Here’s a look at how area members of Congress voted over the previous week.
HOUSE VOTES
CORONAVIRUS RELIEF PAYMENTS: The House has passed the Caring For Americans with Supplemental Help Act (H.R. 9051), sponsored by Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass. The bill would increase from $600 to $2,000 the amount sent to individuals from the federal government for the purpose of providing relief for financial harms linked to COVID-19. Neal said the added payment was needed to help “members of the American family at the lower end of the economic spectrum are hurting.” An opponent, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said rather than hastily using $463 billion of debt to make the $2,000 payments, it would be wiser to provide targeted assistance to the unemployed and smaller businesses that have been closed by local politicians. The vote, on Dec. 28, was 275 yeas to 134 nays.
YEAS: Chellie Pingree, D-1st District; Jared Golden, D-2nd District
OVERRIDING VETO OF MILITARY BILL: The House has voted to override President Trump’s veto of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 6395), sponsored by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., to authorize 2021 military spending programs. Smith said the veto override would meet Congress’s “obligation to our troops and to the national security of this country” by maintaining adequate legislative branch authority over the Defense Department. The vote to override, on Dec. 28, was 322 yeas to 87 nays, with a two-thirds majority required.
YEAS: Pingree, Golden
SENATE VOTES
VETO OF MILITARY SPENDING BILL: The Senate has approved a motion to consider the potential override of President Trump’s veto of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 6395), to authorize 2021 military spending programs. A bill supporter, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said it took substantial and consequential measures to combat the growing threat China poses to both the Asia-Pacific region and to the U.S. The vote, on Dec. 30, was 80 yeas to 12 nays.
YEAS: Susan Collins, R-Maine; Angus King, I-Maine
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