How your U.S. lawmaker voted

WASHINGTON — Here’s how state members of Congress voted on major issues during the legislative week that ended Saturday.

House

Approving $1.9 trillion in virus relief: Voting 219 for and 212 against, the House on Saturday approved a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, HR 1319, that would expand unemployment benefits by $400 a week from March 14 to Aug. 29; deliver payments of $1,400 a person to individuals earning up to $75,000 and $2,800 to couples earning up to $150,000 who file jointly; raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2025; expand Paycheck Protection Program benefits for small businesses and nonprofits; establish a $25 billion grant program for the restaurant industry; and increase Affordable Care Act premium subsidies for a large number of the uninsured.

The bill would raise the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 to $3,600 for children younger than 6 and to $3,000 for ages 6 through 17. It would make the maximum credit refundable to single heads of household earning up to $112,500 and married couples up to $150,000 and to families with little or no income in an attempt to lift 4.1 million children above the poverty line and reduce child poverty by 40%.

In addition, the bill would expand the earned income tax credit (EITC) for low-income working adults without children at home from $530 to $1,500 a person and raise the top income for receiving the credit from $16,000 to $21,000 for individuals. It would lower the age at which nonstudents can start claiming the EITC from 25 to 19 and make the credit available to qualified working seniors older than 65.

The bill also would provide:

• $130 billion for K-12 schools to be used mainly to fund ventilation improvements and projects to reduce class sizes, reverse pandemic learning losses and supply protective gear to teachers and pupils.

• $40 billion for postsecondary education, with colleges and universities required to allocate at least half their sum to Pell Grants.

• $350 billion to help state, local, tribal and territorial governments meet expenses including payroll costs of front-line workers, with 60% directed to states and the District of Columbia and 40% split between county and municipal governments. Tribal governments would receive $20 billion and territories $4.5 billion.

• $1 billion for Head Start and $39 billion in grants to keep child care centers open, with low-income families given priority for receiving child care tuition aid.

• $12 billion for programs to address hunger, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program and a program that electronically pays grocery bills for children to offset their loss of school meals.

• $4.5 billion for the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program for home heating and cooling, plus billions for Older Americans Act beneficiaries and programs addressing child abuse and domestic violence.

• $28 billion for mass transit; $8 billion for airports; $1.5 billion for Amtrak; and $15 billion in payroll support to avert layoffs in the passenger-airline sector.

• $46 billion for tracing and monitoring COVID-19; $8.5 billion for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination efforts; $5.2 billion for vaccine research and manufacturing; and $7.6 billion for community health centers.

• $10 billion for fast-tracking the purchase of goods and services for combating COVID-19 under the Defense Production Act.

• $25 billion in rent and utility assistance; $10 billion to help landlords pay mortgages, property taxes and utility bills; $5 billion for homeless shelters; and $5 billion in housing vouchers for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.

• $3.6 billion for Department of Agriculture food distribution and grants and loans to farmers, plus hundreds of millions for rural health care and loans to minority farmers harmed by historically biased farm policies.

• $13.5 billion for expanding health care including COVID-19 treatments for veterans; $750 million for veterans’ day care; $400 million for job retraining; and $272 million for processing medical claims.

• $570 million to fund family and sick leave with pay for postal workers and federal civil servants.

Voting yes: Suzan DelBene, D-Medina; Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens; Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor; Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle; Kim Schrier, D-Issaquah; Adam Smith, D-Bellevue; Marilyn Strickland, D-Olympia

Voting no: Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas; Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside; Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane

Outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation: By a vote of 224 for and 206 against, the House on Thursday passed a bill, HR 5, that would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Fair Housing Act of 1968 to protect LGBTQ individuals against discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The proposed Equality Act also would expand the Civil Rights Act’s listing of public accommodations to include retail stores, banks and transportation and health care services, and it would designate sexual characteristics as a protected class in public accommodations. In addition, the bill would prohibit the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1994 from being invoked to sanction discrimination against the LGBTQ community.

Voting yes: DelBene, Larsen, Kilmer, Jayapal, Schrier, Smith, Strickland

Voting no: Herrera Beutler, Newhouse, McMorris Rodgers

Protecting Grand Canyon, wilderness: By a vote of 227 for and 200 against, the House on Friday passed a bill, HR 803, that would protect more than 3 million acres of public land in the West as wilderness while putting a permanent ban on uranium mining claims on 1.2 million acres of federally owned land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona.

In part, the bill would protect from development more than 1 million unspoiled acres in Colorado, 258,400 acres in Washington, 924,700 acres in California and large swaths of public land in Oregon, while expanding the National Wild and Scenic River System by adding 460 miles of protected waterways in Washington and 480 miles in California.

Voting yes: DelBene, Larsen, Kilmer, Jayapal, Schrier, Smith, Strickland

Voting no: Herrera Beutler, Newhouse, McMorris Rodgers

Blocking Biden energy orders: By a vote of 204 for and 221 against, the House on Friday defeated a Republican bid to prevent HR 803 from becoming law until after President Joe Biden has rescinded executive orders aimed at transforming the U.S. energy economy from one based on fossil fuels to clean energy over the next three decades.

Voting yes: Herrera Beutler, Newhouse, McMorris Rodgers

Voting no: DelBene, Larsen, Kilmer, Jayapal, Schrier, Smith, Strickland

Senate

Jennifer Granholm, secretary of energy: By a vote of 64 for and 35 against, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Jennifer Granholm, 62, as secretary of energy. She was the first female governor of Michigan and served as Michigan’s attorney general, the first woman to hold that post.

Voting yes: Maria Cantwell, D; Patty Murray, D

Thomas Vilsack, secretary of agriculture: By a vote of 92 for and seven against, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed Thomas Vilsack, 70, as secretary of agriculture. A former governor of Iowa, he served as agriculture secretary throughout both terms of the Barack Obama presidency.

Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United Nations envoy: By a vote of 78 for and 21 against, the Senate on Feb. 23 confirmed Linda Thomas-Greenfield, 68, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. A 35-year veteran of the Foreign Service, she served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs under former President Barack Obama.

Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray