Transcript Highlights:

• So this bill, but it does at least 85% of generating capacity has to consist of reliable energy sources
• Last year, TEP published a comparison of options to replace roughly 750 megawatts of coal generation
• you're asking for 85% of generation to...
• And so you're asking for 85% of generation to be fossil fuels.
• Wind generates 15 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour produced.

Committee: House House Natural Resources, Energy & Water Committee of Reference

Summary: The committee took up several energy, transportation, and land-use bills. HB 2428, dealing with county and ADEQ authority to issue voluntary permits certifying emission reduction credits for mobile and non-road sources, received neutral testimony from ADEQ and support from Maricopa County; the committee adopted the Griffin amendment and passed the bill 10-0 with a due pass recommendation. HB 2145, which expands who may request certain gasoline fuel reformulation actions and is contingent on EPA approval, also passed on a 5-4 vote after brief staff explanation and no amendment. The committee then considered HB 2331, a strike-everything amendment requiring electric utilities to ensure 85% of generating capacity serving retail load comes from “reliable resources” by 2030. Supporters, including the sponsor and Arizona Free Enterprise Club, argued it would protect affordability and grid reliability by favoring dispatchable power; opponents, including the Sierra Club and Rural Arizona Action, said it would effectively favor fossil fuels, raise costs, and limit cleaner resources. The committee adopted the amendment and passed the bill 6-4. HB 2795, which would bar counties from using zoning to block small modular reactors once federal permitting conditions are met, drew strong support from the sponsor and industry advocates who framed it as pro-property-rights and pro-nuclear, and opposition from county, city, and environmental groups who raised preemption, local control, safety, waste, and siting concerns; it passed 6-4. The committee also passed HB 2340, which allows the Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee to evaluate proposed generating facilities along with transmission lines, on a 5-4 vote. HB 2400, an emergency measure to suspend the motor vehicle fuel tax in Areas A and C during part of the year and replace the lost revenue through state highway funding, drew opposition from cities and counties over transportation funding impacts but support from the sponsor and some members focused on gas affordability; the Griffin amendment was adopted and the bill passed 6-4. Finally, HB 2401 was introduced as a requirement for ADEQ to conduct a biennial review of available fuel formulations and their air-quality impacts in Areas A and C, but the transcript ends before testimony or action on that bill is completed.

Transcript Highlights:

• The table here is a sort of snapshot of the General Fund Financial Summary.
• And those are the most stable form of revenue in the general fund.
• of the general fund.
• On slide 17, just sort of generally, we called out that there are several other general GRT deductions
• And I've got to think about all of these, but just sort of a general question.

Committee: House Revenue Stabilization & Tax Policy Committee

Transcript Highlights:

• generated net new increment to the state, and then kind of... past performance that they have generated
• Representative Lewis said that, between the two TIF programs, about $10 million of general revenue was
• Yeah, so we’ve had a lot of conversation already, but if you’ve got some general explanation of CDBG
• the amendment references the $1.9 million in general revenue being paid for out of a federal payment
• Generally speaking, those are the local chamber of commerce.

Committee: House Budget

Transcript Highlights:

• General Fox is the president of the New Mexico Military Museum Foundation.
• Speaker and General Lady, to the support that this bill provides in terms of clarifying some of the existing
• Speaker, General Lady. to school, that first day of school, everybody's a little quiet, Mr.
• Speaker, General, it was more of a scenario. But what I was trying to say, Mr.
• Speaker, General Lady, is that we've gotten away from a lot of this stuff.

