Can’t make this stuff up!
The wording in SB1700, Senator Wadsack's bill to establish a banned books list, outlines various types of books that should be banned. It would also ban books using “gender pronouns”. The media/news groups have caught the faulty language prohibitions of using the pronouns, she, her, hers, he, him and his, yet the bill has passed the senate with this language. Pronouns are typically taught in first and second grade.
What’s the status of some of the bills we’re following?
Most bills that passed out of their first legislative chamber are now being considered in the second chamber.
Both the House of Representative and the Senate have just one more week to get bills through committees in order to move to the floor for a vote. There should be many opportunities to RTS (Request To Speak) this week.
The graphic below shows where a few of the bills, still alive, stand in the process.
A quick look at some legislation our LD3 legislators have sponsored.
Senator Kavanagh
SB1588 has gone through major changes since introduced. The bill originally instructed the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) to implement a State, County and Municipal Open Data System on ACJC’s website that would be readily available to the public. As originally sponsored, all collected info on alleged offenders and victims would be available. With amendments the bill has morphed into a tool to collect data but info available for public access would be an aggregate with no identifying information shared.
The bill was voted and failed on March 16 but with a motion to reconsider the bill, it is again on the final vote schedule for Monday March 27.
SB1026, the drag show bill, is up for the House Rules committee on Monday, March 27.
SB1040 the school restroom accommodations bill is in the House education committee on Tuesday March 28th. Bill states a student is to use the restroom or gender accommodations equaled to their gender at birth. If they are uncomfortable doing so, special accommodations need to be made.
SB1041 is a good example of using a striker. The original bill addressed nutritional supplements for chiropractic care. It was withdrawn from its original committee and reassigned to the appropriations committee since it asks for money. Since this bill had been assigned in a timely fashion but the deadline had passed for new submissions, the original bill was sacrificed, and an amendment added which changed the entire bill. It requires the Arizona Department of Homeland Security (AZDOHS) to acquire security software that detects security threats by using at least two specified testing mechanisms and appropriates $2,000,000 from the state General Fund in Fiscal Year 2024 to AZDOHS. It passed out of the senate with some bipartisan support.
It is on both the government and appropriations agendas in the House this coming week.
Rep. Kolodin
HB2325 is on the senate elections committee schedule for Monday March 27. This bill revamps the procedure for voting in jail. Bill passed out of the House on a party line vote.
Rep. Chaplik
HB2555 will be heard in the senate commerce committee on Wednesday. It requires all businesses to take cash.
Rep. Chaplik, chairman of the House Ethics Committee, will convene his committee this week for an organizational meeting. No mention has been made to address the Ethics complaint filed against Rep. Harris. She was responsible for arranging the 5 hour conspiracy presentation to a joint elections committee.