New York City is considering eliminating up to $10 million in fees on taxi drivers. The proposal is part of several initiatives aimed at helping drivers struggling with debt after taking out loans to purchase medallions, the city permits allowing operation of a cab, which industry leaders helped artificially inflate from $200,000 in 2002 to $1 million in 2014. (NEW YORK TIMES)
On a 147-48 vote, MASSACHUSETTS’ Democrat-controlled Legislature approved a constitutional amendment in joint session last week that would impose a 4 percent surtax on incomes over $1 million, generating as much as $2 billion for education and transportation. Before being added to the state’s Constitution, the amendment must be approved by lawmakers again in the next two-year legislative session and then ratified by the state’s voters in 2022. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A bill (SB 330) that would have allowed private companies to run sports betting operations in MONTANA will not become law, after lawmakers failed to override Gov. Steve Bullock’s (D) veto of the measure. A veto override poll conducted by mail - the state’s usual procedure when a bill is vetoed after the Legislature has adjourned - showed SB 330 had the support of 54 representatives and 20 senators, well below the 67 votes and 34 votes, respectively, needed for an override. (KPAX [MISSOULA])
--Compiled by KOREY CLARK
Last year Vermont cancelled a contract with cell phone service provider CoverageCo, after the company failed to earn a profit or cover its expenses on a rollout of microcell technology in rural parts of the state. Now, with $4 million in microcell equipment sitting either idle or in storage, the state is asking towns and municipalities if they’d be willing to pay the annual operating costs for the microcell sites deployed within their jurisdictions, estimated at about $1,800 per site.
The state’s Department of Public Service sent out a survey to local governments last month to gauge their interest. If the response rate is good enough, the state plans to contract with a vendor to run the network and with wireless carriers like AT&T and Verizon to allow their customers to roam on the rural microcells.
The state’s General Assembly has allocated some funding to help local governments assess their options and to cover some of the infrastructure costs associated with the project. But lawmakers are reluctant to spend more money on technology that may soon be outdated, according to Sen. Randy Brock (R).
“The reason for providing these mechanisms in the short run is to provide this equipment that we have that is certainly yesterday’s technology, but it’s better than nothing,” he said.
Without additional state funding, any contractor that agreed to run the network would be largely dependent on network usage to make a profit.
“If the system is going to rely on roaming agreements and a fee from carriers, there has to be some amount of traffic captured that would make it worthwhile for a contractor to want to run an overall network,” said Clay Purvis, director of telecommunications and connectivity at the state’s Department of Public Service.
The amount of network traffic, in turn, may depend on how many towns and municipalities sign on to the plan.
“It’s probably not going to be worth it for any contractor unless there’s a critical mass of sites,” Purvis said.
He also said he should hear back from local governments in the coming weeks. (VTDIGGER)
At least 40 states have introduced legislation in 2019 aimed at reducing the cost of prescription drugs, according to LexisNexis State Net’s legislative tracking system. Fifteen of those states have enacted such measures.
Reducing the soaring prices of commonly used prescription drugs has become a political priority in the nation’s statehouses. So far this year, 258 bills that sponsors hope will assist consumers in managing pharmaceutical costs have been filed in 47 states, with 29 of them enacted.
Many of the measures require more transparency from drug providers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and pharmacists. Some bills echo a bipartisan measure passed last year by Congress that allows pharmacists to provide more information to patients to help them save on costs.
But most of the nation’s state attorneys general believe that such transparency does not address the root cause of price increases, which they blame on a conspiracy among pharmaceutical companies to maintain high prices.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D), joined by attorneys general from 43 other states, has filed a lawsuit alleging that the largest generic manufacturers have conspired to artificially manipulate prices for more than 100 generic drugs, including treatments for arthritis, asthma, diabetes and cancer.
“We have hard evidence that shows the generic drug industry perpetrated a multibillion-dollar fraud on the American people,” Tong said. “We have emails, text messages, telephone records and former company insiders that we believe will prove a multi-year conspiracy to fix prices and divide market share for huge numbers of generic drugs.”
A spokesman for Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israel-based firm that is the largest company named in the suit, denied the allegations.
The effort to reduce drug costs is not confined to legal and legislative fronts.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has proposed an executive order that will attempt to use the Golden State’s immense purchasing power to reduce drug costs. On the day he was sworn into office Newsom said he intended to leverage California’s status as the world’s fifth-largest economy to demand lower prices from drug companies for millions of Medicaid enrollees, state government workers and, eventually, Californians in the private sector.
Leaders in Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, have agreed to partner with the state.
