Legislative Bulletin: State Reaches Final Budget Agreement

May 9, 2025

Final Budget for SFY 2025-26: Advocacy, Outcomes, and Next Steps

After five weeks of negotiations extending beyond the April 1 deadline, the State has officially reached a final budget agreement for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2025-26 and has approved all corresponding budget legislation. On Thursday, within hours of seeing the Health & Mental Hygiene (HMH) budget bill, LeadingAge New York published a summary of high-level health budget measures related to long-term care and our membership. That update was written prior to the reveal of the Education, Labor, Housing and Family Assistance (ELFA) budget bill and other critical appropriations bills which are critical to the understanding of the full budget. Thus, last night LeadingAge New York published a supplemental high-level summary of the final budget’s housing measures and additional takeaways revealed by the remaining budget bills.

It is important to note that we are still analyzing the entirety of the final state budget and how it might apply to our membership. A comprehensive Final Budget Memo, covering all service lines, will be published by Fri., May 16^th.

We deeply appreciate all the advocacy our members have done this year to advocate and fight for the State funding that providers need and older adults deserve. In total, our network of advocates sent over 8,000 digital budget letters to legislators and the governor, not counting individual member efforts! In addition, many members created advocacy videos, participated in press events, amplified social media messages, attended multiple advocacy day efforts in Albany, wrote formal letters, and more. Your advocacy was robust, creative, and impressive all-around. While it will be important for us to build upon our advocacy work going forward, we first want to thank you for all your advocacy so far this year – thank you!

Next Steps

As we begin to formulate our next steps, it will be crucial to channel our frustration into action, to oppose harmful legislation still being considered, and to amplify a unified message to NY policymakers and to the public. The 2025 Legislative Session is scheduled to conclude on June 12^th, but there is a great deal of legislation that will be considered and potentially passed by the Legislature between now and then. We will need members to stay engaged in advocacy over the final weeks of session to help us oppose harmful bills and support the ones that would be helpful to members and older adults. Members are encouraged to stay up to date with all advocacy opportunities and legislative developments via this publication, our weekly Legislative Bulletin.

Lastly, LeadingAge New York has already begun to publicly respond to the final state budget agreement, issuing this press statement on Thursday afternoon. Part of the statement reads, “Year after year, we sound the alarm about nursing home closures and staffing shortages, but these warnings were not heeded in the final budget. The only conclusion we can reach is that the state deems it acceptable for more non-profit nursing homes to close, for families to face difficulty finding a safe place for their loved one to receive care close to home, and for hospitals to continue to battle back-ups.”

LeadingAge NY will continue to pursue press strategies to advance our policy goals and tell the stories of our members. We welcome all members to join press and advocacy discussions at our Public Affairs Council meetings, which will continue to be held monthly. This month’s meeting will be held on Thurs., May 15^th (more information below).

BILL ON ASSEMBLY CODES AGENDA: Oppose Requiring Written Consent for Antipsychotic Medications

A piece of legislation which LeadingAge NY opposes has been added to the Assembly Codes Committee agenda for Tuesday, May 13. The bill, A.1461-A (Paulin)/S.893-A (Sepulveda), would require an enhanced level of informed consent before antipsychotic medications can be prescribed for residents of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The legislation makes two major changes to state laws in an effort to reduce the use of antipsychotic medications:

Requires health care professionals to receive written consent from the resident or the resident’s “lawful representative” before initiating an antipsychotic medication; and
Requires that written consent be renewed every 12 months.

LeadingAge New York supports the goal of this legislation – to further reduce the inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications in nursing homes. However, the strategy this bill would deploy – enhanced consent in writing – is misguided and could negatively impact residents and families.

It is reasonable and appropriate to require oral consent; however, written consent poses barriers to care for residents of nursing homes and their families. In addition, there are already ample federal and state guardrails in place to safeguard against the unnecessary use of antipsychotics.

TAKE ACTION NOW: Please click here to email elected officials in opposition to this legislation!

In addition, we encourage members to call your Assembly Member’s Albany office to vocalize your opposition to this bill – especially if your State Assembly Member sits on the Assembly Codes Committee! LeadingAge NY memo of opposition is available here.

Please call your Assembly Member with the below talking points on the antipsychotic bill.

I am calling you today to oppose A.1461-A, a bill that requires nursing homes to obtain written consent prior to prescribing and administering antipsychotic medications.
I am with XXX organization, serving the XXX region of New York.
To be clear, it is important for residents and families to provide informed consent for the use of these medications.
However, requiring written consent would impede nursing home residents’ access to necessary medications and cause distress for residents and their families.
Generally, nursing home residents or their authorized representatives provide oral consent to treatment, after discussing treatment options with the nursing home’s clinical team. Their oral consent is then documented by the clinical team in the medical record.
There are ample state and federal regulations that deter the use of unnecessary antipsychotics and ensure informed consent, while ensuring access to effective treatment for individuals who need them.
However, requiring residents or their representatives to sign a written consent document, as this bill proposes, will create unnecessary barriers to care for residents whose representatives do not visit the facility frequently or are unable to manage digital signature documents, as is often the case for the family members who make health care decisions for nursing home residents.
Please oppose this bill in its current form (Version A). Request the bill be amended to remove the requirement that consent be provided in writing and renewed every 12 months.

