The House was slated to convene on Tuesday evening, but because of the bad weather across the country, votes were postponed until Wednesday as many members faced flight delays and cancellations. Friday votes were cancelled late on Thursday when it was clear that (1) we could get our work for the week done and (2) the weather in D.C. was going to get worse!
This week’s priority was to pass another continuing resolution to fund the government. House and Senate leaders announced an agreement over the weekend, and the Senate took the resolution up first. Late Thursday, the House passed the Senate Amendment to H.R. 2872, the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024, which extends government funding through March 1 and March 8, 2024. As I have said repeatedly this year, keeping our government funded and functioning is a fundamental responsibility of Congress. So, I supported this resolution. This short-term extension of funding provides critical protections and programs that people across our community and country rely on. But I share the concerns of many of my colleagues about the lack of progress and bipartisan effort in the House. But this is the third time we have passed a continuing resolution, and there appears to be little progress and lots of resistance in the House. This bill did pass on a bipartisan basis—as it had to. 207 House Democrats voted for it, with two against, and 107 House Republicans voted for it and 106 against.
On Wednesday, the House voted on a resolution denouncing the Biden administration’s immigration policies and condemning the national security and public safety crisis at the southern border (H.Res.957). While I agree that we must reform our broken immigration system and address border security, this resolution distorts the President’s border policies and distracts from comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the very real concerns in our community. The partisan rhetoric in this resolution contradicts our country’s history of welcoming migrants and asylum seekers fleeing persecution and violence. For these reasons, I voted against the resolution, which passed the House on a vote of 225-187.
On Thursday, the House voted on two anti-abortion bills that purported to support pregnant women, but are actually attempts to restrict access to abortion. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act, H.R. 6914, is a misleading bill claiming to provide information to pregnant students about their rights, however, it only outlines information on students’ rights to carry a pregnancy to term. It offers no meaningful support to assist students in succeeding at school while being pregnant or parenting, and it omits resources for students seeking access to information about abortion services. It is worth noting that the bill ignores existing protections under Title IX, including that pregnant and parenting students have rights to accommodations and support in continuing their studies.
The second bill, the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act, H.R. 6918, is a partisan bill that blocks the Biden administration’s efforts to strengthen the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which aids pregnant women and families with dependent children to help pay for food, shelter, and other essential expenses. The bill also blocks efforts to prevent the misuse of TANF funds for anti-abortion centers—often known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs)—which purport to be health care clinics and seek to prevent pregnant women from having abortions through deceptive means and medical disinformation. Allowing TANF to continue funding CPCs prevents pregnant women from receiving accurate medical information about their reproductive health needs from qualified providers. For these reasons, I voted against both bills, but they passed the House with Republican support.
On a more positive note, the House voted Wednesday on the bipartisan Global Trade Specialist Act, H.R. 5862, which strengthens U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) ability to enforce U.S. trade policy. The bill authorizes CBP to establish a new global trade specialist position to address a more comprehensive range of trade enforcement policies and will enhance CBP’s ability to respond to evolving challenges of international trade and ensure agencies have resources to respond to global supply chain disruptions. I voted in favor of the bill, which passed the House on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis of 403-9. The House voted Thursday on a bipartisan suspension bill, S. 3250, to provide remote access to court proceedings for victims of the 1988 Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which passed on a vote of 413-7. The House also voted to pass several bipartisan suspension bills by voice vote: the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act (H.R. 1568), to require U.S. CBP to remove personally identifiable information, including Social Security and passport info, from cargo manifests before public disclosure; the Recruiting Families Using Data Act (H.R. 3058), to require states to use a data-driven approach to identify potential foster parents and improve state requirements for the retainment and quality of foster parents; the Social Security Child Protection Act (H.R. 3667), to direct the SSA to issue a new Social Security number to children under the age of 14 whose social security cards were stolen in the mail; and the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying (PRESS) Act (H.R. 4250), to protect reporters and journalists against unnecessary government surveillance and harms reporters’ First Amendment rights.
As a reminder, you can always find a list of all the votes I have taken for the district on my website.
