Rich Purtell - LPNY Legislative Affairs Director

05/26/2026

A good bill which hopefully is passed this spring. Allows for plug-in solar up to 1,200 watt capacity with no permits or contracts.

Defines "portable solar generation device"; exempts portable solar generation devices from interconnection or net metering requirements; requires the state energy conservation construction code to allow for portable solar generation devices to be connected to a building's wiring through an electrica...

05/13/2026

NY keep Albany's phones ringing to stop the mandatory vaccine bill for camps. The NY Senate Health Committee passed the mandatory vaccines for camp bill yesterday, S3958a (Skoufis-D) yesterday. The bill would prohibit children who are not compliant with the shots required for school in New York from attending overnight camps, summer day camps, and travelling summer day camps. There are no religious or conscience exemptions.
The vote split on party lines with the exceptions of Democratic Senator Monica Martinez voting “No” and Democratic Senator Sam Sutton not voting.
The bill was not sent to the Rules Committee as is customary but sent directly to the Floor Calendar where it will await posting to the “Active List” of bills that will be voted on by the Senate as a whole.
If the bill is passed by the Senate and the Governor signs the bill before October of 2026 the law would take effect in October of 2026. If the Governor signs the bill after October of 2026 the law would take effect in October of 2027.

TAKE ACTION

Please call the following Senators and ask them to do what they can to prevent the bill from going to the floor, and why it is a bad idea. Talking Points are below.

Start with your own Senator. Your Senator’s contact information should appear below:

You Can look up your Senator here:
https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator

Please call these Senators:
Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Senate Majority Leader, D-35, Yonkers,
(518) 455-2585, LOB 907, Albany, NY 12247, [email protected]

Michael Gianaris, Deputy Senate Majority Leader, (D-12) Astoria, (518) 455-3486,
Capitol 427, Albany, NY 12247, [email protected]

Gustavo Rivera, Chair Senate Health Committee, (D-33) Bronx, (518) 455-3395, Capitol 502c, [email protected]

Sam Sutton, D-22, Brooklyn, (518) 455-2754, LOB 809, Albany, NY 12247, [email protected]
Sen Sutton refused to vote for S3958a in the Health Committee

Monica Martinez, D-4, Suffolk, (518) 455-2765, LOB 903, Albany, NY 12247,
Sen. Martinez voted No on S3958a in the Health Committee, and was one of only 4 Democrats who voted to protect the religious exemption in 2019

Peter Harckham, (D-40), Peekskill, (518) 455-2340, LOB 310, Albany, NY 12447, [email protected]
Harckham was one of only 4 Democratic Senators who voted to protect the religious exemption in 2019

Brian Kavanagh, (D-27) Lower Manhattan, (518) 455-2625, LOB 512, Albany, NY 12247, [email protected]
Kavanagh was one of only 4 Democratic Senators who voted to protect the religious exemption in 2019

James Skoufis, S3958a Sponsor, (D-42), (518) 455-3290 LOB 612, Albany, NY 12247, [email protected]

Siela Bynoe, (D-6) Garden City, (518) 455-3260, LOB 947, Albany, NY 12447, [email protected]

Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, (D-23) Coney Island, (518) 455-2437, LOB 944, Albany, NY 12247, [email protected]

Jeremy Zellner, (D-61) Buffalo, (518) 455-3240, LOB 617, Albany, NY 12247, [email protected]

TALKING POINTS

First, is there any need for this bill? Are there demonstrable outbreaks in summer camps?

Only one other state, California, requires all campers to be up-to-date with the school schedule, 49 state, including New York have it wrong?

This bill just adds to the needless and unjust discrimination against people with religious beliefs that preclude some or all vaccinations since New York became in 2019 one of only 5 states that do not allow religious exemptions.

Medical exemptions are technically allowed in New York, but they are nearly impossible to get, as shown by New York having the lowest rate of medical exemptions of any state according to CDC.

This bill would also place a considerable administrative burden on camps.

04/27/2026

Thoughts on this is a legislative idea for election law change:

If a candidate for US congress in NY does not have a current legal address in the congressional district in which they are running, and the candidate is seeking an independent ballot line via an independent nominating petition, the candidate must personally witness at least two-hundred (200) valid signatures of the three thousand five hundred (3,500) required.

