D.C. Dispatch: What N.J.’s members of Congress did in Washington this week – New Jersey Globe

New Jersey politicians have gotten through their primaries – and for most of them, that likely means they’re safe for re-election in the fall. But the work in Washington continues, with the House and Senate debating a major defense bill, legislation protecting IVF, contempt charges against the attorney general, and more.

Here’s some of what New Jersey’s 13 members of Congress did this week (and some of what they did last week, too, since D.C. Dispatch was off).

Making amends

The biggest-ticket item on the House agenda this week was the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – and just like last year, it’s becoming a bit of a boondoggle.

An initial version of the NDAA, an annual must-pass bill laying out the policies and budget of the Department of Defense, passed the House Armed Services Committee in May on a near-unanimous vote. But in a series of votes over the last three days, House Republicans added controversial amendments related to abortion, transgender health care, diversity equity and inclusion offices, and more that turned the bill into a much more partisan exercise.

The NDAA ultimately passed the House this morning on a 217-199 vote, with no New Jersey Democrats voting in favor; just six Democrats nationwide supported it. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), a Navy veteran who sits on the Armed Services Committee that wrote the original bill, accused Republicans of “hijacking” it to advance their agenda.

“I know as a veteran that we must do better for our servicemembers and military families, but today’s bill has once again been hijacked by the far right – not to improve our military or national security, but to drive an agenda that makes America look small, attacks women, and ultimately will be detrimental to the greatest fighting force in the world,” Sherrill said on the House floor.

The exact same process happened to last year’s NDAA, which eventually went through rounds of negotiations in the House and Senate that reverted it to a largely bipartisan piece of legislation. It remains to be seen whether this year’s NDAA will follow the same trajectory.

In-vitro veto

Over in the Senate, the biggest debate this week was over in-vitro fertilization: specifically, an unsuccessful push by Democrats to advance a bill that would guarantee nationwide access to fertility treatment, which has been in the news since the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling in February threatening IVF in that state.

Almost every present Democratic senator voted to advance the bill, with many of them speaking on the Senate floor about their own experiences with IVF. But the motion failed 48-47 (it needed 60 votes to move forward) thanks to opposition from all but two Senate Republicans, who largely said they supported IVF but claimed the bill was a “show vote” – a blockade that drew condemnation from New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.

“I am profoundly disappointed that Senate Republicans have voted today to deny countless families the opportunity and the right to make their own deeply personal decisions about starting a family,” Booker said. “I will never stop fighting for the fundamental freedoms of all Americans, and I will continue to advocate for comprehensive reproductive health care that is affordable and accessible to everyone in this country.”

The vote was the latest in a series of Democratic efforts to put doomed bills on important issues up for a vote, following similar bills on contraception and immigration that came up in weeks prior. None of the bills ever had much of a chance of succeeding, but a key objective was achieved: putting senators from both parties on the record on

This Garland is your land

Last week, every New Jersey Democrat signed onto a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking the Justice Department to cease its support for privately owned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in New Jersey.

In 2021, New Jersey passed a law that prohibited the state from contracting with private immigrant detention facilities like the Elizabeth Detention Center (and like another proposed facility in Newark, Delaney Hall). But last year, the law was declared unconstitutional by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Kirsch, a decision that New Jersey’s House Democrats criticized in their letter.

“In our opinion, the district court decision is misguided and has the very real and very unfortunate effect of undermining the will of New Jerseyans and their elected officials who all worked tirelessly to ensure the closure of the Elizabeth Detention Center and end the use of private immigration detention centers in our State,” the letter states.

The letter, which was led by Reps. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), calls on the attorney general to withdraw from the litigation as an interested party, a move which they say would be in line with President Joe Biden’s past positions on private detention facilities.

“We believe that refraining from registering a statement of interest more fully aligns with the previous comments made by then candidate, Mr. Biden, to end the federal government’s use of privately operated immigration detention centers,” the letter states.

Get well soon!

Rep. Watson Coleman announced last Thursday that she has been diagnosed with lumbar spinal stenosis, a back condition requiring surgery that will keep her out of Washington for several weeks.

“While I will need to remain in New Jersey during my recovery, I want my constituents to know that both my district office here in Ewing, and my Washington D.C. office remain open and able to serve your needs,” Watson Coleman said in a statement. “Regrettably, this means I will have to miss some votes. However, bills that I have co-sponsored, co-led, and introduced will keep progressing through the legislative process, and I will continue to introduce, sponsor, and support new legislation while I recover.”

