CEBV Weekly: March 4, 2024
Spring break for lawmakers (again). Two ballot referrals bite the dust. And even more new-to-us bills.
Is “lawmaker spring break” going to be a yearly thing? Almost a third of the state House is going on an all-expenses-paid trip next week that will shut down the House floor and other legislative business. House Speaker Ben Toma and sixteen other House lawmakers will skip out March 5-10 — the middle of the busy season — for a leadership-authorized “spring break” to Israel.
The timing is questionable: as the Arizona Agenda notes, during the same week last year, the House held 4 floor sessions, 13 committee hearings, and 2 caucus meetings.
The Senate will still hold committee hearings and regular floor action next week, and on the House side, someone will have to gavel in regularly to announce the lack of a quorum and adjourn — a maneuver regular Capitol observers will recognize from holiday weekends of the past.
Ballot Referral Victories. Fortunately, some of the many ballot referral measures Republicans have introduced this session to try to get around Katie Hobbs’ veto stamp are starting to fail. Because Republicans have just a one-vote majority in each chamber, any single Republican can squash a bill by joining all Democrats in voting against it.
That’s exactly what happened this week with anti-trans “bathroom bill” SCR1013. In explaining his no vote, Sen. Ken Bennett (R-1) highlighted one of the main problems of these flawed proposals: “If [voters pass it and] there are unintended consequences, we can’t do anything about it here. We have to go back to the people to fix something and I am very concerned about that.”
Bennett also opposes voting center ban HCR2032, meaning that measure is likely dead as well. That’s a good thing, since every Republican on the House side — every Republican! — already voted to pass it, along with HB2547, a similar bill that would outlaw the mail-in voting process more than 75% of Arizona voters use (and is being heard this week in a committee Bennett sits on).
Don’t get too pleased, though. CEBV is still tracking 29 other referrals that could end up on our ballots this November. The dangers of these are very real, from voter annoyance leading to reduced turnout, to the time and expense of so many voter education campaigns. We must do everything we can to keep these harmful measures from reaching the ballot.
⏰ If you have 10 minutes: Use Request to Speak on the bills that are new to the Weekly; see “Spotlight” below.
⏰⏰ If you have 15 minutes: Also use RTS to oppose the bad ballot referral bills in committee this week; see “Ballot Referrals” below.
⏰⏰⏰ If you have 30 minutes: Use RTS on all bills in the Weekly.
⏰⏰⏰⏰ If you have 60 minutes: Join us on Zoom at 4pm on Sunday for our next CEBV Happy Hour conversation. This week’s featured guests are Hank Stephenson and Nicole Ludden of the Arizona Agenda. We’ll meet every Sunday at 4 PM through the end of session. Sign up in advance here.
New to the Weekly
These bills have passed their chamber of origin and are now scheduled for committee hearings in the opposite chamber. This is your last chance to weigh in on them using RTS. More information is available in the “Use RTS” section below.
HB2393, Kolodin (R-3), would allow political parties to opt out of the publicly administered presidential preference election and instead choose their nominee via their own private voting process. This is essentially privatizing our elections and does not, for example, guarantee secure electronic voting by overseas military as is currently allowed. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2851, Heap (R-10), would drastically tighten and restrict ballot chain of custody standards. Predicated on the idea that our elections are somehow being stolen, and part of this year’s GOP package of bills to make wide-ranging, harmful changes to Arizona elections. Gov. Hobbs vetoed the same bill last year. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2852, Heap (R-10), would stop Arizona from participating in ERIC, a multi-state system that weeds out duplicate, deceased or suspicious voter registrations. The ERIC system is one of the strongest safeguards against voter fraud for election officials; there’s no viable replacement. Republican-run states have been abandoning ERIC in the wake of far-right conspiracy theories and struggling to clean voter rolls without it. Gov. Hobbs vetoed a similar bill last year. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
This bill has passed its chamber of origin and is now scheduled for a committee hearing in the opposite chamber. This is your last chance to weigh in using RTS. After you’ve done that, consider calling your House representatives and urging them not to crowd the ballot with this nonsense.
