Week Eight: Fifty-Fifth Legislature — Second Regular Session

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Story of the Week: The Censure

Last weekend, Republican State Senator Wendy Rogers spoke at a white nationalist conference and was censured by the Arizona State Senate for her unabashedly anti-democratic and hate-filled comments.

The ADLCC recognizes elected officials like Senator Wendy Rogers to be one of the biggest threats to democracy in our state. Her lack of regard for the truth and hate speech have no room in Arizona. Read our joint statement with the Arizona Democratic Party here.

The Good
HB2009 – Rep. Steve Kaiser sponsored a bill to allow legislators to cut funding for public schools and overrule school boards; FAILED on the House floor.

SCM1002 – Sen. Theresa Hatathlie introduced a bill that urges Congress to implement steps forward to fund the higher education grant program of the Bureau of Indian Education; passed the House Education and heads to the House floor.

HB2309 – Rep. Jennifer Jermaine sponsored a bill which requires peace officers to inform juveniles of their rights in language that is comprehensible to a juvenile  and notify their legal custodian; passed the House and heads to the Senate.

HB 2397 – Rep. Jennifer Longdon co-sponsored a bill to expand the definition of abuse to include emotional abuse and defines emotional abuse; passed the Senate Health and Human Services and heads to the Senate.

SB1279 – Sen. Victoria Steele sponsored a bill that would remove hurtful and racist insults for Indigenous women from Arizona monuments, roads and more; passed out of 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 in the Senate and heads to the House.

HB2226 – Rep. Amish Shah sponsored a bill to allow cities and towns to regulate fireworks overnight; passed Senate Commerce and heads to the Senate floor.

SB1525 – Sen. Rosanna Gabaldon sponsored a bill that appropriates $10,000,000 to install cable median barriers and creates a 15-member Interstate Cable Barrier Median Expansion Study Committee, passed in the Senate and heads to the House.

The Bad
HCR2025/SCR1012 – Rep. John Fillmore sponsored a bill to require voters to provide additional forms of identification when returning their early ballot. This includes drivers license, the last four digits of their social security number, or voter ID number. If voters fail to provide this information, their ballots can be rejected; passed out of the House, referred to Arizona voters in November General Election.

HB2198 – Rep. Steve Kaiser sponsored a bill that would retroactively provide severance compensation or reemployment for employees who were terminated due to refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine under any exemption, medical, religious, etc. as a condition of employment; passed out of the COW and is being held.

HB2710 – Rep. John Kavanagh sponsored a bill that modified statute relating to voter registration, hand counts and party observers; passed out of the House as amended and heads to the Senate.

HB2492 – Rep. Jake Hoffman sponsored a bill that outlines additional requirements to be verified before a person is properly registered to vote, making it increasingly more difficult for new voters to register; passed out of the House as amended and heads to the Senate.

HB2780 – Rep. John Kavanagh sponsored a bill that requires early and provisional ballot tabulators to imprint a unique ID number on each early ballot to allow the ballot image to be linked to the physical ballot; passed out of the House and heads to the Senate.

HB2617 – Rep. Joseph Chaplik has sponsored a bill which outlines additional reasons for voter registration to be canceled with the affect of removing voters off voter registration rolls; passed out of the House and heads to the Senate.

HB2786 – Rep. Jake Hoffman sponsored a bill which changes signature matching procedures which mandate that only political parties and election officials may distribute early ballot request forms to voters; passed out of the House and heads to the Senate.

HB2238 – Rep. Jake Hoffman sponsored a bill that would prohibit the use of unmonitored drop boxes to collect election ballots, which are critical to voting access in rural and tribal communities; passed out of the House and heads to the Senate.

HB2439 – Rep. Beverly Pingerelli sponsored a bill that adopts procedures, in consultation with parents, teachers and administrators, for parents to access the school's library catalog of available books; passed out of Senate Education and heads to the Senate floor.

HB2414 – Rep. Jacqueline Parker sponsored a bill to allow a person to possess a firearm on school grounds, regardless of whether it is loaded; passed out Senate Judiciary and heads to the Senate floor.

HB2316 – Rep. John Kavanagh sponsored a bill that expands which public areas and events in which misconduct involving weapons would not apply. The bill weakens the criminal offense of misconduct involving weapons by allowing a person who has a concealed weapon permit to be at a public place or event with a weapon; passed out of Senate Judiciary and heads to the Senate floor.

HB2319 – Rep. John Kavanagh sponsored a bill that states that it is unlawful for a person to knowingly make a recording within 8 feet of an activity and without the permission of a law enforcement officer; passed out of the House and heads to the Senate.

SB1399 – Sen. Sine Kerr sponsored a bill allowing a child-welfare agency to deny foster and/or adoption services to a family based on the religious beliefs of the agency; passed out of the Senate and heads to the House.

SB1094 – Sen. J.D. Mesnard sponsored a bill that voids the signature of any initiative or referendum petition signer that signs the petition without either hearing or reading the initiative or referendum description printed on the petition; passed out of House Government and Elections and heads to the House floor.

SB1137 – Sen. Warren Peterson sponsored a bill which allows for anyone to accuse a judge of bias with the intent of removing them from the case; passed out of the Senate as amended and heads to the House.

SB1166 – Sen. Vince Leach sponsored a bill that prohibits employees from engaging in political activities like lobbying or campaigning, and could be used to keep public workers from organizing union members and advocating for better working conditions; passed out of the Senate and heads to the House.

SB1009 – Sen. Michelle Urgenti-Rita introduced a bill that limits the Governor's initial state of emergency proclamation with respect to a public health emergency at 30 days; passed out of House Government & Elections and heads to the House floor.

SB1013 – Sen. Kelly Townsend sponsored a bill that requires the SOS to tell the federal government to include Arizona's state-specific proof of citizenship instructions on the federal voter registration form; passed out of House Government and Elections and heads to the House floor.

The Ugly
Senator Wendy Rogers did not hold back after being censured by the Arizona Senate. She continued to raise money off of her censure and be unapologetic about her vile and bigoted language, and unleashed on Twitter.