Sen. Mark Finchem: “Families Deserve Answers” After Family Court Reform Bills Blocked

I have received numerous calls and texts from heartbroken parents and even teenagers from all over the state since yesterday (3/19/2026) regarding the fact that all Family Court reform bills were killed by the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Quang Nguyen. I empathize with you.

Hundreds of constituents, mostly women, trapped in a broken and dysfunctional Family Court system that has extracted millions of dollars from them, helped craft reforms to the system with a broad-spectrum stakeholder group, including judges, lawyers, and even some honorable psychologists. Yesterday, they arrived at the Legislature expecting to hear the passage of the fruits of their labor. Their anticipation turned to complete outrage when they discovered they had been betrayed by the Judiciary Committee Chairman, Nguyen, who held all of the bills, effectively killing them by refusing to hear them.

Now, victims want answers about the work that I and the other members of the Joint Legislative Ad Hoc Committee on Family Court Orders (the “Committee”) put into crafting real solutions. The main question is: “What happened to all of the bills that passed out of the State Senate and were designed to ensure Family Court reform, particularly to counter the financial abuse imposed by the courts on divided families with children, and why did Nguyen side with Democrats, who voted en masse against the reform bills?”

For historical perspective: During the summer of 2025, the Committee held over 40 hours of public hearings to identify significant defects in the system. As a result, 13 bills in the Senate and House were drafted to reorient the court to serve the interests of children, not psychologists and lawyers.

The Committee met four times. Past hearings may be watched at the State Senate links by date below. The testimony is breathtaking and, at the same time, heartbreaking.

The Committee took testimony to reveal just how bad the situation is and to identify solutions already in place, as well as the best legislative repairs that can be made to the system.

Output from the Committee:

All of these bills were held by Chairman Nguyen without explanation, nothing but silence. The outrage from these victims was palpable when the signature bill that would have saved families from millions of dollars in court-imposed fees died a not-so-quiet death.

I cannot explain the reasoning behind why such an important topic was ignored by the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, or why he sided with Democrats to kill every single reform bill. I do not understand the motivation or logic behind the failure to act; that will be up to him to explain.

Hon. Mark Finchem
Arizona State Senator
520-808-7340