One of the budgetary issues that ANA-NY strongly supports are the proposals relating to tobacco enforcement and tax collection. The Governor proposed expanding the tobacco products excise tax to include alternative nicotine products, which would include ZYNs and other noncombustible products that contain nicotine but not tobacco. The Senate and the Assembly both included this tax proposal in their one-house budget bills, but the tobacco industry and tobacco retailers oppose the tax. The Governor also proposed a distributor tax of $.55 cents per unit on vapor products, in addition to the 20% tax imposed on the retail sales of vapor products. This proposal would also authorize the Tax Department to create a registry of vapor products that can be sold in New York State. The Assembly included this proposal in its one-house budget bill, but the Senate omitted it. ANA-NY strongly supports both of these measures as they would close loopholes in New York law and help prevent a new generation from becoming addicted to nicotine.
Despite the delay in the budget, we are continuing to pursue standalone legislation of concern for the nursing profession, and ANA-NY’s lobby day occurred on Tuesday, April 28, where we discussed ANA-NY’s legislative priorities with the Legislature. ANA-NY’s top legislative priority is S2278-A/A5208-A, sponsored by Senator Lea Webb and Assemblymember Karines Reyes. This bill would require hospitals to add a seat to their governing board for a registered professional nurse who is clinically active. Although many hospital boards already have a representative of the nursing profession on their boards, we believe that every board would benefit from the experience and expertise of a nurse. The Senate passed this bill in March, so we are focusing our efforts on moving the bill from the Assembly Health Committee.
Another bill we are supporting is S9893/A765 (Senator Krueger, Assemblymember McDonald). This bill would require health care providers who administer vaccines to a person 19 years or older to report such information to the Department of Health unless the person opts out of this reporting. The current adult immunization registry is opt-in. The intent here is to create a more complete adult vaccination registry, which would benefit patients by giving them access to this information and public health officials tracking vaccine-preventable diseases. ANA-NY supports this legislation through the Let’s Get Immunized Coalition. The Assembly passed this bill in April, and the Senate bill is in the Health Committee.
We are also supporting two other related immunization bills. S9599/A10710 (Senator Bailey, Assemblymember Dilan) would expand what vaccine recommendations can trigger insurance coverage to continue to allow existing reliance on recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, while also taking into consideration recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the American College of Physicians (ACP), and other nationally or internationally recognized scientific organizations. This bill passed the Assembly and is on third reading in the Senate. Similarly, S9598/A10711 (Senator Stavisky, Assemblymember Paulin) would give the Department of Health authority to determine immunization requirements and standards related to school vaccine requirements, amends the definition of immunization by removing references to federal standards, and amends federal references for standing orders, newborn immunizations and childhood immunizations. This bill passed both houses in April.
Finally, we talked about our support for S845/A860 (Rosenthal, Salazar), which would prohibit drug, cannabis, or alcohol testing of a pregnant or postpartum individual and newborn without consent. Passing this legislation will codify clinical best practices to ensure pregnant and postpartum people are given an opportunity to consent to drug, cannabis, or alcohol testing as recommended by the New York State Commissioner of Health and help to ensure that health equity disparities are not perpetuated in the healthcare system. This bill is currently in the Health Committee in both houses.
For more information regarding ANA-NY’s legislative priorities, please see the legislative priorities page on the ANA-NY website.
Finally, we would like to remind you that ANA-NY has a Political Action Committee (PAC). The ANA-NY PAC will be supporting candidates that support the profession and issues of importance to our members. We urge you to visit the ANA-NY PAC website and donate.
If you have any questions about the legislative process or the priorities of ANA-NY, please contact a member of the Legislative Committee. As always, we welcome your questions, thoughts, ideas or comments on legislation or the bill track.
