Testimony on Aging Water Infrastructure Also on Tap
(TRENTON) — Legislation to require all public and nonpublic schools to test for lead and other toxic substances and provide funding for lead abatement in Newark drinking water, along with testimony on the state’s aging drinking water infrastructure and how, if not addressed, it may have an adverse impact on the health of New Jersey communities highlight Monday’s Assembly committees.
Other highlights on tap:
- Four gun safety measures, including bills to protect domestic violence victims, keep guns away from criminals, establish a criminal firearms recovery clearing house and require the Attorney General to establish a statewide gun buyback program;
- A wide-ranging legislative package to regulate tiered health insurance networks; and
- Bills to combat poverty and rebuild the middle-class, assist struggling veterans and protect property taxpayers.
The meetings are slated to begin at 10 a.m. and will be streamed live here.
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
LEAD ABATEMENT:
- A3583 (Spencer/Muoio/Tucker/Pintor Marin/McKnight/Chiaravalloti) — Appropriates $20 million from societal benefits charge to DEP for drinking water infrastructure improvements and lead abatement in City of Newark. 2 p.m. Environment and Solid Waste;
- A3539 (Muoio/Spencer) — Requires public and nonpublic schools to test for lead and other toxic substances in drinking water, and appropriates funds therefor. 2 p.m. Environment and Solid Waste; and
- The Assembly Environment and Solid Waste committee will also hear testimony regarding the issue of lead as it relates to the state’s aging drinking water infrastructure and how, if not addressed, it may have an adverse impact on the health of New Jersey communities.
GUN SAFETY:
- A1211 (Mosquera/Greenwald/Lagana/Benson/ Lampitt/Vainieri Huttle/Danielsen) — Revises certain laws concerning domestic violence and firearms. 2 p.m. Law and Public Safety;
- A1648 (Schaer/Mukherji/Mazzeo/Jimenez/Wimberly) — Directs Attorney General to establish a criminal firearms recovery clearing house. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A2374 (McKeon/Prieto/Wimberly/Zwicker) — Requires Attorney General to establish Statewide gun buyback program. 1 p.m. Appropriations; and
- A2443 (Eustace/Sumter/Downey/Wimberly/Danielsen/Jimenez/Zwicker) — Prohibits firearm possession by persons convicted of certain offenses. 1 p.m. Appropriations.
HEALTH CARE CONSUMERS:
- A886 (Muoio/Gusciora/Quijano/DeAngelo/Pinkin) — Establishes certain network adequacy and standard application requirements for health insurance carriers; requires determination of hospital diversity for tiered networks. 2 p.m. Regulatory Oversight;
- A887 (Muoio/Gusciora/Vainieri Huttle/Conaway/DeAngelo) — Requires carriers to disclose selection standards for placement of health care providers in tiered health benefits plan network; establishes oversight monitor to review compliance. 2 p.m. Regulatory Oversight;
- A2327 (Vainieri Huttle/Muoio/Gusciora/Wisniewski/Quijano/Johnson) — Places moratorium on implementation of certain tiered network health benefits plans until January 1, 2017. 2 p.m. Regulatory Oversight;
- A2328 (Vainieri Huttle/Muoio/Gusciora/Wisniewski/DeAngelo/Quijano) — Requires health insurance carriers to comply with certain network adequacy requirements. 2 p.m. Regulatory Oversight;
- A2329 (Vainieri Huttle/Wisniewski/Muoio/Gusciora) — Establishes certain standards for health benefits plans with tiered network. 2 p.m. Regulatory Oversight; and
- A2585 (Gusciora/Muoio/Quijano) — Requires health insurance carriers offering tiered network health benefits plans to protect covered persons from excess cost sharing in certain circumstances. 2 p.m. Regulatory Oversight.
