REQUEST TO SPEAK ACTIONS for week of March 8th

Please sign in on the Request to Speak (RTS) system to oppose SB1429, SB1485, HB2577, HB2691, and HB2714.

Please sign in to support HB2623 and HCR2034.

If you had an account with RTS previously, it is still active. Sign in, click Request to Speak, click New Request, then cut and paste the bill number, weigh in for or against the bill while it is still in committee. You can leave a short comment explaining your position. Click "no" on Do you wish to speak? - unless you want to speak in person. Click New Request to weigh in on the next bill. Repeat as needed.

If you do not have an account, go ahead and set one up, but someone will have to help you activate it as it requires going to the Capitol. Reach out to Civic Engagement Beyond Voting to sign you up.

https://www.cebv.us/rts.html

Monday, March 8th Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM HB2310 municipalities; counties; law enforcement budgets (NOW: executive orders; review; attorney general) (Roberts: Barton, Biasiucci, et al.) allows any legislator to ask Legislative Council to review presidential executive orders and recommend to the Attorney General to further review an executive order to determine the legality of the order. Just when Pres. Biden is using executive orders to reinstate the environmental protections removed by the previous administration's executive orders.  Tuesday, March 9th Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM HB2577 appropriation; water supply study (Griffin: Bowers) appropriates $5 million for the study of additional water supplies. It is ridiculous to spend a bunch of money looking for additional water supplies (including in the Mississippi) instead of just seeking to conserve more water and investing dollars in that. OPPOSE. Every year Griffin proposes a similar bill. She probably wants to pump all of our ground water for developments (for her own benefit as a realtor). And perhaps transport desalinated water from the Gulf of California. We need to conserve our water here, not transport from other states - costing us more money and environmental harm.   House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM  SB1429 solid waste services; private provider (Townsend: Fillmore) prohibits a city from enforcing a criminal penalty against someone who refuses to retain private trash collection unless that private trash collection is retained by the city. The key concern with this is it will result in more illegal dumping, which is already a big problem. OPPOSE.  Wednesday, March 10th Senate Committee on Government & Elections at 9:00 AM SB1485 elections; voting center tabulation (now: early voting list; eligibility) (Ugenti Rita) removes voters from the Permanent Early Voting List (PEVL) if they do not vote an early ballot in two consecutive primary and general elections. This is the resurrection of a bill that died and would result in a significant purge of the PEVL, plus eliminates the word "Permanent" from the statute. OPPOSE. Senate Committee on Finance at 9:30 PM HB2714 environmental technology; biomass; forestry (Nutt) allows a company to qualify for the Arizona Commerce Authority's (ACA) Environmental Technology Assistance Program if it locates or makes additional capital investment in a facility that processes biomass and forestry industry products. This is a subsidy for biomass, which is not carbon neutral, pollutes, and does not focus on forest health. OPPOSE. Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM  HB2691 groundwater permits; technical correction (NOW: ADEQ; water quality program; WOTUS) (Griffin) creates an extremely weak surface water quality program that leaves out nearly all ephemeral waters such as desert washes and provides limited protections overall. OPPOSE. HCR2034 Arizona's outdoors; recreation; supporting (Cobb) recognizes the value of outdoor recreations. I am not sure why they are doing this again. They already passed a nearly identical resolution. SUPPORT. Senate Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM HB2623 fireworks; use; overnight hours; prohibition (Shah: Bowers, Lieberman, et al.) prohibits the use of "permissible consumer fireworks" between 10:00 P.M. and 8:00 A.M. This is an improvement after years of the legislature creating a bit of a free-for-all on fireworks. SUPPORT.