Bills: HB111 , HB103 , HB60 , HB108 , HB120 , HB145 , HB154 , HB164 , HB291 , HJR6 , HR1 , HJM2 , HJM3 , HJM1 , HM7 , HM17 , HM4 , HM22 , HM23 , HM24 , HM26 , HM2 , HM16 , HM32 , HM13 , HM47 , HM11 , HM14 , HM21 , HM34 , HM50 , HB38 , HB47 , HB63 , HB64 , HB127 , HB165 , HB184 , HB200 , HM20 , HM51

Transcript Highlights:

• Lauren Hogan, director of external affairs, Kentucky Associated General Contractors of Kentucky.
• of career and technical education courses, technical education in general, and technical careers.
• Um, I'm speaking on behalf of over 525 Associated General Contractors of Kentucky members.
• Uh, it is estimated that this region around these two counties generate 300 of this uh most of these
• </c><00:16:20.720><c> 300</c><00:16:21.680><c> of</c><00:16:21.920><c> this</c> Two counties generate

Summary: The House Budget Subcommittee on Primary and Secondary Education and Workforce Development met without a quorum and heard presentations on several workforce and school-safety funding requests. The first item was a proposal for a school mapping data program, presented by Rep. Steve Bratcher with law enforcement and mapping partners. They said the plan would move money to the 911 system so school maps could be embedded there and kept current for all schools, public and private, to improve response times and officer, student, and teacher safety. The request was described as a $10 million one-time appropriation, with an estimate that the work could be completed in about a year. The committee then heard testimony on the Be Proud Initiative, a mobile workshop program aimed at exposing students age 13 and up to skilled trades and related education and career opportunities. Speakers from the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, MI2, the Kentucky Treasury, and the Associated General Contractors said the program would improve perceptions of manufacturing, construction, and metals careers, connect students to training and employers, and help build the workforce pipeline. They said private industry would contribute $1 million in FY 2026-2027 before state funds are released, and requested $3 million in state funding in FY 2027-2028 contingent on that match. A Treasury official said handling the funds through the Treasury would have minimal impact on the office. Committee members responded favorably, including a comment from Rep. Bojanowski about the value of hands-on learning for students who struggle with test-focused instruction. Speakers also explained that the program includes classroom materials before and after the truck visit and ongoing outreach for students and parents. The final presentation was on an MI2 metals career pathway proposal, which cited economic impact data for Kentucky’s metals industry and asked for a $3 million one-time investment for FY 2027-2028 to pilot a middle- and high-school pathway in Carroll and Logan counties. The proposal would be matched by industry funds and used for curriculum, equipment, dual-credit and apprenticeship connections, student stipends, and parent outreach. The chair closed by noting it was the final scheduled meeting of the session and moved toward adjournment.

Transcript Highlights:

• it would be source of general funds.
• And in would be source of general funds.
• Um, so it basically frees up $30 million of general funds.
• a lot of account program that generates a lot of revenue<01:41:14.880><c> for</c><01:41:15.080><c> Fidelity
• It's kind of a two-step. One, increase general fund revenue.

Summary: The committee first revisited HB 781, the cell phone bill, after previously retaining it. On reconsideration, members moved to OTP the bill, and it passed unanimously. The committee then moved into the budget tracking packet and adopted an amendment to HB 2 to add the same cell phone policy language, also unanimously, and separately reduced HB 1 by $1 million to match the policy change. Members noted the cell phone language had already been stripped of grant funding language in the House version and that the policy and funding pieces were being aligned across the budget bills. The committee then took up a Department of Education technical amendment to HB 2 on charter school grants, which made timing and administrative changes without altering grant amounts, and adopted it unanimously. Members also discussed but held other education-related items, including adequacy grants, pending broader decisions on overall education funding. Another HB 2 item concerning E-911/state police radio communications prompted a longer discussion about whether E-911 surcharge funds were being used for purposes that should instead be general-funded. After debate over whether to leave the current practice in place or split the funding 50/50 between E-911 and general funds, the committee adopted a joint HB 1/HB 2 change to shift the funding source to a 50/50 split and delete the HB 2 language authorizing the prior use; the motion passed 7-0. The committee also discussed but did not act on several lottery-related provisions, including the video lottery terminal amendment, the increase in maximum ticket price from $30 to $50, and related tax split changes, with members planning to hear from the Lottery Commission on Monday. The meeting ended with the committee beginning review of new amendments in the tracking packet, including a Department of Education request related to Public School Infrastructure Commission grant administration, but no action was taken on that item in the portion provided.

