Capitol roundup: Bill would allow nursing home monitoring devices
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The Legislature is still under Gov. Katie Hobbs' threat to veto bills until Republicans present a budget plan, but lawmakers kept busy with legislation that isn't ready to head to her desk yet.
This week, at the Capitol:
📹 Nursing care and assisted living facility residents, or their designated representatives, could place electronic monitoring devices in their rooms under legislation approved by the House.
- The vote came one day after an employee at a Mesa senior living facility was arrested and charged with allegedly sexually assaulting a resident with dementia.
- The case shows why the bill matters, per AARP state director Dana Kennedy, who said it "gives families an additional option to help protect residents who may not be able to speak for themselves."
💊 The Senate approved a bill to impose new restrictions on sales of products from kratom, a plant used for herbal supplements that have opioid-like effects.
🗳️ The Legislature will formally ask Congress to call a convention of the states so they can take up a proposed congressional term limits amendment to the U.S. Constitution after the Senate gave final approval to the resolution.
🧒 Extended family members would be eligible for kinship foster care placement when the Department of Child Safety removes children from their parents under a bill passed by the Senate.
📱 Child influencers, streamers and other online content creators would be guaranteed financial compensation under a bill approved by the Senate.
☪️ Senate Republicans gave final approval to resolutions urging Congress to declare the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as terrorist organizations, and to reject the term "West Bank" and support use of the terms "Judea" and "Samaria" in all state communications.
🏠 In its first meeting since early March, the Senate Committee on Director Nominations voted 3-2 to green-light Ruby Dhillon-Williams as Hobbs' nominee to lead the Department of Housing. The nomination now goes to the full Senate.
💰 Senate President Warren Petersen told the Arizona Republic he hopes to introduce budget bills next week, which should lift Hobbs' bill moratorium.