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

Revamp of electoral systems and campaign funding. Passed 234-193, a 700-page Democratic-sponsored bill (HR1) that would make it easier to register to vote and participate in federal elections; begin partial public financing of House campaigns; help states fortify voting systems against cyberattacks; require disclosure of “dark money” political contributions; end partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts; require presidential and vice presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns; crack down on influence peddling by inaugural committees; expand handicapped access to voting places and tighten ethics rules in the legislative and executive branches, among other provisions. The bill would directly affect federal elections, and House races, in particular, while inevitably having an impact on state and local voting, as well. The bill would impose a 2.75 percent surcharge on penalties paid by corporate and high-income individual tax cheats and use the revenue — projected at $1.948 billion over 10 years — to establish a Freedom From Influence Fund that would aid House candidates in general and primary election campaigns. Incumbents and challengers who agree to a $200 limit on individual contributions would receive $6 in public funds for each $1 they raised. Federal money from other sources could not be added to the fund, which is projected to disburse about $200 million to House candidates in each two-year election cycle. The bill also would require high-traffic social-media platforms — including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Instagram — to maintain public databases of foreign actors and other entities seeking to purchase at least $500 annually in political ads, and would require “dark-money” financiers of political ads, who now remain anonymous to voters, to be publicly identified in their ads. In addition, states would have to replace partisan gerrymandering with bipartisan commissions to redraw congressional district boundaries after each census. The bill would authorize spending $750 million over five years on state programs to make voter registration easier. States would have to automatically register residents who sign up for government services, including education; allow registration applications online and in person on Election Day; provide ample opportunity for early voting; and require voting systems to be backed up with paper ballots that can be audited. The measure would authorize $1.55 billion over five years for grants to states for modernizing voting equipment and hardening systems against cyberattacks. Under the bill, felons who have served their sentences would be entitled to vote in federal elections. Presidential and vice presidential candidates would have to disclose personal tax returns for the preceding 10 years, as well as the returns of any company they control.

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

Rick Crawford (R) French Hill (R)

Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R)

Tax-exempt political activity.

Defeated 194-238, a Republican bid to remove from HR1 (above) a provision allowing the IRS to require disclosure of donors and set limits on political activity by nonprofit organizations, including 501(c)(4) “social-welfare” groups, that participate in election campaigns. Donors to those groups are the main source of the estimated $100 million-plus in “dark money” that flows anonymously into U.S. elections each two-year cycle. Current law prohibits the IRS from collecting donor information from the groups or tightening standards for tax-exempt status. Sponsor Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, said the amendment is needed because “the IRS is a tax collection agency, not an arbiter of the fitness of an organization’s political viewpoint. [It] is about the fundamental 1st Amendment rights for citizens and groups to participate in public discourse.”

Jason Crow, D-Colo., said the disclosure requirement is necessary to police “organizations that are flooding our elections with dark money. In the 2018 cycle, $150 million was spent by groups that did not have to disclose their donors. Voters had no idea who was spending this money to influence their vote.” A yes vote was to adopt the amendment. Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

Pre-registration for 16-yearolds.

Approved 239-186, a Democratic amendment to HR1 (above) requiring states to make it possible for youths to pre-register to vote in federal elections at ages 16 and 17, so that they are prepared to cast ballots when they turn 18.

Joe Neguse, D-Colo., said “states across the nation are taking up pre-registration to integrate young people into the democratic process early, and I think it is time for … these reforms at the federal level.” Rodney Davis, R-Ill., said: “Many states already accept pre-registration forms, and that’s within their jurisdiction to do so. I just don’t like this top-down approach” in the pending bill. A yes vote was to adopt the amendment. Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

Lowering federal voting age to 16.

Defeated 126-305, a Democratic amendment to HR1 (above) that sought to lower the minimum voting age in federal elections from 18 years to 16 years. The federal voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1971.

Grace Meng, D-N.Y., said 16-yearolds “participate in our democracy already. They are legally permitted to work, they pay federal taxes on their income and can even be tried as adults in court. It is only just that they are given the right to vote.” Mark Green, R-Tenn., said: “We don’t allow a 16-year-old to buy a beer … because of their ability to reason at that age. … And now the other side wants to give a 16-yearold the ability to decide the future of the country. I think this is foolish.” A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

School board voting by people in the country illegally.

Defeated 197-228, a Republican bid to add language to HR1 (above) that would outlaw San Francisco’s current practice of allowing people in the country illegally to vote in school board elections.

Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said “it should not be a partisan idea that the people who do not legally live in our country should not be allowed to vote in our elections.”

Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said the bill already prohibits federal voting by noncitizens, and called the motion “an effort to divert us from the mission … to expand voting rights to every American citizen in federal elections.” A yes vote was to adopt the GOP motion. Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

Condemnation of anti-Semitism and bigotry.

Approved 40723 against, a resolution (HRes183) condemning all manifestations of religious and racial bigotry and hatred while specifically naming anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sparked the resolution by recently implying that some lawmakers “push for allegiance to a foreign country,” namely Israel. Jewish lawmakers said it was an anti-Semitic trope inviting harm against Jews to assert they have dual loyalties. Omar voted for the resolution.

Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said: “The trope that support for Israel particularly among Jewish Americans is the result of a dual loyalty to Israel and the United States is deeply offensive to me. What I find equally despicable is a somewhat equally analogous dual-loyalty trope increasingly deployed against Muslim-Americans.”

Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said he would vote no because the resolution “condemns just about everything and the reason that it is so dangerous is that anti-Semitism against the children of Israel is a very special kind of hatred that should never be watered down.” A yes vote was to adopt the resolution.

Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

SENATE Chad Readler, federal appeals judge.

Confirmed 52-47, Chad A. Readler, 46, as a judge on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Formerly a lawyer in private practice, Readler was employed most recently as acting head of the Department of Justice Civil Division. His nomination drew Democratic opposition, in part, because he filed the administration brief challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Readler “built a long-standing reputation in private practice as a consummate legal professional … and his nomination earned a ‘well qualified’ rating from the American Bar Association.” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Readler “was the chief cook and bottle washer of the Trump administration’s” attack on the health care law. “Can you imagine the lack of compassion it takes to argue that 130 million Americans with cancers, respiratory ailments, and all the way down to asthma don’t deserve the guarantee of affordable health care?” A yes vote was to confirm the nominee. John Boozman (R)

Tom Cotton (R)