Heading home, here’s what lawmakers got done in the last legislative week

The final week (give or take) of the state legislative session is always a whirlwind of activity and late nights as lawmakers rush to pass huge volumes of bills before heading back to their districts for the year. As of late Friday afternoon, 390 bills received final approval from both chambers in the past week and now will head to the governor for action in the second half of the year. The state Senate, which finished its work early Friday morning, passed 810 bills alone in that timeframe. The Assembly, which is larger and generally works slower, only passed 283 measures in its own chamber over the past week. But members of the Assembly are still working through Tuesday of next week. 

With hundreds of measures making it through the Legislature in such a short amount of time, keeping track of what lawmakers are getting done can become a herculean task. Many of the bills are hyperlocal, hyperspecific or minor things like memorial highway namings. But the final stretch also presented the last opportunity for legislators to get consideration for unfinished priorities. Among the slew of bills and hours of debate, state lawmakers passed a number of notable and interesting bills. Here are some that have garnered particular attention:

Prison reform omnibus bill

One of the most high-profile measures to get done at the end of the year, legislators approved a new bill that combined ten separate prison reform proposals into a single piece of legislation. Lawmakers were eager to do something after the beating death of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility, allegedly at the hands of corrections officers late last year, so after negotiations, they came to a two-way compromise that included several transparency and accountability provisions. The governor was not a part of those discussions, so her signature is not guaranteed.

The omnibus bill would increase the members on the state Commission of Correction, expand the authority of the independent oversight organization Correctional Association of New York and direct the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to conduct a study into deaths at state prisons. But it does not include various parole and sentencing reform measures pushed for by advocates for incarcerated people and many lawmakers.

FAIR Business Practices Act

Lawmakers approved the Fostering Affordability and Integrity Through Reasonable Business Practices Act – better known as the FAIR Business Practices Act – to strengthen protections against “abusive and unfair” practices from businesses. Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan penned a letter at the start of the year, before leaving her post, urging state legislators to outlaw such practices, in part to compensate for the promised regulatory rollbacks by the Trump administration. The FAIR Business Practices Act expands the authority of the state attorney general to sue, penalize or otherwise go after businesses believed to be bad actors under the law. The measure has passed in the state Senate, but is not guaranteed to pass the Assembly.

NY HEAT (lite)

After several years of advocacy that failed to get the NY HEAT Act passed in both chambers, bill sponsors decided to compromise by introducing two rolled-back versions of the measure. The Customer Savings and Reliability Act is the closer of the two to the original. It includes two of the NY HEAT Act’s key components – ending the subsidy for new gas hookups within 100 feet of an existing hookups and amending the state’s obligation to serve – but it eased some requirements for utility companies and offered a more regional approach for gas transition plans in order to address concerns from the Assembly. The second of the two bills would only end the 100-foot rule. The state Senate passed both measures before wrapping up, so it’s up to the Assembly to decide which – if either – of the compromise bills they will approve.

AI regulations

Despite some intense, last-minuting lobbying by billionaire-backed tech companies, lawmakers did manage to pass one fairly significant bill to regulate artificial intelligence. Both the Assembly and state Senate approved the Responsible AI Safety and Education – or RAISE – Act, a measure that would require AI developers to build in safety measures against potential risks like the development of bioweapons or acts of automated crime. If signed, the law would only apply to the largest AI companies. The state Senate also passed the New York AI Act, which seeks to make artificial intelligence development more transparent, enact ethical guidelines and combat discrimination in machine learning. The Assembly still has time to approve it as well, although with one AI bill already passed, the momentum may ultimately fizzle.

New York City ballot question access

Following a move by New York City Mayor Eric Adams to back a ballot initiative that originated with the City Council from the ballot last year, local officials turned to Albany in hopes of ensuring that never happens again. Under current law, ballot proposals from a mayoral charter revision commission take precedence over any other measure that may appear, meaning that those questions get “bumped.” Council members want to strip the mayor of that power. Versions of the legislation have existed for years, but increasingly bad blood between Adams and the City Council prompted a reinvigorated push for the bill. After legislative leaders reached a two-way agreement, lawmakers passed the measure in both chambers. It’s now up to the governor to decide whether to impose this limit on the authority of the New York City mayor.

Bally’s casino parkland alienation

The issue came down the wire, but Bally’s is finally on track to get the state legislation it needs in order for its Bronx casino bid to advance. The company wants to build its casino on what is technically state parkland, which requires the state to alienate that parkland. The officials that represent the area in question introduced the necessary bill that Bally’s needs for its bid to even receive consideration, but lawmakers couldn’t vote until the New York City Council approved a home rule message. And that didn’t happen until Wednesday as it faced some concerted opposition. But legislators got the home rule message they needed and the state Senate passed the bill before finishing. The Assembly is expected to act on the legislation as well in the next few days.

Judicial redistricting

If you thought that the Legislature was done with redistricting, think again. But this time, lawmakers in both chambers approved a bill meant to increase diversity and representation in state courts in Western New York. If signed into law, the Fourth Judicial Department would get two new judicial districts and make changes to three existing judicial districts. The changes would give the counties of Monroe, Erie and Onondaga their own districts, with rural counties getting consolidated into the other two. Currently, the existing judicial districts combine urban and rural areas in a way that means that communities of color are underrepresented on the bench. 

Medical Aid in Dying Act

Although the Assembly approved the legislation that would allow terminally ill patients to seek medication to end their own lives at the end of April, the state Senate didn’t act until this past week. But with the upper chamber’s historic passage, the controversial measure is ready for the governor’s consideration for a decision on whether to make the proposal law. Opposition to the bill has also come from some Democrats, several of whom in both houses voted against it, so along with the heavy ethical questions, it’s hardly a slam dunk on partisan grounds, either.

Speed limiters for reckless drivers

Lawmakers are looking to tackle reckless driving in a new way. Under legislation approved in the state Senate in the last week of the session, people who have repeatedly received speeding tickets would have a speed limiter installed in their cars. Specifically, a car that receives at least 16 school zone speeding tickets in a single year would be required to install a device that prevents it from going above a pre-set speed limit. The idea is to make streets safer without taking the vehicle away from a person who may rely on it for income or other necessities. Like a number of other bills, the ball is now in the Assembly’s court.