No funeral-specific bills moved this week. None will until the state budget passes.
The New York State Budget was due April 1. It is now April 24 -- 23 days past deadline, with no deal announced. That is three weeks of legislative session the funeral industry has lost on its most important bills.
Here is what that means in real numbers. The spring session runs through June. If the budget closes this week, you have roughly six weeks of active session remaining. If it closes in early May, that drops to four or five weeks. Bills that need to move -- S7690 in particular -- have to clear Finance, win a Senate floor vote, pass the Assembly, and head to the governor. That sequence takes time even under the best conditions. The window is real, and it is narrowing.
The bill most likely to move when the budget clears: S7690 (Residency Overhaul, Senate), sponsored by Senator Michael Gianaris (D-Queens). It already cleared the Health Committee in February and landed in Finance -- which has been occupied with budget negotiations for more than two months. The moment Finance returns to standalone legislation, S7690 is at the front of the line.
This bill would restructure residency requirements for NY funeral directors -- how you staff, how you supervise, and what credentials need to be present in the building for certain procedures. If it passes the Senate and moves to the Assembly, the timeline compresses fast. If it does not move before June, it waits until 2027.
What to do this week:
1. Call or email your state senator -- not your assembly member, your senator -- and tell them you are watching S 7690. This is the week to be on record before the Finance Committee votes. Calls made before a bill is scheduled move the needle. Calls made the day of do not.
2. Check the NYSFDA communications this week. The moment the budget closes, the association's advocacy machine shifts into high gear. Make sure you are on their email list and you know who your regional director is.
3. If you have not already reached out to NYSFDA about the FTC comment deadline, see the Federal Watch section below. That clock is ticking separately from the budget.
The FTC's public comment period on the Funeral Rule information collection extension closes May 31, 2026 -- 37 days from today.
This is not an abstract procedural matter. The OMB clearance the FTC is seeking gives it continuing authority to require your itemized price lists, your General Price List, your casket and outer burial container lists, and your statement of funeral goods and services selected. Without that clearance, enforcement gets complicated. The comment period is the industry's formal opportunity to put concerns about compliance burden, enforcement priorities, and rulemaking direction on the record.
The window has not closed, but it is narrowing. A coordinated association comment from NYSFDA -- filed on behalf of New York funeral directors -- carries substantially more weight with OMB than individual submissions. But coordinated comments take time to draft, clear, and sign off on. If NYSFDA is going to file, the process should be underway now.
What to do: Contact your NYSFDA regional director or the Albany office this week and ask one direct question: Is the association filing a comment on the FTC's Funeral Rule information collection extension before May 31? If yes, ask how you can support it. If no, ask why not.
One housekeeping note from the Federal Register monitoring: in late January and early February the FTC published three documents that have been confused in some trade-press as Funeral Rule items. Only one of them -- the January 26 notice -- is actually the Funeral Rule OMB extension we have been writing about. The other two (January 23 and the February 6 correction) concern the FTC's shared enforcement authority with CFPB under Regulation O, the mortgage marketing rule, which does not apply to funeral homes. None of the three represents a new rulemaking or enforcement action. We track these items in real time -- if anything requiring action appears, you will hear about it here first.
| Bill | Title | Status | Committee | Last Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S9112 | Licensed Funeral Arranger Act | In Senate Committee | Health | Referred to Health (Feb 3) |
| A10095 | Licensed Funeral Arranger Act (Assembly) | In Assembly Committee | Health | Referred to Health (Jan 30) |
| S8152 | 4-Year Apprenticeship (Senate) | STRICKEN | -- | Enacting clause stricken (Jun 9, 2025) |
| A5172 | 4-Year Apprenticeship (Assembly) | In Assembly Committee | Health | Referred to Health (Jan 7) |
| A7630 | Residency Overhaul (Assembly) | In Assembly Committee | Health | Referred to Health (Jan 7) |
| S7690 | Residency Overhaul (Senate) | In Senate Committee | Finance | Reported and committed to Finance (Feb 24) |
On S8152: Dead. The Senate apprenticeship bill had its enacting clause stricken in June 2025. The Assembly companion, A5172 (Marianne Buttenschon), is still active.
On S9112/A10095 (Licensed Funeral Arranger Act): Still in committee, no hearing scheduled. With the budget consuming the calendar, these are unlikely to move until the budget clears and Finance releases its backlog.
On S7690: This is the most consequential bill still alive this session. If Finance does not vote it out within the next four to five weeks, it is effectively dead until 2027. Watch for a committee meeting notice -- that is your signal that it is moving.
The Funeral Director's Brief is a weekly regulatory briefing for New York funeral directors. Questions? Reply to this email.
Subscribe: funeraldirectorsbrief.com
Free during our launch period. Join funeral directors across New York.