In its first major order of business, the Arizona Legislature tackled the opioid epidemic by passing the so-called Opioid Epidemic act in a special session.
Gov. Doug Ducey signed the bipartisan legislation Friday. He initiated the special session to take up the measure on Monday.
Daniel Derksen oversees the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health, which just received a $2 million federal grant to reduce opioid deaths. He told Lorraine Rivera how new legislation begins to address the crisis.
Congress began the week passing a continued resolution to end the partial government shutdown that spanned the weekend. New funding is expected to run out by Feb. 8.
It is one of three stopgap measures enacted since September 2017 in lieu of a spending bill that provides funding for the entire fiscal year. H. Brinton Milward heads the UA School of Government and Public Policy and offered insight into the increasing use of these short-term solutions.
A program that allowed an estimated 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador to live in the U.S. legally will end next year. This month, the Trump administration chose not to extend the Temporary Protected Status granted to Salvadorans by the federal government after earthquakes devastated the country in 2001.
About 1,800 Salvadorans live in Arizona with TPS. That includes Juan Carlos Pineda, who left his home country nearly 20 years ago and has two children in Tucson. They are at the top of his mind as he decides his next move.
The same funding measure that keeps the government running for a few more weeks also produced a long-term solution to the Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP. The resolution reauthorized CHIP for another six years after funds expired last September. Christopher Conover explains what that means for health care providers in Tucson, and another health program still in need of federal funding.
Funding lapses on Capitol Hill did not stop NAFTA renegotiations in Montreal this week. Discussions there will help determine the future of hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of trade between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Lorraine Rivera got an inside look at how NAFTA gets enforced at Arizona's busiest ports of entry in Nogales.
Leaders in Arizona remain optimistic about a new NAFTA deal, and in recent years they've made inroads with officials in Sonora and Mexico City. Juan Ciscomani is senior adviser for regional and international affairs for Ducey. He told Lorraine Rivera how those gains are playing out in Arizona.
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