ALC-Administrative Rules
Video
Transcript
32 documents
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin RTX5060
- Processing date
- October 6, 2026
so members we will call this meeting to order welcome to administrative rules it's an honor to join you today um i want to say thank you to uh members for for serving um and uh allowing us to co-chair administrative rules thank you to to my family to my uh senate district 35 for the ability to to serve here faithfully and um i do ask that we have an active membership a active participants that we're actively engaged with the business of the people today. My prayer is that we
use these microphones to amplify our voice and be pleasing and honoring to the Lord and to the people that we get to represent. And it's just such a joy. You should not have given me this microphone is the looks I'm getting from Senator Flippo. But it's a joy to be here, joy to serve with my co-chair as well. And so thank you to the staff for the ability to review all the amount of documents we have to but we take we don't take that lightly we want to leave this place better than than when we entered this room so with that said we will kick off i want to remind those that
wish to comment on a rule to go ahead and sign in staff will be taking up those sign-in sheets momentarily so we want to make sure that the public has the ability to speak on any rule and report that may may come before the agenda today so members also make sure you go ahead and log into your station if you're not already logged in thus far so with that said we'll move to the first item on the agenda which is the adoption of our subcommittee rules so on the first item agenda subcommittee rules all changes have been indicated for you and included changes
made as a result of the legislation from this session and one change to make the rules more clear as to the subcommittee's practice when it comes to the deadline for being placed on the agenda any other changes are strictly clean up and to conform to code style so are there any questions for members see none do i have a motion to adopt subcommittee rules i see a mo i see a first i have a second i see a second all in favor say aye i oppose like sign motion carries
All right, moving ahead, we're going to C on your packet. All right, so we have two reports from the Executive Subcommittee concerning its review and approval of the emergency rules. Those are in your packets. Are there any questions? Seeing none, without objection, these rules will be filed. All right, moving to D, D on the agenda. And okay, turning to item D, we have the quarterly reports on administrative directives.
All right, let's see here. Ms. Raul, you'll be asked to join us at the table here today with the Department of Corrections and the Prison Transfer Board. Please identify yourself for the record,
Speaker 6
3:00
and you'll be recognized. Good morning, everybody. Tawny Raul, Chief Legal Counsel for the Department of Corrections. you have in front of you two reports for each entity. First, the Post-Prison Transfer Board did not have any directives. For the Department of Corrections, Division of Correction, and
Division of Community Correction, we had a few secretarial directives. Generally, those were all enacted to address issues with PREA compliance and make sure that we were following all the rules for Prison Rape Elimination Act compliance and the only exception is going to be the first on the October through December of 2024 report that has to deal with employment and that just effectively cleaned up what was a sort of onerous process for us and I'll take any questions all right members any
questions I'm seeing none see no questions these reports will be filed thank you thank you
Speaker 2
4:04
all right members we are moving to E on the agenda so we turn to the agenda's rules
for this month members in addition to those already stricken on your agenda we'll be passing over item 6a and 6b because the Department of Education pulled those rules yesterday. Make sure that's clear
6A and 6B will be pulled down and I believe those will be moved to June but they're for sure pulled down from this month. All right let's see here. Okay, going to E2, we'll call Department of Agriculture, Secretary West Ward's team for the pest control rule.
Speaker 15
5:01
Please recognize yourself, identify yourself, and you'll be
Speaker 16
5:04
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm Scott Brown, the Director
Speaker 18
5:12
of Plant Industries with the Department of Ag. You're recognized. Thank you. These rules are associated with our pest control program. They control that program. The pest control program we operate provides oversight, licensing, and consumer protection out to the pest control, non-commercial, and commercial businesses. businesses. The rules were developed and drafted with input from industry, and they have agreed
to these changes. The changes consist of we have clarified restricted-use pesticide applicator record-keeping, which aligns this record-keeping with FIFRA, federal rule. We've clarified ongoing education requirements, which also aligns with FIFRA and federal rule. We've also clarified the U of A extension partnership role we have with them. They do all of our training and examination and study material development for us. Additionally, we have
expanded license examination opportunity. The current rule limits written examinations to being held bimonthly. This change will allow for an applicant to submit an application and will provide an opportunity for them to test within 10 days. We also provide any time online examinations as well. Additionally, we did some language cleanup. We clarified the role between the state plant board
and the department as the administrator of the business of the board. And that pretty much sums up the changes. Open to any questions. Thank
you, Mr. Bryan. I see a question from representative Richardson. Let
Speaker 23
6:58
me try. Oh, hold on, hold on. Let me get back here.
