RICE ISSUES STATEMENT ON NJ MEASURES FOR COVID-19 RECOVERY AND BEYOND

NOW IS OUR MOMENT TO MAP OUR ULTIMATE IDEALS

TRENTON – Senator Ronald L. Rice today issued the following statement on the impact of COVID-19 on New Jersey, its legislative response, and a vision for the future health of our people, economy and environment:

Few New Jersey citizens have lived through anything close to the conditions imposed on us by this coronavirus pandemic.  As we approach our state’s projected case apex, we already know at least 1,700 of our loved ones have succumbed to the disease.  Thousands of us mourn.  Thousands more are still struggling for their breath while their families are forced to pray from a distance.  None of us have escaped sadness or worry in this time of loss and uncertainty.  We need each other more than we ever have, and we must reach out for comfort and confidence as we move into the future together.   In this time of isolation, it’s important to use our phones and social media for meaningful connection with family and friends.  Together, we will get through this.

This is not life as we’ve known it in our Garden State.  And yet, from the depths of our grief and anxiety, we understand that tomorrow will sprout with new hope and a new vision for our future.  Now is our moment to reflect on where we’ve been as a state, where we’ve put our resources and our energy, and which values we want to strengthen to make us better neighbors and better citizens in a stronger, more compassionate nation. Now is our moment to map out our ultimate ideals for a state-wide community, as renewed and refreshed as our wave-washed beaches.

All New Jerseyans can be proud that our Legislature and our governor have mobilized to fast track laws to protect us in this fragile time, and to establish stability and spur economic recovery.  My colleagues in the Senate and I have worked feverishly to care for our constituents in crisis and to put plans in place to move forward.

With Senators Gill and Corrado and Assemblymembers Wimberly and Reynolds-Jackson, I have introduced a bill to pinpoint communities most affected by COVID-19 through hospital data tracking.  The bill, S-2357, will require demographic information to be submitted to the Department of Health for daily, updated publication on the department’s website.  This data will ensure that areas most impacted by COVID-19 will receive federal and state funding commensurate to damages.

I have also offered guidance to New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities as it seeks input on its Energy Efficiency and Peak Demand Program Administration Straw Proposal.  I have urged BPU President Joseph Fiordaliso to implement measures that safeguard the inclusion of Blacks, Latinos, people of color, women and the disadvantaged in its plans for cost-savings and conservation.  As we heal and move forward from the coronavirus crisis, the Straw Proposal can be harnessed to provide job training and economic advancement for the under- and unemployed, investment and bidding opportunities for minority companies and expanded considerations for low-income homeowners to engage in program benefits.  Any public practice to lower utility use and save natural resources will, in the end, not only nourish and strengthen our environmental health, but our personal and community health as well.  If the pandemic has seared anything at all into our psyche, it is that we are all interconnected, humans and all living things together.

As we have lost so many and so much in these past months, our commitment must be to not let that loss be in vain.  Our charge now is to focus on the many levels of disparities the pandemic has spotlighted and amplified.  All of us must have access to comprehensive, affordable healthcare.  All of us must be empowered to progress into the kind of sustainable, pervasive state-wide prosperity that comes from real economic equality that is rooted in a reverence for our environment and our planet.  Now is the time to regroup, reprioritize and restrategize, so that in our recovery, no person, no neighborhood and no community is left behind and so that all of life flourishes in our beautiful Garden State.