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Vote Alert: Surrender on the border wall; empower drug cartels and human traffickers

Vote Alert: Surrender on the border wall; empower drug cartels and human traffickers

At the end of 2018, President Donald Trump demanded that Congress give his administration $5.6 billion as a down payment to fund border security and construct physical barriers on the southern border. After a month-long government shutdown and nearly three weeks of further bipartisan negotiations, Congress passed a spending bill that did not give the president anything close to what he asked for. This bill was put together behind closed doors, does not adequately secure the border, will prevent President Trump from building the wall, encourages human trafficking with amnesty provisions, and on top of all that wastes money.

The process that both Republicans and Democrats used to bring this $333 billion spending bill to a vote was evil and wrong, and you don’t have to be a conservative to see that. Lawmakers were given fewer than 12 hours to read the text of a 1,169-page bill before the vote, with leadership of both parties aware that if this bill did not pass, the government would shut down. Congress waited until the last minute, again, and rammed through massive spending legislation before voters knew what their representatives were voting for. Both parties did this to hide things from the American people. Such a government is unfit for a free people.

This vote was to fund the government through September 30, setting up another government shutdown fight this fall, putting spending on autopilot, and again kicking the can down the road on addressing the $22 trillion national debt. On the immigration issue, Congress fundamentally undermined President Trump’s agenda and restricted the president’s ability to build the wall. For $1.375 billion, Trump is permitted to construct just 55 miles of border fencing and is only allowed to build these physical barriers in the Rio Grande Valley. The president is also prohibited from building barriers in strategic locations where fencing is needed — but the law is even more restrictive. The federal government is required to consult with local governments, which must approve of any plans for wall construction. The law empowers local Democrats in the Rio Grande Valley to effectively cancel President Trump’s plans to build a wall in their towns.

Perhaps the worst aspect of this law is a section that will grant de facto amnesty to illegal immigrants. Section 224(a) prohibits the deportation of anyone who is sponsoring an “unaccompanied” minor illegal alien – or who says they might sponsor a UAC, or lives in a household with a UAC, or a household that potentially might sponsor a UAC. The Center for Immigration Studies reports that 80 percent of UAC sponsors are in the United States illegally. This part of the border deal uses migrant children to shield these illegal aliens from deportation, granting effective amnesty to an untold number of illegal immigrants and inviting human traffickers to smuggle children to the border and engage in immigration fraud to stay in the United States.

The legislation also contains a cap on ICE’s detention capacity, expands catch-and-release, and a raises pay for federal workers without spending offsets. It is irresponsible legislation in every way imaginable.

This is a truly bipartisan failure. Democrats in the House of Representatives did not have enough votes to pass the bill by themselves. They needed Republicans to support the bill to pass it out of the House. Instead of withholding their votes for a better bill, many Republicans, some of whom claim to be conservatives, voted for the bill. An alternative short-term continuing resolution to keep the government open while lawmakers read what’s in the spending deal, offered by the House Freedom Caucus, was not even considered.

The U.S. Senate voted to pass this spending deal on February 14, 2019, at 3:59 p.m. in a roll call vote of 83  16.

The House of Representatives voted to pass this spending deal on February 14, 2019, at 8:59 p.m. in a roll call vote of 300 – 128.

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 (Republicans) in italics 

 YEAs — 300

Adams

Aguilar

Amodei

Armstrong

Axne

Bacon

Balderson

Barr

Barragán

Bass

Beatty

Bera

Bergman

Beyer

Bishop (GA)

Bishop (UT)

Blumenauer

Blunt Rochester

Bonamici

Bost

Boyle, Brendan F.

Brindisi

Brooks (IN)

Brown (MD)

Brownley (CA)

Buchanan

Bustos

Butterfield

Calvert

Carbajal

Cárdenas

Carson (IN)

Carter (TX)

Cartwright

Case

Casten (IL)

Castor (FL)

Cheney

Chu, Judy

Cicilline

Cisneros

Clark (MA)

Clay

Cleaver

Clyburn

Cohen

Cole

Collins (NY)

Conaway

Connolly

Cook

Cooper

Costa

Courtney

Cox (CA)

Craig

Crist

Crow

Cuellar

Cummings

Cunningham

Davids (KS)

Davis (CA)

Davis, Danny K.

