Packaging reduction, biosolids, A.I: What passed and did not in the Assembly

And a CDPAP hearing has been scheduled by the state Senate.

Good afternoon — it’s Wednesday and Picnic Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• The state Senate will hold an investigatory hearing on the state’s rocky transition of the CDPAP home care program.

• Here are 8 bills that didn’t end up getting a vote in the Assembly, including top environmental priorities and artificial intelligence regulations.

• Here are 5 bills that were approved in the Assembly before they left Tuesday night, including a reprieve for restaurants and new consumer protections.

Names in today’s CapCon: Gustavo Rivera, James Skoufis, Jabari Brisport, Emily Gallagher, Marcela Mitaynes, Andrew Gounardes, Kristen Gonzalez, Phara Souffrant Forrest, Carl Heastie, Judith Enck, Emily Miles, Michael Polenberg, Letitia James, Anthony Frascone

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Sen. Gustavo Rivera at a CDPAP protest this year (Will Waldron/Times Union)

📅 CDPAP hearing scheduled by state Senate to hear testimony, review contract award

The messy transition of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program will now get a second look from the state Senate.

Sen. Gustavo Rivera, chair of the Health Committee, and Sen. James Skoufis, chair of the Investigations Committee, announced in Manhattan Wednesday that they would hold a hearing on that transition July 9 in New York City.

The program, which allows Medicaid recipients to hire their own home care aides, is now under the management of Public Partnerships, LLC, a private company that won that contract from the state last fall.

The fiscal management of the program was previously spread across hundreds of businesses that acted as intermediaries between the state and home care aides. The transition to Public Partnerships was supposed to be finalized April 1 but is ongoing.

There have been plenty of bumps along the way, including aides who haven’t been paid and consumers who had a difficult time registering with the company.

“We want to lay out in clear terms how the transition worked, what didn’t work, how it happened, and what are the things we need to learn to make sure the individuals served by this program continue to be served by this program,” Rivera said.

Skoufis said the committee would be inviting witnesses to testify and would swear them in under oath. He hinted that the committee could also use its subpoena power to summon witnesses who don’t want to testify voluntarily.

He said he was particularly interested in how Public Partnerships was chosen by the state to handle the program. There have been unproven allegations that the contract was rigged in the company’s favor.

The transition was included as part of last year’s state budget. While the budget set up a bidding process for the contract, Skoufis said that wasn’t the case in draft versions of the spending plan.

“There are budget drafts where PPL was actually named in the draft without even an RFP, without any kind of bidding process,” Skoufis said. “During negotiations that was fleshed out in such a way that we required an RFP.”

Litigation related to that contract is also ongoing, with the state facing multiple lawsuits over that award and the transition in general.

(Will Waldron/Times Union)

🗣️ What passed the Assembly and what did not

The Assembly gaveled out in the middle of the night last night after passing a final batch of bills. The chamber approved 90 bills on Tuesday alone.

We now know what bills will head to Hochul for consideration and which didn’t make the cut before lawmakers left Albany. It was not a great end-of-session for environmental advocates, who saw their top priorities dismissed or watered down.

And while session may have just ended, some lawmakers want to turn the car around and head back to Albany as soon as possible.

The arrest of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander on Tuesday has given an ounce of new momentum to New York For All, a bill that would prohibit state and local law enforcement and employees from sharing information and working with federal immigration officials.

The bill would also largely bar federal immigration agents from entering nonpublic state and local property without a judicial warrant, as is the case with state courts.

It passed neither chamber this year but a small subset of Democrats in the Legislature said Wednesday they now want a special session to move it through both chambers.

“We must hold special session, and we must start that session by passing NY4All to stand up to Trump’s unchecked ICE raids terrorizing our neighborhoods,” said state Sen. Jabari Brisport, a Democrat from Brooklyn.

Among the lawmakers who echoed that call were Sen. Andrew Gounardes, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Julia Salazar, Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, Assemblywoman Marcela Mitaynes, Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher and Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest.

The odds are against them. The Senate had no interest in staying to move the bill and it wasn’t on the menu of items the Assembly compiled to consider in its final days.

Speaking of which, let’s take a look at what happened and what didn’t in the lower chamber’s last hours in Albany.

Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie in the chamber (Will Waldron/Times Union)

❎ 8 bills that didn’t make it to the Assembly floor

We’re going to start with what didn’t get a vote on the Assembly floor that was on the shortlist of items under consideration. All of these bills have already passed the Senate.

Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act: Environmentalists are, to put it lightly, pissed that the Assembly decided not to bring this bill (A1749) to the floor for a second year despite being teed up for a vote.

The decision wasn’t made until late yesterday, though no one I spoke to knew the specific reason why it was spiked. The bill would have required producers to reduce their packaging and pay fees to fund local recycling efforts.

Lobbyists were still pulling members from the Assembly chamber in the early evening to poll their vote or convince them to change it. It had the votes to pass, according to a count from supporters.

Environmental advocates placed the blame directly on Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, who controls what heads to the floor and what does not.

“There was a time when previous speakers of the Assembly stood up for protecting public health and the environment. That time has passed,” said Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics and a former regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.