Compared to April, when Congress took up massive long-term priorities like foreign aid for Israel and Ukraine and the reauthorization of federal surveillance laws, May was something of a quieter month in the U.S. House and Senate.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of bills, resolutions, and nominations that came up over the course of the month, however – including an attempt to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson that failed to get off the ground and a border security proposal that was scuttled by an alliance of Senate conservatives and progressives.
Click here for a web version of the New Jersey Globe’s May 2024 vote tracker, with links to the bills and votes in question, or scroll to the bottom of this article for a PDF version.
Mike Johnson survives
Last fall, the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy became the defining moment of a congressional session that had become increasingly chaotic and unpredictable. On May 8, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) tried to foment a similar uprising against the new Speaker, Mike Johnson – and she failed.
Unlike in the McCarthy vote, most Democrats were willing to stick behind Johnson, whom they appreciated for working with them on passing foreign aid to Israel and Ukraine. A motion to table Greene’s effort to kick him out of office succeeded 359-43, with just 11 Republicans and 32 Democrats voting against it.
Two of those Democrats were New Jerseyans: Democratic Reps. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing). In justifying her vote, Watson Coleman said she and other Democrats shouldn’t bear responsibility for bailing out a Republican Speaker, echoing her reasoning from last year on the vote to boot McCarthy.
“I want the best Speaker we can to work for the people,” Watson Coleman said. “Right now that person is Hakeem Jeffries. I don’t want Mike Johnson to be Speaker, so that’s how I voted. It’s not my job to save him.”
Senate border bill
Earlier this year, the Senate tried and failed to pass a bipartisan bill that would have both doled out huge amounts of foreign aid and created new, more stringent immigration policies at the U.S. border. After those negotiations foundered, Congress went on to pass a standalone foreign aid bill – but this month, Senate Democrats chose to resurrect the immigration provisions from the original bill and put them up for a standalone vote.
Facing severe skepticism from both Republicans and progressive Democrats, a procedural vote to bring the bill up for debate failed 43-50. Among those who voted against it was U.S. Senator Cory Booker, who said the policy changes contained within would harm immigrant communities while doing little to ameliorate the issues at the border.
“I will not vote for the bill coming to the Senate floor this week because it includes several provisions that will violate Americans’ shared values,” he said prior to the vote. “These provisions would not make us safer. This bill also misses key components that can go much further in solving the serious immigration problems facing our nation.”
Fellow New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez was also opposed to the bill, but he wasn’t there to vote against it thanks to his ongoing trial on federal corruption charges. Of the 27 votes the Senate took in May, Menendez was only present for six of them, and he’s set to miss even more as his trial continues through June.
Overruling Biden on Israel
Congressional Republicans have teed up a lot of votes over the past year and a half that force Democrats to either side with or against Joe Biden. In most cases, New Jersey Democrats have stayed behind the president, but that didn’t hold this month.
After the Biden administration chose to pause a weapons shipment to Israel over concerns about the Gazan city of Rafah, the House took up a bill that would essentially overrule Biden and force the shipment to resume. 16 House Democrats supported the bill, among them Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch).
“At this moment, with five American hostages – including my constituent Edan Alexander from Tenafly – forty-four Americans dead, and daily attacks by Iranian-backed terrorist proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis, now is the moment to show strength and stand resolutely by our key democratic ally in the fight against terror,” Gottheimer said of his vote. “We must do everything we can to free the hostages, especially the Americans, crush the terrorists, and surge humanitarian aid into the region.”
FAA, fire grants, and more
The House also took up a large number of more nuts-and-bolts bills in May that reauthorize critical programs like the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, the Coast Guard, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Each bill passed on a wide bipartisan vote with unanimous support from the New Jersey delegation; the Senate also approved the FAA bill, meaning that the authority has officially been reauthorized through Fiscal Year 2028.
One such piece of legislation, a bill reauthorizing the U.S. Fire Administration and two key federal firefighting grants, had two New Jerseyans, Reps. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) and Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), leading the charge.
“It is hard to imagine now, but 25 years ago, federal support for our fire services was nearly non-existent,” Pascrell said in remarks on the House floor. “The success of these programs speaks for itself. Since its inception, [the Assistance to Firefighter Grant] has delivered more than $9 billion to equip and train firefighters. I’m proud to say that [the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant] has awarded more than $5 billion… These grants are among the most effective in the entire federal budget.”
D.C. home rule
Although the District of Columbia has its own democratically elected mayor and city council, Congress retains the ability to nullify the district’s laws as it sees fit. The House approved two bills in May to do just that: one that would block the city council from changing criminal sentencing laws, and another that overrules the city’s newly passed law allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections.
Both bills passed largely with GOP support, but each drew some votes from New Jersey Democrats as well. Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) voted for the criminal code bill, while Reps. Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) supported the noncitizen voting bill.
Other votes
A bill authored by Rep. Gottheimer that expands the definition of antisemitism used in federal discrimination investigations passed on May 1; it had broad support from both parties, but New Jersey Reps. Watson Coleman and Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) opposed it.
The Transparency In Charges for Key Events Ticketing Act (a.k.a. the TICKET Act), which would force ticket sellers to list the full price of tickets up front, passed with universal New Jersey support. Ticket transparency has long been a key issue for Reps. Pascrell and Pallone, though they weren’t sponsors of this particular bill.
A GOP-led bill requiring the Homeland Security Department to take custody of undocumented immigrants who assault law enforcement officers drew “yes” votes from Reps. Norcross and Gottheimer; the other New Jersey Democrats who were present that day voted no. The bill is one of many immigration-related bills that House Republicans have proposed in recent months, often dividing the Democratic caucus in the process.
Relatedly, a bill that would add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census and remove noncitizens from being counted in the congressional apportionment process passed on a party-line vote. If such a policy was enacted – which won’t happen as long as Democrats control at least one branch of government – it would radically reshape American politics, especially in an immigrant-heavy state like New Jersey.
Click here for a web version of the vote tracker.