Transcript Highlights:

• of generation that are connected behind the meter for customers.
• the cost allocation, as I understand it, 85% of the distribution and transmission and 60% of generation
• the cost allocation, as I understand it, 85% of the distribution and transmission and 60% of generation
• gigawatts of dirty diesel generation statewide.
• And each of those CCAs are the default providers of generation services to the customers and new facilities

Summary: The joint informational hearing of the Assembly Committees on Utilities and Energy and Privacy and Consumer Protection focused on the energy impacts of AI and the rapid growth of data centers in California. Chairs and members emphasized that the state wants to support innovation and data center development, but only under terms that protect ratepayers, preserve reliability, and avoid stranded grid costs. Testimony from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the California Energy Commission, the CPUC, CAISO, PG&E, Silicon Valley Power, and the Data Center Coalition described the scale of projected load growth, the uncertainty in forecasting, and the need for coordinated planning across agencies. Dr. Nate Gleason of Lawrence Livermore said data centers are a major and fast-growing share of electricity demand, with planning challenges driven by short construction timelines for data centers versus long lead times for transmission and generation. He urged stochastic planning, co-optimization of generation, storage, and transmission, and greater use of flexible load and demand response. CEC Director Alicia Gutierrez described the CEC’s bottom-up forecasting approach, based on utility energization requests and load profiles, and said California has over 23,000 megawatts of data center capacity requests in the CAISO footprint. CPUC Deputy Executive Director Luan Tesfai outlined recent actions on energization timelines, flexible service connections, PG&E’s Rule 30 tariff, and the commission’s resource planning and transmission permitting work. CAISO’s Neil Miller stressed that large loads affect transmission planning, interconnection, and reliability standards, and said the agency is preparing additional stakeholder work on technical issues. Utility and industry witnesses said California is already seeing substantial data center interest and is building out infrastructure accordingly. PG&E’s Mike Medeiros said the utility has more than 10 gigawatts of data center interest in its territory, has shifted to cluster studies, and is using flexible interconnection tools such as FlexConnect to speed service while protecting reliability. Silicon Valley Power’s Nico Prokos said data centers account for about 55% of its power use and that the city is investing heavily in transmission and local system upgrades to support projected load growth. He also warned that AI loads may be more variable than traditional cloud loads and that backup generation and air quality constraints complicate curtailment strategies. The Data Center Coalition’s Karabonder argued that data centers are also driving efficiency gains and support critical digital services, while urging better forecasting methods, more transparency, and regular backcasting. Members asked about statutory authority, data availability, flexible load, and whether current forecasts are sufficient for long-lead infrastructure planning. Witnesses said California already has authority to pursue flexible service and rate design, and that the CEC and CPUC have access to utility data, though out-year demand remains highly uncertain. CPUC representatives noted an advanced rate design rulemaking and said the commission is opening additional work on ratepayer impacts. No votes were taken during the informational hearing, and the discussion ended with continued questions about how California should structure planning, pricing, and reliability rules as AI-related load grows.

Transcript Highlights:

• role of the electric generators.
• role of the electric generators.
• role of the electric generators.
• </c><00:48:02.480><c> generating</c> about 27,000 megawatts of generating about 27,000 megawatts of generating
• </c> megawatts of power generation capacity. megawatts of power generation capacity.

