Press Releases

NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez today announced the awarding of $323,080,779 from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), with half being promptly released to support New Jersey’s students and institutions of higher education that are suffering tremendous losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal funding comes from the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which allocated approximately $14 billion to help colleges and universities... Read More

NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee that sets national health policy, today announced a combined $30,108,526 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support New Jersey’s 24 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in their efforts to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. The COVID-19 federal stimulus package, signed into law last month, allocated over $1.3 billion to support community health centers across... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a letter sent to U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today, the Bureau of Prisons announced it would make phone calls free of charge for people behind bars, a move that follows a formal request by Booker on March 18. Booker, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had urged the Director of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to allow phone calls and videoconferencing free of charge in the wake of the BOP’s decision to temporarily cancel in-person visits in order to help contain the... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) today unveiled new legislation, called the Federal Immigrant Release for Safety and Security Together (FIRST) Act, that would move immigrants out of detention and halt immigration enforcement against individuals not deemed a significant public safety risk during this coronavirus public health emergency and future health emergencies. The bill comes as a growing number of immigrants in federal custody are... Read More

NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez today joined a bipartisan group of senators in urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide relief for local farmers who are struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The senators urged the USDA to ensure that a portion of the $9.5 billion they secured in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, goes to local farmers who sell directly to consumers, schools, institutions, food hubs, regional... Read More

PATERSON, NJ – U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today led the entire 14-member New Jersey congressional delegation calling on the Trump administration to begin immediately allocating more support provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for the Garden State’s frontline hospitals and health care providers. With New Jersey facing the second-most COVID-19 cases in America, the members emphasize the... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- United States Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) along with Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust, sent a letter urging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to collect racial and ethnic demographic data on testing and treatment for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in order to identify and... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), along with Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), today pressed Amazon on the treatment and safety of its front-line warehouse workers, and repeated their call for the tech giant to temporarily close any warehouses where a worker tests positive for COVID-19. Additionally, the lawmakers questioned Amazon over its abrupt termination last week of one of its warehouse... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Congressmen Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Michael McCaul (R-TX), today led more than 60 of their Senate and House colleagues in urging leading international health and wildlife organizations to take aggressive action toward a permanent global ban of live wildlife markets, also known as “wet” markets, as well as a ban on the international trade of live... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C.— U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Dianne Feinstein, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today announced that they will introduce the COVID–19 Correctional Facility Emergency Response Act, which would allocate funds to state and local governments to provide testing and treatment for COVID-19 to individuals in state correctional facilities. The bill would also incentivize states to reduce the number of people behind bars by curtailing arrests and in-facility processing... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) led more than a dozen of his colleagues today in urging Senate leaders to provide full funding for the U.S. Postal Service in the next COVID-19 relief package. Without such funding, the lawmakers warned, the USPS “may have to reduce or limit its services…as early as June.” “We write to urge you to provide appropriate funding to the United States Postal Service (USPS) in the next coronavirus package that Congress takes up,” the lawmakers wrote in... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) today urged the Department of Labor (DOL) to reconsider its decision to strip emergency paid sick and family leave from millions of workers, a benefit established under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the second Coronavirus aid package passed in mid-March. Last week, the DOL issued guidance that broadly expanded the categories of workers exempt from such emergency leave benefits, in effect... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, in a letter addressed to the head of the FEMA Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) urged FEMA to create a national database of existing U.S. ventilator supply that is accessible to states as well as a distribution program to immediately get ventilators to the areas that need them the most. While plans for increased production of ventilators that will be available in future is a positive development, those efforts will not help the... Read More

HACKENSACK, N.J. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate’s housing subcommittee, today announced a combined $82,202,575 in federal funding awarded to the State of New Jersey, counties and municipalities from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development to combat COVID-19. This represents the first wave of billions in funding for New Jersey from the $2 trillion emergency stimulus package Congress... Read More

NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez, ranking member of the Senate’s mass transit subcommittee, and Cory Booker (both D-.N.J.) and Congressmen Albio Sires (N.J.-08), Donald Payne, Jr. (N.J.-10) and Tom Malinowski (N.J.-11), all members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, today announced the awarding of $1,758,430,844 from the Federal Transit Agency (FTA) to help NJ Transit continue operations despite a significant drop-off in ridership and revenue as a result of the... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez (both D-NJ) today urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to waive burdensome collection rules for its Emergency Food Assistance Program in order to better protect food bank workers and speed up the process by which struggling Americans can receive food. As the lawmakers outlined in their letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, food banks around the country are increasingly relying on food provided by the federal government to... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today blasted President Trump for his decision against reopening HealthCare.gov so that individuals currently without health insurance could sign up for coverage. Booker was the first lawmaker to propose legislation that would create such an enrollment period so that millions of individuals impacted by COVID-19 could access coverage. “This decision is the height of callousness and irresponsibility,” Booker said. “We’re in the midst of a global... Read More

NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (N.J.-09) today led the New Jersey and New York congressional delegations, including Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kristin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), in urging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to expedite the awarding of funds for hospitals and health care providers as appropriated in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The stimulus package includes $100 billion to... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today urged a trade group representing medical technology companies that manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE) and other critical supplies to begin mobilizing its member companies to increase production to address the dire shortage.“We must work rapidly to increase our nation’s supply of PPE and other necessary equipment, and many of AdvaMed’s member companies are critical to this effort,” Booker wrote in a letter to the President and... Read More

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Congressman Tom Malinowski (N.J.-07) today led the New Jersey congressional delegation’s call to President Trump, urging him to waive the local cost share for all COVID-19-related assistance provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Typically, FEMA grants through Direct Federal Assistance and Public Assistance for Emergency Protective Measures during a Major Disaster Declaration come with a federal cost share of 75%, meaning state and... Read More