“California is leading the nation in holding drug companies accountable and fighting prescription drug prices,” Newsom said in announcing the partnership. “We will use our market power and our moral power to demand fairer prices for prescription drugs.”
But it’s unclear if this proposal will work. Diana Dooley, the respected director of the California Department of Health and Human Services under Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown, said the state is at a disadvantage because many drugs are required by law or regulation for treating various medical conditions, and the state can’t reject a specific drug just because it costs too much.
“You can’t have more purchasing power if you can’t say no to the provider,” Dooley said.
James Robinson, who heads the University of California Berkeley Center for Health Technology, makes a similar point. He told the Sacramento Bee soon after Newsom unveiled his plan that he was “skeptical’ that aggregating purchasing power gave California much of an added advantage.
“At the end of the day, what gives bargaining leverage for a purchaser is if you say, ‘if you don’t give me a discount, I won’t buy your product,” Robinson said.
Nonetheless, pharmaceutical companies are likely to remain under pressure because of public concern about the cost of prescription drugs.
A Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey found that a majority of adults said prescription drugs had improved their lives but that the costs were unreasonable. A quarter of those polled said it was “difficult” to afford the drugs they need. Eighty per cent said that pharmaceutical company profits were a major factor in the high cost of drugs.
KFF has long found that drug price increases have exceeded the inflation rate. This year, the list price of more than 3,000 drugs increased, while the price of only 117 went down, according to data compiled by Rx Savings Solutions.
A revealing study published recently in the journal JAMA Network Open found a substantial, industry-wide increase in insurer and out-of-pocket costs for brand-name prescription drugs.
In the study, researchers from the Scripps Research Translational Institute analyzed Blue Cross Blue Shield pharmacy claims from 2012 to 2017, focusing on 49 brand-name drugs that had more than 100,000 total claims each.
All but one of the drugs included in the study saw increases. The cost of 36 of the drugs increased over the six-year period by more than 50 percent, and the cost of 16 more than doubled. Overall, the median cost of the drugs included in the study increased 76 percent.
Both the federal government and the states have focused on lack of transparency in drug pricing, making PBMs the principal targets.
PBMs administer prescription drug coverage for insurers and employers. They develop and maintain formularies, process claims and negotiate discounts and rebates for millions of Americans who have health insurance through a variety of private and government plans.
The PBM field is dominated by OptumRx, Express Scripts and CVS Caremark. These three firms together have more than 70 percent of the PBM business and wield power that rivals the power of the drug companies, says Erin Taylor, a health economist at the RAND Corporation.
Until 2018, PBMs were largely banned from disclosing PBM practices to their customers. Then states began stripping away the secrecy, allowing pharmacists to discuss PBM charges and other cost factors with their customers. The Trump administration took up the cause, resulting in the aforementioned federal law prohibiting gag orders that passed the Senate last December with only two dissenting votes. Thirty states then had similar laws; the number has since risen to 33 with passage of such laws by Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Starting in July, the Trump administration will require drug companies to list prices of prescription drugs in television ads. But this commendable effort falls considerably short of President Donald Trump’s promise in his 2016 campaign to lower drug prices. In campaign speeches he accused drug makers of “getting away with murder.”
To be fair, states have also fallen short, getting higher marks for increasing transparency than for reducing drug prices. It might have been otherwise. Several states expressed interest in an ambitious Maryland law that would have banned drug companies from “unconscionable” increases in prescription drug prices. But in 2018 an appellate court found this language vague and struck down the law. Maryland appealed to the Supreme Court, which declined to review the lower court decision.
States are still trying. On June 11, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill that could eventually give Floridians access to less expensive drugs from Canada and other foreign countries. DeSantis said the bipartisan bill, passed over intense lobbying by the domestic pharmaceutical industry, is necessary because Americans spend far more for prescription drugs than residents of other countries.
“We were going up against the greatest force in America, which is Big Pharma,” said House Speaker Jose Oliva (R) in describing the hard-won passage of the bill.
The measure requires approval from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which DeSantis, a Trump supporter, predicted would happen. If so, the bill would come back to the Florida legislature for final action and funding.
Vermont last year became the first state in the nation to enact a prescription-importation law but has not submitted an application for federal approval. A similar measure passed the Maine Senate the same day as the Florida bill but requires further votes before becoming law.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) has proposed requiring HHS to negotiate the prices of at least 25 prescription medicines a year with the drug companies. But this plan does not interest the Trump administration and, according to Politico, has enraged left-of-center Democrats who want bolder remedies.
