State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs-Senate
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Bills discussed (39)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1524
Act 939
· 8 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…ZONING AUTHORITY OF THE CAPITOL ZONING DISTRICT COMMISSION. HB1524 Wooldridge TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE BIDDING PROCEDUR…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE BIDDING PROCEDURE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS AND FACILITIES. | Wooldridge | Notification that HB1524 is now Act 939 |
|
HB1925
Act 846
· 6 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “HB1925 Beaty Jr. AN ACT TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE BALLO…”
|
AN ACT TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE BALLOTS; TO AMEND THE ABSENTEE BALLOT VOTER … | Beaty Jr. | Notification that HB1925 is now Act 846 |
|
HJR1018
· 4 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “HJR1018 Ray THE CITIZENS ONLY VOTING AMENDMENT.”
|
THE CITIZENS ONLY VOTING AMENDMENT. | Ray | Approved by the Governor |
|
HB1952
Act 947
· 3 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “HB1952 Hawk TO ASSIST THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATE ATHLETIC COM…”
|
TO ASSIST THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATE ATHLETIC COMMISSION; TO PROVIDE FUNDING TO THE STATE … | Hawk | Notification that HB1952 is now Act 947 |
|
HB1683
Act 924
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…FACILITIES. HJR1018 Ray THE CITIZENS ONLY VOTING AMENDMENT. HB1683 McAlindon TO PROHIBIT THE PROCUREMENT BY A GOVERNMENTAL ENT…”
|
TO PROHIBIT THE PROCUREMENT BY A GOVERNMENTAL ENTITY OF AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE OR A COMPONENT … | McAlindon | Notification that HB1683 is now Act 924 |
|
HB1706
Act 829
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…MEMBERSHIP DUES FROM THE COMPENSATION OF A PUBLIC EMPLOYEE. HB1706 McCollum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS; AND TO PROH…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS; AND TO PROHIBIT RANKED CHOICE VOTING. | McCollum | Notification that HB1706 is now Act 829 |
|
HB1739
Act 814
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1739 M. Brown TO ADOPT THE UNIFORM ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIALS AC…”
|
TO ADOPT THE UNIFORM ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIALS ACT. | M. Brown | Notification that HB1739 is now Act 814 |
|
HB1837
Act 999
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1837 McAlindon TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE FOR MATTER…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE FOR MATTERS REFERRED TO VOTERS; AND TO BAN FOREIGN … | McAlindon | Notification that HB1837 is now Act 999 |
|
HB1846
Act 946
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…E ARKANSAS CODE THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1996. HB1846 S. Meeks TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS 2036 COMMISSION. HB1879 Lun…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS 2036 COMMISSION. | S. Meeks | Notification that HB1846 is now Act 946 |
|
HB1949
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…A WITNESS FOR THE SIGNATURE OF AN ABSENTEE VOTER STATEMENT. HB1949 Schulz TO ADD MEDICAL, EMERGENCY MEDICAL, AND AMBULANCE SER…”
|
TO ADD MEDICAL, EMERGENCY MEDICAL, AND AMBULANCE SERVICES TO THE LIST OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FOR … | Schulz | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB241
Act 885
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…AND PICKUP TRUCK ACQUISITION ACT FOR THE STATE OF ARKANSAS. SB241 J. Scott TO AMEND THE UNIFORM ATTENDANCE AND LEAVE POLICY A…”
|
TO AMEND THE UNIFORM ATTENDANCE AND LEAVE POLICY ACT; AND TO GRANT PAID LEAVE TO … | J. Scott | Notification that SB241 is now Act 885 |
|
SB343
Act 734
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…im Dotson CONCUR IN HOUSE AMENDMENT Number Sponsor Subtitle SB343 Irvin TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING STATE-OWNED MOTOR VEHICLE…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING STATE-OWNED MOTOR VEHICLES; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC PROPERTY; … | Irvin | Notification that SB343 is now Act 734 |
|
SB558
· 2 mentions in transcript
Matched: “…ng design processes that were laid out in 2023 as a part of Senate Bill 558 that was enacted and so just going back a little bit to 202…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE ELECTRONIC FILING OF CERTAIN CORPORATE INCOME TAX RETURNS. | Crowell | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB569
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…O DESIGNATE A RESTROOM FOR CAMPAIGN WORKERS AND VOLUNTEERS. SB569 M. Johnson AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION CONCER…”
|
AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION CONCERNING BALLOT TITLES OF PROPOSED MEASURES; AND AMENDING THE … | M. Johnson | Died on House Calendar at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB608
Act 991
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB608 M. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING RUNOFF ELECTIONS FOR…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING RUNOFF ELECTIONS FOR COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL OFFICERS. | M. Johnson | Notification that SB608 is now Act 991 |
|
SB640
Act 903
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB640 J. Dismang TO RECONSTITUTE THE STATE LIBRARY BOARD.”
|
TO RECONSTITUTE THE STATE LIBRARY BOARD. | J. Dismang | Notification that SB640 is now Act 903 |
|
HB1714
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…DIVIDUALS APPLYING FOR LIFE INSURANCE WHO ARE ORGAN DONORS. HB1714 Rose TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF PAID CANVASSER. SB517 J. Sc…”
|
TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF PAID CANVASSER. | Rose | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1800
Act 998
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 4/10/2025 @ 8:03 AM) Removed HB1800 and HB1934 Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmen…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE; TO REQUIRE DISCLOSURE BY A REPRESENTATIVE … | McAlindon | Notification that HB1800 is now Act 998 |
|
HB1873
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CONCERNING ELECTIONS; AND TO PROHIBIT RANKED CHOICE VOTING. HB1873 B. McKenzie CONCERNING NOTIFICATION TO PERSONS ELECTED TO S…”
|
CONCERNING NOTIFICATION TO PERSONS ELECTED TO SERVE AS A MEMBER OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF … | B. McKenzie | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1879
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…96. HB1846 S. Meeks TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS 2036 COMMISSION. HB1879 Lundstrum TO REQUIRE ALL CITY COUNCILS AND COUNTY QUORUM CO…”
|
TO REQUIRE ALL CITY COUNCILS AND COUNTY QUORUM COURTS TO POST VIDEO RECORDINGS OF PUBLIC … | Lundstrum | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1934
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 4/10/2025 @ 8:03 AM) Removed HB1800 and HB1934 Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS FORWARD ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE ACT; AND TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS FORWARD ENGAGEMENT … | McAlindon | Died in House at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1951
Act 929
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LIST OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FOR PURPOSES OF PROCUREMENT. HB1951 A. Collins TO SET FORTH AUTHORIZED DOMAIN EXTENSIONS FOR HI…”
|
TO SET FORTH AUTHORIZED DOMAIN EXTENSIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT WEBSITES. | A. Collins | Notification that HB1951 is now Act 929 |
|
HB6
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “my notes. That was a good question. Yeah. House Bill 6, what is it? Senate Bill 82.”
|
Pre-2017 bill | ||
|
SB141
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EN INTERIM COMMITTEES MAY MEET DURING A LEGISLATIVE RECESS. SB141 B. King TO ELIMINATE FUNDING TO THE ARKANSAS CENTER FOR HEA…”
|
TO ELIMINATE FUNDING TO THE ARKANSAS CENTER FOR HEALTH IMPROVEMENT. | B. King | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB212
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TION ACT OF 1967 CONCERNING Page 2 of 3 PERSONNEL RECORDS. SB212 K. Hammer TO CREATE THE DOCUMENT VALIDITY DIVISION; AND TO…”
|
TO CREATE THE DOCUMENT VALIDITY DIVISION; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. | K. Hammer | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB247
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NATE FUNDING TO THE ARKANSAS CENTER FOR HEALTH IMPROVEMENT. SB247 C. Tucker TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS ABSENTEE VOTER INTEGRITY A…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS ABSENTEE VOTER INTEGRITY ACT OF 2025; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING … | C. Tucker | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB248
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ND THE LAW CONCERNING THE DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE. SB248 C. Tucker TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967;…”
|
TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND THE PROVISIONS OF … | C. Tucker | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB395
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…E ENFORCEMENT LICENSING BOARD; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. SB395 Hickey TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING STATEMENTS OF FINAN…”
|
TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL INTEREST; AND AMENDING A PORTION OF ARKANSAS … | Hickey | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB398
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…HE DOCUMENT VALIDITY DIVISION; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. SB398 C. Tucker TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING INITIATIVE PETIT…”
|
TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING INITIATIVE PETITIONS AND REFERENDUM PETITIONS; AND TO ALLOW A CURE … | C. Tucker | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB4
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…STATE LIBRARY BOARD. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle SB4 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS;…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS; AND TO ALLOW VOTERS TO ELECT "FOR" … | C. Penzo | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB434
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…S; AND TO ALLOW A CURE PERIOD FOR INSUFFICIENT SUBMISSIONS. SB434 J. Dotson TO CREATE THE "PROTECT OUR CONSTITUTION ACT"; TO…”
|
TO CREATE THE "PROTECT OUR CONSTITUTION ACT"; TO AMEND A PORTION OF THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION … | J. Dotson | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB44
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LLOW VOTERS TO ELECT "FOR" OR "AGAINST" WATER FLUORIDATION. SB44 Hester TO CLARIFY THE LAW CONCERNING WHEN INTERIM COMMITTEE…”
|
TO CLARIFY THE LAW CONCERNING WHEN INTERIM COMMITTEES MAY MEET DURING A LEGISLATIVE RECESS. | Hester | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB453
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ILY MEMBER OR CHILD. REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle SB453 B. King TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRIC…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. | B. King | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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SB476
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. SB476 J. Scott TO ALLOW LEAVE FOR ORGAN DONATION FOR CERTAIN STAT…”
|
TO ALLOW LEAVE FOR ORGAN DONATION FOR CERTAIN STATE EMPLOYEES; AND TO PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST … | J. Scott | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB493
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 5, § 1; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. SB493 J. Bryant TO TRANSFER AND CONSOLIDATE THE DUTIES OF TRADE-R…”
|
TO TRANSFER AND CONSOLIDATE THE DUTIES OF TRADE-RELATED BOARDS TO THE CODE ENFORCEMENT LICENSING BOARD; … | J. Bryant | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB517
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ORS. HB1714 Rose TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF PAID CANVASSER. SB517 J. Scott TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS;…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS; AND TO ALLOW A COUNTY BOARD OF … | J. Scott | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB579
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…E AUTHORITY OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 5, SECTION 1. SB579 M. McKee TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EM…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES; AND TO PROHIBIT A PUBLIC EMPLOYER … | M. McKee | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB617
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB617 M. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CAPITOL ZONING D…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CAPITOL ZONING DISTRICT; AND TO AMEND THE ZONING AUTHORITY … | M. Johnson | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB82
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…. That was a good question. Yeah. House Bill 6, what is it? Senate Bill 82.”
|
TO INCREASE THE SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION FOR USED MOTOR VEHICLES; AND TO AMEND … | J. Payton | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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prayers. All right, thank you. I do want to recognize a few of my local elected officials. We've got Marion County Judge Jason Stomp. Batter County Judge Kevin Liddy, my good friend and the best looking one of the group, Kanda Reese. People always ask me how I keep on getting re-elected. I say, look at Jason and Kevin Liddy. The competition's pretty low.
