Joint Budget Committee - Pre-Fiscal Session Budget Hearings
Video
Transcript
2 documents
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin RTX5060
- Processing date
- October 7, 2026
Unknown speaker
0:00
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
members it's nine o'clock let's get started
Speaker 5
4:00
All right. Here we go. Mr. Anderson, members, we're on Exhibit C. Exhibit
Speaker 8
4:07
C. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Item C, this is unappropriated cash funds. Act 678 of 2019 was passed where the General Assembly shall budget, approve, and appropriate expenditures cash funds for the constitutional officers listed there at the top of C in A1. those cash funds are identified as needing appropriations out of the two of the for the
we need four cash appropriations the first two on page one and the first two on page two to comply with act 678 if the committee chooses to adopt this report blr staff will draft cash appropriations as shown in the last column in the action item column for both the secretary of state and the Attorney General's office. On page one, you'll see the first one, Office of Secretary of State, it's for the gift shop. They currently have unappropriated cash funds for that and they are asking for a $90,000 appropriation.
Item two, Office of Secretary of State for their cafe, $400,000 appropriation. And then on page two, the other two, Office of Attorney General, court settlement fees used for consumer education and enforcement, asking for an appropriation of $25 million. And Office of Attorney General, the second one on page two, for court settlements for restitution to consumers affected by deceptive trade practices for $31,000.
Senator Larry Teague
Unverified
5:37
All the rest are zeros, Mr. Chairman. Are there any questions? Cory, it must be a good morning for you. so we need a motion to adopt all the whole the whole document or all right remember if we're gonna need a motion to adopt exhibit C I have a motion a second any discussion all those in favor aye opposed the ayes have it thank you
Speaker 5
6:09
legislative audit you here you were ahead of me
Speaker 16
6:24
weren't you Tell us who you are and you're recognized. Thank
Speaker 17
6:26
you, Mr. Chairman. My name is David Webb. I'm an audit supervisor with Arkansas Legislative Audit. There are two findings today that we're going to be presenting for the Arkansas Department of Health from their June 30, 2018 audit report. Those audit findings are included on page four of the audit
packet that's been provided. The first finding relates to inventories. The agency did not perform a fiscal count at the end of the year on some of their medications and supplies reportedly valued at $8 million. Additionally, calculation errors were noted for other types of inventories due to item quantities being input on the wrong line of the master spreadsheet. Our second finding related to a travel overpayment of $664 to an
employee. DF&A regulations were not followed in that an IT employee consistently claimed mileage between their official station and the destination, even though there were times when they should have only claimed the distance between their residence and the destination. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes the findings for the agency. Any questions? Thank you very much, sir. Thank you.
Speaker 19
7:37
Ms. Hamilton, tell us who you are and you're recognized.
Speaker 23
8:03
Good morning, members. I'm Mildred Hamilton. I work with the Fiscal Division of the Bureau of Legislative Research.
Speaker 24
8:08
This morning we're going to go through the appropriations for the Department of
Speaker 25
8:13
Health. We should still be in your manual behind tab number two, it's the first agency. On page two you'll see their first appropriation. This is from a paying account. This provides for the Office of the Secretary's operating expenses.
Everything comes from transfers from the Department of Health. On page 3, you'll see their appropriation summary. This is creating a new cabinet-level department for Department of Health. This is for the Office of the Secretary position. You'll see there's one position, salaries and matching of $275,000. Since this is new, you're going
Speaker 24
8:56
to just get the executive recommendation. will be no legislative recommendation. On page five you'll see the department
Speaker 25
9:07
appropriation summary. They have eight appropriations. There's only one with changes.
Speaker 24
9:14
The funding sources are listed below. Page seven is going to
Speaker 25
9:22
be the first appropriation. This is for emergency medical services. This is paid from a miscellaneous fund the appropriation provides for the certification processing and expenses and examinations for emergency medical technicians maintenance of their certification software educational
programs and maintenance of their instructor certification for their personnel funding is coming from fees they have testing fees licensure fees annual renewal fees and this provides for the appropriation amounts legislative recommendation and the executive recommendation you'll see on page 8 they're requesting a current level of
Speaker 23
10:05
$60,000 in appropriation be carried forward into fiscal year 2021 we're moving to page
Speaker 25
10:16
9 this is the health
operations paying account okay the department has got two central office locations and 92 local health units throughout the state each of these health units has a telehealth capabilities that allow them to have real-time video interfacing this helps in all of the rural areas where people might not be able to have access to the local hospitals the department went through some recent restructuring, and this was to respond to the opioid epidemic. They do have
a new substance misuse and injury prevention branch. They also have their new medical marijuana section, which helps them cover the responsibilities related to the medical marijuana amendment. There were a couple of changes as a result of the Transformation Act, the Act 910 that we've been talking about. The athletic commission and the HVAC program have been transferred to the Department of Labor, so they're moving out of the Department of Health's act. These are special
revenue agencies. The kidney disease program has been moved to the Department of Health from Career Education Rehabilitation Services. This is a general revenue funded program, so you're going see a slight increase in their general revenue in the funding on page 11 you'll see the detail for their appropriation in the legislative recommendation you'll see everything that was passed by the act including amendments and I see the
positions for the main appropriation are 200 I'm sorry 2,284 with 231 extra help positions due to those changes that I just mentioned you'll see the executive recommendation has a net decrease of 11 positions and two extra help positions and further on down you'll see the kidney disease expenses not included in the legislative recommendation but added to the executive recommendation as a result of the transfer the request is for 259
Speaker 23
12:30
million one eight for fiscal year 2021 next appropriations
Speaker 25
12:39
on page 13 this is for nuclear planning grants this is a special revenue fund this appropriation provides the Department of Emergency Management local governments located in close proximity to nuclear power sorry nuclear-powered electricity generating facilities. It allows them some operating expenses. There are five counties that are located near
one of these types of facilities. Those counties are Conway, Johnson, Logan, Pope, and Yale County. Each year, they get approximately $65,000 in order to operate. This pays for their people,
Speaker 31
13:21
their M&O, their emergency warning systems, their equipment, any training that they need to do.
Speaker 25
13:28
and the request is to continue their appropriated amount at $325,000.
