December Deadline

Good morning from Buffalo, New York. 

Let us be among the first to welcome Michael Cashman (D) to the state Assembly. The new member representing the North Country’s 115th Assembly District has officially been sworn into office following his impressive Special Election victory.

Cashman has been named to the Agriculture Committee, the Tourism, Parks, and Sports Development Committee, and the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. The new member offered a statement, “These committees represent the core of who we are as a region. The 115th is powered by hardworking farm families, supported by a vibrant tourism and outdoor recreation economy, and deeply shaped by our veterans and military community. I’m honored to bring our district’s voice to each of these tables.” Cashman served as Plattsburgh Town Supervisor for nearly a decade, becoming the youngest town supervisor in history upon his election in 2015. Cashman is an alumnus of SUNY Plattsburgh and currently serves on the University Council, where he has been an advocate for first-generation and low-income students.  

As the calendar turns to December, Governor Kathy Hochul has a month to act on over 200 bills—legislation that has been passed by the Legislature but not yet officially transmitted to the Executive—ahead of the December 31st deadline to do so.

One bill receiving plenty of attention, especially from the tech world, is the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Safety and Education (the RAISE) Act. The legislation, sponsored by Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Alex Bores, seeks to require guardrails for the companies developing “frontier models,” the large-scale artificial intelligence models being developed by the likes of Meta, Anthropic, and OpenAI. If signed, large developers would be responsible for filing safety and security protocols with the State for those “frontier models.” They would also have to report safety incidents that could lead to increased risks of critical harms to New Yorkers, which the bill defines as 100 deaths or $1 billion in damage. Hochul has indicated she needs to walk a fine line with AI regulation, saying in an interview, “I have to protect New Yorkers as well as our businesses, but let the tech industry know this is the place you want to be.” There is plenty of evidence that the public is seeing past the tech industry’s multimillion dollar public relations campaign: polling shows the measure is quite popular, especially among sought-after independent voters.

Hochul is also considering the FAIR Business Practices Act, legislation that would expand the state Attorney General’s consumer protection powers. The bill is a major priority of New York Attorney General Tish James, largely in response to the call from former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, now on the Mamdani transition team, for states to strengthen their consumer protection laws in anticipation of federal regulatory rollbacks by the Trump administration. The bill would add “unfair” and “abusive” acts to the existing ban on “deceptive” practices under consumer protection laws; however, amendments before final passage removed the private right of action and restricted enforcement power to the Attorney General’s office. The NYS Business Council is leading the opposition. 

The Gaming Facility Location Board will vote today on who should get state gaming licenses. Millions have been spent, but only three applicants remain. More to come.

An interesting development as Democrats search for a message that resonates and is anything beyond “we’re not Trump!” It’s worth checking out here.

Advocates for the Medical Aid in Dying Act are hoping Hochul signs the measure after it passed both Chambers of the Legislature for the first time this year.

Kristen Curran, Director of Government Relations for the New York State Catholic Conference, said, “It’s not for a lack of understanding of where the other side is coming from, we know how difficult it is, and we know these people are desperate sometimes for pain relief. I think there is so much we can do to fix that. New York is notoriously and extremely lagging in uptake of hospice and palliative care.” 

Lawmakers and advocates continue to keep the pressure on Hochul to sign a package of prison reform bills that were introduced in response to the fatal beatings of two inmates, Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi, earlier this year. The omnibus reform package would increase camera coverage in prisons, expand the state Commission on Correction, and empower the Attorney General to investigate and prosecute corrections officers, if necessary. Hochul’s office is reportedly seeking amendments to the current package in response to concerns from the Department of Corrections & Community Supervision, but the bill’s sponsors remain hopeful they can reach a compromise everyone can get behind. Assembly sponsor Erik Dilan offered, “The negotiations are still fluid, and I want them to continue behind closed doors. Obviously, we stand by the bill that we passed on the floor...We're just trying to get on the same page.”

On the environmental side, Hochul will have to decide what to do with a bill that would end the requirement for utilities to install new natural gas hookups at no cost to the property owner if the hookups are within 100 feet of an existing line. The bill is a watered-down version of a larger proposal, the HEAT Act, that would have further regulated natural gas infrastructure, but advocates are still hopeful that the bill can serve as a springboard for additional environmental regulation. Much to the disappointment of environmental advocates, Hochul has recently delayed the implementation of the state’s all-electric buildings mandate and given the green light to a new natural gas pipeline as part of her “all of the above” energy approach. 

A sad good-bye to Viola Fletcher, the oldest and one of the most well-known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre—a truly terrible period in our history—who passed away last week at 111-years-old. Fletcher played a major role in keeping this story alive and helping ensure a national reckoning.   

-Jack O’Donnell

Pass the gravy… and the talking points? How do you handle politics at Thanksgiving dinner?