In First And Only Vote On Trump's Muslim Ban, Republicans Fail The Test

Tuesday morning, the House of Representatives did the unthinkable: lawmakers actually held a vote on Donald Trump s Muslim ban.

Representative Mark Pocan had the nerve in the Appropriations committee to call for a vote on whether taxpayer dollars should be used to enforce Trumps Muslim ban against the grandparents and other family members of Americans this, after the Supreme Court and lower courts forced Trump to let family members into the country (and social media protests against the grandma ban).

Not shockingly, the amendment failed , because every Republican save one Charlie Dent voted to protect the president and uphold even the most indefensible elements of the ban. It was the first and only vote Congress has ever held on Trumps Muslim ban, and the Republican-led Congress ran interference for Trump.

This may sound like a dereliction of duty, but its true. In the seven months since Donald Trump took office, Congress has done literally nothing as Trump has engaged in multiple attempts to make good on his campaign promise of banning Muslims from the U.S. The first Muslim ban wreaked havoc at our airports and prevented green card holders from returning home. After the courts blocked it, his second Muslim ban blocked grandmothers from visiting their American grandchildren and separated families across continents.

Meanwhile, even as successive courts have issued orders to pause or limit the Muslim ban, the Trump administration has still managed to reduce visas to Muslim-majority countries by 20 percent and banned countries by more than 50 percent. As an Iranian American, I can tell you that there is not a single member of my community that I am aware of who hasnt been impacted by this ban and the extreme vetting policies that have accompanied it over these past seven months.

Yet in that time, Congress has literally taken zero actions on the Muslim ban. They have not held a single hearing, they have not launched any investigations into what is actually going on, and Republican leadership has blocked any attempt to vote on legislation to repeal the ban.

In all the chaos of the Trump administration, an important fact has been obscured: Congress actually has the power to pass legislation (!) and has the authority to rescind and defund any of Trumps executive orders including the Muslim ban.

Were Congress to summon the political will to act, the Muslim ban would be over with for good. Instead, millions of families wait in limbo to find out what the Supreme Court will ultimately decide when it takes up this issue in the fall. Affected communities get whiplash keeping track of what elements of the ban have been suspended, what countries Trump may ban permanently, which members of our family are banned and which can get in, and what other back and forth will take place between the courts and the White House. Congress has the power to put an end to all of this and give Americans with families in Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen some peace of mind.

It shouldnt be so hard for Congress to act. It seems like just yesterday that Paul Ryan and Mike Pence spoke out so courageously against Donald Trumps calls to ban Muslims from the United States. Of course, that was before Donald Trump became president. The fact that Ryan, Pence, and so many others in the GOP have flip flopped on this issue (especially when, behind closed doors, many will tell you that they oppose the ban) makes the obvious painfully clear: as with all things in Washington, this comes down to politics. That is why so many members of Trumps party have avoided talking about or taking any position on Trumps unpopular ban.

Thats why it is so important to not allow lawmakers to avoid taking tough votes on the Muslim ban and to hold them accountable . Thanks to Rep. Pocans amendment yesterday, we now have a list of 29 lawmakers who are all now on the record as supporters of banning grandmas from America. That includes lawmakers like Rep. John Culberson (R-Houston) who represents over 6,000 Iranian Americans and whose voters gave him a pass in 2016 but voted against Donald Trump in the presidential.

2018 is going to be a very tough election for Trumps party. Unlike 2016, when many Republican lawmakers campaigned on the premise that Donald Trump was an outlier and not reflective of themselves, in the 2018 elections they will have to run on their record under Trump. Lawmakers who vote in lockstep with Trump to protect his most heinous policies, like the Muslim ban, will no longer get a pass. Thats why we must pose a simple choice: our elected representatives can either break with the president and stand up with against the ban, or we will be held accountable at the ballot box. If that happens, it is very likely that at least the House will flip. And if that happens, you can all but guarantee there will be hearings, investigations, and, yes, votes on Trumps Muslim ban.

Members who voted to protect Trumps grandma ban:

Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, New Jersey

Harold Rogers, Kentucky

Robert B. Aderholt, Alabama

Kay Granger, Texas

Michael K. Simpson, Idaho

John Abney Culberson, Texas

John R. Carter, Texas

Ken Calvert, California

Tom Cole, Oklahoma

Mario Diaz-Balart, Florida

Tom Graves, Georgia

Kevin Yoder, Kansas

Steve Womack, Arkansas

Jeff Fortenberry, Nebraska

Thomas J. Rooney, Florida

Charles J. Fleischmann, Tennessee

Jaime Herrera Beutler, Washington

David P. Joyce, Ohio

David G. Valadao, California

Andy Harris, MD, Maryland

Martha Roby, Alabama

Mark E. Amodei, Nevada

Chris Stewart, Utah

David Young, Iowa

Evan H. Jenkins, West Virginia

Steven Palazzo, Mississippi

Dan Newhouse, Washington

John R. Moolenaar, Michigan

Scott Taylor, Virginia