Nice to be the chair, gentlemen. Oh, they're good guys. They're good guys. But listen, happy to have you guys here. I know we got our county judges day, collectors. Joshua, hey Josh Curtis. Cheer talking to you. Mark, yeah, um, who,
what all local county elected officials do we have here today. Seems like we're overrun with them and Well, I'm talking like do we have all county judges here today? Is it county judge Mark, yeah, um, who, what all local county elected officials do we have here today. Seems like we're overrun with them
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:09
and Well, I'm talking like do we have all county judges here today?
Is it just the ones that have potential Alright, we've got County judge here as well. Hey, great to have you all here. All right, our Senate page today. Where's
Nathaniel Thomas Jr. Where's Nathaniel? Nathaniel, stand on up, man. We're happy to have you here today. Welcome. You were with Senator English from Mael High School. What's senior, which you planning to graduate Listen, thank you for
your service. Looking forward to great things you're going to do. Happy to have you here, Nathaniel. Thank you for being here.
All right, what's up? Uh. Jimmy Scott, you got something quick and easy. What you got? Senator Sullivan was going to do it for you. You know, we're getting to the end of times
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
2:02
when Dan Sullivan's running Jamie Scott mills. Good morning colleagues. I have an amendment that I need to introduce yourself Jamie Scott from District 12, um, I have just an amendment that I need to concur, um, Arkansas State worked with the governor's office because they are in a different section of the code
and so that's what the amendment includes
Speaker 19
2:20
an explanation of the amendment. Any questions from the committee? All right, so
you know questions take a motion. Senator
Payton. Thank you. I'm just going by memory and looking at this, it
seems like The list. of family members got smaller. I don't
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
2:45
have my notes, but the definition for immediate family
came from a coda statue that was already there. We didn't, OK, I was thinking I try and
expand or do anything. It looked a lot broader than my memory anyway, so that hadn't changed.
Speaker 29
3:02
OK, thanks. All right. Any other questions for the committee?
All right, see you none. Take a motion to adopt or concur, excuse me, got a motion from Senator Sullivan, second from Senator Clark. Tucker, uh,
all right, all in favor say aye, opposed. All
right, thank you. I appreciate your time. All right, next up, um, Senator Tucker, you have some, you good? All right. Do we have any Senate bills?
Do you got any Senate bills in here? Can you get out? Alright, so I don't see any Senate bills. All right. Next up, we'll take Mr. David Ray. I know
you're running House Concurrent resolution. What's that number, Representative Ray 1018. And if you will introduce
yourself and you'll be recognized to
present. how y'all I got HCR 1018.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
3:59
1018. Yes, this is House Joint Resolution 1018. This is a proposed constitutional amendment that was referred out of House state agencies Committee and approved on the House floor. It would ensure that only United States citizens can vote in our state and local elections. So what it does is it amends Article III, Section 1 of the Arkansas
Constitution, um, which deals with the qualifications of electors. That's all it does. Um, you know, I think we all start from a pretty simple premise that Arkansans should decide the future of Arkansas, and Americans should decide the future of America, and yet there's 4 states across the country along with 21 different municipalities that allow for non-citizen voting, legalized non-citizen voting in certain local elections. You've got major American cities such as Oakland, San Francisco, and sadly even our nation's capital
that allow for legalized non-citizen voting in local elections. Another example is Chicago, a city of 2.7 million people allows for legal noncit in voting in their school board elections. So the reason this is an issue is because most states, when they put their state constitutions together in the 1800s. They used language such as every citizen of the United States who's age 18 or older. is eligible to vote. Arkansas's Constitution says that instead
of every citizen, our Constitution uses the phrase all citizens. There's some states that use the phrase um Any citizen, but whether you use all citizen or any citizen or every citizen, none of those are sufficient to prevent nonlegal voting non-citizen voting because they constitute a floor rather than a ceiling. Um The language, you know, any citizen may vote that protects your right and my right as a citizen, but it doesn't limit people from being added to that
list, and unfortunately courts when when this type of non-citizen voting has been challenged around the country. More often than not, it's been upheld because state constitutions, most of the language just simply isn't strong enough. So by moving to the only citizen language, you're setting a ceiling for eligibility. It's absolute, it's exclusive and it's unambiguous. I should mention that this is because of the states that have allowed noncitizen voting. Um, there's a nationwide movement in the other direction.
This citizen only voting amendment has been passed in 15 other states in the last election, it was passed by our neighbors in Missouri and Oklahoma. They amended their state constitutions along with Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, and Wisconsin. Um, and then the last thing I would mention is these measures when they've passed in other states have passed overwhelmingly. The average passage rate is about 73.5% in South Carolina it was as high as
86% and so um I think this is a good preventative measure to ensure that we never wake up one day and find, you know, a attempt to legalize non-citizen voting in our state, and with that, I'll be happy to take any questions. All right, members, you've heard
Speaker 44
7:12
an explanation. Are any questions from the committee? Alright. There are no
questions, there's my son up speak for or against. All right, Representative, you're recognized to close. I'm closed, and I appreciate
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
7:26
the committee's time this morning. I know you all had a late night last night,
a motion passed by Senator Payton, seconded by Senator O'S Sullivan. Any discussion on the motion? See none. All in favor say aye, aye
closed. Congratulations, passes. All right, uh, Sir Gilmore. You
Speaker 47
7:45
got your amendment? All right. And you're doing House Bill 1524 and House Bill 1925. All right. All right, members, we'll start with HB 1524 and Senator Gilmore is one.
Speaker 52
8:06
All right, all that stuff, get this amendment out and then. I'll take a motion
Speaker 53
8:23
to adopt. with with that time. So go ahead and introduce yourselves. Jeff King, Deputy Director for the division of
Speaker 55
8:31
State Parks. Mike Wilson, assistant director of Arkansas State Parks. All right. Members, you got, you do have a
copy of the amendment in front of you. Got a motion to adopt. Got a second by Senator King. All in favor say aye, aye opposed. All right, it's been adopted. Senator Gilmore, you're proceed with House Bill 1524 as amended. Thank you, and I will defer to the agency to
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
8:49
walk through it. This is a bill that
you've already heard in this committee, so I'll let them explain what the amendment does to to get some, give members some comfort in here that had some issues before. Thank you, Senator Gilmore and committee. I
just want to take the opportunity to say thank you for some of the input that we
received from committee members regarding House Bill 1524. We've gone back and the amendment really reduces the impact of this bill down to essentially a cleanup bill from from 2023, the, the amendment keeps in place all of the requirements for notice, bid procedures and advertisement that's in existing code and the amendment really just allow allows for maintenance projects in Arkansas state parks to be exempt from some of the costly
architectural and engineering design processes that were laid out in 2023 as a part of Senate Bill 558 that was enacted and so just going back a little bit to 2023, Governor Sanders identified really the outdoor outdoor economy of Arkansas is an opportunity for real growth and a big part of that is our state park system, so in 2023, the enacted Bill 1558 exempted parks from the definition parks maintenance projects from the definition of
capital improvements, and so that was already put into the code in 3 areas. 2 of those were in the public works section of code. One is in the division of Building a section of code, but in terms of the public finance section of code, the third area that that was left out and and really kind of inadvertently back in the 2023 bill. So as amended, all of this that this bill does is really add that. had that piece of exemption for architectural and engineering projects for state parks up to
$150,000 to this last section of code and so with that I would be happy to answer any questions and again appreciate the committee's kind of input regarding this bill amendment.
Payton, you're I can ask for a question. All right, so remind me how much of an increase is this? I mean, currently this book of
business is limited by what dollar amount? The currently the the the the statute in in two areas allows for parks maintenance projects which are really just repair and renovation projects to not be
subject to capital improvement definitions which which allow for architectural engineering, so this exempts that up to $150,000. I know what this does.
I'm asking, where is the current threshold? The current threshold in
this area is $50,000. So we're taking it from
50 to 150. On not having to follow the procurement law. No, we're still
following all the procurement laws that are enacted, even 50,000 and above. This is really just not making us do some of
the some of the engineering design costs that they really add about 10% to our projects for things that we don't really need architectural and engineering drawings to do, whether that's replacing a roof on a building with
Speaker 58
11:53
a like product, painting a building, some of those things that that really didn't make sense in
terms of this, but don't we require that at schools and county judges and courts and things like that when they do maintenance and repairs and modifications, I mean,
alteration is the word, I guess, right? Aren't they required to To live under that other threshold, I'm, I'm
not fully, fully aware of all the, all the areas of the code that that covered those covered counties and municipalities, but I will speak for just for the state parks piece and this was really an opportunity that was identified back in 2023 to tackle some of the backlog of maintenance projects that we have in our state parks and, and a little bit unlike counties and municipal municipalities, although it may be the same in some instances, but we're really
trying to be able to tackle these projects in the offseason, so anything we can do to shorten the time frame that that it takes to get projects done really helps us in the state parks to be able to serve our guests that are visiting both in state
and out of state to our parks. I understand we're always looking for more flexibility. I
understand that, but uh. If we're holding elected officials, school board members, county judges, courts, city councils to a higher standard than what we are appointed officials. Something needs to change. Thank you.
Speaker 29
13:12
Thank you, Senator. All right, questions from the committee. I see no further questions. Christy, do we have,
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
13:19
or Carly, do we have anybody signed up to speak for against this. I don't see anybody. And that senator you recognize that
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
13:25
close for your bill. Thank you, members. Thank you for the question, Senator Payton. Um, if
you want to run that bill, I'd probably vote for it, but anyway, I think this is a good way again to try to find some cost savings. Do, do we really need engineering design when it's, again, when you're replacing a roof with a light roof, when you're painting a
building, you know, the same color that's already painted, those types of things, when you're adding engineering design on top of that. It just adds to the cost. So with that, I think it's a good bill and I appreciate a good vote. All
right, I'm just close to the bill. What's the will of the committee? Got a motion to pass as amended by Senator King. See a second. Seconded by Senator Sullivan, any discussion on the motion say none. All on paper say aye, aye posed. Congratulations, your bill passes. Thank you. As amended.
