The coming week...

As usual, except where noted, all info gathered from the websites of the relevent political bodies/agencies, and subject to change without notice.


Well, for the first time in weeks, the U.S. Congress will be in session, and for the first time in months, the Arizona Legislature will *not* be. That sounds significant, but somehow, I'm not sure that it is.

Congress probably won't be doing much this week (in terms of "official business" anyway) and the lege has plenty of unfinished business that they should be dealing with, but won't be.

In short, not much has changed since last week. :)


...In the U.S. House, the action gets underway Tuesday afternoon. It looks to be a relatively quiet week as far as floor action goes. The agenda includes:

H.R. 324 - Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area Act, sponsored by Raul Grijalva (D-AZ7) and cosponsored by Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ8).

The posted agenda is light on issues of national interest, and that looks to be the only one of direct interest to Arizonans.

However, both behind the scenes and in front of cameras, there will be a lot of talk about health care reform.

The President is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening on the subject. I'd say I'm "waiting with bated breath" for the speech, but he seems more likely to give up on a public option when he should be throwing an elbow (more on that later.)

Congressman Harry Mitchell's (D-AZ5) responses to questions (about health care reform) posed by readers of the Arizona Republic can be found here; Congressman Jeff Flake's (R-AZ6) responses can be found here.

...The U.S. Senate looks to have an equally low-key "official business" week, with a lot of back office focus on health care reform.

...The Arizona Legislature is out of session, with no special sessions officially scheduled at this point, though given that the budget is still out-of-balance, expect one soon. Just probably not this week, as I previously expected would happen.

...The Arizona Corporation Commission has a securities and utilities meeting scheduled for Wednesday. The agenda is here. There are a couple of APS-related items and a couple of securities "cease and desist" related items, including one against JP Morgan Chase & Co. More details here.

The ACC's hearing schedule for the week is available here.

...The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has a light week - no regular meetings, just a Special/Executive meeting on tap for Wednesday morning. Why don't they drop the "special" moniker, since they seem to have one almost every week?

...The Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Project will be holding a meeting of its Project ADD Water group on Wednesday and Thursday.

...The Tempe City Council has a meeting scheduled for Thursday. The agenda is here. It looks to be mostly mundane, but even that can be interesting on occasion. On *this* occasion, item A-3 includes a name that is familiar to most D17'ers.

It just goes to show that even high-flying legislative stars are subject to the drudgery of normal life in the not-so-big city. :)

...The Scottsdale City Council has a regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Items of interest on the agenda include consideration of the process of appointing an interim City Attorney, a new City Treasurer, possibly creating a Scottsdale City Lobbyist ordinance, and enacting some recommendations regarding the operations and oversight of City Cable 11,

They've also scheduled an executive session to "[d]iscuss and consider international or interstate negotiations with representatives of the public body regarding ongoing negotiations with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (a domestic sovereign nation) for intergovernmental agreements related to Pima Road and drainage improvements; and discuss and/or consult with the City attorney(s) for legal advice regarding the same."

That meeting is also scheduled for Tuesday. The executive session is scheduled for 4 p.m., the regular meeting is scheduled for 5.

...Not scheduled to meet this week: Arizona Board of Regents, the Governing Board of the Maricopa County Community College District, the Board of Directors of the Maricopa Integrated Health System and the Citizens Clean Elections Commission (though CCEC has scheduled candidate workshops for September 16, October 21, November 18, and December 2. Sign up here.)

Later...