Latest news with #D-Union
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Assembly panel advances bill to protect voting rights in New Jersey
Assemblyman Reginald Atkins (D-Union) said the bill sent a message: "Here, we expand Democracy. We don't shrink it." (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor) An Assembly committee approved a bill that would create a state counterpart to the federal Voting Rights Act in what supporters said was a bid to protect New Jersey's democracy from growing federal assaults. The measure would create a new independent office, housed in Treasury, to oversee elections where the voting rights or powers of racial and language minorities are limited. The Assembly Oversight, Reform, and Federal Relations Committee approved it Thursday in a 4-1 vote with an abstention from Assemblyman Michael Torrissi (R-Burlington). 'At a time when voting rights are under attack across the country, New Jersey must lead and continue to lead the way. This particular voter empowerment act … is our chance to send a clear message: Here, we expand Democracy. We don't shrink it,' said Assemblyman Reginald Atkins (D-Union), the panel's chair. The bill would expand state courts' power over elections, permitting them to change rules that violate the bill's provisions, redraw voting districts, expand governing bodies, and move some election dates to coincide with higher-turnout state and federal races. The bill would create preclearance rules at the state level, requiring localities with a history of voter suppression or intimidation to seek approval before enacting election rule changes, mirroring a provision of the federal Voting Rights Act the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2013. Voting and civil rights groups broadly supported the bill, arguing the state needed its own protections amid escalating attacks from President Donald Trump and the waning strength of the federal law, which courts have repeatedly denuded since its enactment in 1965. 'In the past six months, we have seen attacks on voting rights at the federal level accelerate, including the Department of Justice dropping critical legal cases that aim to protect against racial discrimination in voting,' said Jesse Burns, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey. 'We know that these threats are real, and we know that state-level VRAs are a powerful tool to curtail them.' They praised a language-access provision that would require local officials to print translated election materials — including ballots, registration forms, and notices, among others — and assistance in languages other than English. That requirement would kick in if at least 2%, or 4,000, of eligible voters speak a language other than English and have limited English proficiency. The federal law has a similar provision, but it sets a higher bar, requiring 5% of voting-age citizens with limited English proficiency before kicking in. 'New Jersey is home to over 2 million immigrants. One in four residents is an immigrant, 42.5% of whom are limited-English-proficient, but language access and expanded voted rights do not only impact them. 1.2 million New Jerseyans, regardless of citizenship status, are limited-English-proficient,' said Madison Linton, a fellow at the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. The New Jersey Association of Election Officials opposed the bill, questioning whether it was needed and cautioning it would give courts broad authority over election administration that, to now, had largely been left with election administrators. Linda Hughes, the association's recording secretary and Burlington County's Republican Board of Elections administrator, warned such court intervention could leave various groups of voters with different election rules and cede some of the legislature's authority to the judiciary. 'If a court determines that a disparity exists in voter turnout, vote outcomes, or even if they don't approve of a party's candidate selection, the judges — the individual judges — can then unilaterally change how those elections are run in certain jurisdictions throughout the state,' she said. It was unclear how officials could identify discrimination based on a voter's protected class — in the bill's case, those in a racial or language minority group — given such information was not recorded on voter registrations, Hughes said. Some witnesses urged the committee to expand the definition of protected class to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and criminal history. Residents must provide notice to clerks asserting violations of the bill's provisions. After receiving the notice, officials are guarded from lawsuits for up to 190 days while they work on fixes, which must be approved by the new voting rights office. Hughes questioned whether there was even a need for the bill. 'This legislation seems to imply there are voters wanting to vote that are being prevented from participating … We just don't have any evidence that that's happening here in New Jersey, so this legislation does seem like it is a bit of a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist,' she said. The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice identified 885 cases of voter intimidation, voter ID, registration, or polling access issues in the state between 2020 and 2024, said Nuzhat Chowdhury, director of its democracy and justice program. Proponents argued much of the powers the bill, dubbed the John Lewis Voter Empowerment Act after the late Georgia congressman and civil rights leader, would grant to the courts were already available as remedies under the federal Voting Rights Act. Assemblyman Mike Inganamort (R-Morris), the only lawmaker to vote against it in committee Thursday, largely echoed Hughes' concerns about the bill. But he added his own reservations about the costs of language-access provisions and questioned reasoning behind leaving enforcement to the new Treasury office rather than the attorney general. 'The attorney general's office provides counsel that is clear, timely, consistent, and free. That process works. Instead, this legislation calls for a new department, in the Department of Treasury of all places — I guess they have the desk space, I still don't understand that aspect — that is going to be doing the job the attorney general already does,' Inganamort said. Enforcement was moved away from the attorney general's office because state lawyers advise election officials on legal matters, and requiring them to enforce the bill would create a conflict of interest, said Chowdhury. The measure has not advanced in the Senate since it was introduced there last March. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New bill would remove some protections for temporary workers in New Jersey
