The bills to watch in the last week of session in Albany

It’s the last day of the scheduled legislative session, do you know where your priority bills are?

A prolonged state budget process left state lawmakers with just one post-budget legislative week to pass any number of members’ legislative priorities. Now legislators are really down to the wire as they attempt to finish passing hundreds of bills – including some very controversial ones – on the last day on the legislative calendar before heading home for the year.

Although legislative leaders have in the past extended the session for several more days – including last year – members facing reelection this year are eager to return to their districts ahead of the June 23 primary. The Assembly will stay through June 5 to finish voting, but Speaker Carl Heastie has previously indicated he doesn’t plan to keep members any longer. And state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins doesn’t seem to have plans to extend the calendar, either, aside from perhaps the typical late-night session to wrap up. So this is it.

Legislators weren’t exactly pleased with the amount of time the budget negotiations dragged on this year, truncating the typical two-plus month period for legislating without Gov. Kathy Hochul in the driver’s seat. But the mad dash in the last week of session is hardly anything new, even if the circumstances this year are different. State lawmakers regularly pass hundreds of bills through both chambers in the waning days of the scheduled session, including some of the most controversial measures of the year. And this time turned out no different. 

Here are the items that we’re paying attention to that are competing for some of that coveted weeklong, post-budget attention. And a small number of them have even passed already! This story was last updated on June 4. 

PASSED

Redistricting amendments

New York leaders have been frank for weeks: They won’t leave Albany for the year without passing a constitutional amendment to tweak the state’s redistricting process. True to their word, legislators approved the measure after six hours of – at times very tense – debate combined between the two chambers. The next step for lawmakers is to pass it again next year, allowing it to go before voters as early as November 2027.

As first reported by Politico, legislative leaders introduced a proposal late Monday to give the Legislature the power to redraw its election districts in the middle of a decade while removing language that prohibits gerrymandering – something the state Constitution specifically prohibits. And it removes the requirement for a two-thirds majority vote to override the Independent Redistricting Commission if one party controls the Legislature. Like any constitutional amendment, it will have to pass in a consecutive legislative session before going before voters in a statewide ballot proposal in 2027.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that weakened the Civil Rights-era Voting Rights Act has kicked off a national race in both parties to draw partisan districts and give them an edge in House control.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters Tuesday New York Democrats want to change the state law that prohibits districts from favoring a certain political party because of that ruling.

“We want to be able to have as much flexibility in our districts as other states around the nation,” he said, adding he’s concerned about Republicans trying to wipe out Black members of Congress. “This thing about asking New York to play fair while everybody else is playing ruthless, I think, is not right to ask us this.”

Rep. Mike Lawler, who’s facing one of the most competitive midterm elections in the country in NY-17, traveled to Albany on Monday to blast Democrats’ latest efforts to alter redistricting in the state. “The only way they think they can beat me is if they gerrymander,” he said. New York Republicans and Democrats are pointing the finger at each other for starting the redistricting battle. Lawler said he’s confident both parties will spend millions to defeat, or pass, any statewide ballot proposal that goes to voters, including legal challenges. “Obviously, this is a national fight, I think everybody realizes that,” Lawler said, later adding: “That’s just a reality of where we are today.”

Moratorium on AI chatbots in toys

It’s a big year for moratoriums, it seems, as both chambers of the Legislature approved legislation to place a five-year pause on the sale of toys for young kids that include AI chatbots. During that time, the bill would empower a task force with representatives from the state Department of State, Office of Mental Health, attorney general’s office and Office of Digital Innovation, Governance, Integrity and Trust with studying the risks that those chatbot toys may pose to children.

It’s the latest in a series of laws that have gone into effect in recent years to enact protections for young people against potentially harmful new technologies. Hochul has been at the forefront supporting or helping to champion some of the measures, including a recent ban on addictive algorithmic feeds for children and a cellphone ban in schools. 

Both the state Senate and Assembly passed the measure on Tuesday, meaning its next stop is Hochul’s desk.

Cannabis inversion

Lawmakers tackled the pervasive issue of cannabis inversion, or the illegal trafficking of cannabis products – typically from other states – and presenting them on the licensed market as legal products. The Cannabis Supply Chain Integrity and Anti-Inversion Act explicitly prohibits cannabis inversion and gives the state Office of Cannabis Management and Cannabis Control Board clearer statutory authority to investigate and impose penalties for trafficked products, including  license suspension and revocation, product seizure and civil penalties.

