How Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted
Here is how Arkansas’ U.S. senators and U.S. representatives voted on major roll call votes during the week that ended Friday.
HOUSE
GOP subpoenas of Mueller,
FBI documents. Approved 226183, a resolution calling upon the Department of Justice to comply within seven days with GOP-issued subpoenas for documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and the FBI’s former investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email usage while secretary of state. The advisory measure (HRes970) lacked force of law to compel the release of documents to the House intelligence and judiciary committees. Republicans said the measure is legitimate congressional oversight, while Democrats called it a pretext for President Donald Trump to dismiss Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller investigation. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said the founding fathers created “a checks-and-balance system. There was supposed to be a natural tension between the various branches, and Congress is supposed to be an equal branch with the power of oversight over the administrative branch to make sure they are following the laws [and] meting out justice evenhandedly. That’s what this resolution is about.” Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the measure “is not what oversight looks like. But it is what an attack on the rule of law looks like. It is what happens when we whittle away our democracy one piece by terrible piece. When this chapter of our history is written, it will condemn the actions of a president who little understands or respects the institutions of our democracy. But it will reserve some of the harshest criticism for this Congress that enabled him.”
A yes vote was to adopt the nonbinding resolution.
Rick Crawford (R) French Hill (R)
Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R)
Defeat of GOP immigration
bill. Defeated 121-301, an immigration bill (HR6136) backed by the GOP leadership and President Trump but opposed by nearly half of the Republican caucus and all Democrats who voted. The measure would provide nearly $25 billion over five years for U.S.-Mexico border security improvements including a wall, and $7 billion for facilities to hold migrant families pending adjudication of their status. The bill also offered a lengthy path to legal status and possibly citizenship for up to 1.8 million of the “Dreamers” brought to the United States as children and now here illegally. In addition, it would introduce merit-based immigration based on factors such as education and job skills; terminate a lottery providing about 50,000 visas annually to people from some countries; limit the ability of legal immigrants to secure visas for family members; restrict asylum access; combat visa overstays; withhold money from cities that do not cooperate with immigration enforcement; and require most parents and children apprehended at the border to be held together in Department of Homeland Security custody.
The relief for Dreamers would apply as long as wall funding continues to flow. People who could prove they were under 16 years of age when entering the United States, were here on June 15, 2007, have been in the country continuously for six years, have high school diplomas or are in school and have clean criminal records would get six-year, indefinitely renewable legal status and could pursue citizenship in a process taking as long as 23 years. Karen Handel, R-Ga., called the bill “a commonsense measure that addresses many aspects of our broken immigration system. It will end the lawlessness at the U.S.-Mexico border while also providing thoughtful and compassionate solutions to protect children at the border.”
Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said “nothing in the bill actually prohibits family separation or limits criminal prosecutions. And the bill requires the long-term detention of families and children while actually removing requirements that detention facilities be safe, sanitary and appropriate for children.”
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Democrats’ bill on return
children. Approved 231-188, blocking a bid by Democrats for debate on a bill (HR6236) that would require the administration to promptly reunify families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy for illegal entry. The bill would require the government to establish an online database to help children and parents locate one another and require parents to be notified of procedures for securing return of their children. The vote occurred as the House considered a rule for debating a 2019 defense spending bill (HR6157, below), which includes funds for housing detained migrants at military bases. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said: “It is not accurate for [Democrats] to say that families seeking asylum are having their children ripped out of their arms. Anybody who is seeking asylum who goes to a port of entry is not going to be subject to prosecution and will not be separated from their families. It is really important that we focus back on the issue that we are here to talk about today, and that is defense appropriations.” Karen Bass, D-Calif., said: “Where are we as a nation when we place children in cage-like cells, inside warehouses, with nothing but an emergency thermal blanket and a thin mat between them and the cold concrete floor, with a toilet in the middle of the cell? Criminally prosecuting every individual, every child, who crosses between a port of entry, who poses no threat to our country, is not only inhumane, it makes us less secure.” A yes vote was to block debate on a Democratic bill to reunify families. Crawford (R) Hill (R) Womack (R) Westerman (R)
$675 billion for U.S. military.
Passed 359-49, a $674.6 billion military appropriations bill for fiscal 2019 that includes $68.1 billion in emergency funding for war fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other combat zones. The bill (HR6157) would fund a 2.6 percent military pay raise; provide $318 million for preventing and responding to sexual assaults on those in uniform; fund weapons systems for all branches; add 15,600 personnel to reach a 1.34 million active-duty troops level; authorize 817,700 Guard and Reserve personnel; and provide $57 billion-plus for active-duty, family and retiree health care.
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Space-based missile defenses. Defeated 160-251, an amendment that sought to strip HR6157 (above) of funding to develop a space-based system for simultaneously shooting down ballistic missiles fired at the United States. The “ballistic missile intercept layer” follows the Reagan administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars,” of the 1980s, which was eventually canceled over technical failures. Projected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars over many years, the new “boost phase” system would be designed to intercept ballistic missiles before they exit the atmosphere and turn their nuclear warheads back against the launch point.
Bill Foster, D-Ill., said that ever since Star Wars, “Every time technologically competent outside experts have looked at this space-based concept, they deem it unworkable, impossibly expensive, vulnerable to simple countermeasures, easy for an opponent to destroy, easy to overwhelm with a small number of enemy missiles, or all of the above.”
Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., said: “This dangerous amendment would place our country at a disadvantage with our strategic competitors by limiting our efforts in protecting our dominance in space and, further, from protecting our homeland from intercontinental ballistic missiles.”
A yes vote was to remove funding for the experimental missile-defense program. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
SENATE
2019 budget for veterans,
energy, Congress. Passed 86-5, a $145.4 billion package of three of the 12 appropriations bills that will fund the government in fiscal 2019, which starts Oct. 1. In part, the bill (HR5895) would provide $78.3 billion to fund health care for 9.3 million veterans; $10.3 billion for construction projects at military bases; $7.28 billion for Army Corps of Engineers public-works projects; and $4.8 billion for operating the House, Senate and congressional support agencies.
A yes vote was to pass the bill. John Boozman (R)
Tom Cotton (R)
Five-year farm bill. Passed 86-11, a bill renewing farm, nutrition and anti-hunger programs for five years at a cost of $87 billion annually. The bill (HR2) would subsidize crop insurance and commodity prices, cut spending for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by more than $2 billion annually and set stricter work and job training requirements for food stamps’ recipients.
A yes vote was to pass the bill. Boozman (R)
Cotton (R)