Speaker 24
13:37
The next appropriation is their general revenue appropriation. It's for the trauma system.
Speaker 23
13:43
It provides for the operations. Right now they've got 64 centers, six of them are level one, four of them are level two, 19 are level three, and 35 are level four.
Speaker 25
13:57
The detail for their appropriation summary can be found on page 16. You'll see that this has 18 positions and two extra help. And the request is for continuation of their current appropriation level of $26 million.
The next appropriation is on page 17. This is a tobacco prevention and cessation program. These are trust funds. This appropriation was created by Act 1 of 2000, and it's funded from tobacco settlement proceeds. And what this does is provide for program components that include community prevention, health, youth programs, some school education and prevention programs, anything related to tobacco cessation. They do have many grants within this appropriation and one contract.
This is for media. You'll see their appropriation summary on page 18. this appropriation does include 34 positions with four extra help and they are requesting a continuation of their appropriation level of 14.6 million each year next appropriations on page 19 this is their health building and local health grant trust what this is used for it says for construction but there's
not enough funding for construction they usually use it for any renovations or improvements repairs to the 92 local health units I mentioned before your funding comes from visit fees to local health units that were held on a trust and reimbursement for certain medical supplies or services yes miss Hamilton this state
Speaker 5
15:46
on those buildings? I don't know you'll have to defer to the agency.
Speaker 25
15:57
On page 20 you'll see they spent approximately 506,000 in grants and aid for this purpose and the executive
Speaker 23
16:06
recommendation is that they have a continuation of their current appropriate level of 1.9 million. On
Speaker 25
16:18
page 21, you'll see their next appropriation, which is WIC Food Instruments. It's a cash appropriation. A lot of this consists of funds from the United States Department of Agriculture.
It's held in the cash fund. This is not the WIC program. What this appropriation does is pays for a vendor called Solutran. What they do is they provide EBT, TANF, smart card, WIC, WIC vouchers to governments. So this is basically paying for them to provide those services to the state so they can pass those services on to their clients. They spent approximately
Speaker 23
17:03
$45.4 million last fiscal year and they're asking for $75.8 million
to continue in appropriation level in fiscal year 2021. On
Speaker 25
17:18
page 23, you'll see their appropriation for interpreters for deaf and hearing impaired. This appropriation just provides for the advisory board expenses. The appropriation comes from special revenue, which are essentially licensure fees. do have some penalties that they do collect. You'll see on page 24 their
Speaker 23
17:41
appropriation summary detail. They spent approximately $1,000 in expenses and they're requesting that their current appropriate level of $10,000 be continued into fiscal year 21. Ms. Hamilton? Yes.
Speaker 4
17:56
Senator Chesterfield has a question for quite a while. I've been asleep up here. Senator Chesterfield?
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
18:03
And we're so glad you're awake, RIP, then Winkle. Could you explain to me the jump from the 58 to the 75? Did they say what
I thought I'd do this for Representative Dodson did? Could you tell me
Speaker 44
18:17
what that is? And speaking with the department they said any increase
Speaker 46
18:23
in food costs results in the Department of Agriculture increasing allotments to states so in order
Speaker 25
18:28
to be able to receive the additional funds they keep it at a higher appropriated level okay so this is so that they can receive money yes ma'am all right
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
18:35
thank you so much that helps me thank
Speaker 49
18:39
you for hollering thank you so much senator ballinger thank you
Speaker 54
18:51
mr. chair and this is probably just for for my education but you know the the hoary heads around me didn't know the answer to this so
Speaker 58
18:59
i figured that maybe somebody will the uh so on this the same page on page 22 um the is it identifies it as a cash fund but these are actually this is actually federal money right yes sir and so if we have federal funds coming in i mean we're we identify it as a cash fund because it's held in a fund i mean i i i guess i i'm confused because
i've always thought of cash funds as being being fees or
Speaker 54
19:26
licenses or things that the agency collects as part of the their process i know this was these particular funds
Speaker 36
19:33
were put into a cash fund but in terms of the accounting the reasoning behind that particular accounting movie i'd have to defer to the department okay
Speaker 58
19:42
but are there other times that that happens where we have federal money and we identify it as a cash fund mr jansson can
Speaker 8
19:51
you help yes sir um we're anytime we show these funds are
we we have them as an expenditure it's always going to be as a federal fund this listed as cash up here is is just identifying the the account for this particular spreadsheet in our a book in in any other places you're gonna it's gonna be identified as federal funds like it should be okay thank you very You finished, Senator? Who's seat 15? Johnny, is that you again?
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
20:27
Good morning. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 23, yes, ma'am, where it says
excess appropriation funding. Yes, ma'am, what is
Speaker 23
20:54
that for? That's funding that they have in their budget.
They usually subtract revenues from their expenditures, anything they have left over is in terms of actual dollars, not appropriation is identified on this line. So when you see the excess appropriation to the left, it would not have parentheses around it if it was just appropriation. But these are actual dollars that they have to spend.
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
21:20
Yes, ma'am, please. It's just kind of something that's built in. It's called excess, but actually it's been there probably all the time, hasn't it?
Speaker 22
21:29
Well, I don't want to say that it's been there all the time, but it's actual dollars that they have,
Speaker 7
21:36
yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Johnny. Representative Kavanaugh. Thank you,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
21:45
Mr. Chair. Over here to the right. I just wanted to try to verify on the WIC program. I want to make sure, I'm hoping I misunderstood. You're saying that this is really not the funds that we paid to the WIC to the participants,
but this is money paid to a
Speaker 23
22:05
vendor? Yes, ma'am. The WIC program is contained within the Department of Health, But this particular appropriation is just to pay the vendor so that they can utilize the SNAP and the T and the WIC. You know those vouchers and the electronic benefit cards? That allows them to use those tools, their clients to use
Speaker 22
22:22
those tools. But yes, the WIC program is contained within here. It's just not this particular line item. Okay,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
22:29
so is this money, I guess where I'm getting confused is when you say a vendor,
Is this money actually going to benefits to Arkansans, or is it paid to a vendor just to administer the WIC program?
