|| Photo illustration by Jim Small./ Photo by Gage Skidmore (modified) Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
CAITLIN SIEVERS
Arizona Mirror
Senate Republicans say they plan to continue confirming Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ state agency director nominations, just weeks after those confirmations were put on hold in response to an executive order that Republicans said went too far.
But Senate Republicans, Hobbs, and the chairman of the committee have all remained silent about when the Senate Nominations Committee will resume hearings to interview Hobbs’ director nominees.
The Senate Republicans quietly announced that they would continue to confirm “qualified director nominees” as the fourth point in a legislative session update emailed to members of the media on Monday.
The three Republicans on the Senate Nominations Committee — Committee Chairman Jake Hoffman, T.J. Shope and Sine Kerr — announced June 26 that they would halt all nomination hearings in response to Hobbs’ executive order that effectively bars county attorneys from prosecuting doctors for violating Arizona abortion laws. The order instead puts those cases in the hands of Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who is staunchly pro-choice.
The Republican members of the committee sent Hobbs a letter saying that they wouldn’t resume hearings until the administration met with them to discuss what they called her abuse of power.
Hobbs instead met with Sen. President Warren Peterson on Friday, according to the Senate Republicans, who said that the meeting went well.
