The Arizona Legislature kicked off its 2022 session on Jan. 10, but lawmakers have been introducing bills for several weeks already.
Topics range from whether your cat should be declawed to how much you will pay in taxes in a given year — and they give us a glimpse of what we can expect this year.
But just because a bill is introduced does not mean it will get anywhere. Here's a breakdown of how it all works for for anyone trying to follow.
The 2021 legislative session saw the most pieces of legislation filed in state history, with more than 1,700 bills and resolutions. Fewer than 500 made it into law.
Given that the path to the governor's desk has more than a dozen steps, it's amazing that many laws are passed. Most bills that are introduced are never even heard in a committee, but we still give them a lot of attention.
In 2021, Republican Rep. Shawnna Bolick filed a bill that would have allowed the Legislature to overrule the state's electoral votes cast for a presidential candidate. That idea got plenty of local and national attention, but it never made it anywhere.
Ditto for Democratic Sen. Juan Mendez's annual effort to repeal the death penalty. Behind the scenes, lobbyists as well as members of the House and Senate began twisting arms, and making deals even before a bill is even introduced.
Once filed each bill must go before the speaker of the House or the Senate president, if it gets their blessing, the bill's assigned to a committee — but not just one.
Each bill is assigned by the chamber leader to the committee or committees handling that topic — but it's all subjective.
For example, a sex education bill might be assigned to the health committee instead of the education committee. Or it could be assigned to both.
If bill has anything to do with spending money, it will also go before the appropriations committee — maybe.
Every single bill has to go before the rules committee to make sure it's constitutional.
And get this — just because of bill is assigned to a committee doesn't mean it will ever be heard. Each committee chair has the ability to kill a bill by refusing to give it a hearing. That happens all the time.
When a bill does get a committee hearing, the public is invited to weigh in,
Win approval by the committees, and the next stop is a floor vote of the full chamber. But the House speaker or Senate president can still kill the bill by not scheduling it for debate.
A bill that makes it through both chambers is then sent to the governor to be signed into law or vetoed.
That's the textbook version, but just about anything can happen — and often does.
Now that you're up to speed and how things work at the Arizona Legislature, you can impress or annoy your friends at the next happy hour.
