Talks Continue on NY Health Privacy Bill Passed 10 Months Ago
A New York state health data privacy bill could finally be sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in December, nearly a year after it quickly passed the legislature back in January (see 2501280023). Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D), the measure’s author, in an interview this week with Privacy Daily, said that she remains optimistic about getting the measure signed by year-end. “We’re still discussing any changes that [Hochul] might want to make.”
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A 30-day shot clock for signing the bill won't start until the legislature sends S-929/A-2141 to Hochul. If the governor has concerns, one option besides a veto is to modify the bill through New York state’s chapter-amendment process. If that happens, legislators and Hochul will have to agree on changes. Then the governor would let the bill become law with a commitment from the legislature to amend the law, which usually happens in January.
“The Governor will review the legislation,” a Hochul spokesperson said Wednesday. Last week, the governor’s office said the same thing about an AI bill that similarly has been pending final signature (see 2511170054).
Allie Bohm, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of New York (NYCLU), believes the news cycle has only continued to reinforce the need for a health privacy bill that goes beyond HIPAA protections to cover wearables and other consumer devices, she said in an interview Wednesday. “There are very good reasons for the governor to want to sign this bill, and it feels like we get more of them every day.”
Rosenthal told us, “We continue to get requests for changes from tech companies and others” who don’t “like the requirements imposed on them in the bill, and I know the governor’s office is speaking to those same people.” Rosenthal has also been in touch with the attorney general’s office, which supports the bill, she added.
Rosenthal is “always open to listening” to concerns, she said. But the legislator pointed out that she introduced the measure a few years ago. “We made changes ... and I met with probably every opponent or lobbyist or interest group that wanted to discuss it. So, it’s not like [it’s] brand new on someone’s radar.”
Rosenthal said she “generally [does] not agree with” the changes that have been proposed. She’s especially opposed to further delaying the effective date, which already would be one year after the bill is signed. But it was nearly a year ago when the bill passed the legislature, she said. “So now it’s delayed, and I believe they want to make it more delayed ... . That’s dangerous.”
“I continue to feel even more strongly than in the past that we need this bill enacted into law ASAP,” added Rosenthal. “It's just the continued assault on our rights by the Trump administration” and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., "who wants to collect all our data” from wearables (see 2507310067).
“Partly what motivated my introduction of this bill is the fact that these apps are just troves of information on people that can be weaponized against them,” and the Democrat doesn’t believe that Big Tech companies would say no to the current administration. “In the face of Trump and his ilk demanding, everyone folds.”
The existence of a federal health privacy bill in Congress (see 2511040041) doesn’t lessen the need for a New York bill, Rosenthal said. “These days we will always have something stronger -- barring any preemption -- than the federal government.”
NYCLU’s Bohm said the health privacy bill continues to face strong lobbying from industry groups including Meta, Tech:NYC and the Partnership for New York City. Those groups didn’t comment. Some amendments suggested by industry would undermine the bill, while others are more like “a few tweaks around the edges that are pretty unobjectionable,” said the representative of NYCLU, which supports the bill.
However, Bohm said businesses are “not a unified monolith” against the bill. She noted that the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s supported the privacy measure and two others in a package of gender-affirming and reproductive health bills. Meanwhile, Hochul in September received a letter of support from more than 200 health care providers. She also received a support letter signed by about 110 advocates for civil, LGBTQ and reproductive health rights, plus privacy, religious liberty and health care provider groups.
It’s not unusual for New York’s governor to wait until the end of the year to sign a piece of legislation, said Bohm, who expects a “deluge of bills” to be sent to Hochul in December. If the bill is sent, but the governor doesn’t sign it within 30 days, it’s considered a pocket veto, but Hochul is more likely to veto a bill outright than do it in silence, the NYCLU official said.
The bill seems likely to enter New York’s chapter-amendment process, Bohm said. “I work on tricky bills. I don't know that I've had a single bill passed that did not go through the chapter-amendment process in my six years here. It is really just a thing I expect on all bills.”