It may be that meaningful reductions in drug pricing are impossible to address separately from other health care costs, such as hospital rates and medical charges, which are also rising.
The United States pays far more than any other country in the world for health care, observes Diana Dooley. “The problem of controlling drug prices is similar to controlling prices in health care as a whole,” she said. “No one wants to give up anything.”
There are many interesting experiments aimed at lowering drug prices occurring in the states — California, Massachusetts, Vermont and Washington, in particular — that provide greater health care subsidies for low and middle-income Americans and in California’s case even unauthorized immigrants. Those efforts will be the subject of the July “Cannon Perspective.”
Lou Cannon is a former White House correspondent for the Washington Post and the author of several books, including “President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.”
During the 2019 Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, we caught up with Andrew Wales, Chief Digital Impact and Sustainability Officer at BT. Our latest Expert Q&A explores employers’ growing need for skills in technologies like AI, and why sustainability should be a core part of a company’s business strategy rather than an add-on. Here’s what he had to say:
What skills do companies require today?
“The UK faces a very big digital skills gap—more than 11 million adults do not even have the basic digital skills of being able to send an email or book insurance online and that is quite a big problem. For UK companies, probably three out of four face a significant digital skills gap and that costs the UK economy about £63 billion—the equivalent of half the budget of the National Health Service each year.”
“It is critical that we improve people’s skills for business now and business in the future and that is why we at BT are investing in the Barefoot program at the primary school levels to shape young people’s thinking as they come into secondary school and consider whether to study computer science. The program works with two million children through training 70,000 teachers across 60 percent of the UK’s primary schools and it’s about really improving their basic tech literacy—not just using technology but understanding how it works, how they can improve and disrupt it, and what it means for their future careers.”
What is the trend here?
“By 2022, the UK will need another half a million computer and digital experts. That’s the number we have trained in the last ten years and we need that amount again in just three years’ time so the training need is very significant.”
How is BT using AI?
“We look at it in different areas around the business. At this stage, it is essentially advanced machine learning. We use it being transparent and visible in something like chatbots on our website; we use it in some of our vehicle planning for BT Fleet; and we are looking at how other tech companies are at different ways to use it in the future.”
How important is data to your operations?
“We have access to different types of data at BT. Obviously we have access to mobile data in terms of how people move around with their mobile phones and there are very clear restrictions about at what point you can identify that data, and so we are looking at how we can use that data in different ways for the good of society and the business.”
“I think data is an increasingly important part of our lives. We have got probably five devices on average internet-connected in our homes at the moment, we are going to have 20 in the next five or ten years, and so we are all going to need to think together about business models for data that gives value to customers and improvements in society.”
How does sustainability fit into the equation?
“Sustainability is a growing area and will become even more important. What we are moving away from is companies treating it as something on the side of the business—a bit detached like a charitable cause like Corporate Social Responsibility, and instead moving to a world where it is actually a more strategic opportunity for the business to tackle big problems in society like the big digital skills gap and also solve problems for business growth. So, BT is hiring a lot of people with tech skills and we need people to be coming through and that’s a good example I think of a company understanding its broad sustainability impact.”
“A different sustainability example would be what we do on climate change. BT buys 1 percent of UK power and we buy already at 100 percent renewable, so we are one of the biggest buyers of renewable power in the world. We have got a target to be net zero carbon by 2045, which is the leader in the Telco sector. So, I think because we are a big energy user, because of the impact of climate change on our business through the risk of flooding and things like that, sustainability is an issue that is strategic to us and that is why we are managing it.”
Sustainability has advantages for firms—are there also risks to ignoring it?
“I think the risk of not tackling sustainability properly is that you can get wrong-footed. If you don’t, for example, understand how climate can impact your business, you don’t understand how the energy market might change, you don’t understand the training needs for your workforce and get ahead of that, then of course that will be a challenge for your growth in the future.”
How important is purpose to a modern business?
“I think for graduates coming in today or apprentices that we are attracting in, the purpose of the business is absolutely fundamental. Obviously the business needs to be successful, it needs to make money, but it needs to do it in a way that is genuinely a win-win, so it’s tackling society’s problems, it’s helping to grow the economy whilst also providing those high-quality jobs and delivering profit for our shareholders.”
“We at BT are thinking about different ways to do that through our digital skills work, through the training of our people internally and through the range of products that we offer to our customers, including vulnerable customers. We launched a product last year with a big NGO called Action on Hearing Loss. Seventeen million people in the UK have some form of hearing disability and we have a product with our EE mobile business that helps those people to get a better quality of service. It requires a lot of innovation and creative thinking and that’s what we need graduates and apprentices to really drive through.”