Speaker 23
22:44
This is paid to a vendor not to administer the WIC program. It's to pay for the tools that the state
Speaker 25
22:53
uses so their benefit recipients can utilize SNAP and T and Farmer's Market Cards and that sort of thing. This is a company that's got a corporate headquarters in Minneapolis,
and they work with governments all over the country just
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
23:11
to provide these tools. So this $45 million, and they're asking to go to $75 million, this is not going to go to any Arkansan to help them in need when they need food. this is going to a vendor to help us have the
programs we need to identify the people that need the program no these these aren't programs they're not
Senator Larry Teague
Unverified
23:35
programs it's just the it's just paying for the cards and paying
Speaker 5
23:39
for the processing of that dr smith you want to come help us or
Senator Larry Teague
Unverified
24:02
are and you're recognized thank you mr.
Speaker 95
24:09
chair dr. Nate Smith, Secretary of Health, Arkansas Department of Health, and Stephanie
Williams, Chief of Staff for the Arkansas Department of Health. This item includes the actual products that go to our WIC recipients as well as the funding for the entire program. Stephanie, would you like to clarify? Yes, thank you Dr. Smith. Yes, that
Speaker 99
24:32
funding in that amount is part of it pays the vendor Sollutran, which as Mildred described, they are our banking vendor for the WIC program, but they don't receive all of those funds.
They manage the payments out to the 363 vendors that receive WIC payments. These are the grocery stores that offer the product, and then they manage the vouchers and the EBT cards, but they receive a contract that's only a tiny portion. the majority of that money is money that is um used for food purchases for by the participants okay do you know how much the vendor gets paid i'm tracking
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
25:11
that number down for you exactly
Speaker 5
25:16
okay thank you so if you'll send that to staff they'll uh send it out all right representative jean hold on we got another question yeah
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
25:29
y'all just sit a minute Under your revenue, of course, federal revenue is a big part of this. I'm right in front of you, Ms. Smith. The manufacturing rebate, $23 million, explain that. I'm
Speaker 95
25:46
going to have Stephanie give details.
Basically those are rebate dollars that we get back from the
Speaker 112
25:54
vendors. To help states maximize the funding, they,
Speaker 99
25:59
USDA encourages states to engage in purchasing consortia so Arkansas participates with the state of North Carolina and the state of New Mexico in a process every three years to bid for formula so by doing a group purchasing contract we're able to get a
better price from the vendor and then they provide us rebate dollars on all of the formula that we purchased so the formula rebates
Speaker 114
26:28
are about 2 million every month and so that accounts for
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
26:34
the 22 million annual okay so this federal dollars which most which is wick yes pays pays these vendors and these vendors have a uh rebate that comes back uh to the states yes sir exactly to be able to be able to provide more yes sir all
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
26:56
into the food budget i think we did something like that in our health care too yeah okay
Speaker 121
27:09
thank you thank you representative jeans senator cheatham thank you mr chairman um miss hamilton i guess or someone i'm back on page nine it mentions the fact that created the new Substance Abuse and Injury Prevention branch, opioid. Is there a line item for that, or am I just overlooking it?
Speaker 125
27:30
Which page are you looking on again? On page nine, in the introduction there, it
Speaker 95
27:45
just talks about. No, we don't have a specific line for that. We have a number of federal grants that we've received that support that work, but we went ahead and put that together as an organizational unit to help us most effectively address the
emerging opioid crisis as well as suicide prevention. I won't see a line item in
Speaker 121
28:07
this for that particular game. The other question, Mr. Chairman, if I can remember where I was, community mental health centers, I noticed that was zeroed out. Is that, I forgot exactly where I saw that. This community health center is what it was. It looked like the appropriation had been zeroed out on the line item.
Speaker 131
28:35
Is that incorrect? Senator, where are you looking? It's page 28, third line
Speaker 122
28:52
down. Yes, page 28, third line down. Very good. Has that been moved
Speaker 36
28:57
somewhere else? No, page 28, I think, is Department of Human Services. The budget for the Department of Health ends on page 24. You're correct.
Speaker 123
29:06
You're correct. I'm sorry. Getting a little ahead of
Speaker 5
29:09
myself. Senator Cheatham, are you Too much sugar
Speaker 125
29:13
this morning, Mr. Teague I understand, brother
Speaker 5
29:19
Going too fast I understand We're going to hear them Thursday All
Speaker 123
29:25
right So you're done, Representative Cheatham Senator Cheatham I'm toasted, yes, I'm done I'm sorry Representative Beck Thank you, Mr. Chair um
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
29:37
now just to help clarify something for me and i'm sure i'm confused at some point here on this
but i'm looking i'm back on page 22 so there's a significant increase over the appropriation versus what was actually spent which is 45 i'm just going to round off numbers here it looks like 45 and now you're going to 75 and at the same time there's is that an excess I see
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
30:17
appropriation funding that that hits at the same time you're asking
for more money which appears to be more money than you spent the last
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
30:28
cycle or is that am I thinking about that wrong representing Beck you know that's not
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
30:36
money that's just appropriation I understand that but the question is why are we asking I'm looking at the actual right versus what the ask is now which is the difference why would it be the difference when at the same time it looks like there's this
entry is excess appropriation or funding
Speaker 95
30:57
Representative Beck, very good question. The appropriation request for this cycle is exactly the same as it was previously, so no change in the appropriation request. There is a difference between both the budgeted and the actual amounts and that appropriation request, and that is to allow us to be able to receive additional federal funding if it comes to us. The funds that we receive for this program really are determined by the number of beneficiaries
as well as the cost of the food items, and we have seen actual decreases in the participants in the WIC program. Some of this has to do with economy and other things. We would like to have that appropriation so that we can receive all of the federal funds that would come due to us if we need them, but we will only use the federal funds that are that are given to us based on the number of participants in the WIC program.
So this is not money spent, but this allows us to receive federal funds if those come to us and
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
32:05
if we need them. If I could just follow up briefly, I appreciate you clarifying that for me. The other thing I want to take a – so is there a reason that – we can go back. I understand that you're not increasing over 19 to year 20, but at the same time,
is there a reason that you anticipate that there might be more
federal funding coming and that you're kind of preparing yourself to be able to accept that?
