HOUSE VOTES
ENERGY SECURITY: The House has passed the Enhancing State Energy Security Planning and Emergency Preparedness Act (H.R. 1374), sponsored by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., to provide federal funds to state governments for developing energy security plans. A supporter, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said “the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack and other recent cyber threats to our infrastructure” showed the need to prevent and prepare for energy supply disruptions. The vote, on June 22, was 398 yeas to 21 nays.
NOT VOTING: Chellie Pingree, D-1st District
YEAS: Jared Golden, D-2nd District
VETERANS BENEFITS FRAUD: The House has passed the Preventing Crimes Against Veterans Act (H.R. 983), sponsored by Rep. Theodore Deutch, D-Fla., to establish as a federal crime the attempt to fraudulently deprive a military veteran of earned benefits. Deutch said: “This bill will give federal prosecutors the tools they need to target criminals who actively work to avoid current mail and wire fraud statutes.” The vote, on June 22, was 416 yeas to 5 nays.
NOT VOTING: Pingree
YEAS: Golden
PASSING LEGISLATION: The House has passed a motion sponsored by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., to pass a set of 16 different bills without an individual vote on each bill. The vote, on June 23, was 325 yeas to 103 nays.
YEAS: Pingree, Golden
AGE DISCRIMINATION IN WORKPLACE: The House has passed the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act (H.R. 2062), sponsored by Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. The bill would change the federal government’s evidentiary standard for age-based discrimination by an employer to allow mixed motive claims by a worker: that is, claims that include age as one of several motivating factors for mistreatment by the employer. Scott said the bill, by restoring an evidentiary standard overturned in court in 2009, would be a “step to ensure that older workers can achieve justice.” An opponent, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said: “Allowing mixed-motive claims in cases alleging retaliation puts employers in the impossible position of trying to prove that a legitimate employment decision was not in response to a prior complaint.” The vote, on June 23, was 247 yeas to 178 nays.
YEAS: Pingree, Golden
BANK LOANS: The House has passed a resolution (S.J. Res. 15), sponsored by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., disapproving of and voiding an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency regulation issued in October 2020 that required a federally regulated bank to originate a given loan in order to be considered a lender. The vote, on June 24, was 218 yeas to 208 nays.
YEAS: Pingree, Golden
SMALL BUSINESS LOANS: The House has passed the LGBTQ Business Equal Credit Enforcement and Investment Act (H.R. 1443), sponsored by Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y. The bill would require the reporting by financial companies of data for loans provided to businesses owned by non-heterosexuals. Torres said the requirement “would represent a triumph of transparency in the service of economic opportunity for all, regardless of who you are and whom you love.” The vote, on June 24, was 252 yeas to 176 nays.
YEAS: Pingree, Golden
EMPLOYER DISCRIMINATION: The House has approved a resolution (S.J. Res. 13), sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to disapprove of and void an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rule that revised the agency’s process for settling claims of discriminatory practices by employers by providing the employers with the factual and legal basis for finding that the practices occurred. The vote, on June 24, was 219 yeas to 210 nays.
YEAS: Pingree, Golden
VETERANS AND CONTRACEPTION: The House has passed the Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act (H.R. 239), sponsored by Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif. The bill would bar the Veterans Affairs Department from requiring military veterans to pay for contraceptive products that VA health insurance plans cover the cost of. The vote, on June 24, was 245 yeas to 181 nays.
YEAS: Pingree, Golden
SENATE VOTES
INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Christopher Charles Fonzone to serve as general counsel for the office of the Director of National Intelligence. Fonzone was a senior adviser in the Obama administration, then became a private practice lawyer in Washington, D.C. An opponent, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., cited Fonzone’s recent legal work for China’s Ministry of Commerce, and said that rejecting his nomination was needed to send the message that nominees for government service should “not do business with the Chinese Communist Party or its military or the companies that support it.” The vote, on June 22, was 55 yeas to 45 nays.
YEAS: Susan Collins, R-Maine; Angus King, I-Maine
GOVERNMENT WORKFORCE: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Kiran Arjandas Ahuja to be the Office of Personnel Management’s director for a four-year term. Ahuja was the director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the Obama administration. A supporter, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., called Ahuja “a qualified, experienced leader who is committed to supporting the people who make government work.” An opponent, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said that if confirmed, Ahuja “could use her platform to promote radical ideologies that seek to divide rather than unite people.” The vote, on June 22, was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with Vice President Harris casting a 51st yea vote.
NAYS: Collins
YEAS: King
VOTING PROCEDURES: The Senate has rejected a cloture motion to end debate on the For the People Act (S. 2093), sponsored by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. The bill would have changed various election procedures, including an increase in voter registration opportunities, reduced ability to remove voters from registration lists, new rules for the financing of campaigns, and ethics and tax disclosure requirements for officials in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. Merkley said the measures were needed “to ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the United States of America.” An opponent, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., called the bill a federal takeover of state and local election systems that would make “elections more chaotic, less secure, less nimble in their ability to deal with individual circumstances that occur on election day.” The vote, on June 22, was 50 yeas to 50 nays, with a three-fifths majority required to end debate.
NAYS: Collins
YEAS: King
MARYLAND JUDGE: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Deborah L. Boardman to serve as a judge on the U.S. district court for Maryland. Currently a magistrate judge on the district court, Boardman was previously, for 11 years, a lawyer in the district’s federal public defender’s office. A supporter, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Boardman’s time as a defense lawyer would add “a perspective which is often not found in these court cases with sitting judges.” The vote, on June 23, was 52 yeas to 48 nays.
YEAS: Collins, King
CLIMATE CHANGE MARKETS: The Senate has passed the Growing Climate Solutions Act (S. 1251), sponsored by Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., to authorize the Agriculture Department to develop a program making it easier for farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners to take part in voluntary climate change environmental credit exchange markets. The vote, on June 24, was 92 yeas to 8 nays.
YEAS: Collins, King
APPEALS COURT JUDGE: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Candace Jackson-Akiwumi to serve as a judge on the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. For a decade, Jackson-Akiwumi was a lawyer in the federal defender program for the court for the northern district of Illinois; for a year, she has been a private practice lawyer at a Washington, D.C., law firm. A supporter, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said: “Her skills and legal expertise will be invaluable. She received a ‘well qualified’ rating.” The vote, on June 24, was 53 yeas to 40 nays.
YEAS: Collins, King
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
