An Arizona House bill to streamline licensing of food trucks in Arizona was recently amended to include protections for mobile food vendors. These push-cart vendors could have been banned because the bill’s language prohibits food trucks from operating publicly in neighborhoods.

Rep. Kevin Payne is House Bill 2371's sponsor. He said the amendment comes after criticism that the legislation targeted the push-cart vendors.

He credits Rep. Cesar Chavez for helping him amend the bill.

"Rep. Chavez did a great job working with me to come up with an amendment that we could attach to the bill to ensure that it does not affect those people," Payne said.

Payne said he is a food truck owner, which helped inspire the bill.

"So that we did was we tried to make it easier," said Payne. "We tried to make it statewide for the licensing, and for regulations, all the cities have the same regulations."

The bill is already in the state Senate, and Payne said he's confident it'll pass.