Speaker 127
32:39
or is there? Historically, we have had a much larger WIC program. When
Speaker 95
32:45
I first came to the department, our WIC program was something around $90 million. Of course, that was in the midst of the recession. The number of participants that we have, again, are determined by a number of factors. If we had Arkansans who needed these services and we had federal funds to serve those
programs, I would want us to have sufficient appropriation to be able to utilize those. Again, our economy has been good, but times are uncertain, and we'd like to make sure that we are able
Speaker 127
33:21
to provide for all Arkansans who meet the eligibility requirements. So this is
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
33:27
actually a decrease from what at one point you're saying $90,000 was what we were
Speaker 95
33:35
using? Yes. In this past year, we have been serving much fewer families than we have historically.
Speaker 5
33:56
will continue in the future. Thank you. Representative Beck,
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
34:00
you're through. Senator Chesterfield. How about that? I saw it. Hot dog. Dr. Smith, I'm concerned about the coronavirus and the impact that it might have. Are you planning, is this a part of the plan in
Speaker 95
34:13
case we have an increase in those who will need these services? The appropriation as it is requested this cycle as well as last cycle will allow us to receive an increase in federal funds
if we need those based on increased participation in the program whether it be a downturn in the economy or some some other issue one question with the EBT
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
34:33
vendor is this a sole source contract or was this let forbid believe it was let forbid it was that answers my question and thank you so much thank you senator representative Lester thank
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
34:57
you thank you how many people are
we serving how many Arkansans are we serving with EBT and WIC I know it's decreasing and this number is increasing so I'm just wondering where we're going with that how many how many Arkansans are
Speaker 97
35:12
we serving so WIC serves women infants and children up to the age of five there's 67 participants on our
Speaker 99
35:17
monthly caseload report about half of those are women and children and the other half are infants so we're serving
Speaker 159
35:27
67 people 67,000 67,000 each month okay 67,000
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
35:30
each month and that number is declining
Speaker 99
35:33
the number has declined steadily over the past few years and that's typical when the when that's typical when the economy is good one of the things that we've implemented is the electronic benefits transfer card that makes it easier for participants easier for people who are working and often have difficulty I'm taking off work to come for appointments so we're hoping that now that we've switched to EBT that'll make it easier for more participants to utilize the program we have done an
analysis of utilization across the board and in some of our counties we know that we are only serving about 40% of the families
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
36:12
that we think are eligible for program okay and then I had a follow-up question on page 11 where it says two questions on kidney expenses kidney program kidney disease
expenses I wanted to elaborate on that the eight hundred and fifty thousand and then I'm breast cancer or breast care program there was 4.8 million and then we budgeted eight million and again this year we're not even using those funds I'm not sure why we're budgeting more when we're not accessing them so two questions there if you could expand on what kidney disease where we're going with that and then why do we keep putting money in an account where we're not actually
Speaker 95
37:07
using it the kidney disease expenses have to do with the kidney
disease Commission which has joined the department since state government transformation so that's why I wasn't wasn't there previously okay and then the breast care program the breast care program Stephanie
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
37:24
do you want to talk
Speaker 164
37:27
about details on that so the breast care
Speaker 99
37:30
program it does have an allowance for treatment dollars and the treatment dollars aren't always utilized. We do have a fund balance there and part of that is because
we don't know how to project the treatment expenditures for those women. So we've served I think four I'm not sure, I hate to say off the top of my head how many women have received treatment services but some of the chemotherapy treatments are pretty expensive so we do like to have a little bit of a buffer there if possible. okay that's great you're done for now thank you representative Kavanaugh thank
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
38:12
you mr. chair I'm also on page 11 and my question is dealing with regular salaries and operating expenses the regular salaries we're actually asking for a decrease in the number of positions but the appropriation has a increase or a difference between actual spend and ask for appropriation of 16.7 million dollars how can we need such the big difference are there a lot of unfilled positions I mean why is there such a big spread there a couple ways of
Speaker 170
38:53
are we're decreasing our number of staff we're moving towards positions that have higher technical skills and knowledge and so our our salaries are are tending to go higher for the positions that we do retain and that that is fitting the needs of the department needs of the state also having those appropriations gives us some flexibility as we have
people coming on and and going and Stephanie would you like to comment further about that difference between our actuals and our appropriation request sometimes we do have new programs that are funded federally and that gives us the flexibility
Speaker 172
39:40
to, you know, to utilize those federal funds quickly. I understand that,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
39:48
but you're decreasing the number, and even if you say you're hiring
more skilled people, which I'm fine with, that's 16 point, almost 17 million. You're going to pay somebody that much more than what you're currently paying? i mean that's that's my question is in of this actual spend that you have of 92 million of those 2273 positions that you're asking for how many are unfilled that's what i'm trying to figure out is there is there a big difference between actual that you have and unfilled positions that would make up part of this 16.7
million dollars so currently we have less than
Speaker 99
40:31
2,000 positions filled. It's 1,995, give or take a few from month to month. But we do have a number of positions that aren't filled and in recruitment. Typically, we have about 100 positions that are in recruitment all the time. Okay. All right. Follow up, Mr.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
40:50
Chair. We'll move on from that because I still think that's an excessive amount to, I mean, you can pay a lot
of people a lot of money, we could do a lot. But anyway, on your operating expenses, your actual spending was
59.6, but you're asking for 76.5, which is 17.1 million increase. What is really going into that actual increase? Why are you needing that increase from actual spend? As a
Speaker 95
41:24
reminder, this is an appropriation request. It's not necessarily all the money that
Speaker 170
41:29
we are planning at this point to spend, but we do receive about half of our funding comes through various federal grants, and some of those do require travel to conferences to
enable our staff to do the work of the grant. We want to make sure that we have adequate appropriation
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
41:51
to be able to utilize those federal funds. I'm not talking
Speaker 170
41:56
about conference and travel expenses. I'm talking about operating expenses. Operating expenses.
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
42:02
Oh, yes. Okay. I'm sorry. Again, similar thinking on that. Because about half
Speaker 170
42:09
of our funding comes from federal grants, and those ebb and flow, and
when they come, oftentimes we have a fairly short window in which to utilize those funds, otherwise we lose them. That extra appropriation helps give us the flexibility. For example, the grants that we received to combat the opioid epidemic, the funds that we're expecting to receive to help us in our COVID-19 response, those are things that if we have to go through a process to get additional appropriation, we may miss our window to be able to utilize
Speaker 172
42:47
those federal funds, in which case we would be having to use state general revenue to do things that would be available to us through federal grants. Okay,
Senator Larry Teague
Unverified
43:01
thank you. Thank you Representative Kavanaugh. Senator
Speaker 182
43:09
Bond. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Just
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
43:14
to sort of the overall view of the budget, I think we're all concerned.
