Sewell, T Rep 90%

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9 22 94 sewell

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-joint-resolution/48/cosponsors?r=2&s=4&searchResultViewType=expanded

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FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Conservation Alabama released their scorecards last week for the Alabama congressional delegation’s performance during the second session of the 116th Congress, which ended in early January. All nine members of the Alabama delegation were scored on the League of Conservation Voters’ 2020 National Environmental Scorecard. Congresswoman Terri Sewell, D-Alabama, earned the highest score with a 90.

“As a Representative of constituents who are disproportionately impacted by environmental injustices, like the Superfund Site in North Birmingham or the landfill in Uniontown, I am proud to fight for stronger environmental protections for our communities,” Sewell said. “I am proud to receive the highest score from the League of Conservation Voters in Alabama’s Congressional Delegation. I remain committed to doing everything in my power to ensure we create a better, healthier, and more equitable environment for future generations.”

Tammy Monistere is the Executive Director at Conservation Alabama.

“Her votes in 2020 ushered in full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and eliminated harmful pollutants from entering our waterways,” Monistere said. “We are grateful for her work protecting the people and places of Alabama.”

The average House score for Alabama congress members was 15 percent and the average Senate score was 35 percent.

Senate:

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, received a 0 score from the group.

Sen. Doug Jones, D-Alabama, received a 69.

House of Representatives:

Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Alabama, received a 0.

Rep. Martha Roby, R-Alabama, got a 5.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, scored a 5.

Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Alabama, also received a score of 5.

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, received a 0 for his work.

Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Alabama, also scored a 0.

Congressmen Jerry Carl and Barry Moore, as well as Sen. Tommy Tuberville, were just sworn in last month as the replacements for Byrne, Roby and Jones.

Sewell is now serving in her sixth term representing Alabama’s 7th Congressional District.

LCV has published a National Environmental Scorecard every Congress since 1970. The group claims that the Scorecard represents the consensus of experts from more than 20 respected environmental and conservation organizations who selected the key votes on which members of Congress should be scored. LCV scores votes on environmental justice, public health, public lands and wildlife conservation, democracy, and spending for environmental programs.

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Just one Republican breaks ranks to join the Democrats in passing new Voting Rights Advancement Act

Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams December 6, 2019

Just one Republican—Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania—joined a united House Democratic caucus on Friday to pass what rights groups hailed as “historic” legislation to restore and expand voter protections that were gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013.

Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs for Public Citizen, said passage of the Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4) is a “critical step” in combating Republican voter suppression efforts that have proliferated in the six years since the Supreme Court’s infamous decision inShelby County v. Holder.

“Numerous state legislatures have undertaken targeted and deliberate steps to limit or impede the right to vote for communities of color, students, the elderly, and people with disabilities,” said Gilbert. “Americans who are eligible to vote but are denied that right due to fabricated or illegal barriers are being deprived of the full privilege of our democracy.”

BREAKING: The House just passed #HR4, one of the most important bills to emerge during this Congress. As voter suppression continues to spread across the US, this bill would breathe life back into the Voting Rights Act. A win for the people & a win for democracy! #RestoreTheVote pic.twitter.com/TR14b3ltxQ

— Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) December 6, 2019

BREAKING: @RepBrianFitz is the one and only House Republican that believes in voting rights. https://t.co/37aqHMYIMO

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) December 6, 2019

“If we want a true democracy, we must protect the right to vote for all,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “The Voting Rights Advancement Act is critical to getting there.”

The legislation now heads to the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has refused to allow a vote on Democrats’ For the People Act (H.R. 1), to which the Voting Rights Advancement Act was previously attached.

As Ari Berman of Mother Jones reported, H.R. 4—sponsored by Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.)—would “initially cover 11 states: nine in the South, plus California and New York, which have more recently been found to discriminate against Latinos and Asian Americans.”

“The bill would also require all states to get federal approval for election changes that are known to disproportionately affect voters of color, such as strict voter ID laws, tighter voter registration requirements, and polling place closures in areas with large numbers of minority voters,” Berman noted.

Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, applauded the House for passing H.R. 4 and demanded that McConnell bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate as soon as possible.

“The passage of H.R. 4 in the House of Representatives today brings us one step closer to restoring the Voting Rights Act and undoing the tremendous damage of Shelby,” Gupta said in a statement. “The VRAA is too important—and the right to vote is too fundamental—to end up buried in the McConnell legislative graveyard.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/centrist-dems-are-trying-to-block-a-universal-15-minimum-wage/

A House bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour from $7.25 by 2024 passed a key committee vote in March. The move, as NPR.org reported at the time, “is a sign of broader political momentum for the minimum wage issue,” one that issupported by multiple Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

As the bill heads to a potential floor vote, however, over a dozen centrist Democrats are pushing a new plan, which would permit lower hourly wages in regional areas, with a longer lead time. The competing visions for the minimum wage, Sarah Ferris writes in Politico, are “threatening to broaden the rift between the party’s progressive and moderate members.”

Democratic opponents to $15, led by Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama, introduced the Paying Hourly Americans Stronger Earnings (PHASE)-in $15 Wage Act, which would create a “regional” minimum wage, which would allow smaller cities and rural areas to base any minimum wage increases on the local cost of living instead of a $15 national floor. The bill, according to a statement from Sewell’s office, would group census-designated Metropolitan Statistical Areas into five tiers, using Regional Price Parities (RPP) data that would determine the minimum wage for the regions’ cost of living.

Supporters of the bill include LucyMcBath of Georgia and Dean Phillips of Minnesota. Phillips is a small-business owner who, despite paying his own employees at least $15 an hour, says it’s not a “one-size-fits-all wage.”

An aide to a House member who supports the regional bill told Ferris that “more than doubling the wage over five years is going to result in lost jobs,” and “A lot of people would prefer to have a $10 wage than no job.”

Thirteen Democrats support Sewell’s plan, which, Ferris explains, “would dramatically slow the wage hikes in hundreds of smaller cities from Cincinnati to St. Louis compared to metropolis areas like San Francisco and New York.”

Opponents of the (PHASE)-in $15 Wage Act argue that the bill betrays the same promises made during the 2018 midterm elections that helped Democrats win a majority in the House. “We want to pass a full $15 minimum wage bill. Not a regional bill. We’re very clear about that,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal told Politico, adding, “Being in Congress means leading, and we need to lead on minimum wage.”

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., author of the $15 minimum wage bill that passed the committee, also objected to the idea of a regional bill, telling Politico, “We don’t have differentiated payments for Social Security.”

According to a statement from the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research organization, the bill “would do little more than lock in low wages for millions of workers in parts of the country where large national employers pay as little as they can get away with.”

The organization estimates that 21% of low-wage workers in regions that would be exempt from a $15 minimum wage would receive just $11.50 per hour by 2024; an additional 22% would get just $12.10 by the same year.

Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are, as Ferris writes, “prepared to wield the power of the 96-member caucus to ensure their full $15-an-hour proposal reaches the floor.”

At least one poll suggests they have public opinion on their side. A January survey from The Hill-HarrisX showed 55% of registered voters support a $15 an hour minimum wage. Even 70% of the Republicans surveyed said the minimum wage should be higher than the current level of $7.25, though just 36% agreed it should go up to $15.

Neither Scott’s nor Sewell’s bills are currently scheduled for a floor vote.