Speaker 76
14:19
All right, you got um 19205. There's no amendment for that, correct? Introduce yourself
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
14:24
again and then you're recognized proceed with the House Bill 1925. Thank
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
14:29
you, Mr. Chair. member Senator Gilmore district. Yes. Uh
sorry, my mic turned off. Senator Gilmore, Senate District one, this, this is a bill from the Secretary of State's office, uh, 1925. This is a bill from the Secretary of State's office that
amends the absentee ballot statute. And so what, what we're trying to do here is making sure that our absentee process is secure as possible, so the bill does a couple of things. The big, the big thing in particular that it does is it requires a witness on an absentee and they have to be 18 years or older, they can be a resident of any state, um, because again absentees typically are for people. who are out of state or something like that, in addition, though, there are
exceptions to this, um, you know, for members of the military, um, for those that have some sort of a hardship, um, and then also there is, it's adding to, uh, in the first section there. It's adding to the statement that where it says I'm duly qualified to vote at this election according to Arkansas Constitution. It's just adding them a statement swearing that they understand what they're doing and that they're um, you know. Voting properly and appropriately. With that, I'm
happy to take any questions. All right, members, you've heard an explanation of the bill. Are there any questions from the committee? Uh I say no questions. Don't have any sign up to speak for or against this. Senator Gilmore, you're recognized to close. Members, appreciate your time. I'm closed. Appreciate a good vote. All right, Senator Gilmore is closed for his bill. What's the committee and a motion to be passed by Senator Sullivan, seconded by Senator Hammer. Any discussion on the motion say none. All in favor say aye, I post. Congratulations, your bill passes. All right.
Senator Dismay. All right, Senator Dishmain, if you'll come to the end of the table
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
16:42
and Introduce yourself. And you're running what, Bill? Question. I've got my nose was a good question, yeah. Hospital 6, what is it? 82. No.
Speaker 86
16:56
curveball that one. I just walked in from another meeting
that we weren't supposed to be having. Yeah, Senator Peyton says he's got a
Speaker 90
17:06
little build that knew much about nothing. 1852 or
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
17:09
19521852, which one's on the athletic state. Arkansas House Bill 1952. All right, then 19 or Senator Jonathan Dima District 18. 1952. Yeah. Thanks, Carly.
All right, thank you, members in perfect. 2017 scripted wrestling was removed from the purview
of the athletic commission and since that point we've had to supplement that commission with state tax dollars because they're not able to cover their own cost. This is putting that back in place. And and try to make so they can be sustainable on their own without having to have, uh, State general revenue.
All right. Senator Payton, you recognize for a question. So how does this affect professional
Speaker 100
18:16
wrestling. Uh, in prior to 2017 they one of you that
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
18:23
of you, you turn your microphone back on that. prior to 2017 they were underneath the purview of the state, Arkansas State Athletic Commission. We took them out, out from underneath that purview at that point prior to that,
there was blood work and different things that were done for the wrestlers when they come in state. We were called a no intentional bloodstaining it's the way that they worded it all those things went away when they went out of the purview. That's a whole sidebar, but also 70% of the commission's budget was derived from wrestling events. which helped then supplement for all the programs that they oversee that they lose money on in the state. This would put the scripted wrestling back won't allow them to cash flow and as an agency now after 2017 they're
having to have supplemental appropriations and income provided from general revenue from the
state of Arkansas, so the events will not cover themselves. Well, so I
guess my real question is, I mean, we've done a lot about entertainment districts and about filming and movies. and things like that, trying to make sure that we were inviting to them. I understand that, uh, professional wrestling. I Looks like a sport. I understand that they have real athletes.
But it is an entertainment industry. It's totally different in my opinion from from regular wrestling and these other things and uh I'm not sure that it fits well in this setting.
As an entertainment industry. Understand OK, thank you. All right, thank you, Senator. Alright, Senator Hammer. To recognize for question. Thank you. My understanding is, and
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
20:12
correct me if I'm wrong, this will not affect what would be referred to as mom or pops and that the professional wrestling, uh industry is sport is
favorable to this. Is that a correct? That is correct. It's for
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
20:24
events that would have above 1500 people. So, you know, localized, OK, that's correct. All right, thank you. Thank you, Senator, Senator Dawson,
Speaker 113
20:32
do you have a question? You're recognized. Thank you, Mr.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
20:35
Chair. Do you happen to know why this was taken out in 2017? No, I don't.
I mean, I was here and I don't remember the conversation. I can't remember who rang the bell. I remember there was a lot of discussion about it at the time, but uh I'm with you, I don't remember. As far as I know, there's only one former wrestler in the legislature. And I think they voted against this. Do
you have any idea why, why the industry might be opposed or I don't know the industry is opposed to some of the reports I got back was that the industry
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
21:13
actually wanted this and at some point we jeopardize future WWE events if we don't have a sanctioning body.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
21:20
So those might not come to the states in the future.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
21:24
OK, and there's an example of an HIV positive wrestler. That did not participate in wrestling because of the protocols that we had in place in the state and once we lifted that they now participate in
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
21:35
wrestling in the state of Arkansas because we don't oversee it, so we've lost conceivably we've lost potential events for the last half dozen
or almost a decade now or some of the
bigger name. Wrestlers that are participating is my understanding. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. In our questions Senator Peyton recognized. Thank
you. So under this list of things that are included in this section of code. Is there anything other than the proposal for professional wrestling. The that's hinged on the number of attendees at an event. Uh, no, there's not. So it's going to be the only one that's governed by whether
or not they reach a certain crowd size. That's correct.
And do we have any other Professional sports like golf or tennis or something like that that we put under this. These are for combative sports, so
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
22:25
I mean it would be where you can train, you know, it's pretty much exchange bodily fluids because of the actions you're taking
towards each other, and that's the So football would then. Football would not. I think they have their own set of sanctions and governing body, and we don't have a professional football team in the state, but when I watch soccer and football, they
swap a few floods. Thank you. All right,
fair enough. Alright, I got Senator King, Senator Hammer. All right, Senator King, you're ask for a
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
22:53
question. Do you attend professional wrestling events or have you ever attended one?
No, but I had a former chief of staff that's pretty infatuated with it. Who would that be?
Speaker 132
23:03
It'd be uh Mr. Goodman. So And that all makes
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
23:12
sense to everyone in the room now. I mean, I if you don't mind also
if you could let him recognize I apologize.
Speaker 135
23:21
I was running from transportation. Representative RJ Hawk, District 81. So have
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
23:26
you attended professional wrestling events in Arkansas above 1500 or below 1500. I have done both, yes, sir. OK, so this would apply when the WWE comes in to that and uh some type of rules, but it's as a fee. I mean, our, I mean, I'm just being asked, are we trying to cash in on that event or
what, what would happen when the WWE comes in to, obviously they're going
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
23:54
to have more than 1500 people. I'm about to tell you is gonna sound crazy because it was crazy to me, but so the state athletic commissioner, Bob Edmonds, he and I got on a conference call with a representative of of the WWE right Now every state in the country has a sanctioning body. It's like a second set of eyes for them to to check the ring, to check for, for different things. They said that the standard that goes across in every athletic commission in the country is at
5% fee that you're talking about. They are absolutely OK with doing that. What they, what they told us was they don't feel comfortable coming back to Arkansas to do any events if there's not a sanctioning body because it helps bring their insurance down to have that second. set of eyes had those inspectors, and so what that fee does is it allows to help make the entire budget for not only that event, but for the athletic um commission. We never have to appropriate any money. The governor doesn't have to give any money for the athletic
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
24:51
commission, and so that's why that's in there. So the event, say WWE comes in in the event permit processing fee of $50
so they, WWE would pay 50 bucks. What's the part about the national and federal fighter database
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
25:07
fees, so the national, so from my understanding, talking to the athletic commission, they also do blood tests, blood testing, right? So whether it's a UFC event, a WWE event,
anytime there's blood, so our inspectors with the athletic commission. They will do if there's blood drawn, like if there's somebody gets blood on their face, they will test it to
make sure there's not HIV in the blood, things like that, that then goes into a database that's nationally known for other athletic associations. That's the way it was explained to
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
25:37
me. So we don't know how much so there's extra revenue from the national fodder that the WD would pay, where would that revenue go into the athletic commission fund. It's just a overall, you don't have any idea
what it based on the past events or WWE did not have, what is it, is it
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
26:01
last time, so before wrestling got taken away from, um, the athletic commission what Mr. Edmonds told me was the last WWE event that was sanctioned. They made $40,000 off that event that was
at Simmonsbank Arena. They had approximately 8500 people at that event.
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
26:17
OK, so, OK, now I have been a wrestling fan. I'll just admit
it, from the 80s and so we've had wrestling events at the Carroll County Fairgrounds. I don't know that there was 1500 people show up. I know they have them in Harrison, where there may or may not be. Who's going to regulate
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
26:40
whether it's 1498 or it's 1507. So this was, so Representative Tosh, a couple of sessions ago
took wrestling out to protect um the small white Carroll County and and some in his district. One of the big things at the time was that
these these counties that are doing um small wrestling events. I'm going to say small people wrestling events, um, and things of that nature, they didn't like the regulation board. They didn't have the funds to to pay the fees and so Representative Tosh at the time took all wrestling out of the athletic commission together, right? And so when that was done, if you remember Governor Hutchinson shortly thereafter he gave them $300,000 as a rainy day fund to offset that. Well,
since that time, that money's run out. I did a study with BLR and right now as of this last year, the Athletic commission is putting out $80,000 in inspector fees and stuff like. That they've only brought in 40,000, so they're losing money at a rapid pace. And so I understand what you're saying with Carroll County for this bill, when I talked to Representative Tosh and others that were that did that bill, they said the small towns and the fairs, they don't want to be sanctioned at all for these
events, and so that's why we did it 1500 to really just accommodate the
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
28:00
WWE. I just don't know how we regulate 500 out there and then uh so I did the Carroll County Fairgrounds did have Jake the Roberts and Greg Valentine, who did a great job for less, I don't think there was less than 1500 people there, but for guys that old in that condition to do a great job in front
of people that sold out Madison Square Gardens, you know, was, was pretty cool. Uh, I just, so this
is just basically kind of coming to the athletic commission is looking for a revenue stream
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
28:31
because they're hurting for money now, and they don't want to have to ask the General Assembly for an appropriation or that has to have to ask the governor for for extra money that way. This is just So where they can, they can have a revenue stream that's in-house, it's covering the inspectors. So if you know, I don't know if Senator Dima said this. So right now in statute, uh, all they can charge is $125 an inspector. When they're doing those when those inspectors go out, they get mileage if it's,
if it's across state, they get lodging plus their fee. Uh, when the athletic commission broke that down for me, they're losing about $225 an inspector on that. And so at the current, at the current rate right now. And so we're just trying to allow for them to make rules to, and they're going to post those those rates, the mileage rates, the inspector fees, they're gonna let everybody know know what those fees are, but
Speaker 152
29:19
just to be able to recoup all those funds. I feel comfortable, more
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
29:23
comfortable about it, but if, if those promoters or WWE or the
Carroll County Fairgrounds or Harrison or wherever they have these, if they would just pay
for the, I, I think responsibility. I'm not somebody that's, well, these guys get down here on my anti-ee. Well, if you're anti-feed and we're having to do it, somebody else is paying it and somebody's getting a free ride a lot of times. That's why I vote for fees when I think it, but I think it just be better to Just charge them the fee to have the inspector come out rather than look for like, to me it's looking like trying to tap a revenue stream, but I guess, and I've asked a question, so would you be willing if we cleared
these tables out and take on uh Representative Duffield, and if you can pin him, then I'll
Speaker 153
30:06
vote for the bill you know what, I like that I would do that? How about this? You, you vote
Speaker 154
30:11
for it and we'll set it up after sessions over, no, I'm not. I want you to pin Representative Duffield will let. Let Senator Flippo be the ref, and if you can
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
30:20
pin Senator, if you can pin Representative Duffield, I will vote for this bill. If not, I just see it as a little bit of a revenue stream
trying to get to save their budget, rather than just if they are paying the inspectors, just charge the inspector fee and be done, not this other fee part. It's just a little nervous for me, but if you pin I feel good
Speaker 88
30:43
about my athletic abilities. I could pin OK, boy, we've got it. Let's get it's get this going. All right, Senator
Peyton and Senator Amer Sullivan. I'm getting really confused here. So if the crowd size is less than 1500. They're not swapping bodily fluids when they wrestle.
