House Convenes

House Bill come to order. I am by the member staff press and gas in the galleries to stand to be led in prayer by representative Mike Holcomb and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. To be led by a representative Bruce Cozart. Further please have the father we thank you for your goodness thank you for the grace your god with all the problems we have we're thankful that were born in the good Ole USA NO were thankful for those that have fall from the freedom Force dear god and we enjoy the freedom that we have today we thank you for your goodness we thank you for your grace we thank you for the ability to be here today and to work for the state of Arkansas it's really just an honor we thank you for that again the FBI directors and all that we do let us do whatever we do this would be not only pleasing to those we serve that will be placing the. We are you and we praise you not holy name we pray amen. Members please indicate your presence by pushing your yellow present button prepare the machine madam Clerk. Passed up the ballot madam Clark. With with ninety seven members present the chair sees a quorum are there any request for leave representative would occur for what purpose leave you're recognized. Mister Speaker request me to represent Lane Jean is leave granted for representative Jean. So noted. Percent per year for what purpose request leave you're recognized that request leave for representative Mayberry is leave granted for represent Mayberry. So noted. Scott what purpose. I don't know what the correct call it be but she said she just got a committee meeting. And I don't know. The man fled representative flowers. When we will record her as president okay thank you gets here represent what for what purpose the. Your record representative Cameron Cooper. It's leave granted represent Cameron Cooper. So noted. Representive Jeff Wardlaw most we dispense the reading of the previous day's Journal without objections so ordered are there Reports from select committees. Other Reports from standing committees. Is there any unfinished business are there any Executive communications. Members Our Arkansas state troopers have been with us this week and with this today our trooper Kevin grounds troop G. in magnolia trooper Ross Allen trick Balcon Crossett and also trooper Greg **** issues with the the highway patrol administrative office here in Little Rock. In the west gallery the guests of represent steps and pain or we have Mountain Home city council members Bob and Aaron and Nick read. And then we also have with us the mayor of cave city mayor Jonas Anderson that guests of represent Marshall's. Madam Clark please read house concurrent resolution one thousand five. House resolution one thousand five by representative Bentley to proclaim the religious freedom day. President Bentley you're recognized explain resolution. Good morning colleagues what we make here to well start another session I'm really excited to always smiling face. Nearly two hundred fifty years ago on January sixteenth seventeen eighty six Thomas Jefferson's Virginia statute for religious freedom was an active. The statute was a forerunner to the first amendment to the United States constitution which protects the rights of and was individuals to express freely interact peacefully on their religious beliefs and also protect individuals from being forced to professor Act believes which they do not adhere. Jefferson said that no provision in our constitution had to be dear to men than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of our civil authority. It was Jefferson who wrote the declaration of independence that we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that include life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So some of you may ask me why to set aside a day to honor our religious freedoms in this nation and I would respond if we don't understand the source and origin of our god given rights we will be unable to to preserve them if we cannot maintain religious liberty will not secure civil liberty we need only to look to China Iran are now free to see that this is true believers in these nations cannot serve god for express to Christian beliefs without facing jail time persecution at times even death if religious liberty is lost in our nation our liberty we lost with it. I'd like to read a quote to you. From Mr Jedidiah Morse a leading educator from the founding here who was active in the center of the revolution and help given positions afterwards you're my the citizens of his time to the kind in Lewis of Christianity we that degree of civil freedoms and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoy and proportion has a genuine effects of Christianity are diminishing any nation in the same proportion of the people of that nation received from the blessings of genuine freedom an apartment the miseries of completely despotism I hope this to be true confirmed by experience if so it follows that all efforts made to destroy the foundations of our holy religion ultimately tend to be the subversion also our political freedom and our happiness whatever the pools of Christianity shall be overthrown our president Republican forms of government and all the blessings that flow from them must fall. In February nineteen sixty one the year that I was born president John F. Kennedy gave a speech in which he stated. This country was founded by men and women who are dedicated or came to be dedicated to two propositions first a strong religious conviction and secondly our recognition that this conviction could flourish only under a system of freedom. I think it's appropriate that we pay tribute to this great constitutional principles which is trying to the first amendment of the constitution the principal a religious independence a religious liberty religious freedom. But I also think it's also important