Unit 4 Post

Representative Jim McDermott- Washington’s 7th District

Democrat Jim McDermott represents the suburban area outside of Seattle, Washington. McDermott is 79 years old and was elected to Congress in 1989, serving 14 terms in Congress. Earlier this year he announced that he would not be running for re-election. Representative McDermott went to medical school and attained a medical degree. Later, he served time during the Vietnam War as US Navy Medical Corps as a psychiatrist. In 1974, he ran for state Senate and was re-elected three times. McDermott currently serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and is a member of the Progressive Caucus. His biggest political contributor is the United Food & Commercial Workers Union. The 7th districts includes much of Seattle and its surrounding area, containing part of the city and the suburbs around it, and qualifies as an area fueled by technology because within the district is a modern city.

Bill 1 - ENCRYPT Act: The goal of the ENCRYPT Act is to make it impossible for the government to request companies and service providers to alter security functions in order to surveillance users. This bill has clearly come as a result from the San Bernardino shootings, where suspects of the shootings apparently stored information regarding the terrorist attack on their Apple devices. The FBI asked Apple to essentially crack their own encryption code in order to get this information. Apple did not follow through with this request. This bill is still in committee, therefore Congress has not voted on it yet, but if it does reach the floor, I am speculating that Representative McDermott will vote in favor of the bill. Because his district contains the heart of Seattle, a technological city, I believe that he will vote to protect the privacy of his constituents.

Bill 2 - Aviation Act: This bill would privatize air traffic control and move air traffic control to a private non-profit organization. This bill has already made it out of committee, however it has not been voted on the floor yet. Representatives in support of this bill point out the fact that the current reform plan of the Federal Aviation Administration has taken much longer to execute than originally planned, making the cost of the project $120 billion instead of the projected $40 billion. Because Representative McDermott is on the House Ways and Means Committee that deals with revenue, the cost of the old system and the cost of the new system would definitely be something that his congressional committee would be looking in to. However, Democrats on the Transportation Committee have been claiming that they will be making a competing bill to the Aviation Act that will better match the Democrat's spending priorities. If this bill is created, McDermott will most likely side with his fellow Democratic congressmen.

Bill 3 - Sentencing Act: The goal of this bill is to reform sentencing primarily for people convicted of crimes involving drug possession. The bill would reduce the number of years those convicted of drug possession would be required to serve as well as create a minimum number of years a person convicted with a domestic violence crime would be required to serve. The Sentencing Reform Act was sent out of committee in November of 2015, but has not been passed by the House or Senate yet. Because sources suggest that this bill has a high chance on being passed and was a bipartisan effort, I would guess that Representative McDermott would vote to pass this legislation.