Residents of the Whiting community in Manchester Township south of Joint-Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB-MDL) will receive added protection from the threat of wildfires because of new federal funding, said Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04). The Department of Defense will provide funding to six projects in New Jersey (see list below) that promote land conservation near military sites, including $380,000 for a firebreak project to be built near the Roosevelt City section of Whiting. The firebreak will simul... Read more

New Jersey congressmen Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew today introduced legislation to significantly increase the annual cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) for Social Security recipients after it was announced earlier this week by the Social Security Administration that the COLA effective December 2020 is going to be 1.3 percent. The Smith-Van Drew proposal would increase the 2020 COLA to 3 percent in 2020, and no less than 3 percent more in 2021. With the average Social Security payment to individu... Read more

By Alex N. Gecan, Asbury Park Press If you run a small business in Middletown, the township may have $15,000 worth of good news for you. The township will begin awarding grants of up to $15,000 for businesses with up to 50 employees through the new Middletown Economic Relief Program, Mayor Tony Perry announced Thursday. The township has approximately $400,000 in grants, obtained through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, to distribute to local businesses impacted by ... Read more

Ground has been broken for the construction of the Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Village in Tinton Falls, a four-story building with apartments that will be available to veterans of the armed forces at a range of low and moderate income levels. The building will be run by the nonprofit organization Soldier On, according to a press release from the office of Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ). Smith was a guest speaker at the Sept. 12 ceremony. About 50 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony hel... Read more

by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) October 9, 2020 I am deeply concerned that since late September, Pastor Bob Fu, founder of the nonprofit ChinaAid, and his family have been the targets of outrageous slander, libel and intimidation by suspected members of the Chinese Communist Party, and their enablers, and are at grave risk of serious bodily harm. They have been forced to flee their home in Midland, Texas after protestors in chartered buses arrived at their home. Pastor Fu and his family are currently... Read more

Thirty-six years ago this Oct. 8, Bishop James Su Zhimin was arrested by the Chinese government. He was never to be seen publicly again. It’s an appalling tactic and human rights violation the Chinese government inflicts on its citizens when it “disappears” a victim. But Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping, the dictator of China, knows where the bishop is and what happened to him. Having met him in Beijing in 1994, I remain deeply concerned for the well being of Bishop Su... Read more

Mayor Greg Buontempo and the Holmdel Township Committee broke ground on a new firehouse at the Crawfords Corner Road Municipal Complex yesterday, October 6th. Mayor Buontempo, Deputy Mayor Cathy Weber, Committeeman Rocco Pascucci and Committeeman Prakash Santhana were joined by Congressman Chris Smith (CD4), Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso (LD13), members of Holmdel Fire and Rescue Company #2, Arcari and Iovino Architects, CME Associates and Pharos Enterprises. The ceremonial groundbreaking marked t... Read more

By TAPINTO HAMILTON/ROBBINSVILLE STAFF - Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-4) hailed the recent passage of the Accelerating Veterans Recovery Outdoors Act that would provide increased access to federal lands for the purposes of veterans’ medical therapy. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD, between 11 and 20 percent of veterans who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and 12 percent of those who served in Desert Storm have PTSD in a giv... Read more

Excerpts of remarks by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) during markup of H.R. 8438 in the House Foreign Affairs Committee October 1, 2020: Belarus was perhaps the nation most mired in its Soviet past, with an inefficient economy and a strongman autocrat in charge for over two-and-a-half decades. Yet the irrepressible spirit of freedom stirred among the people of Belarus, and when a patently false election result was announced on August 9 declaring Alyaksandr Lukashenka the winner, the people took to the ... Read more

In response to the Alexander Lukashenka regime’s violent crackdown and political repression following the fraudulent August 9, 2020 election, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-TX) Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (R-OH), Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), and Congressman William Keating (D-MA) introduced the Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act of 2020. The Act would p... Read more