Her veto notification was the latest in a long string of vetoes she issued during this year’s legislative session.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed legislation on Wednesday that would have barred her state’s government from purchasing goods and services from companies domiciled in China.
Her veto notification was the latest in a long string of vetoes she issued during this year’s legislative session, including several that blocked bills intended to shore up her state’s vulnerabilities to malfeasance by the Chinese government.
The bill she vetoed this week would have also penalized companies that falsely claimed not to be based in China and also provided for a narrowly tailored exemption if failing to procure a specific good from a Chinese company would pose a threat to the state.
Ultimately, though, Hobbs maintained that “this overbroad bill would dramatically increase costs to taxpayers when purchasing goods and services.”
It’s not clear what the governor meant, and she has not expanded on her decision elsewhere. Hobbs’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Arizona state representative Lupe Diaz, the Republican legislator who authored the bill, said that the veto suggests that she’s not as tough on national security issues as she claims to be.
After vetoing a bill intended to crack down on purchases of land by individuals linked to China, Hobbs received significant political pushback in Arizona and negative national media coverage. She subsequently introduced an amended version of the proposal, claiming that she vetoed the bill because it was not tough enough and that it needed to be expanded to other foreign adversary countries.
“She’s been talking real tough on national security lately. I kind of have a feeling that she’s pivoting with her rhetoric but not with her actions,” Diaz told National Review in a telephone interview today.
He added that the version of the proposal that passed both of the Arizona legislature’s chambers was watered down from the version he first introduced and that the state’s Department of Public Safety had requested an exemption from the bill. He said that his bill sought to bar the purchases of Chinese drones, cameras, communication equipment, computers, transformers, and batteries for use in energy infrastructure.
“There’s a cyber war that they’re really preparing for,” he said, adding that a cyberattack “can cripple us.” He said that he’s concerned by the possibility of attacks targeting the electrical grid and cited federal warnings urging state governors to prepare for attacks on critical infrastructure.
The Software Information Industry Association, a trade group representing technology and software companies, had urged Hobbs to veto the bill. It wrote to her on June 20, arguing that it was overly broad and would “prohibit legitimate U.S. companies from working with government entities in Arizona” and disrupt state supply chains if they have affiliates domiciled in China. SIIA members include Apple, several financial services firms, and Shenzhen Securities Information Co., which is a subsidiary of a stock exchange in that Chinese city.
Earlier this month, Hobbs vetoed a bill that would have prohibited health-care providers from using technology produced by Chinese genomics companies blacklisted by the Chinese government. She did not explain the rationale for that veto, beyond stating, “This bill is unnecessary.”