Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs- House
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Unknown speaker
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Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Now I bet you can. Okay, welcome to the first meeting of Aging Children Youth
Military and Legislative Affairs. Really excited to begin a new term on this committee and so happy that all of you have chosen to be here with us. This is not always the most pleasant committee. A lot of the materials we deal with are very sad and very distressing, distressing, but this is an essential committee to do our best for some of the most vulnerable populations in the state of Arkansas. So thank you for joining in this good work. And today we're
not going to be hearing any bills, we're just here for organizational purposes only. I want to introduce the vice chair, Sonia Barker. Wave at everybody. And now I'd like to have the committee members introduce themselves I'll call on you and if you would just briefly tell us your name where you're from and what led you to choose this committee I know for some of you you didn't really have a choice this is the committee that was left after the others were filled in your district but if that's the case
then just tell us something that you're interested in concerning this committee so we will start with Mary Bentley had to do something in another committee I'm not sure if she's here yet so we'll pass on to representative Mark Barry a
Speaker 9
4:02
thank you madam chairman and it's great to be on the committee and I'm from district 82 which is Madison portion of Crawford County and all of Franklin County and I was low on the seniority in
a totem pole. So, but this committee is passionate about because of the military affairs portion and I've worked with, uh, uh, with Madam Chairman on a number of occasions on different bills. So I'm, I'm very excited to be a part of it. And I thank you for allowing me to be
Kim Mcguire
Unverified
4:31
a part of the committee. Thank you.
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
4:37
Thank you. Representative Keith Brooks. Keith Brooks. I'm from district 31, which is portions of Western Pulaski County, West Little Rock in Saline County, including Bryant. Same thing with my colleague, Representative
Berry, low on the totem pole, and so this is what we had the chance to do. However, I think it's a great opportunity for us to give ear and look at issues of some things for the most vulnerable among us, which is certainly of extreme importance, especially with work that things like my church have done in the foster care system. I have some family members involved in things like that. I think being able to have the chance to look at these issues is of extreme importance. So,
thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Representative Craig Christensen.
Speaker 14
5:20
Madam Chair, can you hear me now? Yes. I'm Craig
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Christensen, District 47, which is part white, part independence, most of Jackson County, including Newport and all of Woodruff County. Besides having grandchildren, a law enforcement background that has worked with domestic violence and other things, military, my eldest son is teaching Army Rangers right now at Fort Benning. Started out military police, went into the infantry, and is now a Ranger instructor after having served in combat in Afghanistan.
My son-in-law committed suicide in October of 2019. What we are doing for our veterans and our youth and our aging population is near and dear to my heart as we continue with COVID. I have a sister-in-law in the hospital with it today in New Orleans, not doing very well, so prayers are appreciated. But the bottom line is, is that in all facets of this committee, I ask to be back on this committee for a second session. Thank you. Representative Joe Cloud.
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
6:26
Thank you, Madam Chairman. District 71, which is primarily Russellville, Arkansas, Pope County. Very glad to be on this committee after having private practice and delivering babies for 32 years. Moms and children are near and dear to my heart for more reasons than one, but that's a big one. So thank you. Thank you. Representative Cindy Crawford. I'm from
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
6:54
District 76, which is east and south Fort Smith, one of the great places to come visit.
If you want to come, I'll take you around. It's my second term, my second time to be able to be on this committee. I have spent my adult life protecting women, children, and babies. And so, hopefully, in
this aspect, we'll be able to continue to do that. Thank you. Representative Marsh Davis. Thank
Speaker 27
7:27
you, Madam Chair. I am Marsh Davis, District 61.
I represent all of Fulton, part of Randolph, and part of Sharp. One of my concerns, I'm glad to be here. I have a son, as many of you know, with autism, so he represents one of the vulnerable populations you refer to, and a second passion would be the military. Glad to be
Speaker 28
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here. Thank you. Representative Tony Furman. I'm Chair.
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I'm from District 28, which is the southern part of Benton.
Having seniority number 100 kind of landed me here. But even if I had a seniority number one, this would have been my first pick. Regardless, my wife and I have been foster parents for six years. So serving our children in foster care is my life's passion. My dad's a Navy veteran, so military also. I'm just looking forward to being a part of this committee. Thank you. Representative Denise
Garner. Denise Garner, I'm from northwest Arkansas.
