The two aircraft the United States flies into the eyewall of a hurricane were built in the mid-1970s — older than most of the crews aboard — and the entire hurricane-hunter fleet is just three planes. This week, with most statehouses gone for the summer, the busiest rooms in the country were Washington's committee rooms, and that aging fleet was on the agenda.

The Senate took up the Hurricane Hunter Aircraft Recapitalization Act (S4802), a bipartisan bill authorizing $2.5 billion for up to six new planes. Hawaii enacted Act 236 (HB2296), cutting what the state can charge full-price students for a school lunch from at least half the cost of a meal to no more than a quarter. Two health bills rhymed in committee: the Ensuring Timely Access to Generics Act (S3014), which lets the FDA throw out sham petitions used to stall a cheaper drug, and the Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care Act (HR3514), which speeds up Medicare Advantage prior authorization. Eight senators — four from each party — moved the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act (S380) to ready rural ERs for childbirth emergencies. A House subcommittee took up a bill to reopen pre-2008 polar-bear trophy imports from Canada (HR6251). And Pennsylvania introduced HB2700, which would make job listings disclose what your health plan will actually cost you.

Plus a follow-up: a week after New Jersey moved to make AI data centers pay for the power they pull, New York's governor signed the first statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers. Go back to that fifty-year-old turboprop in the eyewall — a crew dropping instruments into the storm so a family three counties away knows whether to leave. That's what most of this week actually was: the quiet machinery, and a handful of people in committee rooms deciding whether it holds. For the full text, status, and plain-English breakdown of every bill we mentioned, head to amendment.app.

The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced.

Bills in this episode:

• Hurricane Hunter Aircraft Recapitalization Act (S4802)
• Hawaii school-meal price cut, Act 236 (HB2296)
• Ensuring Timely Access to Generics Act (S3014)
• Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care Act (HR3514)
• Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act (S380)
• Polar-bear trophy import bill (HR6251)
• Pennsylvania health-cost transparency bill (HB2700)

After more than two years — an entire fiscal year with no spending plan at all, the only state in the country in that spot — North Carolina finally passed a full budget this week. Governor Josh Stein signed the $34.4 billion plan on July 7, and it lands where people feel it: an average 8% raise for teachers, with beginning salaries jumping from $41,000 to $48,000, plus $700 million more for Hurricane Helene recovery in the western mountains and over $1 billion to fully fund Medicaid.

The Tenth's July 12 briefing covers that budget (S257, passed 35-10 in the Senate and 86-21 in the House) and the quieter signings that shaped the week: Missouri's Clean Slate law (SB1421), which makes expungement of eligible misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies automatic — no lawyer, no petition, no fee, run by the state Highway Patrol; New Jersey's energy package tying the cost of AI data centers to the companies that strain the grid rather than to household bills (including A2757, projected to save ratepayers about $60 million a year); and two of the 34 bills Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed July 10 — the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. Young Voter Empowerment Law (HB4339) and a new courtroom defense for survivors of coerced debt (HB4659). Plus a look at the week ahead in Washington, where three committees take up permanent daylight saving time (HR139), a ban on China- and Russia-controlled connected cars (S4429), and a fix to a 72-hour paperwork trap in Native health coverage (HR8658).

It comes back to a man at a kitchen table in Missouri, checking the same box on every job application for a decade — and a state that just decided that box will eventually clear itself. For the full text, status, and plain-English breakdown of any bill we mentioned, head to amendment.app.

The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced.

Bills in this episode:

• North Carolina 2026 state budget (S257)
• Missouri Clean Slate automatic expungement (SB1421)
• New Jersey grid / PJM ratepayer savings (A2757)
• Illinois Young Voter Empowerment Law (HB4339)
• Illinois coerced-debt survivor defense (HB4659)
• Sunshine Protection Act — permanent daylight saving (HR139)
• Ban on China/Russia connected cars (S4429)
• Indian Health Service notification-window fix (HR8658)

July 1st is the day a year of legislation stops being paper and starts governing. This week a wave of new state laws took effect across the country — and in Indiana, one of them meant a household behind on its electric bill could no longer have the power, and the air conditioning, shut off on a day the heat index is forecast to hit 95 degrees. That's House Bill 1002, and it passed with 24 bipartisan sponsors, 94-2 in the House and 46-0 in the Senate.

In the same seven days, Virginia became the first state in the nation to let a judge order a speed limiter installed in a reckless driver's car instead of suspending their license (HB2096, House 81-16 / Senate 33-3, effective July 1); California became the first state to require chain restaurants to print the "Big Nine" allergens on their menus (SB68); and Georgia opened portable benefit accounts to gig workers, letting companies contribute without turning contractors into employees (HB987, 108-52 / 44-1). Then the Supreme Court, in Watson v. Republican National Committee, ruled 5-4 that a state may count mail ballots postmarked by Election Day but received afterward — upholding Mississippi's law and the grace periods in roughly 15 states and D.C. We also check in on a House hearing for the bipartisan Veterans STAND Act (HR6835).

