The Coming Week - Legislative Edition

As usual, all info gathered from the website of the Arizona Legislature, except where noted, and subject to change without notice (and given the activities expected for this week, short-notice changes are likely)...

As noted earlier this weekend, a special session (#7!!) is on tap for the week. Look for more updates as details of that become available.

As for the regular session, committee work is again at a near standstill. The respective chambers' Rules committees will meet on Monday so that the chambers will have something to talk about during floor sessions later in the week.

House Rules' agenda here; Senate Rules' here.

The calendars for Monday's floor sessions are already posted.

The Senate has a Third Read calendar up; highlight there include SB1324, requiring the state Department of Administration to "MAKE IDENTITY THEFT PROTECTION OR PREVENTION SERVICES AVAILABLE TO ALL FULL-TIME OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES OF THIS STATE AND ITS DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES" (their caps) and SB1334, a bill to ban texting while driving.

SB1334 has been in the news lately. It died on a tie vote in a Senate COW session and then was revived. This one may pass, but it will be close.

As for SB1324, well, the only citizen listed in the record as in favor of it is James Hamilton, a lobbyist for LifeLock, a company that provides "identity theft and prevention services." Given the state's budget crisis and the recent and impending budget cuts to all of AZ's state agencies (except for the lege, governor, treasurer, and all other offices controlled directly by R elected officials), mandating that ADOA spend some of its rapidly dwindling resources to pay for something that only the lobbyist for the primary corporate beneficiary of the expenditure likes seems unwise.

To put it tactfully.

The CEO of LifeLock, Todd Davis, has contributed to R politicos in the past (Brewer, McComish, Robson in just the last three cycles, and no Ds)...not that I'm suggesting that this apparent payoff is anything more than a coincidence.

:)

The House's Third Read Calendar is here; COW calendars are here, here, and here. There are a number of moderately bad to completely horrible bills up for consideration, too many to list here. Expect those to pass on party line votes, the worse the bill, the deeper the divide (yes, my cynicism in running rampant today). Visit the lege's website for more details.

More later...