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Welcome back to New Jersey, Power and Politics. I'm Eric Lands. Another week of turmoil for lack of a better term on Capitol Hill as a compromised border bill and aid package went down in flames and a major hurdle cleared in the push to expand the child tax credit lots to talk about. And here now to talk about all of that uh this week and this week that was, was and what's next as well as Congresswoman Mikey Cheryl. It's good to see you again. Congresswoman. Nice to see you. Thanks for having me, of course. All right, let's start with the uh that border and aid bill. This week Republicans had wanted this included in order to also approve aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. But this week voted it down in the Senate saying it did in essence, go far enough, Speaker Johnson even commending his colleagues in the Senate for doing so, saying that would have been dead on arrival in the house. What, what changed here from your perspective, but I don't think it's a secret. Um Trump, he decided he would rather have a partisan talking point that actual solutions at our border and so he killed the bill. Um From what I'm hearing from my senate colleagues, they had the votes and then the right wing came and said that they were going to kill it by sunrise. And sure enough, by the next morning, um they no longer had the votes for the border piece of this bill. I do want to talk more about that in a moment but uh the Senate did vote Thursday afternoon to proceed with this stripped down bill that would provide aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. Uh Meanwhile, in the house, you actually voted against hr 7217. That's the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. So why did you vote against that? Well, this was a piece of legislation put forward by Speaker Johnson to actually kill the Senate bill. The only bill that truly has a hope of passing into law. So the Senate bill was a bipartisan bill. It included not just aid for Israel, but also critically aid for Ukraine aid for Indo paycom, um which is the South Sea region and aid for humanitarian relief for Gaza, which is critically important as well. So to see this sort of partisan political game of introducing a supposed uh funding for Israel that's really designed to kill funding for Israel is, is kind of shocking and, and just another way in which this GOP majority seems to really be undermining many of the prerogatives of the United States of America and prerogatives that have large bipartisan support across this country. What does this do for in terms of disenfranchisement? Because, you know, as an outsider who, somebody is not a politico looking and watching what's going on in Washington, seeing that in essence, allies are being held hostage by, I guess, for, you know, what you could call congressional dysfunction. How, how does this get resolved? You know, it's really difficult right now. I mean, you have majorities, I think in both the Senate and the House who believe we should fund Ukraine. Uh you have Speaker mcconnell who said for months that he thinks we should fund Ukraine, you certainly have seen it past the house in several different occasions and yet we just can't get this past the house and the Senate on the president's desk. And I think it's largely the dysfunction of the far right. Um Largely uh former President Trump who really again wants to create the chaos. I think he's infamous for in our governing system. Um uh a former president who seems to be very impressed with Putin and President Xi of communist China and less impressed with our NATO allies that we work so closely with our democratic allies across the world, our allies in the Middle East that we're working closely with, to try to get more security for Israel, for the people of Gaza and a more stable future congressman just to pick up on some of what you just said here, the US has had a strong presence in the Middle East since Hamas massacre in Israel. That presence is meant to prevent Iranian proxies from uh from attacking Israel and from starting this regional war. But as you know, the US recently lost three service members in Jordan, including Sergeant William Rivers, originally from New Jersey. Uh What do you think about the US response? Um You know, we are working incredibly hard right now to not have this break out into a regional war. As you know, after October 7th, we immediately sent ships us ships to the region. Uh We have put out very strong signals to Iran that um it, you know, it would be a bad idea for them to enter into this war. And Iran doesn't show signs of um trying to instigate a war with the United States, but they certainly have continued to fund and support the uh terrorist groups that, that they have in the region, Hezbollah. Um Certainly the Houthis who have now all been shut down the Red Sea to us commerce. So we are a after the attacks that we've seen throughout the region after October 7th on US. Service members. Uh We are pushing back very hard on Iran. You've seen some of the military actions we've taken to deter further aggression. Uh But I think the other thing that has to take place in the region is more um support from Netanyahu for the efforts of the United States region. We are working overtime to try to gather our allies to support and stability in the region to support a better outcome for Israel and Gaza to support a two state solution. And as of now, I think Netanyahu has not been as engaged in these efforts as he needs to be uh for the future safety and security of Israel congresswoman. Uh Very quickly, let's talk about some pocketbook issues here. A bill to increase the child tax credit passed in the house. Talk about how this would help New Jerseyans. So this is a critical piece of legislation as we know the child tax credit that we passed during the Coronavirus, decreased childhood poverty by 40%. Um Unfortunately, that bill expired and we also know that some of the the most poor people in our nation did not have access to that. We're not receiving tax returns. Um We have fixed some of that problem so that we can ensure that more people have access to that child tax credit to the House of Representatives. And now we are hoping for a vote in the Senate so we can get this out there and really, really address some of the most egregious aspects of childhood poverty. Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill, thank you so much for joining us as always, we appreciate your time and keep right here on New Jersey power and politics when we come back the very latest on the indictment and corruption case of the Senator Bob Menendez.

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Welcome back to power and politics. I'm Eric Landgren. Our continuing coverage now of the corruption case against Senator Bob Menendez. Federal prosecutors this week asking a judge to reject Senator Menendez's motion to dismiss the charges against him. Menendez's legal team. You recall filed a motion for dismissal, claiming the indictment targets official acts that should be immune from prosecution. The doj shot back this week arguing quote, taking a bribe is obviously no part of the legislative process or function. It is not a legislative act. Menendez is accused of taking hundreds of thousands in bribes and payoffs in exchange for his political influence and is accused of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt. He vehemently denies the charges. Now whoever ultimately wins the Republican nomination will likely face off against either representative Andy Kim or first lady Tammy Murphy. Senator Benz has yet to announce whether he'll seek re election. How could a revamp of the dreaded salt cap be on the horizon? We could see some action this coming week. First, a little history lesson. Salt stands for state and local tax as part of former President Trump's tax overhaul the amount of state and local taxes that Americans could deduct from their federal taxes was capped at $10,000 lawmakers especially in expensive blue states with high property taxes say the cap hurts middle class homeowners living in regions with steep property taxes. Congressman Josh Gottheimer questioned the Treasury Secretary this week about Salt. Madam Secretary the last time you were in front of this committee in June. You agreed with me that the state local tax deduction or salt has had a disparate impact on different states including New Jersey, where I'm from, you've also committed to finding a fair solution for the misguided limit that leaves double taxation on many of my constituents, especially middle class, hard working families. There may be a potential vote on Salt legislation in the, as early as next week, the bill would double the salt deduction for married couples in 2023 from $10,000 to $20,000. Do you believe following on the question on when I saw you last time, do you believe that this legislation will help ease the disparate impact of salt on married couples in New Jersey? Um You know, I agree that salt has had a disproportionate impact on different states. There are also fiscal implications from the legislation that you discuss. I haven't had a chance to examine and um it's really up to the White House and the President to decide whether or not to be supportive of this. Uh Mike if and when this does come up for a vote. We of course, will let you know, stay tuned for more on that one and that'll do it for this week. I'm Eric LK and we thank you so much for watching New Jersey Power and Politics. We'll see you again next time.

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MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford will be host to the World Cup final in 2026 – a huge economic win for the state. Tom Bracken, president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, joins Eric Landskroner to discuss what it means for the state. 

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Power & Politics: World Cup fever in New Jersey – what it means for the state

MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford will be host to the World Cup final in 2026 – a huge economic win for the state. Tom Bracken, president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, joins Eric Landskroner to discuss what it means for the state.

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