Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Which Democrats Joined the GOP Today to Deregulate Wall Street and Attack Immigrants?

Last week, the House GOP pulled up the comically misnamed Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act (the bill that would weaken Dodd-Frank financial regulations) as a suspension vote. The vote was 276 to 146 (with one GOP opponent and 35 Democratic supporters).
However, it failed because you need 2/3 to pass something via suspension.

(In case I did not explain this before, a suspension vote is a vote to "suspend the rules" of normal order and pass a bill.)

The GOP brought the bill back up for a vote today, and without the 2/3 requirement, it passed easily, although there wasn't a veto-proof majority. The vote was 271 to 154.

Last week, we looked at the names of the 35 Democrats who went along with the GOP to gut Dodd-Frank. What I want to do now is highlight those who changed their votes.

As was the case last week, Walter Jones (NC-03) was the only Republican opponent. But the 35 Democratic supporters from last week became 29 today. So what changed?

First of all, three Democratic defectors simply weren't in attendance for the vote today:

John Garamendi (CA-03)
David Loebsack (IA-02)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)

Then, four Democrats who voted for the bill last week flipped their vote today and voted against it:

Suzan DelBene (WA-01)
Elizabeth Esty (CT-05)
Hank Johnson (GA-04)
Bobby Rush (IL-01)

They must have heard from their constituents afterwards.

Brian Higgins (NY-26) did the reverse. He went from opposition to support. Shame on him.

The other big vote today was on the GOP's DHS funding bill, which was designed to defund the implementation of Obama's recent executive order on immigration as well as his previously issued executive order on the deferred action ("DREAMers") program.

Robert Aderholt (AL-04) offered the amendment targeting Obama's executive orders:
to prevent any funds from whatever source to be used to carry-out (1) the Executive actions announced on November 20, 2014 to grant deferred action to certain unlawful aliens and for other purposes, and (2) four of the `Morton Memos' on prosecutorial discretion and immigration enforcement priorities issued in 2011 and 2012 that effectively prevent certain classes of unlawful aliens from being removed from the country. 2) Declares that no funds may be used to carry-out any substantially similar policies to those defunded. 3) Declares that the policies defunded and any substantially similar policies have no statutory or constitutional basis and therefore no legal effect. 4) Provides that no funds may be used to grant any Federal benefit to any alien as a result of the policies defunded.
It passed on a largely party line vote of 237 to 190.

Only 7 Republicans opposed it:

Carlos Curbelo (FL-26)
Jeff Denham (CA-10)
Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25)
Bob Dold (IL-10)
Renee Ellmers (NC-02)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27)
David Valadao (CA-21)

Matt Salmon (AZ-05) introduced an amendment "to express a sense of Congress that the Executive Branch should not pursue policies that disadvantage the hiring of U.S. citizens and those lawfully present in the United States by making it economically advantageous to hire workers who came to the country illegally." This is basically the "They took our jobs!" amendment.

It passed 253 to 171.

14 Democrats supported it:
Brad Ashford (NE-02)
Ami Bera (CA-07)
Cheri Bustos (IL-17)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Pete DeFazio (OR-04)
Gwen Graham (FL-02)
Dan Lipinski (IL-03)
Stephen Lynch (MA-08)
Scott Peters (CA-52)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Dutch Ruppersberger (MD-02)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)
Tim Walz (MN-02).

2 Republicans voted no: Dold and Ellmers.

Aaron Schock (IL-18) introduced an amendment "to express a sense of Congress that the Administration should stop putting the interest of immigrants who worked within the legal framework to come to the US behind those who came here illegally."

It passed 260 to 167.

17 Democrats supported it:

Brad Ashford (NE-02)
Ami Bera (CA-07)
Julia Brownley (CA-26)
Matt Cartwright (PA-17)
Cheri Bustos (IL-17)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Pete DeFazio (OR-04)
Gwen Graham (FL-02)
Ron Kind (WI-03)
Dan Lipinski (IL-03)
Stephen Lynch (MA-08)
Patrick Murphy (FL-18)
Scott Peters (CA-52)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Dutch Ruppersberger
Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)
Tim Walz (MN-01)

One Republican voted against it: Justin Amash (MI-03).

The vote on final passage was 236 to 191.

2 Democrats voted yes: Brad Ashford (NE-02) and Collin Peterson (MN-07).

10 Republicans voted no:

Justin Amash (MI-03)
Mike Coffman (CO-06)
Carlos Curbelo (FL-26)
Jeff Denham (CA-10)
Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25)
Bob Dold (IL-10)
Renee Ellmers (NC-02)
Tom Massie (KY-04)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27)
David Valadao (CA-21)

Obama has already threatened to veto the bill, so it's not going anywhere.

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