December 09, 2025

New State Rounding Rules Coming for Cash Transactions?

Federal Government’s Penny Pinching Could Spur States to Set New Rounding Rules for Cash Sales Retailers are pushing for national rules to allow businesses to round cash sales to the nearest nickel, as a result of the federal government’s decision to stop minting pennies. But ten states have laws prohibiting that practice. The National Conference of State Legislatures is urging states to set their own rounding...

December 09, 2025

OH Gov’s Veto of Youth Work Hour Expansion Bill & More

OH Gov Vetoes Bill to Expand Youth Work Hours Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) vetoed a bill ( SB 50 ) that would have allowed 14- and 15-year-olds to work until 9 p.m. year-round. DeWine said in his veto message that he didn’t like the idea of teens working so late on school nights. ( DAYTON DAILY NEWS ) UT Lawmakers to Consider Repeal of Collective Bargaining Ban Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) called the state Legislature...

December 09, 2025

Trump’s One National Rule for AI & More

Trump to Issue National AI Rule President Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order this week establishing a single national rule for artificial intelligence, presumably preempting various state laws on AI. Trump didn’t provide details about the rule, but the White House circulated a draft executive order last month providing for the preemption of state AI laws via lawsuits and the withholding of federal...

December 09, 2025

Pay Transparency Remains Priority for States

A legacy of the #MeToo Movement has been an increased focus nationwide on pay transparency. Pay transparency laws are perhaps most often thought of as requirements that employers disclose compensation figures to promote fairness and reduce pay disparities due to gender, race or ethnicity, a theme of #MeToo . Fourteen states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota...

November 25, 2025

More State Bills Aimed at AI-Driven Rental Pricing & More

States Continue to Target AI-Driven Rental Pricing Nineteen states are considering bills that would limit the use of third-party software relying on competitor data to set rental housing prices, according to analysis by the American Economic Liberties Project, a non-profit, non-partisan, anti-monopoly think tank. New York enacted such a law ( SB 7880 ) in October, while California enacted a broader law ( AB 325 ) banning...

November 25, 2025

State AI Law Preemption Efforts & More

Trump, Congress Weigh Measures to Preempt State AI Laws The Trump administration circulated—and then put on hold—a draft executive order aimed at preempting state laws regulating artificial intelligence. The order would have directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to create a task force specifically for challenging state AI laws and directed the Department of Commerce to review state laws and issue guidelines...

November 25, 2025

Legislation Regulating Neural Data Picks Up Steam

Last year, after Colorado and California became the first states in the nation to expand privacy protections to include neural data, we said more states could follow suit . This year two more have done so. In May, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) signed SB 163 by Sen. Daniel Zolnikov (R) to include neurotechnology data under the protections of the Big Sky Country State’s Genetic Information Privacy Act . A month...

November 21, 2025

Medical Debt Protection Bills in MI

MI Lawmakers Advance Medical Debt Protections The Michigan Senate’s Health Policy Committee has advanced a trio of bipartisan bills aimed at reducing the burden of medical costs on residents of the state. SB 449 , SB 450 and SB 451 would require hospitals to implement a financial assistance program allowing patients who are uninsured and have annual incomes at or below 350% of the federal poverty line to receive...

November 21, 2025

EU’s Major Course Change on Regulating Big Tech

EU Reversing Course on Tech Regulation After aggressively regulating the technology industry for over a decade, the European Union is moving to loosen its landmark digital privacy and artificial intelligence rules, in response to growing concern that European tech companies are falling behind those in the United States and China. The potential changes include scaling back the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR...

November 20, 2025

Trump Administration and States at Odds Over Labor Authority

On the last day of September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill increasing the Golden State’s authority over workplace disputes and union elections . AB 288 by Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor (D) expands the power of the state’s Public Employee Relations Board to include oversight of private sector disputes that fail to draw a quick response from the National Labor Relations Board, as well as elections...

November 13, 2025

Coming Wave of AI Chatbot Legislation & More

Wave of Chatbot Bills Coming Next Year State lawmakers are preparing to introduce a wave of measures in 2026 aimed at regulating AI chatbots, following the lead of California and New York, which enacted first-in-the-nation chatbot laws this year, SB 243 and budget bill SB 3008 , respectively. Next year’s bipartisan legislation is expected to approach chatbots the same way as recent state legislation regulating...

November 13, 2025

OH’s Move to Allow Minors to Work More Hours

OH Seeks to Loosen Hourly Work Restrictions for Minors Ohio lawmakers took action this month to extend the hours minors can work in the state. On Nov. 7 they passed a bill ( SB 50 ) that would allow workers under the age of 16 to work until 9 p.m. more frequently with the permission of their parent or legal guardian. Even if Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signs the bill, however, the state can’t make the change unless the...

November 12, 2025

After Colorado’s Unprecedented Prescription Drug Cap, What’s Next?

A relatively new type of government board took unprecedented action in Colorado last month when it placed an upper limit on the price of an arthritis and autoimmune disease medication. The state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board voted on Oct. 3 to cap the price of Enbrel at $31,000 a year for patients, making Colorado the first state in the nation to set a cost ceiling on a prescription drug. About 2,500...

