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.

VOTERAMA IN CONGRESS

HOUSE

Approving $8.3 billion to tackle coronavirus. Passed 415-2, a bill (HR6074) that would appropriate $8.3 billion for public-health initiatives to counter the spread of the coronavirus in the United States while helping the U.S. diplomatic community cope with the epidemic overseas. As emergency spending, the outlay would be added to the national debt. In part, the bill would provide up to $4 billion for developing a vaccine and diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and training caregivers; $2.2 billion for preparedness including the manufacture and delivery of test kits, ventilators and respirators; $950 million for additional state and local preparedness; and unspecified sums for building surge capacity at local hospitals and clinics, including community health centers. The bill also would ensure that senior citizens have access to Medicare-funded telemedicine services and subsidize billions of dollars in low-interest loans to help small businesses cope with economic losses resulting from the coronavirus outbreak. Republicans Andy Biggs of Arizona and Ken Buck of Colorado were the members voting against the bill.

Fred Upton, R-Mich., said the emergency funding “is not only going to help our health officials on the front lines — it is going to help our families in virtually every community. It is also going to help develop the vaccine and the therapeutics to save perhaps tens of thousands of lives.”

Another supporter, Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., said: “While the Trump administration has repeatedly demonstrated a failure to understand public health needs, Congress is acting with the seriousness and the sense of urgency the coronavirus threat demands.” No member spoke against the bill. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

☑ Rick Crawford (R)

☑ French Hill (R)

☑ Steve Womack (R)

☑ Bruce Westerman (R)

Adding airport security to civil service. Passed 230-171, a bill (HR1140) that would include Transportation Security Administration employees in the civil service personnel system while granting them full collective bargaining rights, paid medical and family leave, the right to appeal disciplinary actions to an independent panel, and other benefits and job protections available to nearly all other federal civilian employees. The TSA was established in the wake of 9/11, and most of its 45,000 employees work as passenger screeners at airports. TSA pay levels and benefits, which are set by the agency administrator rather than “Schedule 5” civil service rules, lag behind those for other federal employees, resulting in a workforce with high turnover and low morale. But defenders say current personnel rules enable the agency to adapt quickly to changing national-security threats. Although TSA workers are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, their collective-bargaining rights have been restricted by Congress. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., said underpaying and overworking airport screeners “is a greater threat to national security than paying a fair wage to keep Americans safe. … Whether in business, law or government, you get what you pay for, and I, for one, do not believe that the security of our airports and skies or the lives of the traveling public are something we should be looking to get a bargain on.”

Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., said “placing the screener workforce under [civil service rules] would tie the agency’s hands related to national security policy, workforce management and collective bargaining. [The bill] amounts to a forced unionization of the TSA workforce and a forced designation of the union [American Federation of Government Employees] that will represent that workforce.”

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

☒ Crawford (R)

☒ Hill (R)

☒ Womack (R)

☒ Westerman (R)

Barring sexual predators from airport screening. Approved 227-175, adding Republican-sponsored language to HR1140 (above) that would prohibit the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from hiring workers with criminal histories, including crimes related to terrorism and sexual misconduct. Critics said civil service hiring rules already would disqualify such individuals from TSA employment.

A yes vote was in support of the GOP motion.

☑ Crawford (R)

☑ Hill (R)

☑ Womack (R)

☑ Westerman (R)

SENATE

Sending coronavirus packages to White House. Passed 961, a bill (HR6074) that would appropriate $8.3 billion for emergency funding of federal, state, local and global efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak. In addition to the outlays cited above, the bill provides $1.3 billion for overseas initiatives by the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, including $264 million to operate consular offices and cover evacuation costs; $435 million in contributions to global health funds; $300 million for international humanitarian aid; $250 million for economic and security measures in countries destabilized by the virus; and $1 million for inspector-general oversight of the government’s overseas coronavirus response.

Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the bill is “vastly different from the $1.25 billion grossly inadequate proposal from the Trump administration that was so poorly thought out that both Republicans and Democrats said it made no sense.” Rand Paul, R-Ky., objected to the fact that all spending in the bill would be added to annual deficits rather than offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget.

A yes vote was to send the bill to President Donald Trump, who signed it into law.

☑ John Boozman (R)

☑ Tom Cotton (R)

Starting debate on energy bill Approved 90-4, starting debate on a bipartisan bill (S2657) that would marshal government and private resources to upgrade all energy sectors of the U.S. economy. The bill would further the development of technologies for the capture and underground storage of carbon-dioxide emissions from industrial sites and coal-burning power plants; promote wind, solar, geothermal and other sources of renewable energy; boost technologies for stockpiling supplies of renewable energy including hydropower; and incentivize “smart” weatherization technologies to improve the energy efficiency of commercial and government buildings and schools. The bill also includes measures to tighten the security of the nation’s power grid, reduce dependence on foreign-supplied rare minerals used to build military weapons and develop a more skilled and better educated energy workforce.

Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., called nuclear energy “our nation’s largest and most reliable source of zero-emission electricity,” and said the bill would spur development of “advanced reactors to help restore our national leadership and keep our domestic [nuclear] industry competitive with the likes of Russia and China.”

Another supporter, Tom Udall, D-N.M., voiced support for certain provisions but said the overall bill fails “to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the levels required to meet global targets or transition us to a clean energy economy, which is where we need to head, and we need to be heading there fast.”

No senator spoke against starting debate on the bill.

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

☑ Boozman (R)

☑ Cotton (R)