We don't want to overreact over the COVID-19 situation. Is the Department of Health leading up that effort of coordinating the state's plan? Yes, that is correct. And do we have a projected cost on what this could cost us as far
Speaker 127
43:39
as our response? What our overall costs will be are unknown because there's a lot of unknowns.
Speaker 95
43:46
We've put forth some projections of what we think our needs are based on what we know right now.
They could be as high as $8.8 million in addition to what
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
43:59
we already have. Okay, so there is a plan out there. I assume we're planning for
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
44:04
if the outbreak is great or then we can back off
Speaker 95
44:09
that, right? Yes. The 8.8 is what we're pretty confident we're going to need based on what we know right now. If this continues to grow, there obviously would be more sustained response that would require more heavy investment.
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
44:26
Where are we on our testing kits in Arkansas? Are they throughout the state, or are we short still,
Speaker 95
44:33
or what's going on? The Arkansas Department of
Speaker 127
44:36
Health has testing kits sufficient for between 1,800 and 2,000 tests, but now we have commercial labs like LabCorp and others that have come on board as well. The real bottleneck is not the number of kits available, although that's what's in the media a lot. It's not
Speaker 95
44:55
as easy as going and getting your blood drawn.
These are oropharyngeal, nasopharyngeal swabs. They need to be done in a setting that doesn't expose the collector, and then they have to be transported in a way that is safe. And
Speaker 127
45:09
so a lot of outpatient clinics are not well set up to do that or not comfortable doing that. So we're working on those challenges. At this point, I would say the
Speaker 95
45:21
people who really need to be tested, we have mechanisms for getting them tested. People who are not ill, who are asymptomatic, It's not helpful to test them because a negative test result doesn't exclude disease.
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
45:35
Right. So where are people supposed to go? And then I've got a couple of follow-ups based on your website. If you suspect it, I think the website says call the Department of Health. You're not supposed to go to your primary care clinic.
Speaker 95
45:48
Where do you go? Those patients who are hospitalized or in a hospital setting, they can get those specimens collected at the hospital, and those are forwarded to us, or they can send them to LabCorp, another commercial lab, and those results will be reported to us and positive tests sent to us for confirmation.
Speaker 127
46:06
People who are not at a hospital, an emergency department, those can be collected by clinics, although many of the clinics are not comfortable doing that. In settings like, you know, where we are called to evaluate, Our staff can collect those samples. We are working on
Speaker 95
46:27
solutions, though, where people will be able to go to a place other than a hospital emergency department and get evaluated and specimens collected and tested.
I had conversations with UAMS even this morning on that. All
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
46:42
right. In the online directives to schools, it seems
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
46:46
to indicate they're supposed to be looking out for international travel. With the spread so far, and as I said, we don't want to overreact, are we going to revise those to people who may have traveled to areas within the United States, and when will we be revising
Speaker 95
47:03
those? Yes, our situation is very dynamic. We will be revising those on an ongoing basis.
Speaker 127
47:11
Really, just before I came up here, I sent a text to Secretary Key, and I talked with the governor about that
Speaker 172
47:18
this morning. So we'll be adjusting those, working very closely with the school districts. Do we have a plan
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
47:25
in place what triggers a school closure? Particularly, I know we put out guidelines on long-term
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
47:31
care facilities. Do we have guidelines to give to our school districts on what should trigger the closure of the school if
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
47:38
something occurs so that everybody understands what they're supposed to be doing?
Speaker 127
47:45
to develop some guidelines on those, but those are going to be very situation-specific and would
Speaker 95
47:50
like for that to be a partnership between the school district, Department of Education, and Department of Health in terms of when is it strategic to close and when is
Speaker 94
48:00
it not necessary. Well, I think all of us
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
48:02
hope that none of this is necessary, but it seems like we ought to be stepping on the gas pedal to make sure we have all
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
48:10
these plans in place. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, $8.8 million for the response, we think.
Senator Larry Teague
Unverified
48:15
I appreciate it. Thank you. dr smith it seems to me that there should have been some framework of this for this crisis already in place and and
Speaker 95
48:29
you just twist it here or there to make it fit is that not the case yes in fact this is very much part of our our pandemic plans that we've been working on ever since i've been at the health department since 2004 and and even before that you you plan with
the information that you have have available but then the actual situation requires a lot of changes and adjustments so very comfortable that many portions of our pandemic plans will be implemented pretty much as they were written but there are many many situations that will require some problem-solving based on Information as it becomes available. We have
Speaker 172
49:09
several more questions. Just sit tight Senator bond you're finished
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
49:17
Senator flowers Not senator flowers, but Thank you So following up one quick question on that are you getting all the assistance you need from the federal government as far as Answering our
Speaker 95
49:34
needs and the support coming down from the federal government. I feel we've got an exceptional exceptional support from the federal government, particularly CDC. I've been able to call high-level officials at CDC and get immediate answers. They can't always provide everything that everyone would want
just because of limitations of knowledge or resources, but I feel like we've had very, very responsive federal
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
49:56
partners. All right, and then I want to ask a question on page nine. And it talks about an example. example this is the health operations pain the administration pain section on page nine another example is creation of medical marijuana section and my question is how much of your budget is allocated to that particular
responsibility or can you segment it out Stephanie do
Speaker 164
50:27
you have that information handy? I do.
