Friday, March 13, 2020

BREAKING: Arizona's Biggs, Lesko Vote Against Emergency Coronavirus Response Package

Two of Arizona's three (voting*) Republican Representatives voted tonight against the emergency coronavirus response package. The compromise package agreed to by President Donald Trump passed  363-40.
 Representatives Andy Biggs (R-CD5) and Debbie Lesko (R-CD8) were among the 40 Republicans to vote "nay". Rep. David Schweikert (R-CD6) cast his "aye" vote along with 39 other GOP members and all of the Democrats.

Rep. Lesko indicated that she voted "nay" because she "could not in good conscience vote for a 100-plus page bill that neither I nor my staff had an opportunity to read or review." Rep. Biggs has not yet commented.


Neither nay voter has yet issued an explanation of their decision.

The measure was held up until after midnight, as Republicans were waiting for the President to signal that he would sign it if sent to his desk. The Senate is expected to take up the measure on Monday.

UPDATE: Here is a copy of the bill that the House passed last night, courtesy of the Minority Leader's Office. For quick comparison purposes, we have screen-shotted the "Table of Contents" from the initially-proposed bill and the version that passed last night, below: 



Initial table of contents, with the amended below that:

UPDATE, 8:00am: We have added Rep. Lesko's explanation of her no vote.

*Rep. Paul Gosar remains in self-quarantine. Representatives Raul Grijalva and Ann Kirkpatrick were also not present for the vote.

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