Late last week, Senate Bill 73 was introduced by Senator Bill Blessing (R). The bill, known as the Digital Fair Repair Act, was referred to the Senate Committee on Financial Institutions and Technology. A first hearing as been scheduled in the committee for Tuesday the 7th at 9:30.
The bill is a re-introduction of the Right to Repair legislation Senator Blessing introduced late last year. After conversations with Senator Blessing, he has exempted farm and forestry equipment manufacturers and dealers from this year’s bill, SB 73. That is the good news. However, Senator Blessing has not exempted construction equipment from the bill.
We are proposing the adoption of template exemption language that was included in the New York Right to Repair legislation that passed last year. That language is much more comprehensive for our members. We have included the language in our position statement we are submitting to committee members, which you can read here.
This first hearing is for bill sponsor testimony only. We have meetings scheduled with the bill sponsor to discuss exemption language and will keep you notified of any updates on the status of the bill.