This was the last week to hear bills in standing committees, except for Appropriations, which gets an extra week. This meant there were some long agendas and a plethora of strike-everything amendments, most of which were bad bills, but a couple actually advanced positive legislation, including one on rainwater harvesting on HB2619. Legislators sent some truly awful bills to the Governor too.
HB2492 was one of those bills. HB2492 voter registration; verification; citizenship (Hoffman: Blackman, Carter, et al.) requires people who register to vote with a passport, birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or a tribal ID to submit additional documents proving residency. It also includes new restrictions for federal-only voters, including that they may not vote by mail, and it requires those who have previously registered to vote to provide additional identification. While it is a longshot, please do contact Governor Ducey and ask him to veto HB2492.
HB2101 electric energy; reliability; public policy (Griffin: Abraham, Blackman, et al.) could still be reconsidered in the Senate any day this coming week. Please help keep up the pressure to defeat it. HB2101 repeals provisions in the law that create parameters for retail competition of electricity. We are opposed to the bill as we have concerns about how it will affect community choice aggregation of electricity overall and rooftop solar in Salt River Project (SRP) territory. SRP brought this to the legislature without any kind of stakeholder process or thorough review of the impacts of the bill. Tell your senator to vote No on HB2101 and also reach out to Senators Alston, Contreras, Gabaldon, and Rios and ask them to vote No!
HB2055 Harquahala non-expansion area; groundwater transportation (Griffin: Bowers) was held in the Republican caucus this week, so there may be a shot at stopping it, so please contact your senator about it, even if you have done so previously. HB2055 allows private water companies such as EPCOR to import water from the Harquahala Valley and into the active management areas (AMAs) for development. Currently only cities can do that. This exacerbates creation of this groundwater depletion sacrifice zone and gives private water interests more control of water. The legislature should be placing additional limits on groundwater pumping not facilitating more.
HB2411 coal combustion residuals program (Griffin) will also likely come to the floor for a vote this week. It authorizes the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to seek assumption of the coal ash program from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Coal ash is toxic and can result in contamination of our waters if not adequately regulated. We are concerned that ADEQ is too cozy with the utilities and that it would not properly enforce this program, plus ADEQ is already not properly implementing some of the federal programs it already has. Tell your senator to oppose this too!
HB2181 Now: game and fish; taking wolves (Cook) sends a message that it is okay to kill endangered Mexican wolves. It forbids the Arizona Game and Fish Commission from prohibiting any person from killing a wolf that is actively threatening or attacking a person (unnecessary as anyone can kill an animal if they feel threatened), livestock, or other domestic animal. These latter provisions will invite baiting of wolves -- the last thing these endangered animals need is less protection or more people gunning for them.
If you have not signed up for the Request to Speak System, please do! Civic Engagement Beyond Voting (CEBV) will sign you up. To get an account set up, just go to this link.
This week, we encourage you to sign in on Request to Speak in opposition to the following bills: HB2493, HB2554, HB2637, HCR2017, and SB1718.
See the details on the bills below under "Request to Speak Actions Coming Up at the Arizona Legislature this Week."
To view bills we are tracking go here.
To find your legislators' email addresses and phone numbers, go here. |
Many thanks for continuing to act on these bills!
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| Request to Speak Actions Coming Up at the Arizona Legislature this Week.
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Monday, March 28th
House Committee on Appropriations at 9:30 AM - SB1718 appropriation; security fund (Gowan) appropriates $1,140,800 and 14.5 full-time equivalent positions to the border security fund, including for border wall construction and maintenance. We don't need further militarization of our border. OPPOSE
Tuesday, March 29th
Senate Committee on Appropriations at 9:00 AM - HB2493 election integrity fund (Hoffman; Blackman, Chaplik, et al.) establishes an Election Integrity Fund to pay county recorders for election security measures and appropriates $12 million for it. This is so unnecessary. OPPOSE
- HB2554 Now: counties; land divisions; surveys (Griffin) prohibits counties from requiring surveys as a condition for approving land divisions. This is the last thing we need as it will encourage more lot splits and harmful unregulated development. OPPOSE
- HB2637 will have a strike-everything amendment on banks; certain affiliations; prohibition that prohibits certain financial institutions from discriminating against any person based on a political affiliation or other social credit, environmental, social, governance or similar values-based or impact criteria. This would limit impact investing. OPPOSE
- HCR2017 will have a strike-everything amendment on elections; judges that requires superior court judges in a county with a population of fewer than 800,000 persons, rather than a population of fewer than 250,000 persons, to be elected in a general election. More elections of judges rather than merit selection is a bad idea. OPPOSE
Wednesday, March 30th - No committee hearings, just floor. Which means a vote on those bad votes.
- Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter |
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