Speaker 99
50:30
It's just under $900,000. And what's the source of the
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
50:33
funding to pay for that? The source
Speaker 99
50:37
of the funding is fees and we receive receive that revenue from DF&A. We provide an estimate of our expenditures to operate the program and and they provide the funding. And so there's no federal funding attached to it is
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
50:50
that correct? No sir that's correct. Is the $900,000
adequate for the demand with the growth of the medical marijuana in the state have you kind of projected out
Speaker 99
51:05
to stay ahead of the demand it is adequate for us at this time we receive that payment based on our expenditures to operate the program and so we have currently eight staff that are that process the
Speaker 95
51:21
cards and and manage that program remember we're not responsible for the entire program we're responsible primarily for those for the cards the registration
Speaker 127
51:30
cards and the software that makes those that links those with other components okay thank you thank you mr. chair thank you
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
51:40
senator representative Boyd you're recognized thank you mr. chair
Chair
Unverified
51:44
I have three quick questions if it's okay number one I just want to confirm what I think I know is the state board of pharmacy state medical board and state nursing board are they in this appropriation somewhere no they're not that's not been
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
51:58
included in yet okay that's what I thought about I just wanted
Chair
Unverified
52:03
to verify that number two I just wanted the the appropriation amount for vaccinations I want to know where that is and then three related to that in the case that there is a vaccine available in the next fiscal year for the COVID-19. Is there adequate
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
52:24
appropriation to cover that? Thank you. The appropriation for vaccination is a
Speaker 170
52:29
little bit complex because we, we utilize various resources for those and for different types of vaccinations. Stephanie, do you want to get some
Speaker 99
52:38
details on that? So there's not a specific line item for vaccine appropriation, and I'm just going to look and see if I can tell you where that would be. The majority of the funding that we receive is from the federal government, but then we do also provide a funding or provide vaccinations for the expanded Medicaid population covered under S-CHIP, and that's in a different line item. That line item is in in the various in the various program support category but I
believe the others the other appropriation would be just out of our paying account
Speaker 170
53:19
yeah we utilize in some cases some of our of our reimbursement income for that as well as some state general revenue so it's a little bit complicated but your question about whether we would have sufficient appropriation that would depend really on the cost of those vaccines typically with our federal partners they risk they give us the vaccines and then we utilize funding to administer those vaccinations I think we probably would be able to do
that since we already have the infrastructure in place to give the vaccines if the fact if our federal partners provided us the actual vaccines uh then we we would probably have uh
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
54:00
the capacity to to administer those you through
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
54:21
representative vault you're recognized sorry i took um representative mccallum's seat by accident So, Mr. Chair, this may be for you. I'm not quite sure. I mean, I understand that the appropriation gives them flexibility, but it also limits our oversight of how those funds are spent. So can we find out in the last five years how much they have actually spent on their operating expense and their regular salaries to see if it's justified to be raised that much?
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
54:52
We'll do that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Kavanaugh, if you're
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
55:00
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is going to be dealing with page 18, which is going to be tobacco prevention. On tobacco prevention, can you tell me what goes
under professional fees? Stephanie, do you want to answer that question?
Speaker 99
55:23
Yes, ma'am. Professional fees is the media contract for that program. Okay,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
55:29
and is it just one vendor?
Speaker 99
55:32
Yes, ma'am. The current vendor is Cranford Communications, and that media campaign is focused
Speaker 114
55:38
on vaping and promotion of Be Well Arkansas, which is the new wellness
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
55:45
line. Another question I have is dealing with the line item tobacco prevention. there's
an increase between actual spend and what you're asking for
appropriation of four point a little over four million dollars what are we doing with that what is that expense what programs does that include
Speaker 99
56:09
so that's basically all of the programs all of the other operational programs other than the media contract so these are the state sub grants These are, we have a sub-grant to, two sub-grants to Arkansas Children's. One of those is for the Project Prevent Youth Coalition.
We have a contract with them also to do tobacco cessation for families that have children with medical issues. This is funding to 10 community-based grantees. They receive about $880,000 combined. Let me see. And what do they do to
Speaker 226
56:49
help with their tobacco prevention? So
Speaker 99
56:52
these are local community-based coalitions that do education at the local level.
They also advocate for smoke-free parks. They encourage kids to engage in activities that promote health and wellness. Each one is different, but they have a work plan that's focused on their local community and the ways that at the local level they can advance a healthy lifestyle, being tobacco free, not vaping, being aware of those dangers. We found that in terms of getting
Speaker 170
57:29
your bang for your buck in terms of tobacco prevention,
it really pays to invest at the local level because that's where people working with youth and working in their communities. In addition to policy changes, that's probably the most effective way that we have to prevent tobacco use. Does this have the quit line in it?
Speaker 99
57:58
There is no longer a quit line. We ended that contract with National Jewish and were able to operationalize those services in-house.
So we now have the Be Well Call Center that's managed at the department. So we have Arkansans speaking with Arkansans. We also have trained staff. MD Anderson came in and did training for us. Our call center operators are tobacco treatment specialists. They also have been trained to provide assistance related to diabetes and managing hypertension. So it's a more holistic approach. We also have trained additional staff in local health units across the state as tobacco treatment specialists.
