Insurance & Commerce- House

Keeps the traditional man Medicaid. As a no cost. Pretty much. Does it. No financial impact. Okay I'm sorry. Representative you are recognized to present your concurrence okay this is just a concurrence is to make sure traditional Medicaid does not have any expenses just keep everything in line with the bill has no physical impact with that I'd appreciate a do pass okay members of there any questions. Seeing none and I know typically people don't show up to speak or for or against the concurrence but will still make it available if anybody crazier things have happened. Of anyone wish to speak for against this concurrence. If not to make a motion to pass discussion there's none. All those in favor of concurring on the Senate Amendment on House Bill fifteen sixty nine signify by saying aye. Any opposing no and there's none thank you for thank you as members I'm going to come to the table to present concurrence on house bill twelve forty three. Represent Lowery you are recognized to present the concurrence thank you Mr chairman and members of this is a just a basic re numbering Amendment Parilli something was caught where the when I don't. I don't think it was because the previous amendment the only other amendment was adding senator Pitsch and Hendren as co sponsors so somehow the number got got off so I'm open for any questions about the re number in. Hello if not I'd appreciated do pass on the concurrence. Thank you representative saying no questions we have a motion do pass on the concurrence on favor say aye hi impose no. Your concurrence is passed right thank you. Okay we do have a re referral on Senator Dismang spill the Senate bill five ninety four there is an amendment and I see the represent of fox's here representative you'll take the table and we're going to pass out the amendment. Give a chance for staff to hand that out and then you can explain the amendment. Thank you Mr chair. Six. Okay. Representive fox looks pretty basic but go ahead and explain yet you are recognized to present your The Amendment yes thank you Mr chair thank you Committee for indulging me again as you saw me with a deer in the headlights look yesterday which I try not to make that happen very often we found a small err in the bill before I ran it yesterday and I would like my friend an expert attorney Mister specter Smith to to over this or that he found so that we can get it corrected run back through Voyager okay Mister Smith if you'll identify yourself for the record yes Mister chairman my name is Sylvester Smith local attorney hi it is committee knows I have a lot of landlord tenant law and I would apologize to resume talks in the committee I miss this initially I basically this provision makes it so that the notice that a tenant receives when they are served with the unlawful detainer or eviction action is consistent with the rest of the language in the bill and so initially the verbiage said that a judge or a Clerk would issue a writ of possession if the tenant fail to answer this cleans up the language so that's consistent with what actually happens clerks do not issue orders and so there were some concerns that maybe someone could. File a suit to say that that the notice was confusing and inaccurate and so This cleans up that language also representative fox and I are feminists there's a reference to the sheriff there and we're making it so that it now says that the share of he he or she so that we are we recognize that we have had one female sheriff in Arkansas and hopefully we'll have more in the future so I'd be happy to have any answer any questions Mr okay thank you for the explanation members are you are there any questions about the amendment. If not we can take a a motion to adopt the amendment Sir do pass motion as C. from representive eleven we do have a motion any discussion on the amendment anyone here that wishes to speak for or against the amendment. If not there's a do pass on the amendment all those in favor signify by saying aye hi any opposing no. Your amendment is passed do you need to discuss the bill or is that. Well I will get a new bill I think we just made it a lot better as far as having two daughters are very strong willed adding her to this section I will go a long way to go. Okay with that I I be close and with a petition a do pass on the bill okay. Members is is there a motion to do pass as amended represent avoid. You make the. Okay we have a motion do pass as amended any anyone in the audience which speak for or against. Representive fox are you closed on your bill as amended okay we have a motion of do pass is there any discussion by members. If not the motion is to pass on. The bill the re referred bill and. Senate bill five ninety four as amended all those in favor signify by saying aye by any opposed say no. And the bill passes congratulations thank you Mr chairman thank committee. The. Representive cloud has chosen to not present nineteen thirty three I think he's going to send that to interim study Senator Teague's bill that I was going to carry forum we're pulling that down because the content is actually in another bill so Senator Meeks you got up a whole lot quicker than. What's that I mean Senator yeah I promoted you well I saw the S. Meeks and I just you know made the conclusion here representative Meeks you are recognized to present HB nineteen twenty six thank you Mr chairman thank you Committee so this is actually my first time before this committee and as your technology chair and so this is a testimony to the merger were saying between technology and and finance and commerce so this morning I'm bringing to you house bill nineteen twenty six names like bitcoin Ethereum dois coined more. Commonly referred to as doggy coin all these various virtual currencies are becoming more and more mainstream back several years ago it was thought that they were simply just maybe a passing fad but I don't think there's anybody in this room who doesn't wish that they'd bought bitcoin when it was only four hundred dollars a coin now there's over sixty thousand dollars according today we're seeing the growth of a virtual currencies and as a matter of fact we're seeing nations now beginning to explore this technology China of the Bahamas and even here in the United States these various nations are looking at creating their own virtual currencies so virtual currencies are here to stay we know that they're only going to grow in popularity going into the future one of my concerns is that with all the spending or saying in Washington the growing national that. When inflation starts to rear its ugly head that people that once would flee to commodities such as gold and silver for protection we'll we'll probably start feeling more to these virtual currencies we saw something similar happening Greece when they are pushing their austerity measures and so what I'm doing with this bill. AS in Arkansas Code laying out what a virtual currency is defining the rights of the owner and ownership and also laying out any rights of liens and and so forth so trying to update our code to be proactive on these currencies a little bit of background about how this bill came about representative Johnson was contacted by one of his constituents who is very interested in crypto currencies following a similar bill that was adopted in Wyoming a couple of years ago the Wyoming bill however created some problems with the uniform commercial code as I've learned recently the uniform commercial code is the code that is adopted throughout the country to try to keep uniformity among the fifty different states that bill created some issues with that and so the uniform code commission began looking at language to adopt to you know how to handle these crypto currencies and taxes had a more modernized version less controversial version and so representative Johnson knowing I was a technology chair handed this over to me I started to explore but the different states are doing on this founder of the Texas code and basically copied it and you know how it is sometimes with some of these bills you don't know who was going to be affected who's gonna be interested so you just filing so we copy that code filed it and that was house bill eighteen eighty eight well after filing at the uniform code Commission reached out to me and said that we actually had outdated language they had a more updated more modern version of the bill so talking with the bill drafter we decided that instead of amending eighteen eighty eight it was easier to withdraw eighteen eighty eight and present to you nineteen twenty six so this is. Nineteen the the bill you have before so this is recommended language by the uniform code commission on how to handle virtual currencies what it does it defines our currency is it done defines the rights of the ownership and so forth like I had mentioned now they did tell me that their final version is not due to be released until twenty twenty two so while this is not the final version of their product the guy that I spoke to said it's pretty close but they'll probably be some tweaks between now and then so the. Option number kind of presenting to us as a state to use a Committee as we can go ahead and be one of the first states to adopt the rights of virtual currencies from what the gentleman told me there's about a dozen states that are looking at doing this and getting this and into other statute knowing that in two years when we come back we'll probably need to make a few little minor tweaks adjustments which I've committed to the folks of the uniform commercial code commission that I'd be willing to do that the other option that we have is we can wait for two years wait for them to finalize and then at that point adopt of the language that they come up with doing so would probably make us one of the last date so we can adopt this and become one of the first states knowing that will probably need to do a few tweaks or we can wait two years and be one of the last but be have more of a final product I'm kind of the mind to be more proactive so that's why presenting the bill to you this morning I'll be happy to try to answer any questions but just know my expertise is more on the technology side of it then on the finance side so I. They may not bill answered the all those type questions but I'll be happy to give it a go so that Mister chairman of any questions committee might have thank you representative ray. thank you Mr chairman I don't see anybody here but keep could you you has the the banking department or the securities department or or anybody from the state given feedback on this bill or yes so yes so the banking and security but departments I have both reached out to me on this bill the only concern that I took away was they wanted to make sure that it aligned with the uniform code commission with the UCC and I reassured them that this was actually the language from the U. C. CA so this is the language that they submitted they said the concern that. The final version is not supposed to be released until twenty twenty two like I like I'd mention But as I'd also mentioned this is what they think is going to be close to the final product and so as far as any if you know for again suppose I've not heard anything along those lines it was just the the concern of. Do we go ahead and do this one knowing that there might be a few tweaks in the future or do we wait until we get the final ruling and then move forward. Follow Mr yes you're recognized and I'm sorry when you were explained in the the uniform code commission part I was trying to scan scanned the bill this questions just from a place of an experience or lack of knowledge on this but what what is the uniform code commission I don't know what that is so the uniformed code commission is a group of lawyers that time or I get assume represent the different fifty states and they are the ones responsible for the uniform commercial code and you know for the uniform commercial code is the code that keeps the commercial codes in the fifty states uniform are on par with each other so that way you don't have a patchwork quilt of the you know different codes and you know standards and so forth so they're the ones that try to keep everything standard across the country. Okay thank you representive brown. Well Brown and then boy. Thank you Mr chair representative makes you obviously ran this because you felt like it was needing can you just sort of give us a few of the ideas of why why you think it's beneficial to have this in place now sure so as it stands right now there is no definition of of what a cryptocurrency is and there is no definition of what the rights of those holders are and as you know the number of people that are investing in crypto currencies within the state is growing interest in this area is growing and so I feel it's important that The rights that those individuals have to that currency is outlined because there are people that are investing thousands of dollars as matter of fact I've heard a story about a gentleman who was a truck dump truck driver and invested and toys coin when it was less than a penny coin and now that it's jumped over forty cents a coin he's suddenly become a millionaire and there are other similar stories where people invest early and now they've made large sums of money and I think it's important to make sure that we for the protections in place for those investments and also lay out what's called an adverse claims so these would be people who would I have claims of you know will leans the way you would typically have a lean on somebody for either not paying their taxes or only money on a mortgage or car or whatever how someone could put a lien on that asset to try to recoup their money and. So I think it's a part of try to get those protections in place now As is continues to grow I am one of my intensive center on the technology committee is when we get in the end from as I would like to begin exploring should the state of Arkansas as a government should we begin looking at these crypto currencies and the possibility of accepting them as payments or for transactions because you know a lot of businesses are beginning to accept bitcoin as a means of transaction and that's only gonna continue to grow so as that popularity grows should we as a state begin looking at that and we would not be the first of their bills and and New York and other states that are looking at requiring state government to accept these virtual currencies as a form of payment. Thank you for that explanation thank you representative board. Thank you Mr chair I think we pretty well covered it but I'm going to ask it by the way and then you can just respond a little differently if if need be so I I guess the the question is is you know it's a market it's a new market and it has minimal government regulation or at least at the state level right why would we wanted to be free and just see where it goes. well this isn't to. Okay create any hindrances to that this is try to create the rights of the person who owns it so if you are a currency right now there's nothing in state law that protects your ownership of that cryptocurrency and that's what the purpose of this bill is is to protect your ownership of that cryptocurrency. That makes. Representative Hodges thank you we're the committee so he says you protect what we if it's an asset to an individual. What they and then if that they owe a debt or fail something why we why we why we want to protect them the the individually from not being able to lean on the crypto currency if the debt they owe you say you want to protect them but but if it's a if it's an asset to that individual and they all someone you know in order for them to recoup that that you know right they should be able to serve the lien right and and and that that's in the bill that that that allows you to put a lien on that or as as I understand right now you can't because it's not considered a an asset of value and so this lays that out as an asset evaluated and creates a. An adverse claim is what they call this little this lays out how you doing adverse against that asset okay okay good that in any case that FCRA yes it is are these critical of a F. R. the FDIC insured. They. I don't think most of them are I think there is some. The current moves and I don't know that there's not FDIC insured but I think there are certain moves within the market to try to correct some insurance around that some protections around that because unfortunately as you know there has been found in loss of currency and so that areas still involving a maturity but as of right now there are no government insurances to my knowledge on that one of the I think far recall right one of the bills that Wyoming was pushing and that's something that we'll probably see in the future was to allow financial institutions like banks to be able to hold that currency crypto currencies and to store it just like they would cash or anything else of value whereas right now that's not really readily available so that's a that's a growing area and maybe at some point if banks are starting to act as a store for crypto currencies for account holders that you might start seeing that the future but as of right now from what I understand that that that's not the case. Yes I'm sorry and you know the bank I guess I should know more about crypto currency them I'm just totally ignore to it okay I admit I'm kind of curious to know how if it's of such value You know he said because people become millionaires from from from invest in the cryptocurrency. How to with the head of the liquidated how and how is it how is it value to them it It is what I'm asking. A probably the closest analogy would be stocks and so you know a bit point one points back years ago I bought it when it was four hundred dollars a coin and you know it started going down so I sold it meeting somebody else bought it assuming that okay just a passing fad well now obviously within sixty five thousand dollars a corner I wish I had maintained it and it's. It has value and and the different crypto currencies have different values for different reasons so for example bit coin its main purpose is as a means of transaction just like a dollar would be there's only a limited number and of them and so as more people try to get this limited assets at the value of it grows and we have to remember that this is a worldwide assets so a bit coins bitcoin bit coin whether you're in the United States or China or Chile or Paraguay or whatever it has and so it for that reason that creates value for Ethereum is a crypto currency that is based on as a financial tool so for example one of the easy ones to understand there's there's there's a version of Ethereum that's called a stellar lumen and the idea behind the stellar lumen is to allow for the movement of a value around the globe so. Under the old system if I had a hundred dollars in the United States and I want to transfer it to somebody say in Japan and to the to the and it would just go from the United States to maybe London to India to and it would get an as it as it passed through all these different financial institutions to finally make its way to Japan that institution would take a little piece of that pie so by the time it came out to say that my friend over in Japan instead of him receiving a hundred dollars or the value might only receive eighty dollars or the value because of the transaction fees to get from one location to the other the idea behind the the lumen is that banks across the the the the globe would. Purchase these and so I would go take my hundred dollars I would convert it to a hundred dollars worth of stellar lumens lumens would then travel to Japan in the person and to pan with then transfer firm from the lumen back to the native currency and there'd be almost no loss of value so. and I'm getting that the hurry up sign from from from the chair here And probably what we need to do is maybe we get and and terms maybe hall and like that I want to hold some committee meetings on this so we can all become more well versed in these currencies because they are here to stay and we're only gonna see their utility grow as we move into the future. Representative brown. Okay F. representive wooden. The representative makes the sixty five thousand dollars is not this is not the value of the coal and S. of a of a share stock is that all right what's the value of one point one point one point at their their their their virtual coins and these coins can be breaking broken up into millions of a coin so you don't have to have sixty five thousand dollars you can you know five hundred dollars worth and get a fraction of a coin but they're it sixty five I think this morning from sixty three thousand dollars for one bit coin. Thank you Mr president Clowney I'm sorry I missed you while ago thank you Mr chair President means as you can tell I think from the questions this is obviously a big change in a lot of us don't know a lot about this area so forgive me at the front and back of Notre you mentioned what some other states have done you mention Wyoming and the problems with the pharmacy there and the Texas system has done something can you just give me a general idea of the landscape over other states are on this right now so as a Blake said I talked to the the uniform code commission and they are recommending this language for the states are going to be early adopters of roughly twelve states taxes included in that and this is the language that they are preferring that the states adopt so that all of the states as they adopt the code around it will have uniformity so this is what the recommendation recommended languages for all the states are adopting it so Wyoming started they looked at the problems and then this is the answer to try to address those problems and create uniformity among the states follow. Sure. So I guess I just don't understand this is such a huge change to the law if uniformity is such a concern it is my understanding that this is sort of an evolving document is not you know they have not even sure the version that we have before us right now is the most current that is from you all see that if this is something that is always evolving would it make sense to kind of look at this until we have our finalized version twenty twenty two and then come back just the next year I mean it wouldn't be years and years later and come up with something that we know would meet those uniformly standards so this is as I've mentioned this is what they the. They assured me that this is close to what the final product will look like they've they feel that they're only going to be a few small tweaks that are going to be made between now and then so the overall language that's in here will be the overall language or might just be a few tweaks as a technology and like a lot of area of Los I don't know that we're ever gonna have a final product because this is new this is following this is changing so like a lot of other laws we have to change it this will undoubtedly change in about whether we do it now we do it two years from now going into the future this will still evolve and change and you know one thing that we as a state are going to need to look at is. Because people are starting to see growth you know right now if you see growth in stocks and you sell those stocks there's a capital gain tax that is paid or right now as I understand it there's nothing in Arkansas Code to address that so if we create new millionaires there's a huge capital gain their but there's no tax burden there. And that may be okay but at some point if we want to create a capital gains tax there or want to look at how we address that we've got to get the definitions we've got to get this foundation late first and so that's part of but again ultimately the decision on whether we do it now we wait that'll be the decision that that you all have to make My by Obviously my preference is. We need to go ahead and do it let's be one of the first adopters especially because we were here lately with the governor we've been pushing coding initiatives we've been pushing programming we've been pushing computer science because we want to be a technology leader well being a technology leader means. Doing things like this and then obviously we might have to make tweaks adjustments along the way as we learn. Thank you representive rating you're recognized for a question. Yeah I guess it because this is still being finalized I mean I know you've sort talked about the benefits of being an early adopter but I mean objectively speaking are do you think there are any risks or downsides to not waiting for. Finalized language on this Potentially Because. I thank I think there's. Apps two or three risks here I think one of the risk is just from our people are companies or organizations going to be comfortable. Investing in this technology in Arkansas when they can go to Texas where they've got more certainty. So by putting this in place we create certainty and we encourage. This technology more so in Arkansas that's why Wyoming is pushing this is because they want to become the blockchain capital of the country they want to become the cryptocurrency capital they've actually created a special business class that's kind of a can to an LLC for crypto currencies and they the defies what they call before these entities because they're trying to promote this technology in this state because they see it as the way for the future so I think by waiting we can potentially harm ourselves by losing out on folks who would maybe otherwise invest or work on this infrastructure within our state because we don't have this in place the second concern that I have is the kind of goes back to what representative Hodges was saying if somebody has a large abundance of. These crypto currencies of value. And. You know if first. If someone's coming after me to try to grab my assets and I know that I can. If the looks and I know that I can hide my assets in cryptocurrency and protected from paying my debts that that creates a complete potential concern that we can address here so. Is the world going to fall apart if we don't do this obviously not is waiting potentially a good idea maybe but as I said I think we potentially lose out on the benefits that come from being one of the early adopters and in my discussions with the lawyer from the uniform law commission he seemed to indicate. The final versions gonna look a lot like this with maybe just a few tweaks. So we're not talking about okay all got this wrong so this out come up completely new it's gonna look like this this was some refinements it's so the question is do we adopt so we've got a standard and then. Do the refinements later or do we wait until we get the refinements and then adopt and of course obviously my my preferences let's go ahead and topped it and learn from it and then when the refinements comment we can and. All the refinements as needed for our state. Members any other questions and that we have a motion pending. No other questions representative makes you are welcome to close all right thank you colleagues I said I know this is a a new area for many of us and I appreciate your time this morning and for myself at the mercy of the court and would appreciate a do pass motion on this so Arkansas can be one of the leaders and crypto currencies and not one of the followers so with that I'd appreciate a good vote okay representative brown. Okay we have a motion do pass is there any discussion by members. The representative Hodges. At the me personally I mean that this sounds like something that probably should go into interim study is just my opinion you know with all the uncertainties the thank you you know maybe we can set it in the interim and maybe present at you know the next go around just my thought. Okay any other discussion members. Representative brown. One representative is your Mike on. Thank you Mr chair I really appreciate representative makes bringing this to us. I he's answered our questions and it's not only piqued my interest but I think that it would be good to have this in place because I think it is more protective to have it in place now than to wait and I support this bill now but yes for it okay thank you any other discussion members. Okay well our energy levels real low today so I'm going to ask you to be a very vocal in your vote make it easy on me I've already been taken to task that I'm not hearing very well on voice votes I want to make I want to make sure to of representant Allen you did not need to not an agreement on that All those in favor of the representative Meeks bill which was is HB nineteen twenty six signify by saying aye. Any opposing no. I think I can call that one of congratulations your bill has passed. You're welcome of we have one last a bill on the agenda Senate bill six sixty four Senator Leding and I believe representative who. Okay young young do rock paper scissors okay. Okay. Representative Boyd is going to present to us Senate bill six sixty four. For Senator Leding. You have anyone to come to the table with you. I have no idea Mister chairman okay as anyone in the room you have your weeks of paid like to do okay so am I recognized begin you are thank you Mr chair so Senate bill six six four it fixes a potential conflict between some insurance coverage in laws in the federal code governing health insurance there's no at this moment there's no known opposition the bankers are the ones that brought this to Senator Lang the leading and said Hey we've got a concern here and there was a tweak that needed to happen so the bankers association support and insurance department supports so. let me just say one other thing and then if you have questions I'm happy to try to answer the problem rests on a very technical issue in short the bill would create a conflict between state law and federal law governing health insurance plans that are compatible with health savings accounts those individuals covered by HSA compatible plans would lose their ability to make annual contributions to the race HSA As buyer estimates over eighty one thousand people in Arkansas have an HSA account holding almost a hundred seventeen million dollars in assets so it's very important that we make this technical correction. Okay thank you for that members are there any questions. I don't see any questions is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak for or against the bill. If not representative you are recognized to close for the bill I am close for the the bill and would make a motion to pass okay we have a motion do pass is there any discussion by members. If not the motion on the floor is do pass on Senate bill six sixty four. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Any opposing no. The bill passes. Members that is our agenda before you start packing up let me give you an update on the bill that came before committee it will related to the This was the car type bill related to oncology and hematology services representative Alan and representative flowers you'd ask me to make a commitment that we would do everything we could to see if we could broaden that covers so that insurance companies are not. Unfairly intervening and mandating that there be self administering we we did put language in the bill that allows the Insurance Commissioner it says may the commissioner may promulgate rules that would expand other diagnoses so there would be a rule making process before other diagnoses would be covered but we do have language in the bill it passed through the Senate insurance and commerce yesterday it will be coming back here we hope by Monday to concur we can have any other discussion on at that point but everyone seems to be an agreement on on that language so thank you for your your encouragement to me to see if we can't brought that a little bit is there any other discussion the other items members we definitely will be meeting Monday we have a bill coming from Senator Dismang is on the Senate floor today it is how many pages. One hundred and sixty four page bill so that'll be good we can reading for. For you. Something related to L.. The. The good bill it's related to LLCs you know it now we're we're not we're not going to do one of these you have to pass the bill to be able to know what's in it so I've giving you advance notice so any other statements