Arkansas Girls State 2012 (pt2)

Representative Mock has spoken for the bill. Is there anyone who would like to speak against the bill? Representative Wagner, you are recognized. Thank you, Madam Speaker. The first thing I noticed when reading this bill, it just screamed that the state was going to spend more money to create an unnecessary program. Now, do not get me wrong on this. We do need to eat healthy. We do need to have active lifestyles, but I think that should be left up to the citizens. She has spoken against the bill. Is there anyone who would like to speak for the bill? Representative Thompson, you are recognized. Let's speak for the bill. They're recognized. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I just kind of, in response to that, well, what responsibility does the government have for our citizens' health? We can't bow down, you know, everything. We have to take responsibility for something. And I think investing in health is very important. So I think, yes, it will cost money, but it's about encouraging healthy lifestyles, and I think that's worth it. Representative Sanders, for what purpose? I have a question. Where is the money going to come from? Like, are we going to have to raise food prices so then we can get the 10% back? I mean, I don't know. I didn't make the bill. I'm just saying in support of the bill, I think it's a good idea. and it shouldn't just be ruled out. I don't know. Representative Baker, for what purpose? Baker. Sorry. Never mind, she's not up there anymore. Representative Rogers, for what purpose? You are recognized. This goes along with one of the questions that was just asked. In the latter part of it, it says on line 33 that people who eat supposedly 90% right will get a 10% card back, basically 10% of whatever they bought back. I don't see why we are taking money from the government to award people who are already healthy when we could be spending that money on people that are sick. And I also think it is personal responsibility how you take care of your body, and that's great that you're making right choices. I applaud people who do, but the government shouldn't be awarding them for that. Thank you. Representative Slinkard, you are for what purpose? make a motion for immediate consideration. Proper motion is not debatable. The question before the House is immediate consideration of Senate Bill 6. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The ayes have it. Now, the question before the House is passage of Senate Bill 6. Prepare the machine, Madam Clerk. Has everybody voted? Cast up the ballot. But, with nine yeas and 76 nays and eight presents, this bill has failed. Okay, Madam Speaker, ladies, let me try to bring you up to date to summarize where we are here. Senate Bill, Senate, we sent three bills over here, Senate Bill 1, Senate Bill 2, and Senate Bill 6. You passed Senate Bill 1, and you passed Senate Bill 2, and you defeated Senate Bill 6. The law provides that the originating body of a bill sends it to the governor's office because the bills require the governor's signature. Our clerks will transmit Senate Bills 1 and 2 back to the Senate, and they would send them to the governor's office for his signature. And if he signed them or didn't veto them in seven days, they would become law. Now, the House bills are the same way. We sent 1, 2, 6, and 9 to the Senate. We haven't had a report back on what they've done. If they pass any or all of those, they will come over here, and the same action will happen. The clerk will enroll them, and they will be transmitted to the governor's office for his signature. So that's where you stand right this minute, and we have no other business before the body at this time, so we're going to be getting ready to adjourn. Before we do, though, I'd like to ask you this simple question. Do any of you have any questions about anything that's transpired, the process, the procedure, or anything? And don't be abashful about asking questions or whatever. Is there something that's burning on you that you'd like to know? Well, between all of us here, some of us can answer. If not, and I don't see anyone jumping out of their seat. Okay, here we go. Is that somebody here? Do you have a question? Use your microphone. What happens if the governor vetoes it? Do we have to go through this process again? Yeah, the question was, what happens if the governor vetoes it? If the governor vetoes a bill, it goes back to the originating House, and that House may begin the process of overriding the governor's veto, and different from Washington, which takes two-thirds vote in Washington, Only 51 votes here in this House would be necessary to override a governor's veto. Then the bill would get transmitted to the Senate, and at least 18 members of the Senate would have to vote to override, and then it would become law overriding the governor's signature. It requires the approval of a majority vote of both bodies of this legislature