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
8:39
I've got Fayetteville, Springdale, Elkins, Scotian, Westport, Greenland, Prairie Grove. So I kind of am suburbs of Fayetteville and Springdale and some rural Washington County. I am thrilled to be back on the committee. I did choose to be on this committee, and last year was great and chose to be on it again. I, too, am from a military family and have worked years in public service, starting with the guardian ad litem program in texas uh the casa program and um then have dealt
with um children in my public health and um education background and then my parents both had alzheimer's so i've dealt with with alzheimer's for the last six years so um this committee kind of hits all of those things so i'm excited to be here thank
you thank you representative ashley
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
9:43
Hudson. I'm Ashley Hudson, District 32, which is West Little Rock, Pleasant Valley, parts of
Chenal, all the way down through Colonel Glenn and Brody Creek area, so all the western Little Rock suburbs. I am a new legislator as well, so I was low on the totem pole, as some have said, But also, I am the wife of a Marine Corps combat vet. My husband was in the Marine Corps and deployed to Ramadi, Iraq when we were first married and now suffers from PTSD, TBI, and several other physical injuries. So we have been active in veteran and military communities throughout our entire marriage.
I'm also the mom to four kids. And we've been very involved in local education issues and equity issues and also working with some of our friends who have differently abled children. And so I am excited to work on this committee and looking forward to working with all of you on all of the important issues that come before us. So thank you.
Thank you. Representative Julie Mayberry.
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
10:54
Hello, I'm Julie Mayberry and I represent Saline County and a small portion of Pulaski County. This is now my third term to be on this committee and I purposely chose this committee. I love being here, I love hearing what we can do to help our children in the state of Arkansas. I have four, mom to four children, and one of my daughters has spina bifida, so the children with special needs. Started a non-profit called I Can of Arkansas where we offer extracurricular activities, mostly dance classes to children around the state so it's a passion of mine and
I enjoy being here thank you thank you representative
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Rick McClure thank you madam chair Rick McClure from hot spring and portions of
Representative Rick McClure
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11:41
Garland County stretching from Lake Hamilton through Malvern I have about 20 years of experience of counseling foster parents and prospective foster parents before They're going to be a foster parent and the children in a faith-based organization.
So I look forward to seeing what we can do
Representative Mark D. McElroy
Unverified
12:06
to help our kids. Thank you. Representative Mark McElroy. I'm Mark McElroy. I represent District 11, Southeast Arkansas, Deshaies County, Chico County, and parts of Ashley County. And I'm a fourth-term freshman. I've served as a Democrat, an Independent, and now a Republican, and I'm going to try to be
a libertarian and a vegetarian for us.
But anyway, I was kind of low on the totem pole the second time around, and I was up to 22 when I left, so it kind of stings. But I want to tell you something. I'm really concerned about senior citizens because Saturday I'll be 65. glad to serve with you. Thank you.
Thank you. Representative Gayla McKenzie. Thank you,
Representative Gayla H. McKenzie
Unverified
12:57
Madam Chair. I'm from Northwest Arkansas, District 92. I'm as northwest as you can get in Arkansas.
I chose to be on this committee. I'm really happy to be here. I work with children a lot in my other life, and I also work quite a bit with seniors,
so I'm very happy to be here. Thank you. Representative John Milligan. Yeah,
Representative Jon Milligan
Unverified
13:23
thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Representative John Milligan. I'm from District 53, which is Craighead County, Eastern Craighead County, takes it part of Jonesboro. But, you know, the name of the committee, I believe, touches us all. Sounds like everybody here is here for a heartfelt reason.
I also have an autistic nephew, a lot of military in the family. and me and Senator Wallace has talked about the committee he chairs on the Senate and I look forward to working with each and every one of y'all and moving the committee
forward and just helping people. Thank
you. Representative Stu Smith. He's not here. Representative
Joy Springer
Unverified
14:10
Joy Springer. Good afternoon. Thank you
Madam Chairman. My name is Joy Springer and I am a representative for District 34. District 34 is in Little Rock, central Little Rock, and it goes all the way west to buttress parts of Chennaul. I did want to serve on this committee. However, I wanted to have education and this committee. However, I was low on the totem pole for education, but I'm happy to be here on this committee.
Thank you. Thank you. Representative Danny Watson.
Representative Danny Watson
Unverified
14:54
Thank you, Ms. Chair. Danny Watson, District 3, Hempstead, Nevada Counties. Gayla,
I'm on the very other end of the state. I'm just about as southwest Arkansas as you can get. Third time on this committee by choice. I actually met the young man right in front of me, General Barry, now Representative Barry, the last session when he came before fighting for veterans.
