The Committee Cutoff

We pour one out for the bills that didn't make it ... Out with the old, in with the appointees ... And Only(in)Arizona.

Lawmakers have been working long hours debating bills at breakneck speed ahead of tomorrow’s deadline for House committees to approve bills introduced in the House, and for Senate committees to hear Senate bills. 

Monday marks the beginning of “crossover week,” and any bills that aren’t out of committee and ready to receive a vote from their full chamber and “cross over” to the opposing chamber will be effectively dead.¹

Legislators have introduced 1,759 bills, memorials and resolutions this year. One of them has been signed into law so far. The vast majority will be dead tomorrow. 

So today, let’s pour one out for all the bills that will never be law.

Here are our nine-ish favorite²  bills of the year that are already “dead.”

Our art intern, ChatGPT, says “this character embodies the hardships and the somber reality of the legislative process, portrayed in a respectful, almost ceremonial manner.” Deep stuff for an intern.

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1. Lawmakers won’t be fined up to $50,000 for failing to disclose a conflict of interest before voting on legislation that could benefit them after Democratic Sen. Juan Mendez’s SB1133 fell flat at the Capitol.  
   

2. Politicians also won’t be peeing in cups anytime soon after Republican Rep. Julie Willoughby’s HB2115 somehow failed to gain traction with her colleagues. The bill would have required lawmakers to submit to random drug testing, though it didn’t specify if that test would cover recreational marijuana or only the harder stuff. 
   

3. Therapeutic psychedelic mushrooms are all the rage these days among Republican lawmakers, but Republican Rep. Barbara Parker’s HB2762, which would make AHCCCS pay for ketamine infusion therapy, didn’t catch on. 
   

4. Scammers won’t be able to pull your signature from voter records after Republican Rep. Cory McGarr’s HB2469 failed to get a vote committee vote. It would have made voter signatures on early ballot envelopes public record. However, school blueprints will (arguably) still be public record after lawmakers failed to progress Democratic Rep. Christine Marsh’s SB1029 or Democratic Rep. Laura Terech’s HB2032, both of which would have shielded the documents from records requests. 
   

5. If a bunch of election war LARPers hang out at early ballot drop boxes with weapons and tactical gear again this year, Arizona still won’t have a law to deal with them since Democratic Rep. Marcelino Quinoñez’s HB2814 never got a committee hearing. 
   

6. The state’s business boosters will be pleased to see the failure of Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman’s attempt to disband the Arizona Commerce Authority, SB1044, as well as Republican Rep. Alex Kolodin’s attempts to defund Arizona’s new trade offices in Germany and Asia, HB2386 and HB2387, respectively. 
   

7. It doesn’t appear legislators will be able to throw out the voters’ choice for president in favor of their own after Republicans weren’t willing to bite on Sen. Anthony Kern’s  SCR1014, which would have attempted to claim only lawmakers can pick the state’s presidential electors. 

8. Exploitive internet parents can breathe easier after lawmakers failed to act on Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez’s HB2565, which would require vloggers to compensate kids who appear in their monetized content. 
   

9. Finally, lawmakers likely won’t be putting additional restrictions on cops by banning them from pulling someone over while driving an unmarked vehicle, as Democratic Sen. Anna Hernandez’s SB1419 calls for, nor by banning police departments from establishing ticket quotas, as Kolodin wanted with his HB2179. 

Three down, one to go: The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chose Democrat Charles Lucking, an attorney for a nonprofit law firm, to fill Rep. Amish Shah’s House seat in Legislative District 5. After both the district’s former representatives resigned less than a week apart, Lucking and Sarah Liguori are taking over as appointees, while Jevin Hodge fills in for former Rep. Athena Salman in LD8. Supervisors have just one more appointment to make, replacing former Democratic Rep. Leezah Sun in LD22, where Democrats have already chosen their three potential replacements: Tolleson Unified High School Board President Elda Luna-Najera, political organizer Natacha Chavez and former state Sen. Martin Quezada.

The law of unintended consequences: A bipartisan crew of lawmakers is trying to make it illegal for landlords to ban pit bulls and other “dangerous” breeds of dogs, the Republic’s Kira Caspers reports. But opponents of the bill worry it could backfire, and more landlords would simply stop renting to people with dogs. Meanwhile, homebuilders are increasingly buying lots, signaling optimism on the residential housing market, Phoenix Business Journal’s Angela Gonzales reports. And negotiations over city zoning reform continue at the Capitol. 

Not chicken: KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio goes hunting packrats with some Apache teens. The rodents are pests to car owners, who find them burroughed under their hoods, and delicious winter snacks in the native Apache diet. 

“(Packrats have their) own, unique taste” Twila Cassadore, a San Carlos Apache forager, told Pietrorazio.

Just cover up: Scottsdale Unified School District is considering bringing back sex education after four years of not teaching it, per the Scottsdale Progress’ Tom Scanlon, while the Tucson Unified School District revamped its student dress code policy to include gender-neutral language over the objections of teachers who worried that “buttocks and full torsos will be showing,” per the Daily Star.

Game over, folks: As Republican lawmakers push to legalize psychedelic mushroom therapy, the Republic’s Ray Stern explains the proposal and questions if the program will stay medicinal, or go the way of recreational pot.  

"You can grow these under your bed in a shoebox for pennies," Gary Smith, president and co-founder of the Arizona Cannabis Bar Association, told Stern. "Once the public finds that out, it's game over."

The most transparent Legislature in history: After exempting themselves from public record laws last year following the whole Cyber Ninjas public records debacle, lawmakers now want to exempt themselves from open meetings laws,³ Capitol scribe Howie Fischer writes. Open meeting laws ensure government bodies conduct their business in public, with limited exceptions.

"The Legislature has demonstrated its firm commitment to transparency and open meetings through its rules of procedure,'' the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Barbara Parker, said in a prepared statement, declining to answer Fischer’s actual questions about the bill. 

Twice?: Self-driving car company Waymo is voluntarily recalling its software after two of its cars in Arizona crashed into the same pickup truck being towed within a few minutes of each other, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company says it has updated its software to solve the problem. 

Here’s the craziest story you’ll read today. 

An Arizona teacher was fired after district officials learned she had an OnlyFans account. 

Ok. Not the first time.

The name of that teacher? Well, she was going by Nkechi Diallo. 

Doesn’t ring a bell?

You may remember her as Rachel Dolezal, the “transracial” woman who resigned as head of an NAACP chapter in 2015 after pretending to be Black.

She has been a Tucsonan since 2020 and was last spotted at the signing of Gov. Katie Hobbs’ executive order banning hair discrimination. 

1. In case we need to say it again, no bill is ever truly dead while the Legislature is in session. There are lots of ways for a determined lawmaker to revive an idea that’s already been dismissed or rejected.

2. “Favorite” does not mean we personally agree with them. As reporters, we’re totally neutral and just here for the drama. 

3. As we’ve previously noted, legislative caucuses are already exempt from the open meetings law.