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 Repeal of Dodd-Frank

regulations. Passed 233-186, a GOP-drafted bill (HR10) that would repeal key parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-regulation law, subject a weakened Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to congressional control and give it a new name, enact nine market-deregulation measures that have stalled in Congress and establish stricter monetary penalties to combat fraud on Wall Street.

The bill would repeal the Volcker Rule, which prevents banks from making speculative investments with taxpayer-insured funds, and the Fiduciary Rule, under which retirement advisers must put clients’ financial interests ahead of their own. The bill would use the bankruptcy code rather than Dodd-Frank’s “orderly liquidation” procedures for cushioning the decline of failed investment banks. In addition, the bill would limit the authority of the Treasury Department’s Financial Stability Oversight Council to detect and prevent systemic risks to the economy. Under the bill, the consumer bureau would be stripped of most of its powers to regulate home-mortgage lenders, student and payday lenders, credit cards, large retail banks and other firms that sell financial services to households and individuals. The bill would transfer the bureau’s budget from the Federal Reserve to the congressional appropriations process and empower presidents to fire its director at will. Now, presidents nominate the director for a fixed term subject to Senate confirmation.

Dodd-Frank was enacted in response to the Wall Street bankruptcies, taxpayer bailouts, household savings losses, mortgage foreclosures, retirement cancellations and high unemployment that started in 2007-08. Critics say it has become an oppressive law that over-regulates financial institutions, particularly smaller banks, stunts economic growth and kills jobs.

Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., said: “Dodd-Frank was an agenda waiting for a crisis. So many issues not related to economic stability were crammed into this flawed law that now, big banks have gotten even bigger and small banks have disappeared at an alarming rate.” Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said the bill “will take us back to the regulatory Stone Age and would be a disaster for the entire financial system. Let us remember why we passed Dodd-Frank: We confronted the worst financial crisis, caused by mismanagement from the financial industry, that cost this country $18 trillion in household wealth, millions lost their homes, millions lost their jobs.”

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

Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

President Trump’s tax returns. Approved 228-186, blocking a Democratic attempt to force consideration of a resolution directing the Ways and Means Committee to use its authority under law to obtain from the Treasury copies of President Donald Trump’s tax returns from 2006-15, privately review the documents and then “report the information therein” to the full House.

Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said: “With respect to Russia … there are multiple investigations underway in the Congress. [Republicans] take very seriously the sanctity of our electoral process and will make sure that we get to the bottom of it.” Michael Capuano, D-Mass., quoted resolution wording that Trump’s returns “would show us whether he has foreign bank accounts and how much profit he receives from his ownership in myriad partnerships. … Donald Trump Jr. said the Trump Organization saw money ‘pouring in from Russia.’”

A yes vote opposed disclosure of the president’s tax returns. Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

Polygraph testing of border personnel. Passed 282-137, a bill (HR2213) that would waive polygraph testing of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) job applicants if they have cleared background checks while serving in the military or law enforcement. The bill would help the agency fill more than 2,000 vacant customs and border-patrol positions. Overall, there are 23,000 Customs and Border Protection officers and 20,000 Border Patrol agents. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said: “Right now, we simply don’t have an adequate number of Border Patrol agents and CBP officers to safeguard our nation’s border. We need to fix that. That is what this legislation does.”

Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said: “Anyone who votes for this bill is voting to support and implement Donald Trump’s views on immigration, his desire to militarize our southern border and his fantasy of a mass deportation force. You cannot spin it any other way. ”

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

Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

SENATE

Courtney Elwood confirmation. Confirmed 67-33, Courtney S. Elwood, 49, a partner in a Washington law firm, as general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency. Elwood was associate counsel to President George W. Bush and deputy counsel to Vice President Richard Cheney, and held high Justice Department posts under Bush. Her nomination drew Democratic criticism over her involvement in post-9/11 discussions of Bush administration policies regarding surveillance of American citizens without warrants and the CIA’s harsh interrogation of prisoners. In her confirmation hearing, Elwood said existing law would have to be changed if Trump were to seek to reinstate Bush-era interrogation practices.

Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said: “We are not talking about a rookie lawyer who is inexperienced in the ways of Washington or in the corridors of power. Her commitment to the law is unquestioned and unquestionable. She is just the person we need for this position.”

Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Elwood took part in “discussions regarding the legal justification for the warrantless wiretapping program, in which the Bush administration collected telephonic and email communications of U.S. persons on U.S. soil without a court order,” adding that “her record on torture is also cause for concern.” A yes vote was to confirm Elwood as the CIA’s top lawyer.

John Boozman (R)

Tom Cotton (R) Scott Brown confirmation. Confirmed 94-4, Scott P. Brown, 57, to serve as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Brown was a Republican senator from Massachusetts from 2010-13, and in 2014 he ran unsuccessfully as the GOP nominee to represent New Hampshire in the Senate. He was an early supporter of Trump’s presidential candidacy and worked recently as a Fox News contributor. The Senate conducted no debate on the nomination.

A yes vote was to confirm Brown. Boozman (R)

Cotton (R)