Yesterday in the House of Representatives, Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse, a member of the Speaker’s leadership team, introduced legislation that would allocate $250 Billion in emergency funding to communities with populations under 500,000. Those communities, which include every New Jersey municipality, were excluded from direct stabilization aid in the ‘Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act’ (the CARES Act).
New Jersey’s Tom Malinowski assisted in the introduction of the new bill, the ‘Coronavirus Community Relief Act’ (CCRA), and will join Congressman Neguse as a sponsor. Other members of the New Jersey delegation who have already signed on as co-sponsors are Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Mikie Sherrill, and Albio Sires.
The CCRA funding could be used to address extraordinary local costs, incurred in response to COVID-19. These costs would include deploying timely public service announcements to keep your citizens informed, rapidly activating emergency operations, readying employees for telework to keep services running, and more.
We will provide you with more specifics, once we obtain a copy of the bill. In the meantime, reach out to Senators Menendez and Booker and to your House delegate, expressing your support for the Coronavirus Community Relief Act.
We have two other federal developments to bring to your attention. First, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has declined to pause the ‘shot clock’ – the deadline by which an application for broadband deployment must be denied before it is ‘deemed’ approved. Second, for the purposes of the enhanced Family and Medical Leave provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has expanded the definition of ‘emergency responders’ to include ‘public works personnel’.
Contact: Jon Moran, Senior Legislative Analyst, jmoran@njlm.org, 609-695-3481 x121.