‘People’s Agenda’ social-justice bills pushed by progressive groups in lame duck
New Jersey is home to an estimated 500,000 undocumented immigrants who are at risk of detainment and deportation by President Donald Trump. His administration also threatens to upend the state’s voting laws, worsen polluted air, and intrude on reproductive and other health care.
Now, a coalition of 33 progressive advocacy groups is urging lawmakers to pass stalled bills that would counteract Trump’s directives. The organizers, who call their campaign the People’s Agenda, say the effort is critical right now, as New Jersey’s legislative session is set to expire in January.
“The status quo is inertia. We need the legislature to act,” said David Pringle, a steering committee member of EmpowerNJ, an environmental group. “We can sit on our butts and hope they act, or we can go do the work and get the job done.”
The coalition wants the bills passed during the lame duck session, when a flurry of last-minute legislation typically moves through the Senate and Assembly, then to the governor’s desk. Bills that don’t pass must be scrapped or go through the entire legislative process again.
Representatives of Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Nick Scutari of Linden, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin of Woodbridge – all Democrats – declined to comment on the pending legislation backed by the progressive groups.
“This set of bills may span different policy areas, but it seeks to accomplish one goal: to solidify our state’s core values of freedom, justice, and dignity,” said Madison Linton, a policy and research associate for the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. The People’s Agenda bills include:
Immigrant Trust Act
New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive, dating to 2018, limits state and local law enforcement involvement in federal detention and deportation efforts and encourages undocumented residents to seek protection and support from government agencies, nonprofits, and other sources. The policy, though, isn’t codified and could be altered or revoked at any time. Bill S3672, the Immigrant Trust Act, would expand on the directive and have the force of law.
Legislative inaction on the act leaves New Jerseyans vulnerable and makes the state complicit in Trump’s mass deportation agenda, according to the progressive groups. “Without the Immigrant Trust Act, our state will continue to live in the chaos coming down from Washington, D.C.,” Linton said. The bill and its Assembly duplicate were assigned to legislative committees more than a year ago.
Voter Empowerment Act
The John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act, A4083, would strengthen voting protections and expand access to ballots as the Trump administration attempts to make voter registration more difficult and potentially diminish the integrity of election results.
Enshrining voter protections into state law is the “most important thing New Jersey can do right now” in response to federal threats, Nuzhat Chowdhury, director of the Democracy & Justice Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, said in an email.
Though the bill has cleared Assembly committees, it has awaited a Senate committee hearing since April 2024.
Climate Superfund Act
The Climate Superfund Act, S3545, would hold accountable the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, which “have been making the mess and making people sick,” Pringle said. It’s been stalled in the Senate since December 2024 and the Assembly since March.
It would generate $50 billion over 20 years for infrastructure and resiliency by requiring the companies to pay a share of the cleanup costs tied to flooding, storms, and other causes. The People’s Agenda organizers say the bill holds hope for New Jersey’s most populous cities, which have some of the highest asthma rates in the country.
As of June, more than 30 towns have passed resolutions supporting the bill, and at least 100 organizations have urged the legislature and Murphy to act on it.
“It is important to all who breathe and can save lives such as children who are dying from asthma,” co-sponsor Senator Britnee Timberlake, a Democrat from East Orange, said in a news release. “We can’t pass it fast enough.”
Health care, older prisoners, and police use of force
Other pending legislation involves the Reproductive Freedom and Health Equity Act, a package of multiple bills addressing abortion access, contraception access, gender-affirming care, and other matters.
To ensure New Jerseyans can get necessary health care and be protected without fear of retribution from other states, “this is something that needs to happen,” said Lauren Albrecht, senior director of advocacy and organizing at Garden State Equality, a civil-rights group that led the effort for legalized same-sex marriage. “It’s what our constituents and members need and want, and it’s our job to be part of this.”
Other legislation, S2338, called the Rehabilitative Release bill, would allow incarcerated elders who have served for at least 20 years to petition for early release if they meet certain standards.
“There are approximately more than 950 incarcerated people in New Jersey who are 60 and older,” according to Second Look New Jersey, a coalition of civil-rights and religious leaders and aged prisoners. “While most pose no risk to public safety, the state is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to keep them locked up instead of allowing them to age in the community surrounded by family.”
Another bill would require the state attorney general to review police use of force policy every two years. That legislation, A4175, passed in the Assembly but needs a Senate committee hearing and a Senate vote before it could be considered by Murphy. The legislation also would require the attorney general to collect use-of-force reports and make them available via the state’s public records law. And it would require police training for encounters with barricaded individuals, who often have mental-health issues.
This article was written by Isabella Darcy and Brooke Holzhauer, courtesy of the NJ State House News Service
