Thursday, June 12, was the last scheduled day of New York’s 2025 legislative session. The Senate completed their business early on Friday, June 13.  The Assembly returned the following week and concluded their business on Wednesday, June 18. 

The legislative session in Albany is normally measured in two phases: budget time, which runs until sometime around the April 1 budget deadline, and post-budget, which runs from when the budget is done until the end of session. Traditionally, the post-budget phase lasts about eight weeks. However, this year’s post-budget phase was significantly truncated because of the late State budget. The State budget was not finalized until May 9, which meant it was 38 days late, marking the latest State budget since 2010. The late state budget created challenges for the Legislature to address a myriad of policy priorities, but both houses did pass several high-priority proposals that were of interest to ANA-NY. 

One of these issues was the Medical Aid in Dying Act. This bill would allow a terminally ill patient to request and use medication for medical aid in dying. Eleven other states and the District of Columbia permit medical aid in dying, but New York’s bill is much more narrow than other jurisdictions. It would apply only to individuals who have an incurable and irreversible illness with six months or less to live, which would need to be confirmed by two doctors. The request for medical aid in dying assistance would need to be witnessed by two adults who do not stand to inherit anything in the case of the patient’s death. The legislation was first introduced a decade ago, and this year is the first year it has passed either house. While ANA-NY had not previously taken a position on this legislation, the Legislative Committee voted to support this legislation, and we will be issuing a letter of support to the Governor when the bill is sent to her for her consideration.

Another bill of interest to ANA-NY that passed both houses would require hospitals to establish a violence prevention program. This program would need to include workplace safety and security assessments. Further, the hospital must develop a safety and security plan that addresses identified workplace violence threats or hazards. The bill also requires any hospital operating in New York City to have at least one off-duty law enforcement officer, or trained security personnel, always present in the emergency department. For those jurisdictions outside of New York City, there must be an off-duty law enforcement officer, or trained security personnel, at the hospital with priority on being near the emergency department. ANA-NY worked with several other health care provider groups to support this legislation, and we will also share our support with the Governor when this bill is sent to her.

Our main legislative priority this year was legislation that ANA-NY drafted and had introduced and would require require hospitals to have a registered professional nurse as a sitting and voting member of the governing entity responsible for developing a hospital’s strategic plan, structure, systems, policies and programs. This bill is sponsored by Senator Lea Webb and Assemblymember Karines Reyes. While the bill did not pass both houses, we did make extraordinary progress this year on our legislation as it passed in the Senate. We did not pass in the Assembly, but we made good progress there as well and are very hopeful for the next legislative session. In addition to working on getting the legislation passed, we also worked to put together a strong coalition to support the legislation, which now includes the New York State Nurses Association, Greater NYC Black Nurses Association, NY Organization for Nursing Leadership, NYS Association of Nurse Anesthetists, NYS Council of Perioperative Nurses, and NY League for Nursing. While the bill has strong support, we have learned that the bill is opposed by the hospital associations in the State, who have raised concerns that all providers will want a seat on the board if this legislation were passed. We are working now to address these concerns. The bill will remain a top priority for us next year. 

We also continue to work with a variety of coalitions on several health initiatives. Through the Campaign for a Tobacco Free New York, we support legislation to further enhance enforcement of the ban on flavored vapes and support legislation to close loopholes in State law restricting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. Through the Let’s Get Immunized Coalition, we support legislation that 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. Neither of these bills passed both houses this year, but we will continue to work with our coalition partners to advance this legislation in the next session.

Although the legislative session ended in June, there is still a chance we could see a special session in response to the recently enacted federal tax bill, which included significant funding cuts to healthcare, particularly the Medicaid program. Addressing these cuts may require legislative action. For now, it appears that the current year impact can be addressed without a special session, but we still must see what further action the federal government may take as they work to pass a federal budget. Regardless of what happens next, we know that the federal cuts to State healthcare funding will dominate much of the 2026 State budget conversation as we know that the initial Medicaid changes will create a $3 billion budget deficit for the next budget cycle. This number may grow if further federal action is taken. 

All of these budget conversations will be taking place in a year when all members of the New York State Senate and Assembly as well as all Statewide Elected offices (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and Comptroller) are up for election next year. All members of the New York House of Representatives will also be up for election. This pending elections mean that we will want to be supporting our New York elected officials who are supporting our legislative priorities. As such, we want 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 web site 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 legislative ideas.