New Jersey's two U.S. senators addressed members of the State Bar Association on Wednesday via Zoom to discuss the state's response to COVID-19 and the challenges ahead.

Robert Menendez and Cory Booker both have law degrees: Menendez from Rutgers Law-Newark, class of 1979, and Booker from Yale Law, class of 1997. They said their priority when returning from a weeklong recess to Washington in early June is to refine the Paycheck Protection Program to better serve small business owners, push to get federal judicial vacancies filled, and draw attention to what they call unacceptable conditions in immigration courts, such as those in Newark and Elizabeth, that are ill-equipped for the pandemic.

There's also a bill that seeks up to $500 billion in aid for states and municipalities to deal with the COVID-19 fallout, which include crippling revenue losses, in order to stave off potential mass layoffs of public employees.