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Welcome to our weekly roundup of Pluribus News reporting, offered exclusively to our Members. If you'd rather not receive Stated, let us know.
In this week's edition:
TECHNOLOGY
Blue states chart new data privacy course
By Austin Jenkins
A few blue states are poised to adopt comprehensive consumer data privacy legislation that includes language business groups strenuously oppose, disrupting an equilibrium set in recent years.
More than a dozen states since 2021 passed privacy laws sharing common definitions and adhering to a common framework that were designed with input from the tech industry, which would prefer a national standard.
If enacted, the proposals in Maine, Maryland and Vermont could establish an alternative privacy model for other states to consider.
“It potentially, I think, represents a new paradigm for U.S. state privacy law,” said Keir Simmons, director for U.S. legislation at the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Read the full story here.
HOUSING
Lawmakers back major housing spending plans
By Sophie Quinton
Lawmakers in several states have approved multi-million dollar housing packages this year, signing off on new funding for low-income housing, housing-related infrastructure, homeless shelters and eviction prevention.
Bringing down housing costs has moved to the top of the agenda in many states as homelessness surges and a growing share of families struggle to pay rent or buy a home.
Almost half of renters and 23% of homeowners spent more than a third of their income on housing in 2021, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
“It’s the most bipartisan issue facing all of our states right now. End of story,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) said of housing at a National Governors Association event last month. “We all have to figure this out, and I think governors have to lead the way.”
Read the full story here.
ABORTION
Dems push contraception rights, accessibility
By Stephanie Akin
Concerns about birth control access are spurring lawmakers to take action in statehouses across the country, with dozens of bills filed since the overturning of Roe v. Wade to protect the right to contraception, or make it more affordable and accessible.
While a handful of measures have garnered bipartisan support, much of the pressure is coming from Democrats. The party sees an opening to build momentum in the run-up to the November elections by exposing tensions within the GOP on an issue that resonates with majorities of voters across the political spectrum.
The push this year comes as the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments Tuesday over limiting access to mifepristone, a medication used in a majority of abortions, and with the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent ruling that gave embryos created through in vitro fertilization the same rights as children.
Read the full story here.
ABORTION
Republican committee warns candidates on IVF
By Reid Wilson
The largest Republican group backing state legislative candidates is urging party members to embrace protections for doctors and clinics that provide in vitro fertilization treatment in the run-up to November’s elections, after a court ruling in Alabama sent the GOP scrambling to add new protections.
In a memo released Tuesday morning, the Republican State Leadership Committee and its policy partner said a recent poll they commissioned found voters were more likely to support candidates who “voted for commonsense protections for doctors and fertility clinics who assist parents and families in having children.”
“[T]here is room to grow with independent voters by showing more compassion on hot button issues that matter to voters,” Dee Duncan, the RSLC’s president, wrote.
Read the full story here.
PUBLIC HEALTH
States target intoxicating hemp products
By Austin Jenkins
States are cracking down on intoxicating hemp-based products, a burgeoning industry operating outside of the regulated cannabis market.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) this month signed prohibitions on the sale of certain products. A bill capping hemp THC levels is awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) signature in Florida.
Hemp regulation and taxation bills have been introduced in numerous states this year, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee, according to tracking by U.S. Hemp Roundtable, an industry trade group, and other sources.
Read the full story here.
ENVIRONMENT
Conspiracy-laden bills target cloud-seeding
By Reid Wilson
Conservative lawmakers in at least seven states have introduced measures that would prevent or restrict weather modification experiments, seemingly based on “chemtrail” conspiracy theories that suggest the government or some unknown actors are spreading chemical or biological agents in the nation’s skies.
The Tennessee Senate last week approved a bill to ban what it calls “geoengineering experiments” that intentionally disperse chemicals into the atmosphere. Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano (R), the 2022 Republican nominee for governor, told fellow lawmakers he would introduce similar legislation in the coming weeks.
Bills have also been introduced in Rhode Island, Minnesota, Kentucky, South Dakota and New Hampshire, all sponsored by Republican legislators. None of those measures have progressed beyond a committee hearing.
Read the full story here.