SCR1007, Carroll (R-28), would ask voters to ban “Arizona public entities,” including public schools, from signing contracts with companies unless they agree not to "discriminate" against gun manufacturers. This would create new hurdles for schools in everything from building facilities to purchasing supplies. The Arizona Chamber of Commerce opposes the measure, pointing out that “allowing politicians to decide who can do business with whom” will “tie up private businesses in red tape and stick taxpayers with the bill.” Similar bills from previous years have been backed by the NRA. Scheduled for House Judiciary Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
Monday
HB2048, sponsored by Selina Bliss (R-1), would create a special license plate for the Northern Arizona Wine Trail. Arizona currently has 101 special plates, with a portion of each purchase going to a different cause. Not only does having so many plates create difficulties for law enforcement, but some of the plates raise money for political groups, such as the hate group Alliance Defending Freedom and the anti-abortion Arizona Life Coalition. Arizona added 8 more plates just last year. When will it stop?Scheduled for Senate Transportation, Technology & Missing Children Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2380, sponsored by Neal Carter (R-15), would allow the state to deny an audit request from a city if the taxpayer conducts business in more than one city — basically defanging audits. We wonder which badly behaving taxpayer brought this bill to Rep. Carter to run. Scheduled for Senate Finance & Commerce Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2393, sponsored by Alexander Kolodin (R-3), would allow political parties to opt out of the publicly administered presidential preference election and instead choose their nominee via their own private voting process. This is essentially privatizing our elections and does not, for example, guarantee secure electronic voting by overseas military as is currently allowed. The vast majority of voters support expanding the presidential preference election to allow more voters to participate; this moves us in the opposite direction. New to report. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2404, sponsored by John Gillette (R-30), would ban county recorders from providing a voter registration card to someone whose mailing address is out of state, except for military and their family. This change would negatively impact a wide variety of groups, from retirees and winter visitors to college students. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2547, sponsored by Rachel Jones (R-17), would ban voting centers and limit precinct size to 1,000 voters. The voting center model allows voters to cast a ballot anywhere in the county — for example, near work or their child’s school — instead of being tied to a single precinct location, and has nearly eliminated the need for provisional ballots. Returning to a precinct model would raise the question of whether counties can find enough poll workers. This is at least the third year in which Arizona’s Republican-led legislature has attempted to ban voting centers. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2719, sponsored by Michael Carbone (R-25), would require school bond and override measures to have 60%+ voter approval in order to pass. In effect, this measure would stop school districts from ever getting bonds or overrides passed again. The measure also applies to cities, counties, cities and community college districts. Part of this year’s GOP package of bills to make wide-ranging, harmful changes to Arizona elections. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2851, sponsored by Justin Heap (R-10), would drastically tighten and restrict ballot chain of custody standards. Part of a conspiracy theory package of bills predicated on the idea that our elections are somehow being stolen. Part of this year’s GOP package of bills to make wide-ranging, harmful changes to Arizona elections. Gov. Hobbs vetoed the same bill last year. New to report. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2852, sponsored by Justin Heap (R-10), would stop Arizona from participating in ERIC, a multi-state system that weeds out duplicate, deceased or suspicious voter registrations. The ERIC system is one of the strongest safeguards against voter fraud for election officials; there’s no viable replacement. Republican-run states have been abandoning ERIC in the wake of far-right conspiracy theories and struggling to clean voter rolls without it. Gov. Hobbs vetoed a similar bill last year. New to report. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
Tuesday
