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

National Flood Insurance

Program. Passed 237-189, a bill (HR2874) to extend the federally run National Flood Insurance Program through fiscal 2022. The bill would allow private insurers to compete for residential customers; permit businesses in flood plains to opt out of the program; impose financial penalties on some properties that have generated repeated claims; and require residential premium increases of 6.5 percent per year compared with 5 percent at present. Backers said private-sector participation is needed to salvage a failing program. Opponents said private insurers would sign up the most actuarially sound customers, leaving behind an unsustainable pool of high-risk properties.

Nearly 5 million residential and commercial properties in flood plains in 22,000 communities are covered by national flood insurance, which Congress created in 1968 to serve a market shunned by private insurers and to hold down federal disaster payments. But now $20.5 billion in debt despite two recent taxpayer bailouts, the program is borrowing from the Treasury to cover claims from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Keith Rothfus, R-Pa., said the bill would “help to prevent future bailouts” and “foster the development of a private market for flood insurance. This will provide consumers with better options and more competitive prices.”

Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said the bill would enable private insurers “to cherry-pick the safest properties. This would leave FEMA with only the riskiest properties and would undermine the solvency of the National Flood Insurance Program.”

A yes vote was to extend national flood insurance through fiscal 2022.

Rick Crawford (R) French Hill (R)

Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R)

Unresolved Hurricane Sandy claims. Defeated 190-236, a bid by Democrats to delay the effective date of HR2874 (above) until after FEMA and the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security have certified that all flood-insurance claims arising from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 have been resolved.

Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said “over 1,200 property owners [in his state] are still moving through the recovery programs. Approximately 900 are still not back in their homes. Of all Sandy victims, there are over 2,000 people still awaiting final review of their flood insurance claims.”

Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, opposed the motion but said “after Sandy, many of the policyholders were wronged, and there was much that we learned from that experience” that has gone into drafting this bill. A yes vote was to adopt the motion to help victims of superstorm Sandy.

Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

$700 billion for military in

2018. Adopted 356-70, the conference report on a $699.9 billion military budget (HR2810) for fiscal 2018, which includes $65.7 billion for combat operations in countries including Niger, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria; $50 billion-plus for active-duty and retiree health care; $706 million to boost Israeli missile defenses; $350 million in military aid to Ukraine; and $100 million to bolster Baltic defenses against Russia. The bill requires the administration to develop a strategy to counter Russia’s undermining of Western democracies. In addition, the bill designates climate change a threat to U.S. and global security; funds a 2.4 percent pay raise for uniformed personnel; bars the transfer of detainees from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison; funds programs for military victims of sexual assault; prohibits base closures and authorizes tens of billions of dollars to fund conventional and nuclear weapons programs.

Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said the bill “recognizes the importance of land forces in current and future operations and authorizes over $2 billion to accelerate armored brigade combat team modernization, to include additional Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles.” No member spoke against the legislation.

A yes vote was to adopt the conference report. Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

Floor debate on Dreams’

bill. Blocked 234-189, a Democratic bid to force floor debate on a bill (HR3440) now in committee that would grant permanent legal status to “dreamers,” who were brought as children to the United States and are now here illegally. The bill would grant relief to up to 800,000 illegal aliens who were younger than 18 when they entered the United States and have met several conditions, including continuous residency for at least four years. This vote occurred during debate on HRes616. President Donald Trump on Sept. 5 revoked former President Barack Obama’s executive order known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that temporarily shielded dreamers from potential deportation and gave them the right to work legally. Trump allowed six months for Congress to either put protections into law or stand aside as deportations go forward. With the president and congressional Republicans showing little interest in developing a legislative solution as the March deadline approaches, Democrats are forcing votes such as this one to focus public attention on the issue. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., said it is imperative to “immediately bring the Dream Act to the floor and provide certainty, hope and opportunity for 800,000 talented young people. Our country needs them, and we cannot afford to wait another day.”

No other member spoke on the issue.

