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
$333 billion appropriations
package. Passed 300-128, a $333 billion appropriations package (HJRes31) 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. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; $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 Immigration and Customs Enforcement 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. David Price, D-N.C., said: “The deal is not perfect. … But it represents the best way to reject the president’s outrageous border demand, keep our government open and address our pressing national needs.” Scott Perry, R-Pa., said the bill “provides amnesty for anyone in a household of an unaccompanied minor, and it protects the people who have smuggled those children into the United States.”
A yes vote was to send the bill to President Donald Trump.
Rick Crawford (R) French Hill (R)
Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R)
U.S. withdrawal from Yemen. Passed 248-177, a measure (HJRes37) 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 on Iran-backed Houthi rebels battling the Yemeni military. The 4-year-old conflict has caused what the United Nations calls the worlds worst humanitarian disaster.
Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said “this Congress is strengthening its political will and reasserting our Article I constitutional responsibilities. No Congress should be complicit in the bombing of children or the bombing of water treatment plants during a cholera outbreak or the creation of a blockade that leaves thousands of people to die from starvation.” Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said “the resolution is directing us to remove troops that simply are not there. Even the aerial refueling of coalition jets, which does not constitute traditional hostilities, ended last November.”
A yes vote was to send the measure to the Senate. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Statement against anti-Semitism. Adopted 424-0, a Republican-sponsored motion to HJRes37 (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 combating 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. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
SENATE
William Barr, U.S. attorney general. Confirmed 54-45, William Barr as the 85th U.S. attorney general. Barr, 68, also served as the 77th attorney general from 1991-93 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 that Mueller lacks authority to investigate Trump for obstruction of justice, and they faulted him for refusing to commit publicly releasing the special counsel’s final report. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said “the post of attorney general is probably the most difficult job of the president’s Cabinet because not only are you the chief law enforcement officer for the country, you are really a political appointee of the president. But I am satisfied that Mr. Barr can balance those two responsibilities in a responsible and ethical sort of way.” Mark Warner, D-Va., said it has become again clear … that the president’s major concern in choosing a new attorney general will be to choose someone who will shield him from the special counsel’s investigation. To me, Mr. Barr’s unsolicited memo [on obstruction of justice] looks much like a job application to try to appeal to the president on those qualifications.”
A yes vote was to confirm the nominee.
John Boozman (R)
Tom Cotton (R)
$333 billion appropriations package. Adopted 83-16, a measure (HJRes31, 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. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said: “Critically, the bill provides nearly $1.4 billion to further construction of a barrier along the southwest border. But that is only a down payment.” Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said: “The agreement does not fund President Trump’s wasteful wall. After all, he gave his solemn promise to the American public that Mexico would pay for it, so let them work on that. No senator spoke against the bill. A yes vote was to send the bill to the House.
Boozman (R)
Cotton (R)
Protecting natural resources on federal lands. Passed 92-8, a 662-page package (S47) 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.
Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said: “Public lands and access to those lands is an economic juggernaut. Behind finance and health care, the outdoor economy is the third-most-important sector. So for something that important, let’s pay more attention. Let’s give the tools to local communities and to these resources to manage this, to give more access to the American people.
Mike Lee, R-Utah, said the bill perpetuates a terrible standard for federal land policy in the West, particularly for the state of Utah. … With so much of this land in the grip of federal bureaucrats, [Utah] is again limited in its potential for use for development, for infrastructure and for jobs that are essential to our state’s economy. But with further wilderness designations by Congress, this is an even tighter grip.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the House.
Boozman (R)
Cotton (R)