State Senate confirmations

Not to be forgotten, the upper chamber of the state Legislature typically has a series of gubernatorial nominations to various positions to confirm (or in rare cases, reject) before the end of the legislative year. City & State first reported that Hochul nominated a formerly incarcerated man to fill out the five-person state Commission of Correction. A new law approved last year requires that at least one commissioner on the body have previously served time in a jail or prison. Hochul decided to select Alexander Dockery, whose sentence she commuted about three years ago. The full state Senate confirmed him on Thursday.

The state Senate confirmed John Kagia on Wednesday as the Office of Cannabis Management’s permanent new executive director after Hochul appointed him in an acting capacity in February. Senators also gave approval to two other Hochul administration picks: Terry O’Leary as the commissioner of the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services and Kathy Moser as the commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Members also confirmed Audrey Zibelman as the new board chair of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, a move applauded by environmental advocates.

Additionally, the chamber gave approval to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s picks to join the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Thursday.

STILL UP IN THE AIR

AI data center moratorium

In another environmental priority, legislators had hoped to approve a three-year moratorium on building new data centers, which today are largely used for artificial intelligence data processing. They reached a compromise on a one-year moratorium as part of a larger data center omnibus bill. The Assembly approved the measure Thursday afternoon, and the state Senate is expected to follow later in the evening.

Data centers are hugely energy intensive, and require massive amounts of water, resulting in significant negative environmental effects and strain on the state’s electrical grid at a time when it’s already in a state of crisis. During the moratorium, the bill would require the state Department of Environmental Conservation to issue an environmental impact report on data centers.

News of the deal to pass the moratorium drew swift backlash from powerful building trades unions. Newsday reported the groups have begun circulating a memo of opposition among legislators that argued delays to new projects would have harmful economic impacts.

The state previously passed a similar multiyear pause on cryptocurrency mining projects, which also make use of data centers, for similar environmental and grid concerns.

In addition to the moratorium, the new omnibus includes parts of other bills relating to data centers, including a measure to set energy efficiency and environmental standards for the centers, requiring the Public Service Commission to account for high-energy usage data centers when considering utility rate increases and enacting new regulations to ensure that those data centers pay more equitable energy prices for their outsized grid impacts. Yet another data center measure included in the package would require large centers to provide direct benefit to the communities they’re located in, whether through utility relief measures or funding home electrification projects.

The omnibus bill also includes a decades-old bill that would require the state PSC to consider the economic impact of significant rate increase on New Yorkers before approving such increases, a measure not directly related to data centers.

Regulating surveillance pricing

New York business leaders aren’t pleased with state Attorney General Letitia James’ campaign to aggressively regulate surveillance pricing. A source familiar with the office’s strategy said Wednesday that James’ staff was calling lawmakers in both chambers this week in effort to whip votes and ensure two bills addressing the issue get to Hochul’s desk. She’s actively pushing for measures that lawmakers have yet to consider, including new legislation known as the One Fair Price Act to ban surveillance pricing, or the act of companies using a consumer’s personal data to set individualized prices in real time. This follows a 2025 law that required businesses to disclose when they use algorithmic pricing.

James’ office enforces that policy, and slaps a $1,000 penalty on businesses that fail to comply. But business leaders are vehemently against additional regulation, arguing shoppers will miss out on special deals and discounts. 

James is also urging the Legislature to pass a bill to prohibit the use of electronic shelf labels in grocery stores, pharmacies and other brick-and-mortar businesses that can change prices throughout the day. The state Senate approved that bill on Thursday and is expected to later pass the One Fair Price Act. Heastie said Assembly Democrats have conferenced both measures and will make a decision before they expect to finish voting on bills Friday. Business groups lobbying against the proposals, and lobbyists with organizations like AARP that are in favor of the regulations, were out in force in the Capitol on Wednesday, increasing their pressure on lawmakers as both proposals remain in limbo.

Upstate rent control

This might be the year Democrats in Albany decide to expand rent stabilization outside New York City amid an ongoing housing crisis. Legislative leaders have indicated they’re exploring passing a measure to update the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974. Current law requires local governments to conduct a vacancy study to prove it has a housing vacancy rate of 5% or less to adopt rent stabilization. The proposed Rent Emergency Stabilization for Tenants, or REST Act, would let localities outside the five boroughs use more public data like rates of homelessness or eviction rates in place of a costly vacancy study to declare a housing emergency and impose local rent control. Heastie told reporters on Tuesday that Democrats in his chamber had privately conferenced the measure, but didn’t indicate whether it had the support to come to floor yet.

