By Greer Warren
Did you know you have a loud and clear voice in the Arizona Legislature? The Arizona Legislature is where policies on education, healthcare, abortion access, free and fair elections, criminal justice reform, and the environment are made — the issues that affect your life and the lives of your friends and families.
A new session of the Arizona Legislature opened in Phoenix on Monday, January 8, 2024. Proposed bills work through the legislative process by being assigned to AZ House and Senate Committees. The Request To Speak system (RTS) is a way for you to comment — from the comfort of your home — on legislation pending in Legislative Committees. You can vote yes or no in the RTS system, and there is an opportunity for limited comments.
How do you get signed up to express your opinion on RTS? There is an easy way. Civic Engagement Beyond Voting (CEBV) is an organization that has been educating folks about RTS for many years, including providing an invaluable service in helping people get registered. The link is here: https://www.cebv.us/rts.html. An interesting feature is that a person does not have to be a registered voter or citizen to use RTS. High school students, I am looking at you in particular!
CEBV provides training on how to use the RTS on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. Check the website for details. https://www.cebv.us/rts.html
CEBV provides another invaluable service: emailing a Legislative Update newsletter every Sunday evening, letting you know what bills are on the agendas for Committee hearings in the coming week. The editors digest these bills and make a recommendation on a yes or no vote (They explain their recommendation and often provide links to sources backing up their recommendations.) Upwards of 1,500 bills get dropped in every session. While many of them never see the light of day, plenty of them make it into committee. There is no way that the average citizen can keep track of all the bills or even search for them, as many of them are given slippery titles.
As an aside, several other sources of information about bills are pending in committee. The Sierra Club is one. https://www.sierraclub.org/arizona/legislative
CEBV also hosts a Sunday afternoon Zoom Happy Hour during the session to discuss issues in the coming week. You can find details on their website: https://www.cebv.us. Many of our Democratic legislators can speak to how valuable the mass of citizen voices can be. We have a powerful voice to support good legislation and condemn bad legislation.