This 
2019 New Jersey Legislative Scorecard represents an overview of the New Jersey Legislature as a whole on bills, funding, appointments, and leadership focused on environmental and health issues from January 2018 through September 2019. The bottom-line: The legislature failed.
Take action now to let your NJ legislators know that you want them to put our water and health first during the lame duck session!
How the 2018-2019 New Jersey Legislature Has Ignored Calls to Protect the State’s Water, Public Health, and Environment
The Garden State is already feeling the acute effects of climate change and lead contamination threatens children in Newark and other communities. There has been a near total failure of the legislature to pass substantial environmental bills so far this term. Responsible budget solutions continue to be kicked down the road, and appointments on critical environmental commissions are left to languish. Too few individual legislators have been willing or able to challenge the process that allows good environmental bills to stall while bills catering to special interests pass quickly.
After reviewing dozens of bills, Clean Water Action scored the legislature on the 22 most significant actions and inactions and the scorecard found the following:
- Incompletes: 13 key pro-environment actions that are stalled in the legislature
- Failing Grades: 6 significant bills that were anti-environment, by design or by process, that quickly passed both houses
- Passing Grades: 3 pro-environment bills that did pass and become law
- Emerging Environmental Leaders: 19 legislators who stood up for the environment even when the majority of the legislature would not stand with them
The current legislature has failed to do its job to protect people and the environment, but there are still opportunities for positive environmental legislative action this term. New Jersey residents deserve a legislature that responds to the concerns of the public. Send an email, call, and tweet at your legislators to let them know that you are paying attention and want the stalled pro-environment actions to be completed during lame duck! After you’ve done that, please share this report and action with friends and family. State legislators don’t get enough constituent feedback. Let them hear from us!
New Jersey has the tools, resources, and the will of a public to be a real environmental and public health leader in the nation, but unfortunately our scorecards have documented since 2010 that the NJ legislature has prioritized corporate special interests over environmental safeguards. It’s time to change that!
- 2010-2013 "Legislature Unraveling NJ Tradition of Environmental Safeguards"
- 2014-2015 "New Jersey Legislature Still Failing to Provide Adequate Environmental Safeguards"
- 2016-2017 "Scorecard Reveals Most Legislators Still Not Making the Grade"
Additional resources:
Full 2019 New Jersey Legislative Scorecard
Emerging Environmental Heros
Failed and Stalled Bill Descriptions
Press Release