I pay tribute and acknowledge another great principal that is the principle of religious conviction. Religious freedom has no significance unless it is accompanied by conviction and therefore the Puritans and the pilgrims of my own section of New England the Quakers of Pennsylvania and the Catholics of merchant of Maryland the Presbyterians of North Carolina the Methodist and Baptist who came later all share these two great traditions which like silver threads to run through our the war and the rules of American history. No man who enters the office to which I succeed and fail to recognize that every president of the United States has paid special reliance upon his faith in god. Every president has taken comfort and courage when told that the lord will be with you he will not. Fear not neither be thou dismayed. Well the campaign wide right of religious backgrounds and held a wide variety of religious beliefs each of our presence in its own way this place a special trust in god. Those who are strong verse and textual intellectually we're also strongest spiritually. The guiding principle approve this nation has been and is now and shall ever be and god. The college Mister Speaker I will contest we want our children and our grandchildren to enjoy the freedoms that. Stand up and push back against the woke agenda that is trying to re write our nation's history we cannot let ourselves be silenced we must stand up for the. And preserve. We are god fearing Americans proud of our nation's history is even with our fall. With that I would ask for a good vote and join me in honoring religious freedom day and living without the conviction thank. Represent Bentley's explain the resolution would anyone like to speak against the resolution. Would anyone like to speak for the resolution. President Bentley is close for the resolution the question before the House is the adoption or passage of house concurrent resolution one thousand five all in favor say aye. Any opposed resolution passes. Members we have a few more guests with us today. Have may your vote James mayor Rodney Roberson mayor Eddie done again chief of police Senate Callum's all who are represent guests of representative Jon Milligan and they are in the west gallery. Also with this from the northwest Arkansas economic development district is and a city councilman in Harrison is Jeremy Ragland the guest of representative Ron McNair and the director Joe Wallace the guest of representative Stephen Walker. The morning hour isn't it. Mendler read resolution HR one thousand one. House resolution one thousand one to adopt the rules of the house of representatives of the ninety first General Assembly. Mr Speaker you're recognized to explain resolution. Thank you Mr chairman. Members I bring to you today house resolution one thousand one which are the proposed rules for the House represents for the ninety fourth General Assembly this is that traditional customer practice to bring the rules at the beginning of session by rule were to take them up on the house floor by boat I believe by the third day of session and so here we are today you recall we adopted the temporary rules on Monday and so I have I filed these rules last week. And they ran in house rules committee rules committee yesterday. So I'm gonna point out the differences between the rules of the ninety third. And and basically that the practice and custom here has been from. One sessions the next essentially to keep the same rules to look for what changes should be made there's always some tweaks that maybe the parliamentarian recommends but by and large. Adopt or propose essentially the same rules from the previous previous session and that's occurred session after session for. I would have asked body but of a long time. So today in light of that perspective I wanted to just hit the differences between the the rules from the ninety third in the ninety fourth. And so we'll work through that. First. The rules add language throughout that incorporate bill filing deadlines and fiscal impact statement requirements related to legislate legislation affecting state sponsored health benefits and higher education scholarships. This is we're doing this because in the ninety third General Assembly we essentially enacted these provisions in state law back in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two. For those that were here during the ninety third you'll recall that employee benefits for the state became a huge issue the funding of employee benefits was a tremendous issue and the legislature working with the executive branch but the legislature really took the lead in reviewing how we handle our employee benefit plans and Senator Hickey represent Wardlaw and numerous other folks from both the house and Senate worked on that and if you're here in the ninety third you recall that I believe executive subcommittee avail C. took the lead on that but that the members of a LC the members of the General Assembly were encouraged repeatedly to be a part of those discussions and out of that legislation was passed that set places bill filing deadlines in fiscal impact requirements and similarly on higher education scholarships similarly those requirements were put in place and the reason that as I recall at the time we did this put these in place was because what we found is over time legislation affecting employee benefits you run a bill seems not to do much but we don't have the fiscal impact over time as you enact legislation on legislation that builds up. And eventually leads us to a point where we're having to completely look at how are benefit plans are being handled or otherwise we're gonna have to infuse millions and millions of dollars and still may have to do that but it least gives us the option to have perspective on how we handle those so those that the point here is those changes were adopted by state law. And to be