The new bill comes less than two years after the law known as the "Temp Workers Bill of Rights" went into effect. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor) The sponsor of 2023 legislation that created new workplace protections for temporary workers blasted a new bill that would remove many of those safeguards. 'I believe in equal pay. I believe in equal benefits for equal work,' Sen. Joe Cryan (D-Union) told the Senate Labor Committee Monday. The new bill, which the committee discussed but did not vote on Monday, comes less than two years after the law known as the 'Temp Workers Bill of Rights'' went into effect. That law requires employers to provide basic information on jobs in workers' native language and guarantees a minimum wage to an estimated 127,000 temporary workers, staffed mostly in warehouses and factories. Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), sponsor of the new bill, had voted in support of the earlier law, which passed after a years-long push by labor advocates who said the state's temporary workers were victims of exploitative job conditions and wage theft. Sarlo's bill seeks to make several key changes to the temp worker law. The current law requires staffing agencies to pay temp workers the same pay and benefits given to full-time workers performing the same work. Sarlo's bill would revise that to remove the benefits provision and leaving only equal pay. Under the bill, equal pay would mean the agency is required to pay the equivalent of a client's entry-level pay rate for a worker with minimum qualifications. A provision of the law requiring staffing agencies to disclose pay rates would also change under Sarlo's bill, which would reverse that requirement. The law also applies to New Jersey temp workers who take jobs in other states. Sarlo's bill would ax that provision, saying it is 'causing third-party clients in other states to reduce their use of temporary laborers from New Jersey.' Mike Nolfo, a franchisee for Express Employment Professionals, said his company employs nearly 2,000 temporary workers daily at 300 local businesses. Nolfo supports the new bill, and said it's an opportunity to help mom-and-pop shops that are struggling because of the new law. He agreed that Pennsylvania companies aren't using New Jersey agencies because of state laws. 'We lost virtually all of our clients in East Stroudsburg because of this law, because they just don't want to comply with it,' he said. 'There's a lot of pieces to it. We're not saying the whole thing. Some of it doesn't make sense.' The temp worker law passed out of the Legislature in February 2023 with the minimum number of yes votes a bill needs to pass the Senate, 21. It went into full effect that summer. Staffing agencies and business groups sued over the law, claiming it is unconstitutionally vague and makes New Jersey less competitive. Cryan noted the plaintiffs have lost all their legal challenges. Cryan said supporters of the new bill say it's aimed at cleaning up mistakes in the law, but he called the measure 'far from that.' Opponents of the bill said weakening the protections of temporary workers only hurts vulnerable people who are abused and exploited in the workplace. Nedia Morsy, executive director of immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey, said it's 'stunning that in a climate of federal attacks on workers, on immigrants, and on the institutions that protect both, that a bill like this would even see the light of day.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill would require diversity, equity, and inclusion offices in all state agencies
Assemblyman Reginald Atkins' bill comes as the Trump administration threatens to withhold federal funding for public entities that offer DEI initiatives. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor) As the Trump administration takes aim at diversity initiatives in both the public and private sectors, a New Jersey lawmaker wants to require all state agencies and departments to have a diversity, equity, and inclusion office. Under new legislation, each office would be led by a chief DEI officer who would oversee programs that promote cross-cultural education and employee engagement. Bill sponsor Assemblyman Reginald Atkins (D-Union) said as one of the most diverse states in the country, New Jersey should have a government reflective of its people. 'This bill is important because it makes sure every state department and agency is thinking about equity and inclusion in a real way, not just talking about it. It gives structure to something we say we value: making sure all communities are treated fairly and represented,' Atkins told the New Jersey Monitor. The measure would also require the office to keep track of relevant data and find ways to improve agencies 'with the goal of facilitating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.' The legislation stresses that no data would be used for civil immigration enforcement. His bill comes amid a national trend of rolling back DEI programs. A wave of corporations revoked their DEI policies after President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders in his first week in office terminating all DEI offices in the federal government and cutting contracts with companies that provide DEI training, among other things. New Jersey said last week it wouldn't follow the Trump administration's demand to certify that Garden State schools have no 'DEI practices in violation of federal law.' The federal Department of Education has said it would withhold funding from states that don't comply with Trump's order to jettison all DEI initiatives. Atkins didn't comment directly on Trump's move to end diversity programs. His bill, which has a Senate companion bill sponsored by Sen. Angela McKnight (D-Hudson), has not yet been scheduled for a committee hearing. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
