Congressman Josh Gottheimer was hosted at a NORPAC event on August 16 at the Ridgefield Park office of Seth Gribetz. His district encompasses portions of Bergen, Passaic, Sussex and Warren counties, including Bergenfield, Fair Lawn, New Milford, Paramus and Teaneck.

Gottheimer discussed recent developments in Congress to pass the Taylor Force Act, a bill that would stop payments of U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority for their support of terrorists and their families. The legislation aims to specifically target benefit payments to these individuals, and would not affect humanitarian aid. The Senate recently passed its version of the Taylor Force Act through the Foreign Relations committee, and it is expected to come up for a vote in both the House and Senate in September or October according to Gottheimer.

The congressman also discussed his recent support of two anti-BDS bills that are circulating in the House of Representatives. One bill aims to push against an international “blacklist” of Israeli products, while the other protects the rights of individual states to divest from companies that boycott Israel.

Josh Gottheimer will be running for re-election in 2018.