A recent Applied Analysis study finds that Cox Communications has a $5.5 billion economic impact on Arizona each year.  

Cox, the largest family-owned telecommunications provider in the nation, contributes more than $84 million in state and local taxes and franchise fees each year. Additionally, the company and its employees give over $33 million annually  to nonprofits and community programs. 

The company has more than 3,100 employees in Arizona and supports over 11,000 jobs across the state. 

“Upholding the commitment to the communities where we work and live that was made by our founder, Governor James Cox, Cox is proud to have a history of contributing billions of dollars to the Arizona economy through investment and employment,” said Cox Southwest Vice President and Region Manager, Percy Kirk. “We are committed to providing great service and the fastest internet speeds in the state.” 

Pandemic assistance

Last year, Cox launched ConnectAssist, a program for lower-income families to receive discounted modem rental and internet packages, as part of its efforts to create digital equity and ensure all Arizonans are connected to high-speed, reliable internet. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how important connectivity is, as many schools and workplaces moved online. During the pandemic, Cox pledged $60 million to help close the “digital divide”, in addition to offering free and heavily discounted subscriptions for families in need. 

The company operates 43 computer labs across Arizona, as part of a partnership with various nonprofits throughout the state. 

In total, more than 69,000 families with children received assistance from Cox throughout the pandemic.

Rural broadband

The company is also integral to Arizona’s push to fully connect rural and tribal Arizonans with high-speed internet. Over the past couple of years, the state has average of households connected to broadband internet connections, but rural areas continue to lag. 

Gov. Doug Ducey in February announced a $68.1 million investment to expand broadband connectivity along Interstate 40 West from Flagstaff to the California border. 

In March, as part of a $2.7 billion nationwide investment, Cox is bringing high-speed internet and communications infrastructure to the southern Arizona community of Huachuca City and to parts of Sierra Vista.  

Since 2010, Cox has invested $2.7 billion in Arizona’s communications infrastructure and now operates more than 30,000 miles of fiber optic and coaxial infrastructure across the state.

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Monday marked the deadline for candidates running for office in Arizona to submit the required signatures to qualify to appear on the ballot for the August 2 primary election. 

In order to appear on the ballot in Arizona, candidates running for a political party’s nomination must gather at least 0.5% of a race’s eligible voters. Candidates running for statewide office or U.S. Senate must gather the signatures of 0.25% of all Arizona voters.

In lieu of traditional petition sheets, candidates may gather “signatures” online through E-Qual, an online portal managed by the Arizona Secretary of State. This year, E-Qual has faced periodic outages as the software was updated to reflect redistricting.

Arizona does not have run-off elections, allowing candidates to advance to the general election with a plurality of votes.

Candidates who have not submitted enough signatures to qualify to appear on the primary ballot can seek a party’s nomination for an office as a write-in candidate. Write-in candidates seeking party nomination have until June 23 to file to run. The deadline for independent write-in candidates to file to run is September 29.

U.S. Senate

Senator Mark Kelly will be the only Democrat on the ballot. Kelly is seeking re-election to a full six-year term, after finishing the remaining two years of a seat originally won by Sen. John McCain in 2016.

On the Republican side, five candidates qualified for the ballot:

• Mark Brnovich, Arizona Attorney General since 2015.
• Jim Lamon, solar energy executive
• Blake Masters, tech executive
• Michael “Mick” McGuire, former Adjutant General of the Arizona National Guard and Major General in the U.S. Air Force
• Justin Olson, former state legislator and current member of the Arizona Corporation Commission since 2017

Governor

Three candidates will appear on the Democratic primary ballot.

• Katie Hobbs, current secretary of state and former state legislator. Hobbs is her party’s current frontrunner according to polling.
• Aaron Lieberman, former state representative
• Marco Lopez, former mayor of Nogales; former director of the Arizona Department of Commerce, and former chief of staff of U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Six candidates qualified for the Republican primary ballot. With six candidates, a candidate will be able to secure the nomination with as little as 17% of the vote.

• Steve Gaynor, small-business owner and 2018 Republican nominee for secretary of state
• Kari Lake, former television news anchor
• Scott Neely, small-business owner
• Matt Salmon, former U.S. representative, former legislator, and former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party
• Karrin Taylor Robson, former member of the Arizona Board of Regents and an Arizona business leader
• Paola “Z.” Tulliani-Zen, conservative activist

Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, is term limited and cannot run for a third term.

