Six Firsts in Seven Days: The States Pick Up the Load

Demolition and Construction: One Week, Two Job Sites

By four votes—216 to 212—the U.S. House voted to weaken the Clean Air Act for the first time in its 55-year history. The EPA scrapped the first federal limits on four PFAS “forever chemicals,” the Supreme Court narrowed the Voting Rights Act 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais, and Congress again punted on the Section 702 surveillance program. In Washington this week, the work was demolition. In the state capitols, it was construction. Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed the Utility Relief Act (House Bill 1532), making Maryland the first state to require data centers to pay for the grid upgrades they drive—and a separate first-in-the-nation ban on grocery-store surveillance pricing. Georgia (Senate Bill 540) became the first state to require AI chatbots to disclose they aren’t human; Oklahoma (Senate Bill 504) became the 17th to fully ban child marriage. States built safety nets too: Colorado's mandatory lethality assessment for domestic-violence calls (House Bill 1009), Pennsylvania’s Greg Moyer’s Law on school AEDs (Senate Bill 375), and Ohio’s FIND Act for missing-person reports, which passed 96-0. And the bipartisan bills kept moving—Mississippi’s child-care tax credit cleared 122-0 in the House and 48-1 in the Senate. One country, two job sites: a teardown in Washington and a build-out in the laboratories of democracy. For the full text, status, and plain-English breakdown of any bill mentioned, head to amendment.app [https://amendment.app/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=the-tenth&utm_content=ep6-description].

The Boundary Line: Five States Fence In Personal Data

Maryland just became the first state in the country to ban surveillance pricing in food retail. House Bill 895 stops grocery stores and delivery apps from using algorithms or personal data to charge different shoppers different prices for the same gallon of milk—House 96-32, Senate 41-1, signed by Governor Wes Moore on Monday. It happened in the same week the Department of Homeland Security quietly shut down the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, the last independent watchdog over ICE. In the same seven days, New York’s Senate moved Senate Bill 1422 to let residents sue companies that scan their face or fingerprints without consent, Vermont passed House Bill 814 putting brain signals under the same legal protection as a fingerprint, Vermont also moved House Bill 211 creating a one-button portal to wipe every data broker’s file on you, Minnesota’s Tim Walz signed House File 1606 making Minnesota the first state to ban AI nudification apps (Senate 65-0), and New Jersey extended Daniel’s Law to victim advocates and forensic nurses. Connecticut’s Ned Lamont signed House Bill 5003 lifting workplace-assault pay for teachers and nurses to 100% of wages. Louisiana, New York, Alaska, Ohio, and Georgia moved healthcare bills filling federal vacuums. Tennessee passed House Bill 7002 unlocking mid-decade redistricting; South Carolina filed its own. Five different invasions, five different states, one shared answer: it’s your face, your file, your price, your brain, your image—and the courthouse is open. Follow every bill at amendment.app.

The Cartographers and the Coders: Two Maps Being Drawn at Once

Florida just redrew its congressional map four years ahead of the next census, flipping its delegation from 20-to-8 Republican to a projected 24-to-4—and three lawsuits were filed within hours of the bill's passage. Two days later, the Wall Street Journal reported the White House is pressuring Southern Republican leaders to redraw their maps mid-decade too. Within 48 hours, twenty-five South Carolina Republicans introduced a bill to do exactly that. In the same seven days, Connecticut passed the most comprehensive state AI law in the country (Senate Bill 5, 32-4 / 131-17), Iowa became the first state to put hard rules on AI chatbots talking to children (Senate File 2417, 48-0 / 95-0), New York moved to let residents sue companies that scan their faces without consent (Senate Bill 1422), and California advanced a bill to cut the license-plate-reader pipe to ICE (Senate Bill 1013). We also cover North Carolina's $319M Medicaid rescue (House Bill 696), Louisiana's pharmacy benefit manager reform (House Bill 1236), New Jersey's reproductive-care shield (Senate Bill 2260), Georgia's statewide tow database (Senate Bill 569, 45-5 / 160-0), the Senate's fifth war powers vote on Iran (47-50), and the EPA rescinding the 2009 endangerment finding. Two state-level projects, running at the same time. The cartographers are redrawing the maps. The coders are writing the rulebook. Follow every bill at amendment.app.

Maryland Bans Surveillance Pricing While SCOTUS Guts the Voting Rights Act

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.

Two Rulebooks: While Washington Stalls, the States Rewrite Daily Life

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.