Congressional roll call
Here’s how area members of Congress voted on major issues during the legislative week ending Dec. 20.
House
IMPEACHMENT, ARTICLE
1: Voting 230-197, the House on Dec. 18 adopted the first of two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. The article declares Trump abused the powers of the presidency when he and his administration withheld military aid to Ukraine and dangled the prospect of a White House visit by Ukraine’s president in order to pressure Ukraine’s government to announce investigations related to former Vice President Joe Biden and any Ukrainian role in hacking Democratic Party emails during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Biden is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The article was supported by 229 of the 231 Democrats who voted and opposed by all 195 Republicans who voted. Michigan independent Justin Amash voted yes. The Democrats breaking party lines were Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin Peterson of Minnesota. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, vote “present,” the equivalent of abstaining. The members not voting were Democrat Jose Serrano of New York and Republicans Duncan Hunter of California and John Shimkus of Illinois. The 12th paragraph of the 13-paragraph article says Trump “abused the powers of the presidency by ignoring and injuring national security and other vital national interests to obtain an improper personal political benefit. He has also betrayed the Nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections.” A yes vote was to impeach Trump for abuse of power.
Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck: Yes Sean Maloney, D-Cold Spring: Yes
IMPEACHMENT, ARTICLE 2: Voting 229-198, the House on Dec. 18 adopted the second of two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. The article charges Trump with interfering with the House’s constitutionally sanctioned impeachment process by directing executive branch agencies and current and former officials to defy subpoenas for documents and testimony. The article was supported by 228 of the 231 Democrats who voted and opposed by all 195 Republicans who voted. Amash voted yes. The Democrats breaking party lines were Van Drew, Peterson and Jared Golden, D-Maine. Gabbard again answered “present,” and Serrano, Hunter and Shimkus were absent from the roll call. The ninth paragraph of the 11-paragraph article states that Trump “sought to arrogate to himself the right to determine the propriety, scope and nature of an impeachment inquiry into his own conduct . ... This abuse of office served to cover up the President’s own repeated misconduct and to seize and control the power of impeachment — and thus to nullify a vital constitutional safeguard vested solely in the House of Representatives.” A yes vote was to impeach Trump for obstruction of Congress. Delgado: Yes Maloney: Yes
NORTH AMERICAN TRADE: Voting 385-41, the House on Dec. 19 passed a bill (HR 5430) giving congressional approval to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which would replace the 25-yearold North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as the framework for commerce among the three countries. The agreement requires Mexico to guarantee workers the right to join unions and engage in collective bargaining; authorizes fast-track probes of labor violations in Mexico and factory-specific penalties when transgressions are found; gives U.S. dairy and poultry farmers and to a lesser extent winemakers more access to Canadian markets; raises environmental standards but does not address climate change; reduces patent protections for certain pharmaceuticals; expands domestic content rules to benefit automakers and parts manufacturers in the three countries; sets wage requirements that benefit U.S. and Canadian auto factories over those in Mexico; prohibits duties on digital products including music and e-books; and protects Internet companies against liability for their users’ content. A yes vote was to approve the trade agreement. Delgado: Yes Maloney: Yes
STATE, LOCAL TAX DEDUCTIONS: Voting 218-206, the House on Dec. 19 passed a bill (HR 5377) that would temporarily lift the 2017 tax law’s cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT). To offset the resulting loss in Treasury revenue, the bill would raise the top income tax rate for individuals from 37 percent to 39.6 percent for the 2020-25 tax years and lower income thresholds at which the top rate takes effect. The bill would raise the SALT cap in 2019 from $10,000 to $20,000 for married couples filing jointly and from $5,000 to $10,000 for married taxpayers filing separately, and eliminate it for all taxpayers in 2020 and 2021, allowing it to return in 2023. In addition, the bill would permanently increase from $250 to $500 the tax deduction for teachers buying school supplies and index the deduction for inflation. The bill also would create a permanent $500 deduction indexed for inflation for work-related expenses by first responders including firefighters, police officers, paramedics and emergency technicians. The bill is projected to increase federal revenue by $2.4 billion between 2020 and 2029. A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Delgado: Yes Maloney: Yes
DEDUCTION CAP FOR THE ULTRA-RICH: Voting 38836, the House on Dec. 19 approved a Republican amendment to HR 5377 (above) that would retain the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes for taxpayers earning $100 million or more per year and use the resulting revenue to fund work-related tax deductions for teachers and first responders. A yes vote supported the amendment. Delgado: Yes Maloney: Yes 2020
DOMESTIC SPENDING: Voting 297-120, the House on Dec. 17 approved a package of eight appropriations bills (HR 1865) that would fund nondefense agencies and departments for the remaining nine months of fiscal 2020 at an annualized level of $632 billion. The bill would raise the minimum age for buying tobacco products from 18 to 21 years, fund federal gun violence research for the first time since 1996 and repeal the Affordable Care Act’s “Cadillac tax” on high-end insurance plans and excise tax on sales of medical devices. In addition, the bill would preserve coal miners’ healthcare and pension benefits; provide election security grants to states; reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and Terrorism Risk Insurance Program for seven years each; prohibit pay raises for members of Congress while increasing House members’ staff budgets; grant federal civilian workers a 3.1 percent pay raise; and fund two carbon-free nuclear energy reactors by the mid-2020s while boosting outlays for renewable energy development and climate research. A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Delgado: Yes Maloney: Yes
Senate
$738B FOR MILITARY:
Voting 86-8, the Senate on Dec 17 gave final congressional approval to a $738 billion military policy budget (S 1790) for fiscal 2020, up $23 billion from 2019. The bill authorizes $71.5 billion for combat operations and at least $57 billion for active-duty and retiree health care; sets a 3.1 percent pay raise for uniformed personnel; creates the U.S. Space Force as the sixth branch of the military; ends the “widow’s tax” on Pentagon death benefits received by an estimated 65,000 survivors who also receive veterans’ survivor benefits; establishes 12 weeks’ paid family and medical leave for the federal civilian workforce; confronts global warming as a national security threat; requires Pentagon strategies for countering Russian interference in U.S. elections; and funds programs for military victims of sexual assault. A yes vote was to approve the fiscal 2020 military budget.
Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.:
Yes
Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.:
No
Coming up
Congress is in recess until Jan. 6, 2020.