The first time I got to meet him was at one of our committee meetings. What entices me to this committee, my goodness, you could help so many different people on this committee. Sometimes you're going to leave, you're going to be a little bit teary-eyed. There's a lot of work to be done. And the statistics sometime will get to you when you start hearing reports from mistreatment of the juveniles. But that's why we're here to try to turn things around, to try to make things a little bit better.
It's my privilege to serve on this
committee. Thank you. Thank you. And Representative Sonia Eubanks-Barker, our vice chair.
Speaker 54
16:04
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am from District 7. I'm about as south-central Arkansas as you can get. 7 covers parts of Calhoun, Washtenaw, and Union Counties. I have been an educator for more years than I usually like to claim, but 30 years now. I took a nine-year hiatus to stay home with my children when they were out
of school, and I, too, have chosen this committee, all three terms. Very happy to be here, not just for the children in the education side of my life, but our oldest has been, he and his wife have been foster parents for years, probably had close to 12 or 15 children in and out of their house at different times. They've adopted two. The oldest is special needs, tube fed, immobile, precious. And then they have adopted another and are fostering, had one of their own and are fostering
a baby right now. Plus, they have to put up with me when I'm in Little Rock. so it's a lot, but, and have military in my family as well, so this committee is very near and
dear to my heart as well. Thank you. Representative Brooks, did we overlook
you? No. Okay. Representative Bentley, you were not here at the
beginning. I understand you were doing something in another committee already, so we will recognize you at
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
17:27
this time. Chairman Fite, really, this is my fourth term in the House,
and I'm really excited to be back on this committee. It's my first time to be on this committee. I was blessed to be born at Air Force Base, so I have lots of military folks in my family. I worked at Children's Hospital for over 10 years as an RN, so there's lots of different avenues here. I'm really excited to work on a lot of things with
this committee, so thank you today. I appreciate it. Thank you, and I am Charlene Fite. This is my fifth term on this committee, so I've been on here from the beginning of my time in the legislature. this is my third time to be honored as chairman of this committee my background is as a special
education teacher my first teaching field was education of the deaf and then i moved on to resource room and then i became a school psychology specialist and did testing and qualifications for state federal guidelines to enter into special education services i've also been a sign language interpreter and I am from a military family and I am a CASA so all of the issues and I'm aging so all of the issues here really affect me and I love
this committee I'm so excited for all of you to be here I want this to be a good committee for all of you I will endeavor to be very very fair we want to treat everyone who is on the committee and everyone who comes before the committee with dignity and respect. We will follow the rules pretty closely just to make everything fair to everyone. We will stick with the rule of having one question and one follow-up. And then if you have additional comments or additional questions, we'll put you back in the queue
and come back to you. But this way, everyone gets a chance to talk, to ask their questions, to make their statements. We do have some handouts for you that I believe are on your desk that our staff kindly provided for us, and I would like to introduce the staff at this time. We have Blake Gilliam, our committee analyst, and would you tell us a little bit about yourself? We never get to find out about you, but I understand you have a new baby. I do. I just had a little
Speaker 62
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daughter on December the 4th, so I don't remember what sleep is.
What's her name? Nora. Oh, I love that. this is my first time staffing aging children youth for the session I was here during the interim starting in 2019 so I do have some experience but not session experience on this I was on transportation last time and I'm very happy to be here if you
have any questions please let me know Blake does a great job for us he got all these handouts ready for us and the information ready for me and has always been there anytime I have an email question or anything he's just
Johnny on the spot, gets it done. And then we have Kimberly McGuire, our committee administrative assistant. Kimberly, would you introduce yourself to us? Tell us a little something about yourself.
Kim Mcguire
Unverified
20:26
My name is Kim McGuire. Yeah, real loud. Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Kim McGuire, and I come from the military family. My husband's a colonel in the Army, and I've been an elementary teacher, so children are very near and dear to my heart.
