Editor's note: This article was updated at 3:40pm on April 24, 2025, after Gov. Katie Hobbs' announced her approval of the bill. Key points: The Legislature passed a funding bill for the Division of Developmental Disabilities with bipartisan supermajorities Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the bill Women leaders of both House majority and minority caucuses were key negotiators With less than a week to spare before the Division of Developmental Disabilities runs out of money, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bipartisan emergency funding measure that covers the $122 million shortfall the program is facing. DDD will run out of money on May 1 without the supplemental funding bill and lawmakers have argued for weeks about how to provide it to ensure the program can support the 60,000 people that use DDD services. The House and Senate both passed the supplemental House Bill 2945 with supermajorities, but the outcome of the bill was unclear when House representatives first took the floor on April 23 after Gov. Katie Hobbs had vowed to veto a previous version of the bill that Senate Republicans passed earlier in the day on party lines.  It could not have been done without the two key House leaders of each caucus, House Majority Whip Julie Willoughby, R-Chandler; and Assistant Minority Leader Nancy Gutierrez, D-Tucson.  House Republicans were divided on the earlier Senate measure, and when it became clear they didn’t have enough votes to align the measure with the Senate changes or to get the bill out of the chamber with no Democrats supporting it, House leaders immediately went into recess.  Gutierrez said on April 24 that she and Willoughby met after the House recessed. Both started working to find consensus on the bill within their own ranks and made concessions to ensure the funding bill would pass and be signed by the governor.  “It was two women who did not allow ego to get in the way of what was right,” Gutierrez said. About three hours later at 7:30 p.m., the House resumed discussion of the bill with a bipartisan agreement and the measure passed 48-11.  “I wish it could have worked out a little differently from the way I thought, but here we are with a supermajority on this board, enacting this legislation with an emergency to get these resources to families,” said Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix. House Republicans also expressed appreciation to Willoughby for her work on the issue. Willoughby had earlier negotiated a bipartisan amendment to the bill when it was heard in the House Appropriations Committee. However, the committee chairman, Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria, added three Republicans to the committee, which prevented the amendment from being included in the bill. Three Republicans joined Democrats in supporting Willoughby’s amendment.  One of the Republicans who supported Willoughby’s amendment was her seatmate, Rep. Jeff Weninger, R-Chandler, who thanked Willoughby for her effort on the issue.  “Representative Willoughby’s courage to stick to her guns in committee was an inspiration to me, and I think it got us to where we are today,” Weninger said. Hobbs expressed support for the bipartisan bill shortly after it passed the House the night of April 23. “After months of confusion and uncertainty for countless families, tonight we took an important first step towards delivering critical funding to continue vital services for Arizonans with Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities,” Hobbs said in a news release. “I am grateful to see House members on both sides of the aisle come together to advance common sense proposals. This deal ensures critical services for disabled Arizonans will continue, delivers reasonable guardrails for the Parents as Paid Caregivers program, and protects funding to respond to Arizonans’ housing needs.” One of the main concerns from Democrats and the governor on the earlier version of the bill was that it proposed taking $38 million from the Housing Trust Fund to help cover the DDD shortfall.  The Housing Trust Fund has helped Arizonans find affordable housing since 1988 and Hobbs warned using money from the fund could lead to litigation against the state since trust fund money has already been awarded to developers and ongoing construction projects. Instead, lawmakers are now covering the shortfall entirely from the Prescription Drug Rebate Fund, which Republicans and Democrats say has more than $300 million to fill DDD's funding gap.  Republicans also initially proposed reducing the maximum weekly hours paid to parents enrolled in Parents as Paid Caregivers to 20 hours per child, but Democrats and members of the DDD community argued that wasn’t sufficient for families. The measure now allows a 40-hour weekly cap per child, with guardrails to ensure payments for the program go to parents who are actively caring for their children at home. It also establishes an electronic visit verification system from the Department of Economic Security and only allows parents to provide attendant care between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. “We heard from families, providers, and budget experts, and we acted to protect essential services and ensure the program’s long-term stability. This is a win for Arizonans and a step toward greater accountability in how public dollars are spent,” House Speaker Steve Montenegro, R-Goodyear, said in a news release.  Republicans also got language in the bill that provides $355,000 to the Auditor General’s Office to conduct a special audit of the Parents as Paid Caregivers program by Aug. 1, 2026. Many GOP lawmakers have expressed concern with the rapid enrollment growth of the program that launched during the Covid pandemic. “This has not been easy, but we will help save lives,” Livingston said. “One of my hopes is the tough lessons that we’ve learned going through this bill, we can directly apply next week and start working on the budget and getting out of here before Memorial Day.” The Senate later passed the bill 28-1 on April 24, and Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix, also said she hopes lawmakers have learned lessons from the negotiations and “shameful antics” of HB2945.  “Let the women take care of this,” Gutierrez said. “I hope that’s what their caucus has learned.”