There is nothing new about Congress being deadlocked on important issues facing the nation. But the divisions have deepened and the rancor has intensified over the past several years. And as the poll numbers on the accompanying chart show, the divisions apparent in Washington largely reflect those same divisions among Republicans and Democrats all across America. An April 2016 Pew Research Center poll provided a snapshot of the contempt that partisans have for their opponents. Forty-one percent ... Read more

By Staff Writer Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman - Unresolved hate crimes like the racially motivated murder of black Chicago teen Emmett Till, who was abducted, beat down and shot to death during a family visit to Mississippi in 1955, have inspired a group of Hightstown High School students to lobby Congress into action. When Midwest Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Illinois) introduced the Civil Rights Cold Case Record Collections Act of 2017 into the U.S. House of Representatives on March 1, the bill was actua... Read more

Tonight, millions of Americans will kiss their child good night and fall asleep knowing that they will be able to do the same tomorrow. Unfortunately, for an alarming number of parents, this version of the American dream is impossible — for now — as their children are half way around the world, illegally abducted to a foreign land, leaving the American parent left behind and struggling to understand what can be done. Between 2008 and 2015, nearly 10,000 children were abducted overseas by a paren... Read more

AP, 1:25 EST March 31, 2017 - A bill to force the White House to tell Congress what it is doing to extradite fugitives who have fled the United States, including a member of a revolutionary group who killed a New Jersey state trooper in 1973, cleared its first hurdle Thursday with a 4-1 vote in a House subcommittee. Rep. Chris Smith said New Jersey critics of renewed diplomatic relations with Cuba have not been able to get President Obama’s administration to say what it is doing to secure the re... Read more

By Jonathan D. Salant of the Star Ledger - Reps. Chris Smith and Albio Sires began a new effort to push for the return of convicted cop-killer Joanne Chesimard to the U.S., re-introducing legislation to have the government push for the return of fugitives harbored abroad. The bill is named for two New Jersey residents, Walter Patterson and New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, both of whose killers were found and convicted but escaped and are living overseas. Both Smith and Sires (D-8th Dist... Read more

Anti-Semitism has reached disturbing heights in the United States and Europe, according to four experts from the Jewish community who testified before a congressional subcommittee on March 22. The hearing took place one day before the arrest in Israel of Michael Kaydar, a 19-year-old suspect allegedly responsible for a wave of bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions across the United States. During the hearing, Stacy Burdett, vice president for government relations, advocacy, and community en... Read more

By Bill Spadea 10:44 a.m. Feb. 23, 2017 - Instead of a raucous town hall sponsored by his potential opponents, Rep. Chris Smith joined us on air to discuss Lyme disease and health care in Jersey, and what he’s doing to help NJ in DC. There is arguably no better constituent service-oriented public servant than Chris Smith. To paint a picture that shows anything else is false and agenda-driven. Just because a group holds a meeting to yell about what they’re entitled to receive from your tax money ... Read more

By Hugh T. Ferguson, CQ Roll Call - For advocates of people with autism, the 114th Congress (2015-16) left some unfinished business on the docket, and potential for bipartisanship. Bills to help prevent wandering, a characteristic of some individuals with autism and adults with Alzheimer’s who impulsively leave their caregivers, gained support from members as diverse as GOP Rep. Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey and Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, but never reached the president... Read more

By Chris Smith - ANALYSIS/OPINION: Forty years ago, Congress enacted the Hyde Amendment — a law that continues to this day to proscribe federal Medicaid funds from being used to subsidize abortion in most circumstances. More than 20 peer-reviewed studies show that more than 2 million people are alive today because of Hyde. Two million people who would have been aborted instead survived because public funds were unavailable to effectuate their violent demise while their mothers benefited from pre... Read more

By JONATHAN SALANT OF NJ.COM - Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is receiving a new fleet of Air Force tankers, making it more likely to be protected against any future round of military base closings. The Air Force on Thursday selected the joint base's 305th Air Mobility Wing to house 24 KC-46 tankers, which should arrive from 2020 to 2023. "It ensures the viability of the joint base," said Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.). "This is the most important protection we could have secured." U.S. Sen. R... Read more