There's some sneakiness and some unintended irony in this week's bills; there's also lots of ugly veto-bait this week (to be fair, it IS the Arizona State Legislature, so ugly bills are the norm for them).
Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.
Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda. Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority). My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.
Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m. Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.
Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible. Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.
Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments. Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill. Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill become a very bad one.
On Monday, 2/17
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House and Senate Rules meet at 1 p.m. in their respective rooms. On the agendas: many bills.
Senate Federalism meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2. On the agenda: five bills, all bad. SB1150 would allow the transfer of state trust lands to private hands; a Mark Finchem-proposed striker to SB1278 a Department of Natural Resources paid for by the state's General Fund; SB1498, also from Finchem, would mandate that federal law enforcement personnel obtain the written permission of the relevant county sheriff before making an arrest or conducting a search or seizure in the state. An exception is carved out for immigration agents (of course); SCR1006, asking the voters to allow SB1150 and to take the voters' expression of approval for any trust land transfer out of the mix and insert the governor's approval; and SCR1018, a love letter to Congress about supporting the transfer of federally-controlled land into state hands.
Senate Finance meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1. On the agenda: 20 bills. Lots of bad here. Personal fave: SB1298, John Kavanagh's proposal to expand the property tax exemption given to religious institutions and organizations that profess to be religious in nature. This one has Center for Arizona Policy written all over it.
Senate Military Affairs and Border Security meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109. On the agenda: seven bills. Lots of bad here. Personal fave: SB1495, a scheme from Wendy Rogers (and cosponsored by a rogues' gallery) to remove the AZ National Guard from the national chain of command.
House Health & Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4. On the agenda: 11 bills. Includes HB2165, restricting what SNAP recipients can buy. The bill failed, on a 6-6 vote, in committee the first time it was considered. An amendment has been proposed by the committee chair. That may be enough to secure an additional R vote, but the bill will still be about committee members demonstrating their hatred for poor people.
House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3. On the agenda: six bills. Includes HB2800. a hyper-specific bill disallow cancellation or non-renewal of a fire insurance policy within a certain proximity of a governor-declared natural disaster or wildfire.
House Public Safety & Law Enforcement meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1. On the agenda: nine bills, mostly bad.
On Tuesday, 2/18
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House Education meets at 1:30 p.m. in HHR1. On the agenda: one bill. HB2058 will be subject to a striker. The original bill failed in committee on a 0-11vote. The striker is about exempting students from vaccinations requirements in higher ed.
Senate Appropriations meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109. On the agenda: 24 bills, some bad, some less so. Includes a Mark Finchem-proposed striker to SB1583. The striker looks to do an end-run around a lawsuit pertaining to giving money to the rodeo grounds in Prescott.
Senate Natural Resources meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1. On the agenda: 21 bills, most looking as if they were written by industry lobbyists. Also, there are many strikers.
House Commerce meets at 1:30 p.m.in HHR5. On the agenda: 18 bills, lots of strikers.
House Education meets (again) at 2 p.m.in HHR1. On the agenda: 14 proposals. Lots of strikers. Personal fave: a striker to HB2725 that would both mandate that public school students take and pass a certain amount of civics courses in order to promoted past eighth grade AND exempt certain homeschooled and private school transfers from that requirement. Of course, there is part that would better applied to state legislators, Cheeto, Musk, and ALL Trumpkins -
House Natural Resources, Energy & Water meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3. On the agenda: 13 bills. Four have proposed strikers. Most bills and striker read as if they were written by industry lobbyists. Personal fave: HB2059 though, reads like a combination of the wet dreams of industry lobbyists and pure R ideologues. It would bar all public employees in Arizona from aiding the feds in any way, if the matter relates to natural resources.
House Regulatory Oversight meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4. On the agenda: four bills. Includes HB2031, a proposal to abolish a large number of boards, commissions and professional licenses; and HCR2024, asking the voters to get rid the use of lethal injection for capital punishment, and instead use a firing squad.
