Recent Senate Votes
Fiscal 2017 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Fiscal 2017 Transportation-Housing and Urban Development Appropriations – Passage – Vote Passed (90-8, 2 Not Voting)
The military construction and veterans part of the bill would provide a total $177.4 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding for the VA, including increases for health care, benefit claims processing, medical and prosthetic research and homeless veterans assistance. The transportation section of the bill would provide $56.5 billion in discretionary funding for fiscal 2017 for the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments and related agencies. The overall measure also provides $1.1 billion in emergency funds to combat the Zika virus.
Sen. Rob Portman voted YES
Sen. Sherrod Brown voted YES
Fiscal 2017 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Fiscal 2017 Transportation-Housing and Urban Development Appropriations – Zika Funding – Vote Agreed to (68-30, 2 Not Voting)
The second-degree amendment to the substitute amendment provides $1.1 billion in emergency funds to combat the Zika virus.
Sen. Rob Portman voted YES
Sen. Sherrod Brown voted YES
Fiscal 2017 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Fiscal 2017 Transportation-Housing and Urban Development Appropriations – Cloture on the Substitute Amendment – Vote Agreed to (88-10, 2 Not Voting)
The substitute amendment provides a total $177.4 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding in the military construction and veterans part of the bill for the VA, including increases for health care, benefit claims processing, medical and prosthetic research and homeless veterans assistance. The amendment also funds the transportation section of the bill with $56.5 billion in discretionary funding for fiscal 2017 for the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments and related agencies. It also provides $1.1 billion in emergency funds to deal with the Zika virus.
Sen. Rob Portman voted YES
Sen. Sherrod Brown voted YES
Recent House Votes
Fiscal 2016 Zika Response Appropriations – Passage – Vote Passed (241-184, 8 Not Voting)
The bill provides $622 million in supplemental funds to activities to deal with the Zika virus including $503 million in domestic funding and $119 million in international funding — with the cost of that funding being fully offset. The measure rescinds $352 million originally allocated to fight the Ebola virus along with rescinding $270 million in Department of Health and Human Services administrative funding.
Rep. Jim Jordan voted YES
Fiscal 2017 Defense Authorization – Passage – Vote Passed (277-147, 9 Not Voting)
The bill authorizes $602.2 billion for discretionary defense spending in fiscal 2017, including $543.4 billion for the Pentagon’s base, non-war budget that is subject to spending caps. It also includes $58.8 billion for uncapped Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding for war operations and other anti-terror activities but provides that $23.1 billion of that total be used for non-war, base defense budget needs, including $18 billion for aircraft, ships and other items.
Rep. Jim Jordan voted YES
Fiscal 2017 Military-Construction-Veterans Affairs Appropriations – Federal Contractors and Sexual Orientation Discrimination – Vote Failed (212-213, 8 Not Voting)
The amendment would have barred federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation.
Rep. Jim Jordan voted NO
Fiscal 2017 Military-Construction-Veterans Affairs Appropriations – Passage – Vote Passed (295-129, 9 Not Voting)
The measure provides a total of $81.5 billion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2017 to fund military construction projects and programs of the Veterans Affairs Department and provides $102.5 billion in mandatory spending for fiscal 2017 and $172 million in Overseas Contingency Operations funding.
Rep. Jim Jordan voted YES
Upcoming Votes
Fiscal 2017 Defense Authorization – S2943
The bill would authorize $602.2 billion for discretionary defense spending in fiscal 2017, including $59 billion for operations overseas. It would allow the Defense Department to plan and design a stateside facility to one day house the detainees currently held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. However, it would keep existing prohibitions on Guantanamo’s closure, including blocking any funds authorized in the bill to be used for actually constructing a stateside replacement. The bill would require women to register for the draft, starting Jan. 1, 2018, and would create a commission to examine whether the Selective Service is still needed.
Zika Vector Control – HR897
The bill temporarily would modify the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to prohibit the EPA or a state government from requiring a permit for the use of registered pesticides near navigable waters. It also temporarily would modify the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to prohibit the EPA and states from requiring permits for the point source use of a pesticide, or the residue resulting from the use of a pesticide, that is registered under FIFRA.
Clarifying Congressional Intent in Providing for District of Columbia Home Rule – HR5233
The measure would repeal the District of Columbia law that modified D.C.’s home rule charter to allow locally generated funds to be spent without congressional approval, and it would modify the 1973 D.C. Home Rule Act to further specify that all city funding is subject to Congress’ annually appropriations process. It also would alter the 1973 law to specify that the District has no authority to change the District’s budget process as it relates to congressional review and approval.
Fiscal 2017 Energy-Water Appropriations – HR5055
The bill would provide a total of $37.4 billion in funding subject to discretionary caps for fiscal 2017 for the Energy Department and federal water projects. The bill would appropriate $6.1 billion in new funding for civil projects of the Army Corps of Engineers. It would provide $12.9 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration and almost $6.2 billion for environmental management activities. It also would bar the use of funds in the bill to close the Yucca Mountain license application, or to irrevocably remove Yucca Mountain as an option for repository.
Energy Policy Overhaul – S2012
The bill would include all or parts of 37 House-passed measures including legislation that would promote the accelerated development and construction of natural gas pipelines and hydropower projects by increasing the authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, require the agency to set hard deadlines for environmental reviews and permitting, and require the designation of at least 10 corridors across federal lands in the Eastern U.S. where pipelines could be built.