How important is senior buy-in to making it effective?
“I think buy-in from senior management is absolutely fundamental to purpose and sustainability. Our new CEO at BT is very committed to our activities in this space. We have a board committee called the Digital Impact and Sustainability Committee which looks at our performance on a quarterly basis—some of our challenges we might be facing and then how we can deliver on our significant commitments for the UK like our commitment to reach all five million primary school children with digital skills programs like Barefoot.”
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Turbulence appears to be the new normal in today’s global risk landscape. Political turmoil, changing regulations, disruptive weather events, financial instability and a variety of other factors can disrupt supply chains or involve companies in legal actions that result in devastating financial and reputational costs.
In such a dynamic environment, due diligence alone leaves companies vulnerable to emerging risk.
Is it time for your company to adopt a more proactive approach to risk management? That’s the question we asked recently when we teamed up with ProcureCon, S&P Global and CBRE for the webinar, “Risk Monitoring: Riding the Wave of Change.” Watch it now.
Risk management best practices based on real-world experiences
During the webinar, guest panellists offered their own takes on the modern risk landscape.Traci Carbotte, Supply Chain Strategic Sourcing Manager at CBRE, Robert Stahle, Corporate Director, Global Sourcing and Procurement at S&P Global and Oliver Gall, Head of Global Procurement at S&P Global weighed in on:
For example, Traci Carbotte, Supply Chain Strategic Sourcing Manager at CBRE, noted that monitoring for financial instability among suppliers has enabled “good success with risk avoidance” and allows CBRE to protect its clients more effectively. And when asked, “How and why did you convert risk monitoring from a want to a need and what were the hurdles you had to overcome?” Oliver Gall, Head of Global Procurement at S&P Global noted that “It was always a must-have. The degree of investment over time has increased as regulatory demands have increased. We are seeing regulators in other areas in the world replicate what we've seen for some time in the U.S. and Europe, as we expand, it increases the need to invest in third-party risk management.”
A potential fine is just one reason to ramp up risk monitoring
Companies need to move from reactive to proactive risk management.The complex nature of global supply chains exposes companies to much greater risk. Earlier this year, for example, German medical device giant Fresenius agreed to a $231 million settlement to resolve Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations for funnelling nearly $30 million in bribes through third-party intermediaries to public health officials and state-employed doctors in 17 countries.
It’s not just potential regulatory fines—and criminal prosecutions of bad actors—that serve as an incentive for more robust risk management.
Increasingly, investors and consumers are holding companies to much higher ethical standards. The pressure to be profitable and do good is pushing companies to walk the walk when it comes to their Corporate Social Responsibility commitments. Companies that do meet environmental, social and governance standards are proving that sustainable, ethical business practices pay measurable dividends.
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The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has released new guidance on strengthening sanctions compliance programs for companies based in or conducting business in the U.S. In the same month, there have been developments in sanctions in the U.S., China, Russia, Ukraine and Iran, and signs that U.S. and EU sanctions regimes are diverging. It has never been more important for companies to improve their compliance process to mitigate the risks caused by increasingly complex global sanctions regimes.
Rapidly changing sanctions
The global sanctions landscape never stands still.
Recent sanctions developments show the importance of any company that operates internationally having in place a rigorous sanctions compliance program. The U.S. has added Chinese telecom giant Huawei to a list of sanctioned companies for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. It has also tightened sanctions against Iran by revoking waivers on some buyers of Iranian crude oil. In response, China’s foreign minister opposed the U.S. sanctions against Iran.
The following week, Ukraine imposed new economic sanctions against Russia banning supplies of certain agricultural products, transport vehicles and industrial goods. Russia is expected to respond with new sanctions of its own against the Ukraine.
New OFAC guidance
In a timely move, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has underlined the importance of sanctions compliance by releasing new guidance on sanctions. This does not only apply to U.S. firms, but any global firm doing business with or in the U.S. OFAC “strongly encourages” firms to “employ a risk-based approach to sanctions compliance by developing, implementing, and routinely updating a sanctions compliance program.”
The five principles of a good program, according to OFAC, are as follows:
The new guidance from OFAC has many similarities to the EU’s draft guidance on best practices for internal compliance programs, which it released in September 2018. It listed seven best practices, including management commitment, training and awareness raising, organizational structure and auditing. But it specifies certain additional responsibilities, including “a comprehensive record keeping system”, an “adequate filing and retrieval system” both on paper and electronically, and a recommendation to consult with the relevant authorities “in case of doubt or suspicion” of a sanctions breach.
