New York State Legislature

Albany Bill Tracker

Filters

Your county Hide bills only about other counties Hide bills for one person or group, and road namings

Where it is now

Topic

Sponsor Include bills they co-sponsored

New activity

More filters

Party of sponsors and co-sponsors

Furthest it has gotten this session

Law amended

Committee

Has a version in

History in other sessions

Year introduced

Sort

Loading bills…

How to weigh in

Residents

Contact your state senator and Assembly member (find your senator, find your Assembly member).
Give the bill number, your position, and a reason.
In committee: write the chair. Passed both houses: write the governor.

Organizations and businesses

Send a memo of support or opposition to the sponsors and committee chairs.
After it passes both houses, send it to the governor's counsel.
Spending over $5,000 a year on lobbying requires registration.

Local governments

Send a resolution to your legislators, the sponsors, and the governor.
After it passes both houses, write the governor's counsel. The letter goes in the bill's file.
A bill affecting only your locality needs your home rule request.

Governor's office

Online: Send a message to the governor

Phone: (518) 474-8390, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Mail: NYS State Capitol Building, Albany, NY 12224. Letters on passed bills: Counsel to the Governor, same address.

Who decides at each stage

Stage	Who decides	Contact
In committee	The chair sets the agenda	Chair, members, sponsors
Awaiting a floor vote	House leaders	Your legislators, sponsors
Passed one house	The other house	Its committee chair and sponsor
Passed both, not yet requested	Governor's office, any day through December	Governor's office, sponsors
On the governor's desk	Governor, within 10 days (Sundays excluded)	Governor's office

The steps

Committee. Each bill is introduced in the Senate or the Assembly and sent to a committee on its subject. Many then have to clear a second committee: bills that cost money go to Senate Finance or Assembly Ways and Means, and bills that create crimes or penalties go to Codes. Near the end of the session, many bills in both houses also pass through the Rules Committee, which the leadership controls. Most bills never get out of their first committee.
Floor. When a committee approves a bill (“reports” it), the bill goes on that house's calendar (“third reading”) to wait for a vote of the full house. Party leaders decide which bills come up for a vote, and floor calendars are published the day of the vote.
The other house. A bill that passes one house goes to the other. Most bills have a matching (“same as”) bill in the other house. When the passed bill arrives, the other house usually swaps it in for its own version and votes on it. Both houses have to pass identical text.
Waiting to be sent. A bill that has passed both houses stays with the Legislature until the governor's office asks for it. Her office requests bills in batches through the rest of the year, and nothing is required of her until then.
On the governor's desk. Once a bill is delivered, the governor has 10 days, not counting Sundays, to sign or veto it. For bills delivered at the very end of the year, after the Legislature adjourns, she has 30 days, and a bill she doesn't sign is vetoed (a “pocket veto”). In practice she always acts. Some bills are signed with an agreement to amend them the next year (a “chapter amendment”).
The two-year session. Bills carry over from the first year to the second. In January of the second year, bills that passed only one house are sent back to committee in their original house and have to pass again. Any bill that hasn't passed both houses by December 31 of the second year dies and has to be reintroduced with a new number.

The two-year calendar

How to have an impact

Contact whoever decides the next step. In committee, that's the committee chair. On the floor, it's the house's leaders, who choose which bills get a vote. Once a bill has passed both houses, it's the governor's office. Each bill on this site names that person and what to ask.
Bring in your own legislators. Your senator and Assembly member listen most to their own constituents. Ask them to co-sponsor a bill, to press the chair or leaders to move it, and to vote for it.
Time it. Committee agendas usually come out the week before a meeting, so write to the chair before then. A bill sent to the governor starts her 10-day clock; if you write her only once, write then.
Write again only with something new, such as a new fact, a local impact, or a new stage ("it was just delivered; please sign it"). The same message twice from the same person usually counts once.
Multiply people, not messages. Ten different people writing outweighs one person writing ten times. Share your watchlist so others can weigh in too.
Make it personal. A sentence about why it matters to you or your community carries more weight than form text.
If it runs out of time, ask the sponsors to reintroduce it next session, and ask your legislator in the other house to sponsor it there if it has no sponsor in that house.

About this data

Data from the New York State Senate Open Legislation API, which covers both houses. Senate and Assembly versions of the same bill (“same as”) are shown together, and the stage is the furthest either version reached.

A bill reintroduced in a later session gets a new number. The API links each bill to its earlier versions, and the history under each bill follows those links. Outcomes are shown for sessions back to 2017–18; older versions are listed without an outcome.

Topics are assigned from the committees a bill was referred to and the laws it amends, so a bill can have more than one. Bills withdrawn by their sponsors (“stricken”) and resolutions are left out.

“Where it is now” shows each bill's current stage. “Furthest it has gotten” also counts bills that passed a house in the first year and were sent back to committee in January of the second year, when they had to pass again. Governor's deadlines are estimates: 10 days after delivery, not counting Sundays, or about 30 days for bills delivered in the last days of the year.

Party filter: a bill counts as “both parties” if either version has at least one sponsor or co-sponsor from each party. Party is from Open States, including former members.

Outcomes by session