OCEAN TOWNSHIP - Senator Vin Gopal sent the following letter to President Robert Barchi of Rutgers University in response to the university's decision to lay off faculty and staff in the wake of the financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic:

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - Senator Vin Gopal is introducing new legislation that would expand patient access to psychological services by entering New Jersey into the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact, an interstate agreement that would allow patients to see out-of-state psychologists through telehealth and telemedicine.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP—Senator Vin Gopal today joined Assemblywoman Joann Downey in sponsoring legislation that would require all New Jersey health benefits plans, Medicaid and NJ FamilyCare, and the State Health Benefits Programs (SHBP) and School Employees’ Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) to provide expanded coverage for services provided using telemedicine and telehealth.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - Senator Vin Gopal and Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker introduced new legislation this past Thursday that would expand vote-by-mail (VBM) education to New Jersey voters and poll workers, protect voters’ rights by preventing the rejection of VBM ballots due to faulty envelope design, and realize savings by removing VBM addresses that come back as undeliverable or that have not been used to vote by mail in at least two years.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - Senator Vin Gopal, who serves as Senate Chair of Military and Veterans Affairs, introduced new legislation that would make New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) economic assistance programs for traditional nonprofit organizations available to 501c19 veterans’ organizations. These programs would be available during periods of emergency declared by the Governor and for the duration of economic disruptions due to the emergency.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - Senator Vin Gopal and Assembly Members Eric Houghtaling and Joann Downey are calling for Governor Murphy to permit curbside pickup at New Jersey public libraries in order to promote public education and expand access to resources and educational materials during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - Senator Vin Gopal introduced new legislation this Thursday protecting health care whistleblowers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - This Tuesday, the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee approved bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Vin Gopal aiming to protect New Jersey restaurants from rising takeout and delivery service fees charged by some third-party food delivery services similar to Grubhub, DoorDash, and UberEats. Under the bill, during the COVID-19 state of emergency, these service fees cannot exceed 20 percent of the price of the original order, or 10 percent of the price of the original order if the restaurant is using its own driver for the delivery.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - The Senate on Thursday approved legislation introduced by Senator Vin Gopal that would codify a recent administrative order by Acting Director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs Paul Rodriguez that allows licensed pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 tests that have been authorized and approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - This Thursday, the State Senate passed bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Vin Gopal aiming to protect New Jersey restaurants from rising takeout and delivery service fees charged by some third-party food delivery services similar to Grubhub, DoorDash, and UberEats. Under the bill (S2437), during the COVID-19 state of emergency, these service fees cannot exceed 10 percent of the price of the original order if the restaurant is using its own driver for the delivery, or 20 percent of the price of the original order otherwise.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - The State Senate today approved legislation introduced by Senator Vin Gopal that would allow licensed restaurants and bars to sell alcoholic beverages through takeout and delivery and allow distilleries to sell alcoholic beverages through takeout during the current state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - The Senate today approved legislation sponsored by Senator Vin Gopal that would establish a New Jersey Hospitality Emergency Loan Program, which would provide immediate financial assistance for struggling hospitality businesses during the COVID-19 emergency. The program would be based on the Delaware program of the same name.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee today approved legislation introduced by Senator Vin Gopal that would allow licensed pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 tests authorized and approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).