Will be updated with quote as soon as available (read the post)--2/16/17

Today I began in the Government Committee, which I can now officially declare as my favorite committee (though admittedly this may have to do with the controversial nature of the bills that have been introduced in the past couple of weeks). The morning started again with a controversial bill, HB2404, which sets regulations on paid circulators(people who collect signatures) to ensure the integrity of the signatures collected, including banning being paid on a per-signature basis, setting up criminal punishments for those who violate rules, etc. Those opposed argued that it unfairly burdened the initiative process by limiting their ability to use these paid circulators, which they claimed were necessary to create an initiative. Meanwhile, those in favor argued that this would protect the initiative process from being affected by fraudulent signatures. There were so many people signed up to speak that the chairman limited testimonies to a minute each (and three minutes if you were the first to speak in opposition or in favor), which was very difficult for many to follow, especially since the required introductions eat up a large portion of that minute. Though at times the audience got rowdy (for lack of a better term) towards the legislators, it was very inspiring to see the passion that so many citizens had for this issue.

The same could be said for the legislators, who debated and questioned and picked apart the bill line by line. Because of time, again questions were limited, but it brings up the quote of the day. I want to play the whole segment because I felt it was very powerful and emphasizes the importance of these public committee hearings: [VIDEO/QUOTE WILL COME SOON IT HAS NOT YET BEEN PUT INTO PUBLIC RECORD BUT I PROMISE TO UPDATE THIS AS SOON AS IT IS AVAILABLE IM SORRRRYYY]

Whatever side of the aisle you may come from, it is commendable that these legislators not only are open to suggestions and are willing to work with those in opposition to reach a compromise but that these legislators also realize the importance of working with the public on the issues that they care about.


After the Government Committee, I went to the House floor, where they debated and passed more laws. If you care to see the whole thing, be sure to click here [AGAIN NOT AVAILABLE SORRY].

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"Good Morning"--2/15/17

Hello everyone! This week is the last week that the House will be hearing new bills, so it has been a busy week in committee as legislators pushed to get their bills out of committee and onto the floor. I started the day at the Senate Finance committee, where they had 16 bills on the agenda, which, by Senator Cajero Bedford's calculations, would take us 8 hours to go through (in reality it took 4 and a half). However, because of this, the committee started at 8 this morning, so I missed the first hour of the committee (if you want, you can watch the whole meeting here).

Since there was nothing scheduled for the floor, next I went to Appropriations, where the JLBC gave presentations on the budget of the Department of Child Services (DCS), followed by a presentation for a request for more funds by the DCS, followed by the same for the Department of Economic Security. The JLBC, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, prepares economic analysis for the legislative bodies on prospective bills and different government bodies. If you want some light reading about them or our budget you can click here. 

And now for the quote of the day, which comes from Rep. Blac as she passed me in the hall this morning. It's been such a pleasure to not only watch our legislators throughout this session but to interact with each of them within the House and in elevators and hallways. I am so grateful for this opportunity and for the kind greeting of Rep. Blac this morning (that probably is way more exciting to me than it should be). 

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"The aim of education is to make the student like and dislike what he ought"--2/13/17

Second week! It's weird to think that I am already 20% of the way through my senior project. I began the day on the House Floor again, where they began with the third reading of bills. For the first time, I saw a bill fail to pass, HB2112, which was surprising to see. In the legislative process, when a bill is assigned to a committee, if the chairman or chairwoman decides that the bill was either ill-conceived or unlikely to pass, they will choose not to hear the bill in committee, meaning that most bills that see committee and eventually the floor will likely pass (even though it often is a difficult battle to get there). Of course, what I didn't know was that Rep. Finchem could put his bill back on the calendar to be voted on again, so I guess I did not see it "die" per say.

After that, I went back to the education committee, where they listened to a presentation from Early Childhood Alliance about the importance of parents in a child's education pre-kindergarten, and then they heard HB2210, HB2248, HB2252, HB2388, HB2385, HB2389, HB2394, HB2395, HB2396, HB2416, HB2458, HB2465, HB2473, and HB2480 (which I don't have the space to go into each of them but you can feel free to read more about). I would highly encourage all of my tenth grade readers to check out HB2210, because if it is passed could mean that instead of taking the AZMerit test next year you could get to take one free college-readiness test (AKA the ACT or the SAT, which would be great because those tests can each cost upwards of $50). The Education committee is also where the quote of the day comes from. It's actually from Plato, and was quoted by the Chairman of the Education committee, Rep. Bowers, at the beginning of the committee meeting. It reminded me of the philiophical passion that drives all of the legislators to pursue their careers in politics, but mostly I liked it because it reminded me of these blog posts and all the quotes I have gotten to share with you all.

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