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.
KEY: ✔ FOR ✖ AGAINST □ NOT VOTING ⇧ PASSED ⇩ DEFEATED
Readers can visit www.VoteFacts.com for additional information on top issues and individual voting records in the current 118th Congress and recent 117th Congress. Congress is in Independence Day recess in the week of June 26.
HOUSE ⇧ Republican censure of Rep. Adam Schiff.
Adopted 213-209, a Republican resolution (H Res 521) to censure Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his pursuit of allegations that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign conspired with Russia to influence the election outcome. As leader of the first impeachment prosecution of Trump and the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee during Trump’s presidency, Schiff repeatedly cited what he said was evidence of the campaign’s collusion with Russian operatives to sway the election. The censure resolution called these “false accusations” and said Schiff deserves censure having “misled the American people and brought disrepute” on the House. Censure ranks behind expulsion as the most severe punishment the House can impose on a member. A 22-month investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, resulting in a report released in March 2019, found numerous contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians but insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy to disrupt the election. A recently released report by another special counsel, John Durham, accused the FBI of bias against Trump in its probe of Russian connections. Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice inspector general, issued a report in December 2019 that found misconduct by the FBI but no evidence of political bias in its decision to investigate contacts between the campaign and Russia. Sponsor Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said that as chair of the Intelligence Committee, Schiff “launched an all-out political campaign built on baseless distortions against a sitting U.S. president….With access to sensitive information unavailable to most members of Congress…[he] abused his privileges, claiming to know the truth, while leaving Americans in the dark about this web of lies….The lie that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election [was] revealed to be completely false by numerous investigations….” Opponent Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said: “Russia repeatedly intervened in the 2016 campaign to help Donald Trump, and that is not a matter of opinion. That is a question of direct, positive fact. Special Counsel Robert Mueller… found…‘the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.’ Here is what the CIA, the FBI, the NSA and the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence found in 2017: ‘Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.’ The Mueller investigation and the Moscow Project documented more than 250 episodes of collaboration and meetings between Russia and the Trump campaign.…”
A yes vote was to censure Schiff.
✔ Rick Crawford (R)
✔ French Hill (R)
✔ Steve Womack (R)
✔ Bruce Westerman (R)
⇧ Call for impeachment of President Biden.
Adopted 219-208, a resolution (H Res 529) that referred to the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees’ resolution to impeach President Biden based on what critics say is his failure to protect the southern border of the United States. The committees are charged with developing evidence and reporting their findings to the full House, but also have the option of taking no action. Sponsor Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said: “By nullifying our immigration and border security laws through a systematic lack of enforcement, President Biden has not only threatened the lives of countless Americans with his fentanyl crisis and increased crime, he has threatened the very foundation of our separation of powers. When a president tramples on the Constitution and ignores the laws on the books, it is Congress’ solemn duty to restore our constitutional balance through articles of impeachment….” Opponent Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said: Republicans “are dishonoring this House and dishonoring themselves by bringing to the floor a ridiculous impeachment referral resolution against Joe Biden because Donald Trump told them to….[They] are here on the floor defending a threetime loser, sexual abuser, ex-president that has been indicted more times than he has been elected. It is pathetic. Instead of dealing with their own issues, Republicans are going after Joe Biden to try to distract and deflect.”
A yes vote was to send an impeachment resolution to House committees.
✔ Crawford (R)
✔ Hill (R)
✔ Womack (R)
✔ Westerman (R)
⇧ Affordable Care Act & employer-based coverage.
Passed 220-209, a bill (HR 3799) that would write into law a Trump administration rule making it easier for companies to use voucher-style plans to deliver medical insurance to workers. Known as Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, these entities enable companies to replace group health insurance with employer-funded accounts that workers use to purchase individual policies in ACA marketplaces. They reduce employers’ medical costs and administrative burdens while shifting to workers the task of navigating the federal health law.
