Jon Kyl and the Arizona That Used to Get Things Done

By Vanessa Rogers

Jon Kyl died Thursday at 84. The former senator stepped away from public life last December after announcing a dementia diagnosis. At the time, he said his family faced “moments of joy and increasing difficulties.” Now Arizona says goodbye to one of its most consequential public servants.

You do not have to share Kyl’s politics to respect his work. In fact, on the issue that matters most to Arizona’s future, his work still runs through our faucets.

A Career Built on Homework

Kyl was born in Nebraska and moved to Phoenix after law school in 1966. He served four terms in the U.S. House starting in 1987. Arizona then sent him to the Senate in 1995, where he stayed until 2013. Along the way, he rose to become the Senate’s second-ranking Republican. Time magazine also named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2010.

In 2018, Gov. Doug Ducey called him back to fill John McCain’s seat. Kyl served for several months and then stepped aside. He also reportedly turned down a chance to be secretary of defense.

Still, Kyl built his reputation less on speeches than on preparation. He was widely known as the senator who had actually read the bill.

The Water Legacy

His most lasting achievement may be one few Arizonans can name. In 2004, Kyl steered the Arizona Water Settlements Act through Congress. Then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton said he had “worked tirelessly for many years” to get it done.

The law did three big things. First, it ended a long legal fight between the federal government and the Central Arizona Water Conservancy District over repaying the cost of the Central Arizona Project. Second, it settled the Gila River Indian Community’s water rights, which were among the largest tribal claims in the West. Finally, it updated an earlier settlement with the Tohono O’odham Nation.

In plain terms, it turned water rights that existed only on paper into real certainty. Cities could plan. Tribes could build. Meanwhile, the canal that carries Colorado River water to the Valley rested on firmer ground.

Why It Matters Now

That certainty looks shakier today. The Colorado River keeps shrinking, and Arizona’s share faces deeper cuts as the basin states negotiate new rules. Scottsdale leans heavily on CAP water. We have written about the city’s exposure many times, and the risk has not gone away.

What Arizona needs now is exactly what Kyl practiced: patient, unglamorous negotiation among tribes, cities, farms and neighboring states. It also means knowing the acre-feet cold.

Who Picks Up the Pen?

Kyl leaves behind a congressional delegation facing harder water math than he ever did. The question is whether anyone in it is willing to do the homework.

Arizona has lost a statesman. The best tribute would be another deal like the one he built.