It’s a new Washington, D.C.: President-elect Donald Trump is headed to the White House, Republicans have retaken power in the Senate after four years in the minority, and the government will soon be controlled by a GOP trifecta for the first time since 2018.
But the representatives and senators who returned to the Capitol this week aren’t part of that new trifecta just yet; there’s still another month and a half of the 118th Congress’s lame duck session. This week, members sparred over Trump’s Cabinet nominations, elected new leadership in the Senate, debated congestion pricing and Social Security benefits, and more.
Here’s some of what New Jersey’s members of Congress – including its two new members-elect, who have begun their orientation process – did in Washington this week.
The Gaetzway Tunnel and the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Bridge
Trump began naming many prospective nominees to his second administration’s cabinet this week, and while some (like Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio or Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum) come from a more traditional wing of the Republican Party, others are… a bit further afield.
The nominee who’s drawn more attention than anyone else is Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz, a right-wing Florida congressman known for being a diehard Trump loyalist. The pick was contentious enough that New Jersey Senator-elect Andy Kim, who will get a vote on whether Gaetz gets confirmed come 2025, immediately released a statement saying that Gaetz was an absolute no-go for him.
“I was originally going to hold off on commenting on nominations at this stage but I cannot stay quiet here,” Kim said. “I don’t need a confirmation hearing to know that Matt Gaetz is not qualified for Attorney General. I will not support his confirmation.”
New Jersey’s other senator, Cory Booker, hasn’t taken quite such a definitive stance yet. But he and his fellow Senate Democrats wrote a letter to the House Ethics Committee asking committeemembers to release their potentially damning report on Gaetz’s alleged ethical issues – a report that Gaetz tried to sidestep by resigning from the House, thus removing him from the committee’s jurisdiction.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report and findings,” the letter states. “We cannot allow this critical information from a bipartisan investigation into longstanding public allegations to be hidden from the American people, given that it is directly relevant to the question of whether Mr. Gaetz is qualified and fit to be the next Attorney General of the United States.”
Of course, Booker, Kim, and their fellow Democrats will have little ability to derail controversial nominees like Gaetz, Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, and Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on their own. For that, they’ll need a handful of members of the Republican Senate majority to join them.
New House members learn how sausage gets made, opt for pork roll instead
This week was orientation week on Capitol Hill, meaning that New Jersey’s two new House members – Reps.-elect Herb Conaway (D-Delran) and Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), both longtime state legislators in Trenton – got their first taste of what life will be like in Washington.
Conaway, who will succeed Kim in the 3rd congressional district, said that while he’d like to be passing progressive legislation in a Democratic majority, he’ll settle for working with Republicans on tax legislation and the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap.
“Our interests in another world would be to deal with codifying Roe and dealing with issues related to access to the vote,” Conaway said. “But in this environment, we’re going to be dealing with the tax bill. And one of our big concerns now – it was always one of our concerns – is to deal with restoring the SALT deduction here for New Jersey.”
And Pou, whose race to replace the late Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) in the 9th district became unexpectedly competitive thanks to cratering Democratic support among Hispanic voters, said that one of her first priorities will be to focus on the economic issues that drove many of her district’s voters away from Democrats this year.
“The voters sent a message, and I’m listening to them loud and clear,” she said. “I want to make sure that we address the issue of the economy. I think the economy was one of the loudest messages, and I heard it. And I think it’s important for me to make sure that whatever I do works towards the effort of having some way of addressing that.”
Kim, for his part, began his own orientation process this week as he prepares to join the Senate, where he’s been consigned for now to “a bare wall windowless transition space in the basement that looks like the set of the show Severance.”
Mike, John, John, and Rick
House and Senate Republicans both held internal leadership elections this week, putting forward the two men who will likely lead Congress during the first two years of the Trump administration.
In the House GOP conference, Mike Johnson was renominated to a second term as House Speaker with no opposition – though the real test will come in January, when Johnson has to assemble a majority of all sitting representatives of both parties. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), a Johnson ally, said he’s optimistic that Republicans will be able to avert the chaotic Speaker contests that plagued them last session.
“We’re fine – I think everybody pretty much is [on board with Johnson],” Van Drew said. “The members of the House are, the president is, so I think we’re going to move forward with that. There will be some issues – it’s the Republican Party… We often go our own way. But we have a mandate to make change; we want it to be beneficial change, and we want to work together.”
Over in the Senate, Republicans chose South Dakota Senator John Thune as the new Senate Majority Leader, defeating Texas Senator John Cornyn and Florida Senator Rick Scott; New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, naturally, did not get a say in the decision. Thune will succeed Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who has led his caucus for nearly two decades.
$9 is the new $15
Earlier this year, New Jersey politicians rejoiced when New York Gov. Kathy Hochul temporarily scuttled New York City’s $15-a-day congestion pricing plan. Now congestion pricing is back on the agenda, and those same politicians are in a huff.
Under the city’s new plan, cars would be charged $9 a day when they travel south of 60th Street in Manhattan. Hochul said that the lower rate was an effort to respond to criticisms of the plan while still providing a dedicated funding stream for public transit, but New Jersey members of Congress from both parties said that no matter how high or low the fee is, New Jersey drivers shouldn’t have to pay it.
“Congestion pricing is a deeply flawed and inequitable program that unfairly targets New Jersey residents,” Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) said in a statement. “I strongly condemn Governor Hochul’s decision to reintroduce this initiative and will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to put an end to it. This program should be permanently canceled.”
The issue is such a potent one, in fact, that Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) – long one of congestion pricing’s most ardent opponents – referenced it heavily in his gubernatorial campaign announcement today.
“All the experts said New York’s congestion tax was a done deal – Josh fought back to kill it,” a woman says in Gottheimer’s launch video. “If they try to bring it back, he’ll fight New York again.”
Honorable discharge
The House passed an important bill on Tuesday related to Social Security benefits, and they did so in an unusual way: via discharge petition.
Discharge petitions allow a majority of House members to force a vote on a bill without the approval of House leadership; they’re a rarely used tactic, since members of the majority party typically don’t try to circumvent their own leaders even on bills they support. But the discharge petition for the Social Security Fairness Act received a bipartisan set of 218 signatures, a bare majority of the House, including seven New Jersey Democrats and two Republicans, Reps. Van Drew and Chris Smith (R-Manchester).
If enacted, the bill would repeal limitations that reduce Social Security benefits for individuals who receive certain government pensions or disability benefits. Every New Jersey House member who was serving at the time the bill was introduced, including the late Reps. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) and Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), is a co-sponsor.
“Our first responders, teachers, and hardworking public servants should be able to retire in the communities they have served without breaking the bank,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) said of the bill. “I urge the Senate to take up this legislation for a vote quickly so we can get this bill signed into law.”