New Jersey A 1049: Increases personal needs allowance to $50 for recipients of Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income who are veterans or spouses of veterans and provides for annual cost-of-living increase in allowance.

Bill Text

A1049 

ASSEMBLY, No. 1049 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

� 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman WAYNE P. DEANGELO

District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

Assemblywoman VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON

District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Barlas

SYNOPSIS

���� Establishes "Cop 2 Cop Sustainability Fund" 
to support "Law Enforcement Officer Crisis Intervention Services" Cop 
2 Cop telephone hotline program; appropriates $500,000.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT 

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative 
Counsel.

��

An Act establishing the �Cop 2 Cop Sustainability Fund,� 
amending P.L.2008, c.29, and making an appropriation.

���� Be It 
Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of 
the State of New Jersey:

����� 1.�� Section 
115 of P.L.2008, c.29 (C.26:2NN-1) is amended to read as follows:

���� 115.� a.� The Department of 
Human Services shall maintain a toll-free information "Law Enforcement 
Officer Crisis Intervention Services" telephone hotline on a 24-hour 
basis. 

���� The hotline shall receive and 
respond to calls from law enforcement officers and sheriff's officers who have 
been involved in any event or incident which has produced personal or 
job-related depression, anxiety, stress, or other psychological or emotional 
tension, trauma, or disorder for the officer and officers who have been wounded 
in the line of duty.� The operators of the hotline shall seek to identify those 
officers who should be referred to further debriefing and counseling services, 
and to provide such referrals. In the case of wounded officers, those services 
may include peer counseling, diffusing, debriefing, group therapy, and 
individual therapy as part of a coordinated assistance program, to be known as 
the "Blue Heart Law Enforcement Assistance Program," designed and 
implemented by the University Behavioral Healthcare Unit of Rutgers, The State 
University.

���� b.��� The operators of the 
hotline shall be trained by the Department of Human Services and, to the 
greatest extent possible, shall be persons, who by experience or education, 
are: (1) familiar with post trauma disorders and the emotional and 
psychological tensions, depressions, and anxieties unique to law enforcement 
officers and sheriff's officers; or (2) trained to provide counseling services 
involving marriage and family life, substance abuse, personal stress 
management, and other emotional or psychological disorders or conditions which 
may be likely to adversely affect the personal and professional well-being of a 
law enforcement officer and a sheriff's officer.

���� c.��� To ensure the integrity 
of the telephone hotline and to encourage officers to utilize it, the 
commissioner shall provide for the confidentiality of the names of the officers 
calling, the information discussed by that officer and the operator, and any 
referrals for further debriefing or counseling; provided, however, the 
commissioner may, by rule and regulation, (1) establish guidelines providing 
for the tracking of any officer who exhibits a severe emotional or 
psychological disorder or condition which the operator handling the call 
reasonably believes might result in harm to the officer or others and (2) 
establish a confidential registry of wounded New Jersey law enforcement 
officers.

���� d.��� There is created in 
the Department of the Treasury a dedicated, non-lapsing fund to be known as the 
�Cop 2 Cop Sustainability Fund.�

���� Commencing in State fiscal 
year 2025 there shall be annually appropriated from the General Fund to the Cop 
2 Cop Sustainability Fund, $500,000 to support the "Law Enforcement 
Officer Crisis Intervention Services" Cop 2 Cop telephone hotline 
program.� In addition to moneys appropriated from the Cop 2 Cop Sustainability 
Fund, revenues annually provided to the �Law Enforcement Officer Crisis 
Intervention Services" pursuant to subsection d. of R.S.39:5-41, and any 
interest and other income earned on moneys therefrom, and any other 
moneys that may be appropriated or otherwise become available for purposes of 
the fund, shall be credited to and deposited in the Cop 2 Cop Sustainability 
Fund.

(cf: P.L.2012, c.45, s.117)

����� 2.�� (New 
Section) There is appropriated from the General Fund $500,000 to support the 
�Law Enforcement Officer Crisis Intervention Services" Cop 2 Cop telephone 
hotline program.

���� 3.��� This act shall take 
effect immediately.

STATEMENT

����� This bill establishes the �Cop 2 Cop Sustainability 
Fund� and appropriates an additional $500,000 from the General Fund to this 
fund to support the �Law Enforcement Officer Crisis Intervention Services� Cop 
2 Cop telephone hotline program in the current fiscal year and ongoing.

����� The �Law Enforcement Officer Crisis Intervention 
Services� Cop 2 Cop telephone hotline program is a 24-hour confidential peer 
support hotline and service for law enforcement personnel a