By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings
Kind of a repeat of last week's post.
"Hurry up and wait" will be the main activity this week.
Tuesday's House Committee of the Whole (COW) calendar is here. As of this writing, no other floor calendars, for either chamber, are posted.
The Senate Health and Human Services committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday, 1 p.m., SHR1, for executive nominations.
The House Rules committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday, 1 p.m., HHR4. Short agenda.
Nothing is scheduled for Monday; the only event on the Capitol events calendar for Monday is the annual schmoozefest softball game involving lobbyists and electeds (and lege staffers and interns). However, that's after hours and offsite at Tempe Diablo Stadium.
The
lege will be on a 3-day schedule this week (meaning that they'll be at
the Capitol from Tuesday to Thursday), and probably next week too.
Speculation is that after that time, they may go to a 2-day schedule if
their work isn't completed. Apparently, this is being done in
preparation for a long session.
The Arizona Republic's weekly Political Insider
column documents some of the goings-on at the lege now that it has
entered the "idle hands/devil's workshop" portion of this year's
session.
The big sticking point still seems to be
Medicaid restoration/expansion – there was a rally/press conference last
week by legislators opposed to any sort of Medicaid expansion, even
back to levels previously supported by the voters. In addition, there
may be a move afoot in the Senate to find a way to force a Medicaid
expansion measure to the floor for a vote over the objections, and
obstruction, of Senate President Andy Biggs (R-Gilbert).
There
are also reports that Governor Jan Brewer and her staff are trying to
gather some votes by adding anti-Planned Parenthood language to her
proposal, courtesy the Center for Arizona Theocracy Policy.
This is a situation that could remain logjammed for weeks, or it could shake loose on Tuesday (I'm leaning toward "weeks", pessimist that I am).
Stay tuned for developments…
The Arizona Department of Administration's list of meetings of state-level boards and commissions is here.
