WASHINGTON — Here’s a look at how area members of Congress voted over the previous week.
The House returned from its holiday recess this week, but the Senate did not. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene on Monday, Jan. 11.
House votes
House vote 1
CURBING HEALTH CARE REFORM: The House has agreed to a motion sponsored by Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia, to concur in the Senate amendment to the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act. The bill would repeal the health care reform law’s medical device excise tax, repeal the employer health insurance mandate, repeal the individual health insurance mandate, and block funding for Planned Parenthood.
Price said the measures, by decreasing ineffective federal control of the health care system, would “pave the way for real, positive, patient-centered health reform that puts patients and families and doctors in charge of health care decisions.”
A bill opponent, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said it would remove health care insurance for 22 million Americans and reduce reproductive choice options for millions of American women.
The vote was 240 yeas to 181 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
DISCLOSURE OF REGULATORY LITIGATION: The House has passed the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act, sponsored by Rep. Doug Collins, R-Georgia. The bill would require federal regulatory agencies to increase disclosure of their settlements of lawsuits brought by state and local governments and private groups in opposition to agency regulations.
Collins said the sue and settle approach to changing federal regulations has cut public awareness and input for the regulatory process, giving environmental and other groups excessive power to shape regulations.
A bill opponent, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Maryland, called it “another attack by House Republicans on critical public health, safety, and environmental protections.”
The vote was 244 yeas to 173 nays. Pingree gave a nay vote, and Poliquin gave a yea vote.
House vote 3
CHANGING REGULATIONS: The House has passed the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act, sponsored by Rep. Jason Smith, R-Missouri. The bill would establish the Retrospective Regulatory Review Commission, a group that would review federal regulations, especially those with an estimated annual cost of $100 million or more, and advise Congress on the potential repeal of regulations that have excessive costs and place unnecessary burdens on those regulated.
Smith said the outsized growth of burdensome regulations has created the need for a special group to study regulatory reductions that “make government smaller, more efficient, and accountable” to its citizens.
A bill opponent, Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Michigan, said agencies already had methods to reform their regulations, and the bill could make it nearly impossible for agencies to establish new regulations because they would have to offset the cost of the new regulation with the repeal of an existing regulation.
The vote was 245 yeas to 174 nays. Pingree gave a nay vote, and Poliquin gave a yea vote.