Bryan Watch: Feb 2020 II
Anti-Wilderness, Anti-Women
Another fairly slow week for Congress, with only 16 votes taken. Eleven of them were party line, and Rep. Steil voted with the Republicans every time again this week. That brings us to six straight weeks of Bryan not thinking for himself.
On Thursday, the House of Representatives took a major step towards equality and moved to extend the deadline for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (HJ Res 79). Interestingly, most of the Replicans speaking against the bill were women, and all focused on the right to obtain an abortion as the major reason they were opposing the attempt to revive the ERA.
Almost all Republicans, including Steil, voted against the ERA (RC 70, Feb 13). Congratulations to the five Republicans who did the right thing: John Curtis (UT), Rodney Davis (IL), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Tom Reed (NY) and Jeff Van Drew (NJ).
The other major bill this week was HR 2546, Protecting Americas Wilderness Act, which was debated Tuesday. The bill by Rep. Diane DeGette would protect wilderness areas in Colorado. Almost all Republicans (182 to 6) voted against it, including Steil. (RC 69, Feb 12) Steil also voted for an utterly bogus motion to recommit by Tom McClintock (CA) regarding wildfires which would do nothing to improve the bill. (RC 68, McClintock motion to recommit, Feb 12)
Then there were the amendments to the Wilderness Act. Steil went full Republican on all six party-line votes on amendments. Steil supported all the bad Republican amendments:
- an effort by Scott Tipton (CO) to eliminate wilderness areas in HIS OWN district (Tipton amendment #9, RC 67)
- an amendment by Bruce Westerman (AR) to eliminate all wilderness designations in a WILDERNESS bill (Westerman amendment #7, RC 65)
- another amendment by Westerman to give the notoriously anti-environment Trump administration control (through the Secretaries of Agriculture and/or Interior) oversight which areas would be designated as wilderness (Westerman amendment #6, RC 64)
- A very similar amendment by Tom McClintock (CA) also giving Trump authority over wilderness designations (McClintock amendment #3, RC 62)
- Another amendment by McClintock giving local counties the authority to block wilderness designations (McClintock amendment #2, RC 61)
Steil also blocked an amendment by DeGette to increase the amount of wilderness designated in the bill (DeGette amendment #1, RC 60, all on Feb 12)
Steil was sensible on two broad bi-partisan amendments: One by Jimmy Panetta (CA) on fire and disease control in wilderness area (Panetta amendment #5, RC 63) and other by Joe Cunningham (SC) regarding overflights in wilderness areas (Cunningham amendment #8, RC 66)
As usual, Republicans voted against consideration of The Colorado Wilderness Act (HR 2546) or extending the deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment (HJ Res 79). (RC 57 and 58, Feb 11)
The House passed several controversial bills early in the week. On Tuesday, the House approved the creation of a Women's History Museum at the Smithsonian (HR 1980, RC 59, Feb 11).
And on Monday they dealt with two fairly mundane Homeland Security bills. HR 3413, the DHS Acquistion Reform Act, which reforms acquitition policies at the Department of Homeland Security, passed 380 to 4. (RC 56, Feb 10). Three of the top members of the Crazy Caucus (Biggs, Gosar and Massie) joined Rashid Tlaib of "The Squad" in opposing the bill.
The other bill was HR 2932, the Homeland Security for Children Act, which authorizes DHS to review policies for meeting the needs of children affected by terrorism and natural disasters (RC 55, Feb 10). The bill passed 374 to 11, with 9 Republicans (mostly members of the Crazy Caucus) and Tlaib voting against it,
Scorecard
Total Votes: 16
Party Line: 11 (Steil 11-11, 100%)
None Party Line (5): 66, 63, 59, 56, 55
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Rivers of Death
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