It's only June, but Congress already has a limited window of time to get things done before election season begins in earnest. Both chambers are expected to be in session for most of July and September, leaving only about seven legislative weeks in total before the November election. (There will also be a closed session after the election and before the 2024 winners are sworn in.)

Given that limited timeline, the House worked this week to get three annual appropriations bills through the chamber — but because the bills are full of partisan GOP provisions, they will likely require many more negotiations before they become law. Also on this week's agenda were headlines about Amtrak breakdowns, debates about doping at the Olympics, reminders of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision and more.

Here's what New Jersey's 13 members of Congress did in Washington this week.

State, defense, homeland security, oh dear!

After dozens of votes on a series of controversial amendments, the House of Representatives this morning passed three appropriations bills to fund the Departments of Defense, State, and Homeland Security.

All three contained conservative culture war provisions that most Democrats found unacceptable, and all three passed largely along party lines, with New Jersey's three Republican representatives voting for them and the seven current Democrats opposing them. In their current form, the bills have virtually no chance of passing the Democratic-led Senate or being signed by President Joe Biden.

If this all sounds familiar, it happened last year, with many of the same fights over the same controversial measures. The end result was that after repeatedly pushing back the funding deadline, the Senate and House finally came together and passed a bipartisan version of the budget package.

You have Rail

It was a bad few weeks for NJ Transit commuters, and there appears to be a clear culprit: Amtrak, which owns many key tracks into New York City and has had several recent glitches that have caused widespread delays on NJ Transit.

On Tuesday, the entire New Jersey House delegation, both Democrats and Republicans, sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who insisted that his department launch an investigation to determine the causes of the delays and what could be done to improve the situation in the future.

“NJ TRANSIT is merely a tenant on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor; NJ TRANSIT neither owns nor maintains the Corridor,” the letter states. “Amtrak owns the Corridor, and Amtrak's problems put NJ TRANSIT in an impossible position – unable to make repairs on Amtrak property and unable to provide adequate, reliable service to its paying customers who depend on it… Needless to say, this situation is completely unacceptable.”

US Senator Cory Booker wrote a letter to Buttigieg and called on him to address the infrastructure and staffing issues that have deteriorated service along the Northeast Corridor. And Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was able to personally question Buttigieg yesterday about the steps his agency is taking.

“Over the past six weeks, Amtrak delays have caused delays for NJ Transit riders more than 20 times, including major incidents last week that caused outages and service interruptions along the Northeast Corridor,” Menendez said. “Imagine walking out the door and not knowing when you'll be home. In your words, what is the department doing to work with Amtrak to ensure these types of mishaps never happen again?”

“We know that commuters on NJ Transit have faced vexing delays as you described,” Buttigieg responded. “We are working to provide both NJ Transit and Amtrak with the capital resources they need – it's too early to know exactly what issues contributed, but I think it's safe to assume that reliability in general depends on good maintenance.”

Shouting “fire” in the crowded Senate Chamber

The Senate was not in session this week, but last week overwhelmingly passed a bill that is close to the hearts of two New Jersey congressmen: the Firefighting Grants and Safety Act.

The bill, which renews a number of key federal grant programs for firefighters and first responders, was introduced in the House by Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (Westfield) and co-sponsored by Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell (Paterson). Pascrell, a co-chair of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, was the original author of the bill that created one of the most important grants for firefighters in 1999.

Senators approved the bill, which was combined with another nuclear energy bill, by a vote of 88 to 2, with Senator Booker voting in favor (Senator Bob Menendez remains absent due to his corruption trial in federal court); the bill now goes to the President.

“As a former volunteer firefighter, I know the sacrifices firefighters and emergency medical technicians make every day to respond quickly to emergencies,” Kean said in a statement. “This bill, which includes my introduced language, will reauthorize federal grants and programs for local fire departments that will help keep families safe in New Jersey and across the country. I thank the Senate for supporting my bill and urge the President to sign it into law.”

Stimulants!

Just a month before the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the House Energy and Commerce Committee – where Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) is the ranking Democratic member – held a hearing this week on efforts to combat doping at the Olympics.

Reports emerged earlier this year that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics but were not penalized by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). That debacle, Pallone said Tuesday, should make Americans nervous about the fairness of this year's Games.

“Athletes should be able to compete under fair conditions,” Pallone said in a press conference before the hearing. “My concern and the committee's concern — this is a bipartisan hearing — is that unless WADA takes better enforcement action, there may not be a fair playing field. And that's not fair to our American Olympic athletes and other Olympic athletes … They should not be discriminated against because they are not doping while Chinese athletes and potentially others are doping.”

Among the witnesses at the subcommittee hearing were former Olympic swimmer Michael Phelpswho, together with fellow swimming gold medalist Allison Schmitt, testified about the need for stricter anti-doping measures.

“If we let this drag on, the Olympics may not even take place,” Phelps said.

Calvin and Dobbs

The second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision – which ended the constitutional right to abortion and subsequently changed American politics – arrived on Mondaywhich provoked a variety of reactions among New Jersey officials.

For Democrats, the anniversary was a sad one: While abortion remains completely legal in New Jersey, they pointed out that this is not the case in many Republican-led states across the country. They warned that Republicans in Congress could also try to impose nationwide restrictions.

“Two years after Trump's handpicked Supreme Court struck down a woman's right to an abortion, reproductive freedom is still under attack,” said Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair). “States across the country have not only restricted abortion and life-saving emergency care, but have blocked efforts to protect access to contraception and threatened abortion providers with jail time. And MAGA Republicans in Congress are still trying to push through a national abortion ban.”

But for Republican Rep. Chris Smith (Manchester), who began his political career as an anti-abortion activist and remains New Jersey's most vocal anti-abortionist in Congress, the decision is a reason to celebrate and expand.

“Dobbs was a critical first opportunity to end the culture of death and protect women and unborn children from the violence of abortion,” Smith said. “Many states, like my state of New Jersey, have passed extremist laws that legally sanction the killing of a baby for any reason up until the moment of birth. The sacred burden to do more and work harder to protect women and unborn children from the violence of abortion has never been clearer.”

Other Garden State Properties

• At the same Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing where Rep. Menendez questioned Buttigieg about Amtrak, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) asked the Secretary for his opinion on offshore wind development, to which Van Drew loudly contradicts.

“Should we wait until the GAO study is completed? It's not a Republican study, it's not my study, it's the Government Accountability Office's, completely nonpartisan,” Van Drew said. “Shouldn't we wait until their safety analysis is completed before we start building offshore wind turbines, yes or no?”

“I can only comment on the transportation side of the House, but we will not take any action that we believe compromises security, and if the GAO or anyone else produces data or analysis that could influence a security decision on transportation, we want to know about it,” Buttigieg responded.

• Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) was out of Washington this week due to surgery for a back problem; she will return to work in the district next week and is expected to return to DC after the July 4 recess.