Bryan Watch: Sept II

Fairly slow week for Congress this second week back. There were only ten votes this week.

The National Defense Authorization Act (the budget for the Pentagon) is currently in conference between the House and Senate to resolve differences. A motion to close portions of the conference (end debate on parts of the bills everyone agreed on) passed 407 to 4 (RC 532, Sep 17). The four dissenters were Justin Amish (MI) and Tom Massie (KY) from the conservative side and Earl Blumenauer (OR) and Rashida Tlaib (MI) from the liberal side.

Perhaps the most interesting fight of the week was over the $3.6 billion that Donald Trump stole from military construction to pay for his fantasy border wall. Mac Thornberry of Texas proposed putting the money Donald Trump stole for the wall back into the Pentagon budget. Republicans voted to let Trump steal money from the Pentagon 191 to Zero (RC 531, Sep 17) .

Adam Smith, Democrat from Washington, pointed out exactly what a big farce this was. "What this amounts to is a sense of Congress on whether or not we ought to allow a President to effectively steal $3.6 billion out of the Pentagon’s budget for his own personal policy desire that Congress has already said they shouldn’t," Smith argued.

"And there is no question that if Congress endorses this, if Congress says it is okay for the President of the United States to use the Pentagon as his own personal piggy bank—personal is a bit of an overstatement; I understand this is policy—but basically to decide to spend money wherever he wants to spend it, irrespective of what we say, why are we even here?" asked Smith.

On Friday, almost every Republican in Congress, including Steil, voted to screw over working people once again. Democrats brought forth HR 1423, The Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act. The bill would make forced arbitration clauses in employment and consumer services contracts illegal, giving workers who have been wronged by their employers the right to sue them in court and giving consumers the right to sue companies that have harmed them. Republicans sided with big corporations and against working people and consumers on this one (RC 540, Sep 20). Congratulations to Matt Gaetz (FL) and Chris Smith (NJ) for being the only two Republicans to side with ordinary people.

Rep Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) attempted to cloud the debate over forced arbitration with a BS amendment regarding collective bargaining and arbitration. Apparently Rep. Jordan has no understanding of how collective bargaining works, and how it protects the rights of union members. Credit to Rep. Steil for being one of the 25 Republicans who saw through Jordan's bull and voted against his ridiculous amendment (H Amdt 621. RC 539. Sep 20) .

The Continuing Appropriations bill passed with a genuine bi-partisan spirit. 76 Republicans joined Democrats to pass the bill 301-123. Steil was one of those voting in favor (RC 538, Sep 19) .

The House passed HR 4285, the Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act, by a vote of 417 to 1, with Rep. Alexander Mooney (R-WV) being the only holdout. The bill does what it sounds like, extending funding for programs in the Veterans Affairs Department forward to 2020 or 2021.

Of the ten votes the House took, four were procedural. It is no surprise that every Republican, including Steil, voted against consideration for HR 4378, the Continuing Appropriations Bill (RC 536 and 537, Sep 19). And all but one Republican (Matt Gaetz of Florida) voted against consideration of HR 1423, the Forced Arbitration Bill (RC 533 and 534, Sep 18).

Scorecard: Total votes - 10. Party line votes - 8 (Steil 6-8; 75%).

Steil's Good Votes: RC 538 and RC 539.