Committee: Senate Ways and Means

Transcript Highlights:

• </c><00:02:34.239><c> Minneapolis</c> entire city of Minneapolis entire city of Minneapolis generation
• So utilities are already familiar with generating a REC per megawatt hour of generation that is occurring
• :33.440><c> generation</c><00:42:34.000><c> that</c><00:42:34.240><c> is</c> uh megawatt hour of generation
• c><00:43:21.359><c> clean</c><00:43:21.760><c> or</c> generates a megawatt hour of clean or generates
• of new and existing making use of new and existing distributed<01:15:44.320><c> generation,</c><01:15

Bills: HF2928 , HF2912 , HF2297

Committee: House Energy Finance and Policy

Transcript Highlights:

• of Inspector General uh um p uh office of Inspector General uh within<00:05:23.680><c> mde</c><00:05
• to the Office of the Inspector General.
• </c><00:41:06.280><c> 13</c> Inspector General from all of chapter 13 Inspector General from all of chapter
• ><c> is</c> an office of Inspector General that is an office of Inspector General that is functioning
• and code of ethics, covering the Inspector General, Deputy Inspector General, assistant Inspector General

Bills: HF1 , HF779 , HF1034

Committee: House Education Finance

Transcript Highlights:

• Generally, the policies for ISLITS are use of the system, use of our particular software and the program
• The last part of our rule does require Idaho agencies that utilize AI in the generation of their orders
• Idaho agencies that utilize AI in the generation of their orders that we're ultimately reviewing or hearing
• But, you know, the general public, they're not subject to those sort of, like, directives that might
• their day-to-day lives, it's generally admissible, and there's all kinds of fun exceptions.

Committee: Senate Judiciary and Rules

Transcript Highlights:

• for the coming generations of Quinault people and our extended kin.
• My great, great matriarchs and patriarchs down to my generation have given the vast majority of our lives
• coming generations of Quinault people and our extended kin.
• My great, great matriarchs and patriarchs down to my generation have given the vast majority of our lives
• Shellfish farming is a small, highly regulated industry made up of largely family-run, multi-generational

Summary: The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee heard several Senate bills and a joint memorial, with the chair moving items around to accommodate prime sponsors and public testimony. SB 5838 would add two tribal representatives to the Board of Natural Resources, one from each side of the Cascades, and broaden the nomination pool to include tribes with treaty-ceded lands in Washington. The sponsor and tribal and agency witnesses said the bill would add tribal knowledge and stewardship expertise without changing government-to-government consultation. County and industry witnesses raised concerns about fiduciary duties to trust beneficiaries, the lack of stakeholder consultation, and the effect of expanding the board from one to two tribal seats. Public testimony was mixed, and the committee recorded strong support and opposition on the bill. SB 5816 would add juice grapes to the state Agricultural Marketing and Fair Practices Act, allowing juice grape producers to use the same marketing and negotiation framework already available to pears, sweet corn, and potatoes. The sponsor said the bill would help juice grape growers facing unfair pricing pressure from processors. The committee took limited public testimony and recorded support and opposition before closing the hearing. SJM 8015 urged Congress to ensure federal wildfire response entities remain capable of protecting communities, infrastructure, watersheds, and firefighter health and safety during federal consolidation of wildfire programs. Testimony from environmental groups, forest industry, and union representatives broadly supported the memorial and emphasized rising wildfire risk, smoke impacts, and the need for strong interagency response capacity. The committee also heard HB 2737, which would cap certain shellfish regulatory fees, exempt the shellfish program from full fee recovery, and apply the caps retroactively. The sponsor and shellfish growers said the Department of Health’s fee increases would be unsustainable for small family farms and processors, while DOH explained it was following a full cost-recovery model unless the Legislature provides general fund support. Witnesses described large projected fee increases and potential business closures, and DOH said it had reopened rulemaking to consider smaller operators. Because the bill was heard after cutoff, the chair noted it could not advance, but the committee still took testimony and discussed possible amendments and follow-up information before adjourning.

Transcript Highlights:

• During the core hearing, the Auditor General said that as a part of the special audit into Fontamonte
• Yeah, the Auditor General said that as a part of the special audit into Fontamonte, I don't know if I'm
• Ten weeks of that is the minimum advertising period, so that's just a general overall time frame for
• We have a lot of other users of state trust land, and I think it's a way we can generate additional funds
• In Pinal County, agriculture has been the backbone of our economy for generations.

