Week Seven: Fifty-Fifth Legislature — Second Regular Session
Story of the Week: Voter Suppression
Republicans have used their power to introduce over 100 voter suppression bills this session that try to control future outcomes. It has been a marathon of legislation that went from bad to worse; including bills prohibiting same-day voter registration, onerous posting requirements to hold a voter registration event, and voter ID laws that disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
These bills, sponsored by ring-wing Republicans in the House and Senate, are attacks on our democracy and Arizonans’ freedom to vote. Across the country, we are seeing state legislatures replicate these efforts, to systematically disenfranchise voters from state to state.
The Good
House of Representatives
HB2811 – Rep. Jacqueline Parker sponsored a bill that makes the manufacturing, distribution, prescribing or transferring of an abortion medication a class 3 felony in Arizona, FAILED HOUSE FLOOR.
HB2600 – Rep. Diego Espinoza sponsored a bill that would create a slip ramp on the Loop 101 to ease traffic congestion for Tolleson and West Valley residents, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2747 – Rep. Deigo Espinoza sponsored a bill that requires wholesale buyers to disclose their profession to sellers, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2651 – Rep. Brian Fernandez sponsored a bill that appropriates $33 million to widen and modernize Cesar Chavez Boulevard in San Luis, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2729 – Rep. Andrea Dalessandro sponsored a bill that requires travel reimbursement at the federal rate for members of metropolitan planning organizations, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
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 the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2160 – Rep. Cesar Chavez sponsored a bill that provides an opportunity for the wrongfully arrested to petition the court for their record to be cleared, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2433 – Dr. Rep. Amish Shah sponsored a bill that allows easier access to HIV testing, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2639 – Rep. Jennifer Pawlik sponsored a bill that establishes the month of May to be observed as Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2560 – Rep. Jennifer Longdon co-sponsored a bill that appropriates $1.2 million for a pilot program to monitor group homes for the developmentally disabled, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2228 – Dr. Rep. Amish Shah sponsored a bill that requires county jails to offer education to individuals under the age of 21 who are incarcerated, passed the House and is headed to the Senate.
HB2528 – Rep. Alma Hernández sponsored a bill that appropriates $1.5 million to DES to distribute to the Area Agencies on Aging, passes the House and is headed to the Senate.
Senate
SB1682– Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales sponsored a bill that allows young people in Juvenile Corrections to take an equivalency diploma test, passed out of the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1129– Sen. Lela Alston sponsored a bill that requires the Arizona Department of Housing to annually distribute up to $1,000,000 from the Housing Trust Fund to eligible organizations that operate transitional housing for the purpose of acquiring and renovating property, passed the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1530– Sen. Lela Alston sponsored a bill that increases the monthly stipend for kinship foster care from $75 to a much needed $300, passed the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1531– Sen. Lela Alston sponsored a bill that appropriates $100,000,000 from the monies allocated to Arizona by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, passed the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1536– Sen. Lela Alston sponsored a bill that appropriates $1,500,000 from the state General Fund (state GF) in FY 2023 to the Department of Economic Security to distribute home and community-based services, passed the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1018– Sen. Sean Bowie introduced an earned income tax credit that would give more than 550,000 Arizona families an average of $128 a year passed out of Senate Finance.
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 the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1151– Senator Victoria Steele sponsored a bill that invests $500,000 to establish the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Pilot Program, passed out of Senate, passed out of the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1152– Sen. Victoria Steele sponsored several clean energy bills that requires ADOT to develop a Zero Emission Vehicle Plan, passed out of the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1154Sen. Victoria Steele sponsored several clean energy bills that creates the transportation electrification study committee to increase use of alternative fuels, passed out of the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1217– Sen. Victoria Steele sponsored a bill that protects victims of domestic violence by extending an emergency order of protection to seven days, passed out of the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1279– Senator Victoria Steele sponsored a bill that would remove hurtful and racist insults for Indigenous women from Arizona monuments, roads and more, passed the Senate and now moves to the House.
SB1519– Sen Martín Quezada sponsored a bill that supports special education programs for children with disabilities and appropriates $500,000 to Arizona's Department of Education every four years, passed the Senate and heads to the House.
The Bad
HB2161 – Rep. Steve Kaiser sponsored a bill that would force teachers to ‘out’ LGBTQAI+ students to parents because of their ‘parental rights’, even if doing so could lead to abuse or abandonment; passed out of the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2494 – Rep. Jake Hoffman sponsored a bill that requires onerous paperwork and posting to hold a voter registration event, passed out of the House and heads to the Senate.
HCR2001 – Rep. Steve Kaiser sponsored a resolution to rob children of the opportunity to learn who they are and how we got here (ban on Critical Race Theory), passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2726 – Rep. Teresa Martinez sponsored a striker bill that would add watermarks and other counterfeit technology to voting ballots made by a Republican company of donors from Texas, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HCR2015 – Rep. Tim Dunn sponsored a referendum to require a 60% super-majority to pass a voter-led initiative, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2448 – Rep. Quang Nguyen sponsored a bill that requires firearm safety training for public school students in grades 6 through 12, passed the House and heads to the Senate. Rep. John Kavanaugh said, “I would forward the name and address of the parent to child protective services if they opted out of this.”
HB2289 – Rep. John Fillmore sponsored a bill that requires political parties to appoint a challenger to remain in a polling place until completion of voting tabulation and transmittal, passed the House and heads to the Senate. Rep. Pam Powers Hannley said the bill, “doesn’t make sense.” Fillmore says, “we pass lots of bills down here that don’t make sense.”
HB2237 – Rep. Jake Hoffman sponsored a bill that prohibits same day voter registration, passed the House on a party line vote and heads to the Senate.
HB2236 – Rep. Jake Hoffman sponsored a bill that prohibits a state agency from registering a person to vote unless affirmatively requested, passed the House and heads to the Senate.
HB2808 – Rep. Michelle Udall sponsored a bill that would force struggling public schools to be taken over by out-of-state, private corporations, passed out of House Rules on party lines and heads to the House floor.
SCR1012 – Sen. J.D. Mesnard sponsored a referendum that requires an early voter to provide the voter's date of birth and number from a prescribed early voter identification when returning an early ballot, passed the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1617 – Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita sponsored a bill that would force schools to allow adults to protest anything on school grounds, passed the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1718 – Sen. Gowan sponsored a bill that appropriates $1,140,800 for border wall construction in Arizona. Passed the Senate and heads to the House.
SCR1049 – Sen. Paul Boyer sponsored a 12-line resolution claiming school choice is "a top civil rights issue of our time,” passed the Senate and heads to the House.
SB1657 & SB1707 – Sen. Paul Boyer sponsored several bills that expands discriminatory private school vouchers (ESA’s) to almost every public school student, passed the Senate and are headed to the House.
The Ugly
On Monday February 21, during the HCR2039 vote to override the Aggregate Expenditure Limit, Senator Ugenti-Rita in front of a packed gallery of teachers called them “educational terrorists” and went on to blame them for Governor Ducey’s emergecy stay at home orders during a global pandemic.