Up until January 11th legislators could submit as many bills as they want considered this session. Starting Thursday January 11th legislators are now limited to sponsoring only 7 more bills until the bill cutoff date, the first week in February.
As of this writing on Jan 12th 758 bills or resolutions have been sponsored. Where do our LD3 folks fit into that number and what are they spending their time on?
Senator Kavanagh has been slow out of the gate this year. He has been a prolific bill sponsor in past years. During the 2023 session he sponsored 72 bills plus his name was recorded as sponsor of both budget bills. He has sponsored only 12 bills as of this writing
Most notable subjects: HOA flags and flagpoles, cockfighting, spina bifida, removal of political signs, exemption of attorney general defending Dept of Ed.
Most concerning is the last mentioned issue, seen in SB1017, which would allow the Dept of Education to use outside counsel rather than use the Attorney General for legal matters. Tom Horne asked Kavanagh for this bill. Tom Horne is suing both the Governor and the Attorney General. The lawsuit states any school that doesn’t use “structured English immersion’’ to teach students who aren’t proficient in the language is violating the law. School officials have relied on a 2019 state law which reduced the amount of time students must spend in structured English immersion classes and gave the Arizona Board of Education flexibility to develop alternatives. The bill is on the Judiciary committee agenda for Jan 18. It was not assigned to the Education committee.
Rep. Kolodin has been busy writing bills and resolutions. To date he has sponsored 27 bills and 9 resolutions. In 2023 Rep Kolodin sponsored a total of 15 bills, with only 2 of the 15 passing in a partisan vote but then vetoed. He also sponsored 4 resolutions with none of them passing.
Most notable subjects for 2024: water, elections, biological sex, increasing the number of counties in AZ and repealing trade offices.
Energy will not be spent on too many of Rep. Kolodin’s poorly written bills this session. Very few have been assigned to a committee. Compare that to Sen. Kavanagh having 10 of 12 bills not only assigned to committee but some are already on a committee agenda for discussion and vote.
If Rep. Kolodin gets down to serious work we’ll be happy to report on proposed policy
Rep. Chaplik has not sponsored any bills to date.
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