As AzPHA’s Executive Director, I’m the registered lobbyist for our organization. I’m responsible for going into the state legislature’s website and documenting our positions on bills. When bills are up in Committee, I go into the Request to Speak system and provide more detail about our position and why. In some circumstances (like this week in the House and Senate Health & Human Services Committees), I attend and speak for a couple minutes.
Our positions on bills are based on Resolutions that members have passed over the years: Resolutions – AZ Public Health Association. If no Resolution is in place to support our advocacy position, our public health policy committee discusses the issue and makes a recommendation to the Board to validate our position.
You can also do your own advocacy and make your own voice heard. In order to do that, you’ll need to get a User ID and Password for the Legislature’s Request to Speak system. You can sign up at one of the kiosks in the House or Senate buildings or contact the folks at Civic Engagement Beyond Voting who can help you set up an RTS account.
Committee Hearings this Week
House Health & Human Services 2pm Monday
HB2086– ADHS; school immunizations; exclusions OPPOSED
HB2450– outpatient treatment centers; licensure; exemption NEUTRAL
Senate Health & Human Services 8:30am Wednesday
SB1044 – contracts; grants; exclusions; sex education OPPOSED
SB1567– vaccinations; prohibitions; evidence of immunity OPPOSED
SB1641– health care institutions; civil penalties SUPPORT
SB1052– medical procedures; prohibitions OPPOSED
Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday 2pm
SB1245 tobacco; vapor; alternative nicotine; regulation OPPOSED
Bill Summaries & AzPHA Positions
Public Health Emergency
SB1009– state of emergency; executive powers OPPOSED
Passed Senate 16-13. Beginning on Ducey’s last day, caps the length of a Governor’s public health emergency declaration at 30 days but allows the Governor to extend the state of emergency for up to 120 days in 30-day increments. Terminates a state of emergency after 120 days, unless extended by the Legislature. Allows the Legislature to extend the state of emergency as many times as necessary in up to 30-day increments.
HB2022 health emergencies; treatment; vaccinations; repeal OPPOSED
No action yet. This bill eliminates public health emergency authority that currently allows the ADHS Director to mandate vaccinations in exposed persons in some circumstances.
Vaccines
HB2029 vaccinations; evidence of immunity; prohibitions OPPOSED
No action yet. Prohibits government entities from requiring a COVID vaccine as a condition of employment. Also prohibits them from contracting with any private business that requires vaccination. Has a conditional exemption for healthcare institutions.
HB2043 employer liability; COVID-19 vaccine requirement OPPOSED
Passed Senate Judiciary 6-4. Makes employers liable for damages if the employer denies a religious exemption and requires a person to receive a COVID-19 vaccination and significant injury results from receiving the vaccine.
HB2064 ADHS; school immunizations; exclusions. OPPOSED
Being Heard in House HHS Monday, AZPHA Signed in Against. Prevents ADHS Director from ever adding COVID19 or HPV vaccines to the list required for school attendance
HB2065 school immunizations; nonattendance; outbreak OPPOSED
Assigned to Senate HHS, no action yet. Removes that ability to exclude unvaccinated students from school during a school outbreak
HB2086 ADHS; school immunizations; exclusions OPPOSED
Being heard in House HHS 2/7. Prevents ADHS Director from ever adding COVID19 or HPV vaccines to the list required for school attendance
HB2191 school immunizations; DHS; exclusions OPPOSED
Being heard in House HHS 2/7 AzPHA Signed in Opposed. Prohibits ADHS from adding HPV, COVID-19 and/or any vaccine that is just emergency use authorized to list of vaccines required for school attendance.
HB2452 antidiscrimination; employment; vaccination status OPPOSED
No action yet. Prevents ‘discrimination’ against anybody because of the vaccination status
SB1567 vaccinations; prohibitions; evidence of immunity OPPOSED
Being Heard in Senate HHS Wednesday, 2/9. Prohibits businesses from requiring vaccinations of any kind and includes enforcement provisions including preventing the state from contracting with any entity that does so. Includes exemptions for certain healthcare facilities.
SB1052 medical procedures; prohibitions OPPOSED
Being heard in Senate HHS 2/9. Government entities and even schools would be unable to require vaccination if there is any threat of an adverse reaction that can result in death, even if the odds of that are for example 10,000,000 to one.