And so is the military, my husband's in Iraq, came back, you know, we've dealt with those issues, and so it's very interesting over the last couple of months to see what you guys are capable of. And I do have three children of my own, so this is the perfect committee for me. Thank you. You're welcome. And Jennifer
Lewo, our attorney. Jennifer, am I saying your name right? I always question myself. I don't think she is. She's not in here right now. It's hard to see but who's here with all the plexiglass, but it's the am I saying her name correctly Lee well, okay good
Jennifer does a good job for us. She's the one who drafts most of the bills that come before this committee, so you'll be seeing her We will use our own devices for pulling bills So bring your devices with you your phones or your laptops or whatever you like to use bring that with you We will open the website and click on committee agenda You may use the blue hyperlink and the agenda to open the bills and when we come in here and have our first bill We'll take a little time to be sure that everybody has this and staff will assist us in getting you where you need to be
Because it can be a little bit tricky. I know for returning members in the past We were in committee rooms and the device was there in front of us that we could use So it's going to be, as with COVID, everything is more of a challenge, but we will work through that and be sure that everybody is good to go, but bring your device with you when we meet next Wednesday. We will start hearing bills and resolutions next Wednesday. During the session, our committee will meet here in MAC-A on Mondays and Wednesdays at
2. Did you have a question? Do we meet Wednesday? We will. we will meet next Wednesday. Oh, I'm sorry. We will not be here next Wednesday, but typically we will be meeting on Mondays and Wednesdays at two or at the end of the session upon adjournment of the session. So let's see, we will be meeting Monday. That's correct. Yes. Thank you. I'm so used to our not meeting on Monday that it's kind of tricky to get, get in that mindset, but yes,
No, we're not meeting Monday because that's MLK Day. We're not meeting Wednesday because that is Inauguration Day. So we will not be meeting next week. The following week we will get into the group. Okay, whew, that wore me out. We must have a quorum here to start each meeting, so please come as promptly as you can. I know at the end of the session it's always tempting to find someone to ask your question or, um, talk to them about a bill,
but if you can get over here quickly upon adjournment each time and let us get started so we can hear the matters coming before us. Remember these important things. Eleven committee members constitute a quorum. It's important that members be on time to meetings so the chairman can see a quorum and start the meeting. And the agendas will be prepared two days in advance. Sponsor notifications will be sent to members who have bills on the agenda two days before the
committee meeting. So for new members you will be seeing this in your email. It will say you have a bill before and it will give you the committee and the time and we're having to really stick to the agenda a lot more during COVID because of notifying members of the public and being sure that they have an opportunity to be here to present their concerns. Sponsor notices will always be sent by email amendments should always be in writing so please let the staff know before the meeting if you have an amendment and Blake did you want to
Speaker 62
24:36
speak about that okay sometimes if you have amendment just let me know beforehand you may have an amendment carrier run the amendment to me but sometimes I do need your signature on those amendment if they are to go through
sometimes people present amendments in this committee there are couple of ways you can do amendments but if you have one that's coming before the committee be sure and notify mr. Gillen before we get started and I don't think
we have any representatives from any agencies or organizations here today to speak to us and talk to us about their agencies that will be coming up week after next when we reconvene the last thing I need to get from everyone is your name and email address and telephone number on your piece of paper we're going to try to avoid passing things around and getting everything germy so if you would just write that on a piece of paper your phone number your email address if it's other than your house email address and give that put
that at the end of the table here next to mr. Gilliam and we will pick that up and start a group email and texting chain so that if anything is coming up that I need to get a notice to you quickly we can use that and is there anything else does anyone have anything else to come before the committee today madam chair yes representative clown you're recognized changed microphones up
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
26:15
and everything since we've been here before can we have just a little primer do we punch the button or not yes yes you do okay so when we're recognized we punch the button and yes we go for it yes thank you and then do we punch the button to close out I'm gonna
let mr. gunman go over this with you
Speaker 62
26:39
I believe so it's pretty new I believe once I take you off the queue it'll hang up but we're just kind of learning as we go here okay it should be cleared up yeah it's if
this is new for all of us so we're all going to be kind of
learning as we go along and we'll we'll have some tutorial with that seeing no more business before the committee we are adjourned You
Agenda
ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING
Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — AGING, CHILDREN AND YOUTH, LEGISLATIVE & MILITARY AFFAIRS- HOUSE, Jan 13, 2021 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Charlene Fite Chair
Unverified
Speaker 6
Speaker 9
Kim Mcguire
Unverified
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
Speaker 14
Speaker 15
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
Speaker 27
Speaker 28
Speaker 30
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 38
Representative Rick McClure
Unverified
Representative Mark D. McElroy
Unverified
Representative Gayla H. McKenzie
Unverified
Representative Jon Milligan
Unverified
Joy Springer
Unverified
Representative Danny Watson
Unverified
Speaker 54
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Speaker 62