Keeping New Jersey Open for Business

New Chinese Weapons in South China Sea

Listening Tour Continues

Congressional Art Competition: Impressive Entries!

Salute: Picatinny Arsenal’s Dr. Ernest Baker

Keeping New Jersey Open for Business

Shipping is crucial to international commerce and international commerce is crucial for job growth in America and New Jersey.

The newest generation of container cargo ships requires a harbor channel that is 50 feet deep.  The Army Corps of Engineers and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are finishing the Harbor Deepening Project at the NY-NJ harbor, taking the main channel from a depth of 40 feet to 50 feet to accommodate these deeper ships. The deepening was estimated to take 12 years, but the project is ahead of schedule and under budget.

Securing critical funding for the project has been a key mission for me each year I have served on the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee.

Why is this important?

First, it is a national security issue.  Our port must be able to handle these largest ships in the event of a crisis.

More than 90 percent of global trade, valued at over $1.7 trillion, moves by ship and the Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest port on the East Coast of North America and the third-largest in our nation, behind only Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.  However, it faces competition from ports up and down the coast, including Baltimore, Norfolk and Savannah.

Our port is the economic engine of northern New Jersey. Tens of thousands of people are directly employed along the piers, docks, warehouses, truck staging areas and rail yards at the port, with thousands more working in New Jersey companies which depend on those cargoes vital asset.  The Port is critically important because we must remain competitive with other ports along the East Coast, especially as the Panama Canal is widened to accept the largest container ships on the planet!  Our future jobs depend on it!

The Harbor Deepening Project will put our region in a good position to benefit for growing global trade.  Here at home, these projects affect the cost of goods, retain current jobs, add new ones, and help New Jersey businesses - a true ‘win-win-win’ for our state.

New Chinese Weapons in South China Sea

Recent imagery suggests that China has deployed anti-ship cruise missiles on Woody Island in the disputed South China Sea.  Read the articles from HIS Jane’s report here.

Listening Tour Continues

It was an active week of getting around the 11^th District.  I visited the Southern Boulevard School in Chatham Township with Mayor Curt Ritter and spoke to a public administration class at Caldwell University.  I also met with the leadership at Picatinny Arsenal and with State Senator Steve Oroho and Assemblywoman Gail Phoebus and Assemblyman Parker Space in Sussex County.  In addition, I attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a new IT center for UPS and visited small businesses. 

Congressional Art Competition: Impressive Entries!

The deadline to submit entries for this year’s Congressional Art Competition passed at the close of business yesterday.  56 truly impressive paintings, drawings, water colors and other works of art were submitted from 56 students at 20 high schools across the 11^th Congressional District, displaying a tremendous depth of talent! 

The next step: display of the entries at the Morris Museum and judging by an all-star cast of independent artists and educators.  For information, visit my website at https://frelinghuysen.house.gov/

Salute: Congratulations and thank you to Picatinny Arsenal’s Dr. Ernest Baker who retired this week after 30 years of valuable contributions to our soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen.  A senior scientist at Picatiny, Dr. Baker was granted 14 U.S. patents related in the areas of Insensitive Munitions, High Explosives and Warheads Technologies.  He received the highest NATO Insensitive Munitions Award and the Munitions Safety Information Analysis Center Career Achievement Award, and was the recipient of the U.S. Army Greatest Invention Award, twelve U.S. Army Research and Development Achievement Awards and the National Defense Industrial Society Firepower Award.