Family Planning
SB1044 contracts; grants; exclusions; sex education OPPOSED
Being Heard in Senate HHS 2/9. Prohibits ADHS from contracting with any entity that ‘provides or promotes abortion’ on their Personal Responsibility Education Program or the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Grant Program grants.
Criminal Justice
HB2033 juvenile offenders; monetary sanctions; repeal SUPPORT
Passed House Judiciary and Appropriations 10-0. Removes statute relating to court-ordered fees and fines for juveniles, except for victim restitution and specific driving under the influence offenses. Appropriates $2,531,000 from the state General Fund for costs relating to juvenile treatment services and court services.
HB2021 Drug Offenses, homicide, sentencing OPPOSED
Assigned to House Judiciary, no action yet. Increases penalties for homicides that happen when there is also a drug offense.
Food Insecurity
HB2060 supplemental nutrition assistance program; eligibility SUPPORT
Passed House Judiciary and Rules. Expands Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility to individuals with felony drug convictions but still requires certain people to comply with probation conditions.
Housing
HB2606 school districts; housing facilities; teachers SUPPORT
Assigned to House Ways and Means, no action yet. permits all school districts to leverage district-owned property and facilities toward the development of housing for staff. Current statute limits these “teacherages” to rural and tribal communities. This bill would expand these abilities to urban and suburban districts. It’s a technical change to existing statute, but should have promising health, educational and economic impacts.
HB2674 municipal zoning; by right housing SUPPORT
Assigned to House Commerce Committee. Would prevent cities from implementing unreasonable zoning barriers that limit the production of affordable housing. Makes cities commit to policies that encourage affordable housing.
Maternal and Child Health
HB2111 appropriation; healthy families program SUPPORT
Passed House Health 7-2, still needs House Appropriations. Appropriates $10 million from the state General Fund in FY 2023 to the Department of Child Safety for the Healthy Families Program.
HB2113 developmental disabilities; Down syndrome SUPPORT
Passed House Health 9-0. Automatically qualifies persons with Down Syndrome for AHCCCS’ Long Term Care program (they currently need to go through a qualification process).
HB2311 school health program; appropriation SUPPORT
Assigned to House Education, no action yet. Requires school districts (and charters) to have evidence-based school health programs. Provides funding for such programs.
Tobacco
HB2125 electronic smoking devices; retail licensing SUPPORT
Assigned to House HHS, no action yet. This is the ‘good’ tobacco control bill. Has a host of evidence based interventions including retail licensing with proper enforcement.
SB1245 tobacco; vapor; alternative nicotine; regulation OPPOSED
Being heard in Senate Appropriations Tuesday at 2pm. Regulates tobacco products but in a bad way that isn’t evidence based. It preempts local jurisdictions from doing more than state law. Includes a tobacco license though, with weak enforcement. Would be managed by the Department of Liquor License and Control.
Access to Care
HB2144 health insurance coverage; biomarker testing SUPPORT
Assigned to House Health, no action yet. Requires health insurance plans to begin covering biomarker testing. Important bill as emerging therapies rely on biomarker testing to target therapies. Medicaid is included!
HB2155 health information organizations; research; disclosures SUPPORT
Assigned to House HHS. No action yet. Makes deidentified health information more available for research.
HB2100 health information organizations; confidentiality; data. SUPPORT
Assigned to House HHS, Held. This emergency measure would allow Health Current to receive, use and redisclose confidential information received for any purpose allowed by HIPPA. Ducey’s Executive Orders and Enhanced Surveillance Advisories currently address this privacy protection, but it needs to be codified in statute to ensure there are no gaps in the protection of this data or in healthcare information.
HB2161 parental rights; schools; educational records OPPOSED
Passed House Education 6-4. Expands statutory parental rights regarding the upbringing, education, health care and mental health of a parent’s minor child.
Special Needs & Disabilities
HB2382 appropriation; health programs; disabilities SUPPORT
Passed House HHS 9-0. Appropriates $1 million to ADHS for grants to statewide organizations dedicated to “promoting evidence based, inclusive health programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities”.
