Votes, Missing Members and Nomination Hearings
By Amy West, GovTrack.us, Jan 17, 2025
Transparency and Disaster Assistance
Most votes this week were overwhelmingly approved.
Banning Transgender Athletes
H.R. 28: Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, which would bar federal funding from any school K-post-secondary that allows transsexual athletes, passed 218-206.
Immigration
H.R. 30: Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, which would "amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that aliens who have been convicted of or who have committed sex offenses or domestic violence are inadmissible and deportable", passed 274-145. The New York Times reports, "existing law already allows immigrants with contested legal status who are convicted of sex crimes to be deported".
S. 5: Laken Riley Act continues to work through the Senate. Last week, Democratic Senators said they were voting to move forward on the bill in order to improve it by amendment. So far this week, Democrats voted for an amendment to expand its scope, but Republicans did not vote for an amendment to remove its most far-reaching provision which would give states substantial new authority over immigration policy. Today, Democrats can, if they're unhappy enough with how the amendment process went, prevent the bill from coming to the floor by refusing to vote to end debate.
Missing Members
After the news at the end of December that former Rep. Kay Granger had missed several months of votes, due it appears to significant and never disclosed health problems, we set up an alert for ourselves and our users to try and prevent such lengthy absences from slipping past again.
This week we were alerted that several CA legislators had missed votes last week, presumably because of the wildfires around Los Angeles.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA11) also missed some votes, presumably because she's still recovering from fracturing her hip in late December.
When we can, we'll try to find out why someone might be out and note it in our recaps and on the Missing Legislators page.
Nomination Hearings
There were about a dozen committee hearings for cabinet nominees for President-elect Trump's next term this week. We watched some where we could, but if there's an agency or nominee of particular interest to you that you missed, you can still watch the recordings. Go to Congress.gov's Committee Meetings calendar and look for the one you want.
Votes on the nominees will start sometime next week. Only a simple majority is needed and there are enough Republicans to get a simple majority even for nominees who do not have Democratic support. Of the nominees with hearings so far, all appear likely to be confirmed, possibly with some Democratic votes.
Hawaii Congressional Delegation
Jan 16, 2025 — Introduced
H.R. 487: To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 by requiring preclearance quarantine inspections for all movement to or from the State of Hawaii by either domestic or international travel, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep. Ed Case [D-HI1]
This bill was referred to the House Committee on Agriculture which will consider it before sending it to the House floor for consideration.
Jan 16, 2025 — Introduced
S. 126: A bill to increase the rates of pay under the statutory pay systems and for prevailing rate employees by 4.3 percent, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen. Brian Schatz [D-HI]
This bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs which will consider it before sending it to the Senate floor for consideration.
Jan 17, 2025 10:03 a.m. — Vote
Motion to Invoke Cloture: S. 5
Cloture Motion Agreed to 61/35
Sen. Hirono [D-HI]: Nay
Sen. Schatz [D-HI]: Nay