U.S. House of Representatives

Incumbent Rep. David Schweikert is running for reelection in Congressional District 1. Schweikert will appear alongside Republicans Elijah Norton and Josh Barnett on the primary ballot. The district, formerly Congressional District 6, is more Republican after redistricting. Democrats Jevin Hodge, Adam Metzendorf and Ginger Torres are vying for the Democratic nomination.

In Arizona’s new 4th congressional district, a swing district comprising Tempe, west Mesa and parts of Phoenix, six Republicans will be on the primary ballot. The nominee will face incumbent Rep. Greg Stanton.

In Congressional District 6, Republican Juan Ciscomani gathered more than twice as many signatures as other Republicans. The new district represents part of Tucson and the southeast corner of Arizona. The Republican nominee will face off against either Daniel Hernandez, Kirsten Engel or Avery Anderson. Hernandez is a current member of the Arizona House of Representatives and Engel is a former member of both the Arizona Senate and House of Representatives.

Incumbent Reps. Debbie Lesko and Andy Biggs, both Phoenix-area Republicans, will not face a challenger on the ballot from either party.

Secretary of State

Republicans Shawnna Bolick, Mark Finchem, Beau Lane and Michelle Ugenti-Rita have qualified for the ballot. Ugenti-Rita is currently a state senator. Bolick and Finchem are both currently members of the Arizona House of Representatives. Lane is an advertising executive.

For the Democrats, Minority Leader of the Arizona House of Representatives Reginald Bolding and former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes are seeking to succeed Hobbs and have qualified for the ballot.

Attorney General

Democrat Kris Mayes will appear on the ballot in November. Mayes is the former chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission and the only Democrat to qualify for the ballot.

Republicans who have qualified for the ballot are:

• Lacy Cooper, a former assistant U.S. attorney
• Rodney Glassman, an attorney in private practice and a former Tucson city councilmember
• Andrew Gould, former Arizona Supreme Court Justice
• Dawn Grove, general counsel for Karsten Manufacturing
• Abraham “Abe” Hamadeh, former Army captain and a Maricopa County prosecutor
• Tiffany Shedd, former Republican nominee for U.S. House

Treasurer

Current State Treasurer Kimberly Yee is running for re-election and has qualified for the ballot, in addition to state Rep. Jeff Weninger. Financial executive Bob Lettieri also qualified to be on the ballot. 

Current state senator Martin Quezada was the only Democrat to gather enough signatures.

State Senate

There are currently 16 Republicans and 14 Democrats in the Arizona Senate.

Republican David Farnsworth, a former legislator, will face the current speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, Rusty Bowers in Legislative District 10’s Senate primary. District 10 is centered around eastern Mesa. 

Republican state Sen. Nancy Barto and Democratic state Sen. Christine Marsh will likely face each other in Legislative District 4’s general election, as no other candidates qualified for either party’s primary. Legislative District 4 is centered around Paradise Valley and Scottsdale.

Republican state senators Wendy Rogers, who was recently censured by the Senate, and Kelly Townsend both qualified for the primary ballot in Legislative District 7, where the winner of the Republican nomination will face Democrat Kyle Nitschke. Legislative District 7 includes parts Coconino, Gila, Navajo and Pinal counties.

State House

There are currently 31 Republicans and 29 Democrats in the Arizona House of Representatives. Two Representatives are elected in each legislative district.

Six Republicans qualified for the ballot in Legislative District 4. Matt Gress, director of Gov. Ducey’s Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting, submitted by far the most signatures.

Rep. Brenda Barton, Rep. John Fillmore and Rep. David Cook, will all be on the ballot and will face off for the Republican nomination in Legislative District 7.

Maricopa County Attorney

A special election for Maricopa County Attorney will be held this cycle, after Maricopa County Recorder Allister Adel’s resignation. November’s winner will serve until January 1, 2025.

Julie Gunnigle is seeking the Democratic nomination and will be the only Democrat on the primary ballot. Gunnigle was the Democratic nominee in 2020.

