HR 803: PROTECTING GRAND CANYON AND WILDERNESS Voting 227 for and 200 against, Yes: No: BLOCKING BIDEN ENERGY ORDERS Voting 204 for and 221 against,

the House on Friday passed a bill that would protect more than 3 million acres of public land in the West as wilderness while putting a permanent ban on uranium mining claims on 1.2 million acres of federally owned land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona. In part, the bill would protect from development more than 1 million unspoiled acres in Colorado, 258,400 acres in Washington, 924,700 acres in California and large swaths of public land in Oregon while expanding the National Wild and Scenic River System by adding 460 miles of protected waterways in Washington and 480 miles in California. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Fitzpatrick, Dean, Wild, Cartwright Meuser

the House on Friday defeated a Republican bid to prevent HR 803 (above) from becoming law until after President Biden has rescinded executive orders aimed at transforming the U.S. energy economy from one based on fossil fuels to clean energy over the next three decades. A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

Yes: Fitzpatrick, Meuser

No: Dean, Wild, Cartwright

The cry of voter fraud in the 2020 election refuses to die. Despite over 50 court rulings and innumerable recounts, the myth of voter fraud lives. It lives because it gets great right-wing media ratings and because conspiracies are the mother’s milk of social media.

The myth is so ingrained that one of Trump’s millionaire backers paid $2.5 million for an investigation to uncover voter fraud. The investigation turned up nothing.

The most insidious reason the voter fraud myth lives is its exploitation by Republicans to attempt to pass bills to limit voter participation. Twenty-eight states, including Pennsylvania, are considering such measures.

Among their goals: reduce the registration period, make absentee and mail-in voting more restrictive, limit polling places, reduce the number of days of early voting, and other similar tactics. The reason why is clear. If you can choose who votes, you’re more likely to get elected.

But what about election integrity, you might ask. Having politicians choose who votes is not election integrity. Election integrity is having as many eligible voters as possible cast their ballots.

What Republicans are trying to accomplish is voter suppression, plain and simple.

Bruce Eppensteiner

Wind Gap