The Capitol Pressroom

April 8, 2025 - The Hochul Administration is now slow playing the release of rules intended to restrict emissions and charge the largest polluters in New York, so they're facing a lawsuit from environmentalists. We explore the case for a faster deployment of the "cap-and-invest" program with Hillary Aidun, a senior associate attorney in the Northeast Regional Office of Earthjustice, which brought the legal challenge.

April 8, 2025 - A bipartisan coalition is looking to rollback a 35-year-old state law that restricted the organ recipient lists that New Yorkers could be placed on. We explore the life-saving benefit of this legislative change with Aisha Tator, executive director of Donate Life New York State.

April 7, 2025 - Robin Chappelle Golston, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts, which represents the Planned Parenthood affiliates in New York, shares her group's fiscal and policy agenda for Albany and talks about access to reproductive health care services.

April 7, 2025 - Community health centers are an important safety net for low-income New Yorkers without access to traditional health care providers, but they're struggling to stay afloat with state Medicaid rates based on two decades ago. We explore this funding problem and other challenges with Rose Duhan, president and CEO of the Community Health Care Association of New York State.

April 7, 2025 - American Farmland Trust New York Policy Manager Julian Mangano discusses how eligibility changes for a school meal reimbursement program could result in more locally purchased food for students.

April 4, 2025 - Assemblymember Brian Maher, a Hudson Valley Republican, discusses what the state could do to improve its human trafficking prevention efforts and to connect trafficking survivors with needed services.

April 4, 2025 - Assemblymember Emily Gallagher and Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Brooklyn Democrats, explain their legislation that would impose technological restrictions on how fast egregious, repeat speeders could drive in the future.

April 4, 2025 - Assemblymember Steven Raga, a Queens Democrat, and Assemblymember Karines Reyes, a Bronx Democrat, makes the case for investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the Mitchell–Lama housing program and consider potential reforms to this historic affordable housing initiative.

April 3, 2025 - Senate Labor Committee Chair Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat, discusses legislation requiring employers to disclose more information to prospective employees about their potential compensation and benefits beyond the position's salary range.

April 3, 2025 - The existing power producers in New York don't want the state's utilities to get into the energy generation business, so they formed a coalition to oppose this authority. We explore this opposition with Gavin Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the Independent Power Producers of New York, and Marguerite Wells, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York.

April 3, 2025 - Matthew Dunbar, chief strategy officer for the New York City and Westchester County affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, explains legislation enabling rental properties to be transitioned to condominiums to facilitate affordable homeownership.

April 3, 2025 - Assemblymember Alex Bores has proposed safeguards on the most cutting edge developments of artificial intelligence technology, but the tech industry is pushing back on this type of government regulations. We hear some of those concerns from Todd O'Boyle, vice president of technology policy at the Chamber of Progress.

April 4, 2025 - Assemblymember Phil Steck, a Capital Region Democrat, talks about legislation allowing parents with medically fragile children to be paid for providing their children with home care if they obtain minimum training.

April 1, 2025 - State Sen. Shelley Mayer, a Westchester County Democrat, wants to overhaul the state Public Service Commission and reform the way energy utility bills are set in order to control costs for ratepayers in New York.

April 1, 2025 - New York has ambitious green energy goals, but do policymakers need to smooth out the transition? We examine the future rule of fossil fuels in New York with Kris DeLair, executive director of the Empire State Energy Association, and Peter McHenry, director of terminal operations for Sprague Energy.

April 2, 2025 - Reinvent Albany Senior Policy Advisor Rachael Fauss makes the case for bills to improve access to public records, including comprehensive tracking of records requests to state agencies.

April 1, 2025 - New York State Budget Director Blake Washington provides a status update on budget negotiations, including how to approach fiscal ambiguity, his role when discussions turn to policy, and the plan to keep families from losing access to child care.

April 2, 2025 - Internet for Growth Executive Director Brendan Thomas raises concerns about legislation imposing a tax on digital advertising in New York to fund a new unemployment system for workers excluded from the traditional unemployment safety net.

April 2, 2025 - In response to a campaign by construction unions and Democratic state lawmakers to lower the threshold for imposing lucrative wage and benefit requirements on projects receiving public funds, business interests are urging legislative leaders to preserve the status quo. We hear the argument against expanding prevailing wage from John Ravitz, executive vice president for the Business Council of Westchester.

March 31, 2025 - Assemblymember Landon Dais, a Bronx Democrat, and Jeff Wice, of the New York Law School's Census and Redistricting Institute, discuss what state policymakers should be doing to prepare for the 2030 Census and reflect on what went wrong with the 2020 count in the Empire State.