NJ Gov. Phil Murphy Signs 33 Bills Into Law

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a large number of big bills into law that deal with gun control, sex abuse, opioids and many other issues. The governor signed 25 of the bills on Friday alone.

Here is what the governor has signed this past week:

Combatting the opioid crisis

Murphy has signed three pieces of legislation intended to address the opioid crisis. A3292, A4744 and SJR35 will strengthen opioid prescription label requirements, ensure greater access to Medicated-Assisted Treatment (MAT) benefits for Medicaid recipients and spread awareness of opioid abuse through the designation of October 6th as “Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day,” officials said.

Under A3292, containers for prescription opioid medications dispensed in New Jersey will be required to have a warning label or sticker describing the risk of opioid medications. The director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety, working with the Department of Health, will specify by rule or regulation where the warning sticker or label is to be affixed and the specific language to be included on the warning sticker.

A4744 requires the Department of Human Services to ensure that the provision of benefits for certain types of medication-assisted treatment provided under the Medicaid program do not require prior authorization.

SJR35 designates October 6th of each year as “Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day” in order to raise awareness about the dangers of – and the link between – opioid abuse and heroin addiction.

“The opioid crisis has had a devastating impact on our communities, robbing us of too many of our friends, family members, and loved ones,” said Murphy. “This legislation continues our work to combat the opioid crisis by ensuring that there are warning labels outlining the risk of opioid medications, expanding access to the treatment that so many need, and raising awareness of just how easy it is to become addicted to opioids.”

Gun safety

Murphy has signed a package of "common-sense" gun safety bills that reaffirm New Jersey’s commitment to institute the strongest gun laws in the nation, officials said.

The bills follow a series of comprehensive gun safety laws signed by Murphy in 2018. The four bills will promote smart gun technology, expand the list of crimes that disqualify a person from gun ownership, strengthen anti-gun trafficking laws and support suicide prevention efforts.

The governor signed the following four bills into law:

• S101 (Weinberg, Codey/Johnson, Vainieri Huttle, Wimberly) - Establishes commission to approve personalized handguns; requires firearm retailers to sell personalized handguns.
• S3897 (Weinberg, Greenstein/Greenwald, Reynolds-Jackson) - Criminalizes purchase, transfer, or possession of certain weapons and ammunition by persons convicted of certain crimes; establishes crime of transferring or possessing firearm without serial number.
• A4449 (Tully, Swain/Singleton, O’Scanlon) - Establishes crime of soliciting transfer of firearm by disqualified person.
• A3896 (Downey, Houghtaling, Schaer/Cryan) - Requires AG and Commissioner of Health to establish suicide prevention training course and informational materials for firearm retail dealers.

“The scourge of gun violence is a pervasive problem that affects our entire nation,” said Murphy. “I am proud to work with our legislators to implement some of the toughest gun laws in the country to protect our residents and make our communities safer for all. We see the results of our work by having among the lowest rates of gun-related deaths nationwide. With every step, New Jersey is proving that commonsense gun safety laws work.”

Sex abuse awareness and instruction

Every New Jersey school district will be required to incorporate age-appropriate sexual abuse and assault awareness and prevention instruction from preschool to 12th grades under legislation signed into law by Murphy on Friday.

The new law (A-769), sponsored by Assembly Democrats Ralph Caputo, Thomas Giblin and Valerie Vainieri Huttle, is known as “Erin’s Law” in honor of Erin Merryn, a survivor of child sexual abuse who has become an advocate for sexual abuse awareness education.

“It has become painfully clear how rampant this is, and how important it is to educate young people about sexual abuse so they can protect themselves,” said Caputo, D-Essex. “By having these conversations, we are reaffirming that abuse is not okay and no one should have to suffer in silence.”

Under the law, the commissioner of education, in consultation with the Department of Children and Families, New Jersey Children’s Alliance and other entities, will develop age-appropriate sample learning activities and resources and provide the material to school districts. The education will be a part of the district’s implementation of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in Comprehensive Health and Physical Education.

This measure was previously approved by the Assembly in May by a vote of 76-0, and by the Senate in March, 39-0.

Survey of untested sexual assault examination kits

Murphy signed S1216 into law, which will require the Office of Attorney General to conduct a survey of untested sexual assault examination kits. The law mandates the survey to be summarized in a report that will be submitted to the governor and the state Legislature.

“Survivors of rape and sexual assault deserve to know that their cases are treated with the utmost importance and diligence,” said Murphy. “The survey that this law mandates will provide us with a clear picture of how rape kits are logged, tracked and stored in our state and guide decisions on potential future actions.”

