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

$1.15 trillion government

funding. Passed 316-113, an appropriations bill ( HR2029) that would fund the government through Sept. 30, 2016, at an annual level of $1.15 trillion in discretionary spending. The bill includes scores or hundreds of key changes in existing law, including ones that would repeal a 40-year ban on exporting American crude oil, provide major increases in the National Institutes of Health and veterans’ budgets, and protect the Visa Waiver Program against terrorists using it to enter the U.S. undercover. The bill also would grant immunity against privacy lawsuits to companies that voluntarily share real-time information on cyberattacks with the Department of Homeland Security. And it would permanently extend a specialized 9/11 health care program for thousands of individuals who have become seriously ill as a result of emergency-response and cleanup work at the World Trade Center site. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said the bill “maintains key Republican and conservative priorities. For example, [it] keeps the EPA staffing levels at the lowest level since 1989. In addition, it terminates dozens of duplicative, ineffective or unauthorized programs” and “delays additional, onerous ‘Obamacare’ mandates.” Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said the bill’s removal of the ban on crude-oil exports “constitutes a big giveaway to ‘Big Oil’ and could lead to an increase in gas prices … intensify climate-change [and] have devastating environmental impacts” while not lowering retail energy costs. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate. h✖ Rick Crawford (R) h ✔ French Hill (R) h ✔ Steve Womack (R) ✖ Bruce Westerman (R)

$622 billion in tax breaks,

deficits. Passed 318-109, a bill extending several dozen tax credits and deductions that benefit businesses, families, nonprofits, churches, college students, teachers and other parties. Because the cost of the bill is not offset or paid for elsewhere in the budget, it would add $622 billion to the national debt over 10 years, or more than $700 billion when Treasury borrowing costs are factored in. Later, this bill arrived in the Senate and then on President Barack Obama’s desk after being joined to HR2029 (above). The bill would make permanent the $1,000 child tax credit and a $2,500 tax credit to help low-income families pay for higher education, and it would permanently extend the earned-income tax credit available to low-income working families. In addition, the bill would make permanent the research and development tax credit for businesses and extend for five years a bonus-depreciation rule that mainly benefits small companies. The bill would make permanent a tax credit to spur the construction of rental housing for low-income tenants. In addition, the bill would reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, extend for five years tax credits to spur the development of solar and wind-power, delay for two years (until 2020) the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s “Cadillac tax” on high-cost, employer-sponsored health plans and suspend for two years an Affordable Care Act tax on medical devices that took effect in 2013. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said: “The most important thing for the American people to know is that this bill prevents their taxes from increasing, helps create more jobs in their communities. … Secondly, by making a number of temporary tax provisions permanent, this will deliver predictability, clarity and certainty” for individuals and businesses. Ron Kind, D-Wis., said new debt spawned by the bill totals “$700 billion over the first 10 years [and] $2 trillion in the second 10 years. There is nothing more dangerous for the long-term success of Social Security and Medicaid or our children’s future than these endof-the-year, large tax-cut packages that are not paid for and that are not offset.” A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate. h ✔ Crawford (R) h ✔ Hill (R) h ✔ Womack (R) h ✔ Westerman (R)

SENATE

Government funding, tax

breaks, national debt. Passed 6533, a pair of House-passed measures (above) that would fund the government through September 2016 at an annual level of $1.15 trillion while extending dozens of tax breaks for businesses, families, special interests and other groups and individuals. The bill would add $622 billion to the national debt over 10 years, or more than $700 billion if Treasury borrowing costs are taken into account. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said: “The American people have two principal concerns: our nation’s security and the economy. [This bill] will help address both. It would enact permanent tax relief for … families and small businesses. That will lead to more jobs, more opportunity and more economic growth here in America.” Angus King, I-Maine, voted for the bill, but said “all of a sudden, we are considering a $680 billion hole in the deficit that doesn’t have to be paid for. It is like we are all concerned about the debt except when we aren’t. … The [pay-for] rule ought to apply” to tax expenditures as it does to discretionary spending. A yes vote was to send HR2029 to President Obama for his signature. h✖ John Boozman (R) h✖ Tom Cotton (R)