A yes vote was to block floor debate on the DACA bill. Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R) Republican tax overhaul. Passed 227-205, a GOP-drafted bill (HR1) that would reduce business and personal taxes by $1.5 trillion through fiscal 2027. To prevent a corresponding increase in deficit spending, the bill invokes pay-as-you-go budget rules that require its revenue losses to be offset in coming years, possibly by cuts in entitlement spending. For businesses, the bill would permanently reduce the top tax rate on corporate earnings from 35 percent to 20 percent; lower the rate for pass-through entities including S Corporations from 39.6 percent to 25 percent; give multinationals a onetime opportunity repatriate cash from overseas tax havens at a 12 percent rate; and introduce new breaks including expedited write-offs of equipment purchases.

The bill would initially lower most personal tax bills. But those reductions would be temporary, and by 2023 only 40 percent of households broadly defined as middle class would be paying less income tax than at present, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The bill would reduce the number of tax brackets from seven to four; permanently increase the standard deduction to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for joint filers; eliminate the $4,050 personal exemption; increase the child tax credit from $1,000 to $1,600; and grant annual tax credits of $300 for each adult filer over the bill’s first five years.

In addition, the bill would end itemized deductions for state and local income and sales taxes, and limit deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes. It would repeal deductions for health care expenses, student-loan interest, teachers’ personal outlays for school supplies and the Work Opportunity Tax Credit for hiring specified groups including veterans.

Affluent households would benefit from the bill’s repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which now prevents wealthy filers from using loopholes to avoid taxation, and its scaling back and eventual repeal of the estate tax, which applies to 5,500 of America’s wealthiest families.

Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said “we are in a generational defining moment for our country, and what we are doing here … is not just determining the kind of tax code we are going to have [but] determining the kind of country we are going to have.”

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill “is pillaging the middle class to pad the pockets of the wealthiest and hand tax breaks to corporations shipping jobs out of America and drastically increasing the national debt.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill. Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

State and local tax deductions. Blocked 234-193, an attempt by Democrats to effectively strip HR1 (above) of provisions that would end the deductibility of state and local income and sales taxes on federal tax returns, and cap the deductibility of local property taxes on federal returns at $10,000. Had Democrats prevailed on this roll call, they would have had an opportunity to force a direct vote on whether to keep those deductions in the tax code. A yes vote opposed a motion aimed at retaining state and local income and sales tax deductions. Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

Steven Bradbury confirmation. Confirmed 50-47, Steven G. Bradbury, a partner in a Washington law firm, as general counsel for the Department of Transportation. The nomination proved to be controversial over Bradbury’s authorship of memos used by the George W. Bush administration to justify its “enhanced interrogation,” or torture, of detainees suspected of terrorism. He was acting head of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel at the time. John Thune, R-S.D., said Bradbury “has had an extraordinary legal career in both the private and public sector, and he is well prepared to address the many challenging legal questions that will come before the department.” John McCain, R-Ariz., said that in addition to waterboarding, Bradbury’s memos “provided the justifications for methods such as forced nudity and humiliation, facial and abdominal slapping, dietary manipulation, stress positions, cramped confinement, striking and more than 48 hours of sleep deprivation.”

A yes vote was to confirm the nominee.

John Boozman (R)

Tom Cotton (R)

David Zatezalo, mine safety regulator. Confirmed 52-48, David G. Zatezalo, a former coal executive and miner, to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Democratic critics noted that his company, Kentucky-based Rhino Resources, clashed repeatedly with Obama administration regulators over health and safety violations in 2011-12 while he was its CEO. Before joining the management side of the industry, he belonged to the United Mine Workers of America.

Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., called Zatezalo “uniquely qualified to lead the Mine Safety and Health Administration because he knows the industry inside out starting as a miner.”

Patty Murray, D-Wash., said “it really is disappointing to me that President Trump nominated one of the industry’s worst health and safety offenders to lead this critically important agency.”

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

Joseph Otting, comptroller of the currency. Confirmed 54-43, Joseph M. Otting to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an independent Treasury Department unit that oversees national banks and federal savings associations. Otting was president and CEO of OneWest Bank between 2010-15, working with bank founder and now Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Otting signed a consent decree with the federal Office of Thrift Supervision in 2011 over the bank’s role in the mortgage-foreclosure crisis.

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

Cotton (R)