Written by Nancy Gutierrez
| Hello Everyone!Well, it has been a very busy two weeks! The swearing in ceremony was wonderful. It meant a lot to have my family, including my mom, with me on the floor. In the days since, I’ve met with many constituents, lobbying groups and stakeholders. I have a wonderful assistant, Zachary, who keeps me organized and on time for everything.The first bills that I dropped are HB2068 to repeal the ban on transgender students playing high school sports and HB2069 & HCR 2005 to repeal the Aggregate Expenditure Limit. I’m working on more right now to feed all students breakfast and lunch, to prioritize mental health in schools and a couple more that I’ll share when they drop.I had the pleasure of hosting four incredible retired educators, members of AEA Retired, who are also LD18 folks. I enjoyed introducing Barbara Matteson, Steve Linder, Peter Coston and Deb Larned during our floor session. It is always wonderful to have Tucson represented in the gallery. It was a pleasure to meet President Nygren of the Navajo Nation. I look forward to going on a tour with other Legislators of the Navajoy Nation in the spring (too cold for me right now!) Every day, there is an opportunity to attend meetings with stakeholders. I am trying to attend as many as I can.We had our first Education Committee Meeting last Tuesday. I look forward to giving a teacher’s perspective here. All of the Democratic Education Committee Members are teachers and former teachers. It seems that we will be seeing many bills that at first glance look like they can benefit our schools, but a deeper dive reveals unfunded mandates, strengthening ESA vouchers and taking local control from school districts. I’ll be sure to keep you informed as the session continues.This week will be our first meeting of the Regulatory Affairs Committee. I’m very encouraged by the working relationship that Rep. Hendrix and I (as Ranking Member) are working on. We have met a couple of times about the agenda and the bills that we will be seeing in committee. This is not happening in every committee, so I will work on continuing to build this bridge.All committee meetings are televised. You can find the schedule on the AZ Leg website . You can also find information on the bills that are assigned to each committee and the Request To Speak system. I highly recommend registering for this system and using it to let us know what you think about each bill.Please email me with any questions or concerns that you have. You can reach me at [email protected].I appreciate your support and good wishes! |
| Many Thanks,Representative Nancy Gutierrez, LD18 |