Congress is back! And it
immediately threw itself into a bevy of controversial issues: a
censure resolution against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark), an
effort to force the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein,
and a funding deadline looming at the end of the month that could
lead to a government shutdown.
Somewhat surprisingly, the
censure resolution failed and McIver emerged unscathed, but plenty
of other challenging issues remain unresolved. Here’s some of what
New Jersey’s members of Congress did in Washington this
week.
Censure, Jan
Ever since Rep. McIver got into a scuffle with federal immigration
officials last spring, Republicans in Congress have made it clear
that they believe the first-term congresswoman should be censured.
House Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed the
idea formally punishing
McIver just a few days after the Delaney Hall fracas, and some
Republicans went even further and floated expelling
her (a proposal that
would have unrealistically required the consent of some
Democrats).
But when Louisiana Rep. Clay
Higgins’s resolution to censure McIver and strip her of her seat on
the House Homeland Security Committee came up for a procedural vote
yesterday, five Republicans surprisingly sided with the entire
Democratic caucus and voted to kill
it. (One of those five
later said his vote was an accident.)
McIver, who has maintained that
she did nothing wrong during her oversight visit at the Delaney
Hall immigrant detention center, said she was grateful for the
result and unbowed by Republican attempts to “intimidate”
her.
“This whole situation, this
whole ordeal, has been a political attack against me since the day
I went to Delaney Hall,” she said. “I continue to be a critic of
this administration, and I think they just want to find different
ways to bully me and intimidate me while I’m here. I’m not going to
back down.”
The congresswoman still faces
some legal jeopardy relating to the same incident, however. McIver
was charged with
assault by controversial
acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba in May, and a trial in the case is
set for November; McIver’s attorneys have filed several motions
seeking to dismiss the
charges as politically
motivated.
The Epstein Discharge
List
An issue that had been building
up all summer – the release of files related to the late convicted
sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein – came to a head this week, with
survivors of Epstein’s abuse coming to the U.S. Capitol and urging President
Donald Trump’s administration to be more transparent.
To that end, Rep. Thomas Massie
(R-Kentucky) is leading a discharge petition – a mechanism that
allows 218 House members to put a bill on the floor against the
wishes of House leadership – to force a vote on the release of the
files. Nearly every House Democrat (including all nine from New
Jersey) has signed the
petition, but at the urging of GOP leaders, all but four House
Republicans have declined to do so.
One New Jersey Republican, Rep.
Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), is a sponsor of the underlying bill
regarding the Epstein files, but even he said he won’t sign the
petition, arguing that it’s better for the bill to go through the
standard process rather than coming directly to the House
floor.
“I support maximum transparency,
and we’ve got to get the information out for the sake of the
victims, for the sake of the American people,” Van Drew said.
“However, this is a very, very sensitive issue, and it needs to be
done in a proper way. I really support the bill, but it needs to go
through the committee process.”
Democrats clearly see the
political upside to the issue; Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman
(D-Ewing) trolled
neighboring Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) today by giving him a pen he can use to sign the discharge
petition as a birthday present.
Shutdown
showdown
If Congress can’t pass a
government funding package by September 30, the federal government
will shut down. And Senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker – who, thanks
to the filibuster, have a fair bit of power despite being in the
Senate minority – say they’re willing to
oppose a
shutdown-averting funding bill if it’s not sufficiently
bipartisan.
The government appropriations
process has historically been bipartisan, but the Trump
administration and some Republicans in Congress are hoping to
freeze Democrats out. That’s essentially what happened in March of
this year, when Republicans essentially dared Democrats to oppose a
partisan stopgap bill and a critical handful of Senate Democrats
allowed the bill to pass.
Kim and Booker, however,
weren’t among
them, and they say
they’re prepared to vote the same way if another partisan GOP bill
is put before them.
“Let’s just say there’s no way
I’m going to vote for something that’s purely partisan on the
Republican side, and let that go through,” Kim said. “I’m prepared
to do what I did the last time around.”
