Sophie Nieto-Munoz & Brent Johnson | May 22, 2020 | NJ Advance Media |
The state Senate will soon launch a bipartisan committee to investigate New Jersey’s response to a range of coronavirus-related issues, Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. announced Friday.
The “Review and Recovery Committee” will examine how Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration responded to a swath of problems that affected different communities across New Jersey, including the dozens of COVID-19 deaths at the state’s long-term care facilities and prisons, the breakdown of the aging unemployment system, the disproportionate impact on minorities, and the impending fiscal hurdles the state and local government will face as a result of the unprecedented crisis, the senators said in a joint statement.
“We’ve got to review all the actions we’ve taken to make sure the ones we’ve done well we do again and the ones we haven’t done well we don’t repeat,” Sweeney, D-Gloucester, told NJ Advance Media in a phone interview. “There’s a lot that troubles me.”
The committee will also work to identify solutions to the social, governmental and financial problems as New Jersey enters a public health-fueled economic crisis with a 15% unemployment rate.
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