How They Voted (Congress)

Here is how our House members and New York’s two senators voted on select issues during the legislative weeks ending March 15, as reported by Targeted News Service. Click here for previous votes.

Michael Lawler (R), District 17 (including Philipstown)
Lawler, 37, was elected to Congress in 2022. From 2021 to 2022, he was a Republican member of the state Assembly from the 97th district in Rockland County. A graduate of Suffern High School, he holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Manhattan College. He is a former director of the state Republican Party and former deputy supervisor of Orangetown.

Pat Ryan (D), District 18 (including Beacon)
Ryan, 41, was elected to Congress in 2022. Formerly the county executive of Ulster, he grew up in Kingston and holds a bachelor’s degree in international politics from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown. Ryan served in the U.S. Army as a combat intelligence officer from 2004 to 2009, including two tours in Iraq. He is also a former technology executive.

Investing in Companies

The House on March 8, by a 212-205 vote, passed the Expanding Access to Capital Act (H.R. 2799), sponsored by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) The bill would reduce regulation of investment in smaller businesses, including by lessening government registration requirements and by expanding eligibility for investment and the size of investments. McHenry said the changes would “make improvements to our public markets and create new opportunities for everyday investors to save and build wealth and enjoy their version of the American Dream.” An opponent, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said: “By weakening investor protections in numerous ways, this bill would allow fraud to proliferate and retirees and other mom-and-pop investors to be ripped off by bad actors.”

Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted no

Rural Broadband Service

The House on March 11, by a 375-20 vote, passed the E-BRIDGE Act (H.R. 1752), sponsored by Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) to authorize Commerce Department grants for funding broadband Internet development projects in rural areas. Graves said the bill was intended to remove “hurdles to using these grants for broadband projects, including difficult last-mile efforts that often delay rural broadband deployment.”

Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted yes

Ocean Litter

The House on March 11, by a 326-73 vote, passed the Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act (H.R. 886), sponsored by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) to make changes to the Marine Debris Foundation and Marine Debris Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including requesting that the foundation’s main office be moved from Washington, D.C., to a coastal state. Bonamici said it gave NOAA “greater flexibility to deliver federal resources and enter into cooperative agreements to conduct marine debris prevention and cleanup.”

Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted yes

Use of Federal Office Space

The House on March 12, by a 217-203 vote, passed the Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act (H.R. 6276), sponsored by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), to require the establishment of standards to measure the utilization and management of federal government buildings, and require a plan for ensuring that building utilization in Washington, D.C., exceeds 60 percent. Perry said: “Empty federal buildings are not only a drain to the federal taxpayer, they also don’t produce investments needed for local economies because nobody is in the building.” A bill opponent, Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) said it “does fall short by failing to take into account the complexity of the federal leasing process and using an incomplete and flawed metric for measuring the occupancy rate of federal buildings.”

Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted no

Biden Immigration Policies

The House on March 12, by a 226-193 vote, passed a resolution (H. Res. 1065), sponsored by Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas), to denounce the Biden administration’s immigration policies as creating the country’s worst border security crisis. De La Cruz said the administration’s “approach to border security, marked by its relentless pursuit of political correctness at the expense of common sense and American lives, has reached a point of abject failure.” An opponent, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called the resolution “another ham-fisted attempt to weaponize the issue at the border, and it is filled with misinformation.”

Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted no

Banning TikTok

The House on March 13, by a 352-65 vote, with one voting present, passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521), sponsored by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), to prohibit U.S. Internet hosting service companies from doing business with TikTok, unless TikTok is sold to a non-Chinese entity. Gallagher called the bill “a commonsense measure to protect our national security” by ending China’s control of TikTok, without censoring speech on TikTok or social media platforms owned by U.S. companies. An opponent, Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), said the bill violated the principle that in the U.S. “the citizen decides what to be exposed to and what ideologies to embrace and consider and is always free to engage in expression including across international boundaries.”

Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted yes

Along with this week’s roll call votes, the Senate also passed the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act (S. 1189), to establish a pilot grant program to improve recycling accessibility; and the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act (S. 1194), to require the Environmental Protection Agency to carry out certain activities to improve recycling and composting programs.

SENATE

Politicized Prosecutions

The Senate on March, by a 50-43 vote, rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), to the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 4366) that would have blocked funding for Justice Department efforts to bring federal charges against individuals for political purposes. Lee cited prosecutions of former President Donald Trump and various non-liberal groups as indicating that the Justice Department has pursued charges against those believed to be a threat to the political interests of the Democratic party.

Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted no
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted no

Earmark Spending

The Senate on March 8, by a 64-32 vote, rejected a motion by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to refer the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 4366) to committee to have all so-called earmark spending provisions be removed from the bill. Scott said the bill had more than 6,600 earmarks, costing $12 billion, and said “the American taxpayer should not be used as a political piggybank” to advance reckless spending. An opponent, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said the motion “should be unacceptable to everyone who has worked with us to make sure this package includes the projects they know will make a difference to folks back home.”

Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted no
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted no

Census and Migrants

The Senate on March 8, by a 51-45 vote, rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), to the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 4366) that would have required that for the census, counts of only U.S. citizens, and not non-citizen immigrants, be used to determine each state’s number of House seats and number of electoral votes. Hagerty said the current practice “encourages illegal immigration in sanctuary cities as a way to increase political power” in states such as California that have many illegal immigrants. An opponent, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said “this amendment adds detrimental new requirements that would inject politics into the census,” and Murray claimed it also went against a constitutional requirement to count all residents of each state, not just citizens.

Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted no
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted no

Consolidated Appropriations

The Senate on March 8 passed, by a 75-22 vote, the House amendment to the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 4366), sponsored by Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), to provide fiscal 2024 funding for various federal departments, including Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs. A supporter, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said the amendment “invests in keeping Americans safe and in keeping America moving forward as we rebuild our country’s infrastructure.” An opponent, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), said it continued a trend of unsustainable high deficits and wasteful spending, with resulting harms from inflation.