WASHINGTON — Here’s a look at how Maine’s members of Congress voted over the previous week.
Besides roll call votes, the Senate and House also took action on legislation by voice vote.
The House passed the American Super Computing Leadership Act, to improve the Energy Department’s high-end computing research and development program. It passed the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act, to improve the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather research and forecasting capabilities. It also passed the Coast Guard Authorization Act, to authorize appropriations for the Coast Guard for fiscal years 2016 and 2017.
House votes
House vote 1
NUCLEAR WEAPONS TREATY: The House has passed an amendment sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016. The amendment would block funding for implementation of the New START treaty with Russia for reducing nuclear weapons until Russia is found to be in compliance with several treaties and is not occupying Ukraine.
Lamborn said “we should not unilaterally disarm and blindly assume that the Russians will do their part,” given Russia’s interference in Ukraine and failure to abide by treaty obligations.
An amendment opponent, Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tennessee, said it would put the U.S. in violation of New START by unilaterally changing the treaty.
The vote was 235 yeas to 182 nays. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, gave a nay vote, and Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-2nd District, gave a yea vote.
House vote 2
LISTING ENDANGERED SPECIES: The House has passed an amendment sponsored by Rep. Frank D. Lucas, R-Oklahoma, to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016. The amendment would bar the Interior Department from listing the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened or endangered species before 2021 and delist the American burying beetle as a threatened or endangered species.
Lucas said the lesser prairie chicken delay would give states time to implement their own plans for protecting the chicken’s habitat, and, combined with the beetle delisting, would allow military bases to conduct exercises without having to meet requirements that they do not infringe on the habitats of the two species.
An amendment opponent, Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Massachusetts, said it was unnecessary and not related to the question of military funding, and Congress should not adopt legislation that micromanages the scientific process of determining whether to list species as endangered or threatened.
The vote was 229 yeas to 190 nays. Pingree gave a nay vote, and Poliquin gave a yea vote.
House vote 3
2016 MILITARY SPENDING: The House has passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas. The bill would authorize $611.9 billion of spending on military programs in 2016.
Thornberry said it reformed many military programs, including acquisition processes and overhead organization, which, together with its increased funding for key programs, would make the military “more agile in meeting the national security challenges we face.”
A bill opponent, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, criticized its use of $38 billion from the overseas contingency operation fund and its failure to provide a long-term plan for military budgets in the years ahead.
Included with this bill was an amendment sponsored by Poliquin to adjust the requirements of the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) program under the Base Realignment and Closure Act.
“This amendment will help ensure that Brunswick Naval Air Station qualifies as a HUBZone by adjusting the length of time for eligibility and extending the radius of HUBZones to twenty-five miles – expanding the program in to the Second District,” the congressman said in the news release. “This amendment will give job creators the confidence they need to start new businesses, create more jobs and help get Mainers back to work.”
The vote was 269 yeas to 151 nays. Pingree gave a nay vote, and Poliquin gave a yea vote.
House vote 4
ID CARDS FOR VETERANS: The House has passed the Veteran’s I.D. Card Act, sponsored by Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Florida. The bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to issue identification cards, in exchange for a fee, when requested by military veterans.
Buchanan said supplying cards to identify the veterans would make it easier for them to document their military service to potential employers and to businesses that offer discounts to veterans discounts.
The vote was unanimous with 402 yeas. Both Pingree and Poliquin were among the yeas.
House vote 5
SEX TRAFFICKING: The House has passed the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. The bill would increase financial penalties for those found guilty of sex trafficking and increase compensation to trafficking victims, authorize block grants for child trafficking deterrence programs, and classify the production of child pornography as child abuse.
A supporter, Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, said the bill’s measures aimed, by both preventing and punishing trafficking, to work toward “ending this terrible crime.”
The vote was 420 yeas to 3 nays. Both Pingree and Poliquin were among the yeas.
House vote 6
EDUCATING FOREIGN POLITICIANS: The House has passed an amendment sponsored by Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, to the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act. The amendment would block funding for the Open World Leadership Center, a program begun in 1999 and intended to educate politicians from the former Soviet Union about democracy in the United States.
Ratcliffe said the federal government had nearly 90 similar programs, and the Open World Leadership Center has become redundant and produced few results since it began.
An amendment opponent, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, said that the center is as vital as ever because “the old tactics of Soviet Russia are still being employed” by Russia’s government to dominate its neighbors, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The vote was 224 yeas to 199 nays. Pingree gave a nay vote, and Poliquin gave a yea vote.
House vote 7
FUNDING LEGISLATIVE BRANCH: The House has passed the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, sponsored by Rep. Tom Graves, R-Georgia. The bill would provide $3.3 billion to fund the House and joint programs of Congress in fiscal 2016, but not the Senate.
Graves said the funding levels set out by the bill avoid wasteful spending “while preserving the beauty of the Capitol campus, providing essential security for visitors and staff, and ensuring that we are able to provide the services that our constituents expect and deserve.”
The vote was 357 yeas to 67 nays. Both Pingree and Poliquin were among the yeas.
House vote 8
EXTENDING FUNDING FOR TRANSPORTATION PROGRAMS: The House has passed the Highway and Transportation Funding Act, sponsored by Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pennsylvania. The bill would extend through this July appropriations for the federal highway and other transportation programs funded by the Highway Trust Fund.
Shuster said that without an extension, many transportation projects could be shut down this summer for lack of funding, and the extension would give Congress time to develop a long-term transportation spending plan for the country.
A bill opponent, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-New York, said it continued the chronic practice of passing short-term extensions of Highway Trust Fund spending rather than taking a long-term approach that replaces and repairs crumbling roads and bridges across the country.
