Climate change – The volume of
legislation related to climate change has a trend line
pointing skyward. In the absence of comprehensive federal
policy, states are rushing to introduce measures that
will curb greenhouse gas emissions.
| Immigration –
Growing public interest in immigration policy will keep
it centered on state agendas. We are closely monitoring
labor, health care and other social service measures
with an affect on businesses. |
Every day, our issues analysts read the text of bills to identify potential risks and opportunities for our clients.
While the issues listed here are gaining momentum, they represent only a handful of the issues we monitor daily.
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Biofuels
– With record gas prices at the pumps and a
public grumbling for relief, lawmakers have seized
the opportunity to advance bills promoting biofuels.
We are monitoring the impact for a wide berth of industries
from auto makers to food producers.
Data Privacy – Continuing public concern over identity
theft has kept the issue high on lawmaker agendas.
Most data-privacy bills require businesses, nonprofits,
and state public institutions to notify consumers
when a breach of security occurs. Other states will
provide consumers the opportunity to freeze access
to their credit report and scores. States will also
consider legislation to limit the use of social security
numbers and other personal information.
Insurable Interest
– Although tax breaks have persuaded millions
of Americans to purchase life insurance, there is
concern that tax loopholes have been exposed by investors
seeking leniency. An influx of transactions by investors
buying a life insurance policy on complete strangers
has caught lawmakers’ attention. States and
the insurance industry are seeking to clarify laws
that facilitate speculative uses of life insurance
Trans Fats
– Shortly after NYC announced its mandatory
ban on trans fats, Massachusetts, Connecticut, California,
New Hampshire and New Jersey all introduced bills
aimed at enacting their own prohibitions. The NYC
announcement did more than just shake up the Big Apple
- it inspired states across the nation to lay out
their own recipes for removing artery-hardening fats
from restaurant kitchens.
HPV Vaccine
– By Executive Order, Texas became the first
state to require pre-teen girls to be vaccinated against
sexually transmitted strains of the human papillomavirus,
or HPV, believed to cause cervical cancer. Another
24 states are lined up to do the same, but Texas Governor’s
Rick Perry’s ties to the drug manufacturer put
the mandate in question.
Universal Health
– The push to find a way to provide medical
insurance for some of the estimated 45 million Americans
currently without such coverage is not new. Ever increasing
health care costs and lack of Congressional action
to protect the uninsured has several states again
primed to take a serious look at developing some form
of a universal health care system of their own in
2007.
Real ID –
States are rebelling against the Real ID Act of 2005
a law intended to make driver's licenses a definitive
form of identification. Scheduled for implementation
by 2008, a growing number of states are railing against
the unfunded mandate by choosing not to comply. Still-pending
regulatory direction from the Department of Homeland
Security may moderate the states’ response.
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