Committee: House House Natural Resources, Energy & Water Committee of Reference

Summary: The committee first took up House Bill 2150, which continues the State Land Department until July 1, 2030. Members questioned the commissioner extensively about agency procedures, backlog, appraisals, auction practices, privilege claims in the Fontamonte audit, and the Coyotes land transaction. The committee also discussed the Griffin amendment, which required quarterly updates, a public hearing on the department’s strategic plan, changes to conceptual land use plans and five-year disposition plans, and legislative findings. After debate over oversight and accountability, the amendment was adopted and HB 2150 was returned with a do pass recommendation by a 6-4 vote. The committee then considered House Bill 2975, which would suspend the State Land Department’s solar scoring map and require new mining and housing resource maps, with the amendment changing the mapping deadline and requiring the maps to be posted online. Supporters said the bill would improve fairness and maximize trust revenue for schools by avoiding favoritism toward solar; opponents argued the solar map is only a guidance tool and that removing it could reduce transparency and revenue. The department said it was neutral but asked for additional staff or consultant support if the bill passed. The committee adopted the amendment and passed HB 2975 as amended on a 6-4 vote. House Bill 2781 followed, addressing solar plant decommissioning, restoration, financial assurance, insurance, and a remediation fund. The amendment narrowed the bill to decommissioning standards and limited its reach to projects receiving permits after the effective date. Testimony focused on the need to ensure solar sites are restored and that taxpayers are not left with cleanup costs; several speakers cited abandoned or aging energy infrastructure as a cautionary example. The committee adopted the amendment and passed HB 2781 as amended by a 6-4 vote. Finally, the committee began House Bill 2267, which would classify certain utility-scale wind or solar projects within four miles of residential property as a public nuisance, with exceptions and grandfathering for existing projects. The sponsor argued the bill responds to concerns about large renewable projects near homes and property value impacts, while the amendment narrowed the scope to utility-scale wind and solar and excluded rooftop solar and existing projects. The transcript cuts off before any final action on HB 2267.

Transcript Highlights:

• and then the state's ability to accept federal funds generally and some of the related provisions of
• These are the general duties and powers of the council.
• in general, because it is a kind of entity in is a kind of entity in that we don't dictate your FTEs
• Um, so, first of all, those are not general funds.
• generally kind of go up. over time, they generally kind of go up.

Committee: Joint Appropriations

Transcript Highlights:

• one, the faults that we're worried about more, you know, in the general world of AI.
• One of my major concerns with AI in general, not Address it.
• Is it generative? What's happening to my children's data? All of those things.
• Is it generative? What's happening to my children's data? All of those things.
• You see some of the programs that we're currently using that have AI and generative AI.

Committee: Senate Education Pre-K - 12

Summary: The Senate Committee on Education Pre-K through 12 met to hear a panel discussion on artificial intelligence in K-12 education. Dr. Maya Israel of the University of Florida gave an overview of AI literacy, the benefits of AI for personalized learning and teacher support, and the risks involving data privacy, overreliance, hallucinations, and misuse. She described the Florida K-12 AI Task Force, which published statewide guidance in March and is now providing professional development, case studies, surveys, and resources for teachers and families. She also noted that teacher preparation programs and microcredentials are being developed, but there is not yet a statewide baseline standard for teacher AI training. Superintendents Van Ayers of Hillsborough County and Kevin Hendrick of Pinellas County described district policies and implementation efforts. Hillsborough adopted an AI governance policy, created an implementation guide, and set rules barring generative AI use for students in pre-K through 7th grade while allowing limited, teacher-approved use for older students with district-vetted tools. Pinellas emphasized digital responsibility, parent transparency, data-use agreements, and a governance process for approving tools. Both districts said AI is being used for lesson planning, tutoring, reading-level adjustments, scheduling, and other administrative tasks, but they do not yet have reliable evidence that AI is improving academic performance. They also discussed teacher training, stipends, and certification efforts, including partnerships with universities and vendors such as Microsoft, Google, Magic School, and Gemini. Drew Allen of FSU Inspire offered an industry-focused perspective, arguing that AI is not new but that education must adapt more quickly to industry needs. He described Inspire’s workforce and research mission, its AI and robotics training for teachers, and the need to build teacher comfort and confidence through incentives and applied training. Committee members raised concerns about student dependence on AI, academic integrity, mental health, moral decision-making, data privacy, and whether schools should return to more paper-based testing. The panel generally agreed that AI should be used with strong guardrails, human oversight, and a balance between technology use and traditional learning. No legislation was considered, and the meeting ended with a motion to adjourn, which was adopted without objection.

