What N.J.’s members of Congress have been doing this month

For the entire month of August, Congress is in recess, with senators and representatives returning to their home districts before the autumn’s appropriations sprint. That means New Jersey’s 14 members of Congress have been doing district work for the last two weeks instead, meeting with local groups and promoting what they’ve been doing in Washington.

• U.S. Senator Bob Menendez met with Veterans’ Affairs Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal, who served as Gov. Phil Murphy’s first state health commissioner, in East Orange to discuss the PACT Act for veterans exposed to toxic substances.

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez also sent several letters this month on matters of foreign policy: one calling on Azerbaijan to end its blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, and another demanding that Kyrgyzstan enforce sanctions on Russia.

• Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester), who chairs a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on human rights, similarly issued several foreign policy-related pleas this month, insisting that Nicaragua prove Bishop Rolando Álvarez is alive and that Azerbaijan release imprisoned economist Gubad Ibadoghlu.

• Three New Jersey House members – Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), Donald Norcross (D-Camden), and Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) – joined a coalition of 45 members of Congress advocating for an extension of the Affordable Connectivity Program, which helps households gain access to broadband internet.

• Gottheimer continued pushing back against New York’s congestion pricing plan this month, joining labor unions and New York Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito in Fort Lee to protest what Gottheimer calls a “congestion tax” on New Jersey. The North Jersey congressman also visited Andover to scope out a possible future Amtrak station site as part of the Lackawanna Cut-off restoration project.

• Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Clifton) met with state health officials in Clifton to tout the newly implemented $35-per-month insulin price cap for those on Medicare, which was a key part of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

He wasn’t the only New Jersey Democrat to commemorate the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden last August after a whirlwind legislative process. The bill’s one-year anniversary drew congratulatory statements from most of New Jersey’s delegation – and a scathing statement from Smith, who called it an “egregious tax and spending spree.”

• Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) spoke with the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group, about the need to eliminate so-called “junk fees” on airline tickets, concerts, and all manner of other goods and services.

• Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) joined House Democratic leaders on a trip to Israel with the American Israel Education Foundation, the charitable organization linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

• Kean reupped his call for restoring the State and Local Tax deduction cap, writing in a Star-Ledger op-ed that doing so would be “a statement of support for the hardworking individuals and families of New Jersey.”

• Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) led a roundtable in Montclair on youth homelessness and reintroduced the Homeless Children and Youth Act, a bipartisan bill improving young people’s access to homelessness services.

• Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) hosted a Good Governance Week across his district, and also reintroduced the Military Family Protection from Debt Act, a bill that would expand debt protections to cover servicemembers’ spouses and children.

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) hosted a roundtable on efforts to limit young people’s access to tobacco products, and promoted his bill to expand the Inflation Reduction Act’s prescription drug reforms to all Americans, not just those on Medicare.

• Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) spoke at the annual conference of the New Jersey State Council of Machinists, a major labor union.

• On a Fox Business segment, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) once again called for President Joe Biden’s impeachment, saying it was “time to get tough.”

• And virtually every member of Congress highlighted the money for New Jersey organizations and programs that they’ve secured as part of federal funding bills. The biggest announcement came from Senators Menendez and Cory Booker, who publi nearly $22 million in Health and Human Services funding for nursing education, substance abuse programs, and more.

Programming note: Much like Congress, I too will be away from Washington for the next week. Reach out to the New Jersey Globe’s new reporter, Ricky Suta ([email protected]), instead!