House Speaker Mike Johnson lives!
That was the big news of the week, with the Speaker easily surviving an attempt to oust him thanks to support from majorities of both the Republican and Democratic caucuses. But Congress tackled other issues as well, from fire grants to federal aviation rules to Census questions. Here’s some of what New Jersey’s 13 members of Congress did this week.
Motion to go on vacation
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) tried to force a vote on her motion to oust Speaker Johnson this week, giving the House an opportunity to re-enact the Speakerless chaos of last fall – but House members turned her down.
An overwhelming majority of both the Republican and Democratic caucuses voted to table Greene’s motion, preventing Johnson from even having to face a proper vote on his potential expulsion. The fact that most Republicans stood by Johnson wasn’t surprising, but it was more notable coming from Democrats, who provided the critical votes last fall for ousting then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“Our decision to stop Marjorie Taylor Greene from plunging the House of Representatives and the country into further chaos is rooted in our commitment to solve problems for everyday Americans in a bipartisan manner,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said following the vote, per the New York Times. “We will continue to govern in a reasonable, responsible and results-oriented fashion, and put people over politics all day and every day.”
Of New Jersey’s 11 House members, nine voted to table Greene’s motion, including six of the state’s Democrats and all three of its Republicans. But there were two exceptions: Reps. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), who joined 30 of their fellow Democrats (and eleven Republicans) in opposing the motion to table.
“I want the best Speaker we can to work for the people,” Watson Coleman said. “Right now that person is Hakeem Jeffries. I don’t want Mike Johnson to be Speaker, so that’s how I voted. It’s not my job to save him.”
Firing on all cylinders
As much as Congress’s dysfunction and partisanship can often dominate Americans’ perceptions of their government, a lot of the work Congress does on a day-to-day basis remains bipartisan and mundane: keeping popular services going, tweaking existing programs, and the like.
Reps. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) and Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) demonstrated that this week with their Fire Grants and Safety Act, an unflashy but important bill that re-ups several important federal grant programs for firefighters and first responders. If the bill is eventually signed into law, the U.S. Fire Administration, the Assistance to Firefighter Grants (AFG), and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant, which are set to expire later this year, will all be reauthorized for five more years.
Kean was the sponsor of the bill, but it’s Pascrell who has the longer history with the programs. Back in 1999, in his second term in the House, he introduced the Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement (FIRE) Act, which established the AFG; a few years later, SAFER grants were passed into law as well.
“It is hard to imagine now, but 25 years ago, federal support for our fire services was nearly non-existent,” Pascrell said on the House floor. “The success of these programs speaks for itself. Since its inception, AFG has delivered more than $9 billion to equip and train firefighters. I’m proud to say that SAFER has awarded more than $5 billion… These grants are among the most effective in the entire federal budget.”
Twitter: the place where good things happen
On Tuesday, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) teamed up with Rep. Michelle Steel (R-California) to introduce the October 7th Remembrance Education Act, a bill that would direct the United States Holocaust Museum to create a curriculum for students to learn about the October 7th attack on Israel. And, naturally, he promoted the bill on his official Twitter (or X) account.
“I am proud to introduce new bipartisan legislation with @RepSteel to create an October 7th remembrance curriculum,” he tweeted. “10/7 was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. By teaching about that awful day and the hate that followed, we can combat surging antisemitism.”
Then things went south. Gottheimer’s tweet currently has more than 1,300 replies, a huge number of which spout antisemitic and neo-Nazi rhetoric: that American Jews are disloyal, that the Holocaust was a hoax, and so on. In a follow-up tweet, Gottheimer highlighted the worst examples of the replies, saying that they showed the need for vigilance against anti-Jewish sentiment.
“It’s a disgusting reminder that antisemitism is alive & well,” he said. “Antisemitism & all forms of hate have no place in our country. Don’t be silent, it takes all of us to tackle hate.”
