History Suggests They’ll Pass with A Party Line Vote & A Ducey Rubber Stamp
The House opened for business on Monday but then promptly adjourned for the rest of the week (basically not doing any business). The Senate worked a bit on Tuesday, but that’s it.
The Senate has posted a few bills for Third Read (final floor vote) on Monday including a couple of harmful preemption bills that had been languishing for a few weeks. Several bills that preempt other jurisdictions from taking needed action for disease control have already passed on a party line vote- and there’s no reason to think tomorrow will be different. Our action alerts on the previous preemption bills were unsuccessful so I’m not going to send one out on the two up for a vote tomorrow:
HB2453 governmental entities; mask requirement; prohibition
Prohibits the state or any political subdivision, including the judiciary, that receives or uses tax revenue (governmental entity) from imposing any requirement to wear a mask or face covering on the governmental entity’s premises, except where long-standing workplace safety and infection control measures that are unrelated to COVID-19 may be required.
HB2086 DHS; school immunizations; exclusions
Says that the ADHS Director can never implement a rulemaking that would require the COVID-19 vaccine (or its successors) to be required for school attendance.
There has been little observable progress on the state budget. Perhaps things are happening in back rooms- but if so nothing has been transparent. One of the rumors about what’s holding up budget development is around water. The Governor’s budget called for a $1B for a new organization called the Arizona Water Authority and it’s unclear whether there is support to create the entity (outside of the Arizona Department of Water Resources) or not.
