House may vote to block many virus suits
The Arizona House of Representatives is reconvening this week for the first time in nearly two months as legislators propose shielding businesses and other institutions from lawsuits in some circumstances if employees or customers contract COVID-19.
Arizona’s annual legislative session has been in limbo since late March, when lawmakers approved a budget along with relief measures and adjourned temporarily amid mounting concerns about the spread of COVID-19.
But Gov. Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order expired late Friday and some legislative leaders said they want to get back to the Capitol to address the pandemic and a range of other issues.
House Speaker Rusty Bowers, RMesa, rolled out a full schedule for the chamber on Monday, starting with a Rules Committee hearing and other committees in the coming days, with plans to convene on the floor Tuesday afternoon.
House Majority Leader Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said the House will consider a limited number of bills — about onefourth of the legislation that remained in March — and adjourn at the end of the week.
“Top priority is passing a liability bill to help open things up and get people back to work,” Petersen said in a text message on Monday.
Proponents argue protecting businesses and other institutions from legal liability is crucial for businesses that might be hesitant to call workers back on the job or open their doors to customers.
In a letter to lawmakers last month, Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Glenn Hamer did not endorse any particular bill but said that legal liability is one of the largest areas of concern for businesses across the state. He applauded an executive order from Ducey that granted some liability protections to health care facilities and nursing homes in dealing with the pandemic.
“Arizona needs to continue to address a range of liability issues that will create obstacles for businesses and further hurt our economic recovery,” Hamer wrote.
One draft bill would eliminate liability for businesses or other establishments if anyone contracts COVID-19 on their premises, with an exception for instances of gross negligence.
The draft measure also would reduce the penalty for violating any of the governor’s executive orders, lowering it from a misdemeanor to a civil penalty. While the stay at home order has expired, the state is under an executive order that calls on businesses to adopt federal and state recommendations health guidelines for employees and customers. The extent to which it can be enforced at all is unclear.
Meanwhile, many Democrats are wary that liability protections for businesses might shield companies that cut corners on safety.
“Our priority is to protect the public and to protect workers. Employers are very important to us, too, but we’re not just going to pass legislation we’re not sure about,” said House Minority Leader Charlene Fernandez, D-Yuma, adding that Democrats were not consulted on the proposals.
It is unclear how the Senate might proceed.
That chamber met May 8 and voted, despite opposition from some Republicans, to tell the House that it was ready to end the session. The Senate left open the possibility, however, of returning to take up other legislation if the House could agree on priority bills.
The Legislature already has passed a basic budget for the state government to continue functioning into the new budget year, which begins July 1. Legislative leaders have proposed ending the session altogether and awaiting more data on the state’s financial condition before returning during the summer to address an anticipated budget shortfall.
Otherwise, some have argued, there is not much legislators can do — no programs or tax cuts they can pass — without a better idea of how much money Arizona’s government will have left after the pandemic has taken the worst of its economic toll.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are calling for a special session to focus on public health and relief measures as well as to address the Department of Economic Security, which has delayed in issuing full unemployment benefits to some workers amid a deluge of claims.
Many Republican lawmakers have pushed back against the idea of ending the current session, which would amount to tossing piles of legislation unrelated to the coronavirus into the trash. That prospect is all the less appealing heading into an election in which Democrats are aiming to win control of the House. If they succeed, it likely would doom many of the priorities of conservative legislators for the immediate future.
Some Republican lawmakers who opposed Ducey’s stay-at-home order and other measures, such as a moratorium on evictions, also have sought to pass a concurrent resolution that would end the state of emergency and roll back the governor’s powers.
The lack of consensus on how to proceed with the session has prompted a few false starts, with Bowers announcing a time for the chamber to reconvene only to scrap the plans.
Which bills the House considers this week seemed yet to be entirely determined by Monday night, too. The House Elections Committee had planned to meet Tuesday morning to take up a proposed ballot measure that would impose new rules for the redistricting process, with the effect of breaking up the only legislative district in the state where a majority of residents are Native American. The district, which includes much of the Navajo Nation, has also been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus. By Monday evening, plans for the hearing were canceled.
While lawmakers are returning to the Capitol this week, business is not necessarily returning to normal. Legislators will still have the option of voting remotely through a video conferencing service instead of on the House floor.
“Top priority is passing a liability bill to help open things up and get people back to work.”
Warren Petersen House majority leader, R-Gilbert