In this episode, Joanna Pasceri and Jack O’Donnell discuss the winding down of the New York legislative session, highlighting significant bills passed, including regulations on artificial intelligence and consumer protection. They also touch on the prison reform package, political tensions surrounding immigration policies, and the looming federal budget challenges. The conversation concludes with a personal highlight from Jack about his junior associate’s achievement.
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
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- The New York legislature is wrapping up its session with significant bills still in play.
- The RAISE Act introduces reasonable regulations for artificial intelligence in New York.
- The Fair Business Practices Act aims to fill the gap left by the Consumer Protection Bureau.
- Prison reform and the establishment of a dyslexia center are key legislative focuses.
- Political tensions are rising, particularly around immigration policies.
- The real deadline for the federal budget is mid-August, not July 4th.
- Public perception of political figures is influenced by media portrayals.
- The importance of independents in elections cannot be overstated.
- Social media and echo chambers contribute to political polarization.
- Historical events, like the discovery of a treasure ship, can provide fascinating insights.
Full Transcript of the Episode
Note: This is a generated transcript. Please excuse any typos.
Joanna Pasceri (00:01.257)
It’s the final act for the New York legislature as the 2025 session winds down. Hello and welcome, everybody. Thanks for joining us from the lobby with Jack O’Donnell for our Monday Morning Minute, the podcast version of our award-winning newsletter, Monday Morning Memo. The Senate has gaveled out, but the assembly still has two more days to go. Which bills are done and which are still hanging in the balance?
Let’s bring in Jack for the latest. Hi Jack and welcome to the lobby.
Jack O’Donnell (00:32.334)
Hi Joanna, it’s good to be talking to you again from the lobby. I’ll tell ya, I can’t wait till the assembly does gavel out too. And the lobby gets a lot quieter.
Joanna Pasceri (00:43.664)
Yeah, it seems to be dragging on a little bit these last few days. Last week at this time, we were discussing how the legislature had passed less than half the number of bills compared to the same period last year. You said, be patient, wait till we get into next week. And sure enough, lawmakers went on a bill blitz. Tell us about it.
Jack O’Donnell (01:05.165)
Yeah, I mean one of the secrets to kind of understanding the state legislature and the legislative session is that Nothing happens until everything else happens even even sort of routine bills that have passed You know countless times things like sales tax extensions or a minor parkland alienation, know, it’s a lot of things that don’t have opposition. They also wait till the end. Big part of this is, you know, legislative leaders keep control by having everyone’s important local issues under their belt. And so a lot just happens at the end and that’s where we are. in the end times.
Joanna Pasceri (01:55.931)
You highlight in the memo some of the significant bills passed in the past week, including one that regulates artificial intelligence here in New York. Why is this such a big deal?
Jack O’Donnell (02:07.742)
Yeah, this is a really big deal. The RAISE Act, you know, right now there are no rules and no laws, no responsibility about artificial intelligence. And what this bill does is it puts some, you know, not heavy regulation, but some just reasonable guardrails around people who are creating AI. And if they’re creations do something wild, know, if they go out there and help make a biological weapon or take over, you know, transit facilities and cause a crash. I mean, all of these things are scary, but they’re now within the realm of possibility. So the idea is that big AI people who train frontier models and have spent over a hundred million dollars, right? So this is not a small entrepreneur, this is not a startup, it also exempts academic research. Those people have to have a safety plan and under some circumstances, which involve death or a billion dollars in damage, they can be held liable. So I think most people, and there was some polling around this which agrees, you know most people think having some reasonable guidelines and and having developers bear some responsibility for their creations is fair that said you know with the exception of a bill in california that was subsequently vetoed you know this is the of strongest most comprehensive bid of a regulation and to pass anywhere in the country so it’s it’s a really big deal.
Joanna Pasceri (04:00.389)
New York a leader on this one. You also mentioned the approval of the Fair Business Practices Act, a protection for consumers and small businesses. How is this bill going to help New Yorkers?
