How Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted

Here is how Arkansas’ U.S. senators and U.S. representatives voted on major roll call votes during the week that ended Friday.

KEY: ✔ FOR ✖ AGAINST NOT VOTING PASSED DEFEATED h

HOUSE

⇧ Task force to improve aviation safety. Approved, 424-4, a bill (HR 346) that would establish a Federal Aviation Administration task force for improving the Notice to Air Missions system, which provides pilots with basic pre-flight information as well as alerts to dangers such as potential runway collisions. A NOTAM software malfunction grounded U.S. air traffic for several hours on Jan. 11 in the most severe disruption of U.S. commercial aviation since Sept. 11, 2001. The panel would be comprised of aviation stakeholders including airline executives, air-traffic controllers and safety experts, and its recommendations would be included in an FAA authorization bill Congress is to consider this year. Sam Graves, R-Mo., speaking in favor, said: “What occurred nearly two weeks ago [on Jan. 11] is unacceptable, and the American people deserve much better. Hopefully, this incident was the wake-up call that the [Department of Transportation] and the FAA needed to shake off their ongoing failure to properly maintain our nation’s air-traffic control system.” No member spoke against the bill. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Rick Crawford (R) French Hill (R)

Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R)

⇧ Expanded drilling on federal property. Approved, 221-205, a bill (HR 21) that would prohibit non-emergency withdrawals from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve unless the Department of Energy has developed a plan to increase the amount of federally owned land and offshore waters available for oil and gas production. The percentage of federally owned territory made newly available for leasing would have to approximate the percentage of the stockpile to be released. The offset would be waived during severe disruptions of energy supplies. Stored underground in Louisiana and Texas, the SPR has a capacity of 714 million barrels, and it now holds about 372 million barrels. The Biden administration last year sold off more than 180 million barrels to reduce the pump price of gasoline and says it will replenish the stockpile. The SPR was opened in 1975 after Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) embargoed shipments to the United States following U.S. support of Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Supporter Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said the strategic reserve’s “ability to protect Americans has been put at risk. More than 250 million barrels of oil, approximately 40 percent of the reserve, has been drawn down in less than two years, more than all the former presidents in history combined, all to cover historically high gas prices in an election year. This is irresponsible.” Opponent Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said: “By releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the Biden administration helped bring down gas prices by over $1.50 per gallon. Republicans call that politicizing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. I call that providing relief to the American people at the gas pump.”

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

✔ Crawford

✔ Hill

✔ Womack

✔ Westermann

⇩ Fair return for taxpayers.

Rejected 222-210, an amendment that would prohibit the federal government from selling any oil and gas leases under HR 21 that fail to provide “a fair return for taxpayers.” The amendment would, in part, eliminate the government’s noncompetitive oil and gas leasing and raise the onshore oil and gas royalty rate paid by energy companies.

Sponsor Mike Levin, D-Calif., said: “States like Texas and Oklahoma charge higher royalty rates on their state lands than are charged on federal public lands, leading to lost revenue for federal taxpayers. [This amendment] will help end giveaways of our public lands to fossil fuel companies and ensure that taxpayers receive a fair return on any private profit that oil and gas companies extract from our public lands.”

Opponent Tim Walberg, R-Mich., said the amendment “further restricts the land that could be eligible for an [Energy Department] production plan. It sets a vague requirement to ensure … a ‘fair return’ for taxpayers. The Biden administration has hamstrung our ability to produce American energy. This has had a disastrous consequence for Americans.”

A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

✖ Crawford

✖ Hill

✖ Womack

✖ Westerman

⇧ Prohibiting South Atlantic Drilling. Adopted 389-42, an amendment to HR 21 that would protect waters in the South Atlantic against expanded oil and gas drilling under the terms of the bill. The Department of the Interior’s South Atlantic Planning Area reaches from South Carolina to the Straits of Florida and covers 54 million acres of seafloor on the Outer Continental Shelf. The amendment would ensure the bill does not override a 10-year moratorium the Trump administration placed three years ago on offshore drilling from Virginia to Florida. Sponsor Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said her amendment would “not only benefit our environment in the low country of South Carolina, but our world-class tourism economy as well.”

