The legislative session ended at 8:30pm on March 12th, but the law making process continues. 276 bills were passed by the state legislature in 2026, which represented less than 10% of the bills filed this year.
HB 2225, regulating AI Companion Chatbots, passed both the House and the Senate on March 12th. Once a bill is passed through both the House and the Senate and is signed by both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, it travels across the rotunda to the governor’s office. If the bill is passed fewer than five days before the end of session, he has 5 days to sign it into law. If the bill is passed within 5 days of the end of session, the governor has 20 days, not counting Sundays, to sign it into law.
Once a bill does reach the governor’s desk, the governor has 4 options:
Sign it into law. Most bills go into effect 90 days after the end of session.
Veto the entire bill. The bill will not be passed into law. The legislature can override a veto with a 2/3 vote in both the House and the Senate. If the governor vetoes a bill after session adjourns, the legislature can choose to override it the following legislative session.
Veto a section of the bill. The governor can only veto whole sections of policy bills, not a single line.
Do nothing. After 20 days, the bill will become law without the governor’s signature. This is rare.
Due to the complexity of the AI Chatbot legislation, it will not go into effect until January 1, 2027, giving companies time to set up compliance systems. Most of the bills passed this session, however, will go into effect on June 11, 2026.
More Learning resources:
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