Sunday, February 26, 2012

The coming week...

I said this last week and was thoroughly blown out of the water when the Rs dropped a budget proposal on us, but this coming week is shaping up to be a relatively quiet one on the committee front.

Guess that it's a good thing that each of the posts includes a disclaimer that committee agendas and schedules can change without notice.  And consider that disclaimer given for this post.  :)

As of right now, the most interesting bill going before committee this week is a striker to HB2036.  More complete coverage on the measure is here,   Basically, it an anti-abortion measure with every single punitive and petty idea that the Rs have come up with over the last few years, with the exception of the "trans-vaginal" ultrasound mandate that has cropped up in other places.

The measure will be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday at 2 p.m. in SHR1.

While there are a couple of individual measures that are controversial, right now they're all measures that have been heard in committee at least once in the other chamber (lowlights:  HB2035, Rep. Kimberly Yee's attempt to undermine the voters' approval of medical marijuana; HB2563, Rep. Terri Proud's move to add the Bible to public school curriculums; .

That makes the second "highlight" of the week, as currently scheduled, some of the executive nominations up for committee consideration.  Such as...

Not to say that the Capitol world is a small one, or to imply that the operating rule down there is "it's not what you know, it's who you know", but Kathryn Senseman, wife of former Brewer communications person and private prison lobbyist Paul Senseman (and a professional lobbyist herself), is up for consideration for a "public member" spot on the State Board for Charter Schools.

"Public member"?  Only technically.  As a professional lobbyist, she's not officially part of the state government or any of the industries she works for, but she's hardly an outsider.

To sum up:  things look quiet right now, but as we learned last week, that can change at a moment's notice (or less).

The complete House committee schedule is available here; the Senate's schedule is available here.

The lege's floor calendars are here.

The lege's Capitol Events calendar is here; the Arizona Capitol Times' Capitol Calendar is here.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee's (JLBC) monthly fiscal highlights report for February is here.

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