Repeat your question, I'm sorry. Well, you said this is because we've got to worry about them swapping bodily fluids. Well, he asked about the database on the, I'm talking about when you, when I had my questions and you were answering them a while ago. That was, that was him. I just, I
just walked in when he came. Well, I
mean, I agree with what Senator King said. It looks like it's a revenue stream. I know that the 2nd floor is vehemently against fee increases or new fees. I have learned that by banging my head on that wall for
2.5 years. So I mean. How, how is, how is this bill going to survive that. So I, I took, took this to the governor's office, and they, they
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
31:42
did not see this as a new fee. This is what they, what they told me was
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
31:48
this was what we already had in place before it got taken away. And so we're just reinstituting what we had previously, right, except for um
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
31:57
regulating the small town wrestling like Carroll County or
Saline County because by the way, Jake Snake came to Saline County
as well. Would you be interested in co-spo turn a bill with me. I will absolutely. I think I could use your
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
32:11
salesmanship. I will absolutely do it with you. All right, Senator Hammer,
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
32:16
Senator Sullivan, Senator Clark. All right, I just wanna boil it down. So, If this bill goes into effect, the only ones that are going to be financially affected by it are going to be those that are sanctioned events. Is that
right? Yes sir. OK. Everybody else that is in a sanctioned event won't have to worry about this. They will not. So if they're 500 and under, you got to draw a line some of the 1500. Because they are and they would In order for it to be sanctioned, then What's the sanctioning process they register with. Whoever the the agency is in here and say we're coming to your town, we're going to do an event. We want to sanctioned event, right, correct, and they
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
33:03
asked for the inspectors to come. If it's a boxing match, they'll check the gloves,
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
33:07
they'll check the hand wraps, things like that, and also like what Senator King said, the the the database for the blood and things like that, so because
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
33:14
I remember distinctly driving between here and Sheridan and there's double-eyed mobile home, and they had a ring in the back and they probably had 100 people back there and they were, they were just wrestling. They were doing. thing, and that would not be a sanctioned event because they voluntarily did that if the fair said we're going to have so and so in, but we don't want to sanction. We don't want to be
sanctioned, and it starts off there's 100 people, but it grows to 1700 people doesn't
really make a difference because they didn't ask to be a sanctioned event.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
33:43
Is that correct? Correct. And it's also based on like, so in that case whenever they first promote the event, they're
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
33:49
promoting it for 100 people, correct? So I got that number from Representative Duffield because he used To promote wrestling events across the state, and he says, he goes, you know, if you're a small town, what we're going to bring in. He said the average small town is going to bring in
between 5 to 600 people for a for a wrestling event, he said, Let's take that number and put it at 15,500 because that's a safe number to keep
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
34:15
the small towns out of it from being sanctioned, OK, because where I'm going with this is forget the numbers. What I'm thinking about is you have an event, it starts off at 800, all of a sudden you've got 2000 people show up. Whoever decided to put on the event. Now has chosen not to be a sanctioned event, so if something happens at that event, it's on the, it's on them, the
liability rests on them. So if I want to have a sanctioned event where I've got all the protections. This doesn't say I want to have a sanctioned event, but I'm only expecting 1000. If they want the assurance and the safety that it's a sanctioned event, so everybody is safe, whether it's the participants or the fans, 1500 doesn't mean they, I mean, you could have 500, but if you want to pay the sanction fees, You can get it, sir. So it comes down to individual liability, individual choice. If you want sanctioned event and
the protection of it, here's what you've got to do. If you don't, that's fine, but the liability is on you. Go forth and have a good time. 100% and the shall in there
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
35:15
for the 1500. If you're promoting like a WWE WWE or AW event, they know they're going to have 15, so that has to happen, right? But in your case, yeah, if you don't want to do that and you're promoting. A smaller event that's on you whether you want to have that
Speaker 169
35:29
extra, that extra coverage. I think Senator Dismay's going to say, but without this, then it's not even an option.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
35:39
For them to come in and sanction and provide that we explicitly say they
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
35:43
can't, which means we have just cut ourselves out of bringing in some big time wrestling events without this because they're not going to come into the state unless we sanction it and provide the public. I don't know why this may not be in public health, honestly, public health and safety for those that are there, whether in the ring or outside the ring. Am I right or wrong on that? It's a detriment because it's
Speaker 132
36:04
an insurance issue, it's a liability issue. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 177
36:10
Economic, and that's the reason there is the conversation about if we don't do this, what will
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
36:15
happen, which means that those smaller ones aren't going to have to
Speaker 91
36:19
pay these fees, so it doesn't apply to them. Thanks. I've wrestling
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
36:24
take up this of my time since I was 10 I'm Senator Sullivan, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So what training do these inspectors
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
36:32
have? So according to the athletic commission, there is, there are training protocols much like the Department of Licensing and Labor has things for electrical inspectors. There are boxing
inspectors. There's UFC inspectors. There's judicious, I can't say that, but they've got individualized inspectors and there's training courses applied that they send all
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
36:48
their inspect you know where Representative Tash is on this bill. He voted for the bill, and he was the very first person that I went to Duffield. His name has come up several times, yes, and for the bill, I believe I talked to him about it and helped him write it. I believe he is. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
37:13
Um, what, what Senator Clark. I know and hammer. Thank
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
37:19
you, Mr. Chair. Uh, how many uh people in the athletic commission are from this industry.
How many folks on the athletic commissioner from this industry? Oh yeah,
Speaker 187
37:32
that's actually from that particular industry or from. This industry I've actually seen that in our notes. Uh, currently, the commissions provides stakeholders combative
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
37:44
sports at every level, including two members of the commission are inductees, the United States martial Arts Hall of Fame. One members inductee of the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame and the chief inspector is recognized as the International Olympic Committee in the sport of judo and a medical doctor in the commission has been well recognized speaker presenter at the Associate resign ringside physicians as well as the association of boxing. Uh, so there are members of the commission that are. You know, from the industry. OK. Uh.
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
38:18
Center Sullivan asked about Representative Duffield when I the Something comes up and raising chickens. I talked to Senator King. Uh, if something comes up in pharmacy, I talk center boy besides people and that are constituents of mine. If I want to, we had questions about car auctions. I talked to Central Payton. Uh You're under the impression that Representative Duffield supports this bill. Uh His text to me indicate that he
does it, and I was going to ask. If you knew why, but since you don't know that he
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
38:56
doesn't support it, I don't guess you know what, and that that would be news to me because he and Representative Tosh, I went to them before I even filed this bill, and the 1500 number was given to me directly from Representative Duffield. Um, I, I mean, I, I've sat outside the committee room right before I went to go file it, and he and I had
Speaker 14
39:14
a conversation about that. Thank you. All right, uh, Senator Peyton and Senator Hammer. I
Uh, yeah. Thank you. I just want to try to straighten up something. I thought I heard you say that there was some pretty good sized event, uh, 2 or 3 months ago here in Little Rock, all this? Am I right? There's
Speaker 194
39:39
been a WWE event and I know it was scheduled 2025. I know it's happened yet. I looked it up myself.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
39:46
OK, they were under the old rules of the $125 fee and the commission lost money on that event, but I thought you told
Senator Hammer that they won't, unless we change this law, they're not coming
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
39:58
to Arkansas to do those events that preset, right? And so basically what what I've been told by the Department of Labor because they are hemorrhaging money right now, remember I said that BLR said they brought in 40. They're putting out $80,000 a year. From what I've been told from the Department of Licensing and Labor is that if we can't figure out a way to make them whole, there's
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
40:19
not a sense in having an athletic commission because we're losing money so it's a fee
increase. It's revenue stream, dedicated revenue increase. And it's
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
40:37
to buy insurance? No, you say that it's affecting the insurance. This provides
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
40:41
some certainty of what's happening and following what's happening in those fights. Which then, you know, there's liability insurance and everything else that goes on with the promoters that put these on and my understanding is sanctioned event. What minimizes some of the risk, obviously not all of the risk, which has a direct impact on the
liability costs to put on event in Arkansas. OK. I'm just
having a hard time putting professional wrestling in with these other sports, but because I think it's
an entertainment, but thanks. The Ches having a hard time with this is 45 minutes of his life
that he's never going to get back, so, you know, with that, Senator Clark,
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
41:24
then. Everybody gets their question. Then you, Senator King.
Speaker 45
41:26
Representative, you've you've talked about him hemorrhaging money. like $5.
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
41:32
Representative, you've talked about him hemorrhaging money, so I want to
go to that, uh. You know, I don't know what's going to happen with the tariffs. But if, if China goes tariffs on China goes
to 100%. Uh, I will have to increase the prices on flooring. Uh, I can't sit back and say I don't believe in increasing prices, uh, and so
if If they're hemorrhaging money, then they're hemorrhaging money because their fees are too low.
Speaker 206
42:05
Because the current statutes only allow them to to charge
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
42:09
$125 which means their fees are too low. So how do we, how do we fix things with inflation if we can't raise fees. So
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
42:17
what in this bill what we're allowing for them to do is to raise it to what the costs are. So basically they're not making any money off these inspectors. They're just getting made whole. So if an inspector costs $225 and the mileage. In the lodging, all they're
going to do is invoice the the organization for the cost and that
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
42:41
way they can be then made whole and they're not costing and I think that's probably one of the most sensible things that I've seen that in this one area and there's one industry, we're going to, we're going to get back our costs, but we're going to continue to
Speaker 159
43:00
hemorrhage money. In other areas. Because our fees are too low. I, I think the main I mean, I, I
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
43:09
see what you're saying. I think the main reason why we are, are losing so much money is because of the inspectors themselves, and that's where the major, from what I'm being told from the athletic commission, the major
Speaker 191
43:21
revenue loss that this commission has is from the inspectors because they send out 4 per
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
43:27
per inspectors cost what inspectors cost, right? And, and getting rid of used tires costs what getting rid of used tires cost. Right? So again, I think this how this gets approved when
other things don't, I don't know, but at least there's some sense in this one. Thank you, sir.
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
43:49
Um, Sir King, question. I did talk to Rey Duff. He said he voted no. uh, and then so that's a surprise to me because
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
43:58
once again, I, I did, he was, he and Senator Representative Tos were the first two people that I collaborated on anyway, but uh, and then he did say he would
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
44:10
take that match with you, so I think that's go. All right, see you no further questions. Um, don't have anybody sign up to speak for against this bill, shockingly enough, with that Center, you recognize the clothes for your bill. I think we're
Speaker 76
44:27
closed. All right, Senators closed for his bill. What's the will of the committee? emotional From the top rope.