Republicans Anni Foster, Gina Godbehere and Rachel Mitchell will all be on the primary ballot.

This article was updated on Apr. 8 by removing a reference and hyperlink to a public opinion poll.

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Against the backdrop of an anticipated increase in cyberattacks from Russia, the Arizona Junior Fellows hosted an expert panel at Arizona State University on Monday on the future of cybersecurity, as part of their Future of Arizona Democracy series. 

The panel was moderated by President-Emerita of the Arizona Board of Regents and former Arizona Treasurer Eileen Klein. The panel consisted of Arizona Department of Homeland Security Director Tim Roemer; Klon Kitchen, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; Brian Elisco, CEO of Abrazo Health and Gregg Davis, president of Global Market Innovators. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the retaliatory sanctions and American and western support for Ukraine has American government and private sector leaders on high alert for attacks originating from Russia or from non-state actors sympathetic to the regime of Vladimir Putin. 

On Monday, the White House urged businesses to implement to improve their cybersecurity.

While the federal government can urge the private sector to improve overall cybersecurity, the government’s ability to help is often limited. Intelligence on cyber threats often cannot be shared with those who do not have a security clearance. Additionally, the government generally is not as familiar with companies’ technology and vulnerabilities as in-house cybersecurity teams.

“The federal government is increasingly a stakeholder in cybersecurity and not the stakeholder in it.” Kitchen said. “For example, Google has done the same if not more than the government for preventing cyber-attacks in Ukraine.”

Kitchen explained that even as cybersecurity becomes more important, it is important that the government does not overreach its authority. 

“We don’t want to just be secure. We want to be secured and free,” he said. “We want to make sure that we maintain the things we’re trying to keep secure and not give them away in the name or security.”

Arizona is one of two states with a Department of Homeland Security. Part of AZDHS’s responsibilities are to ensure the state government remains protected from cyberattacks and helps private sector businesses improve their resilience. 

“There’s not one specific piece of government that can handle this on their own,” Roemer said. “The best way to combat this is through partnerships between the public and private sector.”

Elisco praised Arizona’s approach to cybersecurity. 

“What surprised me the most coming into the state of Arizona was how accessible our government officials really are and how open they are to collaboration,” he said.

However, Elisco added that cyberattacks are not always complicated attacks. 

“Some of the largest cyberattacks in healthcare are some of the simplest emails that look like they were sent internally,” he said.

The panel concluded by discussing various cybersecurity measures that the public can implement: enable two-factor authentication, change passwords, think twice about clicking on links in emails, and adopt an attitude of “see something, say something.”

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Dr. Hillel Newman, the Israeli Consul General in Los Angeles, called Arizona “a special friend of Israel,” in remarks he delivered at an event hosted by the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations last Friday. 

Newman, who leads the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, which is responsible for the Southwest region of the United States, including Arizona, also discussed trade, innovation, the battle against antisemitism and other issues affecting the U.S.-Israel relationship and his country’s ties to Arizona during a conversation with Arizona С��ñֱ��app of Commerce & Industry President and CEO Danny Seiden. 

The event was attended by PCFR members and Phoenix-area elected officials.   

Arizona and Israel both have predominantly desert climates, are on the leading edge of water stewardship innovation and have booming technology and defense sectors. 

Israel is often referred to as the “Startup Nation.” Early stage firms there raised more than $25 billion and more than 30 reached valuations over $1 billion.  

“Arizona is positioned to be the ‘Startup State.’ We can work very closely on cyber issues, defense issues, aerospace, and water technology. There is tremendous potential,” Newman said. 

Arizona in 2019 opened a trade and investment office in Tel Aviv, assisting Arizona and Israeli firms conducting bilateral trade and investment.  

Arizona is set to invest in new water technologies and facilities to guarantee the state’s long-term water security. Desalination, which has been proposed by Ariz. Gov. Doug Ducey, was. The technology has enabled Israel to become a water exporter, despite its largely arid climate. 

Bilateral relationship

“The relations between Israel and the United States are beyond any individuals or any parties,” Newman said. “They are based on fundamental values.” 

Seiden echoed that sentiment in a December op-ed, saying, “Our relationship with Israel goes far beyond business – it’s rooted in firm support for the Jewish state and total opposition to antisemitism.” 

