Government Affairs Department

The government affairs department is a three-pronged department that oversees the relationship between Arizona State University and the state of Arizona at the state and local level. The director of government affairs is responsible for expanding and maintaining the universities presence at the state Capitol. Here myself and Government Affairs interns lobby Legislators, attend committee hearings, and bring issues that are most important to students to the Capitol. The second department, ABOR Liaison, is overseen by Faryal Mustaq; as ABOR liaison Faryal tracks and attends all ABOR meetings. City of Tempe Liaison attends Tempe City council meetings and facilitates the relationship between the university and the city of Tempe.

Current Update

“This week the Government Affairs team has been researching topics that involve higher education. We are proud to announce that the Governor signed HB 2169 into law. This law protects students from wrongful fee collection from third party organizations. This is a big win for the students as we continue to save the most money to attain the highest education.

We are happy to congratulate the Davis Ticket for winning the vote to become the next executive in USG office. As a department, Government Affairs looks forward to transition our work for the future student leaders appointed to USG staff.”
-Christopher Mendenoza, Director, Government Affairs
Previous Updates

Week of April 1st, 2013

“The Government Affairs Team is proud to announce that House Bill 2169 has passed through both the Arizona House of Representatives and the Arizona Senate. The Bill, which protects students from wrongful fee collection. We now must await for Governor Brewer to decide to sign the Bill into law or veto. This is the last step in the process which this administrations’s policy department has been effectively working on. The experience and relationships from this bill has established credibility for Arizona Students to continue working with the Legislature in the future to come.

Our next task as a department will be preparing transition documents that will aid the next administration in preparing for the next school year.
As it is an election week for the next Executives and Senators for Undergraduate Student Government, we encourage all students to vote at: asu.edu/votenow. “

Week of March 25th, 2013

“The Government Affairs Department has been busy at work with the current open session of the Arizona State Legislation as well as the United States Legislation. We have been diligently fighting to preserve the rights for Arizona State University Students.
A team from Undergraduate Student Government has been working alongside Representatives and Senators at the Arizona Capitol to assure that students of ASU are not charged fees that they do not agree with, as well as causes they do not choose to support. Our work has not gone unnoticed as we work to preserve the voice of students who do not want to be overcharged. We have found great results on HB 2169 passing through the House to where it currently waits to be heard on Senate floor. Our team has worked hard to achieve our goal to establish long lasting relationships with members of the House of Representatives and Senate.
The executive team-Mark Naufel, Jordan Tygh, Rob WIley, and Destry Feilds-had a successful trip to Washington D.C. At our nation’s capitol, our execs met with members of our federal government to discuss implications federal bans may have on a state school. Their message was strong as they represented the nation’s largest student body. It is our hope that this visit to Washington will be the beginnings to establishing a voice of the students.
With USG Elections approaching, April 3 & 4, it is encouraged for students to vote on who will represent them in the upcoming academic year. Information for all tickets, for all campuses, can be found at: http://asuelections.com.”

Week of March 4th, 2013

“The Government Affairs Department will be hosting an event to celebrate patriotism this Wednesday,  February 13, 2013. Be sure to come out the MU stage Wednesday afternoon to tell us “Why I love the USA?” We will have the opportunity to register students for Dance Marathon that will be on February 15th.

The team is working hard revising current legislation at the city and state level that has effect to the Student Body of Arizona State University. We are researching into a proposed plan, authored by a Tempe Councilman, that could have harm to locations that students currently reside in.”

Week of February 4th, 2013

“The Government Affairs Department is continuing to keep the best interest of the ASU Undergraduate Student Body in mind as we prepare our talking points for our lobbying team.

We hav began organizing our bio pages for the current legislatures into an electronic filing system. This will streamline how we access the information we will need by making the information available electronically.
February 13th marks are first event of this spring semester. At this event we will promote Dance Marathon, benefiting Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Dance Marathon will be on February 15th.”

Week of January 28th, 2013

“The Government Affair Department has spent this week continuing our efforts to build bios for the members of the Arizona Legislature. The importance of these bios are to be able to build knowledge of the legislatures we intend to lobby.