So we're able to provide in-person counseling at those local health units. And then we've trained over 120 health care providers in the state. We've invited them to join us for those tobacco treatment cessation classes when MD Anderson has come in state. So we're building capacity not just at the department, but through health care our health care provider network to do tobacco cessation And that's all part of that expense. Is that where that goes? Okay. Well, I appreciate
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
59:07
we don't have to quit line anymore because I appreciate that. Thank you
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
59:16
Senator Elliott you're recognized Thank you, Mr. Chair Dr. Smith. I kind of have I just
an overall kind of forward-thinking generic question I think. With all of the moving parts that are happening in Washington right now about how to anticipate in working with the states, might we anticipate by the time we get into session that there may be changes in this budget based on what the needs will evidence themselves to be by the time we get to April the
Speaker 95
59:48
8th? The short answer is that that's likely because that's been
the case pretty much every year. As we face new health challenges, public health challenges, there are oftentimes changes in federal programs and available funds to us that we can't always anticipate in advance. And so unfortunately, very dynamic situation, challenging to plan for, but appreciate the support that you all give us here so that we can respond quickly these evolving situations. I'm thinking that
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
1:00:20
you know it might to know that now
might truncate some conversation by the time we get back to especially with what's going on now with the coronavirus and and sometimes there's even just things that are out of the blue we might get a grant for and it will look like a lot of money and it will be a lot of money but that is so much the way this budget gets operationalized things happen and I can just it just seems to me that might really be the case with dealing with the virus that it won't be
something we have to go back and forth you know among us it's just I could see that happening
Speaker 95
1:01:03
absolutely I very much value the oversight that I received from from this body sometimes with the cycle of federal funding it's so rapid that if If we're not able to utilize those funds right away, bring people on, then we lose that opportunity. So it's a challenge between wanting to be able to be flexible and utilize new federal dollars quickly and also wanting to plan and to get input from all of you
so that we can make sure that what we're doing is best for
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
1:01:34
the long-term needs of our state. And also, too, there is
that, because I am on the personnel committee, as surely as it happens with this budget it intersects with the personnel committee and we have to make sure you get fundings you can hire people quickly and oftentimes as well those are very high paying positions that we almost are required in order to operationalize the grant so I just just want to just put
that out there because it's so much of this is just routinely the way things will work. Good questions about it, but I could see us being here again by the time we get to
Speaker 115
1:02:17
the session, so hopefully this might help. Thank
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:02:21
you. Thank you, Senator. Senator Mark Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Smith, I'm going to go back
to the tobacco cessation programs. First question, does this program also cover vaping? I know it was created before that
phenomena even existed? And if so, has the methodology of attacking a problem changed in the vaping issue? That's an excellent question. Yes, we have really
Speaker 95
1:02:49
had to pivot in a big way. We have over the last 10 or 15 years seen a really a tremendous decrease in youth smoking, but now we've seen a dramatic increase in youth vaping over just the last few years. And so we have changed some of our messages, some of our approaches. Sadly for our Be Well Arkansas, we never
had to deal with cessation for teenagers before, but now we're dealing with that. So yes, we've made some major changes in our focus and our messaging, but many of the things remain the same. We're still talking about nicotine as an addictive substance and the need for grassroots efforts, for engagement with parents and community leaders as well as looking at policies. A major advance was raising the age of sale of tobacco products and vaping products to 21 and
we look to reap dividends from that from that policy both at the state and federal level over the next several years. Okay
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:03:57
quick follow-up if I may mr. chairman I've never had much stock in the some of these so-called community programs I've seen them you go to the fair and they you know they've got t-shirts and balloons and it looks like the the specialty advertising people are the only ones that are really benefiting from this and I would
encourage you to maybe relook at this I think when this whole settlement was made you know it's like a whole lot of money and I I've always thought that you know we've seen through the years that if there is a demographic that tends to smoke it's the people that are less educated and if we raise our level of education that they tend to not smoke and I'm wondering if maybe we should if we want to reduce tobacco use and hopefully vaping as well we would look at
at maybe putting some of this money into better educating our young people as opposed to giving them a t-shirt or a balloon or whatever. So I'm not saying we want to deal with that in this venue, but please look at that because
Speaker 95
1:05:09
on that. Absolutely, and we have really focused our tobacco, and I would say nicotine prevention efforts, really on youth and tried to make those, the youth need some form of engagement,
whether it's an art competition or whether, and sometimes a T-shirt is what it takes to, you know, I've got teenagers myself and they don't have the same tolerance for sitting down and talking about something, but if they can get involved in it themselves, so we try and create opportunities, but we'll look at that very judiciously. Great.
Speaker 172
1:05:40
Thank you, Dr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks, Senator Johnson. Senator
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:05:49
Bond? Just a request, Mr. Chairman, if we have an updated COVID-19 response in the plan and a projected budget,
I think it would be helpful if the legislature was provided that so we could have it and understand when our constituents call. Is that possible that we could be provided that? All our surrounding states are reporting cases except for Mississippi, according to my seatmate here, Senator Letty. so I think it is important we're all hoping for the best but planning for
Speaker 127
1:06:18
the worst so absolutely I think that would be very appropriate
Speaker 95
1:06:22
from the from the guidance that we've received so far from the supplemental appropriation at the
federal level when those funds are made available we will have a short window of time to develop our spending plan and once we receive that guidance and we put together that plan, that would be probably the best time to provide that. The estimates that we have right now are not following federal guidance. They're just our best guess as to what categories they're going to allow. Once we have that more specifics and come up with a plan that we're submitting to our
federal, to the federal government, then that's something that I would feel very comfortable sharing.
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
1:07:04
Well, and I think as the chairman pointed out, I think we'd like to have, it seems to me we need to have the plan in place now, not when the feds release the money. And so whatever you have, I think we should be able to see that or be involved in that. If you have an $8.8 million budget, which sounds low, hopefully we won't need anywhere near that. But I think as our oversight responsibility, we should be able to see what the Department of Health
and the executive branch is planning for. and so as soon as you can get us whatever you have I think where we would I would request it if I need to make a
Speaker 89
1:07:38
motion and I'll dr. Smith will you send it we send it staff and we'll
Speaker 127
1:07:42
we'll share it with the members very good we will share whatever we can with you again understanding that that these are our estimates and they may not they may not fit the grid for the
Speaker 5
1:07:55
federal funding we won't hold you to it.
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
1:08:03
Too hard. You done, Senator? Yes. Senator Chesterfield? I
guess I'm still not clear, Dr. Smith. There are states that are being very proactive in creating their own plans. I know I was there when the governor had the press conference indicating that we were preparing. Now we have the 8.8 million. Is there specificity in that 8.8 million as to what
Speaker 95
1:08:21
we're going to do? The estimate that we have put out there does have specificity in terms of categories, but this is something that we put together before we receive federal guidance as to what they would, exactly what they would fund. So there may be a difference between what we actually submit to the federal government in terms of our needs and what we've put down as our anticipated expenses. I understand what you're talking about
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
1:08:48
with the Fed, but I'm talking about Arkansas now yes we
have kits in this state right now that could be used to
test individuals correct have we tested any individuals and
Speaker 95
1:09:04
if so how many yes that's a moving target we've not tested an awful lot here because we've only been testing since Monday of last week prior to that all the tests
Speaker 153
1:09:16
were being sent to the CDC. But we have the capability now of testing in-state. Yes,
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
1:09:23
we do. About how many individuals, I'm hearing 103, the number fluctuates of individuals that may have been
exposed, not necessarily those who have it, but may
Speaker 95
1:09:38
have been exposed. We have, again, it's a moving target. We've only tested about 15 individuals so far. Now each individual, Those are multiple specimens, multiple tests. Our commercial labs are starting to do some of those testing, and so that will scale up the possibility.