SB1477, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would create a "grade challenge department" within the Arizona Board of Regents to hear challenges from public university students regarding grades received in any class or on any assignment if a student alleges a grade was awarded because of “political bias.” The department could order faculty to regrade or reevaluate the student's work. Reminiscent of McCarthyist hysteria. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
Wednesday
SB1129, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would require law enforcement to immediately remove any "transient occupant" of private residential property and charge them with trespassing. State statutes already exist to cover this behavior, making this bill unnecessary. The bill does not include any solutions for housing or shelter. Scheduled for House Judiciary Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1628, sponsored by Sine Kerr (R-25), would remove any reference to gender in Arizona law and replace it with “sex,” defined as the male or female label assigned to someone at birth based on their physical and reproductive characteristics. This narrow and inflexible definition of biological sex would eliminate any legal recognition of transgender people. Not only is there no evidence that transgender-friendly policies endanger anyone, transgender people face a much higher risk of violence, a risk that is elevated under restrictive policies like these. The law could also negatively impact schools’ funding sources. Title IX forbids schools from engaging in sex-based discrimination, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity; under this bill, schools could be put in the impossible position of violating state law or losing federal funding. The bill is being pushed by the evangelical Christian lobbyist group Center for Arizona Policy. Scheduled for House Judiciary Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SCR1007, sponsored by Frank Carroll (R-28), would ask voters to ban “Arizona public entities,” including public schools, from signing contracts with companies unless they agree not to "discriminate" against gun manufacturers. This would create new hurdles for Arizona's neighborhood schools in everything from building facilities to purchasing supplies. The Arizona Chamber of Commerce opposes the measure, pointing out that “allowing politicians to decide who can do business with whom” will “tie up private businesses in red tape and stick taxpayers with the bill.” Similar bills from previous years have been backed by the NRA. Because this measure would head directly to the ballot, Gov. Hobbs cannot veto it. Scheduled for House Judiciary Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2629, sponsored by Ben Toma (R-27), would require schools to include at least 45 minutes of instruction in high-school American Government class designed to convince students that communism is bad. The curriculum would have to focus on "the history of communist regimes around the world and the prevalence of poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence and suppression of speech under communist regimes." State lawmakers shouldn’t be mandating curriculum; that’s the job of educators who are trained in curriculum development. Republican lawmakers have tried in past sessions to ban “ideologically biased curriculum”; doesn’t this qualify? Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2779, sponsored by David Marshall (R-7), would mandate that the State Board of Education increase its instruction requirements on Holocaust education from twice in grades 7-12 to at least 3 full school days. The state should not be mandating curriculum; that’s the job of educators who are trained in curriculum development. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2793, sponsored by Beverly Pingerelli (R-28), would require district charter school boards to restrict student access to the internet, including social media, and limit students’ use of phones during the school day to only for educational purposes or during an emergency, including during meals, passing periods and recess. Schools should be allowed to set their own policies and not struggle under top-down legislative mandates. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
Thursday
Nothing here. Spring break, woooo!!!
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Bills in Rules Committees
Rules exists only to consider whether a bill is constitutional and in the proper form for passage; the committee doesn’t take testimony and doesn’t read comments. These bills will proceed to caucus (separate partisan meetings of all Democrats and all Republicans, which usually happen Tuesdays) and from there to a full floor vote. Contact your representatives and senator as indicated.
