Key Points

• Gov. Katie Hobbs is not signing any legislation until she gets a bipartisan DDD bill.

• House Democrats joined Hobbs in protest by voting against all bills introduced April 17

• The House Speaker said the moratorium is a “tantrum,” and a political game

Gov. Katie Hobbs will not sign any bills until the Legislature advances a more bipartisan emergency funding bill for the Division of Developmental Disabilities. 

The governor announced on the morning of April 17 that she is placing a moratorium on any bill transmitted to her after the announcement was made until she gets a version of House Bill 2945 that she can agree with. 

The bill would provide $122 million of emergency funding for DDD, which needs the funds before April ends. 

“While they (Republicans) leverage a crisis of their own creation to engage in political warfare, Arizonans with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other disabilities are the ones harmed by their partisan attacks,” Hobbs wrote in a press release. “That’s unacceptable to me, and after meeting with families dependent on these critical services, I know it’s unacceptable to the nearly 60,000 Arizonans who rely on the Division of Developmental Disabilities to live their lives with independence and dignity. Their introduced proposal is unserious and a complete nonstarter.”

House Democrats also joined Hobbs in a protest demonstration by voting against every bill heard in the House on the day of her announcement. House Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos, D-Laveen, said he’s hopeful a bipartisan agreement on the measure can be reached soon.

“I think there’s a path. I hope there’s a path, but we’re open to it. Democrats are fully open to it,” he said. “It’s Republican leadership that’s blocking this.”

House Speaker Steve Montenegro, R-Goodyear, called the moratorium “political blackmail.”

“She created this crisis by foolishly expanding the DDD program without legislative approval or funding in place, and now she’s throwing a tantrum because the Legislature is doing the responsible thing: funding services while putting guardrails in place to keep the program from collapsing,” Montenegro said in a statement. 

House Republicans also took issue with their Democrat colleagues’ demonstration. Rep. Lorena Austin, D-Mesa, said the protest is meant to be disruptive since there’s not many actions a minority party can take and bills can be introduced for a vote. 

“We need to be better at this and the way I see it right now, if we are voting on one bill because of an unrelated bill, we’re failing our people,” said Rep. Nick Kupper, R-Surprise.