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The Arizona Catholic Conference is the policy wing of the state’s three dioceses.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved legislation that would extend the deadline for making contributions to school tuition organizations, the Arizona Catholic Conference reported today.

The legislation, HB 2496, would extend the deadline to April 15 of the following year, giving Arizona taxpayers more time to contribute to tuition credit programs like the Catholic Tuition Organization of the Diocese of Phoenix.

The same committee also passed a bill “to make the corporate scholarship tax credit more accountable,” according to the ACC.

On the pro-life front, measures to require better reporting on abortion statistics (HB 2649 and SB 1304) and a bill prohibiting government agencies from offering abortion coverage to their employees in insurance plans (SB 1305) took a step forward.

Committees also passed bioethics proposals preventing the sale of human embryos (HB 2652 and SB 1307) in both the House and Senate.

The minimum time for divorce could increase three fold — from 60 to 180 days — if HB 2650 and SB 1199 are implemented.

“A bill to create a preference for married couples in public adoptions (HB 2148) received tentative approval by the House last Monday,” according to the ACC.

The Senate formally passed SB 1070. The bill, among other things, would make those in the United States unlawfully guilty of the crime of trespassing. The measure now heads to the House for further consideration, according to the ACC.