Arizona Legislature: The coming week

This is the last week when bill proposals can be heard in committee (there are a few ways around that rule, but the ways involve some serious sucking up to legislative leadership and/or the chairs of the respective chambers' Appropriations Committees).

In short, there's a *lot* of ugly on committee agendas this week.

This is also a very good week to pay attention to agenda changes - bills will be added to or removed from agendas with nearly no notice, strikers will be proposed out of nowhere, and meeting times will be changed.

Some examples, meaning that as long as this list may be, it's not even close to being comprehensive:

- A striker to HB2113, seeking to overturn any and all municipal bans on "puppy mills" (Senate Natural Resources, Monday)

- HB2579, barring municipalities from regulating "nonwage compensation", such as requiring sick pay (Senate Commerce and Workforce Development, Monday)

- HB2652, removing any labor protections for people like Uber and Lyft drivers by inserting language into state law that makes them "independent contractors" (Senate Commerce and Workforce Development, Monday)

- HB2445, allowing motor vehicle insurance providers to "non-renew" insurance policies for almost any reason (Senate Transportation, Tuesday)

- HB2300, barring the state or its political subdivisions (counties, municipalities, etc.) from enforcing or assisting with the enforcement of any federal law, rule, policy, etc. that they deem as infringing on the 2nd Amendment

- HCR2043, a proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution to allow the legislature to override the Voter Protection Act; more on this one from AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona here (Senate Federalism, Mandates, and Fiscal Responsibility, Tuesday)

- HB2517, barring counties, municipalities, etc., from enacting or enforcing rules, regulations, ordinances, policies, etc. that may restrict or inhibit the formation and operation of businesses, except under limited conditions (Senate Government, Wednesday)

- HB2537, Doug Ducey's scheme to pack the Supreme Court with pliable judges (Senate Government, Wednesday)

- HCR2023, another proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution to allow the legislature to override the Voter Protection Act (Senate Government, Wednesday)

- HCR2035, a proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution to hamstring the authority of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission (Senate Government, Wednesday)

- HB2043, exempting profits from speculation in gold and silver coins (calling those things "specie legal tender") from taxation, but making financial losses from such speculation tax-deductible (Senate Financial Institutions, Wednesday)

- HB2480, limiting the amount of "additional state aid" for education that the state can appropriate for education (Senate Finance, Wednesday)

- HB2115, attacking public employees by barring them from receiving a pension or severance pay if they are found to have "misappropriated" public funds.  The bill does not require that such an allegation be proven in court before the penalties are imposed (Senate Judiciary, Thursday)

- HB2123, gutting conflict of interest rules applied to members of the Arizona Corporation Commission (aiding their former colleague, Andy Tobin, a former House Speaker and current member of the ACC) (Senate Judiciary, Thursday)

- SB1516,  well, their title for this nugget of ugly is "campaign finance amendments" but it should be titled the "dark money protection act" (House Elections, Monday)

- SB1266, creating penalties for political subdivisions that enact, and for officials that enforce, any law, ordinance, rule, etc. that restricts firearms any more than state law does (House Judiciary, Wednesday)
- SB1474, barring scientific research on fetal tissue or embryos from abortions (House Judiciary, Wednesday)
- SB1485, barring state employees from making donations to Planned Parenthood through payroll deductions (House Judiciary, Wednesday)

- SB1324, imposing restrictions on medication-induced abortions (House Judiciary, Wednesday)

- SB1437, nullifying part of the National Defense Authorization Act (House Federalism and States' Rights, Wednesday)


The rest -

Notes:

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 interested in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.

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.

Committee schedule (mostly just copied and pasted from the lege's website.  The agenda links work, as of this writing, but may not later in the week if an agenda is modified in some way):

Agenda Date	Committee	Time	Room	HTML Document
03/17/16	Agriculture, Water and Lands	10:00 A.M.	HHR 3	Click Here
03/17/16	Government and Higher Education	9:00 A.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
03/17/16	Military Affairs and Public Safety	9:00 A.M.	HHR 5	Click Here
03/16/16	Appropriations	2:00 P.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
03/16/16	Commerce	9:30 A.M. NOTE TIME CHANGE	HHR 1	Click Here
03/16/16	Education	2:00 P.M.	HHR 4	Click Here
03/16/16	Federalism and States' Rights	9:00 A.M.	HHR 5	Click Here
03/16/16	Insurance	10:00 A.M. NOTE TIME CHANGE	HHR 4	Click Here
03/16/16	Judiciary	8:00 A.M. NOTE TIME CHANGE	HHR 3	Click Here
03/15/16	Banking and Financial Services	2:00 P.M.	HHR 3	Click Here
03/15/16	Health	2:00 P.M.	HHR 4	Click Here
03/15/16	Rural and Economic Development	2:00 P.M.	HHR 5	Click Here
03/15/16	Transportation and Infrastructure	2:00 P.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
03/14/16	Children and Family Affairs	2:00 P.M.	HHR 5	Click Here
03/14/16	County and Municipal Affairs	2:00 P.M.	HHR 4	Click Here
03/14/16	Elections	9:30 A.M. NOTE TIME CHANGE	HHR 4	Click Here
03/14/16	Energy, Environment and Natural Resources	2:00 P.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
03/14/16	Rules	1:00 P.M.	HHR 4	Click Here
03/14/16	Ways and Means	2:00 P.M.	HHR 3	Click Here
Agenda Date	Committee	Time	Room	HTML Document
03/17/16	Education	9:00 A.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
03/17/16	Judiciary	9:30 A.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
03/16/16	Finance	9:00 A.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
03/16/16	Financial Institutions	2:00 P.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
03/16/16	Government	2:00 P.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
03/16/16	Health and Human Services	2:00 P.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
03/16/16	Public Safety, Military and Technology	9:00 A.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
03/15/16	Appropriations	2:00 P.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
03/15/16	Federalism, Mandates and Fiscal Responsibility	9:00 A.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
03/15/16	Transportation	2:00 P.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
03/14/16	Commerce and Workforce Development	1:45 P.M. OR UPON ADJ OF FLOOR (NOTE TIME CHANGE)	SHR 1	Click Here
03/14/16	Natural Resources	9:00 A.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
03/14/16	State Debt and Budget Reform	10:00 A.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
03/14/16	Water and Energy	2:00 P.M.	SHR 3	Click Here

Floor Calendars:

The House has a Final Read (approving changes to House bills that were amended in the Senate) calendar scheduled for Monday.

The Senate has a COW (Committee of the Whole) calendar posted for Monday.

There will be floor calendars later in the week, but those are generally posted the day before, or even the day of, consideration.

The lege's Capitol Events calendar is here.