Arizona Legislature: The coming week (Part 1)

As this is the last week when most committees can still consider bills, this will be an "everything but the kitchen sink" week.

The committee agendas are long, and will probably get longer as the meeting times grow nearer.

No House Rules Committee agenda has been posted as yet; the agenda for Senate Rules is here.  It's a long agenda, and I expect that when it's posted, the House Rules' agenda will be similarly long.

The usual notes and caveats:

All committees meetings and agendas are subject to change without notice, and frequently do.  If you plan to travel to the Capitol to observe or weigh in on the consideration of a particular measure, check with the lege ahead of time to confirm that the meeting that you are interesting in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.

Floor calendars that have been posted have been included in this post.  However, those calendars are usually posted the day before they are considered.  Hence, only Monday's floor calendars are part of this post.

COW sessions, or "Committee of the Whole", is where actual floor debate takes place, where floor amendments to bills are added, and amendments added to bills in committee are approved.

Third Read sessions are where a bill receives a final vote.  No amendments are added here, and no official debate takes place, though there is a lot of "explaining" of votes during Third Read.

Measures that are going before a chamber's Rules committee are not up for debate on the merits of the measures.  The only subjects being considered is if the bill on the agenda is constitutional and in "proper form".  If a bill is on this agenda, chamber leadership has already decided that it is going to pass.  On occasion, a really bad bill is withdrawn from consideration, but I cannot remember that one was actually defeated in this committee.  Rules committee agendas serve best as an informal preview of what's coming up in floor action.

Meeting rooms designated "HHR" are in the House of Representatives building.

Meeting rooms designated "SHR" are in the Senate building.

All House committee agendas can be found here.

All Senate committee agendas can be found here.

Legislative floor calendars can be found here.

The lege's calendar of events for the week is here.

AZ Department of Administration meeting public notices are here.  


Some of the bills that are moving this week: 

- SB1182, an attack on public school districts contained in this proposal to undermine school district override and bond elections by mandating that certain information be included in publicity materials for such elections (House Ways and Means, Monday, 2 p.m., HHR1)

- a striker to SB1331, a retroactive proposal concerning the model city tax code and and changes to tax rates (this one is new to me and I don't completely understand its impact, but the retroactive nature of the measure alone raises some serious red flags) (House Ways and Means)

- SB1351, more legislative micromanaging of the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District in Tucson (House Ways and Means)

- SCR1007, a love letter to the US Forest Service asking they subsidize the logging industry by moving forward with "major forest thinning projects" (House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources, Monday, 2 p.m., HHR4)

- SCR1022, another love letter, this one to the US Environment Protection Agency, asking that it not create air pollution emission rules for the Navajo Generating Station, instead leaving such petty matters to the state legislature (please note the sarcasm) (House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources)

- SB1237, expanding school vouchers "empowerment scholarship accounts".  A "return of the living dead" bill, it failed in committee on March 3rd.  If it doesn't pass this week, expect it to come back as a striker to another bill within a few weeks. (House Education, Monday, 2 p.m., HHR3)

- SB1393, a proposal to remove the requirement that the administration (meaning the superintendents and management and supervisory personnel) of the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB) be "competent educators of the deaf and blind".  The is a proposed amendment that would restore that requirement for the superintendent of an ASDB school. (House Education)

- a striker to SB1133 (no text available as of this writing).  Subject: "energy code moratorium".  Can't be certain without seeing the actual text of the proposal, but there have been a number of proposals this year by Republican legislators to bar municipalities from moving their building codes into the 21st century.  This may be one such proposal.  (House Government, Tuesday, 2 p.m., HHR4)



- SB1293, mandating the kind of information that must be in publicity pamphlets for tax-related elections held by special taxing districts, school districts, counties, and municipalities. (House Government)



- HB2338, making it aggravated assault, a Class 4 felony, to take someone's gun away from them. (Senate Judiciary, Monday, 2 p.m., SHR1)

- HB2103, expanding the list of those who can obtain concealed weapons permits (Senate Judiciary)

- HB2339, guns at public events. (Senate Judiciary)

- HB2517, imposing all sorts of penalties on governments, agencies, and government officials who enact and/or enforce any firearms-related rule, ordinance, or law that is stricter than state law. (Senate Judiciary)

- HB2535, all but mandating that when a "chief law enforcement officer" is requested, under federal law, to approve a firearms transfer, he/she do so (Senate Judiciary)

- a striker to HB2418, an anti-union proposal that would bar compensation for union-related activities by public employees (this one has been floating around all session; it won't be completely dead until Sine Die) (Senate Government and Environment, Monday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

- HB2690, mandating that any photo radar device that is used to issue traffic tickets must be calibrated daily (trying to effectively ban photo traffic enforcement by making the operational requirements so onerous that it is easier to just stop using it) (Senate Transportation, Tuesday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

Due to time considerations, the rest of the week will posted tomorrow...it's going to be a fun week.

If your definition of "fun" includes "considering some ugly legislation".