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

The budget is done, long live the normal legislative session. 

Or perhaps “short live” is more apt, considering that state lawmakers have just one post-budget legislative week to pass any number of members’ legislative priorities, in addition to typical end-of-session business like confirming gubernatorial nominations in the state Senate. 

The regularly scheduled legislative session is set to end on June 4, though lawmakers will likely roll over some final voting into June 5 before they head 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.

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 doesn’t appear to be any different. 

Here are the items that we’re paying attention to that are competing for some of that coveted weeklong, post-budget attention. This story was last updated on June 2. 

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. 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.”

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. Ultimately, the bill may be moot,as The New York Times reports Trump is considering abandoning the fund after significant blowback.

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 appear willing to at least try again after Democrats privately conferenced the legislation. 

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 appear to have won a compromise:  A new data center omnibus bill introduced late Monday night included a one-year pause on data center permits. Heastie said Tuesday the new legislation represents an agreement between the chambers and expects it to pass both houses.

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.

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.

Regulating surveillance pricing

New York business leaders aren’t pleased with state Attorney General Letitia James’ campaign to aggressively regulate surveillance pricing. She’s actively pushing for a series of bills 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. Heastie said Assembly Democrats will conference both measures Wednesday and make a decision before they expect to finish voting on bills Friday. 

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 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. Heastie said Tuesday it’s unclear if the Assembly will have the time to conference either measure or bring them to the floor.

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. It’s unclear right now which nominations state senators will vote on this week, though none are incredibly high-profile. However, Democrats may vote to officially confirm John Kagia as the Office of Cannabis Management’s permanent new executive director after Hochul appointed him in an acting capacity in February.

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.