We got a motion to pass by Senator Hammer a lame attempt humor by Chairman Flippo. Do I
Speaker 216
44:51
see a second? Mm. Anybody got a 2nd, 2nd by Senator Dodson coming from the top
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
44:56
rope. All right, got a mo, got a motion in a second. Any discussion on the motion saying Senator Clark coming in for discussion. I think there's a chance, and I
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
45:06
know we're at the end and don't have much time. I think there's a chance I can be convinced, but I'm a no today.
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
45:15
Senator King, come on in here. I know we got the motion, but Representative Duffield is our wrestler. I mean, if we could hear from him. I mean, we are, you have Monday and to vote and so. I don't know. I would just appreciate. Not a no vote, but a not passing until we can hear at least his side being a wrestler. He's the only wrestler we know, so
I just would appreciate it. Senator King is neutral. Yes. I can't stop passing it but not
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
45:45
voting for it. Gotcha. OK. Alright, so got a motion in a second, see no further discussion. All in favor say aye, opposed. Sorry, Senator Desma, Alright, so got a
Speaker 88
45:58
motion in a second, see no further discussion. All in favor say aye, opposed. Sorry, Senator Desmaine your bill failed like the WWE in
Speaker 223
46:11
Arkansas. Be holding on to that one. All right,
golly. Oh, let's see here. Senator Dodson, yeah,
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
46:23
you had to. Representatives, have you had any luck whipping up those votes on 1846. All right, well, yeah, OK, so
does my OK, right, Senator Dima, go ahead, 6:40. Does this have any anything to do with wrestling on any level.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
46:47
Is this uh set up 640? It is 60s. Senator Jonathan, dismay and district 18, um, talked to Senator Sulin about this bill. I think even prior when whenever the last library bill came through, became apparent to me. I took a lot of time just kind of reading through or in
watching what was happening in some of the library. state library board meetings. became very apparent to me that it's fairly dysfunctional and every constitution would be the best thing to do, start all over, and I think that's going to fix a number of the issues that are existing right now, so this bill is simply a reconstitution of the board, state library board, everything else stays in place the way that it is. They'll be staggered terms appointed by the governor and then confirmation by our members. All right, members,
you've heard an explanation of the bill or any questions from
Speaker 188
47:52
members of the committee? Sir King, you're gonna ask a question, just as you said, you're just. Whopping the board out, wiping the
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
48:00
board clean. Let's start this over and Let's stop some of the. Why this is just this. You're just, I wouldn't, so I would, I, I spent
3 hours watching a board meeting, uh, prior to voting on one of Senator Sullivan's bill. I'd encourage you to do the same, and I, and I think you join in
on this. This is a dysfunctional board. It's it's time to, I believe, start things over. I think this is the best way to do it. It's in our purview to reconstitute and so
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
48:30
that's what I'm asking for. OK. Do you think if Myself and Senator Raper were appointed to board, it would be more
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
48:38
better functional then. I'm sure that y'all will get along well, uh, we probably have one of those wrestling sessions and uh maybe a cross-faced chicken wing or a chokeslam. I don't know. Senator Tucker,
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
48:50
you're recognized for a question. So would the governor have 7 appointments under this? That's correct. And do you, do you know whether any of the current members would be reappointed there's to your point, there's to the discussion, there's one member
in particular that I'm that I'm more concerned about than others, so I'm just just curious. I haven't had any
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
49:08
conversation with the governor's office about this bill one way or the other. Thank
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
49:14
you, Sarah Tucker. Sarah Dotson, you recognized you. So if this bill were to pass, you would be eliminating the current board, including
former Senator. Jason Raibert and Senator Sullivan's wife. That is a she's on the AETN on boards,
Representative McKenzie's wife is on this on this board so they would both be off of this when we wiped the slate clean, we wiped the slate
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
49:36
clean. OK, thank you. Thank you, Senator Senator Sullivan, recognized. So, um, was it I don't if you had
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
49:44
a chance to watch it, yes, the testimony, but there were several people.
OK. There were several people that testified against the bill who said there were problems with the board. Did you, did you hear
that yesterday? I, I did not, but uh, but
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
50:08
I would agree, uh, again, a bitch, just my limited exposure, there are problems with the board. Yeah, OK, thank you. Thank you, Senator. All right, any other questions from
the committee? All right, see none. Don't have anybody signed up to
speak for or against this. Not signed up, Kristen. I know,
but we just wasted an hour on wrestling. Point of order, point of order. Point of order, not going to answer from the chair. All right, move
it on. All right, got a motion to pass Senator Hammer, seconded by Senator Clark in discussion on the motion see none on favor say
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
50:56
aye, I posed. Congratulations, Senator, your bill passes. All right, may not have heard me, but I, I was a no on
Speaker 45
51:14
that just because I don't, OK. Yeah, the chair heard
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
51:24
you. Yeah, go ahead. this. this is Senate Bill 343
concurring in a House amendment for Senator Irvin. Um, it's at the top of your
agenda. Uh State Senator Jim Dodson, Senate Bill 343 you're going
to Amendment there, OK. Do you need any from the agency up here or do you have the amendment?
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
51:45
I have the amendment uh if anybody has any questions on the amendment, uh, that I can't answer, I think someone from the department is here. Otherwise I
I'm unaware of any opposition. All right, members, any questions? All right, I got a motion for Senator Tucker. See you 2.2 with Senator Dodson in discussion, none. All in favor say aye,
Speaker 204
52:19
aye, right, no post. All right, then this been concurred. Yeah, go
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
52:23
ahead and you're up there. Go ahead. Uh, what's your bill number? This is House Bill 1706 170
Senator Jim Dodson, Senator Hester asked me to run this. This is the law concerning elections to prohibit rank choice voting in the state of Arkansas. It's a very short bill. I give people time to review it and then see if there's any questions I might be able to answer. All right, members, you've heard an explanation.
Are there any I'll give you just a quick time to glance it over and Recognizing anybody's got any questions.
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
53:03
All right, Senator Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we know what the bill does. Why do
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
53:12
we need to prohibit ranked choice voting. Well, currently Arkansas does not expressly prohibit rank choice voting, so um Uh Potentially
I guess if you had local elections that might want to try to do this, some local municipalities in other states have tried to do some of this stuff, the Secretary of State is supportive of this bill, so I don't think we would have any
attempt to try to do this at a statewide level at the current time, but this
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
53:41
would prohibit it. Right. So my same question, we know what the bill does. Why, why do
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
53:47
we want to do it? Well, I think it's a very terrible voting process, and we've seen it in many states that it's been tried to be very confusing to the voters, and so how, how is it terrible? Yeah Well
If you've seen any type of response from voters in other states that have tried this. They're their confusion at the ballot box is fairly significant sometimes and so making our elections clean so you know who you're voting for and then you don't get frustrated with the results at the end because Hey, somebody I didn't vote for first or second, it makes sure that someone gets the majority of the votes the way we do the elections now. Ranked choice voting, you might
have some candidate that didn't receive the majority of the votes. The first time around, get additional
votes added to in. So it's just a terrible process. I think we're probably going to disagree on that. Do you have any examples of
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
54:53
where there's been voter confusion, what jurisdictions. I don't off the top of my head,
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
54:58
like I said, this is Senator Hester's bill that he asked me to step in and run. I'm very supportive of the concept and the bill as written. OK, thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 71
55:09
Thank you, Senator. All right, any questions from members. Sarah
Payton. So I know Arkansas has never practiced ranked choice
voting. I would have assumed that something in our Constitution or our code already. Uh Designated how we would vote and how we would select
the winner. So I guess my biggest question is.
Is that not? Pretty clear in our code. That that we're going to Each party have a nominee. Sometimes there's a 3rd 1 in there and maybe have a runoff if somebody doesn't get 51%. I mean, it definitely does not spell out anything that would
be similar to ranked choice voting, right? I believe that is
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
56:02
the current, the Secretary of State's office might be able to answer the specifics of that. A little bit more, um, if
Speaker 270
56:13
Someone is here from the Secretary of State's office that could Yeah,
Speaker 273
56:32
come up, come on up, Nathan. You didn't answer I'm calling. Nathan Lee, chief counsel, Arkansas Secretary of State, um, it is our opinion, and we've discussed it
Speaker 274
56:39
with the Association of Counties and the municipal League as well that
currently um It would not be allowed under Arkansas law for the fact that Arkansas law spells out how counties and municipalities should vote, which is not, I'm just speaking generally kind of simply explaining it, but uh counties, it's majority 50 + 1 municipalities it's a 40 to 20 rule, which isn't rank choice, so this, this would just make it more clear though and spell it out for that way.
