Bryan Watch - Jan 2021

While there were several monumental votes this month, most notably the second impeachment of Donald Trump, things were relatively slow this first month of 2021. There were only 18 votes in the house, and about half of them were procedural.

Since I generally lead off with extreme votes, Steil had one of this month. President Biden nominated long-time military officer Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense. Since Austin retired in 2016, Congress had to waive legal restrictions to allow him to serve as SecDef. The House passed HR 335, allowing Austin to serve by 326 to 78 (RC 18, Jan 21). Steil was one of 63 Republicans to vote against allowing Austin to serve in the Biden Cabinet. Austin was confirmed by the US Senate on a vote of 93 to 2.

The session began with the election of the Speaker of the House. Since Democrats retained control, Nancy Pelosi was elected once again as speaker, defeating Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy of California. Steil, predictably, voted for McCarthy (RC 2, Jan 3).

On January 6, the House met to certify the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Despite the best efforts of armed insurrectionists driven by Donald Trump’s fantasies of a stolen election, Democracy prevailed and Congress did certify the election in the early hours of January 7.

The House took two votes on objections to the Electoral College. The first was an objection to the votes of Arizona by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), a frequent member of the Crazy Caucus, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The objection was rejected 121 to 303, with Steil voting against. (RC 10, January 6). The second objection was to the votes of Pennsylvania by Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. It was rejected 7 to 92 in the Senate and 138 to 282 in the House, with Steil once again voting against (RC 11, Jan 7)

A week later, the House was debating its response to the actions of Trump in his incitement of the mob that attacked the capitol. There first line of attack was calling on Vice President Mike Pence to remove Trump from office via the 25th Amendment. Only one House Republican, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, supported this course of action. Steil voted against House Resolution 21 (RC 14, Jan 12) and with every other Republican, voted against even considering it (RC 12 and 13, Jan 12).

With Pence refusing to remove Trump, the House moved on to impeach Trump for a second time, this time on charges on inciting insurrection. Only 10 House Republicans voted to impeach Trump, and Steil was not one of them (RC 17, Jan 13). Predictably, every Republican voted against even considering the second impeachment resolution (H Res 41, Roll Call 15 and 16, Jan 13).

On January 4, the House debated the rules for the 117th Congress, and Steil predictably voted the party line on each of those votes (RC 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8). In two bizarre moves, Rep. Rodney Davis (IL) attempted to raise the issue of election integrity in the House rules. (RC 5, Jan 4) and Rep. Smith of Missouri attempted to delete language regarding climate change from the rules (RC 7, Jan 4).

There were two non party line votes in January. Roll call 9 was on HR 22, Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act of 2021, which passed 412 to 2, with Representatives Warren Davidson (Ohio) and Bill Posey (Florida) taking an early lead in the crazy sweepstakes.

The other was the vote authorizing the Speaker to swear everyone into office, which passed 371 to 2, with only Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Andy Harris (R-MD) voting against. Harris was a regular member of the Crazy Caucus during the 116th Congress.

SCORECARD

Total Votes: 17

Party Line (12-14 = 85.7%)

Non Party Line (2): 3, 9

Good Votes: 10, 11

Extreme (1): 18