The Tenth

Two floors moved this week. The federal floor came down. The state floors went up.Maryland became the first state in America to ban surveillance pricing—the practice of using your personal data to charge you a different price than the shopper next to you. Governor Wes Moore signed HB 895 with a 100-31 House vote and a 41-1 Senate vote. Washington banned noncompetes statewide after the FTC walked away. Hawaii moved to let insurers sue fossil fuel companies for climate-disaster payouts. Maine became one of the first states to bar AI from acting as a therapist. Vermont became the second state to let people sue officials in state court for constitutional rights violations.Meanwhile in Washington, the Supreme Court ruled 6-to-3 to gut Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act — the federal floor under every state's redistricting process for sixty years. Justice Kagan, in dissent, called Section 2 "all but a dead letter." The House reauthorized FISA Section 702 surveillance 235-191 without a warrant requirement. The 60-day War Powers Act clock on the Iranconflict expired May 1 with no Senate vote. The Senate revoked the Boundary Waters mineral ban 50-49 via the Congressional Review Act.Plus: Mississippi's unanimous rare-disease task force, New Jersey's preeclampsia screening mandate, Alabama's rural-hospital antitrust waiver (103-0, 34-0), the Pennsylvania House's 124-77 vote on a model data-center zoning ordinance, Iowa's 90-0 vote to write play-based learning into state law, and Connecticut's 142-2 vote to drop the social-work licensing exam.Track every bill mentioned in this episode at amendment.app. 

The Senate killed an Iran war powers resolution for the fifth time, voted 50-49 to revoke a 20-year mineral ban next to America's most-visited wilderness, and considered a $200 billion war supplemental. Meanwhile 18 statehouses kept moving: Maine banned medical debt liens (LD 2129), Virginia became the first Southern state with paid family leave (HB 1207), Tennessee passed frontier-AI safety 94-0 (HB 1898), Alabama gave residents the right to opt out of AI profiling (HB 351), and Virginia voters rewrote their own congressional map by 51.5%-48.5%. Two rulebooks got rewritten this week. Washington argues over the elections one. The states are writing both. Every bill at amendment.app.

Congress came one vote short of reining in the president's war powers on Iran. H. Con. Res. 40 failed 213-214. In the same seven days, six state laws passed that were first in the nation: New Mexico universal child care; Oregon letting users sue AI chatbot makers; Nebraska farm data privacy, Washington banning AI insurance denials and banning 3D-printed ghost-gun blueprints; and Virginia joining the National Popular Vote compact. We also cover Virginia's pharmacy benefit manager reform (S.B. 669), the Maryland Vax Act severing from the CDC (H.B. 637), and Kentucky's new eating disorder coverage mandate (H.B. 169). The federal grid blew out. The 50 state generators picked up the load. Follow every bill at amendment.app.