The Veridus BLOG

Nearly 2,000 bills were introduced to begin the Arizona legislative session. Most have now reached their eternal resting place. Today was the last chance for House and Senate committees to meet (except for Appropriations committees, which have one more week of work). That means, for the vast majority of bills, this was the deadline to clear committee and move to the full House or Senate for consideration.

This fall, Arizona voters may face competing initiatives to reform the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. The dueling proposals are now in a sprint to collect the just over 250,000 valid petition signatures necessary to qualify for the November ballot. Deadline: July 2.

The latest signal that federal investigators are examining results of the 2020 election came this week as the Arizona State Senate complied with a grand jury subpoena for results of a Senate-led audit of the presidential contest. Information handed over is believed to include digital scans of ballots cast by Maricopa County voters in that election.

The war in Iran … err, “military hostilities”  … is nearing the end of its first week, and divisions are already becoming clear  within Arizona’s congressional delegation. Democratic lawmakers have uniformly expressed concern or outright opposition to the military operation, especially President Trump’s decision to launch the attack without congressional approval or even debate. Congressman Greg Stanton’s remarks  struck a common theme among Democrats, noting “the United Stat