7 New NJ Laws Signed Into Law By Murphy

NEW JERSEY — Reporting cybersecurity incidents, protecting shellfish aquaculture activities, and preventing exposure to surgical smoke are among the new bills and resolutions that Governor Phil Murphy signed into law this week.

Here are seven bills are now becoming New Jersey law:

Reporting Cybersecurity Incidents

This legislation S-297/A-493 (Greenstein, Madden/Murphy, Benson, Calabrese) requires public agencies and government contractors to report cybersecurity incidents within 72 hours to New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

The Director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness is also required to establish cyber incident reporting capabilities to facilitate the submission of timely, secure, and confidential cybersecurity notifications from public agencies, government contractors, and private entities.

Any cybersecurity incident notification submitted will be kept confidential and exempt from the provisions of the law commonly known as the open public records act, as well as from evidentiary and subpoena purposes except legislative subpoenas. The office, however, may anonymize and share cyber threat indicators and relevant defensive measures to help prevent additional or future attacks and share cybersecurity incident notifications with relevant law enforcement authorities.

The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness is also required to develop privacy and protection procedures, which are to be based on procedures outlined in the federal Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015.

An annual report is required to be submitted to the Governor and the Legislature which is to include, at a minimum, information on the number of notifications received and a description of the cybersecurity incident types and associated mitigating measures taken during the one-year period preceding the publication of the report; the categories of public agencies and government contractors that submitted cybersecurity reports; and any other information required in the submission of a cybersecurity incident notification, noting any changes from the report published in the previous year.

Right to Farm Act Extended

This legislation S-428/ACS for A-3039 (Smith, Oroho/Thomson, Calabrese, Freiman) extends Right to Farm Act protections to certain shellfish aquaculture activities.

The Right to Farm Act, N.J.S.A. 4:1C-1 et seq., was signed into law in 1983 as farmers and neighbors have been brought closer together causing some residential, municipal, and county concerns that sometimes conflict with the needs of farm businesses.

This Act is now extended even further to include shellfish commercial farm’s operations and activities.

EZ Pass Discounts

This legislation S-743/A-189 (Lagana, Johnson/Rooney, McKeon) - Requires publication of certain information related to toll discounts on E-ZPass website.

Additional Alternate Deputy Registrars

This legislation S-2709/A-4524 (Cruz-Perez, Singer/Moen) permits appointment of additional alternate deputy registrars, subject to the approval of the municipal governing body.

Under this bill, the local registrar of a municipality may submit a request to the governing body of the municipality to appoint a specific number of additional alternate deputy registrars based upon the specific needs of the municipality.

Definition Change Of Eligible Contract For DOT grant program

This legislationS-3124/A-4792 (Diegnan/Benson, Spearman, Wimberly) changes the definition of eligible contracts for the DOT grant program to compensate certain contractors and subcontractors affected by supply chain shortages.

This bill amends the definition of eligible contract awarded by the department by changing the bid submission date to Dec. 1, 2021. Additionally this bill extends the period of time in which eligible contractors and subcontractors may apply for the grant program by providing that the initial application period is to remain open for 90 days after the enactment of the bill.

"Week of the Young Child"

This legislation AJR-171/SJR-79 (Mosquera, Lampitt, Chaparro/Ruiz, Cunningham) permanently designates first full week in April as “Week of the Young Child” in New Jersey to recognize the importance of high-quality early childhood education that is affordable and accessible and to advance the child care and early childhood education professions.

The Governor is also requested to annually issue a proclamation recognizing the first full week in April as the “Week of the Young Child” in New Jersey and calling upon public officials, the citizens of the State, and other interested groups to observe the week with appropriate activities and programs.

Surgical Smoke

This legislation A-256/S-732 (Munoz, DeFuccio, Speight/Madden) requires certain health care facilities to adopt and implement policies to prevent exposure to surgical smoke through the use of a smoke evacuation system.

Surgical smoke means the surgical plume that is generated from the use of an energy generating surgical device, and includes a smoke plume, bio-aerosols, laser-generated airborne contaminants, and lung damaging dust.

Each health care facility shall adopt and implement policies to prevent exposure to surgical smoke through the use of a smoke evacuation system for each procedure that generates surgical smoke.