Sponsored by:
Senator JOSEPH P. CRYAN
District 20 (Union)
Senator JOSEPH F. VITALE
District 19 (Middlesex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senators Pennacchio, Singleton, Cruz-Perez and Oroho
SYNOPSIS
Requires conversion of ward in Paramus and Menlo Park veterans’ memorial homes into single occupancy rooms; requires upgrades to certain systems; provides Adjutant General discretion to require additional room modifications.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As reported by the Senate Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee on January 30, 2023, with amendments.
An Act concerning the Paramus and Menlo Park veterans memorial homes and supplementing chapter 3 of Title 38A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Subject to the availability of federal funds provided or made accessible to the State via federal block grant funds allocated to the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the federal funds provided or made accessible to the State from the federal “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021,” Publ.L.117-2, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs shall:
(1) convert at least one ward in the New Jersey Veterans' Memorial Home-Menlo Park and at least one ward in the New Jersey Veterans' Memorial Home-Paramus to single occupancy rooms 1[with negative pressure ventilation to support infectious disease control measures]1; and
(2) upgrade the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to infection control system standards in the New Jersey Veterans' Memorial Home-Menlo Park and the New Jersey Veterans' Memorial Home-Paramus.
1The Adjutant General shall have the discretion to require additional modifications to rooms, including, but not limited to, negative pressure ventilation, to support infectious disease control measures.1
2. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs such sums from those federal block grant funds provided or made accessible to the State from the federal “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021,” Pub.L.117-2, or any other federal funds made available to the State, as shall be necessary, in amounts subject to approval by the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting, for use by the department to provide for the purposes specified in section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. )(pending before the Legislature as this bill).
3. If the federal funds
remaining are not sufficient, there shall be appropriated such sums from the
General Fund as shall be necessary, in amounts subject to approval by the
Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting, for use by the department to
provide for the purposes specified in section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. )(pending
before the Legislature as this bill).
14. In the event that the conversion of the wards and upgrading of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems required pursuant to section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) has not commenced within one year after the effective date of this act, P.L. , c. (pending before the Legislature as this bill), the Adjutant General shall appear before the Assembly Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, the Assembly Oversight, Reform, and Federal Relations Committee, or the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee, at the direction of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the General Assembly, to explain why the conversions and upgrades have not been implemented and the steps the department is taking to ensure implementation.1
1[4.] 5.1 This act shall take effect immediately.