Newman during his visit also met with Ducey and state lawmakers.

Ducey in 2019 signed into law a bill supported by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers that ensured the state would not do business with firms that boycott Israel. As a result, State Treasurer Kimberly Yee last year divested Arizona from bond holdings in Unilever, the corporate parent of Ben & Jerry’s, after the ice cream company announced it would not sell its products in parts of Israel.

“You did more than enact legislation,” Newman said in a speech to the state House of Representatives. “You enforced it. You all showed Ben & Jerry’s that the state of Arizona would not do business with those who seek to boycott Israel.”

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A for Arizona, a group focused on K-12 policy reforms to improve access to a high-quality education, recently that explores the disparities in education funding across Arizona public schools. 

Despite Arizona laws since 1980 requiring that state tax dollars broadly follow students rather than school systems, voter-approved supplementary funding from local property taxes have nonetheless created disparities in education funding between the state’s communities. 

Supplementary school funding from local property taxes varies widely from neighborhood to neighborhood depending on local property values and the number of voter-approved spending increases. 

“Some of the largest funding disparities are between school districts where taxpayers build and improve schools and those districts where the will or wealth to do so does not exist,” the report said. Total funding from local “override elections” approving supplemental funding for schools totaled nearly $700 million.

Rural school districts, such as Lake Havasu Unified School District, only received 63% of the funding per student that Phoenix Union High School District received in fiscal year 2020. Maricopa and Pima counties are the only counties in the state where voters in more than half of districts have approved “override funding.”

Additionally, despite Arizona being on the leading edge of education innovation, Arizona students attending public charter schools often receive less state funding than their peers attending traditional public schools. 

According to A for Arizona, public charter schools in fiscal year 2020 received $1,308 less per student than public school districts, on average.

“Our kids need us now more than ever to create the best conditions for their future, and that requires changing how we fund students and demanding high quality education for all,” said A for Arizona Founder and CEO Emily Anne Gullickson. “Every child in rural, urban, and suburban Arizona deserves an education that sets them up for success.” 

The report recommends non-voter-approved base funding for schools to be standardized among charter and district schools. Base funding for schools is appropriated by the state, however, disparities remain between public charter and public district schools. For example, charter schools receive no funding for facilities, while district schools 

The paper also recommends that the state offer a new opt-in funding formula that accounts for disparities in overall funding between school districts and charter schools and among different school districts in the state. The report recommends that Arizona incorporate results-based funding into the funding formula. Schools would be rewarded for achieving better results by ensuring the money goes directly to the school rather than a governing board. This funding would continue to recognize results at the state’s low-income schools by providing increased tiered funding based economic indicators.

Lastly, the report recommends the state reassess transportation funding and create a more flexible model. Currently, not all funding allocated for transportation is required to fund transportation. Districts with reduced need for transportation funding still receive the same funding they previously received under the “Transportation Revenue Control Limit”, which now totals nearly  $200 million.

 
The state Senate last week to modernize K-12 student transportation and give educational providers greater flexibility in the vehicles in their fleets.

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Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey spoke Friday at Valley Partnership’s February Morning Breakfast for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Ducey and Valley Partnership President and CEO Cheryl Lombard discussed his priorities for this legislative session – the last of his final term as governor – including investments in Arizona water infrastructure and security, the state’s relationship with Mexico and continued development and economic growth.

Arizona Water Authority

Ducey announced that he supports the creation of an Arizona Water Authority, which will be tasked with developing new water sources for the state as western states experience a nearly two-decade drought. He aims for the state to invest $1 billion in the authority, which he describes as a “once-in-a-generation investment.”

As Arizona’s traditional water sources provide less water each year while the state’s population continues to grow, the state will either need to reduce water use or supplement existing water sources.

Ducey has made it apparent that Arizona will continue to seek innovative water solutions rather than implement water cuts and restrictions. “We use less water today than we did in 1957,” Ducey said. Arizona’s current population is nearly seven times larger than it was in 1957.

The Arizona Water Authority will have the power to construct and own water infrastructure, store water, own and sell water, provide loans and grants, engage in public-private partnerships and negotiate agreements. The authority will not directly operate any water infrastructure.

