Congress returned from its holiday recess on January 9, and immediately got to work on its most important task: once again keeping the U.S. government from shutting down.
That anti-shutdown vote, plus a House vote on a major new tax bill, were by far the two most notable things Congress accomplished this month. But there were some other notable bills that the House and Senate took up too, including a few GOP-led House bills tackling abortion and immigration issues and a pair of Senate votes on the war in Gaza.
Click here for a web version of the New Jersey Globe’s January 2024 vote tracker, with links to the bills and votes in question, or scroll to the bottom of this article for a PDF version.
The stopgap funding vote
When the government funding deadline for Fiscal Year 2024 arrived at the end of last September, Congress kicked the can down the road until November 17. When November 17 arrived, they pushed it off again until January 19 or February 2, depending on the department. And when January 19 arrived, they pushed it off yet again until March.
The mechanism for doing so was a continuing resolution (CR), a stopgap bill that extends existing funding levels for a set period until Congress can come up with a long-term deal for government appropriations. New Jersey’s 14 members of Congress grumbled about having to pass yet another CR this month, but 13 of them voted for it anyways.
“The number one thing is to keep the government open,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) said shortly before the vote last week. “But this is really detrimental to how we fund our government… I think we’re all happy to talk about what we want to fund or not fund, but this just feels like we’re limping along, trying to keep the government open in a way that I don’t think is very effective.”
The one exception was Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), who didn’t vote for the previous CRs in November and September and refused to support one once again this time.
“I’m just not voting for the same old, same old,” Van Drew said. “This is continuing the Pelosi budget. It’s not the Speaker’s fault, and it’s better than closing down government, but it’s something I don’t want to be a part of.”
The tax bill vote
On a more proactive note, Congress moved forward with a bipartisan, bicameral tax bill that expands the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and restores some corporate tax breaks, among other tax policy changes. The House passed the bill on a wide 357-70 vote, with 10 of New Jersey’s 12 House members supporting it.
The two no votes were Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), who criticized the bill for giving “lopsided benefits to corporations,” and Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), who was upset the bill didn’t include any provisions addressing the State and Local Tax deduction cap.
“I kept my promise to the New Jerseyans I represent,” Kean said in a statement. “On a bill that does not raise the SALT cap deduction, I am a NO vote. Although I support numerous provisions in this bill, such as the Child Tax Credit, [research and development] tax incentive, and disaster relief, a fix for SALT is not in this package.”
Kean wasn’t the only New Jersey House member to express his frustration over the continuation of the SALT cap, which many of the state’s suburban representatives have fought against since it was implemented in 2018. But Kean’s fellow SALT-focused representatives ultimately decided they’d rather support the bill for what it did include than oppose it for what it didn’t.
“We are supporting this legislation to strengthen the child tax credit,” Sherrill and Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) said in a joint statement. “Nonetheless, we are deeply dissatisfied that once again restoration of middle class relief is excluded… We will continue to explore ways to restore middle class tax relief and will not give up until it happens.”
Other votes
Last week, the House took up two controversial abortion-related bills, one that would allow welfare funds to go towards anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers and another that would require colleges to inform pregnant students of their rights and resources if they carry to term. Both bills passed on purely party-line votes, with all New Jersey Republicans voting for them and all Democrats voting against them.
And this week, the House took up four immigration-related bills: one prohibiting members of Hamas and other October 7 attackers from entering the U.S.; another making it a crime to operate a vehicle near the U.S. border while fleeing Border Patrol officers; and two establishing Social Security fraud and driving while intoxicated as grounds for deporting non-U.S. nationals or barring them from entry.
The Hamas bill passed near-unanimously, but the other three were more contentious. New Jersey’s three Republicans and Reps. Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) voted for all three bills, while most other New Jersey Democrats opposed them; Pascrell split his votes, supporting only the Social Security fraud bill.
Finally, with articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas likely coming for a vote soon, the House approved a resolution last week condemning the Biden administration’s “open-borders policies.” A few House Democrats supported the resolution, but no New Jersey Democrats were among them.
Over in the Senate, January was largely filled with votes on various judicial and cabinet nominations – none of them from New Jersey – with the main exceptions being two votes on Israel and Palestine.
One vote was triggered by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who tried to put his bill on Israel’s human rights practices on the floor; 72 senators, Cory Booker and Bob Menendez among them, voted to table Sanders’ motion. The other was an amendment to the stopgap funding bill authored by Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) that would have limited foreign assistance to Palestinian governing authorities; Booker and Menendez both opposed the amendment, which was defeated 44-50.
Click here for a web version of the vote tracker.