Advocacy E-News June 14, 2018
June 14, 2018
GOVERNOR MURPHY SIGNS GUN VIOLENCE PROTECTIVE ORDER BILLS
Governor Phil Murphy today signed a package of gun safety bills that make New Jersey among the states with the strongest gun laws in the nation.
The six bills include:
A1181 , which allows mental health practitioners and law enforcement officials to keep firearms away from mental health and therapy patients who seek to harm themselves or others. The bill amends current law to require that licensed mental health practitioners exercise their duty to warn and protect by alerting law enforcement if a patient has threatened to and intends to commit imminent, serious physical violence against themselves or others. If law enforcement determines that the patient is incapable under statute of possessing a firearm, then any firearm ID card or purchasing or carrying permit is voided and subject to revocation by the Superior Court.
A1217 , known as the Extreme Risk Protective Order Act of 2018, authorizes New Jersey courts to issue gun violence protective orders to individuals who pose a significant risk of personal injury to themselves or others by possessing or owning a firearm. The protective orders prohibit the person who the order is filed against from securing or possessing any permit or license allowing firearm possession during the protective-order period. The bill also makes it a fourth-degree crime for a person to purposely or knowingly violate any provision of an extreme risk protective order.
TOP DEMS STILL NOT SOLD ON MURPHY’S TAX AND BUDGET PLAN
There’s only a little more than two weeks left for Murphy and his fellow Democrats who control the state Legislature to cut a deal on a budget. Without an agreement, the state government shuts down after the June 30 deadline. Murphy in March introduced his $37.4 billion spending plan that relied on more than $1.5 billion in new taxes to boost spending for schools, NJ Transit, government worker pensions and other progressive promises. But Assembly Speaker Coughlin and Senate President Sweeney have pushed back per a document that included hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts and projected savings the lawmakers may want in place of Murphy’s proposed taxes.
N.J. PATIENTS FEEL BETRAYED AS GOVERNMENT TARGETS PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS
An estimated 3.8 million people in New Jersey have pre-existing medical conditions, and their health-care coverage may become more difficult after new developments in a federal court case. President Donald Trump’s administration announced Thursday the U.S. Department of Justice will no longer defend provisions of the Affordable Care Act requiring coverage and protections for people with pre-existing conditions including mental illness, leaving some New Jersey health policy experts, legislators and residents stunned and fearful of the impacts.
NJ’S MEDICAID TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IN LINE FOR MAJOR OVERHAUL
State lawmakers want to give New Jersey more effective tools to manage its nonemergency Medicaid transportation network while requiring more of those directly involved with this long-criticized system of private drivers and shuttles that is essential to connecting vulnerable residents with care. A pair of Assembly Democrats introduced legislation Monday to reform the program.
FIND YOUR LOCAL NAMI
