Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (D-Newark) had perfect attendance in the United States House of Representatives so far this week. He made it to all twenty roll call votes, starting with a Tuesday evening vote on the Miscellaneous Tariff Act of 2018. Payne had been in Trenton for Gov. Phil Murphy’s noon inauguration and still made it to Washington in time for a 6:53 PM vote.
The House adjourned early this morning without reaching a deal to keep the government open. It is scheduled to reconvene at 9AM; presumably, Payne is staying in Washington for any votes cast tomorrow.
“Because Republicans refused to negotiate in good faith with Democrats on a bipartisan spending bill, the United States government ran out of money at 12:01 this morning,” Payne said in a Tweet earlier. “No sane legislator wants to shut down the federal government, but Republicans just did. ”
Last week, Payne missed three of seventeen roll call votes. In 2017, he missed 66 – the most in the New Jersey delegation; the other eleven Members of Congress missed 77 votes combined.