National Conference of State Legislatures

I wonder as we wrap up if you have any other thoughts to share with listeners.

Only what a great resource NCSL is.

I remember some of the best years of my career as a legislative staff, how valuable it was to go to NCSL meetings and to share best practices with my colleagues in the other states.

And NCSL should never lose sight of its convening power and what a great opportunity it is to share the best ideas.

Thanks, Bill.

I really appreciate your time.

I've been talking with David Ketchin from Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments and Bill Murray from Dominion Energy about the challenges of utility cybersecurity.

Thanks for listening.

But you can't do the same with daylight saving time.

In 2026, 16 states have introduced 23 bills concerning daylight saving time and standard time, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Anyway, 19 states have enacted laws, but they can't make daylight saving time permanent.

until the federal government or until Congress basically allows it at the federal level.

Connecticut is one of the only five states that do not allow any non-medical exemptions to school vaccine requirements.

That's according to the National Conference of State Legislators.

Alright, let's move on to our next story.

An Afghan national and member of the ISIS-K terrorist organization, the Afghanistan branch of ISIS, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the 2021 terror attack that resulted in the deaths of 13 service members in Kabul, Afghanistan.

And so all of this has me, a lawyer with interest in how the government works, wondering, okay, then who the fuck is going to do something about this? Who is supposed to save us all from the AI apocalypse, and how? During the 2025 legislative session, all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Washington, D.C., introduced some sort of AI-related legislation into state legislatures for consideration.

38 states adopted or enacted around 100 different measures in 2025, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The measures address a wide range of issues from copyright and ownership over AI-generated content to safety and privacy concerns and more.

Dozens and dozens of separate provisions, a patchwork of various provisions, all attempting to control the potential issues and abuses running rampant because of the use of AI.

Postal Service can be involved in deciding who gets a mail-in ballot.

Twenty states will send mail-in ballots to voters in the next week, or already have, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The federal deadline to send ballots to military and overseas voters is at least 45 days before the election, which is also the week starting on Monday.

For months, election officials at the state and local level have directed voters worried about their ballots being returned to place ballots in drop boxes, if available, or take them directly to a local election office.

In all, a total of 20 states have their own laws that require officials to begin sending out ballots at least 45 days before the election.

That's according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Trump administration put it this way in its appeal, asking the Supreme Court to weigh in as soon as possible.

Quote, once those ballot envelopes enter the mail stream, there is no retrieving them, end quote.

But I will say, I looked something up for one of my AI classes.

I'm in AI ethics and AI innovation and strategy, and one of the discussions, I used the point about I found at the National Conference of State Legislators, so if that's not on your favorites list, it needs to be, NCSL, and they disclose that over this legislative season, 49 states proposed 1,465 bills.

That's huge.

For AI.

And if the total transaction price ends with three cents, four cents, eight cents, or nine cents, it's rounded up to the nearest nickel.

This is also known as symmetrical rounding or the Swedish method, and it's the approach recommended by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

With the exception of Michigan and South Carolina, the other states that have issued guidance have consistently stated that the rounding rules only apply to cash transactions, not credit card transactions.

The guidance issued by Colorado does not specifically address this issue, so it remains an open question whether they'll end up in the same camp as Michigan and South Carolina.

Or if microfiber comes up in New York, why is this my problem? Well, we know that these things have a way of moving around and One of the examples I give, Matt, is you better believe that these state legislatures have their own conferences where they get together and talk about issues and policy.

And just recently here in Chicago, the National Council of State Legislatures met here at McCormick Place.

And I went down there to be seen, to talk to people, to make sure that there was somebody there that could talk about the laundromat business because they compare notes just like we all compare notes at our events.

So The more we can do to engage in this work, the stronger an industry will be in the end.