The Feds Give A Deadline: Fix The 19-Year Drought

. . . and how does the Arizona State Capitol react?
Last-Minute Cramming Sessions and Way-Too-Late On-The-Job Learning.
That's one way that can set our lawmakers on-fire:
The Threat of Fed Intervention

As Drought Deadline Looms, Arizona Lawmakers Take Water 101

Elizabeth Whitman, Joseph Flaherty | 14 Jan 2019 | 7:00am            

Arizona legislators and staff are attending closed-door primers on water policy in advance of a critical January 31 federal deadline for the state to approve the Drought Contingency Plan.

The first of three meetings occurred on Friday afternoon and lasted two and a half hours. The session was led by Central Arizona Project general manager Ted Cooke and Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke. 

Image 'borrowed' from Phoenix New Times

Senate staff said that the sessions were closed to the media and the public so that legislators and their staff could feel comfortable learning the basics of water policy away from public scrutiny. They were also trying to prevent stakeholders from swaying votes before legislation has even been drafted.
“We’re not trying to exclude anyone,” Philipsen said, outside of the meeting.
We’ll continue to be open about this whole process. . . "
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Because of the rapidly approaching federal deadline, signing off on the Drought Contingency Plan is at the forefront of the legislative agenda when lawmakers convene for the new session that starts today.
According to his office, the Drought Contingency Plan is a top priority of Arizona Governor Doug Ducey during the 54th Legislature, and he devoted significant time to the issue during his January 7 inaugural speech. Ducey is expected to address the drought planning again during his State of the State speech today.
Legislators will have just under three weeks to review and approve an extremely complex plan.

Within Arizona, drought negotiations have amounted to a fierce tug of war between cities, tribes, farmers and ranchers, developers, and other groups over who will give up some of their supply of Colorado River water, and at what price.

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