ALBANY — New teen drivers will face more training time behind the wheel and have fewer friends in the back seat while drivers of all ages will be banned from texting while driving under legislation given final approval Thursday by the State Senate.

The teen driving measure, stalled for the last couple of years amid partisan fighting, was among a couple of hundred bills rammed through the Senate in a game of legislation catchup with the Assembly, which already recessed its 2009 session.

The Senate also passed internal rules changes with the stated intention of making the Democratic-led chamber less dominated by party label and leadership — though they include assorted loopholes and the reality that they won’t really be tested until the next full session in 2010.

Despite claims of a less partisan Albany, Democrats just before 4 a. m. Thursday approved the release of $85 million in pork-barrel spending — $77 million for Democratic senators and $8 million to Republicans.

Most of Thursday’s bills were highly local in nature, like helping Hamburg schools get money from the state for a paperwork mistake.

The teen driving and texting ban bill had some of the most sweeping statewide ramifications.Gov. David A. Paterson is expected to sign it into law.

The bill requires 50 hours of training by a teenager with a parent or guardian — 15 of those hours must be after sunset—in order to apply to take a road test, up from the current 20 hours. The intent is to more slowly introduce driving to teenagers. Permits will have to be held a minimum of six months.

The measure, which passed the Senate 56-1 and already passed unanimously in the Assembly, would allow a vehicle driven by a new teen driver to carry only one nonfamily passenger under the age of 21—up from two currently. Studies have shown a dramatic increase in fatal crashes in cars driven by teens with teen passengers.

“I’m kind of nervous. It almost seems too good to be true,” said Diane Magle, whose daughter, Katie, was 17 in 2005 when she died as a passenger in a car driven by another teenager that struck a tree in Orchard Park. Magle has been among parents pushing for the tougher standards for years.

Magle believes the law will save lives, especially the provision limiting the number of teen passengers.

"I am very happy with that," she said.

The National Highway Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that two-thirds of fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers were in cars with teen passengers.

The text messaging ban, effective Nov. 1 if Paterson signs the bill, comes after counties have been urging Albany to enact a statewide ban on what safety experts say is an especially dangerous distraction. An earlier provision had applied the ban just to teenagers; that was amended to include all drivers, and includes texting and e-mailing while driving. Drivers can still use hands-free devices to talk while driving.

The texting effort spread following the June 2007 crash that killed five Fairport High School graduates; the driver’s phone had sent a text message shortly before the accident. In April, an Eden resident died when the car she was driving crashed into a milk truck; police said she had been texting with her boyfriend, who was behind her in another car.

Among the ban proponents was Kelly Cline, the mother of A. J. Larson, 20, who was killed in a 2007 crash while text messaging near his West Seneca home. “I think we’re going to save lives,” an ecstatic Cline said.

"Until you tell someone what they're doing is wrong, then you're telling them it's OK to do it. So, before this no-texting law, we weren't telling anyone that this was bad," she said.

Cline added the law will be another tool for parents. “Now parents can say to their children that you can’t text message. Not only is it not safe, but it is now against the law,” she said.

Cline, whose public push for the bill led Patricia Lynch, a high-profile Albany lobbyist, to take up her cause pro bono, recalled the death of her son. “It’s nice to be able to make something good out of what happened to my son,” she said.

The sole no vote in the Legislature, Sen. Elizabeth Little, who represents an area from north of Albany to the Canadian border, said she is concerned the bill will hurt families in rural areas without public transportation who rely on teenagers being able to drive with more than one teen passenger. She also questioned how seriously police will enforce the provisions other than after a crash involving teens.

"It's unfortunate this was not enacted years ago when this could have saved other lives and prevent parents who are currently suffering," said Sen. Martin Malave Dilan, D-Brooklyn, chairman of the Senate transportation committee and the bill's sponsor.

"This is a good bill and I think it will put a lot of parents at ease," Dilan said, recalling the peer pressure he felt while driving with a carload of teenagers.

The sole no vote in the Legislature, Sen. Elizabeth Little, who represents an area from north of Albany to the Canadian border, said she is concerned the bill will hurt families in rural areas without public transportation who rely on teenagers being able to drive with more than one teen passenger. She also questioned how seriously police will enforce the provisions other than after a crash involving teens.

"It just puts another restriction, especially on rural areas," she said.

Another bill lawmakers were considering late Thursday would require seat belts for all passengers 16 and older in a vehicle’s rear seat; current law requires the belts in front seats.

In 2007, 236 people were killed statewide in crashes involving teen drivers, according to Saferoads4teens Coalition, a safety coalition.

"We're hoping the governor signs it as quickly as he can. We think it's an important bill that will go a long way to reducing the number of crashes on our highways," said David J. Swarts, the state's motor vehicle commissioner.

The changes to the state's graduated drivers licensing law, pushed heavily by safety groups and parents after a number of high-profile teen accidents the past two years, are the most sweeping since its enactment in 2002 as a way to gradually introduce new drivers to the roads.

Tougher teen driving laws have been blocked in recent years by an assortment of partisan fights, turf wars and strangeness ... like the last-minute failure of a bill in 2008 because a Long Island senator did not want to have to wear seat belts in the back seat while being driven to Albany.

“We’re hoping the governor signs it as quickly as he can. We think it’s an important bill that will go a long way to reducing the number of crashes on our highways,” said David Swarts, the state’s motor vehicle commissioner.

In other legislative developments, the Senate released its 2009 pork barrel list — thousands of projects, from little leagues to senior centers to museums, in line for what lawmakers prefer to call “member items.” The New York Public Interest Research Group found a wide disparity in pork spending by party, with Democrats, in control of the Senate, getting on average more than nine times as much money to spread as Republicans.

In Western New York, Democratic Sen. William Stachowski got $4 million, NYPIRG said, and Democrat Sen. Antoine Thompson got $1.2 million. Republican senators — Dale Volker, George Maziarz, Michael Ranzenhofer and Catherine Young — got $250,000 apiece.

Among the biggest recipients locally was the Canisius College women’s center, Frank Lloyd Wright boathouse project, Buffalo Health and Speech Center, Buffalo Philharmonic and Horizon Health Services; each is getting more than $100,000.

Among the other bills getting final legislative approval were measures to protect historic landmarks from demolition by neglect by allowing localities to require upkeep standards, creating new penalties for boaters leaving the scene of an accident and adding domestic partners to the list of people who may consent to organ donations by patients.

While senators hailed their internal rules changes ... affecting everything from how a bill makes it to the floor easier to equality for legislative staff allocations ... most agreed it is too soon, given the session is winding down, to see if they will work. That will come next year.

And, as usual in Albany, loopholes filled the rules' deal. There is, of course, nothing binding on future Senate bodies, making it questionable whether a term limits provision on legislative leaders will stick in the years to come. A C-SPAN-like system for Albany, meanwhile, needs the Assembly to agree and broadcast of committee meetings over the internet should be done "to the extent practicable," the new rule states.