Congress is back for a lame-duck session, giving the Democrats who control both houses one last chance to enact legislation before the Republicans take back the House in January.
There is some must-pass legislation on the agenda. Congress must enact a new spending bill by Dec. 16 or see the government shut down. And lawmakers need to complete work on annual legislation to set defense policy.
Plenty of other issues are vying for attention between now and Christmas. Many of them will have a big impact on New Jersey.
If lawmakers want to extend a bunch of corporate tax breaks that expire at the end of the year, they face demands to also address the federal deduction for state and local taxes (a big issue for high-property tax New Jersey) and to renew the expanded Child Tax Credit.
There is a new effort to allow unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to legally remain in the country.
And advocates of legal cannabis are trying to agree on legislation letting legal marijuana businesses write checks and take credit cards while also helping the largely minority communities hardest hit by the war on drugs.
When 118th Congress begins in January with Republicans in charge of the House with their own priorities, all bets are off.
“There are things we can only do now,” said outgoing Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-7th Dist. “We cannot wait until January.”
Here are some of the major issues on the agenda before the 117th Congress comes to an end:
Rep. Josh Gottheimer announces the formation of a new congressional caucus to fight for restoring the full federal deduction for state and local taxes. Surrounding him are other founding members of the caucus.
Restoring your property tax break
Proponents of removing or increasing the Republican tax law’s $10,000 cap on deducting state and local taxes have one more chance before the end of the year. Billions of dollars in tax breaks, including one allowing the full deduction of business meals, are expiring and businesses want to extend them.
But this year, New Jersey lawmakers want the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, to be part of any year-end tax bill.
“I can see that being a real opportunity to stand up for SALT and go for it,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist.
When the House last December passed a 10-year, $1.75 trillion spending bill, it increased the deduction cap to $80,000 through 2030 rather than letting it expire as planned in 2026. That would restore the full tax break for all but the very wealthy, while providing billions of dollars in extra revenue for other purposes.
Almost half of those who would get their full deduction restored, 47%, make less than $254,500, according to the Tax Policy Center, while the top 1% of taxpayers still would pay more in taxes.
Malinowski said a similar provision now could fund a bunch of the other tax extenders without increasing the federal deficit.
The other choice is to just let the cap expire as planned in 2026 and restore full deductions.
While Republicans have pledged to make their tax cuts permanent, they likely won’t have the votes to pass it in the House because several newcomers, including Malinowski’s successor, Rep.-elect Tom Kean Jr., R-7th Dist., pledged not to support a bill without the deduction. And the Democratic Senate won’t go along either.
“For those who would prefer to to see full deductibility for every billionaire in this country, I’m willing and I think others are willing to settle for a reasonable compromise right now,” Malinowski said. “In a couple of years, I don’t see the Jersey delegation being quite as willing to settle for anything less than full restoration.”
Funding the government
Legislation keeping the federal government open expires Dec. 16, forcing Congress to either pass a full-year bill or another temporary extension, by which time House Republicans will be negotiating how much to spend. After increasing the deficit by $8 trillion under President Donald Trump, they now say they want to cut spending.
That puts pressure on Democrats to fully fund the government through Sept. 30, 2023.
A comprehensive spending bill also would include billions of dollars in local projects, known as earmarks. Last year, New Jersey lawmakers secured $178 million for parks, roads, housing and other community projects.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker speaks about the Child Tax Credit at a Capitol press conference on July 15, 2021.
Bringing back an expanded Child Tax Credit
The same spending bill that raised the deduction cap for state and local taxes also extended an expanded Child Tax Credit, which originally was part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus law.
The stimulus law increased the credit from $2,000 to $3,600 a year for children under 6 and $3,000 for those 6-17. More than 1 million New Jersey families benefitted from the higher payments, according to the Biden administration. And it brought an estimated 89,000 New Jersey children out of poverty, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive research group.
Some Democratic lawmakers want to include an expanded credit in any tax extenders bill.
“If there’s going to be any tax relief to anybody, it ought to be to those who deserve it and need it the most,” said Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., one of 58 House Democrats who signed a letter urging congressional leaders to include the credit in any tax legislation. Rep. Andy Kim, D-3rd Dist., also signed the letter.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker said Republicans might be willing to trade business tax breaks for the Child Tax Credit.
“These tax extenders often are tax extenders for large corporations and individuals,” said Booker, who has led the fight in the Senate to extend the Child Tax Credit. “This is a chance for us to really hopefully dig in and expand a tax credit that really helps working-class and middle-class families.”
Just giving the existing $2,000 tax credit to those families whose income otherwise would be too low to receive the entire amount would help 389,000 children in New Jersey, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Protecting judges
Legislation blocking government agencies from publicly posting information that could identify judges, and providing funding to states and localities to redact judges’ personal information from property, motor vehicle and other public records was added to a bill setting defense policy through Sept. 30, 2023.
The measure was named for Daniel Anderl, who was killed in July 2020 at his home in North Brunswick by someone claiming to be a FedEx delivery driver who came to the door planning to murder his mother, U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas.
“I made a promise to Judge Salas and I intend to keep it,” said U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, the bill’s chief sponsor. “I used a lot of chits to put it in the [defense] bill.”
The provision still must survive negotiations with the House, which passed its own version of the National Defense Authorization Act.
“I’m hearing good things right now. People seem very supportive,” said Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, which wrote the House version.
The bill also includes almost $2.7 billion for new refueling planes at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the state’s second largest employer. Picatinny Arsenal would get a share of the $16 billion earmarked for research and development into new munitions.