REBUILDING THE MIDDLE-CLASS:
- A815 (Land/Andrzejczak/Mosquera/Spencer) — Requires county emergency management coordinators to establish Code Blue Program to shelter homeless during severe weather events. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1130 (Sumter/Wimberly) — Requires DHS to give priority to temporary rental assistance over use of hotels or motels in emergency assistance to Work First New Jersey recipients. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1199 (Mosquera/Moriarty/Lagana/Zwicker) — Permits a victim or witness of any age to testify by closed circuit television under certain circumstances in prosecutions for domestic violence, sexual assault, and certain other crimes. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1449 (Lampitt/Benson/Vainieri Huttle/Tucker/Wimberly) — Requires DHS to develop timeline for use by individuals with developmental disabilities to gain benefit of State and federal programs; requires posting timeline on DHS, DCF, and DOE websites. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1451 (Lampitt/Mosquera/Green) — Permits small, women owned, or minority owned businesses located in designated regional centers or planning areas to qualify for loans from EDA as if located in designated urban center. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1460 (Lampitt/Schaer/Wimberly/Danielsen) — Increases reporting requirements for the NJ Basic Skills Training Program for Economic Growth. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1869 (Wimberly/Vainieri Huttle/Oliver/Tucker/Quijano) — Establishes Division of Minority and Women Business Development and State Chief Disparity Officer to monitor efforts to promote participation by minority-owned and women-owned businesses in State contracting. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1877 (Wimberly/Sumter/Diegnan/Jasey/Johnson) — “Healthy Small Food Retailer Act”; provides funding to small food retailers to sell fresh and nutritious food. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1120 (Oliver/Vainieri Huttle/Quijano/McKnight/Tucker/Wimberly) — Establishes “New Jersey Task Force on Abuse of Persons who are Elderly or Disabled.” 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A889 (Muoio/Spencer/Sumter/Holley/Oliver/McKnight/Tucker) — Revises treatment requirements for convicted drug offenders receiving general assistance benefits under Work First New Jersey program; 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1117 (Oliver/Lampitt) — Establishes the “New Jersey Schedules That Work Act.” 10 a.m. Women and Children;
- A1127 (Sumter) — Creates the Office on Women’s Research and Policy and appropriates $150,000. 10 a.m. Women and Children;
- A1448 (Lampitt/Mosquera) — Establishes Council of Women in Higher Education in Department of State to study and promote women’s issues within institutions of higher education. 10 a.m. Women and Children;
- A1855 (Wimberly/Prieto/Oliver/Spencer) — Concerns outreach and training for minorities and women in the construction industry. 10 a.m. Women and Children; and
- A2865 (Singleton/Jones/Taliaferro) — Establishes Statewide database of beds in shelters for the homeless. 2 p.m. State and Local Government.
PUBLIC SAFETY:
- A2322 (Vainieri Huttle/Singleton/Holley/Mosquera/Benson/Tucker/Wimberly) — Requires DCPP to implement policies and procedures to ensure caseworker safety; “Leah’s Law.” 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A1253 (Caride/Quijano) — Prohibits certain sex offenders from using social networking websites and requires certain identifying information. 10 a.m. Judiciary;
- A2101 (Mukherji/Gusciora) — Provides that teacher who commits act of sexual penetration with student 18 years old or older and less than 20 years old is guilty of sexual assault under certain circumstances. 10 a.m. Judiciary; and
- The Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee at 2 p.m. will hear testimony pertaining to public safety issues from invited representatives of the law enforcement and fire safety community.
VETERANS’ HELP:
- A306 (Singleton/Tucker/Lampitt/Webber/Johnson) — “New Jersey Housing Assistance for Veterans Act,” establishes pilot program to assist certain veterans with housing modification and rehabilitation; appropriates $5 million. 10 a.m. Military and Veterans’ Affairs;
- A323 (Singleton/Conaway/Taliaferro/Tucker/Dancer) — Requires annual General Fund appropriation to DMVA for Council on Armed Forces and Veterans’ Affairs for purposes of base realignment and closure. 10 a.m. Military and Veterans’ Affairs;
- A450 (Mazzeo/Andrzejczak/Mukherji/Moriarty/Benson/Danielsen) — Wounded Warrior Caregivers Relief Act; Provides income tax credit to family caregivers of certain armed service members with physical disabilities. 10 a.m. Military and Veterans’ Affairs;
- A782 (Andrzejczak/Quijano/Lagana/DeAngelo/Land) — Establishes grant program for homeless veterans shelters. 10 a.m. Military and Veterans’ Affairs;
- A2098 (Mukherji/Lampitt/Eustace/Lagana) — Establishes “Veterans Affordable Housing Section 8 Voucher Pilot Program.” 10 a.m. Military and Veterans’ Affairs; and
- A2212 (Wimberly/Oliver) — Grants credit against business taxes to developer of rental housing reserved for occupancy by veterans. 10 a.m. Military and Veterans’ Affairs.
GOOD GOVERNMENT:
- A302 (Singleton/Webber/Conaway/Diegnan/Vainieri Huttle/Downey/Caride) — Increases distribution to municipalities from Energy Tax Receipts Property Tax Relief Fund over five years to restore municipal aid reductions; requires additional aid to be subtracted from municipal property tax levy. 1 p.m. Appropriations;
- A2281 (Vainieri Huttle) — The “Smart Container Act.” 2 p.m. Environment and Solid Waste;
- A222 (DeAngelo/Giblin/Singleton/Holley/Benson) — “New Jersey Library Construction Bond Act”; authorizes issuance of $125,000,000 in general obligation bonds to finance capital projects at public libraries; appropriates $5,000. 2 p.m. State and Local Government;
- A2815 (Mosquera/Jones/DeAngelo/Mazzeo/Johnson) — Revises “Overseas Residents Absentee Voting Law” to mirror federal law; permits overseas voters to vote in any election; permits use of federal write-in absentee ballot to vote, register or request ballot for all elections. 10 a.m. Judiciary;
- A312 (Singleton/Lampitt/Quijano/Pintor Marin/Wimberly/Downey) — Requires Division of Local Government Services to include certain property tax information on division’s web page. 2 p.m. State and Local Government; and
- A612 (Lagana/Singleton/Moriarty) — The “Municipal Volunteer Property Tax Reduction Act”; permits certain municipal property owners to perform volunteer services in return for property tax vouchers. 2 p.m. State and Local Government.