Despite Very Late State Budget, Legislature Passing Bills at Normal Clip
Senate and Assembly May Be Adapting to Short “Regular” Sessions
In response to questions by the news media, Reinvent Albany has collated the number of bills passed by the Legislature by May 15 in each legislative session since 2016. The data suggests that despite the very late state budget, the Legislature is passing bills slightly above the average clip. This means that the Senate and Assembly appear to be adapting to the budget consuming more of the “regular” legislative session.
As of May 15, 2026, 181 two-house bills have passed both houses, compared to an average of 147. The chart shows a big variability in the numbers of bills passed each year, which we think can be explained by the Senate and Assembly being controlled by different parties in 2016 and 2017, COVID-19 disrupting the 2020 and 2021 sessions, and a tendency for more bills to pass in even years, which are the second years of the two-year legislative session.
(H/T to Dan Clark’s May 13th post in Capitol Confidential, which we expanded upon.)
Source: NYS Legislative Retrieval System
Reinvent Albany searched Assembly Bills Passed Assembly, Senate Bills Passed Senate, and Both House Bills (Two-House) Passed Both Houses for each calendar year during Jan 1st – May 15th period.
Note that bills may be substituted in each house, i.e., a Senate bill may be “substituted” for the Assembly bill, if it passed the Senate first. These are not counted by individual house above, as they are reflected in the “Both Houses” column.
The two charts above can be found here.