Congressional roll call

Voterama in Congress

Here’s how area members of Congress voted on major issues during the week ending May 11.

HOUSE

NUCLEAR WASTE: Voting 340-72, the House on May 10 passed a bill (HR 3053) that would revive a long-dormant federal plan to permanently store in an underground repository at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain the tens of thousands of metric tons of radioactive waste from active and retired nuclear power plants in 39 states and federal weapons sites in at least six states. Authorized in 1987, the partially built, exhaustively studied facility 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas has not received final approvals from Congress or agencies including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy. The bill would expedite congressional and regulatory steps necessary for the facility to start receiving shipments for burial in its subterranean tunnels and caverns. The measure also would direct the Department of Energy to establish at least one interim facility, at a location or locations to be determined, that would receive nuclear waste for temporary storage until the permanent repository opens. Truck and rail shipments of radioactive material from nearly 130 locations would pass through more than 300 congressional districts to reach the interim and permanent storage facilities. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

John Faso, R-Kinderhook:

Yes

Sean Maloney: Yes LOCAL VETO OF WASTE STORAGE:

Voting 80 in favor and 332 opposed, the House on May 10 defeated an amendment to HR 3053 (above) that sought to require the federal government to obtain approvals from an array of local and tribal jurisdictions and the Nevada governor before it could designate Yucca Mountain as the nation’s permanent repository for tens of thousands of metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. A yes vote was to adopt an amendment requiring broadbased local consent to the siting decision.

Faso: No Maloney: Yes

AUTO LENDING: Voting 234-175, the House on May 8 repealed a 5-year-old action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against car and truck loans that charge higher interest rates to minority borrowers than to other similarly qualified borrowers. Backers of the repeal measure (SJ Res 57) said the bureau is prohibited by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law from regulating auto dealerships. But the bureau asserts authority under the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act to combat discrimination in auto credit issued by third-party lenders. That law prohibits creditors from discriminating based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status or age. Under third-party lending, finance companies originate loans that dealers arrange for their customers, with dealers marking up the interest rate and taking a share of the proceeds. Next to home mortgages and student loans, auto loans are the third-largest source of household debt in the United States. Although the consumer bureau did not issue a formal rule on auto lending, critics say the 2013 guidance is essentially the same as a regulation and therefore subject to repeal under the Congressional Review Act. This would greatly expand the scope of the review act, which to date has been used only to nullify actual regulations within 60 working days of their effective date. A yes vote was to send the repeal measure to President Trump. Faso: Yes

Maloney: No ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT: Voting 230-185 against, the House on May 9 passed a GOP-drafted bill (HR 5645) that would strip the Federal Trade Commission of its 104-year-old authority to use in-house administrative judges for determining whether proposed corporate mergers and acquisitions would violate antitrust laws. The FTC and Department of Justice have historically exercised dual authority over “trust busting” laws designed to prevent business monopolies and preserve market competition. This bill would direct the FTC to pursue antitrust enforcement only in federal courts, thus disbanding or neutering the agency’s administrative tribunals. The bill was backed by business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which often see the DOJ as easier to deal with on antitrust matters. The measure was opposed by groups including Consumers Union on grounds it

would weaken FTC defenses against monopolistic business practices. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Faso: Yes Maloney: No DRUG COSTS, CORPORATE MERGERS: Voting 193 in favor and 220 opposed, the House on May 9 defeated a Democratic motion that sought to prohibit a pending antitrust enforcement bill (HR 5645, above) from applying to proposed corporate mergers and acquisitions that would lead to unreasonable increases in prescription drug prices. A yes vote was to adopt a motion concerning rising drug prices.

Faso: No Maloney: Yes

SENATE

APPEALS JUDGE: Voting 49-46, the Senate on May 10 confirmed Michael B. Brennan, 54, a lawyer in private practice and former Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, for a lifetime appointment on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees federal trial courts in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. Supporters said Brennan was highly recommended by an American Bar Association panel on judicial nominees, while critics took issue with his conservative public stands on issues including mass incarceration, gender equity in the workplace and women’s reproductive rights Democrats criticized Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for scheduling the vote even though Brennan failed to receive approval from a bipartisan Wisconsin commission for vetting judicial nominees, or from Wisconsin’s junior senator, Democrat Tammy Baldwin. The other Wisconsin senator, Republican Ron Johnson, supported Brennan. Democrats said McConnell flaunted the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition of requiring both senators to approve of judicial nominees from their state. A yes vote was to confirm Brennan.

Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.:

No Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.: No

COMING UP

The House this week will take up a five-year farm bill, while the Senate will debate judicial nominations.