New York for All

Legislators may have won significant new immigrant protections in the state budget this year, but that won’t stop them from still trying to get the full New York for All Act that would cover what was left out of the final deal with Hochul. The sponsors and other supportive lawmakers and advocates have criticized the budget deal for failing to ban all forms of informal cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials. To accomplish that and more, they committed to continue pushing for the New York for All Act. But given the limited time left in the session, that the state has already approved a large immigrant protection package and how tense negotiations were to get to that point, the likelihood that legislative leaders would bring the bill to the floor of either chamber – and risk setting up another fight with the governor – is slim to none.

Delaying New York City class size mandates

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani asked the state to delay the full implementation of a law to reduce class sizes as a cost-saving measure as he attempts to balance his first budget. The measure fell out of budget negotiations, but a new bill from state Sen. John Liu has prepped the issue to get resolved before lawmakers go home for the year. The legislation would give the city an extra two years to adhere to the class size law, extending the deadline from 2028 to 2030, giving Mamdani some breathing room and savings. 

Fair Pricing Act

Legislation that would cap prices for routine outpatient healthcare procedures somewhat unexpectedly gained traction in the past month. Democrats unanimously voted to advance the bill out of the Assembly Health Committee on May 27, and state Senate Democrats did the same in their chamber’s Health Committee on May 12. It’s meant to ensure New Yorkers don’t get charged more for the same procedure at a hospital outpatient facility as at a doctor's office, by capping prices in both settings at 150% Medicare rates. The measure has strong union support, with 32BJ SEIU leading the charge alongside other labor groups like the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and the District Council 37. But it has faced opposition from hospital and healthcare industry groups that stand to lose money from a cap.

Closing the sexual exploitation loophole

Survivors of abuse by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are calling on state lawmakers to create new felony crimes for profiting from trafficking and to expand legal protections for survivors. The Trafficking Survivor Recovery and Accountability Act targets traffickers and makes it a crime for someone to finance a trafficking operation or advertise for it, maintain a premises that traffickers use, provide transportation or security for or otherwise support a trafficking operation while receiving something of value in return. It applies to any person who “knew or reasonably should have known” they were participating in trafficking. The bill advanced in the state Senate on Tuesday.

The measure would significantly expand a trafficking survivor’s ability to bring civil lawsuits against their abusers, as well as businesses, property owners, estates or other entities that participated in profiting from the operation. But critics are concerned the standard is too broad and will open businesses and property owners to litigation. It would open a one-year look-back window for survivors of trafficking crimes that have already expired beyond its statute of limitations to file lawsuits – similar to temporary lookback windows the state has opened for survivors of child sexual abuse or sexual abuse that occurred as an adult. 

There’s also a push to close a similar, but separate, loophole in state law that allows adults who bought sex from 15- to 17-year-olds to only face minimal consequences. The state Senate passed the bill on Thursday. Heastie said Tuesday it’s unclear if the Assembly will have the time to conference either measure or bring them to the floor.

Voluntary intoxication loophole

All eyes are on the Assembly to pass a bill to change the state’s rape law and make it easier to prosecute sex crimes. Current law can shield a person who’s been charged with rape or other sex crimes if the survivor chose to become intoxicated at the time it occured. The measure, which has passed the state Senate unanimously multiple times, would ban the legal defense citing intoxication of the accuser and also clarifies the limitations of consent. It would make it a crime to have sex with a semi-conscious person who is unable to consent, or so heavily under the influence of drugs or alcohol that they cannot control their conduct or express a clear lack of consent where a reasonable person would know they were incapacitated.

With the session clock ticking, 20 Epstein survivors signed and sent a letter to Heastie on May 28, urging him to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. The Assembly reverted to the original version of the bill May 5, and the state Senate reintroduced one that matches this week. It sits in the Assembly Codes Committee, and the pressure is on to get it across the finish line in the coming days. 

Criminal justice reforms

In what has almost become a perennial issue, criminal justice reform advocates are once again hoping to get sentencing, parole and other prison reform measures through the state Legislature before lawmakers go home. Advocates have recently begun highlighting the fact that over 200 people have died in state prisons since the beating death of Robert Brooks in December 2024. Though legislators approved omnibus prison reform legislation last year, it didn’t include most of the high-profile measures activists have for years fought to pass, including the Second Look Act, the Fair & Timely Parole Act, the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act and other bills to increase rights for people behind bars.

Mobile horse race gambling

Five years ago, the state legalized mobile sports betting to much fanfare and following a tough fight with strong support and opposition. Left behind in that law was betting on horse races, which did not benefit from the update. The New York Racing Association is now pushing for legislation that would update the law to treat horse racing the same as other forms of sports wagering, and to permit the users of mobile and online sports betting operators to place bets on races – so long as the operators of the app or website have entered into an agreement with the race track in question. The bill sponsors predict the change could generate up to $250 million in tax revenue for the state.

