@eric_simmerman Meltano has required

simplejson==3.16.0

for over a year now (https://gitlab.com/meltano/meltano/-/commit/746ff29138af119b655344cfdd1db5c472927624#8e2edce0d507e1297474f25c00cae94258db38d8_37_35), so it doesn't sound like a Meltano issue to me. Do you have any idea how it could have disappeared from your env?