While the guiding principles for companies from the U.S. and EU may appear similar, the actual sanctions each imposes often differs significantly. This is evident in their recent respective approaches to sanctions against Iran.
The U.S. recently re-imposed sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action last year. But in return, the EU updated its regulations to restrict EU firms’ compliance with the new U.S. sanctions. Although there are signs the UK’s sanctions policies could change after it leaves the EU, it has committed to supporting the EU on this issue.
This is a further reminder of the complications that sanctions pose for firms operating on both sides of the Atlantic.
What should companies do?
If a company breaches a sanction, it exposes itself to significant reputational, legal, financial and strategic risks. So, staying on top of changes in sanctions is vital for companies with a global supply chain or client base, and the best way to do that is by introducing a compliance program that monitors sanctions watchlists and media coverage of sanctions on an ongoing basis.
Technology is becoming an increasingly useful asset in companies’ sanctions compliance programs. Firms have successfully used Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and other AI-driven technology to help automate compliance checks. When sanctions regimes change and new individuals or organizations are added to a watchlist, such tools automatically alert the company to these changes so they can carry out enhanced due diligence or even stop doing business in that area. This is more efficient and effective than carrying out regular manual checks to sanctions lists.
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The Wyoming statehouse in Cheyenne is undergoing a spiffy top-to-bottom makeover, and as is often the case with such undertakings, workers are digging up some cool stuff. As the Casper Star Tribune reports, the latest is six oil paintings that had been painted over on historic vault doors in the building’s lower level. The doors and the art likely date back to the building’s origin, circa 1891. Tony Ross, chairman of the Capitol renovation oversight group, says the paintings likely were intended to be a sort of coming out for the state to presumably more sophisticated folks back east, a way of saying “We’re not just rodeo and horses, we have sophistication.” Well, as someone whose mother and many other family members came from or still reside in the great state of Wyoming, it is pretty much all horses and rodeo. And that is just fine, thank you very much.
-- By RICH EHISEN
Get a mohawk, they said. Put a photo of your mohawk on a stock photography site, they said. You’ll look so cool, they said. Yeah, maybe not. Sacramento County officials recently undertook a public information campaign to clue people in on the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases. The campaign used the tag line “Some trends come back into style. Syphilis shouldn’t be one of them,” along with the photo of a young man with a wild Mohawk haircut. Which is all fine...unless it’s your photo they’re using as the new face of STDs in the Golden State. As the Sacramento Bee reports, social media wags noticed the ads and immediately began to mock the poor guy in the photo. Because and STD might be temporary, but meanness on the Internet is forever.
When a company belonging to Tesla founder and general oddball Elon Musk released a recreational flamethrower for public sale last year – no, really – the entire 20,000-unit supply sold out in days. Gobsmacked California lawmakers instantly tried to ban them, but that bill quickly went up in smoke. (I’m on a roll, people!) Now, as CCN reports, the New York Senate has passed its own ban, sparking Musk to give the propane-powered fire machines a new name: the “Not a Flamethrower.” Palm slap to forehead. The measure is now in the Assembly.
Emotional support dogs are hardly a rare sight in many public spaces these days. But how would you feel about sharing an airline seat with an emotional support peacock? Or perhaps someone’s emotional support alligator? While some might consider the idea funny, the growing trend toward more exotic support critters is no laughing matter for lawmakers tasked with trying to accommodate people who legitimately need a support pet, while also keeping folks from gaming the system with unusual or maybe even dangerous critters. As the New York Times reports, more than two dozen states have in recent years passed laws cracking down on folks who lie about their pets being actual support animals. Or you could say they are looking to ferret out frauds. See how I did that!
The WISCONSIN Assembly approves SB 239, which would limit the ability of local municipalities to regulate 5G technology. It moves to Gov. Tony Evers (D) for consideration (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL).
The WISCONSIN Senate approves SB 152, which would allow local governments to ban or regulate the rental of electric scooters. It moves to the Assembly (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL).
The SAN FRANCISCO Board of Supervisors votes unanimously to make the city the first in the nation to ban the sale of e-cigarettes. The ban will remain in place until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviews the products for their public health impacts (SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER).
HONOLULU Mayor Kirk Caldwell signs a measure that will allow no new permits for vacation rental homes, such as those found through Airbnb and VRBO. City officials, who unanimously passed the prohibition, estimate there are between 6,000 and 8,000 vacation rentals operating illegally in the city (HONOLULU CIVIL BEAT).
