Along with the Senate’s roll call votes last week, the House passed by voice vote the PEPFAR Extension Act (H.R. 6651), to extend certain authorities relating to United Sates efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria globally; and the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Act (H.R. 6018), to establish an interagency program to assist countries in the Sahel, Maghreb, and adjacent regions of Africa to improve immediate and long-term capabilities to counter terrorist threats.

There were no key votes in the House this week.

SENATE VOTES

COAST GUARD BUDGET: The Senate has concurred in the House amendment to the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act (S. 140), to provide a 2-year budget authorization for spending by the Coast Guard and Federal Maritime Commission. A supporter, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said the bill’s authorization of new national security cutter ships highlighted an effort to rebuild the Coast Guard’s capacity to patrol waterways and help prevent organized crime. An opponent, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., criticized the bill’s denial of state authority to regulate the discharge of pollutants from ships engaged in maritime commerce. The vote, on Nov. 14, was 94 yeas to 6 nays.

YEAS: Susan Collins, R-Maine; Angus King, I-Maine

SELLING WEAPONS TO BAHRAIN: The Senate has passed a motion to table a motion to discharge from committee a resolution (S.J. Res. 65), sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that would have disapproved of proposed U.S. exports to Bahrain of missile and rocket launch systems. Paul said Bahrain’s participation in a coalition of Middle East countries waging war and causing a humanitarian disaster in Yemen meant the U.S. should not send it weapons used against Yemen’s people. A resolution opponent, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said blocking sales to Bahrain, which houses a major U.S. naval base, “over something that has nothing to do with them but has something to do with another country is not a pragmatic nor a sensible step.” The vote to table, on Nov. 15, was 77 yeas to 21 nays.

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YEAS: Collins, King

FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD MEMBER: The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Michelle Bowman to serve on the board of the Federal Reserve System of banks. Bowman, currently Kansas’s State Bank Commissioner, had been vice president of the Farmers & Drovers Bank from 2010 to 2017, and an official in the Homeland Security Department during the George W. Bush administration. A supporter, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said Bowman’s deep experience with community banking as both a banker and a regulator made her an ideal candidate for serving in the community banking specialist seat on the Federal Reserve’s board. The vote, on Nov. 15, was 64 yeas to 34 nays.

YEAS: Collins

NAYS: King


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