BY DAVID P. WILLIS, APP STAFF WRITER - For more than two hours Thursday, a large group of Monmouth County residents and elected officials opposed to Jersey Central Power & Light’s controversial $111 million transmission line took their fight to NJ Transit. “Please don’t sell us out,” said Middletown resident Bernice Curto, breaking into tears. “I am pleading with you to say 'no' to hosting this project on your narrow right-of-way and say 'no' soon in order to alleviate any more anguish and suffe... Read more

At a meeting of Autism leaders from around the world, Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), founder and co-chair of the bipartisan Autism Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, emphasized that perseverance is needed for legislators and advocates from all countries to address this prevalent disorder and galvanize change. “The House committee of jurisdiction emphatically told me that ‘no disease specific’ legislation would be voted on,” said Smith, speaking on his struggle to provide resources and resea... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) today announced a new U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan program designed to assist small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, aquaculture businesses and most private nonprofit organizations located throughout the 4th Congressional District. SBA introduced this loan as a result of the severe freeze, excessive heat and drought that impacted central New Jersey from April 1st through September 19th of this year. “For small busines... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) testified today before the New Jersey Transit Corporation Board of Directors in an effort to convince the agency to reject the Jersey Central Power & Light Co (JCP&L) application to utilize the transit agency’s right-of-way for the proposed “Monmouth County Reliability Project.” JCP&L has proposed the 10-mile-long transmission line be placed through residential neighborhoods along NJT’s North Jersey Coast line, creating an undue burden for large numbers of people in five... Read more

Applications for the federal Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) offered by the federal government will be accepted beginning Tuesday, Oct.11, 2016, Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) announced today. The application period for the FY 2016 AFG Program will close on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016 at 5 p.m. EST. “The AFG program is one of the best federal grants to help protect our firefighters and emergency medical service responders as they do their jobs protecting the community, including people, homes, busine... Read more

(JSN.org) A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation last week that seeks to bolster the U.S. government’s monitoring on anti-Semitic incidents in Europe and how European governments are combating the issue. <img src="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4/t/57fbf760bebafb5b47ae89bb/1476130660189/" alt="An anti-Semitic protester in Berlin with a pro-Nazi tattoo on his arm. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. ... Read more

Congressman Smith in October visited the all-volunteer Ridgeway Volunteer Fire Company in Manchester Township, which in 2015 was awarded a $210,000 AFG grant, and in 2016 was awarded a $455,000 AFG grant. In late August Ridgeway was been awarded a Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) award for $455,910 to purchase a replacement pumper. "This federal grant will help improve fire protection in Manchester Township for many years,” said Smith, a long-time member... Read more

Congressman Chris Smith addressed runners and walkers at the "Pound the Pavement for Purple" event in Monmouth County, N.J. to fight pancreatic cancer, held on the Columbus Day Holiday Weekend in Neptune. "All these volunteers and organizers of this event know how deadly pancreatic cancer is," Smith said. "Events like this help support awareness, funding and research and give hope to patients and their families that one day there will be better treatments for pancreatic cancer." Smith spoke abo... Read more

Motivated by what they described as rising anti-Semitism in Europe, members of a Congressional bipartisan task force introduced legislation Friday that aims to increase Washington’s monitoring of anti-Jewish incidents and the steps taken by European governments to combat them. While much of the nation’s focus was trained on Hurricane Matthew smashing into the southeastern seaboard, Democratic representatives Nita Lowey, Steve Israel, Eliot Engel and Ted Deutch joined Republicans Chris Smith, Il... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), Chair of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) described China’s overall human rights record, detailed in the 2016 Annual Report released today, as “utterly disgraceful.” The report, the gold standard for Chinese human rights activists, concluded that the Chinese government’s efforts to silence dissent, suppress human rights lawyers, and control civil society, religious groups, and the Internet were broader in scope than during any other peri... Read more