Here is how our House members and New York’s two senators voted on select issues during the legislative week ending Dec. 13, 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 and re-elected in 2024. 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 and re-elected in 2024. 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.
Teaching About Communism
The House on Dec. 6, by a 327-62 vote, passed the Crucial Communism Teaching Act (H.R. 5349), sponsored by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), to require a foundation to make a curriculum designed to teach high school students about communism as an ideology that has led to more than 100 million deaths. Salazar said the bill was needed “because America’s youth has been brainwashed by media and academia for the last 30 years to believe that communism is good.”
Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted yes
Water Management
The House on Dec. 10, by a 399-18 vote, passed the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act (S. 4367), sponsored by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), to authorize, deauthorize or modify various water resources projects by the Army Corps of Engineers. A supporter, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), said the bill “provides necessary authority and direction to the Corps to carry out its mission to maintain and improve our water resource infrastructure, from ports to levees to navigation channels.”
Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted yes
Government Buildings
The House on Dec. 10, by a 410-6 vote, passed the Improving Federal Building Security Act (S. 3613), sponsored by Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), to require facility security committees that oversee federal buildings to adopt procedures for handling operations recommendations from the Federal Protective Service. A supporter, Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), said: “Federal agencies need to be held accountable for the security decisions they make at federal office buildings. This bill will help achieve that.”
Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted yes
Regulating Clothes Washers
The House on Dec. 10, by a 215-200 vote, passed the Liberty in Laundry Act (H.R. 7673), sponsored by Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.), to bar the Energy Department from issuing energy efficiency standards for clothes washers that increase consumer costs or are not technically feasible. Ogles said the bill “safeguards the right of families to choose the appliance that best fits their needs and budget.” An opponent, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), said it “would delay and weaken popular energy efficiency standards, courting favor with polluters, not consumers.”
Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted no
Budgeting Updates
The House on Dec. 11, by unanimous vote, passed the Increasing Baseline Updates Act (H.R. 9716), sponsored by Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), to require the Congressional Budget Office to give Congress at least two updated annual budget analyzes each year. Moore said providing new information to Congress as it goes through the budgeting process would “better inform the appropriations process and other legislative proposals we consider later in any given calendar year.”
Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted yes
Military Spending
The House on Dec. 11, by a 281-140 vote, concurred in the Senate amendment with a House amendment to the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5009), sponsored by Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio). The bill would authorize $895 billion of fiscal 2025 military spending, with provisions including a 20 percent pay increase for junior enlisted military members, increased spending on military schools and housing, and about $20 billion of decreased spending on aircraft, ship, and weapons programs deemed unviable. A supporter, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), called the bill “a fair compromise that will go a long way to ensure our nation can successfully deter and defeat any adversary.” An opponent, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), cited cost overruns and waste in the military, and said the Defense Department needs to deliver more value for the taxes Americans pay to fund national security.
Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted yes
Expanding Federal Judiciary
The House on Dec. 12, by a 236-173 vote, passed the Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved Act (S. 4199), sponsored by Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), to direct the president to appoint more than 60 new U.S. district court judges, in six biennial stages, from 2025 through 2035. A supporter, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), said the new judgeships were needed because none have been added for two decades, with resulting “staggering backlogs in federal courts across the country, which has, in turn, led to litigants losing access to timely justice and a severely overworked judicial bench.” An opponent, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), faulted Republicans for failing to present the bill for a vote before last month’s elections, resulting in a politically biased vote at present, and called for Congress to “get back to the drawing board and find a way to work together in a bipartisan fashion, yielding an apolitical result.”
Michael Lawler (R-17, including Philipstown) voted yes
Pat Ryan (D-18, including Beacon) voted yes
Along with roll call votes this week, the House also passed these bills:
■ The Amtrak Transparency and Accountability for Passengers and Taxpayer Act (H.R. 8692), to require Amtrak to publicly disclose certain bonus compensation paid to Amtrak executives;
■ The FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief Act (H.R. 2672), to provide for the authority to reimburse local governments or electric cooperatives for interest expenses; and
■ The Veterans Expedited TSA Screening Safe Travel Act (H.R. 7365), to provide PreCheck to certain severely injured or disabled veterans.
SENATE
Judicial Confirmations
The Senate on Dec. 9, by a 48-44 vote, confirmed the nomination of Tiffany Johnson to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Johnson was a private practice lawyer in Atlanta from 2012 to 2017; since then, she has been an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted yes
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted yes
The Senate on Dec. 10, by a 49-48 vote, confirmed the nomination of Keli Marie Neary to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. A lawyer in the state’s attorney general’s office since 2012, Neary previously worked in the chief counsel office for the Pennsylvania police.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted yes
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted yes
The Senate on Dec. 10, by a 49-47 vote, confirmed the nomination of Cynthia Valenzuela Dixon to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Over the past three decades, Valenzuela Dixon has variously been a lawyer for the Central District, lawyer for a Mexican American legal fund, Justice Department lawyer, and judge on California’s state bar court, which regulates the state’s attorneys.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted yes
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted yes
The Senate on Dec. 11, by a 50-47 vote, confirmed the nomination of Noel Wise to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Wise has been a state judge on the superior court for Alameda County for a decade, following her two decades as a Justice Department lawyer and private lawyer in the San Francisco Bay Area, focused on environmental law.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted yes
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted yes
Labor Relations
The Senate on Dec. 11, by a 50-49 vote, rejected a cloture motion to end debate on the nomination of Lauren McFerran to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board. A nomination supporter, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said McFerran “has served admirably on the NLRB for many years, where she is known for her fairness, deep expertise, and guiding the board to deal with the challenges of the contemporary workplace.” An opponent, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), cited “gross mismanagement on Ms. McFerran’s watch [as chair] that took an independent inspector general report to uncover — serious violations of electoral procedures and coverup attempts.”
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted yes
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted yes
Regulating Nuclear Power
The Senate on Dec. 12, by a 50-45 vote, confirmed the nomination of Matthew Marzano to be on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a five-year term ending in mid-2028. Marzano has been a nuclear energy specialist on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for several years, following time as a nuclear reactor operator and trainer.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted yes
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted yes
The Senate also passed:
■ The Stop Campus Hazing Act (H.R. 5646), to require institutions of higher education to disclose hazing incidents; and
■ The Chance to Compete Act (S. 59), to implement merit-based reforms to the civil service hiring system that replace degree-based hiring with skills- and competency-based hiring.
