House Caucus

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

You don't have to go there, you don't have to do it. Hey, do it out here.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

We were paid to see it. We got in here, we're on the back row. Went to the road. And right up. We're on the top of the top. And then, that's over here. And Andy Davis is sitting in the corner. We got him. Delarosa. Uh, yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we're going to get to see you. Thank you. Thank you.

The Organizational Caucus of the House of Representatives for the 93rd General Assembly will please come to order. I invite the members, staff, press, and guests, wherever you may be, to stand and be led in prayer by Representative Fred Allen and to remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance to be led

by Representative Lane Jean. this is the day that the lord has made let us rejoice and let us pray today our god our father our creator we meet you with thanksgiving in our hearts thanking you for this day that you blessed us with thanking you for each and every member of the general assembly we pray lord that we will have peace and unity as we make decisions, as we differ. We realize, Lord, that we're here to do your work and do the work of the people of the state of Arkansas. Now, Lord, we pray for peace in this country. Whatever the outcome is, Lord, we pray that you will be in the midst of it, and we pray that you will give us all a better understanding of what's going on in this country and what's going on in the world. We just thank you, Lord, for this day, and we ask that you will be with us all the days of our lives. In Jesus' name, we claim it. Amen.

In accordance with the rules of the House, we are convened today, the first Friday following the November general election, for the purposes of seniority drawing for newly elected members, for the selection of seats in the chamber, and for the selection of positions on the ten standing committees, the House Budget Committee, the Legislative Council, and the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee for the 93rd General Assembly. Members and members elect, however, given the fact that we have two races, in particular District 32 and 38 that the votes are still being counted and we're still awaiting the final outcome which we believe will occur early next week. After consulting with the majority leader and the minority leader, we intend to recess today and come back at a later date after that has been determined and this is not something that I take lightly in putting it off but when I look at the fact that the two members involved in that race are seniority number 37 and number 59 the outcome of that race and if we were to go ahead and select today would potentially potentially affect the seniority selection for a very significant number of the members and particularly in light of the rule change which was adopted by the 92nd general assembly for seniority selection it's my belief that this is consistent with with the intention of the house um certainly would would have liked to have avoided having to convene today but as referenced previously the house rules adopted by the by the 92nd general assembly provide for us to meet on the friday following the november election. With that being said, there are a few items of business that I would bring to your attention, as if you'll give me your attention for just a few minutes. It's not necessary to sign in to today's meeting. Staff is documenting who is here from your attendance and from sitting in your seats. Members, of course, are free to attend meetings, and members elect are free to attend meetings going forward and may sign in to those meetings. And I would remind you that the governor is scheduled to present the revenue forecast I believe next Tuesday in the ALC budget hearings that are set for Tuesday morning. On your desk you will find copies of the rules of the 92nd General Assembly. These rules will serve as the temporary rules for the 93rd General Assembly until such time as the rules of the Ninth Third General Assembly are adopted. On the desk occupied by newly elected members, you will find a packet of materials that should be completed and returned to the clerk's office, which for the newly elected members, the clerk's office is in the northwest corner of this floor, and our clerk, Ms. Sherry Stacks, who's right down here, and you can return those to Sherry and the clerk's office, and there's actually a basket, I believe, outside the clerk's office in which you may deposit those completed documents. Returning members who have not yet had their portraits made may do so today, and that is in room 309 on the south end of the Capitol building. I believe the newly elected members, Your portraits will be made during orientation, which house orientation is set for Sunday, December 6th through December 9th. And in order to minimize having, as best we can, having a large group of members, we're primarily encouraging just the newly elected members, the orientation committee, and a few other members to be a part of that. If you're interested in being a part of that, please let me know, but do want to call that to your attention. The bill filing or pre-session bill filing period begins on November 15th, and so I would call that to your attention. You should have, members, and I believe the newly elected members as well, should have received an email from me encouraging you to utilize the pre-filing period. it's not mandatory but as returning members know the first few weeks of session can be a bit slow and if you do have bills that are already prepared and ready to file it's a great opportunity to go ahead and help us to be ready to do business when we come back and then the final announcement is the regular session will convene on Monday January 11th and obviously we'd like to see all of you here for that day. Now with regard to rescheduling and bringing us back in for the purposes of seat selection and committee selection, again my understanding is that we hope to have results early next week and at that point we will look at the calendar. We will schedule that at a point in time. We will try and give you as much notice as possible and but we also at the same time we'll try and get it rescheduled as soon as possible because I know that committee selection is very much anticipated and I appreciate your patience and understanding during this time and as you notice today we divided the membership into four or five different groups we will follow that same procedure when we come back for committee selection and seat selection that's for purposes of avoiding having a hundred members having to stand around the outside of the chamber we will have the new members in the gallery the returning members will we will bring in by group select their seats then we'll bring the new members in who will draw for seniority and they will complete their seat selections at that time and we'll move into committee selection and i don't know if it's possible can we can we put up on the screen just so you'll know uh since we're going back to seniority selection um of course many members who have been here are familiar with the fact in the past we would divide into four caucus districts under the rules adopted by the 92nd we will actually select committees all together at one time here in the chamber and if we can we'll show you what will be on the screen so that you'll have some familiarity with what you're going to see when it's your turn to select a committee so we will go down by seniority so we'll we'll start with number one number one is stephen meeks second district okay so he's in the second district so when it's his term to select if we're picking a committees that's what he'll see and then when he makes his selection his name will be filled in. I don't know if these monitors are on in front of us. They should show the entirety of the membership for those A committees. I realize it's probably difficult to see from the back, but at least it provides us, you can come down front if you need to see that. But that's how we will select. Then we'll move to number two. Number two is Lane Jean. He's in the fourth district, so the screen will change to the fourth district. And as that's populated, then you'll be you will be able to see what options are available so we will do that for all of the A committees and then we'll go to the B committees again start with number one and work our way down and then finally we will go to the joint committees which are ALC budget and audit and as you can see it's a little different for those because there are alternate positions that you can select. And so hopefully this will provide you with as much information as possible so that you can be informed as you make those selections. There's two other rules that I would mention to you. The rules do allow for trading of positions or trading of committee selections, but that must be completed by the close of business on the day that we select select committees and it has to be approved obviously by the members involved by their caucus leader and by me as speaker and then finally per the rule if there are any committees in which the majority party is not the majority on the committee then I speaker can make adjustments to provide for the majority party to control, to have majority control of that committee. All right. All right. Well again, I appreciate your patience and understanding. It's my hope that we can be back here in the very near future to go about our business and And with that, Representative Meeks, you're recognized for a motion. Yes, there

we are. Mr. Speaker, I move this organizational caucus for the 93rd General Assembly stand in recess until we are reconvened at the call of the chair for the purposes of completing the processes provided in the rules for the House. That's a proper motion. It's

not debatable. the question before the house is to stand in recess until a time when we're reconvened at the call of the chair all in favor say aye any opposed the motion passes are there any announcements seeing no announcements and there being no further business before the caucus we stand in recess until the call of the chair Thank you.