FLORIDA Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signs SB 82, which bans local governments from prohibiting residents from having a vegetable garden (FLORIDA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN
WISCONSIN Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoes four abortion bills: AB 179, which would have imposed a life sentence in prison on doctors who do not provide medical care to babies who were born after attempted abortions; AB 182, which would have banned women from seeking abortions because of the sex or disability of a fetus; AB 183, which would have cut off any state funding for medical providers that offer abortion services; and AB 180, which would have required doctors to tell women they could continue a pregnancy if they acted quickly after taking the first dose of a two-drug regimen that causes abortion (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL).
RHODE ISLAND Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) signs HB 5125, which codifies into Ocean State law a woman’s right to obtain an abortion (CNN).
NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs AB 3675, legislation that will allow unauthorized immigrants to obtain an Empire State driver’s license. The law goes into effect in 180 days (NEW YORK DAILY NEWS).
ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signs HB 2040, a bill that makes the Prairie State the first in the nation to ban private immigration detention centers (HILL [DC]).
The CALIFORNIA Assembly approves SB 78, which would mandate that most residents obtain health insurance coverage or pay a penalty. The measure, which would restore the so-called individual mandate implemented under the Affordable Care Act but since removed by Congress, moves to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who is expected to sign it into law (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
CONNECTICUT Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signs HB 7200, which raises the Constitution State smoking age to 21. The law applies to both traditional and electronic tobacco products (CONNECTICUT MIRROR [HARTFORD]).
FLORIDA Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signs three health care bills: HB 23, which creates a regulatory structure for doctors practicing telemedicine, using the internet and other technology to provide health-care services remotely; SB 322, which allows the sale of short-term health insurance policies; and HB 21, which eliminates the state’s “certificate of need” regulatory process for new hospitals and certain hospital services (NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA).
LOUISIANA Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signs SB 173, which among several things prohibits the denial of health insurance for preexisting conditions and allows for healthcare coverage on parent policies for any child until the age of 26 (ADVOCATE [BATON ROUGE]).
ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signs SB 1852, which requires Prairie State sterilization facilities to prevent leaks of ethylene oxide into surrounding neighborhoods and reduce legally allowable pollution emitted through smokestacks (CHICAGO TRIBUNE).
FLORIDA Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signs SB 1552, a bill that directs the state to work with a private marine institute to study and combat the red tide blooms that have hurt the state’s vital tourism industry and killed such wildlife as manatees, fish and dolphins (TAMPA BAY TIMES).
FLORIDA Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signs HB 7071, which requires Sunshine State school districts to allow students to fulfill some high-school graduation requirements by completing two credits in work-based learning programs and two credits in career and technical education (FLORIDA TODAY).
The MASSACHUSETTS House endorses HB 3904, a bill that would establish a framework for licensing and regulating appraisal management companies in the Bay State. It is now in the Senate (STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE [BOSTON].
NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signs AB 5321, which will require rideshare drivers to identify themselves with illuminated signs and digital barcodes on their cars (NJ.COM).
MAINE Gov. Janet Mills (D) signs HB 986, net-neutrality legislation that prohibits state agencies from contracting with broadband carriers that block or throttle traffic, or charge higher fees for prioritized delivery. The measure takes effect nine months after the end of the legislative session (MAINE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE, MEDIA POST).
ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signs HB 1438, which among several things legalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, gives cannabis-vendor preference to minority owners, and may ultimately expunge the record of thousands of people with criminal marijuana convictions (CBS NEWS).
CONNECTICUT Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signs SB 1, a bill that will ensure that Constitution State workers receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave, with employees who experience a serious pregnancy-related health complication to receive up to two additional weeks of paid time off. Employees dealing with their own serious health conditions or who are serving as a marrow or organ donor will also be eligible (CONNECTICUT GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
Saying the bill could have “unintended consequences,” TEXAS Gov. Greg Abbott (R) vetoed HB 1771, which would have barred minors forced into the sex trade by human traffickers from being charged as prostitutes. Although minors in Texas under age 17 cannot legally consent to sex with an adult, Abbott said prosecutors need to charge them as prostitutes to get them away from their traffickers. The measure unanimously passed both chambers. At least 20 states have adopted statutes barring trafficked minors from being charged as prostitutes. (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES)
The WISCONSIN Supreme Court ruled the Badger State schools chief cannot set education policy without permission from the governor. The court said that while the state constitution grants the state superintendent the powers of supervision over state schools, that power does not include the sole authority to write policy. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL, NBC NEWS)
A push from NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to legalize recreational marijuana use in the Empire State collapsed last month. With the votes not there for legalization, supporters turned their efforts to a proposal to lessen criminal penalties instead. Cuomo said he would sign that bill, but it too fell short of the needed votes and the session drew to a close without a deal in place. (NEW YORK TIMES, NEW YORK GOVERNOR’S OFFICE)
Calling it “unconstitutional,” NORTH CAROLINA Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said he opposes a bill (HB 370) soon to be heading to his desk that would require local sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The bill, which last week passed the Senate and was returned to the House for concurrence, did not clear either chamber by a veto-proof majority. (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER)
UTAH Gov. Gary Herbert (R) announced last week that he has ordered the state psychologist licensing board to “provide additional guidance” for the best ethical practices regarding psychology in the Beehive State. In a letter to Utah Department of Commerce Executive Director Francine Giani, Herbert wrote he specifically wanted “the state to ethically regulate psychological interventions for minor children regarding their sexual orientation and gender identity.” A measure to ban the controversial therapy, which seeks to change a minor’s sexual orientation. (KSL.COM [SALT LAKE CITY])
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) issued a long-awaited plan for addressing the state’s chronic challenges from wildfires and the role the state’s largest utilities play in those catastrophes.