No member spoke against the amendment.

A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

✔ Crawford

✔ Hill

✔ Womack

✔ Westerman

⇩ Prohibiting North Atlantic drilling. Defeated, 219-214, an amendment to prohibit leasing for oil and gas drilling offshore from Maine to New Jersey under the terms of HR 21. The Department of the Interior’s North Atlantic Planning Area reaches from Maine to New Jersey, covering 92 million acres on the Outer Continental Shelf seafloor.

Sponsor Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said an oil spill “would be devastating to coastal communities … up and down the Atlantic Ocean. The Jersey Shore is home to over $700 billion in coastal properties and the tourism industry generates almost a half-million jobs….New Jersey’s commercial fishing industry generates over $7.9 billion annually and supports over 50,000 jobs.” Opponent Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said: “Virtually all offshore oil and gas leasing occurs in the Gulf of Mexico….[The bill] does not require the Department of Energy to drill in any specific area. We shouldn’t take items off the table before a review has been done.”

✖ Crawford

✖ Hill

✖ Womack

✖ Westerman

⇩ Prohibiting Northern California drilling. Defeated, 218-212, an amendment to prohibit leasing for oil and gas drilling offshore from Northern California under the terms of HR 21. Supporter Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said: “Where you drill, you spill. That is why Republican and Democratic Governors on both the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts have voiced their opposition to any new oil and gas leasing off their coasts. We should not put our oceans, fisheries, coastal communities, economies and planet at risk just to enrich the fossil fuel industry.” Opponent Tim Walberg, R-Mich., called this an “anti-American energy amendment” that would “deprive the country of the benefits of secure American supplies of cleanly produced fossil energy.” A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

✖ Crawford

✖ Hill

✖ Womack

✖ Westerman

⇩ Prohibiting offshore Florida drilling. Defeated 219-214, an amendment that would prohibit leasing for oil and gas drilling under the terms of HR 21 offshore from Florida’s east and west coasts and in the Straits of Florida. The amendment would restore a recently expired federal moratorium on drilling in in those areas. Supporter Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said: “For many years,…Florida has enjoyed a moratorium on drilling because leaders at the national level recognized that Florida beaches and our offshore waters were a national resource. That moratorium expired last year…. So now with [this bill], Florida is at risk again.”

Opponent Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said that if Democrats “are concerned about drilling off the coast of Florida, I would just note that, to be clear, nothing in HR 21 affects any existing statutory or regulatory restrictions that may prohibit offshore oil and gas development.”

A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

✖ Crawford

✖ Hill

✖ Womack

✖ Westerman

⇩ Removing presidential authority to release oil. Defeated 418-14, an amendment to strip the bill of a core provision allowing presidents to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when America faces “a severe energy supply interruption.” This would effectively prevent presidents from ordering SPR drawdowns to cope with national emergencies. Sponsor Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said her amendment “would prevent President Biden from claiming an emergency to further reduce our strategic oil supplies. This is why I filed impeachment articles last Congress against President Biden on the grounds that he endangered, compromised and undermined the energy security of the United States by selling oil from the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve to foreign nations.” Opponent Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said: “My concern with the gentlewoman’s amendment is that the SPR is one of America’s most important energy security tools, and we cannot tie the hands of the president regardless of which party is in office when we have a real emergency like a hurricane, a terrorist attack or something that disrupts our oil supply. The underlying bill…is focused on protecting [the] SPR from President Biden’s abuse of it.”

✖ Crawford

✖ Hill

✖ Womack

✖ Westerman

SENATE

Brendan Owens, assistant secretary of defense. Confirmed 60-35, the nomination of Brendan Owens as assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment. A professional engineer, Owens spent nearly 20 years with the U.S. Green Building Council, helping to develop the council’s LEED Green Building Rating System. He worked most recently as founder and principal of a consulting firm, Black Vest Strategy, focused the development of climate-friendly and healthy buildings, and he served as energy manager at the U.S. Army’s Fort Belvoir. There was no debate on his nomination. This is the Senate’s only contested record vote in the 118th Congress.

A yes vote was to confirm the nominee.

✖ John Boozman (R)

✖ Tom Cotton (R)