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
7:02
There we go. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for being here. So my question is more along when, when you talk about pest control technicians, do you believe that these rules will help drive more individuals
into the industry? Because I think there was an issue at one point, maybe not in the state of Arkansas, but I know in other states where you had a lot of people that were leaving the industry altogether but adding the test and making removing some of the barriers
Speaker 18
7:31
to entry do you feel like that's going to drive more people it certainly could okay it will make it uh acquiring licenses and technician certification it will speed up that process and which should result in more opportunity yes sir
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
7:44
and how often are ceus required for technicians every three years
Speaker 18
7:49
Okay. And total hours? Yes, sir. How many hours are required? Technically, we don't track it in hours. We track it in training. And each training that is offered for ongoing education has to consist of six categories. They have to cover safety, rules, IPM, and I can't think of the other one right off the top of my head. But there's lots of opportunity out there. You take the training, you're
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
8:15
good for three years. And are those trainings provided by companies themselves or by state employees?
Speaker 16
8:20
They are provided. Some are by U of A. Some are by state. Most are by
private industry. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Any further questions? Seeing none, we don't have anybody signed up to speak for or against. Mr. Bray, we appreciate your testimony today. This will be reviewed and filed. Thank you. I'm sorry. Without objection, this rule is reviewed and approved. Excuse me. Thank you. All right. next up we are going to three
Speaker 33
8:44
with the department of commerce division of workforce we'll call them to the table please identify yourself
Speaker 37
9:07
good morning i'm christian rhodesbury with the division of workforce services
Speaker 38
9:10
and the the director of the re-employment
program. David McCoy, general counsel. Thank you,
Speaker 41
9:19
Mr. McCoy, Ms. Rhodes, you're recognized. Thank you. This is a restructuring of the requirement for employers to report their quarterly wages to the unemployment program. It requires them to submit electronically for any employer that has more than five employees per quarter. It's to reduce the error rate from our staff actually manually keying those wages so currently employers
can print it out of a computer system and then snail mail it to us and then we have to key that in so instead of doing that it makes more sense for them to submit that electronically which again would reduce the error rate and also reduce our administrative burden to handle those things so that is the the basics of that that a rule members
any questions I appreciate you thinking about efficiency it's not always a common theme in government so thank you for that thank you without objection see no other questions we don't have anybody signed up for to speak this rule is
reviewed and approved thank you thank you next members we're going to number four on the agenda Department of Commerce Office of Skills and Development please identify yourselves for the record good morning I'm Stephanie Isaacs director of the
Speaker 50
10:45
Office of Skills Development good morning my name is Derek Daniels I'm the director of
Derek Daniels
Unverified
10:53
the office of apprenticeship jake winley director of legislative affairs department of commerce thank you you guys are recognized thank you what you have before you is the office of skills development's combined apprenticeship rule this rule repeals four existing apprenticeship rules and replaces them with an updated consolidated rule the various rules currently overlap there's some contradiction reference to outdated statutory references and there's some
lack of clarity regarding the oversight functions with this updated rule we wanted to consolidate the various apprenticeships update any references and simplify the requirements we've presented this rule to each of the apprenticeship oversight boards they've approved it we um there was public hearing held on january 31st no comments were received from the public any questions members i i do want to
add a a point here of miss isaac thank you for your work across my district i know
you've you've been there readily for questions and and as we continue to work on this this topic so thank you for your work all across the state members seeing no other questions there's no one signed up for a comment today this this rule is reviewed and approved thank you all right number five members this is the department of corrections please identify yourself with record again good
Speaker 6
12:21
morning tony ral chief counsel for the department
Speaker 59
12:23
of corrections good morning charlotte moore attorney and parole revocation judge post Prison Transfer Board. Ms. Rao, Ms. Moore, you're recognized. Can
Speaker 5
12:33
I ask first really quickly just as a matter of
Speaker 6
12:35
procedure, these are packaged like a new rule and amendment, but it's really a new rule and then a revocation of a corresponding section. Do you want them dealt with all at once or separately? Individually, separately. Okay, perfect. So the first rule that you have in front
