Some (very) bad bills this week, some anti-choice bills, some anti-LGBTQ+ bills, some political indoctrination bills, and an attempt at humor.
Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.
Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda. Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority). My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.
Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m. Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.
Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible. Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.
Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments. Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill. Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill become a very bad one.
On Monday, 2/10
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House and Senate Rules meet in their respective rooms. On the agendas: many bills.
House Health & Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4. On the agenda: 10 bills, including HB2126, a proposal to mandate that a health care provider grant parents access to any online portal used by their child. My hesitation with this one is rooted in the fact that most of bill's cosponsors are utterly vile human beings.
House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs meets at 2 p.m. is HHR3. On the agenda: six bills, most of which read as if the were written by an industry lobbyist. Includes Gail Griffin's HB2083, a ploy to ensure that industry is represented on Arizona's Game and Fish Commission; HB2552, Lupe Diaz' proposal to expand wildlife hunting to allow dogs to be used to kill animals; and HB2588, Griffin's proposal to require the Game and Fish Department to expand the issuance of landowner hunting permits. Interestingly, there's no requirement actually *own* the land they're hunting on, only that it be privately owned.
House Public Safety & Law Enforcement meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1. On the agenda: eight bills. Includes HB2606, further busting the state's budget by another $50 million by using it fund local police agencies' border enforcement actions and the indoctrination training of their officers to "fear the other,." and HB2664, giving the sheriff on Gila County $3 million from the state's General Fund. The sheriff of Gila County looks to be someone who's opposed to Covid mitigation measures.
Senate Federalism meets at 2 p.m. in SHR2. On the agenda: two bill, but one of them is from Mark Finchem, and it's a doozy. His SCR1012 is subject to a striker proposed by Finchem to turn a technical correction measure into a love letter to Congress, asking them to propose an amendment to the US Constitution declaring that the states have absolute authority over campaign spending.
Senate Finance meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1. On the agenda: 11 measures. includes SB1496, JD Mesnard's proposal to make sure that provisions that are work-related are added to what a "qualifying charitable organization" has to engage in for donations to that organization to qualify for a tax credit.
Most of the proposals are about reducing state revenue.
Senate Military Affairs and Border Security meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109. On the agenda: five bills. Includes SB1294, John Kavanagh's ploy to force the Arizona Department of Administration to lease the state prison in Marana for a dollar per year to the feds (read: Trump/Musk and their acolytes) to house immigrants.
On Tuesday, 2/11
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House Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in HHR5. On the agenda: 12 bills. Personal fave: HB2411, a "we need more booze at golf courses" bill.
There was a legislative attempt at humor with this one -
House Education meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1. On the agenda: nine bills. Personal fave: HB2724, allowing leaders of the Hitler Youth "patriotic youth groups" 10 minutes access to school kids to indoctrinate them.
House Natural Resources, Energy & Water meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3. On the agenda: 14 bills, many of which read as if the were written by an industry lobbyist. Personal fave: HCR2046, blaming forest mismanagement and salt cedars for the decrease in water in the Colorado River and not usage. I'm not making this up. I wish I was.
House Regulatory Oversight meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4. On the agenda: four bills, two of which are very bad. Personal fave: HB2630, deeming that any person whose nomination for a director position at an agency whose nomination is rejected the state senate (read: Jake Hoffman) is not allowed to work in any position in that agency.
Senate Appropriations meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109. On the agenda: 11 bills. Includes SB1374, Mark Finchem's scheme to take $10 million from the state's General Fund in order to conduct a special census authorized by the bill itself.
Senate Natural Resources meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1. On the agenda:10 bills, most of which read as if they were written by an industry lobbyist. Personal fave: SB1212, making the application of fertilizer, biosolids, and/or soil amendments to lands leased from the state are presumed to be "reasonable."
There's a high "ick" factor here - basically, the bill says that poisoning state land is "reasonable."
On Wednesday, 2/12
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House Judiciary meets at 8:30 a.m. in HHR4. On the agenda: 13 bills, including HCR2037, asking the voters to legalize bombs, rockets, grenades, silencers, machine guns, sawed-off shotguns and rifles, and IEDs (and more!). All are currently considered to be "prohibited weapons" under AZ law.
House Government meets at 9 a.m. in HHR5. On the agenda: five bills. All bad, but my personal fave is HCR2042, asking the voters to ban affirmative actions.
Senate Health and Human Services meets at 9 a.m. in SHR2. On the agenda: 17 bills.
House Judiciary meets again at 10 a.m. in HHR4. On the agenda: one bill.
House Ways & Means meets at 10 a.m. Eight bills. Most reduce revenue accrued by or money spent by the state, a county, a municipality, or an agency of one of those.
Senate Government meets at 10 a.m. in SHR1, On the agenda: five bills. A majority of which are bad.
Senate Education meets at 1:30 p.m.in SHR1. On the agenda: 22 bills and a presentation from Grand Canyon University. Many bad, some sneaky bad. Personal faves, and not sneaky, or even subtle about it: SB1694, denying state fuds to state universities that offer even a single course pertaining to DEI; and SB1321, allowing The Klan Youth Corps "Patriotic Youth Membership Organizations" to use schools as recruiting and indoctrination centers,
Senate Judiciary and Elections meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2. On the agenda: 24 bills. Many ugly. Personal faves: SB1441, a proposal to make school board elections partisan; SB1722, creating grounds for a civilian to sue over scientific research they don't like/deem to be "fraudulent".
Senate Public Safety meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109. On the agenda: 16 bills. Approximately 1/2 are ugly. Personal fave: SCM1001, Wendy Rogers' ploy to rename Arizona route 260 after Cheeto.
House Appropriations meets at 2 p.m.in HHR1. On the agenda: three bills. Most seem harmless, but HB2420, passed House Education on a party line vote.
House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4. On the agenda: 11 bills, most anti-democracy. HB2038 will be subject to a striker requiring a registering voter to present "satisfactory" proof on U.S. citizenship in order for that registration to be valid; and HCM2004, Gail Griffin's love letter to Congress asking them to exempt military bases. etc. from the Endangered Species Act.
House Science & Technology meets at 2 p.m. is HHR5. On the agenda: two bills.
House Transportation & Infrastructure meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3, On the agenda: three bills.
On Thursday, 2/13
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House Health & Human Services meets (again) at 1 p.m. in HHR4. 11 bills. Includes HB2439, requiring the the websites for AHCCCS and all other state agencies refer pregnant women to organizations that don't provide abortions.
Senate Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency meets at 1 p.m. in SHR109. On the agenda: nine bills. Includes SB1556, relating to adult hemp beverages. The .pdf of the bill and the section of law it's amending is 124 pages long and there are many change clauses proposed in the bill. The length of the bill makes me uncomfortable.
The original quote is from W.C. Fields and goes “If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”
My update for the Age of Cheeto: "If you can't dazzle 'em with facts, bury 'em in bullshit."
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