Press Releases

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) today sent a letter urging U.S. News & World Report to further change their methodology for college rankings by more expansively considering a school’s diversity, inclusion, and representation. “U.S. News may claim that it now adequately addresses economic diversity by adjusting its new Pell metrics by the share of the... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced legislation to prohibit federal law enforcement officers from claiming consent as a defense when accused of sexually assaulting someone in their custody or while exercising their authority under color of law. Over the last year, states including New York, Maryland, Kansas, and Louisiana have enacted legislation closing a loophole that allows law enforcement officers to claim that a sexual... Read More

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced his support of the bipartisan criminal justice reform package introduced in the Senate today. Other cosponsors include Sens. Chuck Grassley (D-IA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Mike Lee (R-UT), Lindsay Graham (R-SC), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). Booker was instrumental in adding key sentencing provisions to the package after opposing the House-passed version of the First Step Act first released in... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Chris Coons (D-DE), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement on the appointment of Dr. J. Peter Pham to be the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Booker and Flake are the top lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy. “We welcome the appointment of a new Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa,... Read More

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – As the nation pauses to observe Veterans Day, today U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) was joined by New Jersey student veterans and advocates at Rutgers Veterans Services to announce the introduction of legislation that would extend education benefits for student veterans. The Veteran Education and Transfer (VET) Extension Act would address critical gaps in current U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) education benefits, which were revealed during a roundtable discussion... Read More

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “Jeff Sessions’ firing at the hands of the President is an alarming development that brings us one step closer to a constitutional crisis. I’m concerned that President Trump made this decision based on his fear of being implicated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) issued the following statement:   “My heart breaks for the victims of the horrific and outrageous act of anti-Semitic violence in Pittsburgh. An attack on any American’s free exercise of their religious beliefs is an attack on us all. We stand united against this hatred, and we must take action to prevent future gun violence. We are not powerless to stop this.” Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the bipartisan SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act was signed into law. The comprehensive legislation includes a provision authored by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) that will help hospitals and emergency departments develop, implement, and study best practices for utilizing alternatives to opioids for pain management. The provision is from the bipartisan, bicameral Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO) in... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today announced new legislation aimed at giving every American child a fair shot at economic mobility. The American Opportunity Accounts Act aims to mitigate the growing wealth gap between American families by creating a seed savings account for every American child when they are born. The funds would sit in an interest-bearing account that would receive additional deposits each year depending on family income. At age 18, account holders could... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to advance the bipartisan Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018, historic legislation that would criminalize lynching, attempts to lynch, and conspiracy to lynch for the first time in American history. The legislation was originally introduced in June 2018 by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kamala D. Harris (D-CA), and Tim Scott (R-SC). “After more than a hundred years of failed efforts, we are now one step closer... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez (both D-NJ) and U.S. Representative Donald Norcross (NJ-01) announced the expansion of the Liberty Mid-Atlantic High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA), a federal drug prevention program within the Office of National Drug Control Policy, to include Atlantic County.   The designation, which the lawmakers advocated for in June, will allow Atlantic County to receive federal assistance through the HIDTA program to combat... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate today passed America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (AWIA), a comprehensive bill that makes much-needed investments in water infrastructure systems across the country. The bill contains several provisions based upon legislation written by U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. "This bill contains critical and much-needed investments in our nation’s water infrastructure and ecosystems," Booker said. "It will help... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today questioned President Trump on his administration’s recent decision to redirect $230 million in funding for stabilization efforts in Syria. These stabilization efforts have helped secure communities in northeastern Syria liberated from ISIS by removing explosive remnants of war, promoting representative local governance and civil society, rehabilitating basic... Read More

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and  U.S. House Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (SC) today introduced a major new bicameral bill that will expand the successful 10-20-30 anti-poverty formula to a significantly larger group of federal accounts to ensure more funds are targeted to persistent poverty communities without raising taxes or adding to the deficit.  The bill, titled An Act Targeting Resources into Communities in Need, also ensures federal investment in all... Read More

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} [WASHINGTON, DC] – Following reports that the White House is limiting the scope of the investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Amy... Read More

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) today introduced a bill to reduce the United States' rising maternal mortality rates, improve maternal and infant health outcomes, and close the disparities that continue to put mothers and children of color at risk. The bill, the Maximizing Outcomes for Moms through Medicaid Improvement and Enhancement of Services (MOMMIES)... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The bipartisan Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 that was passed by the US Senate today includes provisions authored by U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez (both D-NJ) that will help hospitals and emergency medical departments identify and implement best practices for finding alternatives to the use of opioids. The provisions are from Booker and Menendez’s bipartisan Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO) in the Emergency Department Act, which was also cosponsored by Senators... Read More

Washington D.C. — All 10 Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee today issued the following statement:         “With only a few hours’ notice and over the objections of Ranking Member Feinstein, Judiciary Committee Republicans scheduled a staff-level phone call with Brett Kavanaugh concerning allegations that he sexually assaulted a young woman.         “In view of the enormity and seriousness of these... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement: “The allegations contained in the Washington Post report about Judge Brett Kavanaugh are serious, credible, and deeply troubling. At a bare minimum, this week’s scheduled committee vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court must be postponed until this matter is fully and thoroughly investigated. “It takes enormous courage to come forward publicly... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today continued to release documents pertaining to Judge Kavanaugh's record that are marked "committee confidential" and have not been made available to the public. All of the Committee Confidential documents that Booker has released to the public can be found here. There are 75 in total. The latest batch of documents released today focuses on Judge Kavanaugh's involvement in the nomination of controversial federal judge Charles Pickering. The... Read More