NJ Assemblywoman Shanique Speight continues to fight hard for the 29^th Legislative District by ensuring equality for all.

Newark, NJ- Today, legislation sponsored by NJ Assemblywoman Shanique Speight (D) and NJ Assemblywoman Angela V. McKnight (D-31) and Assemblyman Arthur Barclay (D-5) cleared the Assembly Panel. This piece of legislation will exempt hair braiding from the state’s current licensing requirements and create a new regulatory entity to oversee these businesses. The Institute for Justice conducted a study that determined that braiding doesn’t pose risks that justify licensing, and licensing requirements for hair braiders actually create employment barriers.

           “We should be encouraging entrepreneurship, not bogging it down with senseless bureaucracy,” said Speight (D-Essex). “Why are we asking hair braiders to spend time and money on unrelated training for a skill they’ve already mastered? Creating an advisory committee to oversee these establishments will help protect consumers without placing unnecessary burdens on owners.”      

            Assemblywoman Speight continues to fight hard for the 29^th Legislative District by ensuring individuals are treated equally and fairly under the law regardless of race, religion, creed, class, and sexual orientation. Hence last month, Assemblywoman sponsored her first bill which advanced through the Assembly. Bill A-3653 mandates the multidisciplinary Board, which resides within the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, but operates independently, and reviews child fatalities and near fatalities to identify their causes, relationship to governmental support systems and methods of prevention, to shine a light onto the roles that race and ethnicity play in infant mortality.

“Children are the future of this state, and of this country,” said Speight (D-Essex). “All children deserve to live out their lives, regardless of race or wealth, and this bill will help us to better understand how race and ethnicity affect infant mortality.”

*The Bill to Exempt Hair Braiders from Cosmetology Licensing Requirements and to Create Entity to Oversee Hair Braiding Businesses in NJ was also sponsored by NJ Assemblywoman Angela V. McKnight (D-31) and Assemblyman Arthur Barclay (D-5).