The bill also would expand the availability of “association health plans,” which allow trade associations and professional groups to band together to offer medical insurance as though they were large employers, reducing costs as they scale up coverage. Such plans are exempt from compliance with many of the ACA’s essential health benefits, which apply primarily to the individual and small-group markets. Backers said the expansion would give small firms relief from the rigidity of the federal health law, while critics said it would siphon younger and healthier workers from ACA marketplaces that depend on broadly representative enrollee pools to control premium costs.
Supporter Jason Smith, R-Mo., said: “Today, we are taking another step forward to cut the bureaucratic red tape holding back small businesses. We should make it easier, not harder, to give America’s workers, families, farmers and small businesses access to flexible healthcare options. Opponent Robert Scott, D-Va., called the bill “yet another recycled, futile attempt to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and actually make it harder for workers and families to find affordable, high-quality health insurance.”
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
✔ Crawford (R)
✔ Hill (R)
✔Womack (R)
✔ Westerman (R)
⇧ Biden policy on loan forgiveness.
Upheld 221-206, the House failed to reach a two-thirds majority needed to override President Biden’s veto of a congressional resolution (HJ Res 45) that sought to revoke the policy of forgiving up to $20,000 of debt for an estimated 43 million low- to middle-income individuals who received student loans from the federal government for undergraduate education. Biden’s executive order does not affect loans by private lenders. Legal challenges have prevented the nine-month-old directive from taking effect, and the Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on its constitutionality. Override supporter Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said: Americans “are not fooled by the deceptive, doctored-up talking points on student loans that the left has attempted to forcefeed them over the past two years….There is no such thing as forgiveness. This entire scheme is nothing more than a transfer of wealth from those who willingly took on debt to those who did not or had the grit to pay off their loans.” Opponent Robert Scott, D-Va., said: “The people who would be impacted are not the wealthy and well-connected – 90 percent of the relief would go to borrowers earning less than $75,000 a year, and you are not even eligible if you are making more than $125,000. That is in stark contrast to the Trump tax scam where 80 percent of the benefits went to the top 1 percent and corporations.”
A yes vote was to overturn the presidential veto.
✔ Crawford (R)
✔Hill (R)
✔Womack (R)
✔ Westerman (R)
SENATE ⇩ Regulation of pistols converted to rifles.
Defeated 49-50, a resolution (HJ Res 44) that sought to revoke a new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms rule that pistols equipped with stabilizing braces must be registered as short-barreled rifles because the braces enable firing from the shoulder. Owners who fail to register these accessorized AR-style pistols with the ATF would face stiff fines and potential prison terms under the National Firearms Act of 1934, which requires registration of machine guns and sawedoff rifles and shotguns, and the Gun Control Act of 1968, which governs interstate commerce in firearms. The Senate upheld the rule.
Pistols equipped with braces were used in mass shootings at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., in March 2023; the Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo., in November 2022; the King Soopers market in Boulder, Colo., in March 2021 and outside a bar in Dayton, Ohio, in August 2019. Repeal supporter John Kennedy, R-La., said: “The issue today is very simple. It is whether President Biden’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms’ new rule, in effect, banning – or at a minimum severely restricting – pistol braces is a reasonable restriction under the Constitution. That is what we are discussing today.” Opponent Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said: The regulation “doesn’t ban pistol-bracing; it simply requires that gun owners register them…. Today, we have a choice. Either we allow shooters to turn pistols into powerful, accurate, easily hidden rifles, with total impunity, or we have the courage to protect our communities.”
A yes vote was to revoke the rule.
✔ John Boozman (R)
✔ Tom Cotton (R)
VoteFacts.com News Reports is a nonpartisan, fact-based news service whose mission is to help civically engaged individuals and organizations track major actions in the U.S. House and Senate. Readers can visit www.VoteFacts.com for additional information on top issues and individual voting records in the current 118th Congress and recent 117th Congress.