana and Washington, and expand hunting, fishing and other recreational access to federal lands. In addition, the bill would protect fish populations and endangered species; upgrade warning systems for volcanic eruptions; protect facilities at historically black colleges and universities; allow land transfers to improve water-resources management, and offer fourth-graders and their families free entrance to certain federal lands. The bill also would reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which uses offshore-drilling royalties to help state, local and federal agencies acquire land and easements for conservation and recreational purposes.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the House. YES: Udall, Heinrich