(TRENTON) – Assembly committees on Monday will consider renewed legislation to create the Back to Work NJ job creation program and bills to help employers stave off layoffs, assist local governments repair Hurricane Irene damage, strengthen teen driver safety, promote the state’s wine industry and help juveniles forced into prostitution get services they need.
Hearings begin at 10 a.m. Audio of the hearings will be streamed live at:
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/media/live_audio.asp.
Complete agendas are attached but highlights include:
· The Assembly Labor Committee will meet at 10 a.m. to consider legislation (A-4332) sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex/Passaic) to establish the Back to Work NJ program to help out-of-work residents receive job training from potential employers. Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a similar bill earlier this year, even though a similar program has proven effective in Georgia, and President Obama has included the concept in his jobs program.
· The panel will also consider a bill (A-3818) sponsored by Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester/Camden) to provide unemployment insurance benefits for shared work programs. The bill is designed to encourage employers who must reduce work hours because of economic conditions to avoid layoffs by sharing the work by allowing a full-time employee to receive unemployment benefits when a worker’s weekly work time is reduced by 10 percent or more.
· The Assembly transportation committee will meet at 10 a.m. to consider a bill (A-3909) designed to further improve teen driver safety by expanding education and practice requirement for special learner’s driving permits and examination permits. The bill is sponsored by John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) and Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden).
· It will also consider a bill (A-4127) sponsored by Connie Wagner (D-Bergen) to promote mass transit usage by requiring public parking facilities at NJ Transit stations to be open to the public on weekends and other occasions when special events such as sporting events, trade shows and concerts are taking place.
· The Assembly Judiciary Committee will meet at 10 a.m. to consider legislation (A-3700/A3934) sponsored by L. Grace Spencer (D-Essex), Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), Albert Coutinho (D-Essex) and Annette Quijano (D-Union) to require services be provided to sexually exploited juveniles charged with prostitution and victims of human trafficking, while creating a presumption of coercion as an affirmative defense for those charged.
· The Judiciary panel will also consider legislation sponsored by Celeste Riley (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland) and Nelson Albano (D-Atlantic/Cumberland/Cape May) to enhance crime victims’ rights under the state’s Crime Victim’s Bill of Rights.
· The Assembly Agriculture and Natural ReDests Committee will meet at 2 p.m. to consider two bills sponsored by Celeste Riley (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland) to promote the state’s wine industry. One bill (A-3387) would expand the number of salesrooms a winery may operate and permit wine sampling at salesrooms, while the other (A-3388) would permit wineries to sell wine at farm markets.
· The Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee will meet at 2 p.m. to consider a bill (A-4231) sponsored by Connie Wagner (D-Bergen) to prohibit the shipping or transporting of tracking wastewater into New Jersey.
· The panel will also consider two bills designed to combat flooding, including the kind that caused problems last summer throughout the state. The first bill (A-4267) sponsored by Wagner would allow counties and municipalities to use open space trust funds to buy flood-prone properties. The other (A-4269) sponsored by Wagner would authorize $100 million in general obligation bonds for the cost of transportation and water infrastructure projects related to damage caused by Hurricane Irene and other weather problems last summer.