The survey will include questions concerning agency policies and procedures governing the submission of sexual assault examination kits to an approved forensic laboratory for testing, including specific submission criteria, timelines, and victim notifications.

Here are the other 24 bills that Murphy signed into law on Friday:

• A1048 (Houghtaling, Downey, Mukherji, Holley/Turner, Stack) - Requires property tax bills to contain eligibility information on State tax relief programs.
• A1190 (Jones, Giblin, Mukherji/Beach, Cruz-Perez) - Concerns appointment of person to control funeral and disposition of human remains.
• A1369 (Kennedy, DeAngelo, Vainieri Huttle, Benson, Quijano/Greenstein, Addiego) - Allows for cancellation of certain service contracts without paying early termination fee if customer becomes deceased prior to end of service contract.
• A1428 (McKnight, Chaparro, Chiaravalloti, Vainieri Huttle/Ruiz, Cunningham) - Requires Department of Education to develop guidelines for school districts concerning child trafficking awareness and prevention.
• A3766 (Armato, Houghtaling, Murphy, Jones/Corrado) - Requires public officer or employee to forfeit pension upon conviction for corruption of public resources, sexual contact, lewdness, or sexual assault when offense involves or touches upon public office or employment.
• A5162 (Speight, Reynolds-Jackson/Beach) - Permits county board of chosen freeholders to increase membership of county board of elections.
• A5456 (Armato, Kennedy, Speight/Greenstein, Bateman) - Authorizes NJ Infrastructure Bank to expend certain sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2020.
• A5457 (Danielsen, Swain, Milam/Codey) - Appropriates funds to DEP for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2020.
• A5462 (Milam, Speight, Murphy/Smith) - Modifies powers and duties of New Jersey Infrastructure Bank.
• S692 (Ruiz, Sarlo/Jasey, Caputo, Holley) - Prohibits the DOE from regulating maximum salary amount school district may pay its superintendent of schools and codifies standards for contract review.
• S756 (Diegnan, Turner/Calabrese, Sumter, Pinkin) - Updates notice of elections requirements to include information for voter to obtain polling place locations.
• S858 (Turner, Diegnan/Jasey, Caputo) - Requires teachers of health and physical education in grades kindergarten through six in public schools to possess appropriate endorsement to instructional certificate.
• S954 (Vitale, Singleton, Madden/Conaway, Moriarty, Sumter, McKnight, Mukherji, Downey) - Enters New Jersey in enhanced multistate Nurse Licensure Compact.
• S1373 (Andrzejczak/Land, Milam) - Expands option of governmental home health care agency to partner with non-governmental providers to deliver health care services.
• S1707 (Oroho, Bateman, Andrzejczak/Space, Wirths) - Exempts governmental entities acquiring lands for open space located in a deed-authorized common interest community from paying community fees if, at time of acquisition, community has never been formed or has been dissolved or discontinued.
• S1761 (Weinberg, Singleton/Pintor Marin, Lampitt, Pinkin, Munoz, McKeon) - Expands the Address Confidentiality Program to include victims of sexual assault and stalking; and reproductive health service patients and providers.
• S1799 (A.R. Bucco/A.M. Bucco, Murphy, Caputo) - Increases membership of fire safety commission in DCA.
• S2472 (Singleton, Murphy/Conaway, Timberlake) - Requires certain real estate licensees to complete courses of study concerning fair housing and housing discrimination.
• S2489 (Cruz-Perez, Turner/Mosquera, Jones, Holley, McKnight, Downey) - Requires board of education to post information about child abuse hotline in each school.
• S2575 (Diegnan, Greenstein/Karabinchak, Reynolds-Jackson) - Establishes task force to examine and make recommendations regarding implementation of "Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act."
• S2944 (Ruiz, Cunningham/Pintor Marin, McKnight, Chiaravalloti) - Permits certain council members to appoint up to four fulltime equivalent aides; allows these aide positions to be divided into part-time positions.
• S2994 (Ruiz/Freiman, McKeon, Schaer) – Concerns refunds following terminations or cancellations of guaranteed asset protection waivers.
• S3043 (Madden, Oroho/Mosquera, Pintor Marin) - Clarifies that family day care providers or other persons who are subjects of criminal history record back checks have access to disqualifying information.
• S3452 (Ruiz, Pou/Lopez, Holley, Schaer) - Requires certain consumer reporting agencies to make consumer reports available to consumers in Spanish and certain other languages.
• S3899 (Ruiz/Burzichelli) - Allows TPAF retiree to be employed, without TPAF reenrollment, by school district as certificated superintendent or administrator for more than two years when in best interests of school district.