The vote was 387 yeas to 35 nays. Both Pingree and Poliquin were among the yeas.
House vote 9
CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE: The House has rejected an amendment sponsored by Rep. Alan S. Lowenthal, D-California, to the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act. The amendment would have struck from the bill provisions placing added reporting requirements on research funded by the Energy Department and eliminating duplicative projects in climate change research.
Lowenthal said duplicative research projects were necessary to reproduce and verify previously published science, but the bill provisions would block such research, and also curtail the Energy Department’s ability to chose to fund projects based on their merits.
An amendment opponent, Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, said the provisions were needed to ensure greater transparency in the government’s climate change science programs and improve accountability at Energy’s Office of Science, especially given that “the Obama administration has unapologetically pushed forward a politicized climate agenda” to fund wasteful climate science research, while neglecting basic research in the physical sciences.
The vote was 187 yeas to 236 nays. Pingree gave a yea vote, and Poliquin gave a nay vote.
House vote 10
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: The House has passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. The bill would authorize through fiscal 2017 scientific research programs at several government agencies, cutting funding for research in social sciences and climate change science while maintaining or increasing funding for physical sciences, information technology, biology and energy research.
Smith said the funding priorities set out by the bill were aimed at enhancing U.S. innovation and competitiveness in the global market without adding to the debt by funding wasteful research.
A bill opponent, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, criticized its flat funding of research and development, politicization of the scientific grant-making process and decreased funding of the ARPA-E program for breakthrough energy research.
The vote was 217 yeas to 205 nays. Pingree gave a nay vote, and Poliquin gave a yea vote.
House vote 11
RESEARCH TAX CREDIT: The House has passed the American Research and Competitiveness Act, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas. The bill would make permanent the research tax credit for a business’ research expenses and allow small businesses to count the credit against their alternative minimum tax.
Brady said giving the credit permanency would encourage private investments in developing new scientific and computer technologies and new manufacturing products, to help the U.S. compete with China and other countries increasing their investments in research and development.
A bill opponent, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said it would increase the deficit by nearly $200 billion while doing little to promote new research, and could lead to multinational corporations using the credit to subsidize research they then patent in foreign countries.
The vote was 274 yeas to 145 nays. Pingree gave a nay vote, and Poliquin gave a yea vote.
House vote 12
PRIVATE SPACE INDUSTRY: The House has passed the SPACE Act, sponsored by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California. The bill would extend by nine years indemnification from third-party damage claims for private space launches, extend through 2025 the period of limited regulations for commercial space flights, and grant private companies property rights for any materials they mine from asteroids.
McCarthy said that by encouraging the private sector to continue investing in space launches, the bill would promote continued U.S. leadership in space exploration.
A bill opponent, Rep. Donna F. Edwards, D-Maryland, said its provisions relaxing government oversight of the private space industry failed to adequately protect public safety.
The vote was 284 yeas to 133 nays. Pingree gave a nay vote, and Poliquin gave a yea vote.
Senate votes
Senate vote 1
TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE: The Senate has rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to the Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act. The amendment would have provided $575 million of annual funding for the trade adjustment assistance program for retraining workers who have lost their jobs due to imports from overseas.
Brown said given the highly likely prospect of job loss under new trade agreements, the government should help workers hurt by changes in trade policy to obtain new jobs “so they can compete in the global economy.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also supported the Trade Adjustment Assistance amendment. In a news release issued before the vote, she said “[it] plays an essential role in helping hardworking Americans who, through no fault of their own, lose their jobs as a result of what is often unfair foreign competition. TAA Programs enable displaced workers to acquire the new skills and the new training necessary to prepare for jobs in other industries,”
An amendment opponent, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said given the lack of backing for trade adjustment assistance in the House and Senate, seeking to increase funding for the program was a bad idea.
The vote was 45 yeas to 41 nays, with a three-fifths majority required for approval. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, were among the yeas.
Senate vote 2
TRADE AND FREEDOM OF RELIGION: The Senate has passed an amendment sponsored by Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, to the Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act. The amendment would require presidents to consider religious freedom in other countries when negotiating with those countries for trade agreements with the U.S.
Lankford said the provision would help the U.S. encourage other nations to “recognize the power of the freedom of religion within their own borders” and discourage them from religious discrimination against their citizens.
The vote was unanimous with 92 yeas. Both Collins and King were among the yeas.
Senate vote 3
FAST-TRACK TRADE NEGOTIATIONS: The Senate has agreed to a motion to end debate on the substitute amendment, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to the Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act. The substitute amendment would authorize fast-track trade promotion authority for presidents to negotiate the terms of trade treaties, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 11 other nations bordering the Pacific Ocean.
Hatch called for moving on to a vote on the trade legislation that he said was the only way for Congress to “effectively assert its priorities in our ongoing trade negotiations” and create a path for signing trade treaties that promise to open access to foreign markets for U.S. farmers, ranchers, manufacturers and entrepreneurs.
An opponent of ending debate, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, said fast-track authority would give presidents too much power to negotiate trade treaties that lack input from Congress. Sessions added that it appeared the Trans-Pacific Partnership would reduce U.S. jobs and wages and diminish domestic manufacturing industries.
The vote was 62 yeas to 38 nays. Both Collins and King were among the nays.
Senate vote 4
UTAH DISTRICT JUDGE: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Jill N. Parrish to serve as a U.S. District Judge for the District of Utah.
A supporter, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, cited Parrish’s experience on the Utah Supreme Court and 30 years of total experience as a lawyer and judge in state and federal courts. Hatch praised Parrish’s “sharp legal mind, breadth of experience, and impressive judicial temperament.”
The vote to confirm the nomination was unanimous with 100 yeas. Both Collins and King were among the yeas.