Take Action to OPPOSE Dietitian Nutritionist Licensing Bill, New Jersey A1582

Urgent Action to Protect Access to Complementary and Alternative Health Practitioners in New Jersey Needed Now!

Take Action to OPPOSE Dietitian Nutritionist Licensing Bill, New Jersey A1582!

 We need your help to ask Members of New Jersey’s Appropriations Committee to vote NO on A1582, a restrictive Dietitian Nutritionist Licensing bill, when the bill is heard on Thursday, June 13, and we need your immediate help to convince them!  Please do everything you can in the next 36 hours to reach committee members with messages of opposition.  Only 4 of the 11 committee members received an opposition email from our last eblast on this bad bill and, of those, they received an average of just 1 message each!  We know we can do better than that with your help!  More than emails are needed now: your calls, testimony, and “slip positions for the record” will be critical to stopping this bill from passing out of committee (especially because 3 of the bill’s sponsors are on the committee)! Please Take Action and complete the other action steps below, to protect freedom of speech and freedom to access the complementary and alternative health care practitioners of your choice. 

What the bill does:

A1582 (S2625) broadly defines “dietetics/nutrition” and seeks to limit the right to do anything within that broad definition, including providing “nutritional counseling and education” to licensees only.   There is no evidence that consumers are being harmed without the restrictive licensing scheme proposed by A1582/S2625 and so there is no constitutionally valid reason to make the “practice of dietetics/nutrition without a license” illegal. 

The bill seeks to criminalize herbalists, naturopaths, nutritional consultants, holistic health coaches, ayurvedic practitioners, and even parents on blogs or social media who discuss and make recommendations about food and herbs all the time!  Additionally, it bans numerous titles such as nutritional therapy practitioner, nutritional therapy consultant, certified nutrition therapy practitioner, and master nutrition therapist.

New Jersey legislators should empower, not restrict, an individual’s ability to explore, pursue, set, and reach their health (and health-based vocational) goals!  Urge them to protect broad access to the tools – the nutrition information, services, and practitioners – you, not the government or private interests, deem important to your unique health journey.

What you can do (in 15 minutes or less):

1. Click Here to Enter Your Address to send a message of opposition on A1582 to your personal legislators in the NJ Assembly and Senate.  Please add a brief personal note to have a greater impact with the legislators. 

2.  Call Each Member of the Appropriations Committee to Ask for a NO vote on A1582.  Leave a brief message of opposition with the staff at the offices of each of the 11 members on the committee.  Simply say that you oppose restrictions on your ability to access complementary and alternative practitioners, as proposed by A1582, and that you want the member to Vote NO when its heard in committee on Thursday, June 13. Member contact info is listed below the following example message. 

Example message for Committee Members:

“My name is [insert Your Name], I am a New Jersey resident, and I’m calling to ask Committee Member [insert Last Name of Assembly member, e.g., Conway] to vote NO on A1582, dietitian nutritionist licensing bill, when it is heard in the Appropriations Committee on Thursday afternoon.

This offensive bill unnecessarily limits my freedom of choice because it prevents the delivery of nutrition services by anyone who does not want, or cannot receive, the new license the bill seeks to create without any proof of harm being done to New Jersey citizens without the onerous regulation proposed by A1582. 

[Insert your own brief reason why you support access to complementary and alternative health care (i.e., I depend the services of an herbalist for myself and my family and I want New Jersey law to protect my rights as a consumer to a free and educated choice in health care providers; or, i.e., I want New Jersey law to empower economic freedom, small business owners, and the least restrictive form of regulation possible)]. 

Please tell Assembly member [insert Last Name] that I want [him/her] to oppose A1582. Thanks.”

Committee Member Contact Information:

1. Assemblyman Burzichelli, John J. (Chair): (856) 251-9801 (West Deptford) and (856) 339-0808 (Salem)

2. Assemblyman Schaer, Gary S. (Vice-Chair): (973) 249-3665

3. Assemblyman Conaway, Herb: (856) 461-3997

4. Assemblyman DeAngelo, Wayne: (609) 631-7501

5. Assemblywoman Mosquera, Gabriela: (856) 232-6700 (Turnersville) and (856) 401-3073 (Laurel Springs)

6. Assemblyman Peters, Ryan: (609) 667-7360

7. Assemblywoman Pintor Marin, Eliana: (973) 589-0713

8. Assemblyman Rooney, Kevin: (973) 237-1362

9. Assemblywoman Tucker, Cleopatra:  (973) 926-4320

10. Assemblyman Webber, Jay: (973) 917-3420

11. Assemblyman Wirths, Harold: (973) 300-0200 (Sparta) and (908) 441-6343 (Allamuchy)

3. Submit Testimony or a “slip for the record”, in person or online, before Thursday at 1pm. 

You can easily participate in the hearing even if you cannot attend by submitting a written statement of opposition, a.k.a. opposition testimony, using the form available here.  If you don’t know what to write, you can still use this form to simply provide your name and your position on the bill (strongly oppose A1582); that simple message is called a “slip for the record” in NJ and it carries weight with committee members. Your testimony, or slip, will be sent directly to the Aide of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Scott A. Brodsky, who will share it with all committee members.  If you have any problems using the form, call 609-847-3835 to reach Scott A. Brodsky, and ask to email him directly.

 4. Attend the Hearing on Thursday, June 13, at 1pm and consider Testifying. Go to Committee Room 11, 4^th Floor, of the State House Annex, in Trenton and fill out a “testimony slip” regardless of whether you want to provide oral testimony; fill it out with your name, the name of the organization your affiliated with (if any), and your position on A1582 (strongly opposed).  If you want to provide oral testimony too, say so on your slip and please note that each testifier is generally limited to 3 minutes and comments are limited to the fiscal impact of the bill.  A1582 is the second item on the Agenda for Thursday’s meeting, however, it’s possible the Chair may consider bills in a different order.

 5. Share this message with your friends, colleagues, family, and social media outlets in New Jersey asap so they can Take Action before Thursday’s 1pm hearing too!  We need all the help we can get to stop this terrible bill and protect access to complementary and alternative health care practitioners in New Jersey!

THANK YOU for your commitment to Health Freedom!  If you have any questions, please contact us at info.nhfa@nationalhealthfreedom.org.

New Jersey Health Seekers deserve to have maximum options protected for themselves as they work to explore their wellness and health.  Click Here to Take Action and Oppose Restrictions on Access to Complementary and Alternative Health Care Practitioners.