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 propagate 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 at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, 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 into the entirety of a bill. Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill into a very bad one.
This post will be at once easier and more difficult - there will be fewer agendas to go over (that's the "easier" part), but some of those agendas will be much longer (that's the "more difficult" part). :)
On Monday, 3/28 -
House Appropriations meets at 9:30 a.m. in HHR1. 18 bills on the agenda, but no strikers. Included are SB1211, requiring school to make available for parental review all learning materials used in the school; SB1566, dinging the Arizona Bar Association, SB1718, appropriating $1,140,800 from the state's general fund to a "border security fund"; and SCR1018, expressing the legislature's gratitude for Arizona's essential workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. My guess is that while most of the Rs will vote for this measure, most won't actually mean it.
Senate Government meets at 4 p.m. in SHR1 where chair Kelly Townsend will conduct her 2020 election-related inquisition questioning of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. My expectation is that this will be less a fair hearing and more an exercise in a modern version of auto-da-fé.
On Tuesday, 3/29 -
Senate Appropriations meets at 9 a.m. in SHR109. A daunting 41 bills on the agenda, with 21 strikers to be offered. With many of the strikers, the text isn't available as yet. Language *is* available for few. Some of those are a striker to HB2050, related to licensing marijuana dispensaries; a striker for HB2528, taking $100,000,000 from federal American Rescue Plan funds and giving it to the state's housing trust fund; a striker to HB2543, creating a tax credit for craft distillers, farm wineries, and microbreweries. This is a zombie version of SB1408, which was assigned to House Ways & Means, but there was no action on the measure there, so it died; a striker to HB2637, barring financial institutions from discriminating against someone based on their political or social values. This is a zombie version of HB2656, which died twice on the House floor; a striker to HB2278, expanding school vouchers; a striker to HB2675, mandating that DPS collect data on crimes based on antisemitism. Guessing that Sen. Wendy Rogers won't vote for this one if it makes it to the Senate floor; and a striker to HCR2017, removing merit selection of judges in Pinal County. This is a zombie version of SCR2018, which was assigned to Senate Judiciary but not considered there. The current population threshold for merit selection of judges is 250K. Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties meet that, with Yavapai County being close. This proposal would raise that threshold to 800K, leaving only Maricopa and Pima counties with state-mandated merit selection. Coconino County has merit selection, but that was implemented via a county referendum, not a state requirement.
Other bad bills on the agenda: HB2473, barring the state from contracting with a company that discriminates against a gun entity; and HB2166, exempting guns, ammunition, and gun safety equipment from sales tax. JLBC estimates that this measure would result in the state, counties, and cities losing more than $10 million in revenue annually.
The strikers offered that don't have language available as yet have titles like "charter schools; CTE" and "custody; parenting; child preference".
On Thursday, 3/31 -
Senate Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1. No bills on the agenda, just some executive nominations to consider/rubber stamp.
