Press Releases

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement. “We are deeply troubled by reports of deaths, widespread arrests, beatings, and harassment of protestors by security forces of the Government of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean people have the constitutional right to protest peacefully and express themselves regarding developments in their country. Government officials and... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today pressed Attorney General nominee William Barr on the racial disparities that infect the criminal justice system. Booker asked Barr to explain previous statements he had made about how “the benefits of increased incarceration would be enjoyed disproportionately by black Americans living in inner cities” and “a failure to incarcerate hurts black Americans... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today joined U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and more than a dozen colleagues in the House and Senate to introduce sweeping reforms that would reduce prescription drug prices in the United States. The plan to reduce the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs includes three bills: The Prescription Drug Price Relief Act, which would peg the price of prescription drugs in the United States to the... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Judiciary Committee, today urged the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice to retract a misleading report from January 2018 that is underpinning many of the false arguments President Trump is currently making about the link between immigration and crime and terrorism. The January 2018 report is titled “Executive Order 13780: Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry into the U.S.” and was issued... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), this week will re-introduce the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act. The legislation would protect Special Counsels from inappropriate removal or political pressure. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last Congress with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 14-7. The Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act: Codifies existing Department... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Judiciary Committee and co-author of the First Step Act, issued the below statement following news that the first person has been released from a federal prison due to the sentencing reform guidelines passed and signed into law last month. One of those provisions made retroactive a 2010 law that reduced the egregious sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine - disparities that overwhelmingly and... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Chris Coons (D-DE), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement: “Despite crackdowns by security forces on pro-democracy activists and opposition groups leading up to the election, in a courageous and inspiring demonstration of will, the Congolese people turned out to vote on December 30 to cast their ballots after a two-year delay of its elections. We are deeply concerned about the... Read More

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) hailed the signing into law of the bipartisan Sickle Cell Disease and Other Heritable Blood Disorders Research, Surveillance, Prevention, and Treatment Act – introduced by Booker and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) in February and cleared by the Senate in October. The House sent it to the president’s desk last week.  A companion bill in the House was introduced by Representatives Danny Davis (D-Il) and Michael Burgess (R-TX). “Research and treatment... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the below statement following the passage through the Senate by unanimous consent of their bipartisan Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018, historic legislation that would – for the first time in history – criminalize lynching, attempts to lynch, and lynching conspiracies. The legislation was originally introduced in June by Booker and Senators Kamala Harris... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement after the Senate passed the First Step Act, a landmark bill to reform the criminal justice system. “Our country’s criminal justice system is broken – and it has been broken for decades. You cannot deny justice to any American without it affecting all Americans. That’s why the passage of the First Step Act tonight is so meaningful – it begins to right past wrongs that... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today introduced a bill to shine a light on certain tactics drugmakers employ to profit off of state Medicaid programs by influencing their drug coverage decisions. The bill follows an investigation over the summer that found that drug makers swarm state Medicaid board meetings when their drugs are under consideration and have given payments and perks to doctors serving on those boards, like free meals and consulting opportunities. For example,... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Legislation introduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) today would seek to prevent unnecessary and unethical animal testing practices on primates. Experiments on primates often are unnecessary, as they do not address essential human needs, such as effective medical treatments and cures for serious medical conditions. For instance, a scientific review by the Institute of Medicine determined that chimpanzees were not necessary for scientific research. As a result, the National... Read More

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers today released revised text of the First Step Act to continue building support for criminal justice reform. This update was brokered by the White House and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers of Congress. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan have pledged to take up the revised package before the end of the year. “Our broken criminal justice system is a cancer on the soul of our nation that’s disproportionately... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The bipartisan Sickle Cell Disease and Other Heritable Blood Disorders Research, Surveillance, Prevention, and Treatment Act – introduced by Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC) in February and cleared by the Senate in October – will head to the President’s desk to be signed into law after the U.S. House passed it earlier today.  A companion bill in the U.S. House was introduced by Representatives Danny Davis (D-Il) and Michael Burgess (R-TX). The legislation seeks... Read More

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