SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 5036

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JANUARY 8, 2026

      The Senate Judiciary Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 5036.

            The amended bill requires the Attorney General to develop model policies regarding interactions with federal civil law enforcement in certain sensitive locations to ensure that all people have access to hospitals, public schools, shelters, disaster and emergency response sites, social services sites, funeral homes, correctional facilities, courthouses, and places of worship.

      Under the amended bill, the Attorney General (AG) is required to consult with other government entities and stakeholders in developing model policies for sensitive locations.  These locations include health care facilities, public schools, domestic violence shelters, emergency shelters, family shelters, youth shelters, food pantries, funeral homes, harm reduction sites, disaster and emergency response sites, offices of social services, correctional facilities, and courthouses to ensure that eligible individuals are not deterred from seeking services or engaging with institutions.  The AG is required to publish the model policies on the Internet website of the Department of Law and Public Safety (DLPS). 

      The amended bill requires the Commissioners of Community Affairs, Children and Families, Health, Human Services, Education, and Corrections, and the Administrative Director of the Courts to adopt the model policies within 180 days of issuance by the AG’s office, or policies that provide greater protections, and to publish the adopted policies on each department’s website. 

      As amended, the bill requires the Commissioner of Health to require health care facilities to adopt policies that provide similar protections to the model policies developed with the AG and to publish the model policies on the Department of Health website.  As amended, the bill requires the Commissioner of Education to request private schools adopt, and require public schools adopt, the model policies developed by the AG.

      The amended bill requires the AG to develop a model policy, in consultation with the State’s religious leaders, which a place of worship may adopt, to ensure that individuals are not deterred from entering the premises.  The model policy developed is required to be published on the DLPS Internet website.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

      1) require the Commissioner of Health to require health care facilities to adopt policies that provide protections similar to those established by the bill’s provisions, instead of requiring health care facilities to comply with the model policy developed by the AG; and

      2) require the commissioners and administrative director to publish policies on department websites.