Washington is still settling into the reality of Donald Trump’s impending return to power – and the New Jersey congressional delegation is still settling into its new configuration after a year with unusually high turnover.
Before skipping town for Thanksgiving, Congress debated bathroom access for transgender members, weapons sales to Israel, adoptions of Ukrainian children, and more. Here’s some of what New Jersey’s members of Congress did in Washington this week.
Always the McBridesmaid, never the McBride
Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Delaware) will be Congress’s first-ever transgender member when she takes office in 2025 – and that distinction is already causing many of her Republican soon-to-be colleagues to begin targeting her.
On Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) introduced a resolution requiring everyone in the Capitol to use bathrooms corresponding with their sex at birth, rather than their gender identity. House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed soon afterwards that transgender women would indeed be barred from women’s bathrooms, and McBride said in a statement that she would “follow the rules … even if I disagree with them.”
The entire saga drew scorn from several New Jersey Democrats, who said that Republicans were attacking McBride in order to distract from their own agenda and the issues that people outside the halls of Congress actually care about.
“She’s going to be an incredible member of Congress,” Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) said of McBride. “She’s going to produce results for the people of Delaware. That’s all that matters. This crisis that Nancy Mace has created has nothing to do with her constituents, it has nothing to do with the people of Delaware, it has nothing to do with the issues impacting working Americans… If they continue down this path, it will be a stain on our institution.”
Sending messages, not mortars
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) triggered three Senate votes this week over whether to block the sale of weapons to Israel as the war in Gaza rages on. The resolutions were never expected to pass, but they did serve to gauge how deep the frustration with Israel among Senate Democrats runs.
Between 16 and 18 senators voted in support of each Joint Resolution of Disapproval, all of them Democrats or Democratic-caucusing independents. Senator Cory Booker voted against all three, but interim Senator George Helmy supported one of them: an effort to block the sale of high-explosive mortar rounds.
Asked yesterday why he chose to vote for that resolution in particular, Helmy said he recognized that all of the votes were essentially symbolic, and he wanted to send a message on at least one of them.
“We knew, going in, that none of these resolutions were going to pass,” Helmy said. “But I still think, as a United States Senator, sending a message is important. I was always going to be a yes on one of them… The mortars, which have been some of the causes of civilian casualties in Gaza, made the most sense for me to add my voice to those saying, ‘Hey, we’re really concerned here.’”
The resolution has been adopted
A bipartisan pair of New Jerseyans, Reps. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) and Donald Norcross (D-Camden), got the House to pass their resolution this week urging the Ukrainian government to allow U.S. citizens to resume adopting Ukrainian children.
According to the two congressmen’s offices, Ukraine paused all international adoptions when Russia invaded in 2022, which left hundreds of American would-be adoptive parents – including two New Jersey families – in limbo. The resolution recommends that Ukraine resume the American adoption process, particularly focusing on the families who had already begun the process before the war began.
“[Americans] formed strong bonds with these kids. They hosted them in their homes. And right before this was going to work its way through the bureaucracy, an invasion began and changed everything,” Norcross said. “That’s why I’m urging the Ukrainian government to resume the adoption by American citizens. There are no allies stronger than the U.S. – families across the U.S. stand ready, open arms, to provide healthy, safe, and stable environments for these children.”
According to Smith, the bill was inspired by a New Jersey couple, Matt and Deidre Gordon, who were in the process of adopting a pair of Ukrainian children when the war broke out and the process was derailed.
“The Gordons have been vetted and approved as adoptive parents by both the United States and Ukrainian governments,” Smith said. “They had a strong bond and relationship – they have a deep love for those two children, and had spent precious time with them in New Jersey… Please, don’t delay any longer. Those kids want a loving home, and there is one awaiting them as we speak.”
The bill passed 372-6, with all present New Jerseyans voting in favor.
Baku to the future
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) had a series of alarming encounters in Azerbaijan this past weekend, with protesters and journalists likely associated with the Azerbaijani government heckling him and, in his view, nearly assaulting him.
Pallone was in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, over the weekend for the COP29 climate conference. That was always likely to cause tension, given that the New Jersey congressman is a committed critic of the Azerbaijani government, which he says represses its own citizens and has perpetrated ethnic cleansings against Armenians.
And indeed, when Pallone arrived for the conference, he was barred from a congressional delegation meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and was repeatedly confronted by large groups of angry protestors.
“When you arrive at the conference, as I did, and there are 20 to 30 seemingly reporters who are calling you names and synchronizing what they say with their iPhones – they all said the same thing, it was all on their iPhones – and then start gesturing towards what I thought was going to be an assault on me, you know that this is orchestrated by the government,” Pallone said. “Then we went back to the hotel, and at the hotel, it was just protestors – thugs, in my opinion. It was clear that they wanted to assault me. There was no question. If it wasn’t for the fact that the security that the embassy hired protected me, I would have been in the hospital. It was serious.”
Federal No-Way Administration
The Federal Highway Administration gave the go-ahead to New York City’s updated congestion pricing plan today, drawing yet more criticism from New Jersey’s federal and state politicians who say it’s nothing but a cash grab that bilks New Jersey commuters out of $9 every time they come into Manhattan.
“We stand resolutely against a tolling scheme that will unfairly burden our commuters,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement. “Since the inception of this plan, New York and Washington have not engaged New Jersey in any meaningful way. We will continue to do everything we can to fight this unfair and unpopular plan in the courts.”
“I strongly supported Gov. Murphy’s lawsuit against New York’s congestion pricing plan last year and I will work with him to use every tool available to force New York to consider an alternative path to forward that does not neglect NJ Transit, the New Jersey commuters that power New York’s economy, and the communities that would be hurt most by the environmental impact of this ridiculous plan,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) said.
But one of Sherrill’s opponents in the 2025 Democratic gubernatorial primary, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, has a far more sanguine take on the congestion pricing plan.
“My point has always been this is a good tool and effective where it has been used elsewhere,” Fulop said on social media. “We should also be implementing a congestion pricing fee on NYers coming to NJ is the proper response and force a regional solution that prioritizes mass transit – not litigation. Congestion pricing is an important tool that benefits the region + NJ should understand that and take our own steps as well.”
Other Garden State plots
• The House voted for a second time this week on the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, which would strip organizations of their nonprofit status if they’re deemed to support terrorism. The bill drew criticism from progressive groups who said that it could be weaponized against charities that fall out of favor with a given presidential administration, and two New Jersey members who supported it last week, Reps. Pallone and Norcross, switched their votes to “no” yesterday.
“I voted no on H.R. 9495 to protect the labor organizations and other non-profits from the potential unintended consequences this bill could have on their non-profit status,” Norcross said in a statement.
• With Trump’s cabinet nominations still being announced, Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) teamed up with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) to introduce a bill that would require anyone pending Senate confirmation for positions at the Departments of Defense, State, and Treasury or in the intelligence community to report any work they’ve done for foreign governments.
“At a time when trust in government is at historic lows, we need to be taking steps to show the American people they can have faith that their government officials are working to serve their interests first,” Kim said. “This bill would help prioritize transparency in the confirmation process, mitigate foreign influence, and bolster people’s confidence in presidential nominees as they seek to represent our country’s national security interests.”