In this episode, Joanna Pasceri and Jack O’Donnell discuss the current legislative session in Albany, highlighting the significant reduction in bills passed compared to previous years, the fate of key legislation such as the Medical Aid in Dying Act, and the ongoing challenges surrounding drugged driving laws and AI regulations. They also touch on the political dynamics within both major parties and the potential impact of federal budget cuts on New York.
Summary of this Episode
Guests
- Joanna Pasceri: Director of Communications at O’Donnell and Associates.
- Jack O’Donnell: Managing Partner at O’Donnell and Associates.
Major Topics Covered
-
- The legislative session in Albany is experiencing a rush to finish.
- There are almost 400 fewer bills passed this year compared to last year.
- The budget’s delay has stalled other legislative progress.
- The Medical Aid in Dying Act is likely to pass due to personal convictions of legislators.
- Bills that fall short often return in future sessions with modifications.
- Drugged driving laws are becoming increasingly important due to rising statistics.
- AI regulations are a contentious issue with strong lobbying from big tech.
- Political infighting is evident in both the Democratic and Republican parties.
- The potential budget cuts from federal legislation could have severe impacts on New York.
- The importance of building coalitions and support for future legislative efforts.
Full Transcript of the Episode
Note: This is a generated transcript. Please excuse any typos.
Joanna Pasceri (00:01.198)
Monday morning minute is back. Hi everybody. Thanks for joining us from the lobby with Jack O’Donnell. This is when we take a deeper dive into the issues featured in our Monday morning memo with Jack, managing partner at O’Donnell and Associates. It’s a mad rush to the finish in Albany, where legislators will soon be wrapping up the session. Which bills are in, which are out. Jack has the inside track and joins us now with the latest. Hi Jack. Welcome to the podcast.
Jack O’Donnell (00:30.881)
Hi Joanna, great to be talking to from the lobby in the middle of this mad dash. Things are a little wild in Albany, but great to step out for a minute and connect with our readers and listeners.
Joanna Pasceri (00:46.786)
Definitely a busy time. You kicked off the memo this week with information from Capital Confidential reporter Dan Clark on the number of bills passed so far this year as opposed to last year. Almost 400 fewer this year. So what happened?
Jack O’Donnell (01:03.193)
Well, yeah, was great. know, Dan does a good job, especially on a lot of these technical pieces. And so it was great to see that. Look, I think the biggest thing that happened is the budget. The budget went, you know, the latest it’s been in a decade. you know, while the budget is going, sort of nothing else happens. And people can argue about whether that’s good or bad or the right way to run a legislature, but it’s certainly the way the New York State Legislature runs. So, you know, nothing got done. You know, I think there’s also a natural ebb and flow here between what gets done and when. So I think really we’ll dive into this a little deeper in a week or two weeks when the legislature is fully done and we have a sense of what’s happened and what hasn’t. So, you know, more to come on that one.
Joanna Pasceri (01:58.177)
The memo has a breakdown of the bills still hanging in the balance and you predict the Medical Aid in Dying Act, a bill that allows terminally ill patients to end their lives with the help of a doctor, is going to pass the Senate despite some opposition. It already got through the assembly. How did the bill sponsor, how did the bill’s sponsors push this one through?
Jack O’Donnell (02:21.359)
Well, I think this is one of those things that is extremely personal for legislators. while, as you mentioned, there are some big folks out there against it, starting with the Catholic Conference of New York. But I think it came down to individual conscience for a lot of these legislators.
You know, this issue has been around for any number of years in Albany. It has become a very live issue over the last few years. And I think we’ve gotten here through a lot of one-on-one conversations between the sponsors, the advocates, and individual members kind of coming around in their own personal lives rather than a conference-wide or sort of political decision on this and you know that that stuff what people care about what they think is genuinely right still can be very powerful in this town.
Joanna Pasceri (03:26.378)
You mentioned in the memo several other high-profile bills that will likely not make it to the finish line. The Heat Act, an increase in short-term disability, wine sales in supermarkets. What happens to these bills that fall short?
Jack O’Donnell (03:41.87)
Well, in Albany, nothing ever dies. It just comes back the next year, sometimes in the same form and sometimes with tweaks or changes or new names. But, you know, those are both really big issues. They’re important to a lot of folks in New York. They’re important to any number of individual legislators.
You know, a lot of these things just live to fight on. I mean, we will have a couple of bills that unfortunately may fall short this year. What the smart and successful advocates do, what we will do with our clients is also spend the off-session building support, building coalitions around the bills you know, finding like-minded people who can be supporters, talking directly to the opponent so they maybe get a better sense of what the problem is and what we’re trying to solve and work on a compromise and find a way to get it through and hopefully come back in January for the next session leaner, stronger, tougher, with more allies in a position to get something done.
Joanna Pasceri (05:03.648)
You write extensively this week about a bill to change drugged driving laws, basically expanding the list of illegal substances for driving to anything that impairs a person’s physical or mental abilities. How important is this and will it get through the legislature?
Jack O’Donnell (05:21.255)
I think this is a big deal and it’s increasingly a big deal. We talk in the memo about some of the statistics around this issue and how they’re going up and a loophole that allows some folks who may be guilty of drug driving to escape some of the more serious penalties. I think it’s an increasingly important issue. At the same time, I think
You know, this, just like a lot of things we’ve been talking about over the last three months, you know, so much of the clash in the state legislature this year from the budget on out has been around, you know, balancing individual rights and liberties. You know, we’ve talked a lot about how proud members of the legislature are at taking on the over-incarceration of their constituents, especially black and brown New Yorkers, versus the concerns about public safety and sort of what that means. This bill is absolutely right in that sweet spot as well. People are concerned about particular drivers being targeted, being pulled over more often, and being subject to more rigorous searches and tests.
