WASHINGTON — Here’s a look at how area members of Congress voted over the week ending May 13.
House
FURTHER AID TO UKRAINE: The House has passed the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act (H.R. 7691), sponsored by Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-Conn., to provide $40 billion of aid to Ukraine in response to the invasion by Russia. DeLauro said: “We need to protect global democracy, limiting Russian aggression in the longer term, and strengthening our own national security. Failure is not an option.” The vote, on May 10, was 368 yeas to 57 nays.
YEAS
Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-3rd
FIREFIGHTERS AND DISEASE: The House has passed the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act (H.R. 2499), sponsored by Rep. Salud O. Carbajal, D-Calif., to codify into law the presumption that heart disease, lung disease, and certain cancers in firefighters in the federal government are caused by firefighting duties. Carbajal said the bill was needed because “unlike their state and local counterparts, federal firefighters must provide the specific incident in their employment which caused their disease if they become sick, even if they fought the same fire as their local counterparts fought.” An opponent, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said: “By singling out federal firefighters, this bill is not fair to postal workers with skin cancer or federal nurses with lung cancer. This bill throws out integrity measures, weakening the federal workers’ compensation program.” The vote, on May 11, was 288 yeas to 131 nays.
YEAS
Herrera Beutler
DIGITAL PRIVACY: The House has passed the Promoting Digital Privacy Technologies Act (H.R. 847), sponsored by Rep. Haley M. Stevens, D-Mich., to require federal government agencies to fund research on technologies that improve privacy and the responsible use of data. Stevens said the bill “will help ensure that we have the necessary tools to fully implement privacy legislation without stifling innovation.” The vote, on May 11, was 401 yeas to 19 nays.