Bryan Watch: April 2021

After a three week hiatus, the House of Representatives was back last week. There were 23 votes, but only seven (7) of them were party line votes. Rep. Steil voted with the Republicans on all seven of them. As usual, Republicans voted en masse against considering HR 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act and HR 1195, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act. (RC 102 and 103, April 14)

On Thursday, all but one Republican (Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania) voted against the Paychek Fairness Act, a bill designed to allow victims of wage discrimination greater redress in the court system. This was a vote in favor of corporate greed over working women. (RC 108, April 15)

Republicans voted against a prefecting amendment by Rep. Scott (VA) containing amendments by Donald Beyer (VA), Marie Newman (IL), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ritchie Torres (NY), and Nikema Williams (GA). (RC 106, Apr 15). And most Republicans (183 to 27) supported an amendment by Reps. Miller Meeks (IA) and Stefanik (NY) that would have gutted HR 7 and replaced it with language actually making it easier for companies to discriminate against female employees. (Amendment 38, RC 107, April 15; failed 183-244)

The next day, Republicans voted 188 to 38 against HR 1195, a workplace violence prevention act. (RC 118, Apr 16). The bill requires the Department of Labor to create rules for employers that would mandate they protect their employees from violence in the workplace.

Along with voting against workplace safety, most Republicans (168 to 40) voted for an amendment by Rep. Fred Keller of Pennsylvania that would actually create additional bureaucracy and slow up the process for establishing workplace protections. Ironically, the part of “less government” is in favor of bureaucracy when it helps big corporations (Amendment 41, RC 117, April 16)

The Crazy Caucus on Full Display

Most of the rest of what Congress dealt with were non-controversial bills that passed with 400-plus votes in most cases. However, those bills did expose that the Crazy Caucus is alive and well, with a small handful of members opposing even the most innocuous of bills. To his credit, Steil voted sensibly on all the non-party-line votes.

In descending number of votes (but not necessarily descending order of crazy):

- HR 1460, Nicholas and Zachary Burt Memorial Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act: The bill provides grants so that local governments can provide low income families with carbon monoxide detectors for their homes. 49 Republicans, including Glenn Grothman and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin thought this was a waste of money (RC 105, Apr 15)

- HR 1868, To Prevent Across-the-board Spending Cuts. Across the board spending cuts have been a pet cause of House conservatives for years - Paul Ryan supported the idea dozens of times over the years. The House finally said “enough” and passed a bill to end the practice. (RC 98, Apr 13)

- HR 172, Reauthorization of the US Anti-Doping Agency. The agency oversees efforts by sports organizations to prevent doping by athletes. 37 Republicans thought his was not a good use of taxpayer dollars (RC 99, Apr 14)

- HR 1490, the 504 Modernization Act, which makes it easier for small business to get loans from the SBA. The bill passed with strong bipartisan support, with only 16 Republicans against. (RC 106, April 15)

- HR 1502, the Microloan Improvement Act, which as it sounds, makes it easier for small businesses to obtain mico-loans. It passed with only 16 Republicans voting against. (RC 114, Apr 15)

- HR 1215, the Fraud and Scam Reduction Act, which passed 396-13. The bill creates an advusory group to assist businesses in preventing phone and internet scams targeted at senior citizens. Only 13 Republicans voted against protecting senior citizens from scam artists. (RC 104, Apr 15)

- HR 446, Protecting Seniors from Emergency Scams Act: Similar to HR 1215, but more geared towards COVID related scams. Only 8 Republicans voted against protecting seniors (Passed 413 to 8; RC 110, April 15)

- Senate 578, Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research Act: The bills seeks greater oversight of FDA efforts regarding food safety and food allergies. It also adds “sesame” to the list of food allergies. 13 Republicans opposed protecting people with food allergies (RC 100, April 14)

- HR 1482, 504 Credit Risk Management Improvement Act: The bills gives the Office of Credit Risk Management greater power to police business who received loans under the SBA’s 504 program. Only 8 members (5 Republicans, 3 Democrats) voted no. (RC 119, April 16)

- Senate 164, Advancing Education on Biosimilars Act: The bill requires the FDA to educate health care providers about bio-similars, products similar to FDA approved biologicals. Only 8 Republicans voted against this common sense bill (RC 101, April 14)

- HR 1002, Debarment Enforcement of Bad Actor Registrants Act: The bill allows the Drug Enforcement Agency to bar bad actors from manufacturing and distributing drugs (RC 112, April 15)

- HR 1762, Protecting Indian Tribes from Scams Act, which requires the FTC to collect data on scams directed towards Native Americans (RC 111, April 15)

On HR 1002 and 1762, the Crazy Caucus against were the same five members: Higgins (LA), Massie (KY), Mast (FL), Norman (SC) and Rosendale (the new guy from Montana)

Last but hardly least is HR 941, the TRANSPLANT Act, which regards the use of stem cell technology in medical breakthroughs. Only TWO members voted against stem cell research: Lauren Boebert (Nut-CO) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Super Nut-GA), cementing them as this month’s leaders of the Crazy Caucus (RC 109, April 15)

In an interesting move, three Democrats, Sean Casten of Illinois with Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia of Texas, voted against several bills not because they objected to the content, but because the authors were among members who voted to overturn the results of the November election.

“I cannot in good conscience vote in support of legislation introduced by those who attempted to overthrow the results of the 2020 election and helped incite the deadly January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol,” stated Casten on April 15.

Scorecard: Total votes: 22, Party Line (7 for 7; 100% for Steil), NPL 15