This commentary highlights some of the Congressional legislation that has received attention in the last two years. and the NFIB Scorecard as we are reminded that business matters in America.
Considering that 7 out of 17 Illinois Congressional Districts have a piece of Chicago and 11 of the 17 have a slice of Cook County, (Side note – can you imagine the gerrymandering to have 11 districts reach into ONE county out of 102 counties?) and considering the liberal progressive leanings of the area, it is also not surprising that the Democrats vote nearly in lockstep with each other on progressive issues. However, differences in voting were evident on other issues and across regions in Illinois.
This NY Times article from late December 2023 noted that very few votes were taken in 2023, the first year of the 118th Congress. The article said, “The tally reflects the extraordinary chaos and paralysis that gripped the House in 2023 when lawmakers did more voting but less lawmaking than at any time in the past decade.”
Some of those votes dealt with one budget crisis after another to get a continuing resolution passed to prevent a government shutdown. Other bills were bipartisan in nature and included passing the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) last year. This year’s NDAA is still in limbo.
Interestingly, the article went on to note:
“In his end-of-year recap, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority leader, said Republicans had succeeded in passing legislation to “confront rising crime, unleash American energy, lower costs for families, secure President Biden’s wide-open border, combat executive overreach and burdensome agency rules, and refocus our military on its core mission of national security.”
But many of those bills amounted to political messaging tools that would stand no chance of passage in a Democratic-controlled Senate.”
Energy independence, securing the border, and ensuring national security are not political messaging ideas and should not be controversial issues, and I doubt they are with many voters. What’s happening is representatives are playing to special interests in their messaging, but these were substantial bills to rein in Biden’s executive orders.
In a related article, the same NYT author said over 700 votes were taken, but only 27 bills became law in 2023, and 10 of those related to veterans or the military. So, very few laws were passed. That’s probably good, except that Biden continued to rule by Executive Order with only the judiciary reining him in as they did twice on student loan bailouts.
In 2024, not much has changed, very few bills have passed both chambers. Among the controversial bills the House has taken up and passed on a bipartisan basis were:
- Funding for Ukraine (All IL Ds voted YES; 2 IL Rs voted NO)
- Funding for Israel (All IL Ds voted NO, except for Schneider and Sorensen, All IL Rs voted YES). For Democrats, this was obviously a virtue-signal to the pro-Palestinian crowd.
- The TikTok bill that would force the company to sell the app or otherwise face it being banned on U.S. app stores. (Mixed voting on the Democrat side; all Rs were YES)
- the FISA reauthorization act. (Mixed voting on both sides)
| Other bills have seen much more division and controversy over the last two years, but if voters knew what they were about, they likely would receive broad, if not unanimous, support. The following bills were mostly opposed by Illinois House Democrats: |
| 1. The Laken Riley Act: Named for Laken Riley, who was brutally sexually assaulted and killed by an illegal alien who had recently been caught shoplifting but was not detained. This bill required that anyone present in the U.S. illegally who is charged with is arrested for, is convicted of, admits having committed, or admits committing acts that constitute the essential elements of any burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting offense, be detained. Such action would have prevented Riley’s death because the perpetrator would have been in custody. 37 Democrats voted with Republicans to pass the bill, including IL Reps Budzinski and Sorensen. 2. SAVE Act: Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act requires proof of citizenship to vote. It is common sense, but every Illinois Democrat voted against it. 3. Protect Our Communities From DUIs Act: This bill would require the automatic deportation of illegal immigrants who commit a DUI within the United States. Read this story about an illegal who had a previous DUI and was allowed to stay and killed a teenager just months ago in Alabama. It took years to get some justice when Denny McCann was run over by a drunk illegal in Chicago. There is still no justice for Jeannie Brady, also killed by an illegal in a drunk driving crash. The sanctuary city of Champaign let him walk out of the hospital, and he hasn’t been seen since. On this commonsense bill, Congressmen Casten-06, Davis-07, Garcia-04, Jackson-01, Kelly-02, Krishnamoorthi-08, Quigley-05, Ramirez-03, Schakowsky-09, and Underwood-14 all voted NO. 4. Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act: This bill prohibits trans athletes from competing on girls’ or women’s sports teams. Read more about the bill HERE. On this bill, NO Democrat voted for it in the House or Senate. Roll Call HERE. 5. HR 1 Lower Energy Costs Act: This bill essentially said that Congress, not the president, can only decide to end fracking by executive order. It also made other statements about energy. No Illinois Democrat voted for it. They would rather we buy oil from Venezuela and OPEC. |
On the issue of business support, a nearly universal talking point in campaigns – especially on support for small business – Democrats rhetoric is the opposite of how they vote.
Just like their members in Illinois, every Democrat has a failing grade when NFIB rated their votes on support for small businesses.
All three Republicans – Bost-12, LaHood-16, and Miller-15 – scored 100%.
Democrat Kelly scored 20%, 9 Dems scored 17%, and 2 scored 0%.
Next time Delia Ramirez or Brad Schneider says they support small businesses, don’t believe them.
| Their report card for the 118th Congress can be viewed HERE. |
