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...

There are two reasons to believe that the 2nd Session of the 49th Arizona Legislature is in its final days -

1. The sooner they adjourn, the sooner the 90-day clock starts ticking for SB1070 to become the law of the land. (Brewer may have signed it on Friday, but it doesn't go into effect until 90 days after the lege adjourns sine die).

2. The agendas for the respective chambers' Rules committees are getting shorter, indicating that there will be fewer bills reaching the floor for a final vote.


On the House side...

- Rules will meet Monday in HHR4 upon adjournment/recess of the floor session or "upon announcement" (another indicator that the end is near: scheduling becomes very fluid). Highlights of the agenda: an amended SB1042 (restricting municipalities' abilities to levy building permit and related fees) and SB1443 (inhibiting photo enforcement by placing all kinds of restrictions on procedures post citation issuance).

- Final Read calendar for the floor is posted here. Final Read is for approval of House bills that have been approved by the Senate but with changes. If they changes are too much for the House to accept, they will go to a conference committee to iron out the differences.

- - Monday's conference committee schedule is here.

- Third Read (final approval) calendar is here. Highlights: HB2060 (moving money from the Public Conservation Account of the Land Conservation Fund to the state parks board, the Arizona Historical Society, and the Prescott Historical Society). Because of Voter Protection Act provisions, this will take a 3/4 vote to pass; and SB1309 (a Center for Arizona Theocracy-written measure regarding "parents rights" ).

- COW calendar (Committee of the Whole) is here.


Over on the Senate side, a Rules agenda hasn't been posted as yet. There are a few committees meeting to consider executive branch nominations.

- Healthcare and Medical Liability Reform will meet on Tuesday at 10 a.m. in SHR1 to consider appointments to the Arizona Medical Board and the Radiation Regulatory Hearing Board.

- Education Accountability and Reform will meet on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in SHR1 to consider appointments to the State Board for Charter Schools, the State Board of Education, and the School Facilities Board. One name that stood out upon cursory examination was that of Eileen Klein for the State Board of Education. Klein is Jan Brewer's Chief of Staff.

- Commerce and Economic Development will meet on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in SHR3 to consider appointments to the Greater Arizona Development Authority, Industrial Commission of Arizona, and Arizona Power Authority Commission.

- Natural Resources, Infrastructure, and Public Debt will meet on Tuesday at 11 a.m. (or upon adjournment of the Senate Education committee) in SHR109 to consider appointments the Arizona State Veterinary Medical Examining Board.

- COW calendars for Monday are posted here and here. There are a number of lousy bills on both, but especially the 2nd one.

- Third Read for Monday is here. A number of bad bills on this one.

- The Caucus Calendar is here. In the absence of a Rules agenda, this one is a good indicator of the measures that may receive floor votes later in the week. It includes HB2250, the Republicans' corporate bailout bill (updated fiscal note here). Combined with the proposed sales tax hike (election day is May 18 for that one), this represents a massive redistribution of money from Arizona's poor and middle classes into the pockets of corporations.


In events news, other than the expected continuing rallies at the Capitol to oppose SB1070, a number of legislators (presumably, mostly Republicans) will be participating in something called "AZ legislators for wildlife shootout" at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility's Clay Target Center on Monday from 4 - 7 p.m.

No word if they will be painting sombreros on the targets beforehand.

Later...