Allowing ‘dreamers’ to stay in the U.S.
With Congress deadlocked on overhauling immigration laws, President Barack Obama allowed unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to remain in the country they grew up in. That has been under Republican attack in the courts for years.
Former President Donald Trump revoked Obama’s order, but courts have ruled that he did not follow proper procedures even as they questioned whether the original Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals order was legal.
Biden issued a new order on his first day in office, and his Department of Homeland Security approved a new rule in August to try to ensure that the program was legal.
“We know there is a lot of urgency because we don’t know when the DACA program is going to end,” said Amy Torres, executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, an advocacy group that brought more than a dozen state residents to Washington earlier this month to lobby for immigration legislation.
Leading Democratic lawmakers, including Menendez, are trying to pass legislation that would allow the unauthorized immigrants, known as dreamers, to continue to live and work in the U.S.
Menendez said the unexpected Democratic victories in the midterm elections, where voters opposed numerous candidates championed by Trump, might encourage some GOP senators to break with the former president on immigration. Ten Republicans are needed to pass any bill.
“All we need is for Republicans to find the political courage and willingness to fix a system all of us agree is broken,” Menendez said at a press conference outside the Capitol on Nov. 16. “These next few weeks offer us a chance for a fresh start.”
As of June 30, 2021, New Jersey was home to 14,680 DACA recipients, 10th highest in the U.S., according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Marci and Seymour Josephson meet with Rep. Chris Smith in his Washington office on May 8, 2019. Smith is sponsoring legislation named for their late daughter, who was killed when she got into a car she thought was her Uber. JJonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance
Sami’s Law
When Samantha Josephson of Robbinsville was murdered in 2019 after getting into a car she thought was her Uber, Rep. Chris Smith introduced legislation to make it easier for passengers to verify their ride-sharing car before entering the vehicle.
The bill passed the House in July 2020 but it never came up in the Senate. Smith, R-4th Dist., reintroduced the bill last year.
The White House said in January that it would work with Congress to provide some federal oversight of ride-sharing companies.
Smith said he’s working to get his measure through Congress in the closing days of the session, either by itself or as part of the next government spending bill. “We are trying so hard to get it over the goal line,” he said.
Marijuana banking
Before the 117th Congress adjourns, Booker said he was hoping to pass legislation that would allow banks to provide credit cards, checking accounts and other financial services to legal cannabis businesses — known as the Secure and Fair Enforcement, or SAFE, Banking Act — and include some restorative justice provisions to help those hardest hit by the war on drugs.
Negotiations are continuing on a bill that could get the 60 votes in the Senate needed to pass any legislation.
Booker said that if a deal cannot be reached in the current Congress, nothing is likely happen when Republicans control the House.
“The conversations are robust,” Booker said. “I have that concern that with Republicans in the House, it could mean that for two years, we can’t get something done.”
These other issues also could be on the agenda
Raising the debt limit: At one point during 2023, Congress will have to vote to increase the amount of money the federal government can borrow. This is to reflect previously approved spending, not new expenditures.
If the debt limit is not raised, the U.S. government could find itself unable to pay the bills it already has incurred, such as interest on Treasury bonds, Social Security payments, or veterans benefits. This could force higher interest rates or an economic downturn.
But House Republicans who will control the House beginning in January have threatened to oppose any increase in the debt limit unless they get spending cuts in exchange. In 2011, their demands cost the U.S. its Standard & Poor’s AAA bond rating.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said he wouldn’t rule out demanding cuts in Social Security and Medicare spending as his price for raising the debt limit.
Accordingly, Congress could pre-empt such talk by using the lame duck session to raise the debt limit so high that it would not be reached for years, or to eliminate it entirely.
“I would very much like Social Security and Medicare not to be hostages to the crazy MAGA wing of the Republican Party,” Malinowski said. “If they can take those hostages at the moment when the debt ceiling needs to be raised, they will do it. I would love to take that power away from them.”
Preventing another Jan. 6: The House in September passed legislation aimed at plugging loopholes that Trump and his allies sought to use in an unsuccessful effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The bill would make it clear that the vice president can’t reject certified electoral votes and state legislatures can’t reject the will of their voters.
The vote was largely along party lines, with all 10 New Jersey Democrats voting yes and Reps. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd Dist., and Chris Smith, R-4th Dist., voting no.
Similar legislation is pending in the Senate and appears to have the 10 Republican votes needed for passage. Gottheimer is sponsoring that measure in the House.
Trump’s false claims that his victory was stolen and that Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to count the state-certified electoral votes contributed to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters trying to prevent Congress from certifying the election of Joe Biden as president.
Protecting same-sex marriage: The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court’s six Republican-nominated justices to revoke the 49-year-old constitutional right to abortion sparked concern that the same-sex and interracial marriage would be on their agenda as well.
Indeed, one of the six, Justice Clarence Thomas, said the court “should reconsider” its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
The U.S. Senate moved ahead with the Respect for Marriage Act , which would recognize marriage between two people regardless of their “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin,” and require states to recognize any marriage in a state that was legal when it was performed.
It also would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
The bill received the support of 62 senators, including 12 Republicans, more than enough to overcome a filibuster. Once the Senate passes the measure, it would go back to the House for final approval.
Ukraine: House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., cast doubts on whether a GOP-led House would support Ukraine in its efforts to repel an unprovoked Russian invasion.
When the House in May voted to send aid to Ukraine, 57 Republicans voted no, including the far-right lawmakers whose support McCarthy will need to become speaker in the next Congress.
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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant.