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
Improving access to credit data. Passed 234-179, a bill (HR5332) that would require the credit bureaus Experian, TransUnion and Equifax to establish a joint online portal giving consumers free anytime access to information on their credit scores and reports, dispute histories and sale of personal data to third parties. Consumers now must deal separately with the bureaus, and they are allowed a limited number of free views. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would oversee the portal.
Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., said: “By creating this one-stop portal, all three credit bureaus will now have to work together to help protect you and make your lives better, not the other way around.” Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “an unaccountable regulatory agency that took many rogue actions under the previous administration.”
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
✖ Rick Crawford (R)
✖ French Hill (R)
✖ Steve Womack (R)
✖ Bruce Westerman (R)
Expanding Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Passed 234-179, a Democratic bill (HR1425) that would reshape the Affordable Care Act by steps such as broadening its Medicaid expansion, capping medical expenditures for certain coverage levels and lowering the cost of prescription drugs. The bill would raise the national debt by at least $50 billion over 10 years while extending coverage to 4 million Americans in addition to the 23 million already using the law to cover a large share of their medical expenses.
The bill would require states that have not yet joined the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion to do so or face a cut in the federally paid share of their basic Medicaid program. For newly joining states, the federal government would cover 100% of added costs for three years and 90% thereafter. In addition, the bill stipulates that enrollees in Affordable Care Act Silver plans could not be charged more than 8.5% of their annual income for premiums, deductibles and related charges. The bill also would require pharmaceutical companies to negotiate with the federal government the prices of approximately 250 top-selling prescription drugs offered in Medicare Part D and employer plans. Further, the bill would nullify an executive order by President Donald Trump that allows the sale of plans that do not meet Affordable Care Act requirements, such as coverage of preexisting conditions and the provision of “essential health benefits,” including maternity and pediatric care.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
✖ Crawford (R)
✖ Hill (R)
✖ Womack (R)
✖ Westerman (R)
Advancing covid-19 medicines. Rejected 187-223, a Republican bid to keep HR1425 (above) from taking effect until after federal health officials certify its lowering of drug prices would not delay the development of covid-19 vaccines or therapies by crimping pharmaceutical companies’ research budgets. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said the Congressional Budget Office found the bill would hinder medical innovation and suppress promising new drugs. “Will that be a cure for covid or a cure for ALS or a cure for cancer?”
Frank Pallone, D-N.J., called the measure “cover to the pharmaceutical industry to continue to raise prices, just as we have seen them do on thousands of drugs this year alone.”
A yes vote was to adopt the motion. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Approving $1.5 trillion for infrastructure. Passed 233-188, a $1.5 trillion infrastructure package, with one-third allocated to improving roads, bridges, mass transit and interstate railways over five years. The bill (HR2) contains numerous green provisions to address the climate crisis. Funding also would be used to upgrade municipal drinking-water systems; dredge harbors; add electric vehicles to the postal fleet; improve rural and inner-city broadband; build affordable housing; and improve public facilities ranging from utilities to hospitals to disadvantaged schools. While the bill would derive much of its revenue from the Highway Trust Fund, which is supported by fuel taxes, it would rely heavily on deficit spending. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., said the bill treats climate change as “an existential threat. We see it in rising lake levels. … We see it across the country in stronger storms and longer hurricane seasons, longer fire seasons and disrupted growing seasons. We have to act now. We have to reduce emissions.” Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said: “We are in the middle of a pandemic, [and] if there was ever a time for Congress to set aside partisanship and work together to create thoughtful legislation, it is now. Yet here we are, debating a $1.5 trillion ‘Green New Deal’ wish list instead of a smart infrastructure bill.”
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
✖ Crawford (R)
✖ Hill (R)
✖ Womack (R) ✖ Westerman (R)
Barring help for China.
Approved 224-193, a Republican motion that would prohibit funding in HR2 (above) from being used to line the pockets of state-owned Chinese companies or build prison camps for China’s population of Muslim Uighurs.
Rick Crawford, R-Ark., said: “China’s industrial plan makes their goal clear: Dominate global innovation and manufacturing by any means necessary. China is buying and stealing American technology explicitly to overtake our semiconductor, robotic and electric vehicle industries.”
Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said: “If only we had a president who would take meaningful action against China. … Yeah, we just recently found out that he begged Premier Xi Jinping to buy more farm products to help his reelection. And by the way, he said he liked the prison camps, he thought they were a good idea. He actually said that.”
A yes vote was to adopt the motion.
✔ Crawford (R)
✔ Hill (R)
✔ Womack (R)
✔ Westerman (R)
Extending evictions freeze. Passed 232-180, a bill (HR7301) that would extend until mid-2021 a freeze on evictions and foreclosures linked to financial hardship caused by the coronavirus. The current moratorium will expire July 25. The bill also would create a $100 billion fund to help tenants pay rent and utility bills during the pandemic.
David Cicilline, D-R.I., said: “Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and are dangerously close to losing their homes. The relief this Congress provided has kept millions of Americans housed. We must continue to act.”
Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., said the bill allocates more than $119 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development but “fails to provide any oversight for that new funding.”
A yes vote was to extend the moratorium while making the relief available to a wider swath of households.
✖ Crawford (R)
✖ Hill (R)
✖ Womack (R)
✖ Westerman (R)
Barring aid to foreigners in the country illegally. Rejected 191-219, a Republican bid to amend HR7301 (above) to increase oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and prohibit foreigners in the U.S. illegally from receiving benefits. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., said “we should not be spending money on those who are unlawfully present in the United States at a time when millions of Americans and legal residents are out of work … and fighting to do more with less.” Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said millionaires in Congress, “while they are in Washington, they don’t pay any rent, many of them. They sleep in their offices at night. And yet they are talking about denying people rent who don’t have another dime.” A yes vote was to adopt the motion.
✔ Crawford (R)
✔ Hill (R)
✔ Womack (R)
✔ Westerman (R)
SENATE
Total withdrawal from Afghanistan. Rejected 60-33, an amendment to the fiscal 2021 military budget (S4049) requiring a complete withdrawal over one year of the 8,600 U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan. The underlying bill, which remained in debate, opposes any “precipitous” ending of America’s 20-year military involvement there, and President Donald Trump has called for reducing the troop level to 4,500 by year’s end but has not set a withdrawal date.
Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said: “While I disagree with the substance of the amendment, I think the Senate should vote on it.” Amendment sponsor Rand Paul, R-Ky., noted that the deployment is costing $50 billion per year, and asked senators if they support: “staying in Afghanistan for another generation? Are you for continuing a war that has lost its purpose? Today, we get to vote up or down: Are you for the war or against the war? Does the war still have a mission?” A yes vote was in opposition to the troop-withdrawal amendment.
✔ John Boozman (R)
✔ Tom Cotton (R)