Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (August 31st-September 4th, 2026) - NPI's Cascadia Advocate

nwprogressive.org · Targeted News Service · September 6, 2026

Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (August 31st-September 4th, 2026) - NPI's Cascadia Advocate

# Last Week In Congress: How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted (August 31st-September 4th, 2026)

The week's major votes included House passage of the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act to avert a partial shutdown in September of 2026 and the rejection of a proposed constitutional amendment to fix the Supreme Court at nine seats.

by Targeted News Service September 6th, 2026 September 7th, 2026

Last Week In Congress is a long-running Sunday series on NPI's Cascadia Advocate that helps people across the Pacific Northwest and beyond follow how Washington, Oregon, and Idaho's United States lawmakers voted. The illustration above incorporates photo art depicting the U.S. Capitol from NPI's image library.

Last Week In Con­gress is a long-run­ning Sun­day series on NPI’s Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate that helps peo­ple across the Pacif­ic North­west and beyond fol­low how Wash­ing­ton, Ore­gon, and Ida­ho’s Unit­ed States law­mak­ers vot­ed. The illus­tra­tion above incor­po­rates pho­to art depict­ing the U.S. Capi­tol from NPI’s image library.

Good morn­ing! Here’s how Cas­ca­di­a’s Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tives vot­ed on major issues dur­ing the leg­isla­tive week end­ing Sep­tem­ber 4th, 2026.

The Sen­ate was in recess.

### In the United States House of Representatives

The House cham­ber (U.S. Con­gress photo)

CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS TO AVERT A PARTIAL SHUTDOWN: The House on Sep­tem­ber 1st agreed to the Sen­ate’s amend­ed ver­sion of the Con­tin­u­ing Appro­pri­a­tions and Exten­sions Act (H.R. 6500), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jason Smith, R‑Missouri, to pro­vide fund­ing through Decem­ber eleven for fed­er­al gov­ern­ment pro­grams, while also extend­ing legal author­i­ty for a range of pro­grams. Smith cit­ed the exten­sion through 2028 of favor­able treat­ment trade pro­grams for Haiti and Africa as “advanc­ing Amer­i­ca’s strate­gic and nation­al secu­ri­ty inter­ests, includ­ing access to crit­i­cal min­er­als and more secure sup­ply chains.” The vote was 370 yeas to 48 nays.

Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

Vot­ing Yea (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Val Hoyle, Janelle Bynum, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz

Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Max­ine Dexter

Vot­ing Yea (8): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Emi­ly Ran­dall, Kim Schri­er, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Michael Baumgartner

Vot­ing Nay (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jayapal

Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith

Cas­ca­dia total: 15 yea votes, 2 nay votes, 1 not voting

PROTECTING FEDERAL PRISON WORKERS: The House on August 31st passed the Prison Staff Safe­ty Enhance­ment Act (S. 307), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Mar­sha Black­burn, R‑Tennessee, to require the Jus­tice Depart­ment to estab­lish pro­ce­dures for han­dling sex­u­al assault and harass­ment inci­dents com­mit­ted against prison employ­ees by pris­on­ers in fed­er­al pris­ons. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jamie Raskin, D‑Maryland, said the bill “will strength­en over­sight of the Bureau of Pris­ons so we can improve the safe­ty of staff work­ing in every cor­ner of the coun­try.” The vote was 376 yeas to 8 nays.

Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

Vot­ing Yea (6): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Max­ine Dex­ter, Val Hoyle, Janelle Bynum, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz

Vot­ing Yea (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Emi­ly Ran­dall, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Michael Baumgartner

Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 not voting

ACCESS TO FEDERAL DISTRICT COURTS: The House on August 31st passed the Local Access to Courts Act (S. 32), spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Ted Cruz, R‑Texas, to add one city each to the num­ber of cities in which two South­ern Dis­trict of Texas and South­ern Dis­trict of Cal­i­for­nia fed­er­al judi­cial regions must hold court. A sup­port­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Derek Schmidt, R‑Kansas, said increas­ing the num­ber of cities was need­ed because “both of these judi­cial dis­tricts have expe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant pop­u­la­tion growth in recent years, and their orga­ni­za­tion means that far too many Amer­i­cans have to trav­el long dis­tances for their day in court.” The vote was 378 yeas to 10 nays.

Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

Vot­ing Yea (6): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Max­ine Dex­ter, Val Hoyle, Janelle Bynum, and Andrea Sali­nas; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz

Vot­ing Yea (9): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Marie Glue­senkamp Perez, Emi­ly Ran­dall, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, and Mar­i­lyn Strick­land; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Michael Baumgartner

Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith

Cas­ca­dia total: 17 yea votes, 1 not voting

REPUBLICAN POLITICAL MESSAGING RESOLUTION: The House on Sep­tem­ber 1st passed a res­o­lu­tion (H. Res. 1490), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jeff Crank, R‑Colorado, to state oppo­si­tion to the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Social­ists of Amer­i­ca and oth­er forms of social­ism, and sup­port for vot­er pho­to iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and oth­er meth­ods of ensur­ing only eli­gi­ble cit­i­zen vot­ers cast bal­lots. Crank said of social­ism: “We know where these ideas lead to: Less free­dom, less lib­er­ty, less mon­ey in your pock­ets, more gov­ern­ment, more tax­es, and more con­trol.” An oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joseph D. Morelle, D‑New York, said: “This [agen­da] would make it hard­er for mar­ried women and vet­er­ans to vote, [and endors­es a scheme] that would essen­tial­ly gut mail and online vot­er reg­is­tra­tion.” The vote was 220 yeas to 192 nays, with 2 vot­ing present.

Vot­ing Yea (2): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson

Vot­ing Yea (1): Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cliff Bentz

Vot­ing Nay (5): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzanne Bonam­i­ci, Max­ine Dex­ter, Val Hoyle, Janelle Bynum, and Andrea Salinas

Vot­ing Yea (3): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Marie Glue­senkamp Perez; Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Michael Baumgartner

Vot­ing Nay (6): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Rick Larsen, Emi­ly Ran­dall, Prami­la Jaya­pal, Kim Schri­er, and Mar­i­lyn Strickland

Not Vot­ing (1): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith

Cas­ca­dia total: 6 yea votes, 11 nay votes, 1 not voting

JEOPARDIZING LOBSTER AND CRAB FISHERIES: The House on Sep­tem­ber 1st passed the North­east Lob­ster­man Pro­tec­tion Act (H.R. 9436), spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Michael Lawler, R‑New York, to change from 2028 to 2035 a dead­line for the Nation­al Marine Fish­eries Ser­vice to reg­u­late lob­ster and crab fish­eries in the north­ern Atlantic Ocean in order to reduce haz­ards for the endan­gered right whale species. Lawler said the delay would pro­vide “more than enough addi­tion­al time to devel­op durable sci­ence-dri­ven solu­tions that pro­tect the North Atlantic right whale while ensur­ing Amer­i­can fish­er­men can con­tin­ue to do their jobs.” A bill oppo­nent, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jared Huff­man, D‑California, said that putting off mea­sures to pro­tect right whales from being entan­gled in fish­ing gear threat­ened the whale with extinc­tion while also “dam­ag­ing con­sumer con­fi­dence in the envi­ron­men­tal s

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