End of 2021 Legislative Session Overview

In Albany, the 2021 Legislative Session wrapped up early last Friday Morning. However, as is often the case in the “new normal” of remote votes and virtual hearings, expect rumors throughout the summer about legislators returning for a Special Session. At the very least, the Senate will likely return, at least briefly, to act on some appointments, including confirming the head of the state’s new cannabis management office to implement the state’s new legal marijuana industry. (The nominee for Chair of the Cannabis Control Board is rumored to be former Assembly Member and Cuomo aide Karim Camara; Cuomo had floated his current “pot czar” Norman Birenbaum for Executive Director for the Office of Cannabis Management, but after pushback from the Legislature, has no immediate plans to name a nominee).

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins left the door open to a special session after the June 23rd primaries, saying talks continue on some issues and the Senate would return to act on them “if necessary.” That said, legislators left a number of issues on the table, including big picture items like the “Clean Slate Bill,” a bill to restructure the top leadership at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York Health Act, the New York Privacy Act, and overarching legislation to regulate the growing “gig” economy in New York State, as well as the aforementioned confirmations of key nominations by the Senate.

Of course, on-going investigations into Governor Cuomo’s nursing home death undercount, sexual harassment allegations, and violations of the Public Officers Law, by both Attorney General Letitia James and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York could come to a conclusion at any time this summer, completely flipping any existing dynamics on their head.

All that said, the final weeks of session were still extremely productive: a whopping 461 bills passed both houses of the legislature in the last week of Session alone. We take a look at what did, and did not, get done in our End of Session Overview.

What is outstanding?

Read the full report below.