Please make phone calls to Assembly offices as soon as possible!

Join Us Next Week for May Public Affairs Council Meeting!

LeadingAge New York is holding its May Public Affairs Council meeting next week, on Thurs., May 15^th at 3 p.m. over Zoom. We encourage members to join us for that meeting to unpack the outcomes of the State budget process and coordinate next steps for messaging and advocacy. We also will use the time to discuss the fast-paced Federal budget reconciliation process, and what members can do to protect funding for aging services at the Federal level.

With the state budget behind us but five weeks left of this year’s legislative session and big changes taking place at the Federal level, we will need to continue to advocate over the next several weeks to raise the voices of our membership, our workforce, and the individuals you serve.

If you are not already signed up for the Public Affairs Council, members of any job role can sign up here!

ACTION ALERT: Support HUD Funding & Reject Proposed Cuts

Congress has begun its process to determine fiscal year 2026 (FY26) funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

On May 2, the White House delivered a broad overview of its FY26 to Congress. This “skinny” budget request includes an alarming proposal to shrink federal funding for HUD by 43.6%. The White House is asking Congress to block grant, or give a fixed amount of funds, for the agency’s five largest rental assistance programs (Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly, Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, Housing Choice Vouchers, and Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities) to states and to also cut funding for these programs by 42% compared to fiscal year 2025.

In addition, the White House is requesting elimination of the HOME program and Community Development Block Grants, as well as funding reductions to homeless assistance programs.

Congress needs to hear from affordable housing stakeholders that sufficient HUD funding to preserve, expand, and improve affordable housing for older adults is critical.

Please take action now to urge Congress to reject these dangerous proposals and instead, support HUD funding that serves older adults!

ACTION ALERT: Oppose New Unfunded Mandates on Nursing Homes

Another bill which LeadingAge NY strongly opposes was recently approved by the Senate Health Committee and was reported to the Senate Finance Committee. The legislation, A.1365-A (Paulin)/S.15-A (Skoufis), would require nursing homes to develop and submit to the Department of Health (DOH) a plan for a designated location for the storage of bodies of deceased persons who pass while living in a nursing home, in the event of a declared disaster emergency. While the bill has been amended to require a plan for emergency response, this legislation will ultimately impose new, costly requirements on most nursing home providers, many of which are already experiencing financial distress.

First and foremost, LeadingAge NY and our members believe that the remains of all individuals deserve the utmost respect and courtesy upon passing, even in an emergency. However, under current and normal circumstances, there is no need for this kind of designated storage in nursing homes. The issues with securing decedents that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic were largely due to insufficient capacity in funeral homes and municipal morgues. As a response to that tragic circumstance, this bill would impose on nursing homes alone, a new and costly responsibility that should instead be borne by state and municipal authorities.

Bill A.1365-A (Paulin)/S.15-A (Skoufis) is now in Senate Finance Committee and has already been passed by the Assembly. Therefore, we must strengthen our advocacy against this new, unfunded mandate on nursing home providers!

Take Action Now: Please click here to email your State Senators and the Governor against this legislation!

In addition, if your State Senator sits on the Senate Finance Committee we strongly recommend you call their Albany office to vocalize your opposition to this bill! You can share our LeadingAge NY memo of opposition to this bill, available here.

Call your State Senator with the below talking points on the decedent remains storage bill.

I am calling you today to oppose S.15-A, a bill that is reported to Senate Finance Committee.
The bill would impose another unfunded and costly mandate on nursing homes that are already struggling to stay afloat, and I urge you to oppose the bill.
I am with XXX organization, serving the XXX region of New York.
Inadequate Medicaid funding is already making it difficult for nonprofit and public nursing homes like mine to find staff and continue to operate.
This bill would require us to divert our limited resources to create or modify space or contract with mobile storage units to facilitate the storage of the remains of individuals who pass away while living in a nursing home.
A viable plan, such as those required by the bill, will require ongoing costs for our home – regardless of state emergency status – and will divert funding away from staffing efforts and the quality care we aim to provide to our residents.
We agree that deceased residents deserve to be treated with the utmost respect, and under current and ordinary circumstances, this is accomplished without dedicated storage units.
The responsibility of managing decedent remains during emergencies is not unique to nursing homes, but this bill places the burden – and the costs associated – on only us.
This bill’s goal and the costs associated should be borne by state and municipal authorities, who are better positioned to respond to emergencies.
The burden of this legislation should not be placed on nursing homes and our residents.
I urge you to oppose this bill, S.15-A.

Contact: Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org