How Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted
HOUSE
Disclosure of personal
Internet activity. Approved 215205, nullifying a Federal Communications Commission rule that Internet service providers, including Comcast and Verizon, must obtain customer consent before they share sensitive user information such as location, financial and medical details, and browsing and app activity with advertisers. The rule was published in October but has not yet taken effect. This measure (SJRes34) would also prohibit the FCC from restoring the nullified rule or publishing any similar Internet-privacy rule in the future. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said: “The FCC privacy rules arbitrarily treat Internet service providers differently from the rest of the Internet, amounting to government intervention in the free market. … House Republicans today will stand up for the rights of our constituents against the out-of-control federal bureaucracy.” Michael Capuano, D-Mass., said: “We are talking medical information. We are talking passwords. We are talking financial information. We are talking college applications. There is nothing in today’s society that every one of us doesn’t do every day on the Internet, yet Comcast is going to get it” without customer permission under this legislation.
A yes vote was to send the nullification measure to President Donald Trump.
Rick Crawford (R) French Hill (R)
Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R)
Independent probe of
Trump-Russia ties. Defeated 231189, a Democratic bid to force floor debate on a bill (HR356) now in committee that would establish a National Commission on Foreign Interference in the 2016 Election as a bipartisan, independent panel for investigating what the FBI says were contacts between Russian intelligence officials and associates of candidate Donald Trump starting months before Election Day. Had Democrats prevailed in this vote during debate on HRes229, they would have had an opportunity to take the Trump-Russia measure to the floor.
Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said lax oversight by House GOP leaders and Attorney General Jeff Sessions makes it necessary “to have an independent commission that can depoliticize this … declassify the facts … debunk the myths that our president has put forward about what happened with Russia.”
No Republican spoke on the issue. A yes vote opposed the bid for an independent Trump-Russia investigation.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Environmental studies,
privacy rights. Passed 228-194, a GOP-drafted bill (HR1430) that would nullify specific Environmental Protection Agency rules unless all data from underlying research — including confidential health information about participants — has been made public so that the studies could be independently replicated. At present, the EPA relies on scientific peer review to validate the research behind environmental measures. Republicans said the bill would promote much-needed transparency at the EPA, while Democrats said it would weaken clean-air and water laws because studies are obligated to protect the privacy rights of participants.
Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., said: “The tendency for federal agencies to develop regulations based on secret data is even more insidious when we note that these are not even elected officials. They don’t have to stand for election. These are career bureaucrats who cannot be removed.”
Jared Polis, D-Colo., said: “This is an anti-science bill” that could “violate federal law by sharing confidential patient information with the general public … .from Social Security numbers, to whether you got cancer from something you were drinking as a child, to our most intimate health or lifestyle issues.” A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
EPA response to black
lung, asthma. Defeated 189-232, a Democratic motion to HR1430 (above) that sought to require the EPA to always use the “best available science” — whether or not it is accessible to the public — in responding to “threats to public health, including black-lung disease and asthma” resulting from exposure to pollution and toxic chemicals. Donald McEachin, D-Va., said: “The true intention of this bill is not to increase transparency in policy-making but, rather, to bar scientists and
SENATE
civil servants from enforcing the intent of bedrock protections in the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and other important laws.” David Schweikert, R-Ariz., said: “This [research] is sold to the EPA. One of the reasons some of the groups … oppose this legislation is they make money selling the data, and then they make it so you can’t actually look at the data-sets underneath and test it.”
A yes vote was to adopt the motion.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Clampdown on Planned
Parenthood. Approved 51-50, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the deciding vote, nullifying an Obama administration rule concerning Planned Parenthood funding. The rule affirms Planned Parenthood’s eligibility to receive Title X family planning funds, despite efforts by some states to deny the funding because Planned Parenthood provides abortions. Critics call these denials illegal because Planned Parenthood does not use federal funds for its abortion services. Title X of the Public Health Service Act is the only federal program devoted exclusively to providing family planning and related preventive care for women. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said: “Overturning this rule would not reduce a single dollar” of Title X funding, but would enable states “to determine which health providers were in the best position to provide the particular set of health care services.” Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said: “American women are not stupid. We know pretext when we see it. … Republicans want to weaken the Title X program because they want to make it harder for women to access reproductive health clinics like Planned Parenthood that also provide safe, legal abortion services.” A yes vote was to send the nullification measure (HJRes43) to Trump.
John Boozman (R)
Tom Cotton (R)
Opportunity for retirement
savings. Approved 50-49, nullifying a rule designed to guide states and cities in setting up privately managed payroll-deduction plans for private-sector workers who do not have access to retirement plans through their employers. Nationwide, about half of private-sector employees are in this situation. In response, at least seven states and several cities are setting up voluntary work-based Individual Retirement Account-style plans that uncovered individuals can use to save for retirement. These mainly low-income employees have not been a favored market for Wall Street retirement plans. Under a typical state program, workers at firms with at least five employees are automatically signed up but can opt out at any time. Participants contribute 3 percent of their pay or choose another rate. Employers are required to forward payroll deductions to the plan administrator but make no matching contributions and cannot be held liable for fund performances. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the rule would “purposefully take us down the path toward government-mandated and government-run retirement plans.”
Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the rule is needed because “55 million Americans don’t have access to a retirement plan at work. More often than not, it is the employees of smalland medium-sized businesses who don’t have that job benefit [through] no fault of their own.”
A yes vote was to send the nullification measure (HJRes67) to Trump.
Boozman (R)
Cotton (R)
Montenegro’s attendance
to NATO. Approved 97-2, ratifying treaty language allowing the Balkan country of Montenegro to join 26 European nations, the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO, a mutual-defense alliance in which an armed attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all, was established in 1949 as a bulwark against Soviet aggression, and it has resumed that stance today against Russia. Calling NATO “the most successful security alliance in history,” Jean Shaheen, D-N.H., said the addition of Montenegro “will help [it] become more resilient, and it will deter Russian aggression on Europe’s eastern flank.”
Mike Lee, R-Utah, said “I don’t see how the accession of Montenegro — a country with a population smaller than most congressional districts and a military smaller than the police force of the District of Columbia — is beneficial enough that we should share an agreement for collective defense.” A yes vote was to ratify Montenegro as NATO’s 29th member state. Boozman (R)
Cotton (R)