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

The final week 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. With lawmakers officially done for the year, 563 bills received final approval from both chambers in roughly 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, passed 467 in their final eight days, going three days longer than the upper chamber. Legislators wrapped up early Wednesday morning.

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 – but also declined to act on others. Here are some that have garnered particular attention:

PASSED

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. After Senate approval, the Assembly followed a few days later, with the bill one of the last ones the chamber acted on before adjourning for the year. State Attorney General Letitia James had strongly advocated for the measure, and she celebrated that it will now head to the governor for final action.

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 – which has approved the full HEAT Act in the past – passed both measures before wrapping up. In the Assembly, lawmakers wound up approving the bill that only eliminates the 100-foot rule. And even that was subject to extensive debate and a relatively close final vote.

AI regulations

Despite some intense, last-minute 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. That proposal died in the Assembly, however.

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 both chambers passed the alienation bill before heading home.

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.

Transgender shield law 2.0

Two days before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors, the Assembly approved a bill that would strengthen New York’s shield law for transgender people. The updated measure, which also applies to abortion providers, would put in place additional safeguards for health care providers against out-of-state prosecution for offering care that may be illegal elsewhere. Lawmakers first passed the shield law two years ago, but advocates for transgender rights in particular have made the updates a major priority given the Trump administration’s continued attacks on the community. The measure had already previously passed in the state Senate.

DIED

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. The measure passed in the state Senate, and both advocates and the upper chamber bill sponsor pushed hard for the Assembly to consider it. But ultimately, the People’s House did not take it up before leaving Albany.

Plastic packaging reduction

For the second year in a row, the Plastic Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act failed to make it through the Assembly after already passing in the state Senate. Environmental advocates were hopeful that the measure aimed at reducing plastic waste by 30% in the state in the next 12 years would get a vote after it came close last year. The governor’s last minute decision to pause congestion pricing hampered the efforts last year, but no such last-minute surprise came up this year. Still, Assembly members left Albany without acting on the bill, much to the chagrin of activists.

Immigrant protections

Some legislators had wanted to pass new protections for immigrant New Yorkers, especially undocumented immigrants, in the wake of the new Trump presidency. The calls for action increased as the administration’s mass deportation efforts began affecting the state. At the top of the list was the New York for All Act, which would codify and expand the state’s sanctuary policies. The expansion would include banning formal agreements between local law enforcement and the federal government to enforce immigration law, like the one Nassau County entered to deputize a handful of police officers to act as federal immigration agents. The Access to Representation Act was another major ask, which would have created a right to an attorney in immigration court with the state footing the bill for those who can’t afford one. Neither came to a vote in either chamber.

Earned Time Act

This was another year that sentencing reform didn’t make it over the finish line, even though one of the measures came up in budget discussion. Criminal justice advocates were hopeful that lawmakers would pass the Earned Time Act, which would greatly expand merit time and earned time credits for incarcerated individuals. That would make it easier for people engaging in rehabilitative activities like vocational training and education programs. The proposal gained traction as state officials considered ways to reduce the prison population, though only a minor expansion of the merit time system got included in the state budget. At the end of the legislative session, the measure had also not passed in either chamber, nor was it included in the omnibus prison reform bill. Other sentencing and parole reform measures also failed to advance out of the Legislature once again.