ALC-Hospital, Medicaid, & Developmental Disabilities Study Subcommittee
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Senator Jane English
Unverified
4:10
So glad to see everybody here this afternoon we have a number of things on our agenda for today so as we all know what one of the things I'd like to do is allow uhpresentative Bentley a few words just excited about the
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
4:26
subcommittee is doing I think it's going to be very substantial and thank you everyone for giving some time to come out here this afternoon to see if we can get
Senator Jane English
Unverified
4:36
discussed today so thank you very much so as we we know with this committee well
subcommittee what we're charged with doing is looking at social service and workforce development reforms so as we're all moving along here in the world is changing quickly. one of the things that we we hope to do is to be able to look at all of the social services programs plus the workforce development programs here in the state one of the things that is an impediment many times to our folks in
in this whole world is and people trying to get jobs is the the safety nets so in your binder here is a a report on how we kind of solve the safety net program or the problems that are there so I would encourage you to go online to our documents it's in your folder or in your binder but maybe take a chance to read time to read that this weekend or before the 12fth of January
to kind of get an idea of what it is we're talking about for these benefit cliffs they are really important in today's world and trying to help get people from one place to another which is what we're all trying to do the other thing that we have in your folder and it's kind of hard to find but go all the way back to about the third half of the way through is another report on the building America's type pipeline and that's a very informative
piece the federal government as we've all heard is looking at doing a lot of revamping and consolidating and they've moved some programs from the department of Education to the department of laborbor and so this report kind of lays out a talent pipeline guide for states and for what some of the things that the federal government is looking at doing it gives kind of a a a good idea of what we as the
state could be looking at as as building a talent pipeline. one of the things that's in there that we're already doing I think pretty well is starting thinking about starting at the early age in kindergarten through K through 1el and moving on up and aligning those programs to career pathways that's a very important part of this report in here as a suggestion for something to do which is something we're already doing and you have to start someplace to build a talent pipeline. the other thing that probably we
haven't done a real good job of of thinking about is we're not really talking about only the people that are on Snap and medicaid that are required to go to work it's kind of looking at how do we build a system that allows us to keep people those people to move to a better place and other people from having to go on to those programs long term that there's a short term opportunity for them to help get help and assistance
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
7:51
you got Yes thank you Senator English so Senator English and I went to Washington DC for a conference called Meant for More and that was put on by the group alliance with anyway that we had hired to get our report done. so on the 12fth when we come back on January12th we're going to hear the report from them and exactly what they studied in our workforce system across the state what are the failures what are the good things that are going and what can we do and also give us recommendations on what we can do to make our workforce system better and to reach out to
those because we have you know we're spending a lot of money we're getting a lot of federal dollars and we as Senator English and I are always saying is anybody better off at the end of the day we're really making improvements our people getting a job and we know I've been a legislature now 11 years and our poverty rate is just what it was when we came in so how can we actually do a better job of getting people to a better job in a as Senator English said not just those that are not that are onsnap and medicaid but those are working but not having a good income what can we get those people to a better job so that's what we're going to hear from them how can our workforce what's our
workforce doing now and how can it improve? so we when we went to DC we had people there from Mississippi, Louisiana and Utah sharing what they're doing what their plans are to do what we're all calling the one door policy we've talked about someone an individual goes to DHS or to the unemployment office they're getting the same opportunities to get the help that they need so it's all all the assistance we can at the same place so individuals don't have to be left in the cracks and get slipped sides so
different things that we've learned right now with our snapor training and what we're doing with the medicaid it's really just giving people a piece of paper and so here you can go and this is you can connect with the workforce but they're not really getting the information they need to really make a difference and get connected with caseworkers and really make a difference happen so we want again it was a great great conference we got to hear what other states are doing and I think Arkansas at the end of the day I think we're going to be able to lead the pack as we have with so many things. I'm really excited it's going to take all of us working together but I think we can really come
