How N.J.’s congressional delegation voted in March

Click here for a web version of the New Jersey Globe’s March 2026 vote tracker, with links to the bills and votes in question, or scroll to the bottom of this article for a PDF version.

Will the Department of Homeland Security ever be able to reopen? It looked briefly like a deal had come together in the Senate near the end of the March, only for the House to spike it back down; both chambers are now on a two-week recess with DHS still unfunded.

Democrats have been relatively consistent in their stance, saying that they won’t vote to fund DHS’s immigration enforcement arm without reforms. Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate put up a straightforward DHS funding bill several times throughout March, and New Jersey’s ten Democratic representatives and senators were unanimously opposed each time.

In the early-morning hours of March 27, though, the Senate reached a breakthrough, passing legislation funding most of DHS but excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The vote was conducted by unanimous consent, meaning that there’s no roll-call tally, but Senator Andy Kim was among the hardy few senators who stayed up through the night to approve the bill (and shoot down a separate GOP effort to fund ICE).

“Democrats have been steadfast in our insistence that we will not support providing more funding for ICE without also including common-sense reforms to rein in the abuses we have seen in Minnesota and elsewhere,” Kim said on the Senate floor. “All we’ve been demanding here is what the American people are demanding: body-worn cameras; no masks; keeping ICE agents out of our hospitals, schools, and churches; and assuring ICE follows the same practices and procedures as local law enforcement.”

The next day, however, an angry House Republican conference decided to kill the Senate compromise, instead voting on a different bill funding all of DHS for 60 days. Just like in previous similar votes, all present New Jersey Republicans supported it and all Democrats opposed it; the House then skipped town, leaving DHS just as shuttered as it was at the beginning of the month.

Other votes of note:

• March brought the first Cabinet confirmation of 2026: Markwayne Mullin, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, as the new Secretary of Homeland Security. Kim, Senator Cory Booker, and all but two of their Senate Democratic colleagues opposed Mullin’s nomination, though Kim did say he has hopes that Mullin will be better than his predecessor, Kristi Noem.

“A number of the questions he answered seemed like it’s a step up from Kristi Noem,” Kim said after voting against Mullin’s nomination in the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “But that’s like jumping over a toothpick. It’s not a hard thing to do better than her.”

• The Senate also repeatedly took votes on Democratic-led resolutions, one of them authored by Booker, ending U.S. military action in Iran. Much like prior attempts to halt American involvement in the ongoing Iran war, all three efforts were unsuccessful thanks to near-unanimous GOP opposition.

“What is worse: the strategic blunder after blunder that [President Donald Trump] is making, or Republicans in the United States Senate who watch him and don’t even call his administration in for hearings?”, Booker said after his resolution failed; he and Kim have both consistently supported ending U.S. involvement.

• Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) broke with his party on a handful of immigration-related votes in March, supporting one bill making it easier to deport immigrants who harm law enforcement animals and another resolution expressing gratitude to DHS employees. He was the only New Jersey Democrat to support either piece of legislation, much like he was when he voted to pass the Laken Riley Act last year.

• Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) was missing from Washington for the last two weeks of March votes, attending to what his office described on March 20 as a “personal health matter.” Kean’s office hasn’t provided any updates since then on what the health matter involves or when Kean will be returning; the next scheduled House vote won’t be until April 14.

• Rep. Nancy Mace, an idiosyncratic Republican from South Carolina, made an effort on March 4 to force the House Ethics Committee to release all records related to sexual harassment claims against House members. The measure was resoundingly rejected, but an interesting coalition of Republicans and Democrats, most of them newer additions to Congress, came together to support it; in the New Jersey delegation, only Kean voted yes.

“I stood for greater transparency and accountability in Congress with my vote,” Kean said.

• A huge bipartisan majority of senators overcame gridlock to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which if signed into law would be the first major piece of federal housing legislation in years. Booker and Kim both supported the bill, which streamlines some housing construction and permitting laws and targets investment firms that buy huge numbers of homes.

March 2026 votes - House March 2026 votes - Senate