After its August hiatus, Congress returned to Washington this week – or at least, the Senate did. (The House will come back next week.) For the next month, all eyes will be on whether the two chambers can pass the spending bills required to avoid a government shutdown, a task imperiled in large part by demands from the right wing of the House Republican caucus.
That’s what Congress will be dealing with on a macro scale, but New Jersey’s 14 members of Congress are also continuing to do more locally focused work. Here’s some of what they did during this week’s relative calm before the storm.
Episode VI: Return of the Senate
The Senate came back into session on Tuesday and immediately began working through its never-ending list of nominations. No New Jerseyans came up for a vote this week, though President Joe Biden did announce a new nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Jamel Semper.
But New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez still scored a victory this week with the confirmation of Adriana Kugler as the Federal Reserve Board’s first-ever Hispanic member. Menendez, who back in 1993 became New Jersey’s first Hispanic member of Congress, had strongly pushed Biden to nominate a Latino or Latina to the board.
“It is time for Latinos to serve at the highest levels of the Federal Reserve,” Menendez said on the Senate floor prior to Kugler’s confirmation. “It is time for Latinos to be taken seriously as an essential part of our American family and economy… Never again should a Latino or Latina have to wonder whether they can rise from humble beginnings to occupy seats of power.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Menendez is the chair, also met this week to discuss AUKUS, the fledgling security pact between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The pact, Menendez said in remarks at the hearing, “will enhance U.S. national security interests by transforming our alliances, deterring aggression from the People’s Republic of China, and fostering a more peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific.”
‘Incompetence, negligence, and outright recklessness’
The Department of Justice released a scathing report yesterday criticizing Covid policies at state-run veterans homes in Paramus and Menlo Park, saying that the facilities’ residents received “unconstitutionally deficient care.” The report drew shocked and appalled reactions from across the New Jersey political spectrum, including from three of its Democratic representatives.
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) blasted the leadership of the two facilities for their “incompetence, negligence, and outright recklessness.” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), whose congressional district includes Paramus, said that the facilities “violated [residents’] rights, took their lives, and destroyed families,” and demanded a briefing from the state and federal agencies responsible.
And Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), who represents the Menlo Park home, called for a number of major reforms, including creating a separate state department for veterans’ services and increasing federal funding to the facilities.
“It is heartbreaking to read about the inexcusable treatment of our heroic veterans in this report,” Pallone said in a statement alongside two state senators, Joe Cryan (D-Union) and Joe Vitale (D-Woodbridge). “I know that the state of New Jersey has taken significant action to remediate these appalling issues, but it’s clear that much more work must be done.”
Gottheimer is hungry to avoid a government shutdown
For many New Jerseyans, federal government shutdowns probably feel like an esoteric concern, something that will affect people in DC far more than at home. But with a shutdown potentially looming as early as September 30, Gottheimer is warning of a potential consequence that’s relevant to New Jersey: the reduction of funding for school lunches.
If Congress can’t pass appropriations bills by September 30, or at least a continuing resolution that keeps the government running for a little while longer, new investments in the federal school meals program would be frozen, Gottheimer said at an event in Bogota today. The congressman said that he’ll fight both against the prospect of a shutdown and for new, expanded school meal programs in Congress.
“Not only would the government shutdown freeze new investments for things like infrastructure spending and meals on wheels for seniors, but it would also cut the dollars for the federal school meals program that provides breakfast and lunch to millions of children who would otherwise go hungry,” Gottheimer said. “Making sure our kids have the fuel they need to be active participants in the classroom should be a bipartisan issue.”
Payne sticks to his anti-gun guns
Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) hosted a roundtable in Newark yesterday on gun violence prevention, with representatives from anti-gun violence groups like Moms Demand Action and the Newark Community Street Team in attendance.
At the roundtable, Payne lauded last year’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the first successful federal gun control law in 30 years – but said more needed to be done to reduce gun violence through proposals like his Safer Neighborhoods Gun Buyback Act.
“We must proactively ban assault weapons, strengthen background checks, and implement additional measures to ensure the well-being of our residents,” Payne said. “As a member of Congress, I remain fully committed to doing everything within my power to keep our communities safe.”
Other Garden State plots
• The House may not be back yet, but Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) hosted an emergency hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Wednesday to bring attention to Azerbaijan’s actions in Nagorno-Karabakh. The hearing featured testimony from the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who said that the Azerbaijani government’s actions in the region constitute genocide.
“The Biden administration must say immediately that this is genocide – and put a stop to it,” Smith said. “Delay is denial.”
• Menendez, Payne, and Pallone, alongside senior White House advisor Gene Sperling, announced yesterday that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has approved $300 million in assistance for the pension plan of Teamsters Local 863, a New Jersey branch of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
• Secretary of State Tahesha Way was appointed as New Jersey’s new lieutenant governor earlier today, prompting glowing reviews from many of New Jersey’s members of Congress.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) called her “an outstanding choice”; Senator Cory Booker said she’s an “exceptional leader”; Gottheimer lauded her “incredible job” as Secretary of State; and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) said that “if anyone is capable of filling the shoes of Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, I’m confident that it is Tahesha Way.”
Of course, Gottheimer and Sherrill have one additional reason to celebrate: given Way’s professed lack of future political ambitions, she’ll be one less person to run against in the 2025 gubernatorial race.
