April Wrap-up

Above: Gottheimer announces new action to promote airline transparency.

Congressman Josh Gottheimer announced new legislation — the Enhancing Transparency from Airlines or “ETA Act” —  to promote airline transparency and protect passengers. This new legislation expands on Gottheimer’s Clear and Simple Airline Agenda, which aims to eliminate surprise costs and prevent families from having to read endless pages of wonky, small type legalese and fare rules just to try to understand what they are buying and the fees that come with their plane ticket.

Gottheimer’s ETA Act:

• Requires airlines to provide direct refunds rather than vouchers following a significant diversion in flight plans including a major delay or cancellation.
  • The bill will also require refunds for baggage, Wi-Fi, and seat selection fees when airlines do not follow through with these services.
  • Significant diversions include a three-hour delay for domestic flights and a six-hour delay for international trips. 
• It will protect customers from surprise fees when purchasing a ticket, requiring airlines to communicate all fees upfront.
  • The legislation will require airlines to disclose extra fees critical to a passenger’s travel along with the full fare.

Above: Gottheimer at the MTA headquarters.

Congressman Josh Gottheimer visited the MTA headquarters after the agency failed to comply with an official Freedom of Information Law or FOIL request more than 60 business days ago and ignored more than 30 messages from Congressman Gottheimer’s office requesting a meeting with MTA CEO Janno Lieber. Following Gottheimer’s announcement at the MTA headquarters, Lieber was unavailable to meet with Gottheimer. The MTA’s FOIL response refused to answer Gottheimer’s questions about Congestion Tax revenue calculations.

Gottheimer’s New Action to Stop the Congestion Tax:

• Gottheimer sent a bipartisan letter to the Chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, with Congressman Kean (NJ-7), Congressman D’Esposito (NY-4), Congresswoman Malliotakis (NY-11), and Congressman Lawler (NY-17) requesting a formal subpoena for the information that Congressman Gottheimer sought in his FOIL request and a hearing where Janno Lieber and other MTA leaders can testify about the Congestion Tax.

• Gottheimer and fellow Problem Solvers Caucus Member Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11) have introduced new legislation to block the implementation of the Congestion Tax.

Above: Gottheimer, Goldman, Moskowitz, and Manning walking through Columbia University campus.

Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Dan Goldman (NY-10), Jared Moskowitz (FL-23), and Kathy Manning (NC-6) walked through Columbia University campus and visited the protest encampments. Together, the members called upon Columbia leadership, including President Minouche Shafik, to take stronger action to protect Jewish students on Columbia’s campus.

Examples of antisemitism on Columbia’s campus include:

• A masked protester shouting, “We are Hamas. We’re all Hamas.”
• Masked protesters shouted, “never forget the 7th of October…that will happen not one more time…not one thousand more times, but ten thousand more times.” 
• According to Chabad at Columbia, protesters have directly targeted and verbally harassed Jewish students. They’ve said things like, “go back to Europe,” “all you do is colonize,” and “stop killing children.”
• A Columbia student was reportedly assaulted for wearing a kippah.
• The protests have gotten so dangerous that the Rabbi who leads Columbia’s Jewish Learning Initiative recommended that students stay away from campus for their own safety.

Congressman Gottheimer held a roundtable with childcare advocates and providers at Little Learners Child Development Center. Gottheimer, childcare providers and advocates discussed issues impacting childcare, including the Child Tax Credit, affordability and accessibility of childcare, the sustainability of operating a childcare center, and attracting talent to staff childcare centers.

“Given how important childcare is to our children, families, and communities, you’d think that we’d be flush with daycares and nurseries. But, the reason why we’re all here today is that childcare in Jersey is actually hard-to-come-by these days – and it’s incredibly expensive,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “I’m excited to convene today’s roundtable with childcare providers and advocates to discuss the challenges facing Jersey’s childcare system and share more about my work in Congress to make childcare more affordable, especially the urgent need to pass bipartisan legislation expanding the Child Tax Credit. It passed the House overwhelmingly and now it’s waiting for a vote in the Senate.”

Above: Gottheimer with North Jersey childcare providers and advocates

As always, if you’re experiencing an issue with a federal agency, Congressman Gottheimer's Constituent Service team is here to listen & help with VA benefits, Social Security, Medicare, & much more.

Call at 201-389-1100 or email [email protected].

You can also follow Congressman Gottheimer's Twitter here, Facebook here, and Instagram here.

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