United States House of Representatives

House of Representative
total votes

Opioid Recovery, Housing Vouchers

Voting 230 for and 173 against, the House on June 14 passed a bill (HR 5735) establishing a pilot program that would make a small percentage of federal “Section 8” housing vouchers available to individuals in recovery from substance abuse including opioid addiction. Administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development under a 1974 law, the Section 8 program pays the rent and in some cases utility costs of 2.2 million low-income households in the United States, providing shelter and improving their chances of escaping poverty. Under the bill, up to 10,000 Section 8 vouchers – less than 1 percent of the available supply – would be distributed through non-profit organizations to recovering drug addicts and combined with mandatory skills training. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Voting yes: Roskam, Schneider, Bost, Rodney Davis, Hultgren, Shimkus, Kinzinger, LaHood

Voting no: Rush, Kelly, Lipinski, Gutierrez, Danny Davis, Krishnamoorthi, Schakowsky, Foster, Bustos

Not voting: Quigley

House of Representative
total votes

Opioid Detection by Postal Service

Voting 353 for and 52 against, the House on June 14 passed a bill (HR 5788) that would require the United States Postal Service to develop technology by 2020 for detecting the presence illicit synthetic opioids such as fentanyl in packages arriving from other countries. The USPS would promptly relay the information to U.S. customs officials for enforcement action. The bill would put USPS detection capabilities on a par with those of FedEx, UPS and other private services that already are required by federal law to track three pieces of information on international packages – point of origin, destination and contents. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Voting yes: Lipinski, Gutierrez, Roskam, Krishnamoorthi, Schneider, Foster, Bost, Rodney Davis, Hultgren, Shimkus, Kinzinger, Bustos, LaHood 

Voting no: Rush, Kelly , Danny Davis, Schakowsky

Not voting: Quigley

United States Senate

Senate total votes

Rights of U.S. Terrorism Suspects

The Senate, during debate June 13 on HR 5515 (above), voted to repeal a seven-year-old law permitting indefinite detention without trial of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents seized in the United States as terrorism suspects. The tally on a motion to kill the amendment was 30 for and 68 against. The measure did not address the rights of foreign terrorism suspects captured outside this country and detained at U.S. facilities including the Guantanamo Bay military prison. Whether the Senate will include the repeal measure in the bill’s final version was to be determined. A yes vote was in opposition to adding the repeal amendment to the military budget.

Voting yes: None

Voting no: Richard Durbin

Not voting: Tammy Duckworth

–Recap of Illinois Representatives’ Congressional Votes–