(Indeed, despite being at home, Watson Coleman introduced a new bill on Wednesday, the Homes for Young Adults Act, that aims to reduce homelessness among young Americans.)

The congresswoman said she expects to return to Washington “by the end of the month.”

We CARE too

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved legislation authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) to reauthorize and improve the country’s research into autism.

The bill – the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support (CARES) Act of 2024 – increases the scope and funding of a number of federal autism programs, and is now set to head to the House floor for passage.

“This critical legislation will make a huge difference for the 1 in 36 children and 1 in 45 adults with autism in the United States by providing robust funding for durable remedies and early intervention work to combat autism,” Smith said in a statement.

It’s the continuation of a longtime mission for Smith, who has worked over the years to improve federal autism research and programs. The bill that passed this week is in fact the third Autism CARES Act Smith has shepherded through Congress, after previous reauthorization acts that were signed into law in 2014 and 2019.

This Garland is my land

In the latest phase of the Republican-led House’s battle against the Biden administration, the House approved a resolution on Wednesday holding Attorney General Garland in contempt of Congress over his refusal to release audio of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden.

Unsurprisingly, the vote was an almost entirely party-line affair, with New Jersey Republicans voting yes and New Jersey Democrats voting no. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), a member of the House Judiciary Committee who has been at the forefront of the GOP effort to investigate the Biden family, castigated Democrats for their unanimous opposition.

“Every single Democrat just voted to let Attorney General Merrick Garland off the hook for breaking the law and ignoring congressional subpoenas instead of releasing the tapes of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Hur,” Van Drew tweeted. “Just how bad are those tapes?”

But the resolution – which follows in the footsteps of contempt votes against attorneys general under both Presidents Obama and Trump – isn’t set to go anywhere, since the Justice Department announced today that it’s not following through on contempt charges against Garland, which essentially puts an end to the proceedings.

Other Garden State plots

•Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) held an event in Hackensack on Tuesday with Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois) to promote the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, a legislation package aimed at decreasing Black maternal mortality and improving health outcomes for Black mothers.

“We are blessed to live in the greatest country in the world, but our health outcomes should reflect that fact,” Gottheimer said. “We cannot stand by as thousands of women pass away from preventable conditions and thousands of babies grow up, robbed of their moms. That’s why I’m taking steps with Congresswoman Underwood to put a stop to our country’s maternal health crisis.”

•At the Jon Bon Jovi Service Area along the Garden State Parkway on Monday, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and Ed Potosnak, the head of the League of Conservation Voters of New Jersey, blasted big oil companies and touted the congressman’s investigation into inflated gas prices.

“Big Oil’s insatiable profit-seeking greed could force families to skip their summer road trips to the shore because they cannot afford to fill up,” Pallone said. “In my role on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, I am fighting to hold these companies accountable for potential market manipulation and price fixing, which not only rips off hardworking Jersey drivers, but could also threaten our entire tourism economy.”

•The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a challenge to the availability of the abortion drug mifepristone, which drew widespread praise from New Jersey Democrats – and from one Republican, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield).

“I am pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision to reject a lawsuit seeking to inhibit the distribution of abortion medication,” said Senator Bob Menendez, echoing many of his fellow Democrats. “However, it never should have come to this… Ever since Roe v. Wade was overturned, we have seen numerous attempts to undermine women’s reproductive rights across the nation and this failed lawsuit was no different.”

“Today’s unanimous SCOTUS ruling appropriately leaves decisions of reproductive health to elected state legislatures,” Kean said.

•The Supreme Court’s decision today overturning a ban on bump stocks, however, was not so popular with New Jersey politicians. (Bump stocks are a tool that allow semiautomatic guns to fire at machine gun-like speeds; they were banned by the Justice Department in 2018 after a gunman used them to kill 60 people at a music festival in Las Vegas.)

“The Supreme Court’s radical decision today to strike down the federal ban on bump stocks will make Americans less safe from gun violence and mass shootings, period,” Senator Booker said of the decision. “It defies logic to say that a bump stock yields anything less than a machine gun. As Justice Sotomayor said in her dissent, ‘When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.’”