for it to override a governor's veto. Good question. okay um my question is okay so i've done like student congress and stuff like that and i'm used to like us having amendments and we'll make an emotion okay i guess my question is when you all when like the house is in here like in the chamber Are there any amendments made or anything? Because I know when, like, I'm used to student Congress and stuff, and when we make motions, we make motions to, like, two or three different amendments. Are there any amendments made in here to make these bills, like, a little bit better? Okay, purposely, the staff did, left off an opportunity for amendments for y'all because they're more of a deterrent in the fact that you're just here one day. Yet, what happens when a member introduces a bill, like when the person introduced House Bill 1001, you could have then filed with the clerk an amendment to it. You could file as many amendments as you want to. So those amendments then would be considered before final action on the bill. So if the bill came up and it had five amendments on it, the clerk would notify the Speaker of that, and the Speaker would say, we have five amendments on this bill. Read Amendment No. 1. And so we'd read Amendment No. 1 and dispose of it one way or the other and go through Amendment 2, 3, 4, 5. If any of those amendments pass, that holds up the process on the bill because it's sent to the clerk's office for what we call engrossing, which means that the wording that you put in in the amendment is engrossed in the bill, and it becomes a part of the bill. And then we would proceed to respond to the bill one way or the other by voting up or down on it. But, yeah, we do have plenty of opportunity for amendments here. In fact, we have more amendments than we do bills. But we did not subject you all to amendments today because our rule is it had to be drawn up on a certain kind of paper, a sheet of paper where you can line out them and whatever so everybody can see what's going on. Okay? Representative Summers, you are recognized. My question is, how often does the House of Reps meet? Her question was, how often does the House of Representatives meet? The House itself, when it's in the regular session, usually comes in at 1.30 and quits whenever the business is over that day. You might wonder, why aren't you meeting in the morning? Because we have committees that handle these bills and refer them out to the House, and they meet in the morning. days we meet, those times I gave you 1.30 through whatever, Monday through Thursday, Friday we generally start at 10 o'clock and stop at 12 noon on Fridays. That's generally the schedule. Admittedly, that schedule can change from minute to minute or day to day depending upon what the workload might be on some given day or whatever. On some given day, we may start at 1 instead of 1.30. Or we may even start at 12.30 depending upon what the workload is. And definitely stay later if we need to. Okay? Good question. Representative Overby, you are recognized. My question was about the amendment. So to submit an amendment, you have to have that tablet or something that you were talking about, and that's how you submit it to the clerk? You have to have an amendment form to do an amendment. So let me give you an example. Let's say a bill was here before you that wanted to raise teacher's salary $100 a month. month that what was in the bill and maybe one of you or some of you thought maybe that wasn't enough so you put an amendment in for a hundred and fifty dollars a month okay now as I mentioned to you earlier the amendments are taken up before the bills are so that amendment for a hundred and fifty dollars would be taken up first if it passed it would be sent to engrossing and merged into the bill if it didn't pass it would be defeated and the bill would still be at 100. Doesn't that make it sense? Okay? I'm getting a couple of my odds anyway. Okay? But the amendments are going to change a definite part of the bill. And then the passage of them or the defeat of them is left up to the body. And if they pass, then they become a part of it. If they fail, then they're out of the way. And the process continues just like it was. You haven't done anything to it. Okay? Yeah. Okay. I'm here. We've got another Senate bill. Madam Clerk, read Senate Bill number seven. Yep, I'll wait. Senate Bill seven. Senators Sydney Huffman and McNeese Nutt to change the hardship driver's license law. We got any takers? Representative Rogers, you are recognized. Okay, so the point of this bill seems to make it a little bit harder to get a hardship. It's based on the person's grade point average, their reasoning, their age, and a result of an interview, and the reason for the hardship given by the parent. And let's see. Yeah, it just seems like it's making it just a little bit harder than it already is. And I know a lot of people get hardships just for reasons they kind of make up. And