- Joseph Vitale
in 1997.
Senator Vitale is the current Deputy
Majority Leader in the Senate. He serves in the Senate on the Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee (as Chair) and the Budget and Appropriations Committee.Vitale is the sponsor of the 1999 New Jersey Homeless Youth Act, which allows minors to seek homeless shelter without parental approval. He is also the sponsor of bills to allow needle exchange programs for drug users and to prohibit gun ownership by those convicted of domestic violence offenses. Senator Vitale was the prime sponsor of over forty bills that were signed into law, including bills establishing the KidCare and FamilyCare health care coverage programs, as well as a bill which would require nursing aides to undergo certified criminal background checks, a bill which would prohibit the use of mandatory overtime in health care facilities except in emergency situations, and the "New Jersey Health Care Access and Patient Protection Act," which requires the State to compile information on doctors, such as office location and medical malpractice history, in a database available to the public.
Senator Vitale serves on the Board of Directors for the Middlesex County Habitat for Humanity and on the Board of Trustees of the Visiting Nurses Association of Central Jersey.
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