March 2024 may best be remembered as the month that Congress finally funded the federal government, passing two big packages of appropriations bills that were initially supposed to be approved back in September of last year.
But the House and Senate also took up a number of other issues: passing legislation targeting TikTok, approving a number of Republican-led House bills that may not go anywhere in the Senate, and confirming a new federal judge for New Jersey’s District Court.
Click here for a web version of the New Jersey Globe’s March 2024 vote tracker, with links to the bills and votes in question, or scroll to the bottom of this article for a PDF version.
Over the course of two separate votes in March, Congress approved the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 and the Further Consolidated Appropriations of 2024, which each included six of the standard appropriations bills funding the federal government. Both were passed and signed into law shortly before a partial government shutdown would have been triggered.
The first bill was approved in the House on a 339-85 vote and in the Senate on a 75-22 vote; the second passed the House 286-134 and the Senate 74-24. In all four cases, the vast majority of “no” votes came from the more conservative end of the Republican caucus, with Democrats and moderate Republicans joining together to pass the bills.
All eleven of New Jersey’s congressional Democrats supported both bills, as did Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield). Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) opposed both – just as he’s opposed every prior funding bill this cycle – while Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) voted in favor of the first bill but against the second.
“I joined my Democratic colleagues in voting to avert a disastrous government shutdown,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) said in a statement shortly after the vote on the second bill. “Yet again, my colleagues and I made up the vast majority of votes for passage, making clear that House Republicans cannot be relied on to govern responsibility… Time and again, House Democrats have shown we are the adults in the room.”
The other big-name bill that the House passed this month was the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would force the Chinese parent company that owns Tiktok to sell the social media app or risk it being banned from American app stores. All eleven New Jersey House members in attendance supported the bill – but Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), who was not in Washington for the vote, said he would have voted no.
“There are very real security concerns about TikTok and the protection of Americans’ information, but there are more steps and deliberations needed before we in Congress should take the proposed action in this legislation,” Kim said.
Kim’s absence from that vote was par for the course; of the 33 bills and amendments the House voted on in March, Kim did not cast a vote on 21 of them. But many of those absences were likely related to Kim’s Senate campaign, and now that his main primary opponent has dropped out of the race, Kim may soon become a more regular fixture in Washington again.
The House also passed a number of controversial bills related to energy production last month, including one that prevents the president from issuing a moratorium on fracking, another that eliminates the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and two resolutions condemning a hypothetical carbon tax and the Biden administration’s energy policies more generally. In each case, New Jersey’s representatives split along party lines, with Republicans in the affirmative and Democrats in the negative.
Another somewhat controversial bill that the House took up last month, the Laken Riley Act, would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented immigrants who commit certain crimes; Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) was one of 37 Democrats who joined the Republican majority in support of the bill.
But given that Democrats control the Senate, most if not all of the conservative bills the House is passing this session likely won’t go anywhere. If Republicans hold the House and retake the Senate in 2024, though, that may change rapidly.
Over in the Senate, most of the votes taken this month – as is true nearly every month – were on confirmations for judgeships and other federal positions. This time, one of those judges was a New Jerseyan: Edward Kiel, who was confirmed on a narrow 50-49 vote to become the 10th Biden-appointed judge to join the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Click here for a web version of the vote tracker.
March 2024 votes - House March 2024 votes - Senate