The plan Newsom put forth would create a $21 billion insurance fund to help pay for future wildfire recovery, with the cost split between utility ratepayers and their shareholders. Those utilities would also be expected to spend another $3 billion toward fire mitigation efforts in order to become eligible to access the fund.
The proposals are likely to spark a furious battle in the Legislature, which must approve the proposals. His suggestion that the burden of proving utilities’ wrongdoing should be shifted onto customers if they protest fire-related rate hikes could be particularly contentious. That would reverse the current system, in which utilities must show responsible conduct to get state permission to pass on wildfire costs. (CALMATTERS, SACRAMENTO BEE, CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE)
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed a series of far-reaching bills last week aimed at reducing the rising cost of prescription drugs and boosting the use of renewable energy across the Pine Tree State.
Mills called the rising cost of prescription drugs “intolerable” and “unsustainable,” and said the four-bill package she signed on Monday was “a really major step forward” in bringing down prescription drug prices. The suite of bills included:
- SB 392, which allows for the importation of less expensive prescription medications from Canadian pharmacies, pending approval by the Trump administration
- SB 461, which would create a state board to set drug spending targets for state agencies
- SB 350, which requires drug makers to justify drug prices that increase by 20 percent or more in a year
- SB 466, which prohibits pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)from retaining rebates paid by manufacturers and requires those rebates to be passed along to the consumer or the health plan
“The outrageous prices of prescription drugs are hurting Mainers, especially older Mainers on a fixed and limited income. No one should have to choose between food or medicine,” Mills said in a statement.
Colorado, Florida and Vermont have also passed legislation to allow for cheaper drug imports, but the approval to do that is not a given. Although the president has indicated his support, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has questioned both the logistics of importing Canadian drugs and whether doing so would actually save any money. The importation bill Mills signed would allow Maine officials to work collectively with other states on gaining that approval.
Mills followed up on Wednesday by signing a trio of renewable energy bills she said would usher in “a new era of clean energy and climate leadership.” Those bills include:
- SB 550, which will create the Maine Climate Council, tasked with leading the state’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050
- SB 457, which would codify the state’s goal of increasing its renewable portfolio standard from 40 percent today to 80 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050
- SB 565, which will create new incentives for energy efficient heating and new solar incentive programs
Those measures will also require the state Public Utilities Commission to procure long-term contracts for new clean energy generation. (MAINE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE, ASSOCIATED PRESS, PORTLAND PRESS HERALD)
In a 5-4 decision, with liberal justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan joining conservative justices Thomas and Gorsuch, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a challenge by VIRGINIA House Republicans to districts redrawn under court supervision on technical grounds: that one legislative chamber could not fight a ruling that the state’s attorney general, Mark Herring (D) had accepted. The decision could help Democrats retake control of the House in this fall’s legislative elections. (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH)
U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. stayed an order he issued the previous day barring ARKANSAS from enforcing a law preventing candidates for statewide office from accepting campaign contributions more than two years before an election - a restriction approved by voters in 1996 as part of a larger effort to combat campaign political corruption - pending a ruling on the matter by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. Judge Moody was reportedly swayed by the state’s argument that the Arkansas resident who sued to block the contribution blackout doesn’t have standing to do so. (ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE [LITTLE ROCK])
FLORIDA’s GOP-controlled Legislature has approved and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is expected to sign legislation (SB 7066) that would, among other things, require early-voting sites to “provide sufficient nonpermitted parking to accommodate the anticipated amount of voters.” Critics charge that the provision is aimed at restricting voting on college campuses, where parking generally requires a permit. (TAMPA BAY TIMES, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK
Last month, Oregon’s 11 Republican senators walked out of their chamber to block a vote on a bill (HB 2020) aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Last week, with just days left in the state’s legislative session, those GOP lawmakers still hadn’t returned.
