WASHINGTON — Here’s how area members of Congress voted on major issues during the
legislative week of Nov. 6-10. Readers can visit www.VoteFacts.com to research other top
issues and individual voting records in the current 118th Congress and recent 117th Congress.
House
Censuring Rashida Tlaib
Voting 234 for and 188 against, the House on Nov. 8 censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the only Palestinian-American in Congress, over anti-Israel comments she has made while calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and denouncing Israeli attacks that are killing civilians as well as militants and terrorists in the Gaza Strip. The censure resolution (H Res 845) objected, in part, to her spreading on social media the words “from the river to the sea,” a pro-Palestinian rallying cry interpreted to mean the eradication of Israel. The resolution said the phrase is “a genocidal call to violence to destroy the state of Israel and its people to replace it with a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” Censure ranks behind expulsion as the most severe punishment the
House can impose on a member.
U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-Catskill; and U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, D-Gardiner, voted yes.
Defunding Office of Gun Violence Prevention
Voting 208 for and 212 against, the House on Nov. 8 defeated an amendment that sought to defund the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the current budget year. The office was created in September and is chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris. It approaches America’s mounting firearms carnage from a public-health perspective in hopes of developing gun-control policies that can be implemented within the bounds of the Second Amendment. But in the view of the National Rifle Association, the office’s “real purpose is to employ professional gun-control advocates and amplify their propaganda and agenda with taxpayer dollars.” This amendment was offered to a fiscal 2024 appropriations bill.
A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
Molinaro voted yes. Ryan voted no.
Defunding electric vehicle charging stations
Voting 191 for and 238 against, the House on Nov. 7 defeated an amendment that sought to eliminate funding in fiscal 2024 for a program funding the installation of electric-vehicle charging stations on interstate highway corridors. The program targeted by this amendment would appropriate $885 million in grants to states in 2024 and $4.2 billion over five years to create a nationwide network of charging stations in federally designated Alternative Fuel Corridors. The funding is authorized by the administration’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This amendment was proposed to a bill (HR 4820) that would fund the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development in 2024.
A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
Molinaro and Ryan voted no.
Defunding housing for persons with AIDS
Voting 144 for and 282 against, the House on Nov. 7 defeated an amendment to eliminate funding in fiscal 2024 for the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program, the only federal program dedicated to helping low-income individuals with AIDS find affordable housing. Begun during the 1980s in the Reagan administration, the program serves more than 75,000 persons in 55,000 households, providing rental assistance and access to permanent housing. This amendment sought to remove $505 million for the program from HR 4820, a bill to fund the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development in 2024.
A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.
Molinaro and Ryan voted no.
Senate
Monica Bertagnolli, National Institutes of Health Director
Voting 62 for and 36 against, the Senate on Nov. 7 confirmed Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli as director of the National Institutes of Health. She had been director of the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the NIH.
A cancer surgeon and survivor of early-stage breast cancer diagnosed last year, Bertagnolli, born in 1959, is the second woman confirmed to direct the NIH, which is the world’s leading medical research agency with an annual budget of $47 billion. She was employed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and was a professor of
surgery at Harvard Medical School in previous work.
A yes vote was to confirm the nominee.
New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand voted yes.
‘Buy America’ for electric vehicle charges
By a vote of 50 for and 48 against, the Senate on Nov. 8 voted to keep in place a permanent waiver of “Buy America” requirements for the manufacture of electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations in the United States. The vote killed a proposed Federal Highway Administration (FHA) rule that would end the waiver on July 1, 2024, so that as of that date, chargers would have to be made by American — not Chinese — companies to receive FHA approval.
The vote adopted a resolution (SJ Res 38) to disapprove of the FHA rule. This left intact a permanent waiver of “Buy America” requirements for chargers under a 40-year-old federal procurement policy known as the Manufactured Products General Waiver.
The administration’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included at least $5 billion to spur the manufacture of EV charging stations in the United States. In response, the charging industry has announced plans to invest more than $500 million in plants in states including Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The AFL-CIO and United
Steelworkers Union declared support of the FHA rule and opposition to the Republican-
sponsored resolution of disapproval.
Schumer and Gillibrand voted no.
Key votes ahead >> Both chambers will debate measures to fund the government in fiscal 2024 in efforts to avert a shutdown when current stopgap funding expires Nov. 17.
VoteFacts.com News Reports is a nonpartisan, fact-based news service whose mission is to
help civically engaged individuals and organizations track major actions in the U.S. House and Senate. Readers can visit www.VoteFacts.com to research other top issues