How Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted
HOUSE
Veterans health care improvements. Passed 347-70, a bill (S2372) that would launch a process to realign, consolidate or close some of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 1,200-plus medical centers and outpatient clinics, some of which were built to treat veterans of the Civil War. The bill would also streamline a 4-yearold “community care” program in which veterans who live at great distance from Veterans Health Administration medical facilities can receive publicly funded care from close-to-home private-sector providers. In addition, the bill would expand a program that provides financial support to immediate and extended family members who care for veterans. The bill is projected to increase the discretionary-spending side of the department’s budget by $47 billion over five years.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
Rick Crawford (R)
French Hill (R) Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R) Federal prosecution of
crimes against police. Passed 382-35, a bill (HR5698) that would establish a new federal offense for the crime of targeting any law-enforcement officer in activities or geographical areas associated with interstate commerce. While the bill defers to state or local prosecution of such crimes, it authorizes Department of Justice intervention under some circumstances, including when federal action is “necessary to secure substantial justice.” Supporters said the bill would boost law enforcement during National Police Week, while critics called it a “messaging bill” that duplicates laws already on the books.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R) Defeat of five-year farm bill. Defeated 198-213, a bill (HR2) to reauthorize federal farm, nutrition and anti-hunger programs for five years at a cost of about $867 billion annually. The bill failed because of a dispute in the Republican caucus over the scheduling of immigration legislation. The measure would cut spending for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) by more than $2 billion annually while imposing stricter work and job training requirements on recipients. In addition, the bill would renew the federal sugar program as is; fund programs to boost exports; subsidize crop insurance and provide price supports for growers of commodities including corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and rice; fund rural development including broadband expansion and renew the Dairy Margin Protection Program, which is designed to stabilize dairy incomes without directly limiting milk production.
About 80 percent of the bill’s $867 billion projected cost over 10 years is allocated to nutrition and anti-hunger programs including food stamps, with the remainder to be spent on agricultural programs including income supports for agribusiness operations and family farms.
Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said: “This farm bill in no way, shape or form disrespects Americans who depend on SNAP. To the contrary, the farm bill keeps faith with SNAP beneficiaries, providing needed benefits and something more the dignity that comes with work and the promise of a better life that a job brings. I want these Americans to realize the American dream.” Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said the bill “fails our nation’s hungry” because it cuts “more than $23 billion in SNAP benefits, and will result in an estimated 2 million Americans being unable to get help that they need … and wastes billions … to create a massive, untested workforce-training bureaucracy.”
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R) Proposes sugar program changes. Defeated 137-278, an amendment to HR2 (above) that sought to scale back a program that benefits U.S. growers and producers of cane and beet sugar by keeping sugar prices higher than free-market levels. The program limits domestic production, restricts imports, puts a floor under growers’ prices and requires the government to buy crop surpluses for sale at a loss to the ethanol industry. This amendment sought to repeal the sugar-to-ethanol program, lift production caps and allow lower tariffs on imported sugar. Supporters note that the program operates at no cost to taxpayers, while critics say it indirectly taxes consumers by increasing food and soda prices.
A yes vote was to revamp the federal sugar program. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R) Repeal of clean water rule.
Approved 238-173, the repeal of an Obama administration rule that gives protection under the Clean Water Act to headwaters, wetlands and other waters upstream of navigable waters. The amendment was offered to HR2 (above). The rule, which does not apply to non-navigable waters used in farming, has been blocked by the Trump administration but not permanently repealed.
A yes vote was to repeal the environmental rule. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R) Interstate shipments of raw
milk. Defeated 79-331, an amendment to HR2 (above) that sought to allow raw milk to be transported between any of the 28 states where its consumption is legal. The measure would override a federal ban on shipping unpasteurized milk in interstate commerce, which is rooted in a Food and Drug Administration finding that the product is a serious health hazard. A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
SENATE
Gina Haspel, CIA director. Confirmed 54-44, Gina Haspel, 61, as Central Intelligence Agency director. A 33-year agency employee, Haspel was broadly supported by the intelligence community. But she drew criticism over her role in the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” of terrorism suspects during the George W. Bush administration, including her supervision of a secret site in Thailand where at least one detainee was tortured in 2002. She becomes the seventh CIA director since the agency was restructured in 2005.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Haspel “is the right woman at the right time. Her nomination has support from national security leaders and senators in both parties. There is no reason why her confirmation should be
delayed.”
Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said: “To elevate a person with reportedly intimate involvement in a torture program to lead our Central Intelligence Agency would signal to our allies and our enemies that we are looking backward. This nomination is, in effect, a referendum on whether America condones the use of torture.”
A yes vote was to confirm Haspel. John Boozman (R)
Tom Cotton (R) Regulating Internet service providers. Passed 52-47, a measure (SJRes52) that would reverse the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of “net neutrality” rules adopted during the Obama administration to keep the Internet equally accessible to all users. As a result of the FCC’s action last December, service providers such as Comcast and Verizon soon will be able to offer customers varying levels of broadband service, including faster lanes for websites and apps willing to pay more for speedier delivery of their content. The resolution now goes to the GOP-led House, where its prospects are dim. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said Internet neutrality “may sound complicated, but it is actually very simple. After you pay your monthly Internet bill, you should be able to access all content on the web at the same speed — no slowing down certain websites, no blocking websites and no charging you more to exercise your 21st century right to access the Internet.” John Thune, R-S.D., said the FCC acted out of concern “that onerous, Depression-era rules were having an adverse effect on efforts to connect more Americans to the Internet and upgrade service. For Congress, the path to restore net neutrality protections while avoiding these unnecessary side effects is straightforward legislation” that Congress would enact. Boozman (R)
Cotton (R) Mitchell Zais, deputy secretary of education. Confirmed 50-48, Mitchell Zais, 71, as deputy secretary of education. Before serving as South Carolina’s superintendent of education and president of Newberry College, Zais had a 31-year U.S. Army career that included infantry duty in Vietnam, commanding U.S. and allied forces in Kuwait, teaching at West Point and attaining the rank of brigadier general.
Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said: “It is time to give Education Secretary [Betsy] DeVos a deputy secretary. He has extensive experience working in education and in government. Further, after 31 years in the U.S. Army, he retired as a brigadier general.”
Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Zais “agrees with Secretary DeVos’s extreme privatization agenda to siphon taxpayer funds from our public schools. He largely opposes the federal role in education and, like DeVos, seems to lack even an understanding of key issues important to public schools.”
A yes vote was to confirm Zais for the No. 2 post at the Department of Education. Boozman (R)
Cotton (R)