ALBANY – The fate of a bill can change overnight. The final hours of 2025 legislative session proved that again.
Plastics reduction bill hits snag as Assembly concludes session
The Senate concluded its session on Thursday, passing bills that now also needed to pass the Assembly to have a chance to be signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul. On Tuesday, the only question for the bills under consideration in the Assembly was whether time would allow the proposals to reach the floor.
Environmentalists watched the prospects of their plastics reduction bill passing the Assembly drop from likely to less likely to grim to zero. Now, instead of awaiting action from Gov. Kathy Hochul, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which had passed the Senate, appears dead for 2025.
"First of all, it's always a bad thing to be going up to the 11th hour because you always wind up having a couple of people who have emergencies," said Assembly Member Deborah Glick, D-Manhattan, who sponsored the PRRIA legislation with Sen. Peter Harckham, D-South Salem. She said while the bill had broad public support, many factors hurt the bill: Lawmakers expected to vote for the bill suddenly became nervous over it, and lobbyists waged a fierce effort to kill the bill.
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Glick's bill had lots of company – bills that, despite their histories or projections to clear both houses, now lie in legislative purgatory.
It is a list that includes the “Good Food NY Bill,” sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, which would give municipalities more options in choosing food contractors. While the municipalities now must choose the lowest responsible bidder, the bill would let them select bidders that are no more than 10% more expensive should the bidders meet certain criteria. Standards would include whether the bidder and their products came from within 100 miles, was environmentally resilient, practiced racial equity, promoted health and well-being and valued workers' rights, agriculture and animal welfare.
The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Saugerties, passed both houses last year only to be vetoed by the governor. This year, sponsors addressed some of Hochul’s concerns, according to people familiar with the legislation.
Another food-related bill, the Food Safety and Chemical Disclosure Act, appeared ready for an Assembly vote but it, too, was denied. The proposal, sponsored by Assembly Member Anna Kelles, D-Ithaca, and Sen. Brian Kavanagh, D-Manhattan, would prohibit the manufacture or sale of food containing Red Dye No. 3, potassium bromate and propylparabens – additives that are all linked to serious health hazards, according to the bill. It also would require companies to disclose secret food ingredients not subject to premarket approval and review if they are "generally recognized as safe."
Another bill, sponsored by Sen. April Baskin, D-Buffalo, targeted lead poisoning, a major health concern in Buffalo for decades. Baskin sponsored a bill, that passed the Senate, to allow children diagnosed with elevated lead levels to be automatically eligible for early intervention services. At the end of session, the proposal, co-sponsored by Assembly Member Karen McMahon, D-Williamsville, remained in the Assembly Health Committee.
Yet another bill failed to make it close to passing despite being the law in more than 40 other states. The proposal, if enacted, would have established a “supermarket wine license” for businesses whose sales are 65% food-related products. The bill, sponsored by Assembly Member Pamela Hunter, D-Syracuse, and Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, had the backing of the state’s Business Council but was unable to escape committees in both houses.
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The bill allowing wine to be sold in grocery stores failed to make it close to passing despite being the law in more than 40 other states. Libby March/Buffalo News
For Republican lawmakers, who sit in the minority in both the Senate and Assembly, getting a bill out of committee to pass continued to present roadblocks outside of proposals that were local or ceremonial in nature. But across party lines, most bills do not pass their house, a fact reinforced Wednesday when the New York Public Interest Research Group released its annual post-session legislative review.
In 2025, the first year of a two-year legislative period for bills, state lawmakers introduced 16,765 bills, the review said. It said 995 bills passed the Assembly between January and July, and that another 1,743 passed the Senate. A total of 856 passed both houses. The review said the 150-lawmaker Assembly continued a "roughly decadelong trend in approving far fewer bills" than the 63-lawmaker Senate even though it has nearly twice as many members.
"Why it does so is not at all clear," the review stated. "Presumably the differences in how the legislation is viewed is not partisan or ideological since both houses are dominated by Democrats. Nor is there an obvious pattern in which bills pass and which do not."
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