By Craig McDermott, crossposted from Random Musings
There is going to be almost no committee activity this week as the lege looks to adjourn for the year.
Sources say that the goal of leadership is to wrap up by Thursday, but that they aren’t optimistic about meeting that particular goal.
As of right now, expectations are that if the lege doesn’t finish things up by the start of holiday period next weekend (it’s a significant period in many faiths), the lege will adjourn for the weekend and come back to town next week for a day or two.
That would put sine die on Tuesday or Wednesday, still making this one of the shortest legislative sessions in memory (just a guess here, because I haven’t been able to find a definitive record of such things, but if this session isn’t the shortest ever, it is almost certainly the shortest non-election year session).
Having said all of that, Governor Doug Ducey may be the key here. If he shows any indication that he is willing to sign off on some of the nuggets of ugly (aka – the crazy bills) that remain under legislative consideration, the session may continue until the bay at the moon caucus gets votes on everything that they want.
One thing to watch for this week: committee meetings scheduled on short notice. As of right now, no bills are scheduled to be considered by any committee, but that can change in the time that it takes a lobbyist to write a check for a “campaign contribution”.
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 interesting 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.
Some agendas are summarized as “looks harmless”, but if they cover an area of interest to you, examine the agenda and the bills on it. If I missed something significant, please leave a comment letting me know.
All House committee agendas can be found here. All Senate committee agendas can be found here.
On the Senate side of the Capitol –
Other than the Rules committee, the Senate committees that are scheduled to meet have only executive nominations on their agendas.
Water and Energy, Monday, 2 p.m., SHR3. Executive nomination.
Rules, Monday, 1 p.m., Caucus Room 1. Short agenda of bills to be rubberstamped on their way to floor consideration.
Commerce and Workforce Development, Monday, 1:45 p.m., SHR1. Executive nominations.
Education, Tuesday, 9:30 a.m., SHR1. Executive nominations.
Judiciary, Tuesday, 9:30 a.m., SHR109. Executive nominations.
Public Safety, Military, and Technology, Wednesday, 9 a.m., SHR1. Executive nomination.
Rural Affairs and Environment, Wednesday, 10 a.m., SHR109, Executive nominations.
Government, Wednesday, 10 a.m., SHR1. Executive nominations. Includes the nomination of Andy Tobin, former Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, to be the director of the Department of Weights and Measures (DWM). There is a live bill pending to close that department and speculation is that Tobin will use this as the foundation for another run at a seat in Congress (appealing to the “any government is bad government” crowd).
Best guess: Assuming that the shutdown of DWM takes place and that Tobin runs for Congress, his plan is to get the hell out of Dodge Arizona before the inevitable scandal hits (you know, somebody, probably a well-connected somebody, increasing their profit margin by shorting something [i.e. – charging customers for a gallon of gasoline, but dispensing only 3/4 of a gallon])
Health and Human Services, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR1. Executive nominations.
On the House side of the Capitol –
Rules, Monday, 1 p.m., HHR4. Short agenda of bills to be rubberstamped on their way to floor consideration.
The House has posted a COW (Committee of the Whole) calendar here and here, a Final Read (to approve changes to bills made by the Senate; if they fail, they aren’t dead. They will go to aconference committee) calendar, and a Third Read calendar for Monday.
The Senate has posted a COW calendar here and here, and a Third Read calendar, for Monday.
The Capitol Events calendar is here.