Democrats who control the Senate have issued statements saying the climate bill is effectively dead because it lacks the number of Democratic votes needed to pass. But Republicans are reportedly wary that if they did return, Democrats would try to pass the climate bill. Democrats, meanwhile, can’t actually kill the bill without a 20-member quorum, two more than the number of Democrats in the chamber.
If the Republican senators don’t return before the session adjourns on June 30, several Democratic legislative priorities could die, including permitting undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, modifying the death penalty, referring a cigarette tax increase to voters and allowing duplexes in some city neighborhoods zoned for single-family homes. (OREGONIAN [PORTLAND])
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of decisions last month with major implications for the country’s political landscape.
In one 5-4 ruling - with Chief Justice John G. Roberts joining the four members of the court’s liberal wing - the court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question in the 2020 Census, saying the administration hadn’t provided a valid reason for including the question for the first time since 1950, which some say would deter immigrants from participating and thereby diminish the political clout of states with large immigrant populations, like California and New York.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross told Congress that he’d decided to include the citizen question “solely” because of a request from the Justice Department to provide it with data to help enforce the Voting Rights Act.
But, writing for the majority, Roberts said, “the evidence tells a story that does not match the explanation the secretary gave for his decision.”
The court left open the possibility that the administration could give it a valid explanation for the question, potentially allowing the citizenship question to appear on census forms. But time is running out to print those forms.
In another 5-4 decision last week - with Roberts this time joining the four other conservative justices - the court ruled that determining whether the drawing of a state’s political districts was excessively partisan was “beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
“There are no legal standards discernible in the Constitution for making such judgments,” stated Roberts, again writing for the majority, “let alone limited and precise standards that are clear, manageable and politically neutral.”
The decision closes the door on future legal challenges to voting maps on partisanship grounds and likely opens the door to even more aggressive partisan gerrymandering by both parties in the future. (NEW YORK TIMES)
For the second year in a row, NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has failed to get a tax on the state’s top earners through the state’s Legislature, controlled by lawmakers of his own party. The $38.7 billion budget approved by lawmakers last week not only failed to include Murphy’s proposed increase on incomes over $1 million from 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent, but also other revenue generating measures the governor favored, including higher fees on opioid manufacturers and large businesses that don’t provide health coverage for their workers. (NORTHJERSEY.COM)
WISCONSIN’s Republican-controlled Senate passed an $81.5 billion state budget on a 17-16 vote, after a provision was added to the spending plan allowing the expansion of Tesla auto sales in the state, winning the support of a holdout GOP senator who owns a car dealership. Having already been approved by the Assembly the day before, the budget now goes to Gov. Tony Evers (D), who has the authority to veto parts of it. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL)
NEW JERSEY’s Economic Development Authority has requested information from six companies - Conner, Strong & Buckelew; Cooper Health System; Holtec International; NFL; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.; and The Michaels Organization - that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax breaks from the state. A special task force set up by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) to investigate the EDA has also issued some of those companies subpoenas for documents related to the incentives. All of the companies but Teva have ties to Democratic New Jersey powerbroker George E. Norcross III. (NJ.COM)
Democrats representing rural districts joined Republicans in MAINE’s House to defeat a bill that would have lowered the threshold for the state’s estate tax from $5.6 million to $2 million. Supporters made the case that the tax would impact a very small number of residents because few would ever inherit more than $2 million, but opponents argued that there were many family farms and small businesses in the state worth over $2 million. (PORTLAND PRESS HERALD)
If a major hurricane were to strike VIRGINIA’s Hampton Roads area, encompassing numerous cities and counties, including Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Newport News - like Hurricane Florence nearly did last year - it could result in losses of about $20 billion from wind and water damage and another $23 billion from job losses and reduced business activity, according to researchers from the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency and Old Dominion University. Those findings were presented to Gov. Ralph Northam (D) shortly before the start of the hurricane season on June 1. (VIRGINIAN-PILOT [NORFOLK])
CALIFORNIA Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a $214.8 billion budget, the largest in state history. The wide-ranging agreement commits over $103 billion to K-12 education, restores a number of Medi-Cal health care services that were cut during the recession and expands eligibility to unauthorized immigrants through age 25. (LOS ANGELES TIMES, CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE)