After a slow start to the week, the Senate Thursday approved a roughly $850 billion legislative package that funds the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor and Education. The Senate will return next week to consider a raft of judicial nominations.

August has typically been a month that members of Congress take off to campaign and work back in their districts and states. The House has been in recess since late July. But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has opted to keep the chamber in session for most of the month in order to pass spending legislation and confirm judicial nominees.

Fifteen senators, including Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller, did not make it back to Washington for votes on Monday evening. Heller said he missed the votes due to a delayed Delta Air Lines flight.

“Hey @Delta, I appreciate the hard work of your staff, and as much as I love Salt Lake and its lovely airport, I got a job to do,” Heller tweeted Monday. “Hopefully we don’t have to have another one of these 7 hour delays again”

Both Heller and Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto voted for the spending package, which was approved 85 to 7.

Heller also voted for an amendment offered by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul that would have stopped taxpayer dollars from going to Planned Parenthood and other entities that perform abortions. The proposal failed 45 to 48. Heller’s vote drew fire from Rep. Jacky Rosen, who is his Democratic opponent in the Nevada Senate race. Rosen’s Senate campaign cited Heller’s comment in Reno in 2017 when he gave lukewarm support to funding the group. “With this vote, Senator Heller isn’t just trying to gut an organization that provides thousands of Nevadans with preventive and life-saving care, he’s breaking his promise again to protect funding for Planned Parenthood,” Rosen campaign spokesperson Molly Forgey said in a release. Heller’s office declined to comment on his support for the amendment.

Cortez Masto co-sponsored an amendment with Iowa Republican Joni Ernst that was included in the spending package and would require the Government Accountability Office to do a study on the prevalence of traumatic brain injuries among victims of domestic violence. “As Nevada Attorney General, I learned that the scars of domestic violence aren't always visible,” she said in a comment provided by her office. “I've made it one of my greatest priorities to support survivors of domestic violence.”

Off the Senate floor, Heller and nine other Senate Republicans introduced legislation that would “guarantee Americans have equal health care coverage, regardless of their health status or pre-existing conditions,” they said in a release. The bill seeks to address Republican concerns about the future of covering pre-existing conditions should Texas and 19 other GOP-led states succeed in their lawsuit to overturn parts of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the provisions requiring the coverage of pre-existing conditions. Oral arguments in the case begin next month.

“Nevadans and Americans throughout the country with pre-existing conditions should be protected – period,” Heller added in his own press release. “This legislation will make sure that Nevada’s most vulnerable have access to coverage, and I’m proud to join my colleagues to introduce it.”

The state-driven ACA lawsuits came after Republicans in Congress repealed the individual mandate as part of the tax cuts that were enacted in December 2017. The suit argues that the loss of the mandate, a key component of the ACA that was designed to help keep premiums down by forcing healthy people to pay into the system, makes the entire law unconstitutional.

Since the lawsuit was filed earlier this year, Democrats in Congress, including Rosen, have been campaigning on health care ahead of the midterms.

Meanwhile, Cortez Masto and Heller also split on the narrow nomination of Kathy Kraninger to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Both serve on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which approved Kraninger’s nomination Thursday with all of the panel’s 13 Republicans backing the nomination and all 12 Democrats voting against.

Before the vote, Cortez Masto said that among her concerns was that Kraninger would not provide a check against the Trump administration and Mick Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, who also has been serving as acting director of the CFPB since November. Cortez Masto has been critical of Mulvaney for actions she has argued have weakened protections for the members of the military, students and seniors. “That’s the question. Will Kathy Kraninger stand up for against powerful special interests and fight for service members, students and seniors that need a champion? Unfortunately, the answer is no,” she said.

Cortez Masto and Heller both voted for Kimberly Reed, a former Treasury Department staffer during the George W. Bush administration, to be president of the Export-Import Bank, which the panel also approved.

The House members of the delegation were working back in their districts, though some were abroad.

Rep. Ruben Kihuen, who went to Guatemala and Mexico with two other members of Congress to discuss family separation policy, fighting drug trafficking, reducing gang violence and improving trade. “Strengthening our relationships with our southern neighbors is critical to our efforts to combat drug trafficking, reduce gang violence and ensure regional stability,” Kihuen said in a release.

Rep. Dina Titus was in Brussels, where she met with NATO Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison among others. Titus traveled with members of the bipartisan House Democracy Partnership, which is designed to strengthen democratic institutions by assisting legislatures in emerging democracies.

For a full rundown of the measures the delegates supported or opposed this week, check out The Nevada Independent’s congressional vote tracker and other information below.

SEN. DEAN HELLER
Legislation co-sponsored:
S. 3388 – Ensuring Coverage for Patients with Pre-Existing Conditions Act
Legislation co-sponsored:
SEN. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO
Legislation co-sponsored:
S. 3376 – A bill to require the Secretary of Energy to establish an energy storage research program, a demonstration and deployment program, and a technical assistance and grant program, and for other purposes.
S. 3359 – Aretha Franklin Congressional Gold Medal Act