The state government, which is responsible for drafting the bill, suffered a cyberattack late Tuesday, causing major disruption to the budget process, the Post reported.
Capitol Hill officials confirmed that the Legislative Bill Drafting Committee, which is responsible for drafting and publishing the bills that make up the fiscal year 2025 spending plan, remains crippled by Wednesday morning’s hack.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget office and lawmakers were looking for a temporary workaround, officials said.
It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, what data was compromised, or the extent of the damage that affected the commission.
“The bill drafting system has been down since early this morning. They are working to fix the problem as quickly as possible.” A spokesperson for the state Senate Democrats said, “They are still able to process housing work. “We do not believe this will delay the overall process.”
Officials said the department had begun releasing some of the less controversial bills of the 10 separate bills that make up the budget on Tuesday night, when the cyberattack occurred.
Until a few years ago, state law required legislators to have a physical printed copy of a proposed bill in order to vote on it.
That requirement has since been repealed, but the committee is responsible for finalizing the bill into a standard format and uploading it to centralized software for access by lawmakers and the public.
Options being considered to circumvent the hack include reinstating the old practice of physically printing invoices, officials said.