My intention here is to prevent PAC funded candidates who live outside of a district to act as sabotage candidates for an election.

Send a message to learn more

04/25/2026

NYS assembly passed adult vaccine database bill which has been held up for several years.

Please contact your state senator and stop it there.

This idea is very threatening to individual privacy and liberty. If signed into law, this could lead to growth of more vaccine mandates and more special liability policies.

Would also be harmful to small pharmacies who don’t have the tools to access and track this information as readily as larger chains.

Requires a health care provider who administers an immunization to a person nineteen years of age or older must report such information to the department of health or to the New York city citywide immunization registry unless the person receiving the immunization objects to such reporting.

04/22/2026

Got an email from John Gilmore this morning. Five (5) bad vaccine related bills passed through the assembly health committee. Please contact your state reps in opposition. I'm pasting the email content here:

NEW YORK TAKE ACTION!
FIVE TERRIBLE VACCINES BILLS PASSED IN ONE
ASSEMBLY HEALTH COMMITTEE MEETING

The New York State Assembly Health Committee under the leadership of Chair Amy Paulin was very busy yesterday passing five awful vaccine-related bills. Some bills were less than a week old, others had been hanging around for years with no action. All are direct threats to our bodily integrity, medical privacy, health, safety and Constitutional rights.
We are going into the last 6 weeks (we hope) of the legislative session when almost all the voting on bills is done in Albany. We can stop these bills, but it will take intense effort by thousands of committed people.

TAKE ACTION
You must get on the phone today and call the following leaders in the legislature and let them know politely that you oppose the five bills below.

Sen. Andrea Stewart Cousins, Senate Majority Leader (518) 455-2585
Sen. Gustavo Rivera, Health Committee Chair (518) 455-3395
Asm. Carl Heastie, Speaker of the Assembly (518) 455-3791
Asm. Any Paulin, Health Committee Chair (518) 455-5585

Call your State Senator and Assemblymember’s offices and ask to speak to the elected official and let him or her know that you want them to oppose these bills. Talking points are below.

Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY)
(518) 474-8390 (Capitol)

Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado (D-NY)
(518) 402-2292 (Capitol)

Secretary of State Walter Mosley (D-NY)
(518) 486-9844 (Capitol)

Attorney General Tish James (D-NY)

Look up your State Senator here: https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator
Look up your Assemblymember here: https://nyassembly.gov/mem/search/

Please share this action alert with friends and family and post on social media.

A10711/S9895, Gov. Hochul’s Vaccine Power Grab
This bill gives control over the New York vaccine schedule, recommendations and policy to the Governor and her appointed Commissioner of Health. The vaccines selected under A10711/S9598 will not have to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices, or by any other federal agency. The bill allows the governor to make these decisions solely on her own authority. The bill will give complete control over the vaccine schedule for “newborns” to the Governor and her appointees with no oversight from the legislature, federal agencies, or anybody else. The Governor becomes the vaccine dictator of New York.

Click here to send messages to your Assemblymember and State Senator telling them that you oppose Gove. Hochul’s vaccine power grab.
https://www.votervoice.net/AUTISMACTION/Campaigns/136300/Respond

A2078/S5724 Mandatory hepatitis b shots for college
This bill would require hepatitis b shots to attend college in New York. Doesn’t matter if you are an online student or live out of state or even the US. Hepatitis b is transmitted via s*x or sharing needles not sitting next to someone in economics class. The stupidest thing about this bill is that it would remain illegal to exclude a person from college who has an active case of hepatitis but a healthy person who did not get the shot could be denied an education.
Click here to send messages to your Assemblymember and State Senator telling them that you oppose mandatory hepatitis shots for college students. A2078/S5724
https://www.votervoice.net/AUTISMACTION/Campaigns/136729/Respond

A765/S9893, The RFKJR Act, The mandatory adult vaccine database bill
This bill would allow information to be entered into the state vaccine database without the need to get permission from the person the information is about. They will be able to record whether someone received, or did not receive, a vaccine, and use that information for enforcement actions. This is one more step towards a completely mandatory adult vaccine database. The database is a surveillance and enforcement tool to give the state the information they need to enforce vaccine mandates, passports and other coercion and enforcement procedures.
This visible has been passed by the Health Committee and the Assembly before, but up till now has not made progress in the Senate.
Click here to send messages to your Assemblymember and State Senator telling them that you oppose the” RFKJR Act” A1071/S9895
https://www.votervoice.net/AUTISMACTION/Campaigns/136686/Respond

