That’s up roughly 55 percent from the 87,500 bills introduced in 2024. However, there were nearly the same number of bills — just over 132,600 — introduced in 2023, the last even-numbered year when all states were in session and many held longer sessions.
Still, a deeper dive into the 2025 numbers shows clearly that lawmaking is simply more effective at the state level than in Congress. Only 2 percent of bills proposed in Washington became law. Compare that to, say, Colorado’s effective rate of 73.5 percent.
States with a trifecta — a single-party hold on the executive and legislative branches — are unsurprisingly especially active and effective. In Texas, for example, 9,120 bills were introduced in 2025, and 35.5 percent were enacted. Although other states showed even higher effective rates — 60.7 percent in Virginia, for example, and 60.1 percent in Georgia — they also introduced far fewer bills, at 3,126 and 2,860, respectively.
Tennessee was also highly effective, enacting more than 46 percent of the 4,466 bills proposed. But New York was less productive by the numbers, with lawmakers introducing over 18,000 bills in 2025 but enacting just 12 percent of them.
The coming year promises to be at least as busy, with states responding to deregulation efforts at the federal level, while also looking to manage the fiscal fallout from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
For government affairs professionals, policymakers, and legislators, it’s worth understanding how all this lawmaking is playing out in certain key sectors:
Tech and Finance
In the financial realm, the Trump administration is pushing for clearer and more comprehensive policies around cryptocurrency. Congress is moving the needle on crypto at the federal level with the GENIUS Act, a new law regulating stablecoins, a form of digital currency.
Overall, however, states are being much more active than Congress in adapting to the changing technologies. Congress isn’t especially active in making laws these days — Senate rules make it hard to pass meaningful legislation without some kind of reconciliation process — and states are filling the void.
Some states are taking it upon themselves to press for stricter data privacy controls and AI-related regulations. In the realm of data privacy, some states have enacted comprehensive rights for consumers to control their data. While similar measures have been proposed in Congress over the past couple of years, they have not gained any meaningful traction.
We’ve seen many efforts to prohibit deepfakes (or falsely generated videos and images) targeting elected officials, as well as legislation giving victims of sexual deepfakes the prior right of action to sue those who distribute or create that content.
Health Care
In response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, we’re likely to see more special sessions called in the coming year, as states grapple with cuts and changes in Medicaid. They’ll be trying to shore up Medicaid funding or pass other measures to protect both vulnerable health-care providers in rural areas and underprivileged populations in general. But given the impending declines in federal funding, cuts at the state level look inevitable.
Separately, while provider and pharmacy reimbursements don't make headlines, they can have a significant effect on public policy.
Energy and Environment
In the areas of energy and the environment, the Trump administration has made an abrupt and dramatic turnaround, prioritizing fossil fuels and downgrading or even dismissing concerns about climate change.
As a result, state legislatures are pursuing an avalanche of policy initiatives as they try to reconcile public sentiment and shifting federal priorities.
On the environmental side in particular, some issues still have bipartisan resonance — questions such as microplastics and PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” In their 2025 sessions, states as diverse as California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia all saw significant legislative progress in these areas.
On the energy side, modernization of the electric grid generates some consensus. Arizona, for example, is easing permitting for the replacement of aging power lines, and New York is looking to accelerate grid-related project approvals.
Looking Ahead to 2026
Overall, state legislatures are stepping up in the absence of federal lawmaking across a range of key sectors. They’re looking to drive innovation, apply needed safeguards and give clarity to businesses in an increasingly deregulated federal environment.
There’s some nuance here. State-level lawmaking is increasingly a partisan affair. At the same time, there is considerable uncertainty about how federal law will impact various industries.
In this complex environment, understanding the pace of legislative activity in the last session can help both government affairs professionals and state lawmakers to focus their energies in ways that will be most impactful both for their organizations and their constituents.
The authors are part of FiscalNote's Professional Services team. Whitney Swance is a health-care legislative and regulatory consultant. Annika von Grey specializes in energy and environmental policy. Eric Seipp is a technology and finance policy consultant.
