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

The House was in recess.

SENATE

Extending Paycheck Protection Program. Approved 92-7, a bill (HR1799) extending from March 31 to May 31 the deadline for small businesses to apply for covid-19 rescue funds under the Paycheck Protection Program. Begun in March 2020, the program provides firms with fewer than 500 employees forgivable loans for meeting payroll and certain overhead costs, including rent or mortgage payments. The loans are forgiven if recipients agree not to lay off workers and rehire those already dismissed as a consequence of covid-19. To date, the Small Business Administration has approved about 8 million loans totaling nearly $704 billion with $93 billion yet to be allocated, including $28.6 billion earmarked for restaurants and additional set-asides for minority- and women-owned businesses.

Susan Collins, R-Maine, called it “imperative that we act immediately … because we are just days away from the PPP being closed” to new applications.

Rand Paul, R-Ky., objected to the bill’s $15 billion in deficit spending, saying: “In Washington, every day is a good day to spend money.” A yes vote was to send the bill to President Joe Biden. John Boozman (R) Tom Cotton (R) Confirming Vivek Murthy, U.S. surgeon general. Confirmed 57-43, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, 44, as U.S. surgeon general, a post he once held under former President Barack Obama. An adviser to Biden on covid-19 issues after the November election, Murthy has been a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

A yes vote was to confirm the nominee. Boozman (R) Cotton (R) Confirming Shalanda Young, deputy budget director. Confirmed 63-37, Shalanda D. Young, a former staff director of the House Appropriations Committee,

as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. She also is under consideration to be nominated as Office of Management and Budget director.

A yes vote was to confirm the nominee. Boozman (R) Cotton (R) Confirming Rachel Levine, assistant health secretary. Confirmed 52-48, Rachel L. Levine, 63, as assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services. She becomes the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate. Levine has been a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine and was physician general for Pennsylvania from 2015-17.

A yes vote was to confirm the nominee. Boozman (R) Cotton (R) Denying aid to convicted rioters. Defeated 48-52, an amendment that sought to deny aid under HR1799 (above) to any person convicted in the preceding two years of a felony related to a riot at the Capitol or in U.S. cities. John Kennedy, R-La., said senators “either approve of the rioting that happened this summer and at the Capitol, or you don’t.”

Ben Cardin, D-Md., said the amendment should be defeated “for the sake of getting this bill to the president … so we can help our small businesses.”

A yes vote was to adopt the amendment. Boozman (R) Cotton (R) Confirming Martin Walsh, secretary of Labor. Confirmed 68-29, Martin J. Walsh, 53, the mayor of Boston, as secretary of the Department of Labor, the first union member to head the department since 1977. Walsh had been president of Laborers Local 223 in Boston, and head of the city’s Building and Construction Trades Council.

A yes vote was to confirm the nominee. Boozman (R) Cotton (R)