Bryan Watch: Feb 27

The House stuck around for a rare Saturday session to vote on President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package, HR 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act. Not surprisingly, it passed on completely partisan lines, with not a single Republican (0 to 210) voting to provide Americans with relief from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic (RC 49, Feb 27)

HR 1319 covers a wide range of COVID related measures, from increased funding for testing and vaccine distribution, extended unemployment benefits, extending the moratorium on evictions, and a variety of economic measures, not the least of which are $1400 relief checks.

Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa, elected in November, was the one to motion to recommit the COVID relief bill back to the Committee on the Budget (RC 48, Feb 27). Trying to kill relief checks to your constituents probably isn’t the best way to kick off your career in Congress.

As usual, Republicans voted against even considering the relief bill (H Res 166, RC 46 and 47, also Feb 26).

The major pill which passed Friday was HR 803, the Colorado Wilderness Act. Only 8 Republicans supported it; Rep Steil was not one of them. (RC 45, Feb 26). Republicans also supported a move by Rep. Bruce Westermann of Arizona to send the bill back to the Committee on Natural Resources. (RC 44, Feb 26).

Republicans who voted to protect the environment: Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Mike Garcia (CA), Nancy Mace (SC), Peter Meijer (MI), Michael Simpson (ID), Chris Smith (NJ), Fred Upton (MI) and Jeff Van Drew (NJ).

There were two sets of en-bloc amendments, both put forward by Rep. Joe Neguse (Colorado).

En Bloc Amendment 1 had 18 amendments and included things such as:

- Providing new parks for urban residents (Barrgan Amdt 1) and greater resources for Environmental Justice Communities (Tlaib Amdt 28)

- Expanding already existing areas of the National Parks System, including the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area (Lieu Amdt 12), the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (O’Halleran Amdt 18), Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument (O’Halleran Amdt 19) and the Rough Mountains and Rich Hole Wilderness in George Washington National Forest in Virginia (Spanberger Amdt 24)

- Creating new National Heritage Areas in the San Joaquin Delta in California (Garamendi Amdt 6), Great Dismal Swamp (McEachin Amdt 13) and St Croix in the Virgin Islands (Plaskett Amdt 22)

- Designating the York River in Maine as a Wild and Scenic River (Pingree Amdt 21)

- And putting the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Wisconsin under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Service (Pocan Amdt 23)

The second en-bloc consisted of 11 amendments, including:

- a proposal by Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ) to exempt his district, which includes most of western Arizona (including parts of the Grand Canyon) from mining restrictions (Gosar Amdt 7)

- an effort by Rep. Stauber (MN) to exclude Rep. Lauren Boebert's (Crazy-CO) district from the environmental protections of HR 803 (Stauber Amdts 26 and 27)

- Yvette Herrell (New Mexico) attempting to remove all of the potential wilderness designations in the bill (Amdt 9)

- Sham amendments by Rep. Newhouse of Washington that purport to be green but are really efforts to undermine the bill’s basic protections (Amdts 16 and 17)

- And several attempts to allow county governments to override the federal government on environmental protection (Moore of Utah Amdt 15, Stauber Amdt 25)

Joe Neguse, who shepherded HR 803 on the House floor, noted that “The amendments are not a good faith effort to attempt to improve the bill.” Fortunately House Democrats shot down efforts to weaken the bill.

John Curtis of Utah brought up an amendment that seemed green, but in reality would undermine the goals of HR 803 to protect public lands. It would have required a study to determine if lands contained geothermal resources or minerals for use in green technologies. It is a tactic to delay the conservation of lands under the National Parks Service. The Curtis amendment passed with the support of 16 of the more conservative Democratic members (RC 42, Feb 26)

Scorecard: There were nine votes on February 26 and 27, all of them were party line. Steil voted with the Republicans 100 percent of the time.