I don’t think this gets done, but this is another issue that’s going to live on until we find some kind of resolution.
Joanna Pasceri (06:56.427)
What about regulations for artificial intelligence? Big tech is lobbying hard to keep New York from setting standards for safety. Who wins out here?
Jack O’Donnell (07:07.008)
Well, this is still a very live issue. I’ve been getting a RoboText about it today. You know, we’ve heard from folks all across the political spectrum from different industries in New York. You know, I think that everyone wants to foster New York as a place for technology for innovation, all of those things are the future of the state, the future of our industries. But at the same time, think a lot of individual New Yorkers are concerned about guardrails on that. I think this is another one where it’s tough to say that the answer is all or nothing. I think really there is a path down the middle where you can put reasonable guardrails in that hold tech companies responsible for what they do in our society, while at the same time encouraging them to engage and be part of our society. We saw this same fight last year around some limits on social media, how social media algorithms are served to, especially to our children and the more vulnerable in our society who you know increasingly there’s evidence that these algorithms are doing real damage to and so you know i i think this is an issue whose time has come whether this stuff gets done in its present form or in a little bit different over the next few months maybe in the governor’s budget next year i don’t know but still very much alive and could go either way over the next few days
Joanna Pasceri (08:52.862)
Also making the memo this week, political party infighting for both the Democrats and the Republicans. The Lieutenant Governor announcing he’s running against his boss, the Governor, and the GOP Congress members, Lawler and Stefanik, taking jabs at each other over a possible run for Governor as well. So why does it seem we are seeing a lot more of this public discontent within the parties?
Jack O’Donnell (09:18.091)
Well, I think we’re just seeing a lot more public discontent, right? I mean, have you talked to your neighbor about politics lately? You know, it’s just become very harder. think society, and some of it are these algorithms from social media, how they share things. You know, I think overall, the political climate, just like the broader societal climate, and have moved away from people waiting their turn. You know, the absolute fall and destruction of strong political parties that helped, you know, move people on and move new people in and kind of do those things means there’s a lot of folks out there who just think this is their turn and that’s the environment. you know, I think it’s very interesting that this is not a a democratic issue or a republican issue, but it’s both, right? Seeing the lieutenant governor out there, you know, he’s declared there’s still some talk from Congressman Richie Torres about whether he would run against Hokel, even though, you know, we saw broad, you know, closing of the ranks around her from party officials, elected officials across the state this week.
You the Republican situation is even more interesting. know, Mike Lawler, a lot of folks think would be the most competitive candidate statewide for the Republicans, in part because there are issues in places where he’s more moderate. But Elise Stefanik has, as she was saying this week, you know, real air to the MAGA movement.
And sort of behind the scenes here is a guy named Bruce Blakeman, who’s the Nassau County executive. Now he’s got to win reelection this November, but a lot of folks see him as another possible standard bearer for the Republicans. So I don’t know, on all these things, just get your popcorn ready and let’s watch what happens over the next few months.
Joanna Pasceri (11:33.476)
Exactly. Well, from politics to government drama, the U.S. Senate now has to come up with its version of the big, beautiful bill. Here in New York, should we be bracing for steep budget cuts?
Jack O’Donnell (11:46.58)
Well, absolutely. mean, I think that’s, you know, that’s been a concern. We’ve written about that a number of times in the memo about some different impacts that the bill could have. Earlier this morning, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stork-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Hasty had a joint press conference, not something they do regularly. But they had a joint press conference say the big beautiful bill would cost New York 13.5 billion in healthcare costs. Wow, that would be devastating, not just to so many people, but to the state, the state economy and where we are. Now, that said, there’s a long way to go on this. The Senate needs to make some changes and then it has to go back to the House and they have to accept them. So just a lot more to come here.
New York is primarily a democratic state. Most of our members in the House are Democrats. All of our members in the Senate are Democrats, which means that there are very few New Yorkers. Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler being very notable exceptions along with people like Claude Heyteny, Nick Langworthy, folks who are real leaders in Washington. You know very few New Yorkers have a seat at this table and as a result of New York’s getting cut up.
Joanna Pasceri (13:15.185)
Favorite news link this week?
Jack O’Donnell (13:17.373)
Hey, you we had a story about the new show at the Hayden Planetarium. You know, we have the real distinct honor to do government affairs work along with our friends at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, which is just, you know, one of the coolest place on earth, though obviously we get to represent a few of those, but it’s just one of those really cool places as they were developing their new show for the planetarium, the scientists there, the people who, and the artists who kind of depict this stuff came together to make an amazing new discovery about how the universe works and what it looks like. And wow, to support people who are doing that kind of incredible research and figuring those things out that’s well above my level of science education, Joanna. It’s just really cool. So definitely worth taking a look at that.
Joanna Pasceri (14:17.745)
Yeah.
Joanna Pasceri (14:22.607)
Yeah, super cool. A great art institution there. And read about it in our memo this week at odonnelsolutions.com. Jack, thanks so much for that deeper dive.
Jack O’Donnell (14:32.904)
Thanks for having me.
