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Standing near the wall inside of the crowded Teamsters Local 331 hall in Egg Harbor City, Karen Bown, a federal contractor for 18 years, held a sign saying “End this Shutdown” with tears in her eyes.

“Every single day, I don’t know if I will have a job,” said Bown, a contractor working at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Tech Center in Mays Landing. “It has been that way for a month, so I’m very emotional, and I’m very sad that our government has gone this way.”

Today, U.S. Congressman Donald Norcross – a member of the House Education and Labor Committee and an electrician by trade – applauded the agreement by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Speaker Craig Coughlin to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour predictably over the next six years and issued the following statement:

“Governor Murphy, Senate President Sweeney and Speaker Coughlin joined me for their first public appearance together calling for $15 an hour minimum wage a little more than a year ago. Today, I’m glad to see they have announced an agreement that will help over a million workers and boost New Jersey’s economy."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said at an event celebrating the introduction of a bill to more than double the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15.00 per hour said that she and her colleagues do not “begrudge anyone their success or their income” but they do “begrudge exploitation” of workers.

“Do you know that by today, many of the CEOs of the companies that were fighting the minimum wage increase, they have earned as much in the couple of weeks in January as they will pay these employees for the whole year,” said Pelosi. :That is not justice. That isn’t fair. That isn’t right.

U.S. Congressman Donald Norcross of New Jersey's First District recently introduced the "Care Packages for Our Heroes Act of 2019," or H.R. 400, that aims to greatly reduce the costs and spread more cheer among the troops.

All shipping rates for packages that crossed different shipping zones drastically increased January, 2018. While a package going to Michigan from California saw an increase of $0.60, any package sent from Smalltown, USA, to troops stationed in the Middle East had to pay nearly double.

The Air Force and Boeing announced the acceptance of the first jet on Thursday, officially kicking off the delivery process for the tankers, which are due to arrive at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in 2021.

Congressman Donald Norcross, who was among a host of New Jersey lawmakers and officials who lobbied the Air Force to select the joint base one of the first installations to receive the new tankers, promised to keep close watch on the delivery schedule as it proceeds.

“I’ve been long-fighting for ways to safeguard New Jersey’s Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and ensure the KC-46s are delivered to the joint base on schedule,” Norcross, D-1st of Camden, said Thursday. “These refueling tankers will bring new jobs and growth to our state and make our base an indispensable starting point for national security missions on the East Coast. As the delivery process begins, I plan to monitor the schedule and quality of the tankers as we move forward.”