Davis, Rodney

Dean

DeFazio

DeGette

DeLauro

DelBene

Delgado

Demings

DeSaulnier

Diaz-Balart

Dingell

Doyle, Michael F.

Emmer

Engel

Eshoo

Evans

Ferguson

Finkenauer

Fitzpatrick

Fleischmann

Fletcher

Flores

Fortenberry

Foster

Foxx (NC)

Frankel

Fudge

Fulcher

Gabbard

Gaetz

Gallego

Garamendi

Gianforte

Gibbs

Golden

Gonzalez (OH)

Gottheimer

Granger

Green (TX)

Guest

Guthrie

Haaland

Hagedorn

Harder (CA)

Hastings

Hayes

Heck

Herrera Beutler

Higgins (NY)

Hill (AR)

Hill (CA)

Himes

Horn, Kendra S.

Horsford

Houlahan

Hoyer

Huffman

Hurd (TX)

Jackson Lee

Jeffries

Johnson (GA)

Johnson (OH)

Johnson (SD)

Johnson (TX)

Joyce (OH)

Kaptur

Katko

Keating

Kelly (IL)

Kennedy

Khanna

Kildee

Kilmer

Kim

Kind

King (NY)

Kirkpatrick

Krishnamoorthi

Kuster (NH)

Kustoff (TN)

LaMalfa

Lamb

Langevin

Larsen (WA)

Larson (CT)

Lawrence

Lawson (FL)

Lee (CA)

Lee (NV)

Levin (CA)

Levin (MI)

Lewis

Lieu, Ted

Lipinski

Loebsack

Lofgren

Lowenthal

Lowey

Lucas

Luetkemeyer

Luján

Luria

Lynch

Malinowski

Maloney, Carolyn B.

Maloney, Sean

Matsui

McAdams

McBath

McCarthy

McCaul

McCollum

McEachin

McGovern

McHenry

McKinley

McNerney

Meeks

Meng

Miller

Moolenaar

Moore

Morelle

Moulton

Mucarsel-Powell

Murphy

Nadler

Napolitano

Neal

Neguse

Newhouse

Norcross

Nunes

O'Halleran

Olson

Palazzo

Pallone

Panetta

Pappas

Pascrell

Payne

Pelosi

Pence

Perlmutter

Peters

Peterson

Phillips

Pingree

Pocan

Porter

Price (NC)

Raskin

Reed

Rice (NY)

Richmond

Riggleman

Roby

Rodgers (WA)

Roe, David P.

Rogers (KY)

Rose (NY)

Rouda

Roybal-Allard

Ruiz

Ruppersberger

Rush

Rutherford

Ryan

Sánchez

Sarbanes

Scalise

Scanlon

Schakowsky

Schiff

Schneider

Schrader

Schrier

Scott (VA)

Scott, David

Serrano

Sewell (AL)

Shalala

Sherman

Sherrill

Shimkus

Simpson

Sires

Slotkin

Smith (NJ)

Smith (WA)

Soto

Spanberger

Speier

Stanton

Stauber

Stefanik

Steil

Stevens

Stewart

Stivers

Suozzi

Swalwell (CA)

Takano

Thompson (CA)

Thompson (MS)

Thompson (PA)

Thornberry

Titus

Tonko

Torres (CA)

Torres Small (NM)

Trahan

Trone

Turner

Underwood

Upton

Van Drew

Veasey

Visclosky

Wagner

Walden

Walorski

Waltz

Wasserman Schultz

Waters

Watson Coleman

Welch

Wenstrup

Wexton

Wild

Wilson (FL)

Wittman

Womack

Woodall

Yarmuth

Young

NAYs — 128

Abraham

Aderholt

Allen

Amash

Arrington

Babin

Baird

Banks

Biggs

Bilirakis

Brady

Brooks (AL)

Buck

Bucshon

Budd

Burchett

Burgess

Byrne

Carter (GA)

Castro (TX)

Chabot

Clarke (NY)

Cline

Cloud

Collins (GA)

Comer

Correa

Crawford

Crenshaw

Curtis

Davidson (OH)

DesJarlais

Doggett

Duffy

Duncan

Dunn

Escobar

Espaillat

Estes

Gallagher

García (IL)

Garcia (TX)