HB2157 supplemental appropriations; community-based services SUPPORT
Passed House Appropriations 11-1. Appropriates $1,440,732,800 of expenditure authority and $30,121,100 from Kids Care in FY 2022 for home and community-based services and funding formula requirements. This will leverage $1.5B in mostly American Rescue Plan Act funds over the next 2 years to improve Home and Community Based Services for folks in their Long-Term Care Program. $1B will go for badly needed investments to promote and stabilize access to supportive services, and workforce retention/ consistency to improve member outcomes ($1B).
Clean Energy/Climate/Environmental Health
SB1132 municipal bonds; environmental sustainability; prohibition OPPOSED
Assigned to Senate Nat. Resources, no action yet. Prohibits the use of municipal bonds for any project that is “green”. Defines anything green as basically anything to do with climate change, carbon emissions, or clean energy. Excludes other pollutants regulated by ADEQ.
HB2403 appropriation; ADE; electric school buses SUPPORT
Assigned to House Education, no action yet. Appropriates $1.5M for a pilot program for electric school buses
SB1150 electric vehicles; pilot program; appropriation SUPPORT
Passed Senate Transportation 6-3. Appropriates $500K from the General Fund to the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) for the Electric Vehicle-Ready Homes Pilot Program.
SB1151 charging station; pilot program; appropriation SUPPORT
Passed Senate Transportation 7-2. Appropriates $500K from the General Fund to ADOA to establish the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Pilot Program.
SB1152 zero emission vehicles; plans SUPPORT
Passed Senate Transportation 7-2. Requires ADOT to work in coordination with ADOA and ADEQ to develop a Zero Emission Vehicle Plan.
SB1153 state zero emission vehicle fleet SUPPORT
Assigned to Senate Transportation, no action. Requires state agencies to buy zero emission vehicles when they buy new cars (when feasible).
SB1154 transportation electrification study committee SUPPORT
Passed Senate Transportation 7-2. Establishes the Transportation Electrification Study Committee
HB2226 fireworks use, limitations, prohibition SUPPORT
Passed Public Safety 13-1. Limits fireworks use to before 11pm except for a few holidays when the deadline is 1am.
Women’s Health
HB2534 feminine hygiene; exemption SUPPORT
Assigned to Ways and Means, no action yet. Exempts feminine hygiene products from sales taxes.
SB1164 abortion; gestational age; limit OPPOSED
Passed Senate Judiciary 5-3. Except in a medical emergency, prohibits physicians from performing an abortion after 15 weeks gestation as measured starting on the 1st day of the last menstrual period. Punishes the doctor with a felony and unprofessional conduct on her or his license. No exemptions for rape etc.
SB1272 AHCCCS; postpartum care; eligibility; appropriations SUPPORT
Passed Senate Appropriations 10-0. Allows AHCCCS to pursue eligibility for postpartum care for members for 1 year post-delivery up to 161% of federal poverty limit. Expanded eligibility currently ends at delivery. Still requires CMS approval.
Violence and Firearms
SB1123 disruption; educational institution; concealed weapon OPPOSED
Passed Senate Judiciary 4-3. Prohibits the governing board of any university, college, or community college from prohibiting the possession of a concealed weapon by a concealed weapon permit holder, or the transportation or storage of a firearm.
State Agency Administration
SB1175 noncustodial federal monies; appropriation OPPOSE
Passed Senate Appropriations 5-4. The legislature would need to appropriate federal funds that come through grants- examples include the maternal and child health block grant, WIC, SNAP, and many others.
SB1641 health care institutions; civil penalties SUPPORT
Being heard in Senate HHS on 2/9. Raises the limit on ADHS healthcare institutions civil money penalties to $1K from $500.
SB1391 state hospital; transfer; AHCCCS NO POSITION YET
Assigned to Senate Health and Human Services Committee, no action yet. This would move responsibility for operating the Arizona State Hospital from ADHS to AHCCCS.
Behavioral Health
SB1210 mentally ill; transportation; evaluation; treatment SUPPORT
Assigned to Senate HHS, no action yet. Stops the current practice of requiring that a police officer attend behavioral health ambulance transports.
SB1162 opioid prescriptions; intractable pain; exceptions SUPPORT
Passed Senate HHS 8-0. Exempts patients with perioperative surgical pain, intractable pain or chronic intractable pain from statutory opioid prescription dosage restrictions. Contains good definitions of those words.