view is the rule on revocation of parole and post-release supervision. What this primarily does is update statutory language. It takes most of the framework from the prior rule that was in the parole board policy manual and just updates the language to include the new release type of post-release supervision. As most of you all know and voted for the Protect Arkansas Act created a different system for release from prison. Kind of changed some of the language, the statutory language that went along with that most of what is new and different
in this rule is just to adopt that change there's a few substantive changes and the first of which is that it does some clarification on preliminary hearings in statute it sets out a procedure for a preliminary hearing for parole revocation and post release revocate post release supervision revocation and then it also sets out for a full revocation hearing what happens in practice almost exclusively is that we are able to do the full revocation hearing prior to that 14-day window that the preliminary hearing would occur during. So this just clarifies that
we don't have to do a preliminary hearing if there is in fact a revocation hearing heard in that first 14 days. It also includes an appeals process so that if somebody waives their right to a hearing and then changes their mind, they are able to appeal that to the full board. That's just a due process issue that needed to be cleaned up and that's effectively what the rule does we can take
specific questions members any questions all right seeing none we don't have anybody signed
up but without objection this rule is reviewed and approved you can move to the next
Speaker 6
14:37
okay thank you so much the next rule is like i said styled before y'all as an amendment but effectively all it does is strikes the revocation section of the parole board policy manual as they've been adopting rules that replace that subject matter they've been striking them from the policy manual and that'll be a trend that you see going forward as well thank you for the description members any questions
on this rule seeing none no one signed up without objection the rules are reviewed and
approved thank you thank you so much all right as a reminder members we're skipping six and seven those have been stricken or pulled down we're moving to eight the department of finance administration review division you reckon you're called at the table please identify yourselves for the record good morning paul gering dfa
Speaker 64
15:36
thank you mr chair alicia austin smith chief counsel for the revenue
division of dfa thank you you recognized
Speaker 67
15:43
thank you the first rule we have in front of you is 8a is the arkansas waterways investment tax credit rule act 881 of 2023 created a waterways investment tax credit essentially it's an income tax credit for the cost of making capital improvements to a facility or property related to using water transportation the improvements have to have occurred between january 1st 2024 and uh december 31st of this year so that that
period is still open the maximum credit for a taxpayer is 3 million and the cap per year was set at 2.5 million we had our public comment hearing on december 17th we did not receive any public comment in person or otherwise and that period expired on december 24th so we are seeking review and approval of this rule members any questions on the
the waterway investment tax credit see none this is no one's signed up this is considered reviewed without objection it's
reviewed and approved thank you next moving
Speaker 64
16:45
on to 8b and i will go ahead and note that these 8b and 8c are the same but
Speaker 67
16:52
i will follow the prior guidance and treat them separately so 8b is administrative procedure rule 1993-5 we are seeking to repeal this rule essentially each of these rules provided a process by which a taxpayer or the department could receive a decision from an alj under the old tax procedure act process and ask that that be revised by the
commissioner of revenue these rules were superseded by changes to the laws changes to the law long ago but are officially obsolete because of the creation of the tax appeals commission so this is no longer a process that can be used by taxpayers or dfa they can now go straight to the tax appeals commission we held a public comment period as a hearing as well on this rule december 17th and did not receive any public comment on the repeal in person or otherwise and the public comment period for this rule 1993-5 expired on january 1st so we're asking for approval
of the repeal members any questions on this repeal seeing none without objection this is
Speaker 64
17:56
reviewed and approved thank you moving on to the last this is administrative procedure rule 1993-6 it is the same it was a another
Speaker 67
18:03
rule that was actually part of the gross receipts rules and it provided a process by which a taxpayer could ask for a revision of an alj decision and that is now obsolete because of the creation of the tax appeals commission The public comment period expired on January 1st of this year
We had a public comment hearing on December 17th. It did not receive any public comment. We're asking for repeal
of this rule Thank you, and again, no one signed up without objection see no questions This rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you for
Speaker 64
18:36
your time. It's Smith. Mr. Guerin. Thank you Senator DS if I may chairman DS under the agenda at the very bottom of the agenda on agency updates. This is
Speaker 67
18:46
F We are also listed for an update on the waterways rule, which was just reviewed and approved.
