The August recess has arrived, and Congress has departed Washington without a hint of farewell from Senator Bob Menendez, whose planned resignation will take effect August 20.
Menendez’s trial on corruption charges ended in a guilty verdict on July 16, freeing the senator to return to the Capitol for the Senate’s final two weeks of votes. But Menendez declined to do so, meaning that his last recorded vote remains May 9, before his trial began; his absenteeism has left New Jersey without a fully functional Senate delegation for more than three months.
In Menendez’s absence – and, in the latter half of the month, in the absence of Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), who was plagued with health issues in July – Congress took votes on a number of important pieces of legislation, including several appropriations bills in the House and wide-ranging tax and child-protection bills in the Senate.
Click here for a web version of the New Jersey Globe’s July 2024 vote tracker, with links to the bills and votes in question, or scroll to the bottom of this article for a PDF version.
Menendez’s Senate counterpart, Senator Cory Booker, was present for every vote in July, and voted yes on three major pieces of legislation: the Reproductive Freedom for Women Act (protecting the nationwide right to abortion), the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (creating new privacy protections for minors online), and the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act (expanding the Child Tax Credit and making other tax policy changes).
The Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act passed on a massive 91-3 vote, though the House has signaled it may not take it up. The other two bills, however, failed to get past initial procedural votes thanks to near-unanimous opposition from Republican senators, which Booker said was deeply disappointing.
“Once again, Senate Republicans have proven that they have no interest in policies that would put more money in the pockets of working families,” Booker said after the Child Tax Credit expansion – which the House had previously approved on a 357-70 vote – failed in the Senate. “I am profoundly disappointed that my Republican colleagues, many of whom claim to be pro-child and pro-family, have opted to obstruct meaningful policy progress that would help end the moral obscenity of child poverty.”
In the House, the primary focus was on appropriations bills, the funding bills that need to be passed every year to keep the government open.
Two appropriations bills – funding the legislative branch and the Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency – did pass, with New New Jersey’s House members breaking down on typical party lines (Republicans in favor, Democrats opposed). But a number of other bills that were meant to come up before the recess began failed to do so amid divisions within the Republican conference.
As has been customary during the 118th Congress, passing appropriations bills also came with a huge number of votes on amendments, most of which were sponsored by conservative Republicans (and many of which failed to pass). Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) had three of his amendments to the Energy Department bill come up for a vote: two unsuccessful amendments targeting the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and mid-level Energy Department official Jigar Shah’s salary, and a third successful amendment transferring $10 million from renewable energy programs to electrical transformer security programs.
The House also approved a few other notable pieces of legislation: one establishing a task force to investigate the attempted assassination of Donald Trump (which passed unanimously), another condemning new Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s handling of the southern border, and a third requiring proof of citizenship to vote.
“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy – and strengthening the security and integrity of our elections is absolutely critical to ensuring the vitality of our democratic system of government,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) of the latter bill, which drew no support from New Jersey Democrats. “To ensure that Americans can have confidence in our election process and results, we must take additional steps to protect this sacred right and ensure that only United States citizens are able to vote in our elections.”
Click here for a web version of the vote tracker.