Transcript Highlights:

• importance of guns have played in the history of America.
• He got rid of a lot of the administrative positions at top.
• Well, there is one general fund reduction in here of $14,600, so that makes a general fund reduction
• Question for the good gentleman from 24: Did any of these funds move from the general fund into dedicated
• The House at 16th Ward of Business, General 22. Mr. Speaker, I move to the House.

Transcript Highlights:

• credit instead of tying up the general fund, but having access to that full... ...get a line of credit
• general fund and $14 million of federal... ...that there's $14 million of general fund and $14 million
• So we had a reduction of $1.1 million in general funds and $1.2 million in federal funds.
• General funds of $13.5 million.
• We took it out of the ongoing funds for $4 million in general funds and just shy of $1.5 million in other

Bills: SB2015

Committee: Senate Appropriations - Human Resources Division

Summary: The Senate Appropriations Human Resources Division met to finalize changes to the human services budget bill and related amendments. Members discussed several items, including a proposed $5 million appropriation for the Altru Hospital project to address inflationary costs, with the rest of the funding question left for conference committee. They also agreed to keep the 10-year operating requirement language for the project and remove a matching-funds provision that was no longer needed. The committee spent considerable time on the OASIS child welfare IT system. Donna Auckland explained that the project is still in the RFP stage, with vendor selection and contract negotiation likely taking months, and that the system will require 50-50 federal matching authority. Based on that testimony, the committee agreed to reduce the general fund amount from $14 million to $6 million and use a line of credit for the remaining authority, while preserving the federal match authority so the contract can be signed and the project can proceed. Members also approved a technical fix to add governor’s designee language for the Children’s Cabinet, which had been missed in another bill already on the governor’s desk. Keith reviewed updated long sheets showing additional budget adjustments, including provider inflation changes, a $50,000 Family Voices grant, reductions to CARES Act COVID funds, and moving the $5-per-day basic care rate increase from ongoing to one-time funding. No formal votes were recorded in the transcript, and the committee adjourned with plans to reconvene Monday if the final bill version was ready.

Transcript Highlights:

• Supported with $742 million General Fund, a slight increase in our General Fund of 2%, and an overall
• in the form of reversions to various General Fund appropriations.
• Lastly, as part of the IST solutions, general fund solutions.
• Last, DSH proposes a reversion of $26.2 million General Fund and a new appropriation of $34.4 million
• How much of that is general fund money, and how much of that is federal match?

Transcript Highlights:

• If the $10 million General Fund isn't there to repay that, some of those fees that were proposed will
• The proposal requests a reappropriation of $883,000 of General Fund, which was previously appropriated
• of workers and a larger population in general.
• Next up, we're going to go to issue area number four with the Department of General Services.
• Heather Carlson, Department of General Services. Old habit. Department of General Services.

Transcript Highlights:

• They are generating over 160% to 170% of their operational costs.
• And that's, again, value capture in terms of revenue generation.
• Members of the committee, my name is Ben Belknap. I'm the Inspector General of High-Speed Rail.
• , and part of the whole focus of that, and that we have an Inspector General, is we want to know what's
• , and part of the whole focus of that, and that we have an Inspector General, is we want to know what's

Committee: Senate Transportation