It would save everyone time, the state as well as municipalities and deciding to do these things, they would know
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
57:21
what the law says. Thank you, appreciate it. Thank you Senator Hammer, you have a question? Hey Nathan the table, please. Thank you. Refresh my memory and it, it may have happened earlier this session, but it seems like for sure last session was there not legislation introduced to start rank choice voting. Do either one of you all remember that? Uh,
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
57:45
I vaguely recall discussions. I can't remember if there wasn't. Potentially a constitutional amendment filed like one of the HJRs or SJRs. May have been 4 years ago, but Um, I'd hate to test my memory on that for sure,
Speaker 177
57:58
go ahead, I don't recall. I'm sorry. OK,
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
58:04
because for some reason my memory's telling me that it has been attempted here, not successful, but is attempted to have laws put in to establish that if not here, I know for certain in other states. So what
this would do is preempt. Either what is previously an attempt here or attempted elsewhere and in some cases has been successful elsewhere. Is that the intent? That's the
intent, yes. OK, thanks. Thank you, Senator, Senator Tucker. Would it not take a constitutional amendment for
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
58:35
us to have ranked choice voting in Arkansas. I'd have to go research
Speaker 274
58:42
that question. I'm sorry. I don't, I don't know the answer to that
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
58:47
right now I do believe it would, so I think what this bill does is make something illegal that we would have to have a constitutional amendment in order to be able to do so just for what
it's worth. Thanks, Senator Tucker. All right. In our questions to the committee. All right, see you done, Carly, don't see anybody on that 4 against this. Senator Dodson, recognized closed. I'm closed. Don't make a motion to pass a motion passed by Senator Dodson, seconded by Senator Payton. Any discussion on the motion, saying
none. All in favor say aye. opposed. All right, Bill passes. All right,
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
59:22
Representative Meeks. You want to give a House Bill 1846 in our crack. You got the votes. When they look
you in your eye and they say, yes, I'm going to vote for your bill. That's when you know. There you go. So, uh, and there's, is there an amendment on
there? Is there what? OK, we, OK, so it'll be as a minute if this, yeah, yeah, but
the, the 1846. So first off, colleagues, I want to say thank you for hearing that wrestling bill this morning, as you all know, this is an extremely busy time of session and just having the hour to sit over there and chill and relax was a nice break and I know I know y'all get where I'm coming from with that. So, um, it's maybe I don't ironic. I don't know, fate, destiny, whatever that we're actually hearing this bill in this room, because if you look at the ceiling, all those squares have 36 dots in it, and that's to
commemorate what Arkansas became a state in 1836. And what I'm trying to do with this bill is to set up a celebration of our state's 200th birthday. I think we have a few senators that weren't here when I originally presented the bill, so I'm just going to briefly go over what this does. All this does is it has the uh the governor's office, the Senate, and the Speaker appoint two people, Department of Education and the Department of Heritage to set up a basically a voluntary task
force. These are non-paid positions to begin exploring what we could do to celebrate our state's 200th birthday. Um, as I, uh, you know, travel around the country and as I see you talk to other people about, you know, what is your impressions of Arkansas. Unfortunately, and I know this frustrates y'all just as much as it does me. for too many people across the country, Arkansas is just flyover country. It's not worth visiting, and I know that y'all
are sick and tired of that, and we want to change that impression that our state gives to people outside. I read an article just a couple of weeks ago that was trying to promote the hiking and biking in our beautiful state and all the comments were mostly negative. There's nothing to do in Arkansas. Uh, and so what I'm Proposing to do with this is set this commission up to see if there's an opportunity for us as we get ready to celebrate our state's 200th birthday to create
something beautiful to dream big, to inspire the next generation. And again, I don't know what that is. That's the point of this commission. um, the, you know, is this something that we have to do? No, it's not. But like our astronauts going to the moon back in the 1960s, they didn't have to do it, but as President Kennedy said we're going to do the hard things because it, it's an opportunity to inspire the next generation to grow as a country, and that's
what I'm hoping to do here. The way I envision this is I would love to see this challenge put out to all of our high schools, to architectural firms and say, give us your best ideas about what we could do in this state to create something mag ific ent that would give people a reason to come to our state, you know, when they built the arts in St. Louis, it was controversial at that time, but I tell you what, it's been one of the greatest economic drivers for that area of the country. And I would love to see us do something here. Last thought that I'll give is this. 50 years
from now, 100 years from now, no one's going to remember or care about what we're doing now. Most of the stuff we do, it's either going to be changed or modified as we go through time and unless we leave that leg. See, it's going to be forgotten, and that's what I'm proposing here. What can we leave as a legacy for the next generation to inspire them to encourage people to look better at our state and again they may not come up with something, but I'd hate to kill this idea before we
even give it a chance, and so like I said, as far as I know, it's noncontroversial. Department of Heritage is ready to go on this, so with your blessing, let's do something awesome for our state, and with that, Mr. Chair, I'm I'm closed. I'd be happy to answer any questions. All right I'm Bruce you for an
explanation of the bill. Any questions from members of the committee, Senator Sullivan, you will recognize for a question. OK,
Speaker 62
1:03:46
OK, OK. Alright. Any questions, Senator Tucker, you're. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:03:50
for this, Representative Meeks. I'm just curious if there's going to be
any special role for the members of the legislature who who are in office now and were also in office in 1836.
Speaker 292
1:04:02
Uh, not in 18 from 1836, unfortunately it just feels that way,
yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah. Yeah and and and and kind of on that point, you know, I'm I'm I'm a senior member of the house. I'm getting ready to leave office and part of my, I wanted to leave kind of a gift to the state, kind of a parting gift, and that's part of what's motivating me to do this, our current freshman kind of
that your question, our current freshmen will be the senior class when this comes to fulfillment. So this is basically I'm giving this project to them so they'll be the ones overseeing this to its fulfillment. All
right, Sarah Payton, you're right. So Meeks, when, when you leave the house, will they be perpetually in session? I hope not. Who's
going to adjourn? Representative Cozart is next in line, and I've already been prepping him with it, so yeah. And if you haven't heard, I've
actually that that real long adjourned motion. I actually got it short and so it's like one line now, so I have every confidence in Cozart's ability to take
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:05:09
it, yeah. All right, thank you. All right, Sarah Dawson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So is that adjourned motion passed
the readability standard. I think so because it just says pursuant to House Rule 33 M. I move we adjourn. So and regardless of anything else I do down here, that's probably the only thing I'll be remembered for, but we'll hear it one more time,
yeah, after the announcements reading the bills, transferring the bills, placed in the calendars on the desk, members are mending their own bills with own amendments. Members are drawing their own bills, finalizing resolutions, reading communications, and any remaining committee reports. I will we adjourn this bill or move
this bill on, yeah. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Right. I got a motion from Senator Sullivan, a suck up from Senator Hammer,
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:05:52
a 3rd from Senator Payton, as of before from Senator Tucker as amended. Any discussion say none, all in favor say aye, opposed.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:06:00
Congratulations, Representative, your bill passes. Thank you, colleagues. I hope we can come back here in 10 years to celebrate something that we started here today. Thank you.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:06:17
Thank you very much. All right, Senator Hammer, you got a couple of bills you want. That's That's, don't tip the chair hearset or
tucker. Don't tempt the chair. All right, Senator Hammer, you got a House bills 1949 and House Bill 1840 or 137, excuse me,
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:06:31
famous sher Kim Hammer State Senator District 16 on House Bill 1949. I've got the county judge Flin County here if I could get come up and present with Judge, come on up. OK F
Speaker 191
1:07:07
My name is Matt Bromley. I'm the county judge in Saline County. All right,
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:07:12
Senator, you guys are recognized, proceed. I tell you what, for the sake of time, because we've had a lot of debate and we've got one
more coming behind this. I'm just going to yield to Judge and we'll get to the point. All right, Judge Bumley, you
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:07:24
are right to proceed with House Bill 1949. Yeah, my state paramedic number is 18416. I received that a long time ago. I'm fairly familiar with the ins and outs of the EMS portion medical service.
portion before I made the decision to run for county judge. I spent the previous 30 years in healthcare. One thing that I would say is that the RFQ process versus the RFP process uh for professional services. If we could bring this under professional services. I think it would make a world of difference for our state. Our state is progressed over the last 30 years greatly when it comes to pre-hospital emergency care.
I think these providers who have risen to what the community expect would welcome the challenge that we don't just look at the lowest reasonable price if they're subsidy involved, but we look at the qualifications and the expertise of those that are submitting their qualifications. For us, that is proven to be uh a difference changer as you look around Arkansas, diverse service areas and an ambulance service is not just an
ambulance service. They, they need to be interrogated and they need to find out is this A service that has expertise and qualifications to serve their area, and I think that blind, uh sealed openings of RFPs is not the way to go. It also makes it rough on a county judge and the municipalities and the leadership in those municipalities to go to your quorum court for an ordinance.
circumvent this process by 2/3 vote to allow for an RFQ. If we could bring them in to the professional services, I think that our state would be much better off. I also think that the medical facilities inside the jail would benefit from this also, that if you have a medical director that signs off, what is the structure below that medical director and what services can they provide respective to
The county in which they are in. Last thing I'll say. In in medicine, I believe the best outcomes are evidence-based outcomes. And if we have the ability to look at evidence-based outcomes by those that submit their interests to provide those services in your district. Our constituents are better off. If response times are extended, and employee staffs today are
very shorthanded in our constituents. Feel that through lesser medical treatment and care. I don't think that they're going to be comforted by at least we took the lowest reasonable subsidy that was available via our applicants. With that, I'll take any questions. All members, you've heard an explanation of the bill. Any questions
from the committee? All right, Senator Dodson, you have a question? You're recognized.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:10:47
This bill has been Or a very similar bill has been ran in the last few sessions and um I still maintain the the same position I've had on each of those last. 2 or 34 sessions I can't remember this one's keeps coming up every, every time, um, that When we're talking about like medical services, and ambulance services, things like that. We, those shouldn't be arbitrarily chosen.
Based off of anything other than the competitive bid, and so I don't know if there's a question there other than uh I just finished up looking at the last session. This looks like you've, you're expanding in two places instead of one. Uh, but it's the exact same language from at least 2 years ago, um, so I don't know if you have. Have any response to that, but uh I'm just still opposed to it after all these years, so. Thank you.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:11:51
Thank you. I got a response to it. Some of you all may or may not know. I think my EMT number. I was a nationally registered EMT intermediate back when they had them in the day, and I think my number's lower than Matt. Uh, when I first got in the medical side of things working for an ambulance. I was a volunteer for the Desar Ambulance Service. We were a volunteer run service because that, that is what worked, uh, from there, I moved to work for Pafford way back in the day when they were based out of Pine Bluff on the corner down there,
worked for them. And then I finished my career with MEMs here in Little Rock and uh I was actually, I think, in the air, pretty close to Mother jugs and Speed, if any of you all ever watched that movie, I think I was in that transitional period from what it was then to what it is now, medical services now are state of art in that they are life saving. Uh, we call them trucks. We call them units. We call them ambulances. We are life saving or they are life saving.
Services and there's a big difference in that. So what, what we're going to say if we don't vote for this bill in my opinion, we're going to say we have more value on the architect. We have more value on the engineering. We have more value on the construction manager. We have more value on the land survey and that we're willing to not use competitive pricing in those areas, but by golly, when it comes to the people that we're trying to save their lives and get them to the hospital, get them to where they need to. We're going to say they may not
be the best, but they'll be the bottom dollar and quite honestly in that position, I think by passing this bill what we're going to do is we're going to ask the services to have the cream rise to the top, and I think that they will respond in the industry so that all of our constituents will actually have the best opportunity to get the best medical services, whether it's in the jail or whether it's in back of the truck, the back of the unit, the back of the ambulance, whatever you want to
call it, and that's, that's why I would appreciate a good vote on
Speaker 29
1:14:07
this bill. Right. No. Senator Payton, a question? OK, alright. In our questions to the committee. Alright, see none. Christie. Uh, he's already there. Uh, he's
already up there, yeah. Uh, he's already there. All right, so no, don't have anybody else
to speak for or against this. I don't judge Brumley, who's speaking for Senator Hammer, you're recognized to close for your bill. May I use portion
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:14:25
of my time and let the judge say anything, and I'll tag mine like real short.
There are a lot of matrixes to look at. Uh, those should be looked at as subject matter experts, I believe. To scrutinize the expertise and the qualifications for those that are rendering care to our citizens. I understand that all 75 counties are not the same. I think the competition oftentimes for those with all due respect, that are not subject matter experts, go to the margin on the far right and the bottom, and that is, is this a reasonable price? Are you giving me an
ambulance and for how much? I think there is much more to that, and it should Come to the county judge and all other appropriate parties within the county to again scrutinize expertise in the qualifications for what might be best for their citizens. I believe that this bill allows that to take place. Thank you, Judge, and I would say in closing this. And this may be
a little bit of an emotional tug, but it's a reality tug. I've been in the back of the ambulance. I've had Family members in the back of
the ambulance. I've had had my wife in the back ambulance when our 3rd child was born. If something goes south, Because the best was not there for my loved one. They're not going to come to us as legislators. They're going to come to whoever's responsible for it, and they're going to ask them, was this the best you had to offer, and my hope is that we'll vote for this so that we can have the best that there is to offer with that, I'd like a motion do pass. All right, we've got
a motion to be passed by Senator Hammer. Do I see a second bysander Sullivan. There is a discussion on the motion.
