Last week was a big week in the news, especially surrounding the Kavanaugh confirmation and the revised NAFTA agreement. See all the public statements and legislation surrounding the biggest topics that have been added to the Vote Smart database this week!
MAJOR EVENTS FROM THE WEEK:
Kavanaugh Confirmation
The Senate voted 51-49 to invoke cloture on the Kavanaugh nomination, and then confirmed him to the Supreme Court this weekend. See what your senators have to say on the topic HERE.
Political Courage Test Results
Our researchers have finished testing candidates in 25 states with the Political Courage Test! So far this year, 1,250 candidates across the country have displayed political courage by telling voters where they stand on the issues they will likely face if elected! See if your candidate has political courage HERE!
Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018
The House of Representatives voted to amend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act late last week. Read the Vote Smart summary of the legislation HERE to see how it could affect you and your family.
Revised NAFTA Agreement
The Trump Administration has taken a significant step in its foreign policy agenda through the revised NAFTA agreement. See what your representatives are saying about the topic and other trade issues right HERE.
ELECTIONS:
By Pete and the Elections Research team
Endorsements:
Vote Smart has released more than 25,000+ endorsements so far this year! See who is really backing your candidates HERE.
If you would like to see how your representatives or candidates are rated by Special Interest Groups, check out your candidate's ratings page, as shown by the example HERE.
State level endorsements for states with elections on Tuesday can be found by filtering for your state and the issues that matter most to you on this page HERE!
Ratings:
Vote Smart has released over 99,000 ratings for politicians so far this year! They are listed on the Interest Groups page of the website HERE! We have researched state level interest group ratings in all 50 states! Filter for your state HERE.
You can filter these rating scorecards by both STATE AND ISSUE, which allows you to easily find how interest groups are rating your representatives based on the subjects that matter to you.
Political Courage Test & Elections Info:
Our staff is currently testing 12,000 Congressional, Gubernatorial, and State Legislative candidates in all 50 states, asking them to provide voters with their stances on the issues by taking our Political Courage Test!
We have finished testing candidates in 25 states with the Political Courage Test! So far this year, 1,250 candidates across the country have displayed political courage by telling voters where they stand on the issues they will likely face if elected! See if your candidate has political courage here.
Primary election season is over! We have processed the results for all 2018 primary elections! See the results HERE!
OFFICIALS:
By Annie and the Officials Research team
Public Statements:
Vote Smart added 2,713 statements to its database this week! Find them all through targeted key-word searches.
Some Newsworthy topics include:
Key Votes:
There were 8 key state votes this week, and 3 key votes in Congress.
- PN 2259: The Senate nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be a United States Supreme Court justice.
- HR 6760: Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018, which amends the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017 to provide permanent tax cuts to individuals and small-business tax cuts.
- HR 6157: Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019, which appropriates for fiscal year 2019 a total of $670 billion to the Department of Defense.
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