Jack O’Donnell (04:14.453)
Well, this is a big deal in that it is an attempt by New York to kind of replicate or fill the space of the Consumer Protection Bureau in Washington, D.C. that has been gutted and dismantled by the Trump administration. So, you know, again, this is New York looking to lead. Now, this is a bit more controversial in that you know we really kind of expand and some liabilities and and this is for much more established players and and this is legislation and rules and regulations that have been out there for a long time so you know this is new york on looking to lead in this space it’s a priority of on new york’s attorney general tish james and and and it’s uh… it’s really really a big deal it kind of got introduced late. There have been some changes, but not many. So it’s a really bold bill. And we’ll see how that proceeds through the chapter amendment process with the governor.
Joanna Pasceri (05:25.734)
Speaking of which, making it to the finish line in the legislature are a prison reform package and the establishment of a center recommended by the state dyslexia task force. Do you expect all of the bills that pass through the legislature to be signed by the governor?
Jack O’Donnell (05:42.827)
No, mean, so first and foremost, know, New York has this kind of unique process where while the governor has 10 days to veto or sign things, that clock doesn’t begin until the legislation is actually sent to her. So, you know, this is going to be a big part of the next six months out of the year that our team at O’Donnell and Associates and, you know, businesses and advocates around the state will be participating in.
You know, on those specific issues, I think the prison reform package is bold. It is expansive. And it dictates a lot about what the Department of Corrections can do. The Department of Corrections obviously reports to the governor of New York, so I think she’ll want to have a lot of say on that. But I really do want to highlight this dyslexia center on that’s going to exist at at state education i would expect that she would sign this this was a recommendation of the dyslexia task force and is something that advocates have been working on for a long time new york is really really fallen behind the rest of the country in in sort of the modern research around literacy and and how we keep teach it.
And I really, you I need to give a special shout out to Assemblymember Bobby Carroll, who has really carried this issue, carried it on his shoulders, getting the task force created and now getting this center created. So I’m very optimistic the governor will sign that, but plenty of other bills that may see the veto pen.
Joanna Pasceri (07:27.781)
Still in front of the assembly this week are the revised versions of the Heat Act and the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Act. Do these bills advance?
Jack O’Donnell (07:38.282)
Well, I don’t know about the Heat Act. I do think the 100-foot, ending the 100-foot rule, which requires utilities to basically run gas lines up to new development, I think that has some lags. And the extended producer responsibility, the packaging bill, is very much alive. It passed out of the Ways and Means Committee in the Assembly earlier today.
You know the information we have is that the the conference has not made a final decision on that and the sponsor claims that she has the votes but if she does it’s it’s by a very narrow margin and so i’m will see what they decide to do but will will know real soon
Joanna Pasceri (08:29.07)
The most read story in the memo this week was the reaction to Governor Hockel’s fiery appearance in the House last week on New York’s immigration policies. She faced quite a grilling from New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who is considering a run against Hockel next year. How damaging was this for the governor?
Jack O’Donnell (09:03.529)
I’m sorry, can you hear me? Okay. I think this is one of those things that’s in the eye of the beholder. I think if you are a strong Republican, you thought that Elise Stefanik did a great job and really put the governor on the hot seat. I think if you are a strong Democrat, you know, you think the governor stuck to her principles. At the end of the day, what matters are those folks in the middle.
Joanna Pasceri (09:03.909)
Yes, I can hear you now. Go ahead.
Jack O’Donnell (09:31.337)
It was not, you know, it’s not a fair context, Stefanik didn’t give Hokel a chance to answer a lot. This was not really a debate. But Stefanik really hammered on her points, and I think that matters. I think a lot of people saw that clip the next day. I mean, you know, at the end of this, when we get to November, it’s not so much what the Democrats and Republicans do.