We have been discussing and strategizing how to preserve the best interests of our student body on the subject of fee collections for organization with an agenda that not all student may agree with.
Plans for our February 13th event outside of the MU are continuing. We intend to have interaction with traffic of the MU to hear “Why do you love the USA?” so get to thinking..”

Week of January 21st, 2013

“The Government Affairs Department has begun the semester strong.

Gov’t Affairs team has put our focus on advocating funding from the Arizona State Legislature in the following aspects:
-disparity funding to
-performance based funding
-renovation funding
- learning technology
The intern team is currently working diligently preparing bios for members of the Arizona State Congress and House of representatives.
In addition to our efforts in the legislature, the Gov’t Department is working hard to plan events to continues ASU’s long standing effort to civically engage our student body and local residents. There are plan to have an event partnered with the Civic Engagement department on February 13th for those traveling by the Memorial Union.”

Final 2012 Update

We have been working hard along side the Civic Engagement Department and Policy staff this week to promote student turnout in the elections. If you have not already cast your vote, please make sure to VOTE this Tuesday, November 6th, at your appropriate polling location. Follow the link below for more information on polling locations in Arizona: https://voter.azsos.gov/VoterView/PollingPlaceSearch.do.

The Government Affairs Department will continue to work on gearing up for the legislative season as we research tax free text books and other platform initiatives this upcoming week. Please send any and all initiatives that you would like to see addressed at the capitol by your student government to lfiacco@asu.edu, or feel free to stop by the USG Policy cubicle located on the third floor of the Memorial Union.”
-Leah Fiacco, Director, Government Affairs

Week of October 29th, 2012

“This week, the Government Affairs Department will begin to research the tax free textbooks platform initiative. We are excited to start this initiative and hope to begin drafting legislation by the end of the semester.

We will also be assisting the Civic Engagement Department in handing out VOTE cards to students around campus to encourage student participation in this election season. Don’t forget to take advantage of the Early Voting location in the Palo Verde West Hub; free parking is provided in the Fulton Center for up to an hour.”

Week of October 22nd, 2012

“The Government Affairs Department has been continuously working with USG’s Civic Engagement Department to register voters before the voter registration deadline on October 9. If you are not a registered voter within Tempe, Arizona and would like to become one, please visit https://servicearizona.com/webapp/evoter/selectLanguage before 11:59 pm on October 9.

We have also officially confirmed the Open Forum with Kyrsten Sinema, District 9 democratic congressional candidate, on October 25th. For more information on the event, please check the USG Facebook page.”

Week of October 1st, 2012

This week Kyrsten Sinema, District 9 democratic congressional candidate, agreed to participate in an open forum on the ASU Tempe Campus. Our department is currently working on dates with Vernon Parker, District 9 republican congressional candidate, for an open forum as well. Check back this week for updates on the USG Facebook page for dates and times of these forums.

Week of September 10th, 2012

This week the Government Affairs Department will be working in collaboration with policy staff to put on a voter registration event that brings local congressional candidates to the ASU Tempe Campus. Over the next week the Policy Department will be reaching out to politically affiliated clubs on campus and organizations within the community to garner support for the event. Our department also hopes to partner with the School of Political Science and Global Studies to put on an informative candidate forum to encourage student voter registration and participation within the Tempe community. The tentative date for this forum event is October 1. The event will act as USG’s last push for voter registration before the October 8 deadline. If you or your organization are interested in helping with the event or need more information please contact Leah Fiacco, Government Affairs Director, at lfiacco@asu.edu.

Week of September 3rd, 2012

Last week, ASA held their first Legislative Call of the year to discuss ABOR’s recent attempts to do away with the “call to the audience” portion of their meetings. The call to the audience is an extremely important portion of the ABOR meeting agenda. This allotted time allows students to voice concerns or issues they feel need to be adressed by the Regents. Our department will be working hard to make sure the call to the audience remains intact. We are currently working to set up meetings with Regents before the September 27th meeting, when the issue will be heard. The USG Policy Department is also discussing a call-in option for students so that their concerns on the issue can easily be expressed to the Regents.