congressional roll call

HOUSE VIOLENCE PREVENTION AT K-12 SCHOOLS:

Voting 407 for and 10 against, the House on March 14 passed a bill (HR 4909) that would authorize federal grants over 10 years to fund security improvements at K-12 schools in the United States as well as training to help school officials, pupils and law enforcement identify signs of looming gun violence in the student body and intervene to keep it from erupting. The bill would authorize $75 million per year, but actual spending levels in annual appropriations bills are expected to be lower. The bill would prohibit funding of programs to arm teachers.

Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said the bill “will not solve our gun problem. It won’t ban bump stocks or require Americans to be 21 to buy a gun, fix our broken background check system, or get weapons of war—the weapons of choice for mass shooters—off our streets and out of our communities. But it will help troubled students who need help get help, and it will help teachers and law enforcement identify potential threats before it is too late.”

John Rutherford, R-Fla., said the bill “supports one very important layer of security for our schools. There is still much more work to be done, but the best way to keep our students and teachers safe is to give them the tools and the training to recognize those warning signs to prevent violence from ever entering our school grounds.”

No member spoke against the bill.

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

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Westerman

TEXAS

Voting yes: Gohmert, Ratcliffe

EXPERIMENTAL DRUGS FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL:

The House on March 13 defeated a bill (HR 5247) that would give the terminally ill broad access to experimental drugs that have not received Food and Drug Administration approval. The tally of 259 for and 140 against fell short of a two-thirds majority needed to pass the bill under fast-track parliamentary rules. The bill would grant legal protection to doctors, hospitals, drug firms and others helping to facilitate these unproven treatments. Republicans, most of whom supported the bill, said dying persons deserve access to even high-risk medical interventions as a matter of personal freedom. Democrats, who provided most of the votes against the bill, said it was reckless to disregard FDA safety procedures and unfair to give false hopes to desperate individuals.

Rick Allen, R-Ga., said, “When those we hold dearest are diagnosed as terminally ill, the last thing we want to hear is that all treatment options have been exhausted. … By allowing terminally ill patients the access to unapproved drugs and therapies, we are giving them a fighting chance for their God-given right to life.”

Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said the bill “strips away important safeguards in the name of helping patients. It is not patient friendly. That is why 78 patients and doctor groups are all opposed to this legislation, like the American Cancer Society, the National Brain Tumor Society, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Vietnam Veterans of America.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Westerman

TEXAS

Voting yes: Gohmert, Ratcliffe

TAILORING OF BANK REGULATIONS:

Voting 247 for and 169 against, the House on March 14 passed a bill (HR 1116) that would require banking regulators to revisit a wide swath of rules issued under the 2010 Dodd-Frank oversight law, including all Consumer Financial Protection Agency rules. In addition, the bill requires regulators to tailor rules such as capital requirements to fit the size and the risk profiles of individual classes of banks.

Scott Tipton, R-Colo., said the bill would ensure that “compliance burdens are considered when new regulations are made, so that community financial institutions won’t have to choose between the needs of their communities and complying with regulations out of Washington, D.C.”

Jared Polis, D-Colo., said, “Since Dodd-Frank was signed into law, we have avoided another major meltdown. The banking system is strong again because of the Dodd-Frank reforms, yet my Republican colleagues continue to bring bills to the floor that are aimed at crippling financial regulators.”

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Westerman

TEXAS

Voting yes: Gohmert, Ratcliffe

BAR TO TRUMP FINANCIAL GAIN:

Voting 182 for and 232 against, the House on March 14 turned back a Democratic bid to amend HR 1116 (above) to prohibit any tailoring of federal banking regulations that would yield personal financial gain to President Trump, his family members or senior officials of his administration.

Gerald Connolly, D-Va., called the measure “a simple prohibition that in any other era would pass for common sense. Unfortunately, we have become inured to the daily outrages emanating from this White House, and we are learning how much our democracy depends on the morality and ethical behavior of individuals in the absence of institutional restraints.”

Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said “there is an element that works full time on the other side of the aisle to impeach the president. This is their fulltime avocation. Meanwhile, on this side of the aisle, we continue to work to try to improve the lot in lives of the common working man and woman.”

A yes vote was to adopt the Democratic motion.

ARKANSAS

Voting no: Westerman

TEXAS

Voting no: Gohmert, Ratcliffe

SENATE RELAXATION OF BANKING SAFEGUARDS:

Voting 67 for and 31 against, the Senate on March 14 passed a bipartisan bill (S 2155) that would largely exempt community banks and credit unions from the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-oversight law. The measure would also scale back restrictions the law placed on about 15 of the largest banks and 25 medium-sized regional banks, while leaving intact the authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to operate as an independent agency largely free of congressional oversight.

The bill would significantly increase the asset level triggering Dodd-Frank provisions, including required stress tests, that were designed to protect the financial system from the collapse of ”too big to fail” institutions and a recurrence of the systemic failures that crippled the U.S. and global economies in 2008. The current $50 billion threshold would be raised to $100 billion, and then to $250 billion after 18 months. The toughest regulation would apply permanently only to banks with more than $250 billion in assets, while institutions in the $100 billion to $250 billion range would be largely exempt although subject to scrutiny by the Federal Reserve.

The bill would also exempt community banks and other institutions with less than $10 billion in assets from the Volcker Rule, which prevents banks from making speculative investments with taxpayer-insured funds. And it would allow these smaller firms to approve riskier home mortgages than Dodd-Frank now allows if they keep the loans in their own portfolios rather than sell them off for conversion into instruments such as mortgage-backed securities.

The bill weakens anti-discrimination rules under which banks report data on lending to minorities, raising from 50 to 500 the number of home loans a bank can issue before becoming subject to the Dodd-Frank reporting requirement. Other provisions would require credit reporting companies to allow consumers to freeze their credit reports free of charge and protect student loan borrowers when a cosigner dies or enters bankruptcy.

Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said, “Community banks all across the country are the key source of lending and other financial services on Main Street throughout this nation. I believe we should not, and must not, continue to require them to comply with the same regulations as our largest financial institutions that are subject to systemic risk.”

Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said the bill would deregulate “some of the very same banks that drove this economy into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. In other words, this legislation will make it more likely that we will see another financial crisis, another taxpayer bailout, and massive dislocation of our economy.”

A yes vote was to pass

the bill.

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Cotton, Boozman

TEXAS

Voting yes: Cornyn, Cruz

KEY VOTES AHEAD

Both chambers will take up a bill to fund the government after stopgap budget authority expires March 23. The Senate will resume debate on a bill to combat online sex trafficking.