Senator Peyton, you're recognized for discussion. Thank
you, Mr. Chair. So I'm from Cleburne County and there was a huge dust up about 8 or 10 years ago where it changed ambulance services, the county judge got accused of All kinds of improprieties, the Quorum Court got crucified over it. There was a division in the county that is not healed to this day over how it was chosen. I think it's important that we
have a procurement process and a competitive bidding process. So that there is complete transparency in how the decision was made on which ambulance service to use. When you let out a contract forbid, you can put whatever standards, however high you want them to be. In that bidding process. You can demand the latest equipment, you can demand the highest trained people. You can demand the hours that they're going to be on
call. How many ambulances are going to be on call. All of that. Can be protected in the competitive bidding process. The only thing that we accomplished by eliminating by shall not use a competitive bidding process process. The only thing we accomplish is giving Uh, few people. The right to make a prejudiced decision.
Speaker 166
1:17:30
Without question. I'll be voting no on it. Right.
So I got a motion by Senator Hammer, a seconded by Senator Sullivan, seeing no further discussion, all in favor say aye. Sorry, your bill fails. All right, next up, House Bill 1837. Representatives still in the room in the. All right, Representative McAlinden, do you want to come up here and
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:18:12
Kim Hammer state senator District 16 presenting House Bill 1837. Representative
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:18:17
Mindy McAlinden House District 10. All
right, to proceed with your bill going to yield to the representatives present, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:18:27
Thank you, Chairman. How excuse me, House Bill 1837, um. This was worked on and crafted
with the governor's office as well as the Secretary of State office in order to protect the integrity of our democratic processes and safeguard Arkansas
voters from undue foreign influence. It seeks to amend existing laws concerning disclosure for matters referred to the voters and most importantly, bans foreign funding for ballot measures. Arkansas has a proud tradition of direct democracy through ballot measures. It allows citizens to shape laws that directly affect their lives. However, this process is vulnerable to manipulation when foreign entities are allowed to. campaigns aimed at influencing our votes. House Bill 1837 addresses this vulnerability by preventing foreign funding, ensuring that decisions about Arkansas's
future are made by our Kansans, not by external interests. Currently foreign entities cannot contribute to campaigns and they can't contribute to PACs, but there is a loophole where they can contribute to ballot measures, and we have seen incidents over the last 5 years. Um, Hans Hansjor, I won't say it wrong, Weiss has contributed millions to legalizing and decriminalizing drugs as well as focused on carbon taxes and other environmental justice ballot measures. Often organizations, countries contribute to
organizations, so you kind of have shell companies like Nikolai. This gentleman from Russia, and this bill is designed to help bring light to that and to stop the shell company game of having foreign entities or foreign countries contributing to our ballot measures and make sure that we are upholding um Arkansan's values and Arkansans preferences when
it comes to ballot measures, and with that, I'll be happy to take any questions. All right, for an explanation. Any questions from the
committee? Senator Tucker, you're recognized Mr. Chairman, before
Chair
Unverified
1:20:15
we go any further, is there an amendment? No, we're not having a minute. OK. Oh, maybe you engrossed
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:20:27
it. Bill, you have This bill you have have my name on it? Yeah,
Speaker 326
1:20:31
OK, OK, mine didn't. OK, thank you. We got it. Thank
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:20:37
you, Senator Tucker, you're recognized. So thank you, Mr. Chair. You've answer, you answered some of my questions with your presentation, so, uh, it's, it's the loophole just with ballot
measures that we're closing because PACs and campaigns it's already prohibited. OK, so the 100 is the what's the is the contribution limit for about measure $10,000? No,
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:20:55
so what we did was because we were asking for an affirmation, we set it at $10,000. I will say it was probably a little bit arbitrary,
but what we didn't want was if, you know, my grandmother gave $100 to a ballot measure. I didn't want her to have to make an affirmation that she's not a fault and or didn't receive them for.
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:21:11
There is no, there is no contribution limit for a ballot measure. OK, so that's OK, right, I'm tracking now on page
5 line 30. Just legislative question, what does that mean? To influence a ballot question or legislative
Speaker 335
1:21:34
question. miss Josh. Can, can you clarify
Speaker 336
1:21:40
that? Oh, Could I ask uh Graham to come to the table. Thank you.
Speaker 340
1:22:01
Graham's director of the Ethics commission. There are two types of ballot measures which are questions presented to voters. One's a ballot question and it gets on the Ballot by circulating the initiative referendum petition and legislative question is when a legislative body could be the General Assembly, quote unquote city council put something on the ballot. So it's, it's referred by legislative body. OK, fair enough. Uh, uh,
Speaker 342
1:22:26
don't go anywhere just yet, Mr. Sloan, so, uh,
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:22:33
I was looking around for you. I didn't see
you, and there you are, so but the enforcement is the enforcement exclusively for the AG OK. Um. But
I don't want to put you on the spot, Graham. I, I mean, I, I agree in principle like we. For candidates,
PACs, ballot measures, it should, it should, there should not be foreign influence. I don't care if it's Russia and China or England and France, you know, it should be Americans, right, but, uh, uh,
so. Do you, the way that this has been structured or sort of paralleling over what we do for campaigns and PACs already for
ballot measures. I think that is the intent of
Speaker 340
1:23:17
it. The um The ethics commission, our jurisdiction ends at the state line and so, you know, if you've, you know, if you've got a pack in New York City that didn't register and made a contribution, they're probably
going to ignore us, um, and, and then so, but you know, to the extent that this is trying to keep foreign money out of. Uh ballot process about you question process uh you know, if, if unless you're gonna voluntarily come here, we can catch them, uh. In inside the state and you know we're there's really not much we can do. OK. All right. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
1:24:06
All right. Any other questions? All right, Senator Sulin. So, and an organization like the King Pod Center at University of Arkansas. They are foreign. Entity owned and operated. So this would prevent a group like that from being engaged in the donations are impacting political actions. That's what this does, OK, thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. Any other questions, members?
All right, so no further questions. Representative, you will recognized to close your bill. OK. Yeah, I think we're good. Make a motion to pass. Can I motion to pass by Senator Hammer, seconded by Senator Sullivan. Any discussion on the motion saying none. All on paper,
say aye. I post. Congratulations, your bill passes. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, committee. All right. Senator Johnson. OK Oh
Alright, you got 3 bills. You got Senate Bill 617608 and 569. You let me know which one you want
to start with. Are you want Mr. Chair. Well, you let's go and order then.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:25:35
We'll start with the 569. Um Mark Johnson, state senator of District 17. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman, committee, uh. This bill
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:25:45
simply really just does one thing. It, uh It says that the uh ballot title. Make
Speaker 360
1:25:58
sure I brought the right language here that the the ballot title for an initiative, uh.
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:26:04
And we're talking about constitutional amendments here because this is uh They cons constitutional amendment by bill and I hope everyone understands what that
is. This is would be ultimately a challenge to the Edgemont decision, which is already, I think, before the Supreme Court, and we had an opinion that Senator Dodson requested that the Attorney General determined through his staff that the provisions of the Edgemond decision in the early 1950s were inappropriate based on More current case law and that the General Assembly indeed could by 2/3 vote of both houses
amend any measure that had been passed by the voters, and I want to emphasize that doesn't include anything in the original corpus of the 1874 Constitution, but anything that had been passed by the voters can be amended by 2/3 vote of both houses, so that's the principle of this. That's in Article 5, Section 1. The purpose of this bill is simply to At a provision that says that the ballot title for those initiated measures may not
exceed 500 words. We're not talking about the full text. We're talking about the ballot title. This is a readability and a simplicity measure. It would before I make a case for the 500 words, let me say that it also adds a provision that the General Assembly made by statute define a readability. which we have already done the bill that we just passed, I'm sorry, the number of it escapes me, but That came out of this committee
and it's, I think it's on the governor's desk now, but it was Representative Rose and I were sponsors, and it uses the flesh Kincaid readability standard at the 8th grade level, and you'll probably remember that bill. Uh, but again, that's this amendment will make reference to that, uh, it And going back to the 500 words, I want to emphasize the entire bill of rights in our US Constitution, the 1st 10 amendments is 482 words.
And I figured that if, if our framers could put that much good stuff in 482 words, surely someone that was trying to communicate with our voters on something that's readable and understandable would be able to communicate the title of it. I'll turn your mic off. 500 words. So with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions. Alright, members, you've heard an explanation.
Any questions for the committee, Senator Tucker?
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:28:53
Thank you, Mr. Chair. 100% of my concern with your bill. Could you speak up just a bit, Mr.
Chair. I 100% of my questions and my concern about your bill is about the legislature's
ability to amend the state constitution, not about the subject matter of the bill itself, OK, so The first point is in Edgemon it says, you know, I'm not going to read the whole quote, but it says it is inconceivable that in defining constitutional amendment as a measure, the purpose was to invest the
General Assembly with power to repeal a constitutional amendment or to an amended amendment. You think that the Supreme Court was wrong in that decision? Yes sir,
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:29:31
I think they were absolutely wrong. I think that the Attorney General's opinion, which I don't know if you, if you've read it or not, points that out. I've talked to many uh Brilliant constitutional lawyers, and I know if you want two different opinions, you get two different smart lawyers and I don't, I respect your, your interpretation of it, but and
and I'll I'll go down this rat hole as far as you want to go, Senator Tucker, but we can have a long conversations, but I'm going to try to be concise. I have studied the history of Amendment 7. And it remember that before that passed. The people had absolutely no ability to initiate any measures, and this was done a little over 100 years ago, but I believe that there was a a safety valve that the General Assembly wanted to put in, so if something that was just plain
bad policy or or, you know, horrible wrong could be fixed with with and they put that 2/3 in extraordinary majority and and I think that was a good policy. You remember over 100 years ago, the most powerful political organization in the state was the Ku Klux Klan. They could have probably got an initiative and got something on the ballot and passed it. But the General Assembly could come back and say, Whoa, whoa, we're going to, we're gonna, we're the safety valve. We've got to protect the people from,
from sort of a mob, so to speak, so you know, so they couldn't, for example, Do a constitutional amendment that we would secede from the union. I mean, that's an absurd example in 2025, but you know, in 1920, it might not have been such an absurd example, so I, I do believe that Edgmon was wrongly decided, uh, several people, including our former Senate counsel had pointed out to me that they did no justification in it. They just said that it's inconceivable,
but they didn't show why it was inconceivable, and that's something that the AG's opinion, I think, dressed very carefully. The Andrews decision, which is the most recent one, basically says, I'm paraphrasing, that words mean things and the plain language of the Constitution when it says something that's what it means and to try to say, well, that really wasn't what they meant. It's inconceivable that they meant that I think is it was a wrong interpretation, and I agree with the
interpretation that General Griffin and his staff gave us. OK. Well, And, and again,
Speaker 369
1:32:04
we go to the Supreme Court, we'll get a
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:32:08
definitive answer. Well, we got a definitive answer in the Edgemont decision, correct? That's the way that the judicial process works and and I'm not going to
Speaker 370
1:32:16
get, I don't want to get into a jury Ferguson
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:32:18
got overturned eventually too. I don't want to get into a jurisprudential debate with you, Senator Johnson, because I still want Senator Flippo to uh talk to me later, um.
