This Week in Congress

The House is in session Monday through Thursday before adjourning for the five-week August recess.

Last week, only 15 Republicans voted against H.R. 6147, which funds the Department of Interior, the National Endowment on the Arts and the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, among other agencies. The bill appropriates $59.652 trillion dollars. You can see the roll-call vote here.

The House rejected an amendment to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities by 15%. The vote was 114-297. One Democrat, Vincente Gonzalez (TX-15), voted for the amendment, while 113 Republicans voted for it and 112 Republicans voted no. You can see the vote here.

The House also passed an amendment prohibiting the Post Office from getting into banking. You can see that vote here.

Last week, the House passed a resolution opposing a carbon tax. The vote was very partisan as only six Republicans voted against the resolution. They are:

Curbello  (FL-26)

Fitzpatrick (PA-08)

Hollingsworth (IN-09)

Love (UT-04)

Rooney (FL-19)

Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27)

The following Democrats voted for the resolution:

Bishop (GA-02)

Cuellar (TX-28)

Lamb (PA-18)

Gonzalez (TX-15)

Murphy (FL-07)

O’Halloren (AZ-01)

Sinema (AZ-09)

Also last week, only five members voted against H.R. 3030, which expanded U.S. intervention overseas in the name of ending “genocide” (ignoring that most atrocities are caused by U.S. intervention. Those members are:

Amash (MI-03)

Biggs (AZ-05)

Jones (NC-03)

Massie (KY-04)

Sanford (SC-01)

The Senate will be considering nominations and the appropriations bill the House passed last week.

This week, the House may consider the conference report for the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). For more on this act see here.

The House will also consider some health care bills, including H.R. q84, which repeals ObamaCare’s medical device tax. You can read Campaign for Liberty Chairman Ron Paul’s thoughts on the tax here

The House will also consider two bills expanded access to Health Savings Accounts (HSA). One, H.R. 6199, repeals the provisions of ObamaCare that prohibit the use of funds form an HSA to purchase over-the-counter products. The other is H.R. 631.

The House will also consider a number of bills under suspension, including:

1. H.R. 5535—Creates a new State Department position: Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources to ensure Department of State’s programs focus on energy security and energy diplomacy.
2. H.Res. 981—Condemns the violence in Nicaragua and calls for sanctions against the individuals responsible.
3.  S. 1182—Extends the National Flood Insurance Program until November 2018. For Campaign for Liberty Chairman Ron Paul’s thoughts on the program, see here.
4. H.R. 6124—Allows Indian tribes to voluntary join the Social Security system
5. H.R. 3500—Prohibits the IRS from rehiring any individual who was fired for misconduct or was removed for cause.  Why isn’t this already policy and how many people who were fired for misconduct is the iRS rehiring?
6. H.R. 1476—Clarifies that receiving health care from the Indian Health Service or a tribe origination does not disqualify someone from having a Health Savings Account.
7. H.R. 1201—Exempts those with religious objections to conventional medical treatment from complying with the ObamaCare’s individual mandate—which was not repealed, the penalty for complying was simply reduced to zero.
8. H.R. 2345—Studies implementing a three-digit code for the National Suicide Prevention hotline and studies the effectiveness of the current hotline in helping suicidal veterans. The alarming number of veteran suicides is one of the most tragic results of U.S. militarism.
9. H.R. 4881—Establishes a taskforce to meet the Internet needs of those engaged in “precision agriculture,” because high-speed Internet is not a right that must be guaranteed by the federal government.
10. H.R. 5709—Criminals “pirate” radio broadcasting, which is stations that broadcast without an FCC license to use the airwaves