Gohmert

Gomez

Gonzalez (TX)

Gooden

Gosar

Graves (GA)

Graves (LA)

Graves (MO)

Green (TN)

Griffith

Grijalva

Grothman

Harris

Hartzler

Hern, Kevin

Hice (GA)

Higgins (LA)

Holding

Hollingsworth

Hudson

Huizenga

Hunter

Jayapal

Johnson (LA)

Jordan

Joyce (PA)

Kelly (MS)

Kelly (PA)

King (IA)

LaHood

Lamborn

Latta

Lesko

Long

Loudermilk

Marchant

Marshall

Massie

Mast

McClintock

Meadows

Meuser

Mitchell

Mooney (WV)

Mullin

Norman

Ocasio-Cortez

Omar

Palmer

Perry

Posey

Pressley

Ratcliffe

Reschenthaler

Rice (SC)

Rogers (AL)

Rooney (FL)

Rose, John W.

Rouzer

Roy

Schweikert

Scott, Austin

Sensenbrenner

Smith (MO)

Smith (NE)

Smucker

Spano

Steube

Taylor

Timmons

Tipton

Tlaib

Vargas

Vela

Velázquez

Walberg

Walker

Watkins

Weber (TX)

Webster (FL)

Westerman

Williams

Wilson (SC)

Wright

Yoho

Zeldin

NOT VOTING — 4

Allred

Deutch

Kinzinger

Quigley

*Minority party (Republicans) in italics 


U.S. Senate

YEAs — 83

Alexander (R-TN)

Baldwin (D-WI)

Barrasso (R-WY)

Bennet (D-CO)

Blackburn (R-TN)

Blumenthal (D-CT)

Blunt (R-MO)

Boozman (R-AR)

Brown (D-OH)

Cantwell (D-WA)

Capito (R-WV)

Cardin (D-MD)

Carper (D-DE)

Casey (D-PA)

Cassidy (R-LA)

Collins (R-ME)

Coons (D-DE)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Cortez Masto (D-NV)

Cramer (R-ND)

Crapo (R-ID)

Daines (R-MT)

Duckworth (D-IL)

Durbin (D-IL)

Enzi (R-WY)

Ernst (R-IA)

Feinstein (D-CA)

Fischer (R-NE)

Gardner (R-CO)

Graham (R-SC)

Grassley (R-IA)

Hassan (D-NH)

Heinrich (D-NM)

Hirono (D-HI)

Hoeven (R-ND)

Hyde-Smith (R-MS)

Isakson (R-GA)

Johnson (R-WI)

Jones (D-AL)

Kaine (D-VA)

Kennedy (R-LA)

King (I-ME)

Klobuchar (D-MN)

Lankford (R-OK)

Leahy (D-VT)

Manchin (D-WV)

McConnell (R-KY)

McSally (R-AZ)

Menendez (D-NJ)

Merkley (D-OR)

Moran (R-KS)

Murkowski (R-AK)

Murphy (D-CT)

Murray (D-WA)

Perdue (R-GA)

Peters (D-MI)

Portman (R-OH)

Reed (D-RI)

Risch (R-ID)

Roberts (R-KS)

Romney (R-UT)

Rosen (D-NV)

Rounds (R-SD)

Sanders (I-VT)

Schatz (D-HI)

Schumer (D-NY)

Scott (R-FL)

Shaheen (D-NH)

Shelby (R-AL)

Sinema (D-AZ)

Smith (D-MN)

Stabenow (D-MI)

Sullivan (R-AK)

Tester (D-MT)

Thune (R-SD)

Tillis (R-NC)

Udall (D-NM)

Van Hollen (D-MD)

Warner (D-VA)

Whitehouse (D-RI)

Wicker (R-MS)

Wyden (D-OR)

Young (R-IN)

NAYs — 16

Booker (D-NJ)

Braun (R-IN)

Cotton (R-AR)

Cruz (R-TX)

Gillibrand (D-NY)

Harris (D-CA)

Hawley (R-MO)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Lee (R-UT)

Markey (D-MA)

Paul (R-KY)

Rubio (R-FL)

Sasse (R-NE)

Scott (R-SC)

Toomey (R-PA)

Warren (D-MA)

NOT VOTING — 1

Burr (R-NC)

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