On Wednesday, 2/19
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House Government meets at 8 a.m. in HHR5. On the agenda: 15 bills, many ugly. Includes: HB2547, which would bar public funds from going to any person who even talks about abortions (they use the word "promotes"); and HCR2049, demanding that the federal government stop being the federal government.
House Judiciary meets at 8:30 a.m. in HHR4. On the agenda: 15 bills. Many bad. Includes HB2340, elevating the penalty for the murder of a law enforcement to death or natural life in prison; HB2786, allowing for the use of a motor vehicle speed inhibiting device in lieu of a driver's license suspension for one or more speed related infractions (this should be required of ALL sitting legislators); and HB2681, essentially banning the use of abortion inducing drugs here. This bill is subject to an amendment that may or may not be a striker (the amendment is not labeled as such of the agenda but on the bill documents page, it is so labeled.)
Senate Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency meets at 8:30 a.m. in SHR109. Lots of ugly here. On the agenda: 22 bills, five of which have proposed strikers where the language isn't yet available. Personal fave: SB1627, a proposal from Shawnna Bolick to mandate that all executive branch agency heads send federal agency directives and interpretations of federal agency rules to four legislators, named by position. The agenda also includes SB1584, a move to end affirmative action in public hiring in Arizona; SB1586, making a healthcare provider who provides gender transition services to a minor personally liable for all detransition costs incurred within 25 years; and SB1296, increasing requirements on those receiving unemployment insurance(UI) benefits and making it easier to disqualify them from receiving UI.
House International Trade meets at 9 a.m. in HHR1. On the agenda: no bills and three presentations. I expect that two of those may get interesting - one is from the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and one is from the Canada Arizona Business Council. And we are in the Age of Cheeto.
Senate Government meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1. On the agenda: 14 bills, four of which have proposed strikers where the language isn't yet available. Most are identified on the agenda with the word "government", so I expect that when the actual language is revealed they'll turn out to be be things that pass on party line votes. Personal fave: SB1593, expanding who can sue a municipality or county over something passed with an emergency clause.
Senate Health and Human Services meets at 9 a.m. in SHR2. On the agenda: 22 bills. Personal fave: SB1302, Mark Finchem's attempt at sneakiness. Among other things that seem good in an "awww, shucks" sort of way, it appropriates more than $130 million in each fiscal year thru 2030 for the care of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. On the other hand, his proposal includes a clause that allows a legislatively-controlled entity to take away that funding -
House Ways & Means meets at 10 a.m. in HHR3. On the agenda: 10 bills, most about reducing revenue.
Senate Education meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1. On the agenda: 23 bills. Personal fave: SCR1028, Shawnna Bolick's ploy to do away with majority rule on school bond votes by requiring that such votes require 60% support to pass. Also includes SB1694, withholding state funding for institutions of higher education that offer DEI courses; and SB1227, a ploy to put school cell phone bans and placing police officer in schools into the same bill.
Senate Judiciary and Elections meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2. On the agenda: 29 bills. Lots of VERY ugly bills here. Personal fave: SCR1020 ploy to have the voters do away with the merit selection of county judges in large counties.
Senate Public Safety meets at 1:30 p.m.in SHR109. On the agenda: 17 bills. There's some bad here, but has one bill that falls into the "we have too much time on our hands" category - SB1270, Wendy Rogers' bid to bar operating a motor vehicle while an animal is on the driver's/operator's lap.
House Science & Technology meets at 2 p.m. in HHR5. On the agenda: seven bills. Curiously, many look to have been assigned to another committee; in this case, House Public Safety & Law Enforcement (this phenomenon has occurred with other bills on other agendas, but not to the extent that it occurs here) -
House Transportation & Infrastructure meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3. On the agenda: 10 bills.
On Thursday, 2/20 -
Senate Government meets at 10:30 a.m. in SHR1. On the agenda: 14 bills, four of which have proposed strikers where the language isn't yet available. The agenda looks to be the same as for the previous meeting.
Senate Judiciary and Elections meets at 1 p.m.in SHR2. On the agenda: 29 bills.
House Public Safety and Law Enforcement meets at upon the adjournment of the floor session. in HHR1. On the agenda: 11 bills.