Then back to that Indiana kitchen, where the power stays on because a law that took effect this month says it has to. Follow every bill at amendment.app.

Argument audio: Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Watson v. Republican National Committee, via Oyez (Supreme Court of the United States).

The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor or argument audio is the genuine recording of the named official.

Bills in this episode:

• Virginia speed-limiter program (HB2096)
• Indiana electric-utility affordability, heat-shutoff ban (HB1002)
• California restaurant allergen-menu law (SB68)
• Georgia portable benefits for gig workers (HB987)
• Veterans STAND Act (HR6835)

This week the U.S. Senate passed a war powers resolution ordering American forces out of hostilities with Iran, fifty to forty-eight, with four Republicans crossing the aisle. It's the first time such a resolution has cleared the chamber after earlier attempts were voted down. But it's a concurrent resolution, House Concurrent Resolution 86, the kind that passes both chambers without going to the President's desk, so it's a formal rebuke, not a binding order. What it changes is the record, not the deployment.

That set the texture for a week of governments drawing lines around things that are hard to take back. Ohio created the Joshua Alert (HB359, 95-0 in the House and 31-0 in the Senate), a statewide emergency broadcast for missing autistic and developmentally disabled children who fall outside the AMBER Alert's abduction rules. Massachusetts struck the R-word and outdated terms from hundreds of references in state law (S2563, unanimous). Virginia banned the sale and transfer of assault firearms and large-capacity magazines, grandfathering current owners (HB217, House 60-35, Senate 21-19, effective July 1). Rhode Island made it illegal for an algorithm to pose as a licensed therapist (H7349, 69-2), while New York's FAIR News Act would require news organizations to label AI-generated content (S08451, Senate 53-7, Assembly 130-1). And the Senate passed the most sweeping federal housing bill since the financial crisis, 85-5 (HR6644), only for the President to hold its signing until Congress passes the SAVE Act (HR7296), an unrelated bill requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Go back to the parent in the doorway, and the child who wandered: that's what Ohio's ninety-five-to-nothing was actually about. Not a procedure, a family. Follow every bill at amendment.app.

Floor and hearing audio: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sec. of State Marco Rubio, via C-SPAN.

The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor audio is the genuine recording of the named official.

Bills in this episode:

• Iran war powers resolution (HCONRES86)
• Ohio Joshua Alert (HB359)
• Massachusetts disability-language update (S2563)
• Virginia assault-firearms ban (HB217)
• Rhode Island AI mental-health ban (H7349)
• New York FAIR News Act (S08451)
• 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (HR6644)
• SAVE Act (HR7296)

This week Hawaii became the first state in the country to bar corporations from spending money to influence elections — a law its own sponsors wrote as a direct challenge to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Governor Josh Green signed it; it takes effect in July 2027, and the state expects a court fight. That set the texture for the whole week: state legislatures building backstops — the catch that stops a harm from getting through when the bigger system won't.

In the same seven days, Delaware advanced its own John Lewis Voting Rights Act (HB444, 29-11 in one chamber), Vermont became the 23rd state with a comprehensive consumer privacy law as Governor Phil Scott reversed his own prior veto (S71, passed 129-3 / 29-0), Virginia gave mobile-home-park residents first claim on the land under their homes (HB375), and Maryland cleared the way for more than 7,000 homes near transit, overriding local zoning (HB894, 100-32 / 42-4, signed by Governor Wes Moore). Three states moved to widen what insurance has to cover: Michigan passed needle-free epinephrine in schools 103-0 (HB5054), Massachusetts weighed cleft-palate coverage past age 18 (H5477), and New Jersey took up Medicaid fertility coverage (A1207). Plus a lightning round: Pennsylvania crypto-ATM licensing (HB2643), Illinois NICU leave now in effect (HB2978), California's AI-altered-listing disclosure (AB2025), and a Massachusetts crumbling-foundations fund (S3091).

A week of backstops — fifty laboratories, each deciding what it won't let get past. Follow every bill at amendment.app.

The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced.

Bills in this episode:

• Hawaii corporate election-spending ban (SB2471)
• Delaware John Lewis Voting Rights Act (HB444)
• Vermont consumer privacy law (S71)
• Virginia mobile-home-park right of first refusal (HB375)
• Maryland Transit and Housing Opportunity Act (HB894)
• Michigan needle-free epinephrine in schools (HB5054)
• Massachusetts cleft-palate coverage (H5477)
• New Jersey Medicaid fertility coverage (A1207)
• Pennsylvania crypto-ATM licensing (HB2643)
• Illinois Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act (HB2978)
• California altered-listing-photo disclosure (AB2025)
• Massachusetts crumbling-foundations fund (S3091)

This week New York became the first state in the country to hit pause on new large data centers — the warehouses of servers powering the AI boom, each drawing electricity by the small city's worth. The legislature passed it by wide margins (Assembly 103-38, Senate 43-17), and wrote in a rule with a direct line to your kitchen table: when a data center needs a costly grid upgrade, the data center pays for it, not the household reading its own electric meter.