So we are asking to be excused if that's okay, or we can
stay around. Members, looking ahead, does anybody have any questions for F5? If not, we'll dismiss our guest today. Seeing none,
thank you for comments. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you, Mr.
Chair. Thank you, committee. okay members going back to
nine on page three of your agenda we will call department of human
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
19:24
services to the table please identify yourself with record good morning jay hill department of Human Services, Director for Aging and Adult Behavioral Health Services. Thank you. You're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This morning we're presenting to you a cleanup to a rule that was presented about a year and a half ago. DHS operates two registries, a child registry and an adult registry for
persons that are found to have committed maltreatment. What we did not have under the adult side was a process by which an individual could make a request to have their name removed from the registry under certain conditions once they had been on the registry for a year, be able to demonstrate rehabilitation, et cetera. There are two entities in addition to the Adult Protective Services who can place names on the Adult Maltreatment Registry, that being the Office of Long-Term Care and the Attorney
General's Office. When we created the rule to create a pathway by which a person could request name removal, we omitted including those two entities on the review panel for persons that have requested removal. So what I'm presenting to you this morning is a request to change the rule and add either the Office of Long-Term Care or the Attorney General's Office as a member of the review team if the requester was placed on the registry by either of those two entities. Thank you, Mr. Hill.
And I'm just confirming, I'm seeing in the notes that no public comments were received.
No, sir. okay okay any oh i see uh senator rice you're
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
21:13
recognized for a question thank you mr chair good morning jay yes uh you you mentioned the the child registry and and going back a few years i think we've done some corrections on that but did the adult registry always have what i'm going to say more diverse oversight than the child registry did when the child registry basically at the
determination of DHS? So the child registry does operate out of our division of children and family services. The adult registry I know from our on our side has been a broader registry in that it does have inclusion from the for instance from the attorney general's office. Persons placed on the registry may not have strictly have just a finding of maltreatment. There could also be criminal charges much as on the child registry criminal charges could also accompany a person who is placed on the registry so it can be a little more involved particularly when a person is requesting
removal that was convicted of a crime we wanted to bring this to you this morning because it was we we realized we were remiss in not including those placing agencies if it were other than adult protective services okay thank you thank
Speaker 78
22:20
you mr. chair thank you any other members with Questions? All right.
Seeing none, there's no one signed up to speak for or against this rule without objection. This rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right,
moving to 10. Department of Human Services, Division of Medical Services, you are called to the table. Please identify yourselves for
Speaker 85
23:01
the record. Good morning. Elizabeth Pittman, Division of Medical
Speaker 87
23:05
Services. Good morning. Jim Brader, I'm the Chief Counsel with Human Services.
