There wasn’t much action in the state legislature this week- at least out in the open. It’s possible there are behind-the-scenes budget negotiations happening- but none of it has been out in the open.
The only thing I weighed in on this week was a bill that would require group homes that provide services to folks with developmental and cognitive disabilities to be licensed by the ADHS (SB1308). Right now, those homes are generally just overseen by ADES (who is also the agency providing the services). We’re signed up in favor of the bill and I explained to a few legislators why last week.
There was no action on the other bills we’re advocating for or against, so I’ll just refer to last week’s update on that: May 2 Legislative Roundup – AZ Public Health Association.
As expected, Ducey signed SB1009 this week, restricting future governors & ADHS directors to 120 days of public health emergency authority (amending ARS 26-303).
Perhaps next time we have a public health emergency we’ll be lucky enough to have a governor and ADHS director that will actually try to save lives and use evidence to drive decisions using their (now diminished) public health emergency authority. Sadly, that didn’t happen this time around, at a great cost of life.