The 100 that you're talking about are those who are potentially exposed but not symptomatic. We don't test people who are not symptomatic because... Why not? Because a negative test is meaningless in that setting. Until someone develops symptoms, we can't rely on a test result. If it's negative, it could be that you just tested them too early. I see.
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
1:10:25
So we wait for them to present before we
Speaker 95
1:10:29
test. When we have someone who enters the state who's come, for example, from Korea or China or Italy,
we have them self-quarantined. New York, Washington State, da-da-da-da. As we're adding these different places, yes. Someone who is potentially exposed, we have them self-quarantined for 14 days. We observe them for symptoms. If they develop symptoms, that's when we go ahead and test them. That's scary. Thank you. A
Senator Larry Teague
Unverified
1:11:00
couple more questions left, Dr. Smith. But to me, 15 tests doesn't sound like we're doing our job. Fifteen individuals. Yeah.
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:11:09
Representative Brey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Last night I was watching where Vice President Pence was heading up this task force, and it looked like they really knew what they were doing. And they said that the major problems with this were coming through either by boat or by airplane coming into the country. And they said the average age of the person dying from this was about 80 years old.
Now, what I wonder, there was a couple things that they mentioned there. They said that the local health departments from all 50 states were in line with what the vice president was speaking about. They were getting prepared. what I wonder is in our nursing homes how are we looking there in our retirement homes and all that sort of thing especially being an average of 80 years old how we're gearing up that for that and
and also sir you know they mentioned that if you have any doubt you know your fever starts certain things start to come on it's not normal to call the local health department and you know they would be ready for you you would come in and they would take care of business with masks and everything else and I just wonder if y'all are kind of lining up with the way that they are speaking of yes that's an
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
1:12:45
excellent point our most one
Speaker 170
1:12:47
of our most vulnerable populations are those in long-term care facility particularly nursing homes and that's been a major priority for me we've been we've worked with Department of Human Services into the industry and yesterday put out a directive to screen visitors because that's how that's how the kovat 19 would be introduced into a nursing home sit situation it would be from either a visitor or a staff member we have that
in place now and we will be looking at making adjustments as needed to that but that's a population that we're very very concerned about and want to be proactive with in terms of testing yes even over the weekend we had testing in one of the nursing homes fortunately all those individuals tested negative but if there's a situation like that we will work very closely with the facility and and act as quickly as possible.
Senator Larry Teague
Unverified
1:13:49
Thank you, Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator Rye. Doc, how many people died of the flu this year in Arkansas? We've had 82 reported flu deaths so
Speaker 14
1:14:03
far. All right, thank you. We have one more
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:14:08
question. Is that you, Representative Wooten? Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. I'm a little concerned I'm going to follow Senator Bond's line of questioning I'm a little concerned that you made the comment
we're waiting on the federal government we could wait a long time we're getting mixed messages out of Washington relative to what this is and how serious it's going to be My question is, where are we in the planning process? Are we 50% complete? Let's say we wake up in the morning and we've got 10 cases and 10 virus individuals in Arkansas.
How rapidly can we move? and I haven't heard anything said about our hospitals, where they are and are they prepared. I know UAMS and Baptist and some of those, but what about the smaller areas? Let's say it jumps from Memphis to Hughes. Well, that's going to put a big burden on that hospital in Forest City. So what are we doing? Absolutely.
Speaker 95
1:15:28
This is a very good question, and I'd like to – we could spend a long time discussing that, but I'll try and make it as short as possible. We have been, as part of our ongoing preparedness activities, working with each of those hospitals, each county, to develop pandemic plans, and now we are in the implementation phase. So we're not waiting for the federal government to implement our plans. And we are ready, and we're watching very carefully. We've got approximately 100 folks who we are monitoring,
and then others who may develop symptoms. We go in and we will test them right away. We're ready to move. Now, what I'm waiting for on the federal government is for them to give budget guidance before I make a request. There's no sense in me sending
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:16:23
the categories that they have. Well, I agree with that, But I think, too, that it would be judicious for us to have a dollar amount as a legislative body.
If it's $50 million, if it's $28 million, whatever it is, we need a number. Exactly. Because, you know, if it gets bad, it's going to get bad quick. Absolutely. Is
Speaker 98
1:16:49
that not true? That is correct. So, you
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:16:53
know, the sooner you, Gary and Senator Bond, the sooner you can get us a number, the more flexibility we're going to have relative to making sure that we're protecting the people of Arkansas.
Speaker 5
1:17:07
Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Representative Wooden. You guys will just stay there. Mildred,
Senator Larry Teague
Unverified
1:17:21
do you have anything else? No, sir. That concludes my presentation. That concludes your presentation.
Speaker 5
1:17:28
thank you are there any more questions any more questions seeing none can i have a motion a second what executive rec motion executive rec all those in favor aye
opposed you guys have it thank you doctor thank you thank you mr
Speaker 254
1:17:45
members i think that concludes our day doesn't
Speaker 5
1:17:52
it so we're back in the morning with public safety back in the morning at nine with public safety uh see y'all in the morning thank you guys
Agenda
A. Call to Order
C. Consideration of Act 678 of 2019 – Government Financial Disclosure and Accountability Act requiring an appropriation for unappropriated cash funds.
D. Department of Health Requests FY2021
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 5
Speaker 8
Senator Larry Teague
Unverified
Speaker 16
Speaker 17
Speaker 19
Speaker 23
Speaker 24
Speaker 25
Speaker 31
Speaker 4
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
Speaker 44
Speaker 46
Speaker 49
Speaker 54
Speaker 58
Speaker 36
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 22
Speaker 7
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
Speaker 90
Speaker 95
Speaker 99
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
Speaker 112
Speaker 114
Speaker 116
Speaker 121
Speaker 125
Speaker 131
Speaker 122
Speaker 123
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
Speaker 140
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
Speaker 127
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
Speaker 97
Speaker 159
Speaker 164
Speaker 94
Speaker 170
Speaker 172
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
Speaker 182
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 220
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Speaker 226
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
Speaker 115
Speaker 89
Speaker 153
Speaker 14
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
Speaker 13
Speaker 98
Speaker 254