The Tenth

Congress writes roughly 300 laws a year. State legislatures write 25,000. The Tenth is a weekly briefing on the bills passing in America's 50 statehouses — what they do, who they affect, and what actually changes for the people who live under them. Non-partisan, bill-first, plain English. Named for the 10th Amendment. From amendment.app.

The Tenth is a news podcast hosted by Amendment, with 23 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Amendment hosts The Tenth, a news show with 23 episodes published.

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  Episode #23

  Two Votes and an Empty Chamber: What the House Did Before It Left

  Sep 20, 202616 min

  The House of Representatives cast its last votes before the November election on Wednesday evening. At 6:28 it sent a Russia sanctions bill to the President's desk, 262-159. Twenty-five minutes later it passed a data-center electricity bill 417-3. The next day's votes were cancelled, and the chamber emptied one day early into a seven-week recess. This week's episode is about what those two lopsided votes actually do — and about the decisions that reached people somewhere else entirely. H.R. 5334, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act — named for the South Carolina senator who died in July — was signed into law Friday, September 18. It sanctions Russian officials, banks and energy firms, bans new American investment in Russia, extends the Iran Sanctions Act through 2031, and requires the President within 30 days to raise duties of up to 100% on the five largest importers of Russian oil and gas. In California, Governor Newsom signed AB 2161, which is not a work requirement but a set of limits on how the federal one gets implemented: counties must check the wage and claims data they already hold before demanding a document, and must contact you when records conflict rather than cutting off coverage. He signed SB 936, banning flavored nitrous oxide canisters, 78-0 and 39-0, and vetoed SB 1077 on CalFresh shutdown notices, which nobody in either chamber had voted against. The Supreme Court declined to let the USPS mail-ballot rule take effect. And the Senate finished eleven votes short of the sixty needed to begin debating H.R. 3633, the CLARITY Act. Go back to that Wednesday evening: 262-159, then 417-3, then a room with nobody in it until after the election. One of those bills is law. The other is a recommendation sitting in the Senate. Follow every bill at amendment.app. Floor audio: the U.S. House presiding officer on the H.R. 5334 vote, September 16, 2026, via the Office of the Clerk; Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and the Senate presiding officer on the H.R. 3633 cloture vote, September 15, 2026, 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: Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act (HR5334) California Medi-Cal work requirement implementation limits (AB2161) Ratepayer Protection Act, data-center grid costs (HR9340) California flavored nitrous oxide ban (SB936) California CalFresh federal shutdown notices, vetoed (SB1077) CLARITY Act, crypto market structure (HR3633)

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  Episode #22

  Two Hours a Day: California Writes the Default for a Child's Chatbot

  Sep 13, 202616 min

  If a California child opens a companion chatbot now, the product starts with persistent memory off, push notifications off, one hour per sitting and two hours a day. Those are the defaults Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on September 10 as SB1119 — known in the statute itself as Adam's Law, for Adam Raine, whose parents sued OpenAI after his death. It was one of thirteen child online safety bills signed in a single ceremony, landing in the code as Chapters 180 through 192, consecutive, with no gaps. Congress, meanwhile, met for about three minutes all week. In the same seven days, the Supreme Court stayed a federal district judge's order on its emergency docket and left Missouri voting in November under the congressional map drawn in 2022, a week after Missouri's own Supreme Court held that a veto referendum on redistricting was constitutional. Michigan's Senate discharged a debt-collection bill from committee and passed it the same afternoon, 21-14 (SB1137) — raising the state's homestead exemption from $3,500 to $125,000 and capping wage garnishment at the lesser of 15% or the amount above 35 times the minimum wage. New York banned falsely impersonating a union or a union representative, 138-0 in the Assembly and 60-0 in the Senate (A10835). Delaware barred reverse-keyword court orders — the kind that name a search term and ask who typed it — except in a 26-crime felony list, and only when the query returns five or fewer hits. And in the separate fight over the Postal Service's mail ballot rule, the First Circuit denied the administration a stay; the Supreme Court has not ruled on its application. Seventy-two percent of teenagers have used an AI companion chatbot — a Common Sense Media figure from July 2025, for thirteen- to seventeen-year-olds. It was read aloud on a chamber floor on California's last night to pass bills, and ten days later it had a chapter number attached to it: Chapter 190. Follow every bill at amendment.app . Floor audio: Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D) and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D), California State Assembly, August 31, 2026. 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: California age verification signals in operating systems (AB1856) California platform age restriction and e-Safety Advisory Commission (AB1709) California companion chatbots and children's safety, "Adam's Law" (SB1119) Michigan garnishment exemptions and homestead exemption (SB1137) New York ban on impersonating a union representative (A10835) Delaware reverse-keyword warrant ban (HB145) Delaware criminal fines and fees waiver (HB133) Delaware reentry housing discharge plans, the Grace Peterson Act (SB292) California moratorium on companion chatbots in children's toys (SB867) California AI mass-layoff disclosure (SB951)