Speaker 88
23:09
You're recognized. Our first role today is regarding specialized formula and the associated supply rate changes. It was brought to our attention by several providers of DME and hospitals that our formula rates were not covering the cost of specialized formula for children who needed it. So we did a look at the rates across the board as well as for formula supplies and determined that we needed an overall rate increase to the formula. We also wanted to change how we pay for supplies. We typically had bundled those, this unbundles those, allows them to bill for them separately
and sets them according to Medicare rates. Some rates did go up, some rates did go down, but overall this is an overall increase to the provider community. The total fiscal impact of this is $1.7 million, of which $504,000 a state share, and that is due to the increase of money going to the provider community to help compensate for losses of the specialized formula and make sure that children can get that formula quickly. We did receive several comments on this rule. However, we were able to address any concerns by meeting with the providers and their representatives,
uh talking to through them uh through what we had done and what we had looked at and by the end of that process we had resolved comments and and
Speaker 90
24:24
had no more and i'm happy to take any questions
thank you members any questions seeing none without objection oh i'm sorry representative richardson you're recognized thank you over to
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
24:42
your left the increase what was the total increase in those special formula do you do you know that i do let me find it
Speaker 88
24:50
um the total increase is the 1.7 million i think the total increase we're expecting to see is is a little bit just for
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
24:59
the specialty formula was the 1.6 million it's 1.7
Speaker 94
25:02
yes sir and that is due to the increase to providers okay thank
you any other questions see none without objection the rule is reviewed and approved you can move to next
Speaker 88
25:18
our next rule for you today is our core set reporting requirements there are two sets of
core set reports one is for children one is for adults they are on quality metrics of health services provided to the medicaid population we have been voluntarily reporting the core set cms for quite some time however effective january 1st of 2024 cms made that a mandatory reporting requirement and set out the metrics they wanted us to report we are attesting in our state plan that's what we're bringing before you today that we will report the metrics as cms requires so that did add a few metrics to our list but it also
we will continue to report some voluntarily as well and so that's what this is
thank you any members any questions on this rule seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved Moving to, I believe, C is stricken.
Speaker 87
26:16
Yes, sir. Moving to D. Mr. Chair, I'll let it be. Okay. This rule makes some changes to the Medicaid provider manuals. It extends the time Medicaid beneficiaries have to appeal an adverse action from 10 to 35 days.
It gets us in compliance with some federal regulations. If they do file an appeal, the continuation of services is going to occur. the 10 days was too tight in the past and some folks were filing a timely appeal but their services would be terminated because of the the tight time frame there this remedies that gets us in compliance uh with that federal reg this is the result of a settlement out of a federal lawsuit where the plaintiffs um had uh had some instances where we with the timely appeal terminated
services um it's it we got one public comment from one of the passes or risk-based provider organizations in support of it and so um and there is a fiscal impact that looks rather large but it's the this is not a negotiable item this is something we've got to do to be in compliance with federal regs and that's 40.7 million dollars of which six million dollars that will be the state chair thank you mr
brader i was looking at that public comment and and i'm pleased to see
there's no issues with the time changing uh i guess it was recognized from the comp from public comment then right okay members any questions seeing none
this without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you
Speaker 88
27:46
moving to e item e is a hospital hospice rule and this just basically streamlines our coding processes for hospital claims it requires the use of a new form and specified codes for what type of hospice whether it's facility or non-facility based
it's really just to be able to identify when a beneficiary is being admitted or discharged from hospice and there's no fiscal impact and we receive no comments i'm happy to take any questions members
any questions on this rule seeing none no one signed up to speak without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you thank you all right members that completes number 10 we're moving to 11 on the agenda department of transformation and shared services and members while miss davis comes to
the table um uh we're going to break precedence since all these these are all repeals um and so a through g i will ask that we present maybe an overview of each of those and then we'll batch those together for one one action at the at the end of the presentation but we will take questions on any individual bullet point if needed but please recognize yourself you'll be identify yourself you'll be recognized
Speaker 102
29:02
thank you jennifer davis attorney with transformation and shared services um these seven rules are being repealed um simply they're very old most of them are 20
plus years old these were found during the rule codification uh process blr identified and let us know that these rules have been outstanding. They were originally promulgated by the Office of Executive Chief Information Officer that was disbanded in 2007 or 2008. Those rules were never officially transferred over to the Department of Information Systems, now the Division of Information Systems, and so they had been out there. All of these that they cover, virus scanning, password management, the warning banner that you get on your computer
when you log in, personnel security, project management, encryption, those are all incorporated. One, they've been updated in the last 20 years as policies, but they've all been incorporated in policies and standards that the division has and are actively doing. So all of this information technology security is being done, but at a much more updated level than it was in 1997. So if you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them. Otherwise, these did go out for public comment. We did not receive any. Otherwise we request that you approve these
Thank You miss Davis members any questions on this? I'll try to do my best senator disming impression if you've got any questions for any of these sub Subtext here. I'll go through them one by one any questions for a for B for C for D E F G All right, members, no questions for those, and no one's signed up to speak for or against.