The authority will have a nine-member board comprised of the director of Environmental Quality, director of Administration, director of Water Resources and six members appointed by the governor to serve staggered five-year terms. Only half of the appointed members can be from the same political party.

“Whomever my successor is will have ample opportunity to ensure water remains abundant in this state,” Ducey said.

Lombard of Valley Partnership says her organization supports Ducey’s efforts to shore up the state’s water supplies. 

“Water is the number one issue discussed by the real estate development community in Arizona – from the assured water supply regulations to the Colorado River shortage,” Lombard said. “Our top priority is to enact policies that will promote responsible economic development and maintain our state’s precious resources.” 

Relationship with Sonora

One such opportunity which has garnered lots of attention is desalination. Desalination has successfully been used in the Middle East by Israel and Persian Gulf states, who pioneered the technology. 

Desalination has traditionally been prohibitively expensive, however improvements in the technology have made the proposal more feasible. The proposal would see desalination plants built in Mexico along with either infrastructure to transport water to Arizona or a cross-border water-sharing agreement.

Relations with Sonora remain strong, despite Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich leaving office. 

Ducey and Pavlovich maintained a strong relationship, improving ties between Arizona and Sonora. 

“That relationship [with Mexico] is at an all-time high,” Ducey said. “We wouldn’t be having the discussions that we’re having now on what’s possible with Mexico on desalination, otherwise.”

In November, С��ñֱ��app spoke with Cheryl Lombard about how real estate developers can play a role in Arizona’s long-term water security.

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Live & Learn and Fresh Start Women’s Foundation have been named Bank of America’s 2021 Neighborhood Builders for their efforts to improve women’s personal and financial empowerment.

The highly competitive, invitation-only grant awards $200,000 to local organizations to expand their impact by covering leadership training for the organizations’ leadership. The program is America’s largest investment in nonprofit leadership development.

Since 2003, Bank of America has invested $6.8 million in 36 Phoenix-area nonprofits, through the Neighborhood Builder program. Through the program, Bank of America has invested more than $280 million in over 1,400 nonprofits in 50 communities nationwide.

Bank of America’s 2021 Phoenix-area awardees are both focused on empowering women in generational poverty in bettering their livelihoods and reducing their dependence on government programs.

Live & Learn

Focused on helping women in Maricopa County break the cycle of generational poverty, Live & Learn provides women with a two-year program – individualized to each woman – to give them the stability, career, and self-sufficiency to end their dependence on government assistance. Each year, the program helps 150 women and there are currently over 450 on Live & Learn’s waitlist. 

“Women living in poverty face complicated, systemic barriers to changing their circumstances and giving their children a better future. If we do not offer a viable opportunity for economic mobility, poverty only becomes more entrenched with each generation,” Live & Learn Executive Director Kristin Chatsworth said. “Bank of America’s funding will allow us to add to our staff, empower more women, and increase broader community awareness of the issues.”

Fresh Start Women’s Foundation

Fresh Start Women’s Foundation has been helping women gain the resources, skills, and sustained behavior changes needed to attain and acquire economic independence. 

By giving women economic and social stability, the nonprofit aims to give women the opportunity to pursue an education, which the group sees as crucial to economic mobility. “For many of the women we serve, the chronic stress of poverty day in and day out stifles their ability to effectively pursue education and employment opportunities, a limitation that ultimately leaves them and their children stuck in desperate circumstances,” said Fresh Start CEO and President Kim McWaters.

The organization was the first in Arizona to use Mobility Mentoring with Economic Mobility Pathways to help women disrupt intergenerational poverty.According to a press release, “Fresh Start will use the Neighborhood Builders grant to build capacity and expand their wrap-around services, supporting women on their journey to self-sufficiency, education and career advancement.”

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A for Arizona, an education organization that advocates for policies that increase the ability of Arizona K-12 students to access excellent schools, announced today the awardees of the Arizona Transportation Modernization Grant Program, a first-in-the-nation $20 million initiative to modernize K-12 transportation options and improve access to reliable and safe transportation for students.

The grant program is administered through the A for Arizona Expansion & Innovation Fund and supports locally driven solutions to provide reliable access for more families to the public learning options that best meet each child’s needs.  

