Senate Republicans made their largest coordinated push for Gov. Phil Murphy to ease some COVID-19 restrictions Thursday.
In a joint statement issued by all 15 members of the Senate minority caucus, the Republicans called on Murphy to work through the state’s unemployment backlog, universalize business restrictions and allow hospitals to begin offering elective surgeries again.
“I’ve heard from thousands of my constituents that it’s nearly impossible to get through to the Department of Labor by phone, and the process of filing online isn’t any better. The messages filers receive through the website are unclear, and the online systems are often unavailable due to outages,” State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver) said. “After seven weeks without a paycheck or unemployment check, struggling families don’t understand why it’s taking Governor Murphy so long to make fixing our broken unemployment system a priority. They are right to be upset.”
More than 1 million New Jerseyans have filed unemployment claims.
While the Department of labor has already processed a majority of those claims, many filed by independent contractors and gig workers have remained in limbo, though the department expects to work through them in the coming weeks.
Republicans have long sought to reduce restrictions impose on businesses to blunt the spread of COVID-19.
On Thursday, they again called on Murphy to allow small non-essential businesses shuttered by the pandemic to reopen.
“People are worried that the governor’s executive orders are picking winners and losers in the business community, and it is our small businesses that always seem to be the losers,” State Sen. Michael Testa (R-Vineland) said. “I’m deeply worried that we’ll lose the summer, and Cape May and other Jersey Shore destinations will be devastated financially for years to come if the governor waits for a bureaucratic government committee to tell him what to do.”
An ad hoc committee convened by the governor is drafting recommendations for the reopening of the state’s economy.
The Republicans also called on Murphy to lift a ban on elective surgeries. That ban was imposed to free up hospital resources for a surge in virus cases that has since passed in the north and central parts of the state.
With the flow of COVID-19 patients ebbing, hospitals need access to the profits elective surgery provides in order to stay afloat, the Republicans said.
“In the not too distant future, New Jerseyans may lose access to community hospitals and neighborhood medical practices that are struggling to remain financially viable under restrictions placed on them by the governor’s executive orders,” State Sen. Bob Singer (R-Lakewood). “If the current prohibition on elective surgeries is not repealed immediately, many of these important health care providers will go out of business.”