Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following a series of fatal mass shootings across the country, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today introduced the Federal Firearm Licensing Act. The ambitious legislation would require individuals to obtain a firearm license from the Department of Justice (DOJ) before purchasing or receiving a firearm. Also today, the House Committee on the Judiciary is set to consider its version of Booker’s Keep Americans Safe Act of 2019,... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Late yesterday, the Senate unanimously voted to pass legislation authored by New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez that could help communities across the country, including Newark, remove lead from drinking water. Specifically, the Water Infrastructure Funding Transfer Act would give states facing public health crises from lead in drinking water the flexibility to make a one-time transfer of the federal funds in their Clean Water State Revolving Fund to their... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today introduced a climate change bill focused on voluntary farm and ranch conservation practices, massive reforestation, and wetlands restoration. The Climate Stewardship Act of 2019, inspired by measures implemented in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, would support voluntary climate stewardship practices on more than 100 million acres of farmland, plant more than 15 billion trees to revive deforested landscapes and expand urban tree... Read More

NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, and Congressmen Albio Sires (N.J.-08), Donald Payne, Jr. (N.J.-10), and Tom Malinowski (N.J.-07), members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, today announced $18,445,000 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to rehabilitate and enhance service at Newark Penn Station.  “As a Newark resident, I see firsthand what an important economic driver Penn Station is for local businesses and our... Read More

NEWARK, N.J.—Yesterday, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), met with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 Administrator Peter Lopez to discuss EPA’s duty and on-the-ground efforts to remedy Newark’s ongoing water issues.    “As Regional Administrator Lopez and I discussed yesterday, EPA has a shared responsibility in bringing safe, clean drinking water to the residents of Newark,” Booker said. “I hope that EPA will... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ), along with Reps. Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Andy Kim (NJ-03), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Frank Pallone (NJ-06), Tom Malinowski (NJ-07), Albio Sires (NJ-08), Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-09), Donald M. Payne, Jr. (NJ-10), Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ -12) today urged U.S. Department of Agriculture to withdraw their recently proposed rule to restrict benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), along with Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ), and Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. (D-NJ) today urged U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to offer additional assistance to serve the immediate needs of Newark residents affected by known or suspected lead service lines. By making temporary changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), along with Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ), and Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. (D-NJ) today called on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist state and local efforts in delivering safe drinking water to Newark residents following sampling results from 3 homes last week that concluded the levels of lead from 2 homes exceeded the drinking water standard. In... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following another devastating incident of domestic terrorism committed by a white supremacist in El Paso, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) today pressed Attorney General William Barr and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray about what the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI are doing to combat white supremacist violence.    “After the horrific September 11th terrorist attacks, your agencies shifted focus from investigating... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate late yesterday passed a bipartisan bill authored by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and John Kennedy (R-LA) called the Rebuilding Small Businesses After Disasters Act. This legislation would help ensure families continue to have access to certain Small Business Administration (SBA) loans soon after a disaster.  This legislation would prevent specific SBA disaster loans from decreasing from $25,000 to $14,000.  In 2015, a provision in the Recovery Improvements... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Several provisions authored by U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), passed out of the EPW Committee and were included in a broader highway bill. America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019 (ATIA) authorizes $287 billion in highway spending—a 27 percent increase above the spending levels included in the last 5-year transportation reauthorization bill, the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act,... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the below statement following the Department of Justice’s approval of the T-Mobile-Sprint merger:   “This merger leaves consumers with fewer choices and reduces the field of competitors below an even minimally acceptable threshold. Our antitrust laws were designed to prevent exactly this type of arrangement and it’s alarming that the Department of Justice approved it based on nothing more... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) introduced a bicameral resolution calling for a Congressional commitment to elevate the voices and needs of sexual violence survivors, particularly members of diverse communities that experience sexual violence at higher rates and are less likely to have access to justice and mental and emotional support resources after being victimized.   While all survivors’ voices need to be uplifted, troubling... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) today reintroduced legislation aimed at leveling the playing field by giving all American children an opportunity to generate wealth.   The American Opportunity Accounts Act, also known as “baby bonds”, would give every American child a fairer chance at economic mobility by creating a seed savings account of $1,000 at birth. The funds would sit in an interest-bearing account that would receive additional... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C.— U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, reintroduced sweeping legislation to address the environmental injustices that harm communities of color, low-income communities, and indigenous communities around the country. The Environmental Justice Act of 2019 would require federal agencies to mitigate environmental injustices through agency action and would strengthen the legal protections of those affected by environmental... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced today in a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing that the agency has stopped using the inflammatory and baseless “black identity extremists” label as a designation for domestic terrorist groups. This classification was inexplicably created by FBI in 2017. Today’s announcement came while the FBI Director, Christopher Wray, was being questioned by U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).   “We don't use the term... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) today issued the following joint-statement upon Senate passage of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) Act, which extends through 2092, the program that provides compensation to first responders and their families for injuries and illnesses suffered as a result of 9/11.  The bill now heads to President Trump for his signature:   “Permanently funding the September 11th Victims’ Compensation Fund provides... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today introduced the Combating Deceptive Immigration Enforcement Practices Act to prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) from wearing clothing displaying the word “police.” This is the Senate companion to legislation introduced last week in the House of Representatives by Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY).   Advocates warn that ICE agents, by displaying the... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today blasted U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s decision to overrule career civil rights prosecutors and not bring federal civil rights charges against Daniel Pantaleo, the New York City Policy Department (NYPD) officer who placed Eric Garner in a chokehold, resulting in his death. Barr’s decision is part of a larger pattern of the Attorney General abdicating his responsibility to uphold the rule... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today introduced legislation that invests in startup accelerators and incubators in new and underserved areas. Research indicates that just three geographic clusters—San Francisco Bay Area, Boston-Washington Corridor, and Southern California—account for 77 percent of venture capital funding in the United States, driving small business job growth to thrive in these areas... Read More