Disability advocates seek Gov. Murphy's help after disaster preparedness bill stalls

Advocates are now looking to Gov. Phil Murphy as the last hope for an effort to have New Jersey better prepared to help people with disabilities during emergencies.

After legislation stalled in the state Senate on Thursday, supporters said the governor could still use his state budget proposal to add a new unit to New Jersey's Office of Emergency Management to watch out for the needs of those with disabilities. "It's really in the governor's court to make sure that this gets in the budget somehow," Javier Robles, a Rutgers University professor and organizer of the New Jersey Disability Action Committee, said Thursday.

The committee had lobbied for legislation to create the unit. The legislation passed the state Assembly unanimously in June. But its momentum died Thursday when it failed to make it onto the last Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee agenda during the lame-duck session. Monday is the last day for legislators to pass bills.

The new unit was an idea generated during of the early months of the COVID health crisis, when the disability community felt abandoned and unable to get needed equipment and vaccinations. The Senate version of the legislation, S285, called for the creation of four positions within the Office of Emergency Management.

The bill had a lot of competition: "Hundreds of bills, if not thousands,” were jockeying for lawmakers' attention over the next week, said one of its chief sponsors, Senate Assistant Majority Leader Linda Greenstein, a Democrat representing Mercer and Middlesex counties.

Missteps during COVID, Sandy

From Superstorm Sandy to COVID-19, plans made by people who didn’t understand the disability community or its needs put some of the state’s most vulnerable residents in jeopardy time and time again, said a scathing report issued by the Disability Action Committee in 2020.

During the pandemic, the state failed to provide enough protective equipment in group homes and nursing facilities, and it didn't prioritize vulnerable populations for vaccines, the report said. The committee also faulted New Jersey for failing to implement widespread COVID testing in care facilities and for not providing transparent masks in settings where people with hearing loss lived.

Two hundred thirty-three people with disabilities who were enrolled in the state's Division of Developmental Disabilities programs died of complications from COVID 19, state records show. About one in four New Jersey adults have disabilities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many struggled during the pandemic to get food and find transportation as programs shut down during quarantines, the report said.

As a result, people with disabilities, their advocates and institutions like Robles' Center for Disability Sports, Health and Wellness at Rutgers University; the New Jersey Statewide Independent Living Council; and the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities came together as the Disability Action Committee to call for change.

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Bill would have put advocates in state disaster agency

Greenstein's legislation would have put in place one of the report’s proposed solutions: It would have created four positions within the state Office of Emergency Management to be held by people with disabilities. The group would have taken part in emergency planning for the state; one position would have represented the disability community in each of the state’s regions — North, South and Central — and a supervisor would have overseen the unit.

“The state estimated the cost of these four individuals in the Office of Emergency Management to work on these issues at $1 million, which in the state budget is like five cents,” Robles said before the vote while urging his fellow disability advocates to email Senate budget committee Chair Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen.

"I am asking you all to stop what you are doing and call Sen. Sarlo's office immediately. This may be our last chance to get Bill number S285 done," Robles told his colleagues in an email this week. "It is currently sitting in the Budget Appropriations committee that is controlled by Sen. Sarlo. If he does not release the bill by this Thursday, it cannot get voted on the last session, which is Monday."

Sarlo did not respond to requests for comment from The Record and NorthJersey.com

Why did the bill stall?

"I did push for it, and for whatever reason, it just hasn't made it to the list," Greenstein said. "I don't think it's necessarily resistance as much as just people having so many other priorities."

As far as the estimated cost of the bill, she added, “A million doesn't sound like much. But depending on the circumstances, it can be. It just seems like in the last year or so, we really did have a lot more money to play with, and right now they're beginning to tighten belts again."

On Thursday, Greenstein said she plans to reintroduce the bill, though its fate remained uncertain.

Monday is "the last full voting session, and then the next day the new session begins. So there's an opportunity again to try to get something moving," she said Thursday.

Gene Myers covers disability and mental health for NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: myers@northjersey.com

Twitter: @myersgene

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bill to help NJ residents with disabilities during disasters stalls