Press Releases

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

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.) and Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ-09) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to request that New Jersey’s recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits be eligible to participate in a pilot program that allows the use of SNAP benefits for the purchase of SNAP eligible products online from approved online retailers. This will help protect the program’s recipients amidst the... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) called on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to cease all immigration enforcement operations, unless an individual poses a threat to public safety, and release vulnerable detainees from custody who are particularly susceptible to COVID-19. The letter comes on the heels of yesterday’s order by a federal judge for ICE to immediately release... Read More

NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker, who was involved in negotiations on the deal, and Bob Menendez, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and one of the bipartisan bill negotiators, detailed today how New Jersey will initially benefit from the $2 trillion stimulus package Congress passed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both senators voted in favor of the bipartisan deal and are committed to passing additional funding bills to address the ongoing health and economic... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to skyrocket across the country, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today renewed his call for the Trump Administration to create a special enrollment period so that individuals impacted by COVID-19, or those who currently do not have health insurance, can sign up for coverage at HealthCare.gov. Booker was the first lawmaker to propose legislation that would create such an enrollment period so that millions of individuals fearful of and... Read More