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The House of Representatives voted on the Global Fragility and Violence Reduction Act of 2018, a bill that directs the federal government to create an interagency initiative to prevent violence and stabilize foreign countries where conflict exists. Though noble in its intentions to reduce global violence, this legislation will lead to continued and open-ended nation-building overseas, committing the American government to develop foreign countries at the taxpayer’s expense.
It calls for the government to identify at least six countries or regions and develop 10-year plans to address conflicts in those regions to strategically reduce violence there. The bill commits the U.S. Department of Defense provide “security” for stabilization activities of the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The bill also requires that the initiative be developed in coordination with foreign governments and mandates regular reports to Congress on all funding requested, planned, and projected to execute these programs.
In short, this bill invites an expansion of U.S. foreign aid and involvement in foreign affairs designed to build up the institutions of foreign nations. It is not the role of American government to secure good government for foreign countries in violent areas of the world without clearly defined U.S. national security interests. Violence in other countries that might lead to future terroristic threats is not a clearly defined national security interest. The United States cannot be expected to go in search of monsters to destroy.
In the realm of foreign policy and national security, Congress should always have an inward focus and be accountable to the voters for any actions — aggressive or defensive. This bill would create separate funding and policy ranks and expand the power of bureaucracies to influence future foreign actions and initiatives. This further expands the government, cedes autonomy to non-elected officials, and ties the hands of Congress for independent action while committing the U.S. government to foreign involvement indefinitely.
The House of Representatives passed the bill on November 27, 2018, at 7:08 p.m. in a roll call vote of 376 – 16.
To see how your elected officials stack up or other votes that compose the Liberty Score, view our full scorecard here.
Conservative position: NO
House of Representatives*
*Minority party (Democrats) in italics
YEAs — 376
| Abraham Adams Aderholt Aguilar Allen Arrington Babin Bacon Balderson Banks (IN) Barr Barragán Bass Beatty Bera Bergman Beyer Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bost Boyle, Brendan F. Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brat Brooks (IN) Brown (MD) Brownley (CA) Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Bustos Butterfield Byrne Calvert Capuano Carbajal Cárdenas Carson (IN) Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cartwright Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chabot Cheney Chu, Judy Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Cloud Clyburn Coffman Cohen Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Comer Comstock Conaway Connolly Cook Cooper Correa Costa Costello (PA) Courtney Cramer Crawford Crist Crowley Cuellar Curbelo (FL) Curtis Davidson Davis (CA) Davis, Danny Davis, Rodney DeFazio DeGette Delaney DeLauro DelBene Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Donovan Doyle, Michael F. Duncan (SC) Dunn Emmer Engel Eshoo Espaillat Estes (KS) Esty (CT) Evans Faso Ferguson Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flores Fortenberry Foster Foxx Frankel (FL) Fudge Gabbard Gallagher Gallego Garamendi Gianforte Gibbs Gomez Goodlatte | Gottheimer Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green, Al Green, Gene Griffith Grijalva Guthrie Handel Harper Hartzler Heck Hensarling Hern Herrera Beutler Higgins (LA) Higgins (NY) Hill Himes Holding Hollingsworth Hoyer Hudson Huffman Huizenga Hultgren Hunter Hurd Issa Jackson Lee Jayapal Jeffries Jenkins (KS) Johnson (GA) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson, E. B. Johnson, Sam Jordan Joyce (OH) Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy Khanna Kihuen Kildee Kilmer Kind King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) Kustoff (TN) LaHood Lamb Lamborn Lance Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee Lesko Levin Lewis (GA) Lewis (MN) Lieu, Ted Lipinski LoBiondo Loebsack Lofgren Long Love Lowenthal Lowey Lucas Luetkemeyer Lujan Grisham, M. Luján, Ben Ray Lynch MacArthur Maloney, Carolyn B. Marchant Marino Marshall Mast Matsui McCarthy McCaul McCollum McEachin McGovern McHenry McKinley McMorris Rodgers McNerney McSally Meadows Meeks Meng Mitchell Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Moore Morelle Moulton Mullin Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Newhouse Norcross Norman Nunes O'Halleran O'Rourke | Olson Palazzo Pallone Palmer Panetta Pascrell Paulsen Payne Pearce Pelosi Perlmutter Perry Peters Peterson Pingree Pittenger Pocan Poe (TX) Poliquin Polis Posey Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Reed Reichert Rice (NY) Richmond Roby Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rohrabacher Rokita Rooney, Francis Ros-Lehtinen Rosen Ross Rothfus Rouzer Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Russell Rutherford Ryan (OH) Sánchez Sarbanes Scalise Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Sensenbrenner Serrano Sessions Sewell (AL) Shea-Porter Sherman Shimkus Shuster Simpson Sinema Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Smucker Soto Speier Stefanik Stewart Stivers Suozzi Swalwell (CA) Takano Taylor Tenney Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Thornberry Titus Tonko Torres Trott Tsongas Turner Upton Vargas Veasey Vela Velázquez Visclosky Wagner Walberg Walden Walker Walorski Wasserman Schultz Waters, Maxine Watson Coleman Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Welch Wenstrup Westerman Williams Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Woodall Yarmuth Yoder Yoho Young (AK) Young (IA) Zeldin |
NAYs — 16
| Amash Biggs Blum Brooks (AL) Duncan (TN) Gaetz | Gohmert Gosar Grothman Harris Hice, Jody B. Loudermilk | Massie McClintock Rice (SC) Sanford |
Not Voting — 38
| Amodei Barletta Barton Bishop (MI) Burgess Culberson Cummings Denham DesJarlais Duffy Ellison Frelinghuysen Garrett | Gonzalez (TX) Gowdy Gutiérrez Hanabusa Hastings Jones Knight Labrador LaMalfa Maloney, Sean Messer Noem Nolan | Ratcliffe Renacci Rooney, Thomas J. Roskam Royce (CA) Rush Sires Tipton Valadao Walters, Mimi Walz Wilson (FL) |
*Minority party (Democrats) in italics
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