State agencies up for sunset reviews have faced a rockier road in recent sessions and those hoping to be continued in 2025 are likely to see a similar fate. 

Among the state agencies, boards and commissions set to expire in 2025 are the Department of Housing, the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions, the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council and the Board of Executive Clemency. They are all up for review as Republicans continue to advocate for shorter continuation periods.

Arizona’s sunset review process allows lawmakers to assess the effectiveness of state agencies periodically. When agencies are set to expire, the Auditor General’s Office conducts a review of an agency and publishes a report with findings and recommendations. 

The Legislature then holds committee hearings to discuss the reports and allow the auditor general and agency staff to testify. Lawmakers on those committees then vote on a recommendation to continue, revise, consolidate or terminate that agency.

Traditionally, agencies are continued for up to 10 years. But in recent sessions, lawmakers have debated whether 10 years is too long of a period to allow agencies to operate without regular auditing and oversight.

Some agencies up for review this year will likely face calls for shorter continuation periods given findings from the Auditor General’s Office. In its audit of the Housing Department, the auditor general found that the agency had inadvertently fallen for a scam and gave $2 million to individuals posing as employees of a title company and nonprofit that the department had been working with on affordable housing initiatives.

Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, has led the push for tightening the reins on state entities since he was elected in 2022. He told the Arizona Capitol Times that he plans to continue advocating for two-year continuations in 2025, as he did this year. 

“A responsible government is an accountable government, and the legislature’s primary tool for ensuring executive branch accountability is through the agency audit process,” Hoffman said in  a statement via text. “There is no reasonable justification for giving bloated government bureaucracies, many of which function incompetently at best, eight or ten year continuations whereby they are effectively free from any meaningful legislative oversight.”

Hoffman, who chairs the Senate Government Committee, said in January that all 10 agencies going through his committee in 2024 would receive two-year continuation recommendations. That received pushback from Democrats, who said such a short period of time between audits would place strain on agencies and the Auditor General’s Office.

Will Humble, who served as the director of the Department of Health Services from 2009 to 2015, called the battle over continuation periods a byproduct of “divided government.” He said he is supportive of more frequent audits for agencies and disagrees with Democrats who characterized it as weaponizing the sunset review process.

“Since we’ve been in divided government … the sunset reviews have become a lot more muscular because it’s not Kumbaya anymore like it was back in the Ducey era,” Humble said, referring to former Gov. Doug Ducey’s tenure when Republicans controlled both the Governor’s Office and the Legislature. “I think we can expect agencies to get shorter leashes again this next legislative session … not that the agencies are doing anything worse, but when there’s divided government, it’s going to be a lot more acrimonious.”

Humble said he agrees with Democrats that more resources would need to be allocated to the Auditor General’s Office if agencies are going to go through the sunset review process more frequently. Currently, some agencies complete self-audits due to the lack of resources provided to the auditor general. 

The Governors’ Regulatory Review Council is another agency that could see a contentious continuation process, as Republicans attempted to add more oversight to the council this year through a ballot referral. Proposition 315, which voters rejected in November, would have required legislative approval for state agency rules approved by council that increased regulatory costs by more than $500,000.

The Auditor General’s Office only found minor issues in its review of the Governors’ Regulatory Review Council, and the council’s chair agreed to implement all recommendations from the audit. However, Republicans have been critical of state agencies for rules implemented during the Hobbs administration, signaling the council could get flak for approving them. 

Other entities up for review include the Board of Osteopathic Examiners, the Board of Respiratory Care Examiners, the Board of Behavioral Health Examiners and the School Facilities Oversight Board. Most agencies and boards that went through the review process received minor feedback and agreed to implement recommendations from the Auditor General’s Office without protest.

However, Hoffman hinted that even agencies that are performing well will likely face an uphill battle in 2025 as Republicans in the Legislature look to model their approach off of President-Elect Donald Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

“The American people and the people of Arizona were promised, and voted for, a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) mentality toward government — cut the waste, tighten the belt, eliminate non-essential functions and employees, and far greater accountability,” Hoffman said. “Now it’s time for the Republican majority right here in the Arizona Legislature to deliver on that promise, although I have a sneaking suspicion it won’t just be Democrats lining up to feed at the trough of government lobbyists seeking to subvert the will of the People.”