Monday, March 17, 2014

Arizona Legislature: The coming week (Part 2)


The continuation of this week's schedule post...

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  On occasion, a really bad bill is withdrawn from consideration, but I cannot remember that one was actually defeated in this committee.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 later this week:

- HB2541, a short bill, but one that may run into some serious legal issues if it becomes law.  The text of the measure - "DURING A STATE OF EMERGENCY OR A LOCAL EMERGENCY, THE STATE OR A COUNTY, CITY OR TOWN MAY ACCESS FEDERAL LAND LOCATED IN THIS STATE TO ADDRESS THE EMERGENCY, INCLUDING ACCESSING FEDERAL LAND WITH THE EQUIPMENT NECESSARY TO REPAIR OR ADDRESS THE EMERGENCY SITUATION."(Senate Public Safety, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR109)

- HB2367, imposing a work requirement for AHCCCS recipients (Senate Health and Human Services, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR1)

- HB2508, imposing a requirement that healthcare navigators and guides and others associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Arizona obtain licensing as insurance agents. (Senate Health and Human Services)

- HB2603, requiring courts to notify the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) when a recipient of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) monies. (Senate Health and Human Services)

- HB2276, a tax cut for the insurance industry (Senate Finance, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

- HB2281, a tax break targeted at religious organizations.  Currently, property owned by religious organizations is exempt from taxation.  Under this proposal, property that isn't owned by such organizations but is instead simply leased by them would also be exempt from taxation. (Senate Finance)

- HB2560, allowing insurance providers to self-audit their own compliance with laws and regulations, self-report the audit results to regulatory agencies, and then to keep the results secret. (Senate Finance)

- HCR2022; currently, the first $50K of personal property is exempt from taxation.  HCR2022 is a proposal to amend the state's constitution to raise the exemption to $2.4 million. (Senate Finance)

- HB2699, state legislative nullification of the federal Endangered Species Act (Senate Government and Environment, Thursday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

- HB2700, taking all federal land in Arizona away from the federal government (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2321, "procurement code omnibus".  Maybe I'm being too cynical, but "omnibus" is lege-speak for "a lot of detailed and very technical changes that can mask a lot of bad provisions".
(Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2014, an anti-voter initiative measure, requiring that the publicity pamphlets, campaign literature and ballot language for voter initiatives state that the proposed measure, if approved, can never be changed except by another vote of the electorate, or under limited circumstances, by a 3/4 vote of the legislature. (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2640, requiring that internal investigations conducted a municipality, county, or state government agency be conducted by an investigator selected by the state's auditor general, an agency wholly controlled by the state legislature. (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2316, an anti-Common Core bill (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2328, expanding Steve Yarbrough's revenue stream "school tuition organization scholarships" (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2485, a bill requiring the state department of education to buy a specific vendor's education software (the bill doesn't state the specific company by name, but it lists a set of requirements so specific that only one company can meet them) (Senate Education, Thursday, 9 a.m., SHR1)

- SB1315, taking the authority to appropriate unencumbered federal monies given to the state (i.e. - block grants, etc.) away from the governor and give them to legislature.  If passed by the lege (and it will be), it would have to be signed by the governor to become law (don't hold your breath waiting for that one) (House Appropriations, Wednesday, 2 p.m., HHR1)

- a striker to SB1168 (text unavailable at this time).  Subject: teenage drivers; communications devices prohibited".  Possibly (depending on the actual text of the striker) the best measure of the week. (House Transportation, Thursday, 9 a.m., HHR3)

- House Reform and Human Services will hear a presentation (Thursday, 9 a.m., HHR1).  Subject: "
Update and Status of Child Advocate Response Examination (CARE) Team, Charles Flanagan, Director".

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