Champerty law reform

The issue of sovereign debt purchasing is a perennial end-of-session item, as is the case this year. New York-based hedge funds  often purchase foreign debt from developing nations and economically struggling territories like Puerto Rico. It’s particularly salient in New York’s immigrant communities. 

The purchase of that debt by venture capital funds can serve to make those groups millions – or even billions – by suing those territories over their debt, leaving them in an even deeper fiscal hole and greatly hindering attempts at economic revitalization. According to a memo from the sponsors of a bill to amend the Champerty Doctrine in New York to close a 2004 loophole, more than half of sovereign debt contracts are governed by state statute. 

The state Senate approved the bill on Wednesday, as it has done in past years, but so far it has failed to move through the Assembly even once. 

Beauty Justice Act

The end of the legislative session brought with it pretty intense campaigns both for and against legislation to restrict the ingredients used in makeup and cosmetics. It targets toxic  and potentially harmful chemicals that could have negative impacts on both people and the environment, including PFAS “forever chemicals” and some heavy metals. Companies and businesses would no longer be allowed to sell products containing any banned ingredients. The bill has staunch opposition from cosmetic industry groups, some salon owners and some business groups. 

The state Senate passed the bill earlier this year, and passed it last year as well. Its fate in the Assembly remains unclear as of Wednesday afternoon.

Casino payments to racetracks

Resorts World recently began a stealth campaign to change state law governing payments its new downstate commercial casino will need to make to the horse racing industry. Under current law, the three full New York City casinos recently granted licenses are meant to pay the $150 million in “racing support” annually to the state’s Racing Association – but until the other two open up, Resorts World will be on the hook for the full sum every year. With just days left, legislators introduced a bill to help Resorts World by taking that money out of the casino’s tax revenue – a pot of money currently earmarked for transportation improvements and education – rather than through separate payments directly out of the casino’s own pocket, at least until the other ones open. Lawmakers are expected to approve the measure, and Hochul has signaled her support as well.

DEAD

Essential Plan

Lawmakers are heading home without taking any targeted action to help more than 450,000 New Yorkers who are set to lose their low- to-no cost, state-subsidized health insurance come July 1. Thanks to federal changes, hundreds of thousands of low-income New Yorkers will lose access to the Essential Plan. Though back in March, the state managed to avoid an even more dire outcome that would have seen over a million losing their coverage, the action meant that New Yorkers making between 200% and 250% of the federal poverty line would lose coverage. 

Legislators had introduced a measure for the state to continue insuring that population on New York’s dime. Cost estimates varied greatly, as did the number of people expected to use the coverage – as they might purchase a private plan on the marketplace or return to their employer’s insurance instead. Lawmakers and state leaders also discussed methods to keep the state pricetag down while keeping the low-cost insurance option. But it never made it into the budget and was not moved on during the last week of session.

 In a shift in tone Thursday, Stewart-Cousins seemed to lay the blame for the inaction squarely at the feet of Hochul. “We did try – we suggested different ways,” she told reporters. “The governor was frankly not a supporter. So we are looking at, yes, that situation in July.”

Packaging reduction

Another year, another attempt to pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act. After two straight years of near-misses in the Assembly, lawmakers are once again trying to combat extensive and deep-pocketed opposition efforts that have successfully kept the bill off the floor of the lower chamber. According to Heastie, those efforts from lawmakers are set to fail again, as he told reporters Tuesday the legislation doesn’t have the votes, even if he personally supports the bill.

Among other things, the legislation would require a 30% reduction in single-use packaging and require the creation of what’s called an extended producer responsibility program that would put the recycling onus on plastic companies and other major corporations that create the most single-use packaging. 

Unlike past years, when the state Senate approved the bill earlier in the year, the upper chamber hasn’t yet acted on it this year. A recently amended version of the bill still has to make it through both houses, but the fight still boils down to the Assembly, where it may have the support – if it actually ever makes it to an actual vote. Legislators ran out of time last year after expecting it to come to the Assembly floor, and they appeared willing to at least try again after Democrats privately conferenced the legislation. 

Anti-“anti-weaponization” legislation

Unlike the redistricting amendments, lawmakers have in fact introduced legislation meant to take aim at President Donald Trump’s nearly $2 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that would benefit those who claim the federal government unfairly investigated or persecuted them. Participants of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the White House are expected to receive most of the payouts. The bill from lawmakers would tax any payout from the fund to New Yorkers at a rate of 100%. But the new legislation takes attention and resources away from existing measures lawmakers have pushed for with limited time left in the session. The bill appears moot now though, as Trump’s Justice Department decided to pull the plug on the fund following backlash.