Recent layoff notices for 59 firefighters won’t be worth the paper they're printed on thanks to a new $14 million federal grant for the fire department of the capital of New Jersey, announced Congressman Chris Smith, who worked to help obtain the funding for the third consecutive two-year period. Layoff notices were prepared and issued to firefighters this summer and would have been effective in September. Firefighters have not been laid off yet, in hopes of the grant. “This grant is first and f... Read more

Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) said the revelation by the Associated Press that the United Nations agency responsible for monitoring Iran’s compliance with the Administration-backed nuclear deal has entered into a side agreement that would allow Iranians to inspect their own nuclear facility further discredits the deal and justifies his opposition to this agreement. (See Rep. Smith’s earlier statement on the House floor about the Iranian nuclear agreement.) According to the Associated Press rep... Read more

Recent layoff notices issued to 59 Trenton firefighters will now be rescinded thanks to a new $14 million federal grant awarded to the fire department, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) announced Friday. The department will get an estimated $13.2 million to retain 59 active firefighters and another $872,900 to hire five entry-level firefighters to make up for expected retirements. The money, which comes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Re... Read more

BY MARYANN SPOTTO, STAR LEDGER STAFF WRITER - For those motorists who have to endure the traffic jams on Route 66 through Neptune Township, help is on the horizon. The state is getting $12 million in federal funding to widen a section of the road that has remained one lane in each direction despite rapid development in the area over the past decade, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) announced on Tuesday. The 1.2-mile section of the highway slated for widening runs east of the Garden State Park... Read more

BY NICQUEL TERRY, APP STAFF WRITER - In an effort to mitigate the traffic congestion along Route 66, state officials have proposed a $12 million widening project that would expand the roadway from two lanes to four. The plan, detailed by the New Jersey Department of Transportation this week, looks to widen a 1.2 mile stretch of Route 66, from Jumping Brook Road to Wayside Road, which has a history of delays and bottlenecks, officials say. A statement from Congressman Chris Smith’s (R-NJ 04) offi... Read more

After decades of delays, a project to reduce bottlenecks and improve traffic and safety on Route 66 through Neptune Township is moving ahead, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) announced today. “This project is long overdue,” said Smith. “And today’s progress is a great example of tenacity and a teamwork approach with local, state and federal partners all working together to resolve a long-standing problem.” At a meeting between State, federal and local officials earlier this week, a plan was detai... Read more

“The ceremonial raising of the venerated Stars and Stripes at the reopened American Embassy in Cuba this morning cannot hide the fact that the island nation remains one of the worst places on earth for those who long for the freedoms embodied in the American flag,” says Rep. Chris Smith chairman of a congressional panel that oversees global human rights. “The Obama Administration’s sea change in policy towards Cuba—evident by the ceremonial events of today, Cuba’s recent removal from our nation’... Read more

Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Chairman Representative Chris Smith and Cochairman Senator Marco Rubio in a joint statement today urged the Obama Administration to use the occasion of the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue, convening in Washington, DC this week, to send the unambiguous message that tangible progress on human rights should be a key goal of President Xi Jinping’s planned September visit. “Some in the broader human rights community have questioned the utility of th... Read more

The Washington Post Editorial Board agrees with Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), author of the Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act: the State Department must do more to help bring abducted American children home. This editorial was printed in the August 13, 2015 edition of the Washington Post and can be viewed here Read more

All the Members of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation sent a letter today to Secretary Julián Castro of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urging him to exercise his authority to prevent further delays in the distribution of federal disaster assistance to victims of Superstorm Sandy. Without such action, payouts received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Sandy Claims Review and grants that are awarded with Community Development Block Grant-Disaste... Read more