SB1005, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ban the state, including public schools, from requiring "diversity, equity, and inclusion programs" for its employees, spending public funds on such programs, or setting policies to influence the composition of its workforce on the basis of race, sex, or color. Any employee required to participate could sue. Diversity, equity and inclusion is a philosophy designed to harness the differences, talents and unique qualities of all individuals; this bill pretends our differences don’t exist. Hoffman introduced the same bill last year, which failed to pass. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1007, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would put Arizona public school teachers (but not teachers at ESA-funded private schools) behind bars for up to two years if they so much as recommend a book to students that lawmakers consider too “sexually explicit.” This would attempt to build on a 2022 ban which has already essentially frozen the teaching of books like “The Color Purple,” “The Canterbury Tales” and even conservatives’ darling “Atlas Shrugged,” keeping Arizona's students from getting a well-rounded education. State law already makes it a felony to show pornography to children. Hoffman introduced the same bill last year, which failed to pass. An amendment from Anna Hernandez (D-24) to require the same regulations of private schools was voted down on party lines. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1013, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ban government from taking social or environmental values into consideration when investing. Arizona’s Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, which oversees pension funds for police and others, says the effort would hurt its goal of maximizing returns for its members. The concept appears driven by a panic that society will hold extremists accountable for their actions. One study says such efforts could cost Arizona millions. See our Substack explainer on ESG. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1073, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would make it a class 6 felony for protesters to block a highway, bridge or tunnel for more than 15 minutes after they’ve been told to leave, with a presumptive sentence of 1 year in state prison. This bill further criminalizes something that is already illegal. The sponsor has stated his goal is to criminalize protests, which are a First Amendment right. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1189, sponsored by Justine Wadsack (R-17), would ban cities from prohibiting or regulating gun shows within their boundaries. Unregulated gun shows can be a magnet for traffickers to obtain large quantities of weapons without background checks. Guns purchased at gun shows are much more likely to be used in criminal activity. Two years ago, California became the first state to ban the sale of guns and ammo on state property, putting an end to gun shows at county fairgrounds there. The sponsor ran the same bill last year, which Gov. Hobbs vetoed. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1198, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would prohibit universities and community colleges from banning anyone with a concealed weapons permit — not just students — from possessing, storing, transporting guns on campus. College campuses and guns are a deadly combination, increasing the risks of suicide, homicide and sexual assault. Even our founding fathers believed guns had no place on college campuses. Getting a concealed-weapons permit in Arizona is ridiculously easy. This is at least the third straight year for this bill. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1280, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would make those who are subject to registration as a sex offender ineligible to serve on public school boards. The bill does not mention ESA voucher-funded private schools. (Do these lawmakers think there are no predators at private schools? There are; here are several specific examples.) An amendment from Nancy Gutierrez to add protections for students at ESA voucher-funded private schools failed on party lines. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1370, sponsored by Shawnna Bolick (R-2), would ban cities from requiring businesses run by youth under 18 to be licensed or pay sales taxes if they make under $10,000 per year. This bill would prop up for-profit fairs that are closely tied with Arizona private schools and pro-voucher lobbyists. Removing requirements for licensure opens the door to exposing kids to predatory practices or exploiting kids whose parents receive state tax dollars to spend on their kids’ businesses, often in lieu of school instruction. It also cracks the door open to rolling back child labor laws, as is happening in multiple other states. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2178, sponsored by Alexander Kolodin (R-3), would allow students at Arizona’s public universities to pick one or more clubs that they do not want to receive money from their student activity fee. Students and lawmakers say it would harm the free exchange of ideas on campus, instead encouraging censorship on difficult topics. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2183, sponsored by Julie Willoughby (R-13), would require health care entities to give parents access to all of their minor children’s medical records, even for services that don’t require parental consent. This effectively would strip minors of their right to medical privacy and strip medical professionals of the right to exercise their professional judgment on when to divulge information. The bill is being pushed by the evangelical Christian lobbying group Center for Arizona Policy. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2747, sponsored by Consuelo Hernandez (D-21), would limit the length of trains going through Arizona to 8,500 feet, or about 1.6 miles long. While that may seem like a lot, the two main railroads operating in Arizona have been running trains that are a lot longer. That can block traffic, sometimes for more than two hours, which impacts public safety. Excessive length and weight (151 cars, 9,300 feet and 18,000 tons) played a role in last year’s train derailment in Ohio. Companies which run longer trains do so primarily because they are cheaper to operate. A similar bill failed to pass last year. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. SUPPORT.
2024 Session Timeline
These “deadlines” are highly flexible and can be changed or waived at any time with a simple majority vote.
Friday, 3/22 Last day for a bill to get out of committees in its crossover house (and the last day to use RTS until a budget drops) Tuesday, 4/16 100th Day of Session (the stated end goal; can be changed)
Flag this handy list of contact info, committee chairs and assignments, updated for 2024.
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