Phew! Some of what finally got done this Legislative session

Arizona House of Representatives

Here is the last Legislative Update from Sandy Bahr of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club. As Sandy mentioned, she will be sending out fewer legislative reports since the session is in recess. We may still have some petitions from the city or Calls to Action from other environmental groups. So keep checking.

Thanks for all your good advocacy this last session! 

Learning about the issues helps us be better advocates. Check out Dan's presentation on A Story of Water in the Desert.

YouTube : https://youtu.be/NssC1fzs4jk

Sandy wrote: It's over! Finally, the 2025 Legislative Session has come to close as the House and Senate finally agreed on a budget that the Governor could sign. They adjourned sine die at 1:20 PM today (June 27, 2025). The budget agreement only happened after the House insisted on passing two budgets that the Governor would veto, and she did. In doing so, she set a new veto record of 169 vetoes -- so far. She could still veto a few more bills. As far as the budget goes, the version that was signed is okay on environmental protection. It still does not include adequate funding for important programs, but there are no major poison pills and there is $9 million for the Water Quality Fee Fund for helping to address impaired waters and also to implement new water quality standards in permits. There are also two new employees funded for implementing the aquifer water quality standards. There is $1 million for the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund -- it should get $10 million, but last year got nothing. The Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund, our state Superfund program, got $15 million, and there is $2 million for clean up of the Iron King Mine smelter near Humboldt. The Department of Water Resources got six additional employees for the assured water supply program and other groundwater issues. There was an attempt to refer some additional measures to the ballot over the last couple of days, but as the Republican majority in the House was missing four of its members, they did not have the votes to refer them. Look for a bunch next year, however, including measures to impede voting and make ballot measures more difficult. As noted last week,SCR1004 tax prohibition; vehicle mileage; monitoring  (Hoffman: Chaplik, Keshel) passed and will be on the 2026 ballot. It would prohibit the state and local government from taking important actions to reduce vehicle miles traveled. Travel reduction is a component of our state implementation plans to improve air quality. It also prohibits any kind of fee based on vehicle miles traveled. Fees such as these have been proposed as an alternative to gas taxes to pay for roads. SB1611 physical availability exemption credit; groundwater (Shope: Petersen) passed in the House 35-20-5 on Monday and was transmitted to the Governor. She will sign it as her staff was engaged in the negotiations. This bill is also known as the ag to urban bill because it promotes development on agricultural lands, was significantly improved and could result in some groundwater savings. We hope that is the case, but we remain concerned about the bill promoting more urban sprawl rather than encouraging more sustainable development and that it significantly increases the replenishment obligation of the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District (CAGRD). The CAGRD was designed to utilize excess Central Arizona Project (CAP) water, but there is no excess CAP water any longer, so what will be used for replenishment? It also reduces the replenishment reserve requirement from 100 years to 20 years for the CAGRD. Karen Peters, the nominee for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality director, had her confirmation hearing on Monday, but the full Senate failed to act on this nomination. We have heard that they believe she can continue to serve as was re-nominated February. We shall see what the Senate does on that. The Senate failed to confirm three appointees to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission Appointment Recommendation Board as well, so they will not be able to serve beyond August. In the good news category, a whole slew of bad bills that remained -- one on wind energy siting, one on sewage sludge application, and several bad voting bills -- did not advance. Next Friday is the July 4th holiday, so we will not be sending out an update. Look for one later in July with the report card on the legislature. We will stop sending updates weekly until the 2026 session starts, but will send periodic updates or actions you can take on this list. Bills passed and signed this session will become law on September 26, 2025.

To see the bills we tracked this session, please go here.