H.R. 1625: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018
This was a vote to pass H.R. 1625 (115th) in the Senate. The federal budget process occurs in two stages: appropriations and authorizations. This is an appropriations bill, which sets overall spending limits by agency or program, typically for a single fiscal year (October 1 through September 30 of the next year).
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the government spending bill for the remainder of fiscal year 2018. On March 22, 2018, the House replaced the text of the bill with the spending bill (preprint text).
This bill was formerly the TARGET Act. A summary of the earlier bill from the Republican Policy Committee follows:
H.R. 1625 amends the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to authorize the State Department and law enforcement agencies to target international human traffickers by offering financial rewards for their arrest or conviction. The Department currently has a rewards program that uses appropriated funds to offer cash awards to deter transnational organized crime.
The legislation broadens the program to explicitly include severe forms of human trafficking, which are sex trafficking and labor trafficking as defined in Pub.L. 106-386. That law came from [H.R. 3244 (106th): Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000] (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/106/hr3244).
Any proposals to pay rewards are submitted to the Department of State by the Chief of Mission at a U.S. Embassy at the behest of a U.S. law enforcement agency. Reward proposals are carefully reviewed by an interagency committee, which makes a recommendation for a reward payment to the Secretary of State. Only the Secretary of State has the authority to determine if a reward should be paid. In cases where there is federal criminal jurisdiction, the Secretary must obtain the concurrence of the Attorney General.
| All Votes | Republicans | Democrats | Independents | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yea | 67% |
65
|
25
|
39
|
1
|
| Nay | 33% |
32
|
23
|
8
|
1
|
| Not Voting |
3
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
|
Motion Agreed to. Simple Majority Required. Source: senate.gov.
The Yea votes represented 59% of the country’s population by apportioning each state’s population to its voting senators.
Seat position based on our ideology score.
What you can do
Vote Details
Sen. Joni Ernst (R), the Senate Republican Conference Vice Chair, voted Nay against her party.
Somtimes a party leader will vote on the winning side, even if it is against his or her position, to have the right to call for a new vote under a motion to reconsider. For more, see this explanation from The Washington Post.
We do not know the rationale behind any vote, however.
“Aye” and “Yea” mean the same thing, and so do “No” and “Nay”. Congress uses different words in different sorts of votes.
The U.S. Constitution says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). Congress takes this literally and uses “yea” and “nay” when voting on the final passage of bills.
All Senate votes use these words. But the House of Representatives uses “Aye” and “No” in other sorts of votes.
Statistically Notable Votes
Statistically notable votes are the votes that are most surprising, or least predictable, given how other members of each voter’s party voted and other factors.
All Votes
Study Guide
How well do you understand this vote? Use this study guide to find out.
You can find answers to most of the questions below here on the vote page. For a guide to understanding the bill this vote was about, see here.
What was the procedure for this vote?
- What was this vote on?
- What is the next step after this vote?
Not all votes are meant to pass legislation. In the Senate some votes are not about legislation at all, since the Senate must vote to confirm presidential nominations to certain federal positions.
This vote is related to a bill. However, that doesn’t necessarily tell you what it is about. Congress makes many decisions in the process of passing legislation, such as on the procedures for debating the bill, whether to change the bill before voting on passage, and even whether to vote on passage at all.
You can learn more about the various motions used in Congress at EveryCRSReport.com. If you aren’t sure what the Senate was voting on, try seeing if it’s on this list.
Take a look at where this bill is in the legislative process. What might come next? Keep in mind what this specific vote was on, and the context of the bill. Will there be amendments? Will the other chamber of Congress vote on it, or let it die?
For this question it may help to briefly examine the bill itself.
What is your analysis of this vote?
- What trends do you see in this vote?
- How did your senators vote?
- How much of the United States population is represented by the yeas?
Members of Congress side together for many reasons beside being in the same political party, especially so for less prominent legislation or legislation specific to a certain region. What might have determined how the roll call came out in this case? Does it look like Members of Congress voted based on party, geography, or some other reason?
There are two votes here that should be more important to you than all the others. These are the votes cast by your senators, which are meant to represent you and your community. Do you agree with how your senators voted? Why do you think they voted the way they did?
If you don’t already know who your Members of Congress are you can find them by entering your address here.
GovTrack displays the percentage of the United States population represented by the yeas on some Senate votes just under the vote totals. We do this to highlight how the people of the United States are represented in the Senate. Since each state has two senators, but state populations vary significantly, the individuals living in each state have different Senate representation. For example, California’s population of near 40 million is given the same number of senators as Wyoming’s population of about 600,000.
Do the senators who voted yea represent a majority of the people of the United States? Does it matter?
Each vote’s study guide is a little different — we automatically choose which questions to include based on the information we have available about the vote. Study guides are a new feature to GovTrack. You can help us improve them by filling out this survey or by sending your feedback to hello@govtrack.us.