Without objection, Ms. Davis, this rule is reviewed and approved. All of them are. Thank you. Thank you. All right, members, that completes our E section. So we'll now be moving to the rulemaking from 2023 regular session item F on your agenda. A representative from each agency is here and stands ready to answer any questions that you may have concerning the status of its outstanding rules those agencies are listed under items f on your
agenda along with those updates um that have been provided uh let's see so if you're looking through f now please um if any member has any questions we can call those agencies to the table give a minute for everyone to look through f as a reminder this is just an update to the process as they're working through the rule changes from the 23 session so members any anyone like to bring any agency to table yes or no
all right oh i'm sorry i see representative vat thank you sir
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
31:55
um can someone from education tell us when they're going to finish their 2023 rules on learns all right we'll call the
department of education to the table please you thought you're going to get out sorry courtney
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
32:13
it's something i get asked quite frequently when will we have a rule for this please identify yourself
Speaker 111
32:19
for the record good morning courtney solis for department of education i do not mind at all coming and explaining because you're right we do definitely need rules on many of these programs most of the ones that are remaining are things that as we were going through the process and meeting with subcommittees we identified changes that needed to be made legislatively and so now that changes have been made during the 25 session we will be incorporating those and putting high priority on all of these outstanding rules and so we approved a few of them at our May board meeting
and we hope to approve more at our June and July board meeting and get these back to you as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you,
Speaker 112
33:03
sir. I see Representative Painter. You recognized? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Where are we at on the universal academic credit? So those
Speaker 111
33:12
rules were one of the ones that we pulled today. We were actually, those had gone through the complete process, and we're going to come to you for final approval today. however as i stated additional changes were made during the 25 session and so instead of finishing
them and putting out information that was now outdated we're just going to go ahead and restart the process make those 25 changes and hopefully get them back to you in just
a few months all right thank you yes all right members any other questions oh
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
33:43
i see representative in it you're recognized thank you mr
chair hi courtney hi um those rules that y'all are that the department is reviewing is one of those rules that one and learns about the if you in the third grade you
don't know how to read and they'll retain you yes that is one of the rules that y'all going to discuss
Speaker 114
34:02
yes um so that actually does not start until this next upcoming year but yes those are priority rules that we will get out before the school year starts all right
thank you yes any further questions members all right seeing none thank you for your testimony today and thank you for all the agencies for being here and willing to present updates but members without any further business and if
these conversations could please be quiet in the back so we can conclude the business of the people senator Hester senator Flippo thank you for being here today members we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Adoption of Subcommittee Rules
C. Reports from the Executive Subcommittee Concerning Emergency Rules
D. Reports on Administrative Directives Pursuant to Act 1258 of 2015, for Quarters Ending December 31, 2024, and March 31, 2025 (Tawnie Rowell)
E. Rules Filed Pursuant to Arkansas Code § 10-3-309
F. Agency Updates on the Status of Outstanding Rulemaking from the 2023 Regular Session Pursuant to Act 595 of 20211
G. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Senator Tyler Dees Chair
Unverified
Speaker 6
Speaker 2
Speaker 15
Speaker 16
Speaker 18
Speaker 23
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Speaker 33
Speaker 37
Speaker 38
Speaker 41
Speaker 50
Derek Daniels
Unverified
Speaker 59
Speaker 5
Speaker 64
Speaker 67
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 78
Speaker 85
Speaker 87
Speaker 88
Speaker 90
Speaker 94
Speaker 102
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Speaker 111
Speaker 112
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
Speaker 114