A 976 New Jersey General Assembly · 2026-2027 Regular Session

Allows for issuance of two-year temporary courtesy license for nonresident military spouses in certain professions.

This bill (A 976) creates a temporary license for nonresident military spouses who move to New Jersey due to a military spouse’s assignment. It allows these spouses to practice certain licensed professions (like nursing or social work) without full New Jersey licensure, provided they hold a current license in another state with equivalent requirements and meet other criteria like recent experience and a clean disciplinary record. Most temporary licenses are valid for one year (extendable once), but licenses for six specific professions (including nursing and social work) are valid for two years. The bill directly affects military spouses relocating with active-duty service members, enabling them to work in their licensed professions while adjusting to their new home state.

Issues: ✓ Healthcare

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

May 2026

General Assembly Passage

May 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action May 18, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Technical Review Of Prefiled Bill → Introduced · 4 edits · Jan 13, 2026

MODERATE

This diff reflects the transition of Assembly Bill 976 from its prefiled technical review stage to formal introduction. The substantive policy content (extending temporary courtesy licenses for nonresident military spouses from one year to two years) was already present in the text. The main changes are procedural: removal of prefiled sponsor information, a status line update, minor formatting adjustments throughout, and the addition of a standard STATEMENT section describing the bill's effect relative to current law.

TECHNICAL

A STATEMENT section was added at the end of the bill explaining that temporary courtesy licenses for nonresident military spouses will be two years (with a one-year extension option) compared to the current one-year duration.

Prefiled sponsor information (Assemblywoman Andrea Katz, District 7 Burlington, and co-sponsors Fantasia, Dunn, Freiman, Singh, and Brennan) was removed as part of the transition to formal introduction.

The status line changed from 'As reported by the Assembly Military and Veterans Affairs Committee with technical review' to 'Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.'

Minor line-break and formatting adjustments were made throughout numbered paragraphs in subsections d and f, with no change to the actual policy text.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the General Assembly by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

May 18, 2026

Committee

Received in the Senate, Referred to Senate Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee

upper

May 18, 2026

Lower · Passed

Passed by the Assembly (77-0-0)

lower

Mar 16, 2026

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Assembly Committee, 2nd Reading

lower

Jan 13, 2026

Introduced

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee

lower

2 primary · 5 co-sponsors