That set the texture for a week the laboratories of democracy spent deciding what counts. Vermont became the first state to ban paraquat, a weedkiller tied to a higher risk of Parkinson's that 70-plus countries already prohibit (House Bill 739). California voted 61-9 to make menopause a protected class at work (AB 1940) and 66-0 to let parents sue social-media platforms that fail to protect kids (AB 2). New Jersey advanced a shield law for reproductive and gender-affirming care (S 2260). Ohio sent a photo voter-ID requirement to the November ballot (SJR 10), New York moved to strip gendered language from its family law (A 8382), and Pennsylvania's transgender-sports bill (SB 9) reached the House Health Committee. Louisiana signed the Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Act into a public ledger (HB 636) while Delaware weighed making its traffic cameras permanent (HB 442).

What counts on your electric bill, what counts as a poison worth banning, what counts as ID at the polls, and which words count in the law. Follow every bill at amendment.app.

The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced.

Bills in this episode:

• New York data-center moratorium (A11560)
• Vermont paraquat ban (H739)
• California menopause discrimination (AB1940)
• New Jersey shield law (S2260)
• Ohio voter-ID amendment (SJR10)
• New York family-law language (A08382)
• Pennsylvania transgender-sports bill (SB9)
• Louisiana Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Act (HB636)
• Delaware traffic cameras (HB442)
• Massachusetts 3 a.m. last call (H5478)
• California kids-online liability (AB2)
• Cameras in the Supreme Court (S1146)
• Delaware deaths-in-custody reporting (SB291)

By seven votes—215 to 208—the U.S. House voted to order American forces out of the fighting with Iran, the first time a war powers resolution has cleared a chamber in the three months since the conflict began. Four Republicans crossed the aisle to make it happen. It was a week the laboratories of democracy spent drawing the line — the mark that says this far, and no further.

In the same seven days: Illinois became the first state to require independent, third-party safety audits of the largest AI companies (Senate Bill 315, backed by OpenAI and Anthropic); Connecticut enacted one of the country’s most comprehensive AI laws (Senate Bill 5), requiring deepfakes to carry detectable markers; and Vermont became the fifth state to give people legal rights over their own neural data (House Bill 814). We also cover California’s Ethics Over Aesthetics Act on gene-edited pets (AB 1382), South Carolina’s first rules for intoxicating hemp and a ban on lab-made delta-8 (HB 3924), Colorado’s sports-betting guardrails (SB 131), North Carolina’s Bitcoin-ATM scam warnings (HB 920), seat belts on every school bus in Massachusetts (SB 1662), Ohio’s date-rape-drug testing mandate (SB 348), Arizona’s unanimous kinship-first foster law (HB 2035, 55-0), Georgia’s Rio’s Law on autism-aware policing (SB 433), Michigan’s digital-ID voting limit (SB 621), Rhode Island’s polling-place buffer for immigration enforcement (SB 3339), California’s doorbell-camera consent bill (AB 2062, 73-0), and Maryland’s transit-zoning law clearing the way for 7,000 homes (HB 894).

A line around a war, a line around your own brain data, a line around a doorbell camera—and a line around a bar, a school bus, and a Bitcoin kiosk. This week, the laboratories of democracy spent their time drawing the line.

Follow every bill at amendment.app.

The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced.

Bills in this episode:

• House Iran War Powers Resolution (HConRes86)
• Illinois third-party AI safety audits (SB315)
• Connecticut comprehensive AI law (SB5)
• Vermont neural-data rights act (H814)
• California Ethics Over Aesthetics Act (gene-edited pets) (AB1382)
• South Carolina intoxicating-hemp rules (H3924)
• Colorado sports-betting limits (SB131)
• North Carolina Bitcoin-ATM scam warnings (HB920)
• New Jersey lab-grown meat labeling (A5084)
• Massachusetts school-bus seat belts (SB1662)
• Ohio date-rape-drug testing devices (SB348)
• Arizona kinship-first foster placement (HB2035)
• Georgia Rio’s Law (autism-aware policing) (SB433)
• Michigan digital-ID voter-ID limit (SB621)
• Rhode Island polling-place immigration buffer (SB3339)
• California doorbell-camera consent (AB2062)
• Maryland transit-zoning housing law (HB894)

For a hundred and sixty-five years, Rhode Island's law books have quietly carried the state's 1861 ratification of the Corwin Amendment—a proposed amendment that would have made slavery permanent and beyond the reach of Congress.