consistent with state law for proposing to put them in the rules. Second point. throughout their style elements that have been. It is kind of Grammar that may have been corrected terms that were used to to try to bring some consistency those raw by recommendation of either BLR or the parliamentarian and so there may you may see some minor changes that that have been taking place those are intended not to be substantive very minor in nature. Third point the parliamentarian recommended that we eliminate the four thirty PM deadline for distribution of members own calendars each day the deadline served as the parliamentarians that serve no obvious purpose and sometimes prevented members from adding amendments later in the day. The minute and I'll look the parliamentarian the members on calendar will still have to come out the day before but we will not be held to the four thirty deadline. And this became an issue can become an issue if you have committee meetings later in the day or a different session to later in the day and maybe don't get your amendment over here. This gives us a little some additional flexibility so that hopefully you know member's own is what occurs in the morning when you make the center a commitment over it can be brought up in the morning and generally no one's here even if somebody wants to show up they can but this is really kind of pro forma and so this is just trying to aid you as representatives to be able to efficiently amend your bills and hopefully help you to to be ready to run those in committee In the in the near future. A fourth change recommended by the parliament parliamentarian was to change the words utilized. Or circumstances in which a member might leave office and create a committee vacancy in that's rule fifty four a five it replaces the word impeachment with expulsion the recommendation was made because the term expulsion is public is in the parliamentarians of opinion is the proper term and brings consistency between our rules and other provisions of of law. The fifth change is to update the list of house districts the composed each of the four House caucus district you recall that we had to redo those caucus district because of redistricting we're required to have twenty five house districts in each of the caucus districts and so every ten years we have to update that list and so this just simply amends related to or provides for provisions and related to their consistent with the caucus district for which each of you selected committees back in December. And then finally and probably the most It's significant change other than what was already enacted by Arkansas law on the EBD and higher education scholarships would be the. Committee agenda process. Prior to twenty twenty one if you filed a bill. You when you filed a bill it's read across the desk. I sign it Speaker assigned to a Committee it goes to the committee an inmate and and then it is placed on the agenda so every bill that's been assigned to that committee initially shows up on the agenda. And then the committee meets you know every twice a week or once a week depending on circumstances and your bill is listed there. Because of COVID we have made a change because. When your bill is filed it will go to the agenda. And the practice is practically is to talk to the chair and to talk about when your bill could run talk about when you would want your bill to run. Sometimes members file bills beginning session but they are not ready to run them until later and generally the chair will work with you and say okay we'll just let it sit there. Well the issue we ran into and thinking about how to safely operate during covid. What is the fact that when a bill is filed as everybody probably know knows if you filed a bill if your bill is is does much of anything here to start getting calls about it for and against. And so what can happen is you can file a bill. And then it's on the agenda and it's on the agenda every single time the Committee meets well folks that are either for or against it they may not know they may not know that you don't intend to run it until a month from now but they're coming to the capitol every time the committee meets and they're sitting there. And so the thought was that during covid we didn't need to have everybody just sitting here we needed to make space for those whose legislate for the bills that are actually being run it would run and so the thought was just trying to bring that what is consensually the practice and make that. Then the proper part of the process but now that were beyond covid my proposal is to go back to the way we handle things previously and I guess I didn't really specify during covid when you filed a bill it did not go on the agenda immediately you would talk to the chair about speeding it scheduled and then placed on the calendar so instead of having fifty bills on an agenda you might have five for that meeting. Nonetheless now they will be on covid the and and after talking with the number of members some members you know talk to me about going back to the old way and so I am proposing that we go back to the way the rule was so this is House Committee rules addendum section nineteen go back to the way the rules were prior to covid and so when you file it it goes on the agenda. Now again and I want to say this is not really directly related to the rule but it's a it's a it's just a matter of practice and how the house is operated for all these many years when you file a bill I would recommend reaching out to the chair of that committee and talking with them about what the schedule is looking like. Under the rules under the rule is proposed and the way it always been prior to twenty one. If the chair calls your bill and you're not there and it's passed over after it goes to the bottom of the agenda and if it's passed over three times then it may moved to the deferred agenda. So