up with something transformative that will really help our Kansans out much better than we're doing now so again Senator anguish and I just got these two reports that you'll be able to pull up online when you're at home in the next couple of weeks just to be prepared for our meeting on the 12th. we'll have the Zoom conference at 10 o'clock and another one at 1 to really share that report and hear from Nick Moore, the one that wrote this article here so just trying to get everybody again on the same page and informed us going on across the nation that we can make Arkansas the head of the pack. we've done so much with learns and withx access and it's all
going to link together from kindergarten to getting anyway at the end of the day after we're all gone and not even here any longer good things are moving in a much better direction. so
Senator Jane English
Unverified
10:36
so I think our our goal really I think it started off very small but I think our goal really is to figure out how how do we really set a pathway for the future and and and so that our the folks that we have here in the state had the opportunity for a better life now that you know what what does that mean
self sufficiency and what does that really mean? but we that we bring in all the resources that we have and we've got a lot of them we just they're all kind of silos or often other areas try and figure out how we bring all those things together and and kind of set a vision for where we want to be down the road where do we we hope our citizens will be and how can we make those effective changes so as Mary mentioned on the 12fth
of January we've invited Nick Moore who used to be the who recently was the chief workforce officer for the state of Alabama. he is now the undersecretary or Ass assistant secretary for career education with the department of Education slash labor because they're moving a lot of their programs from education to the department of laborbor so we're going to have a zoom call with him on the 12th of January at 10 o'clock to kind of talk about this vision that they have
for building a talent pipeline and how we all can fit into that so and then at one o'clock in the afternoon as Mary said we will have the report from our audit and that will be right here in this room the other one will be a
zoom call in room 171 and the capital so do we have some
questions here I don't see anything yes Representative dalby
Thank you madam chair I'm not on the committee but it's been really interesting to hear this the question that I have and I I've been quickly reading the report and some of the blueprint that you've got how are are they going to address I hope they're going to address how our community colleges are gonna fit in like in Texarkana we have youA hopetexarkana you know and how that's going to fit in
with those secondary twoyear institutions into this plan are they go is that part of it I guess is
my question that's a critical part I mean if you just look at all the different organizations that are doing something in workforce but a lot of it is not aligned but it's I you know sometimes people don't have in in some of these snap or medicaid programs where they're where they're not working or they sometimes they are working they really don't have access to so many of the things that are out there so we had to figure out how we'd
do a better job of making sure they have access cuz there's lots of really good programs and we have that now the short term trainingell grants coming online we got to figure out how we make sure people have the opportunity to access those things but sometimes they operate in a in a smaller world and and that information is not available to them but in order for people to get somewhere ahead they have to know what all is out there and they have to help some have help sometimes in hand holding to to
help them get there for the record madam chair that was our director ofblr's phone and not mine just went off but madam chair thank you I think that's such a critical thing and I know each one of us in our areas have a lot of those workforce services so this is really great news thank you for allowing me and there's some great stuff going on in the state we got to figure out what it
is and how we get let make sure everybody has access to that thank you madam chair thank you did we have anybody else
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
14:40
Representative Beck thank you madam my question
is is you know I participate in a lot of the discussions but how do we look at approaching this more or less consolidation of programs it seems like we have in in many cases we have the a program that at least one of the components of that program is trying to do the exact same
thing as6 other programs they're trying to do and is there any or do you see any effort in or any advantage I should say and consolidating those program and kind of making you know maybe instead of six individual problems maybe there would be two programs that would be larger programs that are you talking about at the federal level Well I think that will probably happen I think
Senator Jane English
Unverified
15:36
that one of the things that's happening at the federal level
is I think there are 80 different social service programs with they all do something different their housing or energy or transportation or something something different and they all have different set of rules and the same thing goes for the workforce service workforce development programs at the federal level there are probably45 and they all or go after a certain group of people and but they all have different income guidelines in different
ways that people can access it. I think that one of the things that we're going to find is that that at the federal level they are really looking at combining or doing away with a lot of these programs and in some cases those may be end up being block grant funds to the state so we would figure out what we want to do with those dollars rather than I mean there's some guidelines obviously but I think they're looking at consolidating a lot of those workforce programs I haven't
