Representative Matt Duffield

House Management — March 31, 2025 (9:49)

and I felt it appropriate to bring that issue to the forefront before this session comes to an end

House Management — March 31, 2025 (9:38)

begin. Yes, ma'am. Matt Duffield, District 53. Committee, I bring you today a resolution. As all of us know, food insecurity and hunger is a huge issue in the state of Arkansas,

House Management — March 31, 2025 (8:43)

Madam Chair, thank you. Tommy Morrison was a legendary boxer in the state of Arkansas. Many of you may have seen him in the movie Rocky VI. He actually defeated the great George Foreman throughout his career, and him being from Gravette, Arkansas, I felt it appropriate to honor him during this session for his accomplishments while he was among us. Are there any questions? Seeing no questions, there's no

House Management — March 31, 2025 (8:16)

a amendment for this oh yes ma'am i do i have an amendment to add representative hope duke as a co-sponsor okay are there

House Management — March 31, 2025 (8:02)

53 madam chair thank you members of the committee i bring before you today a resolution to honor

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:19:21)

just stating that this needs to be a learning environment that supervises and provides the same level of services. Services being a term that's used in education, apparently. I learned a lot during this bill. That means that they're going to get the exact same quality of education that they would have had, just happens to be in an alternate location. And with that, I'd appreciate a good vote.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:19:10)

a wonderful question. Yes. What is an appropriate learning environment? And we do define that within the latter part of the text of the bill,

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:18:18)

We also go through the process of establishing that these individuals likely will need some sort of remediation in discussions with the committee. It was very clear that a number of these students may have some sort of background that creates a problem for them, and this is how they're expressing that. So we make sure that we have mental health involved in having conversations to try to address the challenges associated with

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:17:45)

that they have a seat at the table in determining whether or not that individual, that student, is allowed to come back in their classroom. So we do that through this bill. We also define very clearly what violence is, and you can see that in the latter part of the bill. If an individual is attacked, is hit, if a child picks up an object and throws it at that teacher attempting to do harm to the teacher, the student, or property damage with them, that's a violent act. So we clearly define that, which was not defined previously.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:17:15)

and a lot of different places, this became a common theme. Our teachers are being attacked in their classrooms on a regular basis, and this is a problem for us. So how do we remedy that? This bill is an approach to try to address that through a number of different mechanisms. One of those is to allow the teacher to be at the table. Teachers should never go to their classrooms afraid to do their jobs, ever. And so we want to make sure that if they are subject to a violent act in the classroom,

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:16:40)

lot of time out knocking doors one of the doors that I was knocking on happened to be a teacher now when she opened the door I didn't know she was a teacher but but I did notice very clearly she had a very large and ugly-looking black eye. I told this story as well in the committee. This lady proceeded very quickly to, because obviously I was trying not to look at it, but looking at it, she explained what had happened. This was the second time in a matter of three days in her classroom where she had been attacked by the same student. That made me concerned, and as I began talking to a lot of different teachers

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:16:13)

This bill took quite a bit of time as you can see with a low number we did a number of amendments on this bill it was filed early in the session try to get it right so I really appreciate the help of our friends over in the Education Committee getting the language correct on this let me just start with a really quick explanation of why I felt that this bill was necessary during the campaign season as most of us in this room we spent a

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (41:59)

because they felt that the power of the people trumped everything else and that the power of the people to decide who was their representative, wherever they came from, was the most important thing they could allow for. So I would encourage you also to vote no for this resolution for those reasons. Thank

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (41:24)

and representing directly the state. If we're going to move forward with an Article V convention, if we're going to do something to change the Constitution, I think we first have to start by rectifying that mistake, moving the power of the Senate back to representing the people's will through the state. I think that's the intent, obviously, of our framers. We also know that the framers clearly debated this issue of term limits in a number of different circumstances, and they were intentional about not putting term limits into the Constitution

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (40:45)

And so I'll leave that with Representative Wardlaw's comments. But I also would like to take a moment to remind everyone in this chamber of the damage that was done associated with the 17th Amendment. And if you don't remember, the 17th Amendment impacted us individually as a state, as well as each of our constituents. It was a huge impact to your constituents in that it removed their direct or slightly direct access to their individual senators. by making those senators no longer subject to the will of the people through the body that they elected at the state

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (40:29)

took a lot of time to review and a resolution that I talked with the sponsor on a number of times. I'm definitely against the idea or concept of limiting one's influence at a voting booth.

Judiciary Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (19:23)

while preserving the owner's due process rights. Committee, I think this is a

Judiciary Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (18:47)

This legislation brought before you today will save dogs and cats from unfortunate situations and save lives. This bill amends the animal cruelty sub-chapter to give law enforcement the ability to temporarily secure a dog or cat if the dog or cat is being neglected. Under current law, technically an animal can only be secured by the law enforcement if the owner is being arrested or a warrant to secure the animal has been obtained. This bill would allow law enforcement to temporarily secure a dog or cat in emergency circumstances

Judiciary Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (18:12)

awareness, and ironically, with the day being April 1st, April marks the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, a nationwide observance dedicated to raising awareness about the mistreatment of animals and finding ways to combat animal cruelty. Regrettably, animal cruelty remains pervasive and manifests in various forms. Furthermore, it frequently serves as a precursor to other violent offenses, including domestic abuse, elder abuse, child abuse, and homicide.

Judiciary Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (17:39)

Representative Matt Duffield District 53, Mr. Chair, with your permission, I'd appreciate it if Representative Brown could help with the presentation. Yeah, absolutely. Mr. Chair, members of this committee, the color orange is used to represent animal cruelty