Legislature To Hear AHCCCS & Unemployment Insurance Bills Today
The House and Senate are hearing identical bills today in their respective Commerce Committees dealing with AHCCCS eligibility and Unemployment Insurance.
HB2631 (eligibility determination; AHCCCS) fixes a problem with last year’s Democratic budget that changed the AHCCCS requirement of re-applying every six months instead of the annual application requirement.
Federal stimulus dollars are contingent upon compliance with a prohibition of reducing the maintenance of effort. The “stimulus” legislation required all modifications to have been made by July 1, 2008. Since the modification did not take affect until September 26, 2008 the Legislature is now required to fix it.
HB2632 (unemployment insurance; benefits) extends the length of unemployment benefits with no programmatic changes. When the federal money is no longer available, the state will not have to continue the extension.
If the bills pass out of Commerce Committee, they will go to Caucus tomorrow and more than likely onto the Committee of the Whole (COW) and Third Read on Thursday. This means both bills could go up to Governor Brewer’s desk as early as Thursday.
Both bills have an emergency clause meaning they have to pass with a two-thirds majority so the bills need 41 votes in the House and 21 votes in the Senate.
HB2631 (eligibility determination; AHCCCS) fixes a problem with last year’s Democratic budget that changed the AHCCCS requirement of re-applying every six months instead of the annual application requirement.
Federal stimulus dollars are contingent upon compliance with a prohibition of reducing the maintenance of effort. The “stimulus” legislation required all modifications to have been made by July 1, 2008. Since the modification did not take affect until September 26, 2008 the Legislature is now required to fix it.
HB2632 (unemployment insurance; benefits) extends the length of unemployment benefits with no programmatic changes. When the federal money is no longer available, the state will not have to continue the extension.
If the bills pass out of Commerce Committee, they will go to Caucus tomorrow and more than likely onto the Committee of the Whole (COW) and Third Read on Thursday. This means both bills could go up to Governor Brewer’s desk as early as Thursday.
Both bills have an emergency clause meaning they have to pass with a two-thirds majority so the bills need 41 votes in the House and 21 votes in the Senate.