heard that about the social services programs but I think
that's that and I think that's something thatnick Moore can talk about when we have him on Zoom call. I
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
16:55
look forward to that discussion but 11 of the things is I mean probably the first the first thing that happened when we got together was looking at the charts that's in the back of the manual that shows howd different efforts flow and and if that chart doesn't confuse you then think that that chart that you looked at
Senator Jane English
Unverified
17:15
was what are the federal dollars that come into the state in pretty much all of that was
federal dollars coming into the state there are a few little things
Speaker 15
17:25
in there that are state funded but not many you'll just quickly add to that when we get that report
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
17:31
back from the Georgia Center of Opportunity that's really going to direct a lot of and their recommendations what we can do to combine workforce so but some of
Senator Jane English
Unverified
17:39
these things are things that have to happen at the federal level we we hopefully will have some voice
in that let me see Representative Emert Thank
Speaker 16
17:52
you madam chairir I have a question I'm
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
17:58
not on this committee so thank you for entertaining it. I'm trying to frame it correctly. I've been to several of your meetings and it's been very informative but I do notice that in the title it has developmental disabilities so how much is that taken into
place of this study that you're the this report that you have in front of us didn't didn't
Senator Jane English
Unverified
18:22
hear you what was the group male can
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
18:27
I can answer that real quick sopresentative and we're that is subtitle of this committee but this committee right now is working on specific legislation that was passed and that legislation delegated this specific subcommittee to come up with a report on how we can combine social services with the workforce to do a better job in our state and definitely part of workforces working with those that are developmentally
disabled so there will definitely be a part of the report that we can get back from the Georgia Center of Opportunity on how they are addressing the needs of those those individuals as well so I encourage you to come to our meeting on the 12fth and hear what that report has to say and appreciate your input on that thank you thank you mehimp oh do we have getpresentative ladyman thank you madam chair
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
19:20
well I want to add uhpresentative Emmett what she just said. I think we need to have a couple of meetings to talk about disability rights. I know y'all haven't got to that yet but I think we need to look at some subjects there but you know this is a great thing to look at but it's a pretty big elephant, you know you eat elephant one bite at a time it's pretty hard to grasp how big this is but it seems to me and I don't don't think we have this
if someone knows of this I'd be interested in knowing what it is but you know we have all these different agencies state agencies different programs and there's not one central place that I'm aware of that an individual out in the community can go to and get routed to the right benefit and I think that's something that we need like a clearing house or a gatekeeper you know people that are educated on what services are available
what they are or the public can have 1 point of contact and then be routed into these other agencies I think that's something that we really really really need and we need to look at individual things. I think one of the one of the best things that's happened when President Trump put forth and I think it was in the great the big Bill to not charge income tax on overtime. you know that limited the income
of a lot of people because they would not work overtime because it put them in a different tax bracket and that's just a small example of what's going on in uhsnap and other things and we need to somehow gradually drop people from these programs rather than just go from zero from 100% to to zero so that's just my comment.body else want to comment? I think one of our goals really is to
Senator Jane English
Unverified
21:20
find a way to have a central clearing house type of thing we right now even for social programs people have to go from
one agency to another sometimes in different locations and and to and fill out the same paperwork they filled out at the last place but I think we're working on trying to consolidate all that so that we have a one door and that people can have one place they have to go whether it's online or in person to be able to go and and fill out one application and then hopefully have a case manager who was helping them to figure out where they need to be going for the
future and hopefully that starts off with we want to be employed and what do we have to do what do they have to do to get there and one of those social services needs that they have and you know a lot of people need transportation they just don't we assume that everybody has a car and daycare and and some other things like that that are really important to help people not forever but to get them going so that they can be into the world of making a substantial wage enough to take care of themselves and their families and that they don't need it
anymore that's the same way with Snap and medicaid is we ought to be able to help help people
