Gov. Chris Christie is scheduled to meet with the state’s House and Senate delagations July 27, in what is planned to be a quarterly meeting between the feds and the freshman governor.
Democrats say they are hoping to use Christie’s fiscal woes to push GOP lawmakers into voting for federal money for the states including FMAP, which would mean an additional $500 million in funding for medical and social service programs.
Christie met with the delegation in March, when the lawmakers discussed the extension of FMAP funding, federal unemployment insurance assistance, and streamlining the permitting process for wind energy.
“The issues and the problems that we have in New Jersey are just much too large to for there to be a perpetual partisan divide,” Christie said after the March meeting. “I think we saw in our conversation this morning that there are a lot of areas we agree on.”
The quarterly meeting is a revival of a tradition that goes back several administraitons, but was interrupted by Gov. Jon Corzine.