it's critical it's important to have communication and if you're not going to be there generally the chair will not call your bill up And so that won't necessarily count against you but again it's important to communicate on that and obviously I will be encouraging all of the chairs to communicate with their members and if there's any issues along those lines you can certainly let me know. So I believe those are. All of the Significant and even somewhat insignificant changes that are being made but again in. I wanted to fully explain those I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. If not I would appreciate a good vote. Speaker Shepherd has explained the resolution would anyone like to speak against the bill. The resolutions using. Anyone like to speak for the resolution. Because Shepherd US close for your bill. Speaker Shepherd is closed for the bill the question before the House is the passage of resolution H. R. one thousand and one. Repair the machine madam Clerk. Cast up the ballot. As everyone voted. Casts up the ballot man and third. With the eighty seven Yeas one day and seven present the resolution has passed. Represent makes for what purpose motion place let's hear motions after the announcmenet during the bills transferring the bill's place in the counters on the desk members amending their own bills own amendments members withdrawing their own bills finalize resolutions reading communications and any remaining committee reports I move that we adjourn until next Tuesday at one thirty. That is a proper motion it's not debatable all in favor say aye. Any opposed. The motion is adopted. Members before we. Members of before. Before we go to. Announcements just in thinking about next week. Again we will reconvene Tuesday. We're convening on the house floor at one thirty but remember there would be potentially what eight committees meeting that morning so. Just keep that in mind again I'm keep continue remind you watch your emails continue to check the ark like website any questions feel free to reach out to me or Roy or amber her body or any of the anyway in the committee chairs so any questions along the way let us know Over the next few weeks there may be we're trying to get into a are are more usual routine and so there may be different meetings that pop up along the way and and so it's important to continue to monitor your emails as we ramp up session all right. Any other announcements representative Cavenaugh for purpose. You're recognized a joint budget will meet Tuesday morning at nine AM and big mac I. President Stan Berry for what purpose announcmenet you're recognized judiciary will meeting room one forty nine next Tuesday ten AM. President Cavenaugh did you say to to use. Okay so. Just here to give session just now budgets at nine eight committees will be at ten on Tuesday in the House floor at one thirty I'm just want to reiterate that since this is our first weekend just to make sure based on the same page all right. Resent Wardlaw what purpose you're recognized thank you Mr Speaker of the house floor we are getting ready to kick off sportsman caucus for the ninety first General Assembly if anybody would not like to be on the roster let me know otherwise we will communicate everyone's name to the national level January twenty fifth will be our fish fry that we have every session and it will be at night this time so to be at six o'clock at the association of counties on the twenty fifth so just let me know if you don't want to be on the roster thank you. President Holcomb for what purpose announcmenet you're recognized public transportation will meet Tuesday morning mac me at ten o'clock represent wing for what purpose Smith nice for the those members who have not been able to find their offices I will stay here at my desk and we will form a search party and we will identify everybody's offices I am grateful for the understanding of those who understand that we are operating under a temporary limited real estate and that we just have very few offices if you're not going to use yours or if you would like to enter your senate the transfer portal please let me know how we can make everybody happy. The representative Vaught for what purpose announcmenet you're recognized next Wednesday morning I've had several of the I'll ask when we will start per caucus next Wednesday morning seven AM old spring court room will be our first I per caucus meeting. Represent Johnson for what purpose that's announcmenet you're recognized a public health committee will meet at ten o'clock Tuesday in room one thirty thank you. Representive eleven for what purpose announcmenet recognized thank you Mr Speaker house Education Committee members as stated our organizational meeting we have a few bills that are pending fiscal impact those may come back today or tomorrow so please monitor your emails if we get fiscal impacts back today or tomorrow then we will have a house education meeting ten AM Tuesday morning and room one thirty eight. All right any other announcements. Members I just want to say thank you for your work this week thank you for your cooperation and hopefully it was a memorable week it's a big week it's a busy week if you're like me you're probably exhausted and ready to get home or go back to your other job but look forward to having everyone back next week if there's anything that comes up that you have questions about over the weekend did not hesitate to call or text me at any time all right. If nothing else I want to have one of the things if I could if the if the the chairs of the A. M. B. committees could come to my office just for a quick minute I just wanted to touch base with you all before the weekend if so we'll do that right upon adjournment if nothing else the desk will remain open as needed for the reading of the bills and upon completion The Addams named in the adjourn resolution the house