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House

Unmasking shell company owners: The House on Oct. 22 voted, 249-173, to require small corporations and limited liability firms to identify their true owners to a Treasury Department unit that combats money laundering by criminals . Because anonymously financed shell corporations tend to be relatively small operations, the bill is directed mainly at U.S.-based companies with fewer than 20 full-time employees and annual sales or gross receipts under $5 million. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Yes: Tom O’Halleran, D-1; Ann Kirkpatrick, D-2; Raul Grijalva, D-3; Ruben Gallego, D-7; Greg Stanton, D-9

No: Paul Gosar, R-4; Andy Biggs, R-5; David Schweikert, R-6; Debbie Lesko, R-8

Requiring subpoenas to access database: The House on Oct 22 defeated, 197-224, a Republican bid to require law enforcement to obtain a court-issued subpoena to gain access to ownership information collected by the Treasury Department under HR 2513 (above). The information consists of the beneficial, or actual, owner’s name, address, date of birth and driver’s license or other government ID number. Law enforcement could tap into the Treasury database only as part of an ongoing investigation, and a civil liberties unit would oversee their actions. A yes vote was to adopt the motion.

Yes: Gosar, Biggs, Schweikert, Lesko

No: O’Halleran, Kirkpatrick, Grijalva, Gallego, Stanton

Combating foreign election interference: Voting 227-181, the House on Oct. 23 passed a bill (HR 4617) that would require U.S. political campaigns to inform law enforcement when they receive offers of foreign assistance; close loopholes that allow illegal foreign funds to enter the American electoral system; require sponsors of political advertising on the internet to identify themselves in the ad; and empower the U.S. attorney general to help combat foreign interference in state and local elections when non-federal officials fail to do so. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Yes: O’Halleran, Kirkpatrick, Grijalva, Gallego, Stanton

No: Gosar, Biggs, Schweikert, Lesko

Protecting state and local elections: Voting 180-231, the House on Oct. 23 defeated an amendment that sought to remove from HR 4617 (above) a provision authorizing the U.S. attorney general to correct the spread of false information about state and local elections if non-federal authorities have failed to do so. A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

Yes: Gosar, Biggs, Schweikert, Lesko

No: O’Halleran, Kirkpatrick, Grijalva, Gallego, Stanton

Attempting to censure Rep. Adam Schiff: Voting 218-185, the House on Oct. 21 blocked a GOP measure to formally censure Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who chairs the Select Committee on Intelligence, for what Republicans said were missteps ,including misleading statements in his direction of the Houses impeachment inquiry into President Trump. A yes vote was in opposition to censuring Schiff.

Yes: O’Halleran, Kirkpatrick, Gallego, Stanton

No: Gosar, Biggs, Schweikert, Lesko

Senate

Capping state and local property tax deductions: Voting 43-52, the Senate on Oct. 23 turned back a Democratic attempt to allow states to offer residents a way to circumvent the $10,000 limit on deductions of state and local income and property taxes on federal returns. Republicans included the cap in their 2017 tax-cut law, a move seen as targeting upper-income areas that tend to levy high taxes and vote Democratic. To allow their taxpayers to stay within the $10,000 limit without seeing their overall tax bills jump, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have allowed residents to make federally deductible charitable contributions to public-improvement funds, and then receive credits against their state tax obligations as a trade-off. But the Internal Revenue Service issued a regulation to prohibit the tactic, extending the general rule that taxpayers cannot deduct charitable contributions for which they receive something in return. On the vote reported here, the Senate defeated a resolution (SJ Res 50) aimed at killing the IRS rule. A yes vote was to adopt the resolution.

Yes: Kyrsten Sinema, D

No: Martha McSally, R

Voterama in Congress