move for a short term on those programs but then move on to something else yeah one
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
22:42
other comment, you know, when I look through this, you know there'll be one thing for a federal program and right next to it's a state program and then you flip back and forth. so what what mechanism do we have? I don't think we communicate from state to federal groups how do we communicate
with our federal representatives and senators with this the the state representatives and senators to know what's going on at each level so that we can work together. I don't think we have a really good mechanism for that that's just my opinion but if they're working on something in snap you know we need to know the the workings of that not just what is published in the paper or what comes out of that I think we need to try to develop communication that way hopefullypefully we'll be able to do that we are and Senatorli
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
23:31
and I did go to see Senator Bozeman's office and visit with his staff while we're there indC to make sure they knew what we were doing and asked what they were doing on that front but if we get this legislation ready and we need a waiver or something they're going to be essential to help us get that waiver through so we can move things forward for Arkansas but I agree with you 100% on that but when we're looking at benefit clips as you were talking about with you know we don't need people just to get dropped automatically. there's definitely need to work on what can we do to make it a gradual slope so that people are encouraged to stay working and and to get a raise if they're
open for a raise. but also when we look at things it's so convoluted in so many forms and so much happening we're just trying to see what we can do to consolidate some of these like for daycare so so if a mom you know is laid on a form and all of a sudden then she's lost her daycare and so she's got to get to the bottom of the waiver thing and then she can't get the daycare that she had so there's a lot that we can work on to make things simpler and easier and to do it online where they can to have a case manager to help them so that's really the main focus of this of this committee as we move forward and it's a big big project yes but I think if we get steady and get working on it we can have it
ready for the 2027 session so thank you Representative Rye
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
24:44
thank you thank you miss chairman Miss Chairman this is something for the last couple of weeks has really bearing on my mind and it's it's about this benefit cliff and and this is what I I wonder about this let's just say that you got an average family that's making30,000 dollars a year
and they're getting all the benefits and then they come up and they might maybe be two or $3000 more a year well they cut back on some of the programs I just wonder if there's some way that we could move up the minimum so that these folks actually could could live better but it's the same time they would have money that they're making extra money by working that they could spend in their community and it would make their community thrive better
it's just something I want to throw out therepresentativeery
Senator Jane English
Unverified
25:40
I think that's something that we're we're all looking at and concerned with that's a a pretty much a heart of of of our whole system is is with the benefit clips and there's some things that the state can do. there's some things that the federal government can do and some of these programs have these very strict rules about who can and who cannot access these services so we you know that I think that's something that will
probably have a group of folks sitting together and meeting on what what can we do what options do we have as a state and that'll be part of our recommendations for for legislation you you know let me do
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
26:19
a little follow up with you please ma'am. You know Miss English this could be something that would actually produce a better outcome inside of an area you know and and I really like to say I hope we look at that
because I believe that there's a chance that we could help our folks at the same time we could help our communities and make better people out of the people that's that's having to use snout. Thank you ma'am seeing do
Speaker 34
26:56
you have anything further? I just I appreciate everybody coming today
Speaker 67
27:05
and again we just really want to get you
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
27:08
prepared for our meeting on the 12th and think it'll be very effective if you can take some time to read through these two reports again you can pull them up online from today's reports easily pull them up and read them and be ready for our questions and we'll have ample opportunity to ask questions on the telfth with folks that come here and give our report on workforce so I I appreciate everybody coming today and hope you all have a
Speaker 15
27:27
great Christmas. Thank you very much have a merry Christmas.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Overview of the Meant for More Summit [Exhibit B]
C. Discussion of Benefit Cliffs and Their Implications [Exhibit C]
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC - HOSPITAL, MEDICAID, & DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES STUDY SUBCOMMITTEE, Dec 18, 2025 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit B- Stranded by the Safety Net | Exhibit | 61 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit C- Building the Workforce | Exhibit | 29 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
Speaker 15
Speaker 16
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 34
Speaker 67