LEGISLATIVE UPDATE – Week Nine Legislative Update, 3/11/23

House finally started passing Bills and sending them over to the Senate

After last week’s partisan scuffles, the House finally started passing Bills and sending them over to the Senate, playing catch-up with Senators who sent their Bills to the House weeks ago.  Last week’s committee agendas were pretty short, but the heavier agendas will be back Monday.

Alas, the Governor vetoed yet another Bill this week.  This makes 16 out of 18 transmitted Bills to her office.  This Bill is SB1305 .  The short title is race; ethnicity; prohibited instruction.  Even though the acronym used is CRT, these initials or words, critical race theory, were not used in this Bill; but, read the Bill and decide for yourself.  Either way, it was a good Bill.

The Bill’s overview is that it prohibits a public school, school district or state agency or an employee from providing or allowing any person to provide instruction that promotes or advocates for specified concepts relating to race or ethnicity.  It also establishes a complaint process and civil penalty for violations.

Check out the Fact sheet for this Bill at:  https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/56leg/1R/summary/H.SB1305_022123_TRANSMITTED.pdf

Read more in the article here:  https://tucson.com/news/government-and-politics/hobbs-vetoes-fearmongering-ban-on-teaching-critical-race-theory/article_fd5f9e90-bea7-11ed-ac87-e779526db45f.html?utm_source=tucson.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fnews-alert&utm_medium=PostUp&lctg=5800009&tn_email_eh1=1dbf1cc3f0eb9f3a1a06504a3d8ed815b7846b66

CALL TO ACTION:  HCR2039

HCR2039 should be getting more attention than it is.  This House Concurrent Resolution (HCR), short title, governor; state of emergency; would limit the powers the Governor would have in a state of emergency.  Please tell your legislators to support this Resolution.

Here is the Fact Sheet sharing more information on this Resolution:  https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/56leg/1R/summary/H.HCR2039_021523_HOUSEENGROSSED.pdf

The RTS (Request to Speak) system is a necessary component to our legislative process.  This is an excellent way to share your positions on a particular Bill and let your legislator know that you support his/her legislation.  Please review this site and make sure you know how to use it properly.  The legislators depend a lot on your opinions and this is where you share them.

The link to sign up for the RTS system can be found here:  https://www.azleg.gov/alispdfs/Using_the_Request_to_Speak_Program.pdf

THE CITIZEN LEGISLATOR

I am still continuing my adventures of shadowing legislators during the week.  Now, that committees have resumed, there will be more to view than only going to Floor sessions.  Believe me, that does get interesting listening to the votes and bogus reasoning of why the Democrats do not want to vote for Republican sponsored Bills.  But the Committee Hearings are where the Bills are explained and shared by testimony from alleged experts and Q public on their views.

This past week I had another project completed for LD2 Senator Steve Kaiser.  Attached is a list of Bills, mostly Election Integrity Bills, but others included, that shows the Enforcements and Penalties, if any were included in the Bills.

Not to get too much in the weeds, I was concerned in finding a limited number of Bills with that information missing from respective Bills…That brings us to a WHOLE new perspective on WHY are Bills written if NO penalty is incurred…or not expressly written…or only implied….  If you are interested, email me for this separate document was written with the WHY’s of writing little or no penalties on a Bill.  You may find this very interesting information.

In the meantime, thank you for continuing to read these updates.  The attachments to this email include:  Bill Status and Abbreviations, and a separate Election Integrity Bill list showing which Bills have Enforcements and Penalties in their Bill.  If you know of anyone wanting to receive the Legislative Updates, send them this Report and tell them to email me their email address.  I appreciate the feedback I receive from my readers!

GENERAL INFORMATION

Once again, as a gentle reminder to all of the people who just joined these updates, this is how to read the attachments.  All the Bills listed on the attachments are mostly ALL the Republican Introduced Bills.

3-11-23 2023 AZ STATE LEGISLATIVE BILLS AND ACTIONS 03323 VERSION

3-11-23 2023 AZ STATE LEGISLATIVE BILLS AND ACTIONS 022823 SEN S KAISER WITH LINK AND PENALTIES

How to read the Bill Status report.  All the Bills listed on the attachment are ALL the Republican introduced Bills.   Bills highlighted in Green are the GOP Bills monitored on a daily basis.  Bills highlighted in Blue are Democratic Bills deemed necessary to follow.   Bills highlighted in Gray, are ones introduced by LD2 legislators, Senator Kaiser and Representative Wilmeth.  Bills highlighted with yellow in the status column, are the ones completed thru today, 3/9, and up to date.  Link to Abbreviations: Click:  3-11-23 2023 Abbreviations 2 (003)   You may need to click on the bill number and select open hyperlink.

Remember, each Bill Number listed is a link to the Bill itself and you can access the status, documents and Agenda’s by clicking onto the link.  Even though I monitor and keep track of the Bills daily, I only send out Updates on the weekends.  So, if you want daily updates on any Bill, just click onto the Bill Number, and go to Overview or Status, for real-time information.

As always, if there are Bills that I am not specifically monitoring, PLEASE let me know and I will add them to my list for you.

Respectfully,

Linda Brickman,

Chairman of LD2 Legislative Committee

Email:  Luvbug1611@cox.net

Cell:  602-330-9422

SESSION STATISTICS

 Days of Session: 62

Bills Posted: 1626

Bills Transmitted to the Governor: 18

Bills Vetoed: 16

Bills Signed: 2

Resolutions Posted: 98

Resolutions Passed: 4

BILLS VETOED:

 SB1184: Municipal tax exemption; residential leases

1. SB1248: Scope of practice; process; repeal
2. Senate Budget Bills SB1523 through SB1535 (13 Bills)
3. SB 1305:  race; ethnicity; prohibited instruction [CRT Bill]