Week Four: Fifty-Fifth Legislature — Second Regular Session
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Story of the Week
Senator Nancy Barto’s fifteen-week ban on abortions, that is consistent with the Mississippi ban, passed the Senate Judicary committee on Thursday.
Over the last twenty years Arizona went from a state with middle-ground abortion laws to a state with extremely-hostile abortion laws, due to a nationwide campaign to restrict your reproductive freedoms by radical Republican politicians.
Last session, Sen. Nancy Barto also sponsored SB1457, which criminalizes abortions based on genetic abnormalities and assigns rights to a fetus. Sen. Barto believes in controlling people’s lives for a self-interested focus on electoral gain and status in her Party. If she wins her primary, Nancy Barto will face ADLCC Battleground Candidate and Arizona Teacher of the Year, Senator Christine Marsh this November.
The Aggregate Expenditure Limit
The Arizona Legislature has 24 days left to find the two-thirds vote to override the Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL) or public school districts will be forced to give back the $1.2 Billion that they have already budgeted for the last 12 weeks of the school year.
The Good
SB1635 – Senators Rios, Contreras, Otondo, Fann, Mesnard, Borrelli, and Gray co-sponsored a bill to appropriate a Community Schools pilot program, an issue that was always important to former Senator David Bradley.
HB2142 – Rep. Jennifer Jermaine sponsored a bill that will require agencies to reach out to federal partners once an adult has been missing for 30 days.
SB1222 – Sen. Sean Bowie sponsored a bill that exempts a refundable portion of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the federal Child Tax Credit from specified actions to collect a debt, passed out of Senate Finance 8-2.
SB1215 – Sen. Victoria Steele sponsored a bill to create the Study Committee on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples which passed the Senate and now heads to the House.
SB1216 – Sen. Victoria Steele sponsored a bill to increase the effective duration of an order of protection from one year to two years after a defendant has been served, passed unanimously in Senate Judiciary.
HB2229 – Rep. Amish Shah sponsored a bill that allows family members to access medical records for inmates, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee.
HB2429 – Rep. Amish Shah sponsored a bill that allows physicians to participate in confidential wellness programs, passed unanimously out of the House Health and Human Services committee.
HB2227 – Rep. Amish Shah sponsored a bill that appropriates $3.4 million from state and federal funds to the AHCCCS administration for postpartum visits, passed out of the House Health and Human Services committee.
HCM2003 – Rep. Jennifer Jermaine sponsored a bill that urges the Department of Interior to make Arizona a priority in their investigation of Indian boarding schools, passed unanimously out of the House Education committee.
SCM1002 – Sen. Theresa Hatathlie sponsored a bill that urges Congress to implement steps forward to fund the higher education grant program of the Bureau of Indian Education, which passed out of the Senate and now heads to the House.
HB2438 – Rep. Jennifer Longdon introduced a massage therapy license reform bill that includes fingerprint clearance cards and the board to post online both disciplinary and non-disciplinary actions taken against a licensed massage therapist, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee.
HB2532 – Rep. Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren sponsored a bill that creates license plates to honor Diné college and the Navajo Nation passed the House Transportation Committee.
HB2208 – Rep. Kelli Butler sponsored a bill that creates license plates to raise awareness about ovarian cancer and to help women access vital treatment, passed the House and now heads to the Senate.
HB2437 – Rep. Jennifer Longdon sponsored a bill that would create license plates for Arizona Beekeeper, which brings awareness to beekeeping, passed the House Transportation Committee.
The Bad
SB1165 – Sen. Nancy Barto sponsored a bill that would prevent transgender girls from participating in youth sports, passed out of the Senate and now heads to the House.
SB1211 – Sen. Nancy Barto sponsored a bill that requires teachers to post all teaching materials and allows parents to sue if they do not like it, passed out of the Senate Education committee.
SB1164 – Sen. Nancy Barto will introduce a 15 week, Mississippi-style, ban on abortion passed the Senate Judicary committee on a party line vote.
HB2112 – Rep. Michelle Udall sponsored a bill that prohibits a teacher in preschool through the 12th grade from using public monies for instruction that presents any form of blame or judgment based on race, ethnicity or sex passed out of the House and now heads to the Senate.
HCR2001 – Rep. Steve Kaiser sponsored an act called the: Stop Critical Race Theory and Racial Discrimination in Schools and Other Public Institutions Act. A bill that prohibits preferential treatment or discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity and the teaching of specified concepts in a public educational institution.
The Ugly
On Tuesday, Rep. Reginald Bolding pressed Rep. Neil Carter to acknowledge the COVID-19 pandemic while debating a mask ban bill, HB2453; but Rep. Carter, an NYU Law School graduate, had a difficult time answering the question.