Representative Kendon Underwood

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (2:32:41)

recognized. House Judiciary will meet tomorrow at

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (1:36:17)

And so with that, I'd appreciate a good

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (1:35:47)

so oftentimes you have victims who, unfortunately, don't want to cooperate or disappear, and so this allows prosecutors to have another tool in their toolbox to prosecute these crimes. Importantly, we already do this. We already criminalize the use of communication devices to facilitate the sale of narcotics, So that's already in code, and we recognize that the sale of those items, you know, harms addicts, destroys families, destroys lives, leads to other criminal activity. And so all this does is borrows that same logic to help combat human trafficking.

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (1:35:33)

to explain your bill. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Members, this bill criminalizes the use of a a communication device

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (1:35:39)

to facilitate the sale of human beings. Oftentimes, and this was brought to me by the chief deputy prosecutor in Benton County,

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (2:48:42)

of shared what I was gonna share, but I would say I agree with Representative Beatty. I don't have concerns with the bill if the sponsors are wanting to know that, if they wanna be forward with it now, If they choose to pull it down, I would also echo, I think, what Representative Rose said. I think we've already heard the presentation. I think we

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (18:36)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I keep harping on this, I guess, but you just said, so 17-and-a-half-year-olds can register currently. Is that what you said? If you're going to be 18 by the next election, so approximately. So this will move it to 17, which we think is okay, but 16 is too far removed. I don't think 16 is too far

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (14:24)

Representative Underwood you're recognized I think this is my last question, but Will there be any additional cost? Do we have to change any kind of applications or anything like that? Have you had

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (14:37)

any conversations regarding that? No, I can't imagine there would be any cost to

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (12:25)

I'll just follow up on that. So the answer to that is it's 16-year-olds are too far removed, but the determination has made that 17-year-olds are not too far removed because they're just one year away from being able to vote rather than two. As much

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (12:43)

don't understand here. I appreciate you trying to give me an answer on that.

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (8:42)

17 at their request. Do you know what the questions were that they had for 16? No. Thank you. And if I may, I'm going to switch to something else. You mentioned that there were some studies that increased, I guess, participation, right, at this age.

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (8:04)

Representative Underwood, you're recognized. My question's for you. Sorry. You said that they're okay with it if it's only applied to 17-year-olds. What's the reason for limiting it to just

Meeting — April 3, 2025 (1:07:21)

So it's just clarifying that case. We want to make sure that these victims are protected. And I'd appreciate a good vote. Representative Underwood

Meeting — April 3, 2025 (1:06:48)

that occurred outside of the state of Arkansas. The intent of our law clearly is to provide more punishment and accountability for repeat offenders of violations of orders of protection. But unfortunately, our law, our current statute says that those offenders, they have to have a violation under this section. So it's referring to that section of code. And all this is doing is clarifying that if it's under this section or if they're a repeat offender from an equivalent jurisdiction outside of our state as well.

Meeting — April 3, 2025 (1:06:18)

Frequently, we see victims from other states that will try to flee their abuser and come to Arkansas, often women. And the offender then follows them to our state from Oklahoma, Missouri, et cetera. And although they're a repeat offender and they have arrests and convictions in other states, there's concern that we can't enhance their penalty in Arkansas based on a technical gap that's in the code. So this bill tries to address that apparent gap for previous violations of an order of protection

Meeting — April 3, 2025 (1:06:13)

is brought to me by the Chief Deputy Prosecutor in Benton County based on his experience.

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (Senate) — April 3, 2025 (2:23:26)

May I address that question, Senator? Yeah. Yes, you're right. So that was what my amendment did. So Representative Hock had a bill that changed this from county clerks to the Secretary of State's office. I intentionally held, because I knew he was running that bill, I intentionally held this bill back because I didn't know what the resolution was going to be on his bill. And his bill, I think, passed your guys' committee maybe just a few

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (Senate) — April 3, 2025 (2:23:46)

days ago. Maybe it's on the Senate floor. So your amendment cleaned that up? Yes, sir. Okay, that's what I wanted. Senator Tucker?

State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs (Senate) — April 3, 2025 (2:22:51)

this would solve a problem across the state if you hit that $5,000 trigger. So, you know, obviously, I think if you're raising or spending $5,000 or more, you should be running a pretty professional campaign, and so you should have the ability to file campaign financial reports. If you fall under that threshold, you're not going to have very much reporting requirements. Thank you.