as someone who's like 14 or 15, I know there's a far greater chance they're going to get an accident and a lot of them should not be driving. I'll take questions if anyone has any. Representative Tyler, for what purpose? I have a question. I was just wondering if you could elaborate the meaning of lines 30 and 31. I think it just means that you can't get a hardship if you don't have substantial proof that you actually need one. I'm pretty sure. Thank you. Representative Slinker, do you are recognized to speak against the bill? I do not feel that you should have to have a certain grade point average to obtain a hardship because many students need to take younger brothers and sisters to places and you know their families are sick sometimes and they need to be able to go places so how How is a grade point average is going to stop you from obtaining one? Representative Overby, for what purpose? Yes. Am I recognized? You are recognized. Thank you. Well, you're saying that you don't need a specific grade point average in order to receive a hardship license. But wouldn't you think if you can't maintain a grade point average, you know, just a 2.5 or whatever they're asking. If you can't maintain a 2.5, why should you be allowed the privilege to drive underage? Why not? Because I feel if you're responsible enough to maintain the grade 1 average, then you would be able to charge it. I think it has to do with the level of responsibility. But just because you can't maintain a certain grade 1 average does not mean you're incapable of being a good driver. Representative Tyler, for what purpose? Okay. Nice. I was wondering if you're aware of the fact that there's already a law in place that a GPA is like already required to get a hardship. No, I'm not, but I'm just stating my opinion, so thank you. Representative Carnine, for what purpose? I was just going to comment on the same thing that she just commented on. Is there anyone who would like to speak for the bill? Against? Representative Rogers, would you like to close the bill? Question before the House is passage of Senate Bill 7. Prepare the machine, Madam Clerk. Has everyone voted? Cast the ballot. With 52 yay, 37 nay, and 3 present, the bill is passed. Representative Rodgers, for what purpose? Representative Rodgers, to move the clincher, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The ayes have it. Clincher is adopted. Now here's an emergency clause. Now here's an emergency clause. Okay, you'll turn that bill over to the next page on it. There's something here that says emergency clause. Emergency clause is a provision where if the sponsor and supporting members who ever feel like it, that law is necessary quick, then an emergency clause passage would cause it to be law immediately following the governor's signature. But that emergency clause requires an extraordinary vote. So we're fixing to vote here in just a few minutes. And if that emergency clause gets 67 votes, it will have passed. If it doesn't get 67 votes, it won't have the emergency clause on it, and then it won't become law until 90 days after signing the adjournment. If you pass the emergency clause, it will become law as soon as the governor signs it. Expediting. You got me? So we're going to have the emergency clause before you. If you supported the bill, naturally you would want to support the emergency clause. Then the rest of you have to make a decision on what you want to do. And the emergency clause is not debatable. Question before the House is the emergency clause on Senate Bill No. 7. Prepare the machine, Madam Clerk. Has everybody voted? Cast the ballot. But by 68 yea, 19 nay, and for present, you have passed the emergency clause. Ladies, that's usually the way it happens in here in the House, too. That's pretty close right there. But by and large, you did the right thing. When the bill passed, unless you had some real reason for it not to be law early, it's going to be law sooner or later anyway. Unless you had a real reason, go ahead and support the emergency clause and let it go. So it's an act of kindness towards the sponsor and its supporters. But if you didn't like it, you could vote against it. You did good. Okay. I think we're quitting time, or we're not. Thank you. at the House this time. Cindy may be working on something, but we don't know whether it's going to pass it or not. So, Ms. Bradford, as far as I know, unless you have something that you'd like to add, we're ready to adjourn this session. With no further business of the Arkansas Growth State 2012 House, we are adjourned. Thank you all. Thank you very much. Thank you. Leave the pink slips on the desk for the DVDs and we'll pick those up later. The legislature was instrumental in helping Arkansas State Building in 1836. For 80 years, the House of Representatives met in what we now call the old State House. In 1911, the House relocated to the then-unfinished State Capitol, where it is still at work today. You're