Legislative Update: ASU’s plans for COVID mitigation

Governor Doug Ducey’s executive order targeting ASU’s plans for COVID mitigation this fall tops our weekly legislative update. ASU released a new policy for the fall semester saying that any student who shows proof of vaccination can go maskless on campus when they return in the fall, but if you are not vaccinated—you must wear a mask and be tested twice a week for COVID. Our guest tonight: Dillon Rosenblatt, from the Arizona Capitol Times.

We started by asking Rosenblatt why the governor might be targeting ASU’s COVID mandate for the fall semester.

ASU’s new vaccine policy is “for those who did not receive the vaccine, or were willing to provide proof of the vaccine, they were going to be required to wear a mask on campus… required to take two COVID tests per week,” Rosenblatt said.

The governor announced that he will be implementing an executive order to ensure that those who are not interested in receiving the vaccine will not be pressured into getting vaccinated or proving their status.

“President Crow said that he wanted to continue following CDC guidelines,” Rosenblatt said. “If you don’t have a vaccine and you’re not wearing a mask, or protecting yourself, social distancing, what have you, you’re not protected.”

“We’re still not out of the woods,” Rosenblatt said.

We then asked him what’s the current status of the budget.

“The budget, we kinda took a back seat under the new special session to kinda get some funding to the wildfires that have been raging down and up in Gila counties,” Rosenblatt said. “The governor vetoed 22 bills a few weeks ago.”

The governor wants to receive a budget prior to continuing with the bills. There are still a couple of hold outs that are still voting against the budget.

“It doe not seem like that will be the final budget this year,” Rosenblatt said.