It’s what the independents do. It’s what the folks in the middle do. And I’ll tell you one thing that was very clear to me from that five minutes that Stefanik was questioning Hokel is that, I would love to see a 90-minute debate between the two of them with a real moderator and them getting to ask and answer questions. I think that would be lot of fun to watch.
Joanna Pasceri (10:24.684)
You may get your wish. We’ll have to wait and see on that one. You also highlight some more examples of sparring between Republicans and Democrats. Why does everybody seem so angry these days?
Jack O’Donnell (10:38.406)
Man alive, Joanna, if I could answer that, you know, we’d be on our way to world peace. But, you know, I think people see this in their neighborhoods. I think we see this in just awful tragedy in Minnesota. You know, violence, anger, this idea that the other side is worthless and can’t have a good idea, you know, has become so prevalent, you know, so much
Joanna Pasceri (10:40.291)
Thank you
Jack O’Donnell (11:08.36)
Is that echo chambers both on the right and and on the last where they just reinforce everyone’s behavior there’s so few people who have to go talk to those folks in the middle a lot of this has to do with redistricting a lot of tested it was social media and a lot of this has to do with uncertainty that the volatility in the world i think we have scares people and when people are worried about their their own well-being, own safety, their children’s future. They get defensive and they get aggressive. So I think we’re seeing a lot of that. And unfortunately, I don’t see it going away anytime soon.
Joanna Pasceri (11:51.116)
Turning now to the federal budget battle, it’s now in the Senate with a self-imposed deadline of July 4th, but you explain in the memo what the real deadline is. So what are lawmakers up against?
Jack O’Donnell (12:03.719)
Yeah, real deadline here is mid-August when the country runs out of the ability to borrow money. We’ve seen this over the last few years. When Biden was in charge, we saw it in the last Trump administration. But really, when government doesn’t have enough money, it doesn’t have the ability to borrow more money when the cash flow is run out, that’s… X day for for getting something done so I’d be shocked if we saw something by July 4th but you know anything is possible on but that pressure is only going to go up as we get closer to to to that- financial deadline.
Joanna Pasceri (12:48.202)
And we’ll be watching that very closely over the next few weeks. Favorite read in our news links this week?
Jack O’Donnell (12:54.917)
Well i you know i think we highlighted this this as well but i’ll tell you if i wasn’t mo lobbyist i would love to be a pirate and the idea that you know in in the this sixteen hundred seventeen hundreds and and so the and the spanish treasure ship that was found recently with here sixteen billion dollars worth of coins and
Joanna Pasceri (13:05.634)
You
Jack O’Donnell (13:22.439)
And other gems, know, allure and the magic of that, but also the history of it, right? This was the British Navy did this intentionally to try to knock Spain out of the war of the Spanish Succession and all these different things. I find it really fascinating and urge people to give it a read.
Joanna Pasceri (13:47.392)
Yes, very cool. Almost unbelievable. Fine. Check it out in our memo this week. Jack, thanks. Sure.
Jack O’Donnell (13:52.871)
Yeah, and can I highlight one more thing, Joanna? I also really want to give a shout-out to our junior associate, Thomas O’Donnell, who was recognized at the end of the year. He was the only one in his fourth grade class recognized with this Eagle Award for being such a good kid, a smart kid, a kid who plays well with others and makes everybody laugh. And who’s just worked so hard to get where he is. So I couldn’t be more proud of him and I couldn’t let this podcast go by without highlighting that accomplishment as well.
Joanna Pasceri (14:33.227)
Very proud indeed. The EGLE Award, I believe it was, was…
Jack O’Donnell (14:37.399)
Yes, exactly. And that stands for something and I can’t tell you what it is, but I can tell you I am super proud of that guy.
Joanna Pasceri (14:40.961)
Yeah.
Yes, he is a proud moment indeed. Jack, thanks so much for sharing your insight with us today.
Jack O’Donnell (14:51.75)
Thanks for having me, Joanna. Talk to you soon.