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Senate environmental committee advances more than 20 bills, refers several to finance
Summary
The Senate Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation advanced a large package of bills on varied environmental subjects — from polystyrene bans and composting standards to wildlife protections and prevailing-wage rules for remediation — advancing many to the calendar and referring several to the finance committee.
The New York State Senate Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation advanced a slate of bills and referred multiple measures to the finance committee during its final committee meeting of the year.
Chair Pete Farquhump opened the session and thanked members and staff; committee members noted the panel passed more than 100 bills this year. The committee then considered a long agenda of environmental measures; most measures were advanced by voice vote after a motion and second, with recorded notations such as “1 without rec” or “2 without rec” in the committee transcript but without full roll-call tallies.
Key items advanced to the calendar or referred to finance included bills addressing a proposed ban on polystyrene products, limits on single-use paper carryout items, leash requirements tied to fuel standards, a community care monitoring program, air-quality monitoring for major mass transportation projects, technical-assistance grants and remediation programs, fisheries-related extensions, bans on certain sales and distributions, prevailing-wage requirements for ground-field remediation work (previously vetoed last year), composting symbol standards, the Accelerate Solar for Affordable Power Act (AWRs noted), the Great Swallow Protection Act, creation of a New York Youth Climate Corps, tire producer-responsibility rules, and multiple wildlife-management extensions.
Several bills were specifically referred to the finance committee for budgetary consideration; others were advanced directly to the Senate calendar. Where the committee recorded particulars in the transcript, those notes are reflected below. The committee did not provide full roll-call counts for most items in the publicly available transcript.
Votes at a glance (committee record excerpted from the meeting):
- "11/29" (by Senator Bain): Environmental Conservation Law — ban on polystyrene (presentation and motion recorded). Outcome: advanced to calendar. Committee note: "2 without rec." - "14 97" (by Senator Fait): Paper carryout reduction amendments. Outcome: referred to finance. Vote: not specified. - "24 11" (by Senator Parker): Leash requirement tied to fuel standards. Outcome: advanced to calendar. Vote: not specified. - "24 93" (by Senator Gunardis): Community care monitoring program. Outcome: advanced to calendar. Committee note: "1 without rec." - "34 08" (by Senator Cotton): Air-quality monitoring for major mass-transit projects. Outcome: referred to finance. Committee note: "2 without rec." - "34 92" (by Senator May): (title not fully specified in transcript). Outcome: advanced to calendar. - "4263" (by Senator Kavanaugh): Technical-assistance grants and Brownfield remediation programs. Outcome: referred to finance. - "4289" (by Senator Hahnemann Siegel): Fisheries/crab regulation extensions. Outcome: advanced to calendar. Movers named: Senator Feige (moved), Senator May (second). - "4691" (by Senator Cleer): Prohibiting certain sales and distribution. Outcome: advanced to calendar. Committee recorded 1 nay. - "5379" (by Senator Harker): Prevailing wage requirements for ground-field remediation under private contracts (measure passed by both houses last year and vetoed by the governor). Outcome: referred to finance. Committee discussion noted prior veto. - "5447" (by Senator Serrano): Composting symbol and standards; bill text requires a symbol denote products acceptable at composting facilities governed by DEC. Outcome: advanced to calendar. Committee discussion clarified that the bill includes a provision to denote products acceptable at all facilities governed by DEC. - "65270"/"65 to 70" (by Senator Harper): Accelerate Solar for Affordable Power Act (AWRs noted; three AWRs on vote sheets). Outcome: referred to finance (AWRs noted in committee record). - "6728" (by Senator Harper): Great Swallow Protection Act. Outcome: referred to finance. - "6879" (by Senator Ramos): New York Youth Climate Corps. Outcome: referred to finance. - "7410" (by Senator May): Study on schools within 500 feet of major highways. Outcome: advanced to calendar (see separate article for details). - "7415" (by Senator Ryan): Hunting regulation related to crossbow use. Outcome: advanced to calendar. - "7553" (by Senator Cabello): Tire producer-responsibility/producer responsibility for tires. Outcome: advanced to calendar. Committee recorded 2 nays. - "7809" (by Senator Salazar): State policy programs (title garbled in transcript). Outcome: referred to finance. Committee noted 2 nays. - "7862" (by Senator Biden): Extending DEC authority to manage certain species (text garbled to "manage blackness"). Outcome: advanced to calendar. - "7863" (by Senator Bynum): Extending authority to manage the American eagle. Outcome: advanced to calendar. - "7864" (by Senator Bynum): Amendment to 2011 law relating to Long Island provisions. Outcome: advanced to calendar. - "8047" (by Senator Stead / co-sponsored): Clean-up/companion legislation described as technical "cleanup" for previously completed work; advanced to the calendar.
Several items listed above were referred to the finance committee for budgetary review; where committee members named movers or seconders, those were recorded in the committee transcript and are shown above. The committee typically processed each item with a short motion, a second and a voice vote; roll-call tallies were not provided for most measures in the transcript.
