East Orange Mayor Ted Green, top left, greets U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, top right, to his weekly East Orange Virtual Town Hall Forum. Booker discussed the current fight in Washington, D.C., for more funding to harder hit areas and gave advice regarding the economic impact payments.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — East Orange Mayor Ted Green returned on Thursday, April 30, for his seventh weekly East Orange Town Hall Forum via Facebook Live to inform the community about the latest coronavirus updates. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker appeared as the week’s guest speaker.
Viewers were asked to join in on the livestream or ask questions via text or phone call. The forum had a dynamic turnout, with 629 viewers.
Booker began by talking about the effort to get more things included in the current coronavirus relief bill being considered by legislators in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve gotten a lot of good fights on the federal level and we were able to fight to get more things in that bill to get more money in the pockets of people in East Orange and across New Jersey,” Booker said. “For example, 80 percent of New Jersey families have qualified for those one-time cash payments — that I’m going to try to make more than one time. Those cash payments, if you’re a family of four, that’s well over $3,000 that you can get in those cash payments. Eighty percent of families qualify for them. If you haven’t gotten your check, we actually have a ‘Where’s My Check’ tool online that you can go to, or go to my website, booker.senate.gov/coronavirus. We have a resource guide on there with information about how your family can get resources.”
Booker and Green also discussed unemployment insurance during the forum.
“What we were able to win in the Senate, by shutting down the Senate floor, was to increase those unemployment checks to the point where a very large number of New Jerseyans will get full paycheck replacements, because we’ve added $600 to those weekly checks, and then we expanded them out to July,” said Booker. “So, now you have longer unemployment insurance, which we may need to expand again. But it’s very generous.
“The governor has had a lot of trouble, because we have hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans applying for unemployment at once. But he’s got more people on those lines now, more people trying to service that. So, hopefully, when you get it, you should know you eventually get it as retroactive. So, you’ll get those past unemployment checks. We’ve won a lot of other victories in that fight on the Senate floor. I’m headed back on Monday to fight for more.”
Green encouraged East Orange residents to stay informed.
“Sen. Booker gave us valuable information about resources, including a proposal for additional stimulus payments, expanded unemployment insurance and small business relief programs,” Green said to the Record-Transcript on May 5. “He is fighting for the needs of the bulk of the workers in New Jersey. I encourage our residents to stay abreast of the policies and resources available at booker.senate.gov/coronavirus.”
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