This week, a bill to repeal that ratification finally got its hearing. It set the tone for the whole week: state legislatures down in the fine print, the clauses and surcharges and exclusions most people never read until one of them lands on them.

In the same seven days, Louisiana sent a ban on debit-card surcharges to Governor Jeff Landry's desk (Senate Bill 254, passed 36-0 in the Senate and 83-14 in the House), Illinois cleared the Menopause Equity and Care Act with 61 sponsors and moved a bill barring copays and prior authorization for seizure-detection devices, and California advanced the Digital Financial Asset Banking Act—a post-FTX rulebook for banks holding crypto—through three committee votes (9-0, 15-0, 15-0). New Jersey took up provisional licensing for foreign-trained doctors and a stalkerware crime; Pennsylvania weighed an Ebony Alert and a 3,000-megawatt grid-storage mandate; Ohio introduced the Take the Dough, We Gotta Know Act to put voucher schools under public-school accountability rules.

Follow every bill at amendment.app.

The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced.

Bills in this episode:

• Louisiana debit-card surcharge ban (SB254)
• New Jersey used-car “as-is” sale curbs (A1310)
• Rhode Island school-lunch payment-fee ban (S2635)
• New York chip-enabled SNAP checkout mandate (A8197)
• One Fair Price Act (S3387)
• Illinois Menopause Equity and Care Act (HB5284)
• Illinois seizure-detection device coverage (SB2762)
• New Jersey provisional licensure for international medical graduates (A3398)
• New York youth-targeted vape product ban (A2102)
• New Jersey stalkerware / AirTag tracking crime (A4542)
• Pennsylvania Ebony Alert system (HB434)
• Illinois in-home child grooming reporting (HB4534)
• Oklahoma high-speed police-pursuit alert (HB1155)
• California Digital Financial Asset Banking Act (AB2285)
• Pennsylvania grid-scale battery storage mandate (HB2380)
• Rhode Island Corwin Amendment ratification repeal (H7579)
• Ohio Take the Dough, We Gotta Know Act (SB443)
• North Carolina life-at-fertilization constitutional amendment (HB1232)

You know the Sunday shows. Half the hour is a politician dodging the question, the other half, pundits guessing who wins the next election, and none of it ever leaves Washington. The Tenth is the opposite. Same Sunday morning slot, 20 minutes, non-partisan: the bills actually moving through America’s 50 statehouses and Congress, what they do, and what changes for the people who live under them. No panel. No side. Plain English, bill first. Powered by amendment.app.

By four votes—216 to 212—the U.S. House voted to weaken the Clean Air Act for the first time in its 55-year history. The EPA scrapped the first federal limits on four PFAS “forever chemicals,” the Supreme Court narrowed the Voting Rights Act 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais, and Congress again punted on the Section 702 surveillance program. In Washington this week, the work was demolition.

In the state capitols, it was construction. Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed the Utility Relief Act (House Bill 1532), making Maryland the first state to require data centers to pay for the grid upgrades they drive. Georgia (Senate Bill 540) became the first state to require AI chatbots to disclose they aren’t human; Oklahoma (Senate Bill 504) became the 17th to fully ban child marriage. States built safety nets too: Colorado's mandatory lethality assessment for domestic-violence calls (House Bill 1009), Pennsylvania’s Greg Moyer’s Law on school AEDs (Senate Bill 375), and Ohio’s FIND Act for missing-person reports, which passed 96-0. And the bipartisan bills kept moving—Mississippi’s child-care tax credit cleared 122-0 in the House and 48-1 in the Senate.

One country, two job sites: a teardown in Washington and a build-out in the laboratories of democracy.

Follow every bill at amendment.app.

The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced.

Bills in this episode:

• Michigan Voting Rights Act (SB961)
• Maryland Utility RELIEF Act (data-center grid costs) (HB1532)
• Maryland Protection From Predatory Pricing Act (HB895)
• Georgia AI chatbot disclosure guardrails (SB540)
• Oklahoma full child-marriage ban (SB504)
• Colorado Mandatory Lethality Assessment Act (HB1009)
• South Carolina domestic-violence survivor lease break (HB3569)
• Pennsylvania Greg Moyer’s Law (AEDs at school sports) (SB375)
• Louisiana paid leave for living organ donors (SB409)
• Ohio FIND Act missing-persons database (HB217)
• Illinois Transparency in Downcoding Act (SB3114)
• New Jersey sportsbook bet-limit transparency (SB3419)
• Rhode Island Warehouse Worker Protection Act (SB2504)
• Mississippi employer child-care tax credit (SB2867)
• Maine medical-debt lien and wage-garnishment ban (LD2129)
• Vermont positive rental-payment credit reporting pilot (H772)
• Virginia assault-firearms carry ban (SB727)
• Ukraine Support Act (HR2913)