October 31, 2025

Predictive Patterns in the Regulatory Process: How Historical Adoption Rates Hold the Key to Forecasting Future Regulatory Action

STATE NET® THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES How Historical Adoption Rates Hold the Key to Forecasting Future Regulatory Action Just as state legislatures vary in their bill passage rates, some state agencies adopt far more of the rules they propose than others. The reasons for that disparity are even more difficult to discern than with the legislative process, but understanding how they shape adoption rate patterns is...

October 29, 2025

Part of MD Digital Ad Tax Law Struck Down

Judge Strikes Down Part of MD Digital Ad Tax Law A federal judge struck down a provision of Maryland’s first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax law that prohibited online companies from notifying consumers about the tax via a fee, surcharge or line item on their bills. The judge said that provision “facially violates the First Amendment.” The state does not intend to appeal the ruling. A separate...

October 29, 2025

NLRB’s Legal Challenge to CA Labor Board Law

NLRB Sues California to Block Labor Board Law The National Labor Relations Board has filed a lawsuit to block a new California law ( AB 288 ) empowering the state’s Public Employee Relations Board to oversee some private-sector labor disputes and union elections. The NLRB has also challenged a similar law ( SB 8034 ) enacted in New York in September. Legislators in both states said the laws were spurred by President...

October 29, 2025

TX AG’s Lawsuit over Tylenol

TX AG Sues Johnson & Johnson over Claimed Tylenol-Autism Link Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson this week claiming the company hid the risks of Tylenol, which it sold for decades, from consumers. The suit stems from President Trump’s unproven claim last month that the drug causes autism. The suit also claims that Kenvue, a Johnson & Johnson spinoff company...

October 28, 2025

Rollback of Federal Community Reinvestment Rule Spurs State Legislative Action

Over the past 47 years, seven states have enacted their own, state-level versions of the federal Community Reinvestment Act to ensure financial institutions within their jurisdictions are meeting the banking, lending and investing needs of consumers. Passed in 1977, the federal act was established first to combat redlining , the discriminatory practice of denying loans to people based on their race or ethnicity or the...

October 27, 2025

State Lawmakers Taking More Consumer-Focused Approach to Data Privacy

STATE NET® THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES New State Data Privacy Laws Spell Compliance Challenges Corporate legal and compliance teams may have their hands full navigating through the piecemeal state approaches to data privacy regulation, especially if the new consumer-first legislative trend continues to emerge. The State Net Capitol Journal™ reported on some examples of states that bucked Big Tech’s wishes...

October 27, 2025

State Legislatures Take Action to Regulate Pharmacy Benefit Managers

STATE NET® THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES The Role of Pharmacy Benefit Managers Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are companies that contract with health insurers and employers to manage the prescription drug benefits for millions of Americans. They function as third-party administrators of prescription drug coverage, providing a wide variety of services that range from negotiating prices with drug companies to processing...

October 14, 2025

CA’s Ban on Algorithmic Price Fixing & More

CA Bans Algorithmic Price Fixing California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed AB 325 , making it a violation of the state’s antitrust law, the Cartwright Act, “to use or distribute a common pricing algorithm as part of a contract, combination in the form of a trust, or conspiracy to restrain trade or commerce.” California is one of eight states that joined a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit...

October 14, 2025

CO’s First-in-Nation Prescription Drug Price Cap

CO Becomes First State to Cap Prescription Drug Price On Oct. 3 Colorado’s Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board set an upper payment limit, or UPL, for Enbrel, a prescription drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. The cap—limiting what insurers and patients pay for the medication to no more than about $31,000 per year, nearly half the $53,049 average amount insurance...

October 14, 2025

Quantum Computing Starts to Draw State Lawmakers’ Attention

Move over, artificial intelligence. Quantum computing may be the next big thing in tech, and state legislators are beginning to take a look at it. For the uninitiated, quantum computing, like AI, is a new class of technology. But instead of relying upon machine learning and natural language processing , quantum computers leverage the principles of quantum mechanics —that is, the physics of subatomic particles...

October 07, 2025

Reinsurer Reports FL Insurance Industry Reforms Working

Glowing Progress Report on FL Insurance Market from Gallagher Re The insurance industry reforms enacted in Florida in 2022 and 2023 in response to soaring homeowners’ premiums and carrier insolvencies have improved market conditions in the state, according to a report from reinsurance broker Gallagher Re. The number of claims lawsuits against carriers has significantly dropped, insurers’ loss ratios and...

October 07, 2025

CA’s New AI Safety Law & More

CA Enacts AI Safety Law California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an artificial intelligence safety measure ( SB 53 ), exactly one year after vetoing a similar but broader bill (SB 1047 [2024]). The new law is aimed at preventing the most advanced AI systems from posing “catastrophic risk,” such as by helping to create a biological or nuclear weapon. The New York Legislature passed a similar law in June (...