“Arizona has a system of public school options envied across the country, but transportation barriers to these quality schools are a reality for far too many Arizona families,” Gov. Doug Ducey. “Arizona kids deserve access to a classroom that meets their needs, and the Arizona Transportation Modernization Grants Program is providing new ways to make this a reality. These solutions will strengthen opportunities for K-12 kids and their families in rural communities and all areas of the state. I thank A for Arizona for their partnership in launching this vital effort.”  

Grant applications were reviewed and assessed by a committee of local and national industry, philanthropic and community leaders. In this first cycle, the committee awarded more than $18 million in awards to fund 24 proposals across Arizona, with 40% of the funds going to proposals representing rural and remote communities.  

Grant awardees will deliver a wide range of school transportation solutions to tackle problems identified at the local level, including providing direct-to-family grants to help assist with transportation needs, high-efficiency vehicles to drive down costs, micro-transit efforts to target key subgroups of students, and more.

include Arizona Autism Charter Schools, which plans to use its $2 million grant to partner with Kid Commute, an organization dedicated to transporting students with special needs, and launch a transportation system that serves high-needs students traveling from all parts of the Valley.

Bowie Unified School District, a small district in rural Cochise County, aims to use its $550 thousand grant to purchase an electric bus with Wi-Fi and the necessary charging supports to dramatically increase efficiency, reduce gas and maintenance costs, and to safely transport students long distances. BUSD believes it can help increase homework completion rates and put the bus to use in non-school hours to get services to needy families.

“The Arizona Transportation Modernization Grants will accelerate the pace at which the Grand Canyon State can move past an antiquated education transportation system and respond to the student-focused needs of the 21st century,” said Emily Anne Gullickson, founder and CEO of A for Arizona. “It is evident by the competitive cycle and number of high-quality proposals that school leaders, entrepreneurs, and community partners have forward-thinking and innovative solutions ready to address our K-12 transportation needs. This first cycle of awardees will serve as a catalyst to tearing down long-standing access barriers and inform playbooks on how others can deliver multiple transit options to better serve every K-12 student.” 

The Arizona Transportation Modernization Grants Program was established in the state budget passed in June by the Legislature. Supported by a coalition of education reform groups representing the education and business communities, the grant program provides resources to improve access to reliable and safe transportation for students who attend a district school through open enrollment or who attend a public charter school.

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Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus on Tuesday received a confirmation hearing by the United States Senate Committee on Finance to be the next commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

Magnus previously served as police chief in Fargo, N.D from 1999 to 2006 before being selected as police chief of Richmond, Calif. In 2016, Magnus was appointed Chief of the Tucson Police Department.

Magnus was nominated by President Joe Biden on April 12, however his confirmation was delayed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the committee chairman.

Wyden told the Washington Post in July that he would not move forward with the confirmation until the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security answered questions on the deployment of federal law enforcement to Portland, Ore. in 2020 to quell civil unrest.

Senators at Tuesday’s hearing expressed concerns about the increase in undocumented border crossings, the treatment of migrants at the southern border, the importation of goods manufactured with forced labor and the enforcement of trade laws. 

Magnus’ confirmation hearing comes as migrant encounters on the southwest border are at a 21-year high.

Wyden, in his opening remarks, said that “CBP not only investigates allegations of forced labor and demands remediation where appropriate, it also enforces the ban on forced labor products entering the country. This is a difficult job, and once again, it requires quick action and lots of communication with businesses, human rights organizations and others.”

Arizona’s two U.S. senators – who do not serve on the Committee on Finance – introduced Magnus at Tuesday’s hearing. 

“Tucson city officials and NGOs have teamed up with the Department of Homeland Security to manage high numbers of asylum seekers and other migrants arriving in Arizona,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D, said. “Chief Magnus’ role in this partnership has shown that he understands the current issues at our border.” 

Sinema added that “CBP needs a commissioner who understands how to thwart organized criminal networks while also allowing for the efficient flow of legitimate trade and travel.”

Sen. Mark Kelly, D, also touted Magnus’ nomination. 

“Arizona shares a 373-mile-long border with Mexico,” he said. “Arizonans know that too often Washington is far removed from this reality. As we continue to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and work to rebuild our economy, it’s critical that our trade and tourism economies recover as well.”

