Timeline

Dear friends and neighbors,

Yesterday, I attended the General Assembly's voting session on the Lunar New Year bill (ARJ201) in Trenton. The bill was unanimously

passed among those present! Thanks to everyone who has been helping us during the General Assembly process！

I also learned yesterday that the Senate's version of the Lunar New Year bill is identical to the General Assembly's version, which means

the Senate might skip the hearing process and proceed directly to voting.

In recent days, our website has recorded many new friends joining our petition. Thank you for your support! Also, I want to thank those who have written back to encourage our work. A special thanks to the friends who have helped spread the word about the bill in WeChat

groups! We deeply feel that our community is our greatest source of strength. Thank you!

Again, I will continue to follow the progress of the bill and report back to everyone. I hope you have a great weekend.

Dear friends and neighbors,

Thank you for your attention to the Lunar New Year Bill.

In this edition, we would like to highlight：

1. Key Progress:

• On March 19, the Assembly State and Local Government Committee held a meeting on the Lunar New Year Bill (AJR201). I testified for this bill and submitted the petition. In the end, the committee passed AJR201 with a 5:0 unanimous vote. The bill received bipartisan support from the committee members. Assemblyman Verrelli, the chairman of the committee, gave strong and critical support for the bill.

• I had the privilege of being introduced to Speaker Coughlin of the General Assembly. We spoke about the bill, our efforts in promoting it, as well as the significant importance of the Lunar New Year Bill to the Asian-American community. Speaker Coughlin expressed his support of the bill.

• We currently have 19 legislators supporting the proposal, an increase of 7 from the previous 12.

2. Next steps:

• The ARJ201 bill has been submitted to the General Assembly and is expected to be voted on at 1 PM on Thursday (March 30) next week. People who are interested definitely should come to Trenton to watch. I will also be there.

• We will actively promote the Senate Committee to hold a hearing to review the Senate version of the Lunar New Year Bill, SJR111. After receiving the information, we will announce the hearing time in the email and invite everyone to attend. The more people who attend the hearing, the greater the possibility of passing the bill.

• After both the General Assembly and the Senate pass the bill, the bill needs the Governor's approval to become the law.

We are continuing to make progress. Please invite your friends or family to the website (www.NJLunarNewYear.org) to sign the petition. Let's work together! If you have any suggestions, please contact us! Thank you for your continued support!

Dear friends and neighbors,

I hope you have been having a great February. It's almost March! We have a very important announcement: We are looking for middle and high school students to participate in our project and help these two bills pass! Please email rachel@njlunarnewyear.org if you are interested!

In this edition, we would like to highlight:

1. New Sponsors and Supporters:

    - Assemblywoman Nancy Muñoz of District 21 has agreed to support bill AJR201. Her office informed us through email.

    - Senator Shirley Turner of District 15 who is in the committee in which bill SJR111 is currently being considered has agreed to support the bill and guide it through the committee. This is very significant as she is the first person in her committee (Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee) to openly support this bill.

    - Assemblyman Raj Mukherji of District 33 has become a sponsor of bill AJR201.

    - Senator Renee Burgess of District 28 has become a sponsor of bill SJR111.

    - Now we have 12 legislators to support the bills.

2. Project Updates:

- We now have 307 petitioners. We are in the process of reaching out to more communities and organizations to gain more supporters.

- The local Chinese newspaper Chinese News Weekly published an article about our project. You can read about it digitally here: http://www.new-new.com/ePaper/index.html.

    - We have also updated the website to have a Chinese version

3. Next Steps:

    - We are going to contact Chinese-American Association and Chinese schools throughout NJ to ask for their support

    - We are planning to contact Chinese culture clubs at schools to obtain more supporters

    - We will continue reaching out to newspapers, including Chinese ones, to spread awareness of these bills

We are making progress and we will achieve our goal! Please share a link to our website (www.NJLunarNewYear.org) with your friends or families to get more petitioners! If we work together, we will succeed!

If you have any suggestions for us, please reach out! Thank you for your continued support!

Dear friends and neighbors,

I hope you all are having a great lunar new year. Thank you so much for supporting the NJ Lunar New Year Project and welcome to our biweekly Newsletter! We are excited to bring you the latest updates. 

Our project is to urge the New Jersey legislature to approve bill ARJ201/SRJ111 which officially recognizes  Lunar New Year by having the Governor issue a proclamation annually and call on educational and cultural institutions to observe the holiday with appropriate events and activities. 

In this edition, we would like to highlight:

New Sponsors and Supporters:

    - On January 25th, Assemblyman Verrelli (District 15) decided to join as a co-sponsor for bill AJR201. His office kindly informed me of this through email. This is very important as Assemblyman Verrelli is the chairman of the Assembly State and Local Government Committee where AJR201 is waiting for consideration. That means the bill will move forward much faster.

    - On January 30th, Assemblyman Conaway (District 7) decided to join as a co-sponsor for bill AJR201. His office also informed me through email.

    - On February 1st, Senator Bramnick (District 21) decided to support this bill. He will also become a sponsor for bill SJR111 shortly after going through the legislative process. His support as a Republican means that there is bipartisan support for this bill in the NJ Senate.

    - On February 2nd, I had the great opportunity of speaking to Assemblyman Bergen (District 25) over the phone to conduct an interview. During the course of this interview, he kindly agreed to support bill SJR111. As a Republican, this means that there is bipartisan support for this bill in the NJ General Assembly.

Petition Updates:

    - At the Lunar New Year celebrations at Ridge High School last month, we received 53 signatures on paper!

    - After launching our website (www.NJLunarNewYear.org), we have received 255 signatures!

    - Yesterday, we launched the same campaign on Change.org. You can support the campaign at: www.change.org/NJ-Lunar-New-Year.

We are making a lot of progress and we will achieve our goal! Please share a link to our website (www.NJLunarNewYear.org) with your friends or families to get more petitioners! If we work together, we will succeed!

If you have any feedback or suggestions for us, please reach out! We would be glad for any comments and suggestions. Thank you for your continued support!

Thank you.