I cense a disturbance in the force
Under current congressional apportionment rules, all residents of the United States, both citizens and noncitizens, count equally when it comes to redrawing districts and assigning Electoral College votes. This week, House Republicans passed a bill to change that: the Equal Representation Act, which would add a citizenship question to the decennial Census (something which the current Census does not ask) and would exclude any noncitizens from apportionment calculations.
According to Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), the bill – which passed on a party-line vote and has no chance of becoming law as long as Democrats control the Senate and White House – is necessary to stop undocumented immigrants from voting in elections (a practice that is, of course, already illegal).
“The Left is already laying the groundwork to let illegals vote in our elections,” Van Drew said. “So, it is no surprise that 202 Democrats just opposed requiring a citizenship question on the Census. They know that more illegals = more seats in Congress. The Census should only count citizens.”
But the effects of such a policy would go much farther than that. According to a state report based on 2018 data, New Jersey has an immigrant population of just under 2 million people, or 22% of the state. Immigrants make up a much larger share of New Jersey’s population than they do nationally, where they are around 14% of the population, per Pew Research Center.
It’s not clear how many of those immigrants in New Jersey are citizens, but it seems probable that New Jersey also has a higher share of noncitizens than the country as a whole. If the Equal Representation Act were to ever become law, then, New Jersey could end up losing seats in Congress and votes in the Electoral College, while states with smaller immigrant populations would see their representation increase.
Do re mi FAA so la ti do
After a months-long series of negotiations, the Senate passed a bill yesterday that reauthorizes the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for five years; the bill now heads back to the House for final approval. (The deadline for reauthorizing the agency was today, so both chambers also passed a brief one-week extension bill to give themselves more time.)
The most controversial proposal in the bill – one that had previously been shot down in the House thanks to Democratic opposition – will add new flight slots out of Ronald Reagan National Airport, a contentious topic in the area. All four senators from Virginia and Maryland voted against the bill for that reason.
The 88 other senators in attendance supported the bill, including Senator Cory Booker. Notably, though, Senator Bob Menendez was absent from the vote – a phenomenon which is likely to become very common in the coming months as Menendez stands trial on federal bribery charges in New York.
Other Garden State plots
• Reps. Gottheimer and Donald Norcross (D-Camden) sent a letter to Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway this week questioning his tactics in negotiating with pro-Palestinian protesters who had set up encampments at the university’s New Brunswick campus.
“We fear that the administration’s accession to troublesome demands made by protestors failed to adequately take into account the perspectives and voices of members of the Jewish community at Rutgers,” their letter states. “Furthermore, we are concerned that Rutgers appears to have incentivized people to act in a lawless and threatening manner by appeasing the demands of violent and hateful agitators while ignoring an analogous set of requests made peacefully to the University.”
• President Joe Biden’s decision to pause a weapons shipment to Israel in response to Israel’s potential bombardment of the Gazan city of Rafah drew condemnation from many Republicans (and a few Democrats) in Congress, among them Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester).
“Rather than ensure our ally is able to defend itself and defeat Hamas, President Biden is withholding critical support at a moment when Israel is negotiating the release of American and Israeli hostages,” Smith said. “By making concessions to Israel’s enemies around the world, Biden is fueling the flames for more violence in the region and antisemitic, pro-Hamas protests in our own country. He should reverse course immediately.”
• One of the bills the House passed this week was the Hands Off Our Household Appliances Act, also known as, um, the HOOHA Act. According to Republicans, it’s a necessary step to fight against Biden administration energy efficiency rules that threaten Americans’ appliances, but Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that’s a load of hooey.
“Instead of legislating on important, pressing issues, Republicans are pushing a bill that will increase energy prices for American families,’ Pallone said on the House floor. “This Republican Congress is the least productive of any Congress since the Great Depression. This bill is only being brought to the floor because Republicans can’t assemble the votes to actually accomplish anything for the American people.”