In his opening statement, Magnus stated that “CBP’s modern day responsibilities – facilitating immigration, protecting our nation’s border security, promoting trade and travel and more – are as critical now as they were in the early days following our nation’s founding.” 

Magnus said that, if confirmed, he would work with Congress to protect intellectual property, agriculture, and the products Americans rely on.

“Addressing forced labor would be one of my high priorities,” Magnus said. “Eliminating forced labor is more than a philosophical undertaking, it is a moral imperative. We must give full force to laws that punish this modern-day slavery while simultaneously facilitating trade for the overwhelming majority of companies that do business responsibly.”

When asked by Sen. Robert Mendndez, D-N.J., about how he plans to address future surges in migration, Magnus said that, if confirmed, he would like to build “the strongest possible relations” with his Mexican counterparts and maintain a line of communication, in order to allow Mexico to play a larger role in addressing the current surge in border crossings. 

In response to a question from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Magnus agreed that the Biden administration’s approach to the southern border is serving as a “pull” factor for migrants attempting to cross the southern border.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Magnus would serve as the first Senate-confirmed Commissioner of CBP since Kevin McAleenan was designated Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security in April 2019. 

Magnus would be the first Arizonan to serve as Commissioner of CBP since the agency’s founding in 2003 when the Customs Service was shifted from the Treasury Department into the Department of  Homeland Security. 

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Intel last Friday broke ground on a $20 billion expansion of its facilities in Chandler, Arizona, building two new fabrication plants, or fabs, at its Ocotillo campus. The two new chip factories – which will be known as Fab 52 and Fab 62 – will be operational within three years and will supply semiconductor chips at a time when a global shortage of chips is wreaking havoc on supply chains in nearly all industries, from automobiles to data centers.

Intel’s expansion is the largest private sector investment in Arizona’s history and is expected to create 3,000 jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs.

“Today’s celebration marks an important milestone as we work to boost capacity and meet the incredible demand for semiconductors: the foundational technology for the digitization of everything,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said.

Intel joins the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which in June started construction of a $12 billion semiconductor plant in north Phoenix, its second in the United States. In total, Intel has invested more than $50 billion in Chandler since 1980 and TSMC has indicated that its future Arizona plant could be the first of six plants in the state, as reported by .

There has been so much investment that in March, Forbes labeled Arizona as

The semiconductor chips that will be produced at these Arizona facilities have been used to produce nearly all electronics for decades. Today, however, the need for semiconductor chips stretches beyond traditional electronics, as everything from automobiles to washing machines contain computers, which use semiconductors.

With the Covid-19 pandemic reducing manufacturers’ production of chips – which are primarily manufactured in China and Taiwan, where some of the strictest Covid-19 measures in the world were imposed – and stockpiling of chips by mainland Chinese manufacturers in anticipation of restrictions being placed on exports of advanced American chips to Chinese buyers, procurement of chips has become a challenge for many manufacturers over the past year.

Since 1990, America’s share of semiconductor production has dropped from 37% to just 12%. Without a renewal of American semiconductor manufacturing, there are fears that American producers will not be able to produce the most advanced chips. 

There is bipartisan agreement that advanced American military weaponry and computing hardware cannot rely on procurement of foreign chips, especially from peer-rivals such as China.

As semiconductor producers are building new plants in the United States, Arizona has regularly been a top site, as the state offers a favorable tax and regulatory climate, competitive utility rates, and skilled workers.

In 2020, the Maricopa County Community College District with Intel and the Arizona Commerce Authority to create an artificial intelligence degree program. According to the college system, Intel is one of the top employers requesting such a skillset. According to , Arizona State University graduates make up a large majority of Intel’s workforce in the Phoenix area.

Arizona also maintains a favorable environment for employers. Arizona has right-to-work law enshrined in the state constitution, giving employees the opportunity to work at companies such as Intel and TSMC without being required to join a labor union. At 4.9%, Arizona also has one of the lowest state corporate income tax rates in the country.

Additionally, through the Qualified Facilities Tax Credit program, manufacturers creating high-paying jobs in the state can qualify for preapproved income tax credits. 

С��ñֱ��app in March reported on an expansion of the Qualified Facilities Tax Credit program.

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