ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
[Second Reprint]
SENATE, No. 2346
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JANUARY 8, 2026
The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 2346 (2R).
As amended, this bill establishes a three-year pilot program to assist participating counties in issuing a Code Red alerts on extreme heat days and during air quality events.
Each participating county’s office of emergency management, in consultation with the Office of Homeless Prevention in the Department of Community Affairs, is required to coordinate with municipal emergency management coordinators in municipalities with a documented homeless population of at least 10 sheltered or unsheltered people in developing consistent Code Red alert plans throughout the county that provide for communication and outreach, cooling centers, and transportation during implementation of a Code Red alert plan.
This plan may be carried out by designated volunteer organizations, which are to receive cooperation and logistical support from the municipal coordinator but are to operate autonomously. The bill requires each municipality, social service agency, and non-profit organization to report the location of its cooling centers to the Department of Environmental Protection to be included in the Heat Hub NJ’s Chill Out NJ public resource.
Each county and municipality is responsible for, but not limited to, making information on the Code Red alert plan available to the public on each county and municipality Internet website.
The bill requires a county emergency management coordinator to declare the Code Red alert when the National Weather Service declares a heat advisory for that county’s region or reports an Air Quality Index of 151 or higher.
Prior to declaring a Code Red alert, the county coordinator of a participating county, or the coordinator’s designee is to monitor the municipality in the participating county with the highest documented homeless population and use the weather forecast and advisory produced by the National Weather Service for that municipality as an indicator for the declaration of a Code Red alert in the county.
The bill appropriates from the General Fund to the Department of Community Affairs the sum of $2,500,000 to implement the provisions of the bill. The office will issue a grant in the amount of $500,000 to the governing body of each county selected to participate in the pilot program to effectuate the provisions of the bill.
As amended and reported by the committee, Senate Bill No. 2346 (2R) is identical to Assembly Bill No. 2258 (1R), which was also amended and reported by the committee on this date.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amendments to this bill:
· revise the requirements of the pilot program, which is to be established through the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), instead of the State Office of Emergency Management;
· provide that the five counties in the State with the highest documented homeless population are to be eligible to participate in the pilot program, but, if one or more eligible counties decline participation, then one or more other counties are to be eligible, with priority going to each county with the next-highest documented homeless population;
· remove amendatory section from the bill concerning civil liability of State and local governments;
· reduce the appropriation from $5 million to $2.5 million; and
· make technical changes.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Fiscal information for this bill is currently unavailable.