ALC-Executive Subcommittee

You have a seed presented subcommittee to order and we have one item today's consideration merge the rule from department commerce. J. U. D. C. and we have Mister jim Hudson and sector with the socio well of defy yourself president. Good morning my question secretary of commerce. Good morning jim Hudson deputy director ABC. If. A Mister chairman I thank you all for a for meeting appreciate you everyone taking the time to come in a little bit early to to hear this and just want to extend my appreciation to to the legislature for working with us we heard the concerns I am here the other day about the the need to changed the rules on this so we worked with many legislators to figure out the best way to do it and uh the merger zero we figured out was that way to cover it this allows us to go back to the original rules of the art program which will and this is related to the disbursements disbursement of funds for broadband so rather than one cares came about and we had to move the funds extremely quickly. Thank you may have very little voice left we we disperse the funds up front the or per rules follow that but and working with the legislature we decided it was best in a conferred with the the Senate agree that we wanted to go back to the original rules of the art program where the disbursement will no longer be up front and will be on a quarterly basis so this regency rule just reverting the rules back to that original rule that was worked on with the legislature promulgated in past and approved so I think this addresses those issues that we heard in here the other day and hopefully allows us to move forward in this will be going forward so if the appropriation is a past today for the additional hundred twenty five million projects it would impact those projects as well so this is where we are with that emergency rule and jim can elaborate any further that's good summary you have a markup in your packet if you look at the markup really beginning on page four you can see the existing disbursement process that is really pertaining to the original arc rule that was put in place in early twenty twenty keep in mind that that rule went through the normal rule making process so we have public notice public comment it went before the rule subcommittee that time and also what before a LC and was approved as a rule so it's it's already had public vetting that's while reverting to this rule versus creating something new out of whole cloth because everybody's on notice this is what the rules were before until we had to change it for the cares Act so the real simply what the process is a reimbursement on after the fact basis quarterly submit the invoices you provide a narrative the ISP provides a narrative describing the work that was done it's reviewed by UAMS UAMS looks the invoices they will may at times maybe do some inspections as well there is a twenty percent withhold until the very end and all the acceptance testing is done and then that that is released at that point and so that happy. Take any questions that the committee may have about the emergency rule. You represent Dotson you're recognized thank you Mr chair just just so I know I don't I didn't see it in in this rule or reverting back to a vote for the guard to the challenge process we discussed is there any further update on where that sat or if we're going to be bringing a an emergency rule to have that included or or does this reverted back so it's under a different challenge process yes Sir it's different topics so it does not address that but we as a team talked yesterday and confirmed that is something that we do need to work on and are going to work on and are going to be bringing forward a rule I'm not sure when we're going to do that but we're gonna be doing that you know I think a very near future we did pull down three projects on the appropriation for today which ones are those of the the one stamps and then others to incorrect a county that we pull down because I think there's a there's a little bit of a challenge process happening to factor and what that's done is shown as we just need to get in their beef that up a little bit so the concerns have been heard and they're going to be addressed judge porches doing some research looking other states in what they're challenge process looks like and we will be crafting a rule to do that excellent thank you. Okay. Saying no more questions. Without objection the proposed merger rules reviewed and approved in their review and approval shall be effective upon adjournment Legislative Council over nineteen twenty twenty one today. With not seeing any more business before the committee we are Jr. Many thanks any.