Welcome back, members of Congress and D.C. Dispatch readers alike! Congress returned from the holidays this week to confront the U.S.’s sudden involvement in Venezuela and a thorny vote on health care tax credits – here’s some of what New Jersey’s members of Congress did in Washington this week.
Partial credit
For months, both Reps. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) and Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) have been pushing for Republicans to be open to extending Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired at the end of 2025. But when the House at last voted on a three-year extension bill on Thursday, the two congressmen went separate ways.
Van Drew voted against the bill, having previously called it “an insult to the American public” because of its lack of any new guardrails or restrictions; Kean, however, was one of 17 Republicans to break with their party and support the bill.
“Over the past several months, I co-introduced multiple legislative pathways aimed at forging a responsible, bipartisan solution to prevent a lapse in the enhanced premium tax credits,” Kean said in a statement (one that only indirectly mentioned the bill in question). “I remain committed to working with leadership and colleagues on both sides of the aisle to extend the ACA premium tax credits as soon as possible.”
Democrats, of course, celebrated the vote as a major political and policy win; they had shut down the government last year over a lack of agreement on the credits, and managed to get their extension bill passed over the strong objections of GOP leaders, a rarity for the minority. The Senate, however, could pump the brakes on their momentum, since GOP senators already rejected the exact same three-year extension bill once before.
“Right now, we’re giving some space for these bipartisan negotiations that are happening with a couple of our members,” Senator Andy Kim said of the ongoing Senate process. “We [voted on the three-year bill] already in the Senate, and we see the Republican senators stood on that – they opposed that. We know where that goes. So we’ll see where these negotiations land.”
Maduro, damn
President Donald Trump’s military operation in Venezuela last weekend, ousting President Nicolás Maduro and imposing U.S. rule on the country for the indefinite future without prior consultation with Congress, caused a wide range of reactions from New Jersey politicians – and prompted the GOP-controlled Senate to take an unusual step towards reining the president in.
On Thursday, five Republicans joined every Senate Democrat to advance a war powers resolution that would reassert Congress’s role in any military operations in Venezuela, with a vote on the resolution itself likely coming next week. Senators Kim and Cory Booker both voted in favor, with Kim saying that after being briefed by the White House, he doesn’t feel reassured that the Trump administration has a workable plan for Venezuela.
“The briefing was atrocious,” Kim said. “If we didn’t have that briefing, then we might not have had the numbers of Republicans that we did. Nobody I talked to wants us to be running Venezuela for years, which is what [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio told us.”
Most Republicans, however, disagree. Rep. Van Drew, who has been skeptical of some prior international involvements, said he believes the operation was justified for the purposes of national security.
“Was it untoward when Barack Obama took out Osama Bin Laden? Was it untoward when they took out Muammar Gaddafi?” Van Drew said. “I was not critical of it. It was a national security issue, a Keep America Safe issue. It is the same with this.”
Perhaps the most interesting response in the New Jersey delegation, however, came from Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly), a hawkish Democrat who isn’t always aligned with his party’s more liberal members on foreign policy. In a statement released shortly after the news of the operation broke, Gottheimer acknowledged that Congress needed to be kept informed, but declined to criticize Trump or the purpose of the operation itself.
“For too long, the Maduro regime has enabled the flow of drugs to America,” Gottheimer said. “His capture and removal also deals a significant blow to China, Iran, and Cuba, all of which relied on Maduro as a regional ally… The United States must remain resolute in defending our security around the world.”
Congress is one endless series of shutdown deadlines
After a devastating month-and-a-half-long shutdown last year, could Congress fail to fund the government yet again? Members of both parties are trying to dodge that ahead of the January 30 deadline.
To that end, the House passed a “minibus” funding bill this week that covers the Justice, Commerce, Energy, and Interior Departments, among others. The appropriations package was a compromise between Republicans and Democrats, and thus passed on a wide bipartisan margin; every New Jersey House member voted in support.
“Of course, this funding bill does not include everything I would have liked to see but it is a vast improvement over where we were last year,” said Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), the lone Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “It also takes us out of the destructive cycle of continuing resolutions, places guardrails on the Administration’s spending, and reasserts Congress’s obligation to fund the government through regular order.”
Members of both parties were quick to highlight the earmarks the bill delivers for New Jersey: $1.1 million for water infrastructure improvements in Watson Coleman’s district, $1 million for a dredging project in Rep. Van Drew’s district, $1 million for World Cup facility upgrades in Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon)’s district, and much more.
The Adventures of Tinton
A fight over hospital licenses in Monmouth County from this fall seems to have a happy ending, with Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, and RWJBarnabas Health coming to a resolution that all three parties are satisfied with.
Pallone has been fighting against a proposal to shift a hospital license out of Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch to a new facility in the nearby suburb of Tinton Falls; when, in October, a proposal to keep both hospitals in operation fell through, Pallone took the unusual step of publicly and harshly criticizing Murphy and his administration.
Now, however, there’s a new plan in place to both move the license and keep the Long Branch facility intact, thanks to an agreement with RWJBarnabas Health and a new pilot program that’s currently en route to passage in the state legislature.
“I am glad I was able to lift the voices of those who would be most impacted by this move, and I am truly thankful for all those involved that made this happen,” Pallone said. “While I can fully appreciate the value of a new hospital in Tinton Falls I could not let that be at the expense of those in the Long Branch area that face the biggest barriers to health care.”
Stop motion
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark)’s effort to beat back federal assault charges got dealt another blow this week when the judge overseeing her case, District Judge Jamel Semper, denied her one remaining motion to dismiss the charges on grounds of legislative immunity.
Semper had previously rejected a broader set of motions from McIver’s legal team last fall, but withheld judgment on one count until more evidence was provided. Upon reviewing additional body camera footage from the May 9 incident at the Delaney Hall immigrant detention facility, however, he determined that McIver’s brief altercation with an ICE agent was not protected by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause.
Over the holidays, McIver filed a notice of appeal of Semper’s prior decision not to dismiss the charges, but she has not yet done so for Semper’s more recent ruling.
“Legislative oversight of an ICE detention facility like Delaney Hall can’t be done from behind a desk – it is my responsibility to visit it, inspect it, and hold those running it accountable for any abuses,” McIver said following Semper’s ruling. “I’m disappointed by today’s ruling, and remain very concerned about the Trump administration’s efforts to criminalize legislative oversight and operate in the shadows.”
Did I Qatar?
Rep. Gottheimer spent his first week of the new year on a trip to Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, where he met with leaders in all four countries and with U.S. service members “to reinforce America’s critical partnerships in the Middle East and advance regional security and stability,” his office said.
In Bahrain, Gottheimer met with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and in Israel, the congressman met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has become an increasingly controversial figure in Democratic circles.
“As global instability continues to grow, it’s critical that Congress remains directly engaged with our allies and partners in the Middle East to fight terror and support stability in the region,” Gottheimer said. “This bipartisan delegation focused on strengthening our national security, supporting our troops, fighting terror, and ensuring America continues to lead with strength.”
A Budding success
A newly constructed VA facility in Toms River has been officially named after Second Lieutenant Leonard G. “Bud” Lomell, a World War II military hero from Toms River, thanks to a bill from Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) that was signed by President Trump last year.
Lomell was an Army Ranger who fought on the Western Front in World War II, earning the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Legion of Honor for his service. He died in 2011 at the age of 91.
“The 68,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility bearing Bud’s name provides both primary and specialty care, including dental care, women’s health care, mental health counseling, physical therapy, and laboratory services,” Smith said. “This clinic has already done so much for our community – it is only right that it be named after a true war hero, who dedicated his life to the service of his country and its veterans.”
