Arizona Legislature: The coming week

Another quiet week, which means that all of the interesting stuff will be going on behind closed doors.  However, keep an eye on the committee schedule - if something breaks on the budget front, they'll try to ram it through with minimal public input.  Meeting notices will be posted at or near the last minute.

Speculation (stuff that doesn't even rise to the level of whispers of rumors) is that the budget is on the back burner right now while the governor's office and the Republican leadership work out the details of Medicaid expansion.  Personally, I suspect that some of the budget and health care expansion talks are intertwined (as in "we'll put this in the budget if you vote for expansion" and the like) and both may come down together.  It's just going to take a while to work out the details and gather the votes.

As of right now, I expect the legislative session to continue well into May.

Of course, this could all change Monday morning. :)

In the meantime, look for more 'the black helicopters are coming!' (and similar) events at the Capitol, as bored legislators look to keep their names in the news.


As usual, all committee agendas, floor calendars, and event schedules are subject to change without notice. Call ahead to confirm plans before traveling to the Capitol based on an agenda, calendar, or schedule cited here.

Notes:

If an agenda is summarized with "looks harmless so far" that only means that nothing on the agenda set off "bat-shit crazy" alarm bells; if the committee in question covers an area of interest to you, check out the full agenda yourself. And if I missed something significant, please leave a comment letting me know.

A hearing room designation of "SHR" means it is a hearing room in the Senate building; "HHR" means that the hearing room is in the House building.

Lastly, this summary is not, nor is it intended to be, comprehensive. Many bills have been covered, but not all of them. Again, if a committee covers an area of interest to you, please check out the full agenda yourself.


Floor activity:

Monday's Senate Committee of the Whole (COW) calendar is here; Monday's House COW calendar is here.


Committee activity:

House side of the Capitol -

Rules, Monday, 1 p.m., HHR4.  Not a long agenda; may take all of five minutes to rubberstamp.

...and that's it for the House side of the Capitol.  Which isn't much, but it is still more than the Senate side of the Capitol, which has bupkes scheduled.  So far, anyway.


Capitol (and area) activity:

The lege's calendar of Capitol events is here.  Potentially the most newsworthy item on that calendar is a press conference scheduled for Thursday by the governor's office (10:30 a.m., House lawn).

Taking place on Wednesday, but not listed on the schedule, is the Republican caucus' modern-day version of a Tupperware party - the body armor party.

The Arizona Department of Administration's list of state-level commission and board meetings is here.