“I am not going to support a
budget that hurts New Jerseyans, that hurts people more than
they’re hurting already,” Booker said. “Donald Trump and
Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House.
They have a responsibility to put forward a budget that can get
through the United States Senate.”
The House, of course, will be
involved in any funding battle as well. But because House
Republicans can pass a bill on a purely party-line vote without any
threat of a filibuster, the dynamics there are substantially
different, and New Jersey’s nine House Democrats may not have much
say in the debate at all.
Amy Kennedy’s cousin-in-law
testifies before the Senate
In the wake of the
ousting of Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention director Susan Monarez – who had
been nominated to her role by President Trump and confirmed just
last month – bipartisan frustration at Health and Human Services
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. boiled over during a Senate Finance
Committee hearing yesterday.
Neither of New Jersey’s senators
is on that committee, but Senator Kim nonetheless released a
statement calling on Kennedy to resign, saying that the secretary
has a “complete disregard for science and the health of our
families.” At a rally
with his fellow members of the
Congressional Doctors Caucus yesterday, Rep. Herb Conaway
(D-Delran) said much the same thing.
“We’ve seen the disaster that he
has wrought, and we warned the [Senate] about it,” Conaway said.
“Sadly, they refused to listen to his own history of lying and
spreading misinformation that is directly harmful to the health of
many citizens.”
Rules of
engagement
Senator Booker announced this
week that he’ll soon do
something everyone else in the New Jersey congressional delegation
has done at least once: get married.
The 56-year-old senator, whose
dating life has long been subject to media
speculation (especially
during his 2020 presidential campaign), said on Instagram that he’s
engaged to Alexis Lewis, a vice president of investments at Brasa
Capital Management. According to the Washington Examiner, he and
Lewis have been dating for around a
year.
“Alexis is one of the greatest
unearned blessings of my life,” Booker wrote. “She has transformed
me, helping me to ground and center my inner life, and discover the
joys of building a nurturing home with someone you love… I am
savoring the soul-affirming wonder of everyday life with my
partner, best friend, and now my fiancée.”
Darling there’s cables, need
to be stable, under the sea
On a voice vote, the House
passed a bill on Tuesday authored by Rep. Kean that aims to protect
the construction and maintenance of undersea cable projects from
foreign adversaries like China.
“Undersea cables are the
lifeline of global communications, carrying data quickly and
securely across continents,” Kean said. “While our nation maintains
a competitive edge in the deployment and development of these
cables, China seeks to expand its influence over one of the world’s
most important communications networks. We must protect these
cables from foreign interference, sabotage, or control by our
adversaries.”
Kean’s fellow swing-district
House member, Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), also found
legislative success this week, getting her Water Crisis Prevention
Act – which would direct the Government Accountability Office to
study water infrastructure failures like the one that has recently
plagued Paterson – through the Transportation & Infrastructure
Committee.
Other Garden State
plots
• The House passed an Energy
Department-related appropriations bill on an incredibly tight
214-213 vote this week; Rep. Chris Smith
(R-Manchester) lauded the bill for including funding for a new
shallow draft dredging vessel.
“A vote ‘NO’ on today’s bill
would have been a vote against a desperately needed new dredge for
the Manasquan and Shark River Inlets and the economy of the Jersey
Shore,” Smith said. “We have been fighting for years for a new
dredge, and this bill will make that a reality.”
• Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) today unveiled a new E-Bike
Safety Plan, which includes a bill increasing federal funding for
state-level e-bike safety training and programs.
“While fun and efficient,
without the right safety precautions, e-bikes can be dangerous,”
Gottheimer said. “When it comes to preventing our children from
serious crashes, we need to pull out all the stops and put real
safeguards in place. By further raising awareness, I’m hoping that
we can prevent the next e-bike crash before it happens.”
The post D.C. Dispatch: What N.J.’s members of Congress did
in Washington this week appeared first on New Jersey
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