Dear Neighbors,
In the initial days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I authored legislation that ensured Americans did not lose their Medicaid health care coverage during the public health emergency. As a result, America’s uninsured rate reached a historic all-time low earlier this year. When the public health emergency ended in May, states began redetermining Medicaid beneficiaries’ eligibility. Unfortunately, some Republican-led states appear to be using the process as an opportunity to take health care away from millions of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet.
I introduced a bill this week to provide 12-months of continuous coverage for all individuals receiving health care through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) so that they do not risk losing coverage. More than 2.2 million adults and children in New Jersey rely on Medicaid and CHIP for health care coverage.
Beneficiaries often lose their health coverage due to short-term changes in income as well as burdensome paperwork, unnecessarily tight response deadlines, and other administrative requirements. These bureaucratic burdens result in significant enrollment churn of individuals on and off Medicaid and CHIP and serve as a barrier to effective coordination of care and preventative health care.
My bill is a commonsense next step to keep Americans insured with 12-months of continuous coverage when they’re enrolled in either program. I look forward to continuing to work together to lower medical costs and ensure all Americans have access to care.
No New Offshore Gas or Oil Leases
I sent a letter to the Biden Administration this week requesting that it not include new offshore leasing sales in the 2023-2028 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks. Congressional Republicans and multinational oil companies have long sought to use the leasing program to open billions of acres along the Atlantic coast to oil and gas drilling.
Offshore oil and gas energy development is dangerous. It requires seismic testing at high levels proven by science to harm marine life. The spills it generates, all too common in areas where leasing already occurs, know no boundaries, and cause irreversible damage to ocean ecosystems.
We are already working closely with the Biden Administration to protect endangered species, such as the North Atlantic Right Whale in the Atlantic and the Rice’s whale in the Gulf, from known threats stemming from fossil fuel production and other activities. Our communities are already grappling with sea level rise, extreme storms, heat waves, and wildfires that are caused or worsened by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Read more here
Click here to visit my website or call my offices directly if you have questions or need help with a federal agency:
Middlesex County: 732-249-8892
Monmouth County: 732-571-1140
Sincerely,
