TRENTON, NJ – Democrats forged ahead with A5777 and its companion measure S3820 on Thursday afternoon, and a GOP attempt to amend the bill which would legislatively protect many of Governor Phil Murphy’s emergency powers through the end of the year was tabled before the majority party forged ahead.
The hugely-controversial legislation received only strict party-line support only a week before Primary Day in a gubernatorial year in which the entire legislature is up for election.
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Asm. Gerry Scharfenberger (R-13) poses with anti-mask protesters.
Ciattarelli specifically railed against Trenton’s latest power grab which legislatively adopts more than a dozen Murphy pandemic executive orders, a slightly-modified reboot of the original legislation which was pulled in May after a backlash from the general public.
The major remaining exception to Governor Murphy’s decision to end the New Jersey mask mandate
is kids in schools, Save Jerseyans. Despite a dearth of evidence that kids are (1) at high risk for COVID-19 or (2) highly-likely to spread it to more vulnerable people, our children are still masked as one school year ends and another is on the horizon. The scientifically-bankrupt exception covers summer camps, too.
A growing chorus of folks in the education community are speaking out about it; on Monday, the president of the Toms River BOE wrote directly to Murphy asking him to end the “unnecessary” mask mandate: