ALC-Administrative Rules
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John Clay
Unverified
1:55
administrative rules subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council will come to order like to remind those that wish to comment on a rule to go ahead and sign in and be sure to specify the rule on which you wish to comment we will be taking up the sign up sheets momentarily first item of business is the we have one report from the executive subcommittee concerning its review and
approval of emergency rules the report is in your packet are there any questions seeing none without objection this report will be filed we're going to move to item C these are rules filed pursuant to Arkansas code 103309 the first is for the department of Education division of
elementary and secondary education and I would ask you we're gonna do a present right we'll go ahead and ask a representative for the department to
have a seat you can go ahead and identify yourself and present the rule. good morning
Speaker 6
3:19
Courtney Salisfod chief of staff for the department of Education. we have three rules for your consideration today. the first
one is governing public school choice. so there were a few different changes to school choice in this last legislative session primarily through Acts 913 and563 um, which did a couple of things. it opened up intraschoolho so a student living in a school district can apply to go to any school in their district of course, the district still has the ability to make the decision that there's not capacity and one of
the other things that the updated language did was create it consistency so there was some inconsistencies in the law now it's very clear that capacity is defined as 95% of the available seats or students that they can have in any particular grade or classroom and so students can apply the dis tri c t can deny only on the basis of lack of capacity. we did have a public comment period and a public comment hearing on
Speaker 9
4:29
these received some comments but none of them required substantive changes and with that I'm happy to take any questions any questions
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
4:51
from the committee Representative Richardson you recognize thank you Mrir I had a quick question as I was reading through here and I know one of the key points we're talking about the transfer of the students was any thought
put into transferring students in regards to athletic participation so
Speaker 6
5:05
we don't govern athletics that's governed byripleA. What we did say is that a student's transfer, they can't be prohibited from participating in sports because of their choice to transfer. However, becauseripleA is not under us and they make their own rules. they have the ability to then dictate who can actually play inripleA sanctioned games you thank you
right seeing seeing no other
questions without objection this rule is reviewed and approved you recognize to present the next rule thank
Speaker 6
5:43
you the next rule is governing maternity leave cost sharing. Again, these changes were the result of umxx from the 2025 session at 904 and 905. the primary change here is that previously this was a voluntary program that districts could opt into. now it's mandatory that all districts participate and whereas previously it was a cost
sharing50% from the state and50% from the district. Um, the state now covers 100% of the cost of the substitute for the teacher or educator on maternity leave and with that I'm happy to answer
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
6:18
any questions. Chairman Deeses you're recognized thank you Mr Chair. thank you for this this rule. I think it's
a great direction and supportive of it just for clarity had some questions about the the budgetary side of this so with now 100% cost share to the department ofducation
inside of the rule so there is no financial impact and could you add some clarity to that is this saying that there's no impact because all budgets and appropriations are already inside of this statute or any other comments to make me feel better about not having a financial impact yes
Speaker 6
6:56
correct yes when the law was passed we had already included it in our budget and in our appropriation so we have sufficient funding to cover everything that has been requested and everything that we foresee going forward.
and so yeah there's we're not asking for any additional money or any additional appropriation as the result of the law or the rules.on
thank you Any other questions Seeing no other questions
without objection this rule is reviewed and approved and
Speaker 5
7:30
you're recognized to present the next rule right and then finally we have the rules governing student discipline. these changers are again the required by statutes that were changed and newly enacted
Speaker 6
7:42
one of the big ones the bell to bell no sell Act which prohibits the use of cell phones and other electronic devices in schools that is incorporated in here. it might seem a little bit odd but it was the most appropriate fit as far as a student could be subject to the discipline policies of the school district for violating the the bell to bell no sell prohibition. we also added changes regarding the anti-bullying laws so act 805
was passed to amend the definition of bullying and then also to create some efficiencies where if a particular act of bullying violated multiple laws which had investigative requirements that the school district could conduct just one investigation instead of having to conduct multiple investigations to meet the requirements of all of the different laws that were implied we did include some references to Act565, the student
and Teacher Protection Act, um, but we more thoroughly addressed that through guidance that was released to school districts um, since we did not have specific rulemaking authority on that and again happy to answer
any questions any questions chairman Des you recognized thank
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
9:04
you again so on on this rule related to the belt to bell noell Act with
every district every school district still require is still required to turn in their policy to the department for review that is correct and if they if if they want to change anything in a in the next year they can't do so without submitting another policy for review so nothing's changed with that no and so for instance we
Speaker 5
9:33
have had every district submit their policy. We did have quite a few districts that we've felt there were some inconsistencies and and
Speaker 6
9:43
corrections that needed to be made. so they are having to take that back to their boards for amendment and then they will have to resubmit that to us so every time a school
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
9:51
board has an amendment it still has to go back to the department for final approval great thank you any other questions seeing no further questions without objection
John Clay
Unverified
9:59
this rule is reviewed and approved. thank you Next we're going to move to the department of healthalth state board of pharmacy
Gentlemen, you can have a seat identify yourselves and you may present the rule. Thank
John Clayirtley
Unverified
10:29
you Mr Chair my name is John Clayirtley I'm the director of the Arkansas
Speaker 39
10:37
State Board pharmacy. Matt Gilmore department of healthalth in front of you today you have our section of the code of Arkansas rules there are5 topics that we are addressing in this the first one is regarding practice after inactivity for pharmacists modeling in many
ways after the medical board that there could be appearance before the board to have a plan to return to activity after absence second of all is getting rid of some language that would limit ratios to either interns or pharmacy technicians to combine the two of them to be support staff ratios there's two different sections that actually address that getting rid of some outdated language on the national level about examination scores this is no longer a scored exam it's a pass or fail exam for
pharmacists and then going in and deleting some old outdated language for CE requirements from the last 20 years as the board had made adjustments to what the CEU requirements were happy to answer any questions you have any questions
John Clay
Unverified
11:33
seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. thank you. thank you for being here members we're gonna move to item D
these are agency requests to be excluded from reporting requirements of Act595 of2021 in those instances where an agency believes that a rule is not necessary for the operation of a newly enacted law from the most recent regular session Act595 allows the agency to submit a written request notifying the subcommittee of its intent to not adopt the required rule and requesting that the rule be excluded from the agency's monthly written updates on rulemaking believe we have someone from the oil and gas commission of the Department of Energy and
Environment if y'all will go ahead and introduce yourselves and then you can I guess present an explanation as to the the sought after exclusion. good morning Keishia Morrison
Speaker 43
12:33
chief counsel Energy andnviron. Lauren Ballard, chief of staff Energy and Environ and members I
John Clay
Unverified
12:39
should have mentioned that this request is in your packet if you want to take a look at that y'all recognize to present
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
12:48
the request thank you Act 149 was identified on the report of the actcts of
the 2025 session that specifically require rulemaking and we believe that role rulemaking is not required to implement the act and that is because we cannot fully go through with rulemaking and lesson until Arkansas is granted primacy over this classicx program from the EPA. Happy to take
Speaker 45
13:12
any questions any questions from the members
seeing none do we have a motion to approve the agency's request for exclusion? we have
John Clay
Unverified
13:31
a motion is there a second Second, is there a second? right we have a motion in a second to approve the agency's request for exclusion all in favor say aye any opposed? The motion passes.
right members that brings us to item E these are agency updates on the status of outstanding rulemaking from the 2023 regular session there's no action to be taken if anybody I'll I'll call these out if anybody does have a question and wants to bring one of the departments or agencies to the table will do so the first is department of commerce Arkansas Economic Development Commission any questions ? Second is Department of Corrections
Next Department of Education I believe that's all any questions of any
Speaker 47
14:53
of these? senator Love you're recognized and just looking
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
14:57
at these rules cause I I haven't asked any questions yet but and looking at these rules what
are we doing with the consolidated incentives actct what what are we changing?
OK we'll bring bring somebody up from AEdC up to the table
if y'all will have a seat identify yourselves and then you can respond to Senator Love's
Speaker 52
15:24
question Jakeinnley, director of legislative affairs, Arkansas Department of Commerce. Jennifer Emerson
Speaker 54
15:29
deputy director AEDC. good morning senator to give
Speaker 52
15:33
you an update on the status of the rulemaking as and as an
explanation the Act834 of2023 amended the consolidated incentives Act to include solid waste incinerators and the eligible businesses for the incentives we've amended the accelerator grant program to include those businesses which is the particular incentive being amended there when we went to amend the consolidated incentive Act rules we started taking a look at the rules are out of date as a whole and they're bloated they mostly restate the statute so when we
went in we started considering a total overhaul of the rules or whether they needed to be repealed in their entirety we didn't want to make a snap judgment though and so we started workshopping with businesses to see what they actually wanted to see in any rules what were ambiguities in the statute that needed to be ironed out by the time we got through that process it was in the middle of the legislative session if we had tried to amend the rules at that point it would have gone to JBC and since it wasn't an emergency rule it would have had to wait until
after the session during the session, however, we passed two acts that also amended the consolidated incentives Act so we would have been had a situation where we amend the rule and then the rule is immediately out of date and we would have had to do the process again so we're currently doing now is we're working on a total overhaul of the rules and we hope to have something before this body before the end of the year that completely revamps the entire thing. so so we haven't made any
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
17:12
changes as of yet no sir. OK and so this change just includes incinerators.'s correct how many how
many how many programme how many incinerators are we talking about statewide or or could actually be impacted by this program just to be clear we're still
Speaker 54
17:29
operating under the statute as it was changed to include the incinerators the the fact that it's
Speaker 65
17:34
not had has not been included in the rule or we haven't amended the rule has not stopped us from operating the program as it is in statute. OK
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
17:44
so all right so we're still operating as it is how many how many
additional incinerators will we will we beclu if we once we change this rule no it's not preventing
Speaker 65
17:55
us from including incinerators that are covered under the statute. OK all right thank you
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
17:59
so that's that's the only that that is the only change to this rule as of right now
Speaker 67
18:06
2025 session we've passed you guys helped us pass some new acts so we have two more
Speaker 65
18:15
changes that will be taking place and to the programme for modernization and automation the corporate headquarters relocation are also part of the consolidated incentives Act so we'll have to add those as well so that was to Jake's point why we got to the point of adding the incinerator piece and then we were in the middle of session and thankfully have some new programs to implement and so now we need to add those as well. OK so he I guess here's
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
18:45
what I'm trying to understand you you just said that that currently they the incinerators are covered then we passed a law so what was the change in the law because you're saying that we s we're still operating we're operating as
Speaker 65
19:03
just have not changed the rules so we're operating and under the statute we're able to offer these programs we're just going to have to do a complete overhaul of the rule because it
is a very large role that includes a lot of different programs and we want to make sure that they are water tight and not ambiguous or have contradictory language. we want to just make sure that we're covering all of our bases there but we're operating under the statute without having to change that rule. OK and what's the
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
19:32
fifth what's the fiscal impact on the program there is no fiscal impact on
Speaker 67
19:36
the program at all. so then how would how
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
19:41
do we offer an incentive if there's if there's no
Speaker 67
19:48
with these programs require a positive cost
Speaker 65
19:51
benefit analysis from our department. therefore it is a positive return to the state in order to offer these incentives. Chairman Deeses you're
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
20:01
chairir I appreciate the explanation that is helpful in I think there's been a lot of grace in understanding not wanting to have a snap judgment and with a rule changing a law changing before the rule was implemented at the same time it's been 15 months since this this rule was due
and so that doesn't feel like a snap judgment we've we've given 15 months and can you give us some assurance that this delay won't cause any issues with the 2025 changes either because we don't want to be another 15 months past the 2025 deadlines as well so what you said end of the year what was your timeline by
Speaker 52
20:39
the end of the year ideally we'll be beginning the rule repeal process very soon. The consolidatives incentives Act uses May language rules are optional here and as we talked with businesses and
we looked at the rule itself the rule seems to create more problems than it solves it limits our options in creating deals with businesses and it's a situation where the harder we try to find things down the more ambiguities pop up. we believe the statute works well enough on its own and anything else can be resolved with individualized incentive agreements with the companies themselves. so one more time the
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
21:11
end of the year time frame would be for the 2023 and it'll be both sir thank you Any other questions
John Clay
Unverified
21:25
Sing Nun, thank you for your testimony. thank you to all the agencies for being here today any other business before becomf to come before the committee seeing none we're adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Report from the Executive Subcommittee Concerning Emergency Rules
C. Rules Filed Pursuant to Arkansas Code § 10-3-309
D. Agency Request to Be Excluded from Reporting Requirements of Act 595 of 2021
E. Agency Updates on the Status of Outstanding Rulemaking from the 2023 Regular Session Pursuant to Act 595 of 2021
F. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
John Clay
Unverified
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd Chair
Unverified
Speaker 6
Speaker 9
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
Speaker 5
John Clayirtley
Unverified
Speaker 39
Speaker 43
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 45
Speaker 47
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 52
Speaker 54
Speaker 65
Speaker 67
Speaker 70