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  Episode #21

  112-0, Then $350 Million: The Bill That Replaced Itself

  Sep 6, 202615 min

  In March 2025 the South Carolina House passed the Public Expression Protection Act 112-0 — an anti-SLAPP bill that would have let people sued for speaking at a county council meeting get the case thrown out early. Seventeen months later the same bill number came back from the Senate with the free-speech text gone and roughly $350 million in local projects in its place. Governor Henry McMaster signed it Tuesday, September 1 as Act 261. South Carolina still has no anti-SLAPP law. In the same seven days, California sent Governor Newsom a four-year moratorium on AI companion chatbots built into toys for children under 16 (SB867), passing 74-1 in the Assembly and 40-0 in the Senate — one no vote across both chambers — and banned speculative ticket listings with a remedy of double the ticket price plus nonrefundable travel and attorney's fees (AB1349, 67-0 on concurrence). Delaware's governor signed on two consecutive days: HB380 struck the single word "solely" from its privacy law, so a company can no longer defeat your opt-out by having a human rubber-stamp an automated profiling decision; SB300 created a state license for gun dealers moving more than 10 firearms a year, phasing in through January 2029. Texas's right-to-repair law took effect September 1, requiring manufacturers to sell parts, tools and manuals to independent shops. And in Washington, the House voted 212-206 for a constitutional amendment fixing the Supreme Court at nine justices — and it failed, because amendments need two-thirds, not a majority. House Bill 3305 passed the South Carolina House 112-0 as a free-speech bill and was signed into law as a $350 million appropriations act. Both sentences are true about the same four digits. Follow every bill at amendment.app . Floor audio: Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D), California State Assembly, August 31; Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), U.S. House floor, September 2, 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: South Carolina supplemental appropriations, formerly the Public Expression Protection Act (H3305) California AI companion chatbots in children's toys (SB867) Delaware automated-decision opt-out (HB380) Delaware gun dealer licensing (SB300) Texas right to repair (HB2963) California speculative ticket listings (AB1349) Constitutional amendment to fix the Supreme Court at nine justices (HJR1)

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  Episode #20

  Bentley and Mason's Law: A Grandmother Took It to the Statehouse

  Aug 30, 202615 min

  On April 13, 2021, in Byrnes Mill, Missouri, a drunk driver killed Lacey Newton, Cordell Williams, and their four-month-old son. Two of their children survived — Bentley, now nine, and Mason, now seven. Their grandmother, Cecelie Williams, was elected to the Missouri House in November 2024 and carried the House version of the bill named for them. Bentley and Mason's Law took effect Friday, August 28: a Missouri court can now order someone convicted of an intoxication-related offense that killed a parent to pay child support to the children that parent left behind. It passed the Senate 29-0 and the House 127-2, and Gov. Mike Kehoe signed it in July. The same child maintenance provision also rides on HB1740, a separate DWI bill that took effect the same day — Rep. Williams is a co-sponsor on that one. In the same seven days, California's legislature ran out its clock before Monday's adjournment. AB817 — written after a Boyle Heights cold storage fire spoiled 85 million pounds of food and left the neighborhood in flies and stench for weeks — cleared three committees in four days. AB502 rewrote California's deceptive-campaign-ad law after a federal court struck the 2024 version, narrowing the protected window from 120 days before an election to 30 (Senate, 30-9). AB1811 froze the 2025 federal health-professional-shortage designations into state law through 2035, and AB2700 ordered the state's utility regulator to tally what wildfire victims from the Butte, North Bay, Thomas and Camp fires are still owed — both without a single no vote. Congress stayed in recess; the House Rules Committee returns Monday with HR1501 and HR9436 on its agenda. Bentley is nine. Mason is seven. Since Friday, a court can put a number on what they lost. Follow every bill at amendment.app . Floor audio: Sen. Catherine Blakespear and the California Senate floor and Senate Local Government Committee, via vod.senate.ca.gov. 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: Missouri — Bentley and Mason's Law (SB1135) Missouri — DWI felony classifications, ignition interlock, and Bentley and Mason’s Law (HB1740) California — cold storage facility neighbor fund (AB817) California — deceptive media in campaign ads (AB502) California — health professional shortage area designations (AB1811) California — wildfire victim restitution accounting (AB2700) Federal — Protecting Domestic Mining Act (HR1501) Federal — Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act (HR9436)

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  Episode #19

  Two Vetoes and Nobody in the Building

  Aug 23, 202615 min

  Most legislatures have gone home. This week the law moved in exactly two places — a governor's desk in Raleigh and a Senate floor in Sacramento racing an August 31 adjournment. On Monday, August 17, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein vetoed two bills on the same day: House Bill 377, which would let the state's chief justice suspend a trial judge without pay during a misconduct investigation, and House Bill 958, which would cut early voting in primaries from 17 days to 10 and allow ballots to be challenged for three days after Election Day. Republicans have said they will try to override both. They can't: the General Assembly's next voting session begins November 16 — thirteen days after the November 3 election. In California, the last full week of session produced the opposite picture. Assembly Bill 2624 adds immigration support services providers to Safe at Home, the address-confidentiality program the state has run for nearly thirty years for stalking and domestic-violence survivors and reproductive health care workers; it passed the Senate 30-10 and cleared the Assembly on concurrence 59-19, over a First Amendment objection we play in full. Assembly Bill 2618 bars a departing utilities commissioner from taking a job with a regulated utility for two years — closing a revolving door that already ran one way — 38-0. And Assembly Bill 1696 lets certified nurse-midwives practice without physician supervision in labor and delivery, obstetric triage, and emergency obstetric evaluation units, 38-0 and 74-1. In Washington, nothing: Congress is in August recess, and the week's only federal action was bills going into the hopper, including Rep. Hillary Scholten's HR 10134. It comes back to a desk, and the person sitting across from someone holding a deportation notice. The first application under California's expanded program can be filed April 1, 2027. Follow every bill at amendment.app . Floor audio: Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D), Sen. Tony Strickland (R), Sen. Jerry McNerney (D), and Sen. Anna Caballero (D), California State Senate floor sessions of August 18 and 19, 2026, via the California State Senate video archive. 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: California address confidentiality for immigration support providers (AB2624) North Carolina judicial suspension and discipline, vetoed (HB377) North Carolina election law changes, vetoed (HB958) California utilities commissioner revolving-door ban (AB2618) California nurse-midwives in emergency obstetric care (AB1696) Local Health Care Protection Act (HR10134)

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