New Jersey’s hard-hit fishing industry, rocked by the coronavirus restrictions that have all but brought their businesses to a standstill, will receive assistance to the tune of $11,337,797 from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and economic Security (CARES) Act, said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04). “As the second most impacted state in the nation in terms of COVID-19 cases and deaths—and the corresponding shutdown to contain the coronavirus—our New Jersey fishing industry has been hammered. This aid i... Read more

Two community health centers that have multiple locations serving tens of thousands of people in Ocean and Monmouth Counties have been awarded an additional $1,394,888 in federal funds to help combat the impact of the coronavirus with expanded testing, said Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04). “The grants will help Ocean Health Initiatives (OHI) and the Center for Health Education, Medicine and Dentistry (CHEMED) located in Lakewood—which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Ocean County— expand ca... Read more

More than $1.2 million in emergency federal funding has been awarded to local housing authorities in the Fourth Congressional District to expand public housing opportunities and to help local housing facilities meet sterilization standards needed to protect residents during the coronavirus pandemic, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said today. The back-to-back funding comes from two separate programs both boosted by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act which Smith supported las... Read more

Today, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) spoke about the rising threat of human trafficking during the COVID-19 outbreak in his address to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in Warsaw, Poland, in his position as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Representative on Human Trafficking Issues. The following are excerpts of his remarks: Special thanks to all the distinguished international participants—especially ... Read more

By Jean Mikle, Asbury Park Press Plans to build a new, expanded veterans clinic in Ocean County have hit yet another roadblock. A notification on the federal Business Opportunities web site said the process to award a bid for the lease of an expanded clinic — along with plans to select a site has been canceled. That means the VA will have to re-do the entire bidding and site selection process, a lengthy procedure that could take many months. This marks the second time the VA has restarted the pr... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), responding to a notice he received Friday about yet another delay in the replacement of the Brick Veterans Clinic, made an immediate and direct appeal to Robert Wilkie, Secretary of the Department Veterans Affairs (VA). Smith fired off a letter requesting to meet with the VA to discuss—and resolve—the long-delayed construction of a new clinic for Ocean County. In a letter to Secretary Wilkie, Smith asked for a meeting to discuss “the extraordinarily disappointing announc... Read more

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and author of the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (P.L. 114-381), today released the following statement in response to the April 28 launch of the 21st annual report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on the state of religious liberty around the world: “I commend USCIRF for taking on the worst violators of religious freedom around the world, and for issuing a ha... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) released the following remarks today on the 45th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon for the Black April Memorial Event sponsored by Viet Tan of North America, TNT Media, and Democracy for Vietnam Association (watch the video here): Forty-five years ago, the city of Saigon fell, and along with it the hopes of Vietnamese, Americans and allies who had endured over 20 years of fighting a grueling communist insurgency financed by the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Un... Read more

More federal funding to combat opioid and other addictions is on its way to Monmouth and Ocean counties and it could not come at a more critical time, said Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) who represents several towns in Monmouth and Ocean. “This grant funding comes at a crucial time for people who are recovering from addictions or facing mental illness in the Ocean and Monmouth County areas,” said Smith. “The isolation that can come with social distancing, quarantining and the closing of many me... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) released the following statement to mark World Malaria Day, April 25, 2020: “As prime author of a law to provide funds to combat malaria, HIV/AIDs and other diseases, and as co-chairman of the House Malaria Caucus, I remain deeply concerned that globally, 228 million people suffer from malaria with 405,000 deaths in 2018. “The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) notes with alarm that ‘Children under age five accounted for more than two-thirds (67 percent) of all malaria... Read more