A9140/S9604, Liability immunity for vaccines NOT approved by the Federal Government
If Hochul is going to complete New York’s secession from the federal health agencies and mandate vaccines in New York not approved by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization practices, New York will need to provide immunity. A9140/S9604 provides immunity to workers who administer vaccines but not to the vaccine manufacturers. We expect another bill will arrive soon to protect the vaccine producers.
Click here to send messages to your Assemblymember and State Senator telling them that you oppose losing your Constitutional right to justice just to promote the goals of the vaccine industry.
https://www.votervoice.net/AUTISMACTION/Campaigns/136727/Respond

A3254a, Summer camp campers must get all mandates vaccines
Requires minor campers at summer camps to be current with the vaccine schedule required for school. This is a one-house bill sponsored by Asm. Jeffrey Dinowitz, meaning there is no companion bill in the Senate, and it cannot become law until an identical Senate bill appears.
All four bills have been forwarded to the Rules Committee, which decides which bill go to the floor for a vote.

 The New York Assembly Health Committee just passed a bill, A9140, authored by Linda Roesnthal (D-Upper Westside) that would eliminate the right of people injured by a vaccine recommended by the State of New York to sue the physician who...

04/20/2026

Keep an eye out for bills like this in New York State.

04/18/2026

I couldn’t agree more!

01/25/2026

As I’ve said for years, no product or service should have special liability. In reference to medical products this mantra especially applies to vaccines. The PREP act and VICP should both be repealed

This theory also should apply to anyone working in government. So called “qualified immunity” is a toxic concept which should be ended. No resident in the US should have special liability protections if their actions are improper and cause harm or death to other persons, even if they serve in a public sector position.

Assembly member 128 Pam Hunter has been promoting this bill in NY for several years. If you live in NY, please sign up for updates on this bill and contact your assembly and state senate members are urge them to pass QI reform in 2026.

Thank you

Provides a civil action for deprivation of rights which is caused by any person or public entity.

01/02/2026

12/20/2025

How environmental law intersects with vaccine liability policy:

In 1984 a major ruling was made by the SCOTUS which came to be known as the "Chevron Deference". The effect of the ruling was to greatly broaden the power of the administrative state. Executive branch agencies were able to make their own interpretations of intent for laws which were ambiguous. This case pertained to the EPA and Clean Air Act, but has had far reaching implications:

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/467/837/

Two years later in 1986 the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was created. The law empowered the CDC to determine which vaccines could receive special liability. It could be argued that had the Chevron Deference not happened in 1984, VICP may have required more specific action from Congress, i.e. to specifically note which vaccines would have special liability, vs. giving so much power to the CDC to determine the list.

https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/hrsa/vicp/vicp-fact-sheet.pdf

The Chevron ruling has long been criticized as a tool which weaponized executive branch agencies and put congress on a road towards ineptitude - passing laws which were mere "frameworks", leaving the lion's share of the hard work in developing regulations to executive branch agencies - which operate largely away from the public eye.

A year and a half ago Chevron was finally over-turned. While once again environmental topics drove the court case, the ruling will have far reaching consequences.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-chevron-curtailing-power-of-federal-agencies/

Under this new standard of governance, is VICP now even appropriate legislation? Is it plainly too vague, giving far too much power to the FDA/CDC to determine which vaccines receive special liability treatment?

If HHS under RFK Jr. does follow through on recent news and ceases to formally "recommend" ANY childhood vaccines, will that be interpreted to completely erase the VICP system? Will pro-vaccine advocates respond by going back to congress with a laundry list of vaccines which should be specifically codified into the VICP law, so as to take away such power from the CDC?

A lot of possibilities exist, and the flip-flop on Chevron could be a key component for future events, so medical freedom advocates should know how this relates to their cause.

This article was updated on June 28 at 3:46 p.m. In a major ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday cut back sharply on the power of federal agencies to interpret […]