By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings
Things are quieting down on the committee activity front. We've reached the point in the session where only the respective Appropriations committees are allowed to consider legislation. Other committees will meet, but mostly to hear presentations or to consider executive branch nominations. To consider legislation, they'll need the permission of their respective chamber's leadership.
That permission will be granted, but not often.
Now, the primary activities at the lege will be backroom work on the state's budget and members trying to finagle favored measures (ones that are still alive, anyway) onto a floor calendar for final consideration and passage.
Oh, and catching up on reading. Any member of the lege who isn't a member of Republican leadership is going to have an increasing amount of free time on their hands in the coming weeks.
As usual, all committee agendas, floor calendars, and event schedules are subject to change without notice. Call ahead to confirm plans before traveling to the Capitol based on an agenda, calendar, or schedule cited here.
Notes:
If an agenda is summarized with "looks harmless so far" that only means that nothing on the agenda set off "bat-shit crazy" alarm bells; if the committee in question covers an area of interest to you, check out the full agenda yourself. And if I missed something significant, please leave a comment letting me know.
A hearing room designation of "SHR" means it is a hearing room in the Senate building; "HHR" means that the hearing room is in the House building.
Lastly, this summary is not, nor is it intended to be, comprehensive. Many bills have been covered, but not all of them. Again, if a committee covers an area of interest to you, please check out the full agenda yourself.
Floor activity:
Monday's House Third Read (final approval) calendar is here; Monday's House Committee of the Whole (COW) calendar is here.
Monday's Senate COW calendars are here and here.
Committee Activity:
Senate side of the Capitol –
Rules, Monday, 1 p.m., Senate Caucus Room 1. Long agenda to be rubber-stamped.
Transportation, Tuesday, 1 p.m., SHR3. Executive nomination only.
Appropriations, Tuesday, 2 p.m., SHR109. Long agenda with many bills and many strikers. On the agenda: a striker to HB2111 relating to a large number of changes to Arizona's laws regarding the transaction privilege tax (TPT, aka sales tax). I think that this is one that the state's cities and towns are opposed to (there are a couple of versions of this floating around the lege and I'm not sure which this one is); a striker to HB2208, reducing the tax on insurance premiums (this is a measure that someone is really hot for as it keeps coming up this session); a striker to HB2232, allowing counties, cities and towns to forego publishing public notices in a newspaper in favor of publishing them on the internet; a striker to HB2245. expanding the definition of criminal trespass.
Natural Resources and Rural Affairs, Wednesday, 10 a.m., SHR109. Executive nomination only.
Public Safety, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR109. Executive nominations only.
Finance, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR3. Executive nominations only.
House side of the Capitol –
Rules, Monday, 1 p.m., HHR4. Long agenda to rubberstamp, but should serve as a good preview of some of the bad bills that will reach the floor later this week or sometime next week.
Commerce, Wednesday, 2 p.m., HHR5. No legislation to hear, just propaganda presentations on the effect of environmental laws on Arizona businesses.
Appropriations, Wednesday, 2 p.m., HHR1. On the long agenda: HB2334, repealing energy standards for portable electric spas, residential swimming pool pumps, and the like. Sponsor Rep. Steve Montenegro has attached an "emergency" clause, meaning that if it gains 2/3 support in both chambers, it becomes law immediately upon the governor's signature; a striker to SB1432. The agenda currently lists the striker as one that has to do with "behavioral health examiners board; continuation" (no text available at this time) but it more likely will be a striker from Rep. John Kavanagh that has become known as the "show your papers before you pee" proposal.
His proposal would make a person of one gender entering a bathroom, locker room, or changing room marked as for use by the other gender guilty of disorderly conduct, a class 1 misdemeanor, something that could earn someone up to six months in jail. Kavanagh's proposal looks to be to counteract the anti-discrimination ordinance recently passed by the city council in Phoenix.
Guess we can call Kavanagh's proposal "pro-discrimination", or at least "anti-anti-discrimination".
Should be a colorful meeting, to say the least.
Capitol events:
The lege's calendar of Capitol events is here.
The Arizona Department of Administration's list of state-level public meetings is here.