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H.R. 676: NATO Support Act

Jan. 22, 2019 at 7 p.m. ET. On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass in the House.

"The President shall not withdraw support from NATO."

This was a vote on a House bill to prevent President Trump from withdrawing the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. The legislation was passed in response to reports that the President had proposed withdrawing from the alliance of western nations.

NATO is a political and military alliance between North American and European countries. It is comprised of 29 nations including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. From their website: "NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict." It does not include Russia.

NATO has expressed concerns over Russian military activity. From their website: "NATO’s concerns go well beyond Russia’s activities in Ukraine. The Allies continue to express their support for the territorial integrity of Georgia and the Republic of Moldova within their internationally recognised borders and call on Russia to withdraw the forces it has stationed in all three countries without their consent." You can read more about NATO-Russia relations here.

Withdrawing the United States from NATO would benefit Russian interests, which has garnered criticism of the President's proposition, especially in light of ongoing investigations of Russian interference in U.S. elections. On January 17th, the same day as this House vote, the President clarified "We will be with NATO 100%."

This vote was related to a bill introduced by Rep. Jimmy Panetta [D-CA19] on January 17, 2019, H.R. 676 (116th): NATO Support Act.
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By Party Selected Caucuses
All Votes D R Main Street Caucus
Yea 94%
 
 
357
208
 
149
 
29
 
Nay 6%
 
 
22
0
 
22
 
0
Not Voting
 
 
54
26
 
28
 

Passed. 2/3 Required.

Data from the official record at house.gov.

Selected Caucuses Yea Nay
Main Street Caucus
29
 
0

Caucuses are selected based on a statistical analysis of their relevance to the vote outcome. Caucus membership may not be the latest — we are still working on that. Legislators may be a member of multiple caucuses.

Ideology Vote Chart
Key:
Democrat - Yea Republican - Yea Republican - Nay

Seat position based on our ideology score.

Cartogram Map

Each hexagon represents one congressional district. Dark shaded hexes are Yea votes.

What you can do

Notes: The Speaker’s Vote?
The Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings, except when such vote would be decisive.” In practice, this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes and only does so when it is politically useful. When the Speaker declines to vote, he or she is simply omitted from the roll call by the House Clerk. (See House Rules, Rule I(7).)
“Aye” or “Yea”?

“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.

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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

What was the procedure for this vote?

  1. What was this vote on?

    2. 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 House was voting on, try seeing if it’s on this list.

  2. What is the next step after this vote?

    3. 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?

  1. What trends do you see in this vote?

    2. 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?

    One tool that will be helpful in answering this question is the cartogram at the top of the page. A cartogram is a stylized map of the United States that shows each district as an identical hexagon. This view allows you to see the how the representatives from each district voted arranged by their geography and colored by their political party. What trends can you see in the cartogram for this vote?

  2. How did your representative vote?

    3. There is one vote here that should be more important to you than all the others. These are the votes cast by your representative, which is meant to represent you and your community. Do you agree with how your representative 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.