House Meeting

Father, we thank you for this great state of Arkansas, and we thank you for this chamber. We thank you for the decisions that have been made. We thank you for the friendship that has been made, even our differences, Father. We still remain friends. So we thank you for this session, and now, Lord, we ask that you continue to bless and guide us. Bless us as we return to our districts, Father, our families, Father. We thank you for our families for supporting us while we're here. So, Lord, we give glory and honor. In

Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, and God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Clerk please read the proclamation state

of Arkansas legislative department proclamation whereas the house concurrent resolution 1006 of the regular session of the 92nd general assembly provides for a recess of the session on or before april 12 2019 and whereas house concurrent resolution 1006 authorized the speaker of the house and the president pro tem of the senate by joint proclamation to reconvene the general assembly at any time before 12 o'clock noon may 6 2019 for the purpose of considering vetoes correcting errors and oversights completing its work on proposed constitutional amendments considering the need for further extension of the regular session of the 92nd general assembly or to adjourn the regular session sine die now therefore we the undersigned speaker of the house and president pro tem of the senate pursuant to the provisions of house concurrent resolution 1006 hereby direct that the regular session of the 92nd journal assembly of the state of arkansas shall reconvene at 12 o'clock noon wednesday april 24th 2019 for the following purpose to adjourn the 92nd general assembly regular session sine die in witness thereof we have herein too set our hands and caused the great seal of the state of arkansas to be affixed at the state capitol in little rock on the 16th day of april in the year of our lord 2019 signed matthew j shepherd speaker of the house and jim hindron president pro tem senate mr speaker you are recognized

thank you madam chair members uh martha said it's a

bit bittersweet to come to the end of the session and i kind of agree with her on that that you know you look forward to the adjournment but then after the number of days that we've been here in the hard work that we've done it is a bittersweet time you know as I thought about what I would like to say just briefly here at the conclusion of the session I thought back to the first day of the session back in January there were a few more people here than there are today there was a little more interest there were a lot of people outside even in the hallways that might have had something to do with committee selection I don't know but you know as I thought back to what I said that first day I began with a number of thank-yous and so what I thought was that what I wanted to focus on here in this brief time was I wanted to kind of conclude the session the way that we began and if you'll recall that first day I think the number of people I think my family I think my friends back home I think the people of Arkansas I think your friends and family we all recognized our friends and family that helped to make our service possible and of course the people of Arkansas who have allowed us this great honor and privilege and I thought about you know it's a very humbling opportunity for any of us to get the opportunity to stand here today as the Sun comes out and you get to look up into the stained glass and realize that there's very few people that ever have the opportunity to be in this room let alone to cast votes for their for their friends and family and neighbors back home and yet we've been privileged enough to have that opportunity and I'd like to begin the first thank you I'd like to say is to the staff and hopefully the staff even outside the chamber could step in just for a minute here and I'd like for us to join in thanking them for their hard work throughout this session You know, one of the things I've realized since becoming speaker is there's so much that goes into a session, there's so much that goes into the operations of the House, particularly during a session and these are the people that make it happen we get a lot of attention here as representatives but ultimately none of this and our service here would not be possible without the staff that just makes things happen we take so much for granted here that when we need something it just happens and it's because of the staff and it's because they work very hard they work long hours and they are here and they do a great service not just to us but to the people of Arkansas and I want to thank them for their service I'd like to thank you as the house for the confidence that you've shown me as speaker I've tried to do the best that I can to serve you and to hopefully provide leadership to allow us to have an effective session for the people of Arkansas. You know, as I think about this session and the fact that we were in session for 87 days, you know, one of the things that I talked about probably at the outset of the session and even before that was that I wanted us, while we're here, to work hard. We needed to be here long enough to do the job, but we weren't going to belabor the point. And I think that's what we've done. and I appreciate you and I thank you for your hard work I really feel like that while we were here we made the most of our time here we tried some things new we did away with the bill filing deadline which ultimately the preliminary numbers indicate that less bills were filed it kept relatively cleaner agendas for the committees we also worked the four-day week for virtually the entire session which I know at the outset there was some skepticism as to whether we could make that happen and still get the work done and I think we've proven that we can and actually one of the things that I wasn't sure at the outset was how would it be received outside the chamber I thought it was a good thing for us in terms of being able to go home and meet with our constituents and be able to be away from the Capitol some and I think it helped with morale I think it helped with a lot of things but it's been amazing the number of comments that I've received from individuals outside the chamber who have thanked me and thanked us for working in that manner because it allowed us to have more interaction during the week with our constituents and I think that's something that's very important so thank you for that. You know one of the things that I've talked about related to that was that I want us to have a very efficient session. I think we've done that. History will judge what we've done here. I think that what we've seen is that we ran a very efficient session. We kept some of the drama to a minimum and I'm very proud of the fact of how we worked and the fact that we gave our best efforts and I realized at the end of a session that probably for each of us there's probably a few bills that we wished would have passed. There's probably a few bills that each of us wished had not passed but at the end of the day we came together to represent the people of Arkansas and we did so with professionalism and civility and that's something that's of the utmost importance and I think that we've proven again to the people of Arkansas and to the nation that we've lived up to our reputation as being one of the most civil and one of the most professional legislative bodies in all of the country, if not the world. And what we see here is something that Washington, D.C. could learn from is to see how we come together from the four corners of the state of Arkansas, whether you're from the Ozark Mountains, the Ouachita Mountains from the bayous of South Arkansas or the Delta or the urban areas of Central Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas, but somehow we come together with all of that and we make laws for the people of Arkansas and we debate and discuss those issues and I want to thank you for how you've handled yourselves because I believe you've made the people of Arkansas proud, so thank you very much. Finally, as we move into the interim, I would just ask that you continue to do what you've been doing that you continue to serve and serve with professionalism and civility that as we approach the interim I'm going to encourage our chairs to be efficient in our meetings that when we're here let's work hard but let's not let's not drag this thing out and we're going to look to work with the Senate and try and create a more efficient schedule during the interim but I look forward to seeing you here around the Capitol and if there's anything I can do for you during the interim please do not hesitate to let me know and so with that thank you very much for your service and I'll return to the chair and we'll wrap this up thank you Members, after communicating with the Senate and determining there is no further business necessary to come before the regular session of the 92nd General Assembly, in accordance with the provisions of House Concurrent Resolution 1006, the House of Representatives is hereby adjourned. Signe Dye.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The House will informally come to order. Representative Wing, you're recognized. Mr. Speaker.