Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted Sept 20, 2024

Hawai'i Free Press

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted Sept 20, 2024
By GovTrack .us @ 8:47 PM :: 377 Views :: Congressional Delegation

Action!

by Amy West, GovTrack.us, Sept 20, 2024

There's been a lot going on in the House this week!

H.R. 82: Social Security Fairness Act of 2023

We've gotten a lot of questions about this bill and it's one of our most tracked. Turns out there's been some action on it that isn't reflected in the usual procedure.

The H.R. 82: Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 would repeal provisions that reduce Social Security benefits for individuals who receive other benefits like state pensions. It was introduced in January 2023 and never referred to committee. However, it does have a discharge petition that has reached the threshold for a floor vote. At the moment, it's unclear when the bill will be voted on - it's not an automatic process. We'll update you when we know more.

Keeping the Government Funded

The initial bill that Speaker Johnson put forth failed 202-220 this week due to a lack of Republican votes. There are a number of different paths to funding the government and the week plus remaining is actually enough time to get it done. We'll update you on this as well when events warrant.

Uncontroversial Bills aka Passed by Voice Vote

There were quite a few of these; upwards of 30. They generally covered veterans, health issues and data privacy. The two below had already passed the Senate and will go to the President next:

S. 265: SIREN Reauthorization Act which would reauthorize emergency medical services to rural areas with a focus on training to assist with mental health and substance use disorders in emergencies as well as provide funding for acquiring overdose reversal medications and devices.

S. 4351: Poison Control Centers Reauthorization Act of 2024

Bills that Needed Recorded Votes

S. 1146: Find and Protect Foster Youth Act passed 408-7. However, because the House amended it, it will go back to the Senate again. If the Senate accepts the changes, then it'll go to the President for signing.

H.R. 9076: Supporting America’s Children and Families Act reauthorizes child support enforcement programs under the Social Security Act and passed 405-10

H.R. 7213: Autism CARES Act of 2024 reauthorizes programs focused on autism and passed 402-13

H.R. 1513: FUTURE Networks Act directs the FCC to establish a task force to get ready for 6G wireless and passed 393-22

S. 2861: Billie Jean King Congressional Gold Medal Act passed 308-87 and goes to the President next.

H.R. 7909: Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act makes domestic and sexual violence a deportable offense and passed 266-158

H.R. 5179: Anti-BDS Labeling Act continues existing laws requiring that products made in the West Bank or Gaza be labeled as such and passed 231-189

H.R. 5339: Protecting Americans’ Investments from Woke Policies Act requires fiduciaries of employer-sponsored retirement plans to make investment decisions solely on financial issues and passed 217-206

H.R. 4790: Guiding Uniform and Responsible Disclosure Requirements and Information Limits Act of 2023 limits disclosure requirements for issuers of securities and passed 215-203

H.R. 3724: Accreditation for College Excellence Act of 2023 would "amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to prohibit recognized accrediting agencies and associations from requiring, encouraging, or coercing institutions of higher education to meet any political litmus test or violate any right protected by the Constitution as a condition of accreditation" and passed 213-201

H.R. 8314: No Foreign Election Interference Act failed 218-181 because it required a 2/3rds majority to pass. It was controversial because many US labor unions argued that the bill will unduly limit their ability to participate in politics.

New Feature: Caucus Votes

As we've all seen this Congress, there's more going on in the House than just two opposing parties. Within each party are a variety of different interest groups - called caucuses - that sometimes will vote together in ways that may be illuminating. When that happens, it will now show on the vote page.

Wikipedia has a long list of caucuses, but a given caucus might only have a few members. We're starting with 10 key, large House caucuses that have a public list of their members (Republican Study Committee, Republican Governance Group, Problem Solvers Caucus, Main Street Caucus, New Democrat Coalition, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus).

There are two examples from this week:

S. 2861: Billie Jean King Congressional Gold Medal Act passed 308-87. This bill got a pretty good level of support. But all 87 no votes were from Republicans. Does this mean it was unpopular overall in the Republican side of the House? No. Because if you look at the Main Street Caucus (self described as pragmatic conservatives), 64 of them voted yes and only 7 voted no.

H.R. 7909: Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act makes domestic and sexual violence a deportable offense and passed 266-158. This bill provides a contrast. One might expect that Democrats would support a bill aimed at punishing violence against women. Some did - 58. But considerably more Democrats opposed it, presumably because of the focus on non-citizen violence. And that opposition was especially strong among the Congressional Progressive Caucus where 83 members opposed the bill and only 7 supported it.

A secondary benefit of this analysis is that it demonstrates that true uniformity is pretty rare. In these cases, both caucuses mostly went one way, but not completely and that's because each member votes in a manner that both reflects their own values and the desires of their constituents. The result is some variation even when members are enough in agreement to be in a caucus together.

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Hawaii Congressional Delegation

Sep 11, 2024 — Bill Text

S. 5017: Safeguarding American Families and Expanding Social Security Act of 2024

This bill’s text is now available.

Sen. Brian Schatz [D-HI] is the sponsor of this bill.

Trackers: Sen. Brian Schatz [D-HI].

Sep 12, 2024 — Bill Text

H.R. 9589: Stop Illegal Campaign Coordination Act

This bill’s text is now available.

Rep. Jill Tokuda [D-HI2] is the sponsor of this bill.

Trackers: Rep. Jill Tokuda [D-HI2].