Right, Mr. Chair, reading the room, Clark. You're reading the room. But so I'm gonna, uh, we have a difference of opinion about what Article 5 Section 1 means, um, let me let me ask you this separate question. Do you think it's good policy for the General Assembly to amend the state constitution for amendments adopted by
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:32:51
the people of Arkansas. Yes, Senator, with the extraordinary majority that Amendment 7 allows, I think a simple majority would not be a
good thing, but I think 2/3 is a high enough bar to allow us to tweak and to modernize and to frankly fix something, you know, we make mistakes too, and the people have been fooled, I think in in many referenda, gambling, marijuana, even the confusing issue too of last year, which a lot of people, pretty smart people, couldn't exactly figure out what it actually did, so I think this is a safety valve. I think it
lets the General Assembly deal with that again with an extraordinary majority,
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:33:35
so it's up to us as the legislature to determine when the people were right or when they just were confused. Yes,
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:33:46
sir. OK, all right. Well, let me say that
Senator, that you are one of the members of the General Assembly that I totally respect your opinion even when I disagree with it, and you make me think, and I
appreciate that. Thank you. Any questions for the committee, Senator Sullivan. We're going to ask for a question.
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
1:34:06
So this bill creates an exception in a way for the legislature
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:34:17
of the people and an amendment, correct? No, sir. It
implements an existing provision in the Arkansas Constitution, which by a controversial Supreme Court decision over 70 years ago, said, Basically, ah, that constitutional provision doesn't
really mean what it says, and we have more recent cases that the Supreme Court has basically said the plain language says this, and so that's what it means and let me cite one Senator Sullivan, uh, we passed a, a good amendment that said we're going to have a temporary half cent sales tax to build 4 lane roads. And Someone sued and said, Well, you're using that money on the 30 crossing project, and that's a six lane road, so that's unconstitutional, and a lot of
us said that that meant multi-lane highways, that meant freeways, but someone sued for an illegal exaction and the Supreme Court ruled that the plain language of that of amendment, I believe it was 98, meant exactly what it said, so yes, it does. We're going back to what was passed in Amendment 7 that says by 2/3 vote, we can change it. That's existed. This bill doesn't change that, but it uses
that tool to allow us to Amen an amendment. We can't
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
1:35:46
touch the original corpus of the Constitution almost made me forget my question. You asked me if we were creating a new thing. No, we're using an old to the question. So does this work in reverse? In other words, we are setting the legislature has a has a standard for overturning. It does do the people have an opportunity to overturn what we do.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:36:13
Is there a reverse mechanism there. Yes, sir. Amendment 7 is where that is, it lies. It's, they
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:36:20
can, you might recall there was an effort. I guess a year or so ago to by petition to overturn the Learns Act. And uh they failed to get the adequate signatures, but there was a strong effort. They didn't like what we did and they were out circulating petitions to refer that to the voters. So yes, sir, it cuts both ways. The
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
1:36:44
last part of my question you mentioned several times that things occur over time. If something is Wrong. Does it make any difference if it's wrong for one day or one year or 10 years if it's wrong, what, what is the time passage have to do with whether something is right or wrong. I think that and I I I said
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:37:07
something to Senator Tucker and I was more of a general thing, but I said that Plessy v. Ferguson said that separate
And unequal are separate but equal is not was good law and in Brown Supreme Court ruled that no, separate was inherently unequal, so it took, I don't know what, 60 years or something to fix that one, and, and this is what I meant by, by how something could evolve, but when the Andrews case was decided and the Supreme Court basically said, look, it
says this, these words exactly and the plain language of the Constitution means what it says. Uh, then I went to some smart people used to work one works here still, the other is, and that was Steve Cook was the one and I, he and I talked about this hours on end, and he said, Edgemon, that's, that's settled law. You can't do this. And so when the Andrews decision came in, I walked in Steve's office and he said, Senator, I know why you're here. He says, you saw that Andrews
decision? I said, yeah. He goes, you may be on to something, and I believe that Andrews was arbitrarily, uh, done. I've talked to a former attorney general who actually said he thought it was uh legislating from the bench to to overturn Edge bond was legislating from the bench because again, the plain language says something to the contrary. I get that. I'm just,
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
1:38:42
that's different, the question that I'm posing is that if it, if it's
settled law and then it's overturned that the passage of time doesn't make any difference whether it was overturned a year later or 10 years later, the fact that it was overturned, it was overturned. I agree with that, Senator,
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:39:03
and again, for something to be overturned, there has to be litigation. Someone files a lawsuit. OK, thank you. I'm
going to jump in just real quickly. It's 11. 45, I'm going to adjourn this committee at 12:30. We've
got 3 bills people sign to speak against, and two more people,
you know, and 2, if not 3 more members waiting to write bills. So membersevity. Brevity, we have got to get through this because I'm adjourning this committee at 12:30. I thought that
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:39:29
we had established a policy that we weren't going to hear Senate bills and Senate committees after Tuesday of this week. Yeah, it was a light policy. Yeah, that was a
Speaker 379
1:39:39
guy like and respect to Senator Tucker, if I could say no, no, no, on Senator Dodson, you're for a question.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:39:47
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator, I'll be brief. Um, as far as
I think we have basically 4th thing I think you'll probably agree with this, but 4 things that are binding on people on the public. You have constitution, you have statute, you have uh. Case law and then you have uh rules and regulations and things like that that carry the force in the way of the law. In And I assume you would agree with that in that instance, uh,
what is higher pecking order in that is the Constitution higher or a case law? Obviously Edgemont is currently the established case law that's been decided by judges 70 some odd years ago, but the Constitution, I think supersedes that and is binding even on the Supreme Court, and so in your opinion, does the Constitution supersede a Potentially activist decision from 70 years ago. Absolutely, yes sir. And so the current
court could overturn that and be in
Speaker 389
1:40:57
line with the Constitution still. Absolutely, thank
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
1:41:00
you, sir. Senator Clark. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Do we ever come back? In the next session and even in a special session. And Change, make corrections to a bill. which is at that point of law that both Houses passed, the governor signed, and we say, Whoa,
there was an error there that we need to really
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:41:30
fix. Do we ever do that? Yes sir, I think of the
cyber uh the crypto mining bill that 132 people voted for and within a year we were all clamoring to come back and fix it. Let's be as
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
1:41:43
brief as possible, make the chair happy, uh. Uh, who do we represent? This branch of government, who do we represent? We represent the people who elected us, so if the people wanted something corrected.
They've got a choice of either going out to the Herculean effort of grassroots and do it themselves or asking Their representatives to do it. Yes, so if we're changing something, we're not necessarily going against the people. But fixing something that people saw. That details that weren't right. Am I correct? Yes. So the, uh, are you aware and you may be, uh, especially since
you're around me. Are you, uh, well, let me ask you this on the last, not the last casino amendments, but the ones that actually allowed the one in Jefferson County and would have allowed the one at Russellville. Did the people vote for casinos or did they vote for all the details down in the bill. And the amendment, I
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:42:51
would think that that was why they, we, we were kind of, we're sitting here on this because they, they voted
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
1:43:00
for gambling, I think just, just I don't have any doubt because are you aware and you may be. Are you aware that we cut the taxes for the two gambling entities in Arkansas in that amendment by 17 million each a year. Yes sir, I was not aware until 2 weeks before the election, and I
represent one of those areas. Do you know many people that know that? No, sir, but I think you're
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:43:25
absolutely right, and that's why 500 words would have to be concise and tell them what's in
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
1:43:32
it, so almost no one knows what they voted for, uh, they won the casinos, they got that, but a lot of the other details they're not aware. I agree 100% and so
sometimes when they become aware, They want to change it and who do they come to to They come to us. Thank you. All right,
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:43:51
Senator Peyton, I move pass and immediate consideration. So first of all is going to
have the motion for immediate consideration. So I got a motion for me consideration it's not debatable. Do I see a 2nd 2
Sullivan, all in favor say aye, a post. Alright, next thing on the floor is a motion passed by Senator Payton. See second by Senator Clark in discussion on the motion saying none. All in favor say aye, opposed. Congratulations, your bill passes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's correct. Do you want me to run
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:44:23
these other two? I think they'll be quick. That's
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:44:27
your call center. OK. Uh Thank you committee. Uh.
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:44:38
Mr. Chairman, uh, Senate Bill 608 is
very simple. You either like it or you don't, uh, we have an exception to our general way we run elections in Arkansas where in some municipalities you can elect someone with less than a majority by if someone gets 40% of the vote plus one, then they can be elected if they win by a particular margin over the person that finished 2nd. This
basically like returns just back to the
days we used to have where if there's a, no one gets a majority, the top two go into a runoff in a designated time. I think now it's 4 weeks later, and that's all the bill does. It just says that you, if you're in it, if you don't get a majority, you're in a runoff. All right, members,
you've heard an explanation of the bill. Any questions the committee, Senator Dotson going to ask
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:45:30
for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator Johnson, I don't see there's a House sponsor on this bill.
I will get one. I've been promised one, but I do not have it, and
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:45:40
we'll get it done or I know what I have to do. Thank you. Bye. Senator Hammer, you're recognized for the question. I say oppose the idea. I'm just trying to think through it on the fly real quick as far as the The cost or increasing manpower which does it affect it in any way or what's the No, sir,
of course it's, you know, now I guess you could say that if you elect everyone by plurality, then you can avoid a runoff and that might cost some
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:46:12
money, but this is, this is to make sure that you have majority rule at the municipal level.
OK, thanks. In your questions from the members. All right, so no further questions. Christy, don't have anybody to speak for against this, Senator, you're organized close for your bill. I'm a motion to pass by Sarah Clarke. Can I see a second, seconded by Senator Sullivan. Any discussion on the motion? See none. All in favor say aye, opposed. Congratulations, your bill passes. Thank you, sir. And
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:46:38
if we can do 617, it may even take less time. We're going to find out.
Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman Mark Johnson, Senate District 17, uh, Senate Bill 617 amends the Capitol District zoning, uh, commission's authority and adds to that the puts them in charge of the the within a 1 mile radius of the Capitol, all streets pass bike lanes and right of ways, and it specifically we did amend it to make, to say that that doesn't include anything that's
controlled by our dot. So if it's, you know, a state highway or something, or has that's our diet still has it, but if it's otherwise, if it's one of our streets, roadways, bike paths. and right of ways uh that's controlled by the Capitol District zoning Commission, which has the control over both the capital grounds around it and also the governor's mansion area. Senator Johnson, what brought
this bill about? Did somebody come to you with
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:47:42
this? Honestly, Mr. Chairman, these silly bike lanes
on 7th Street, and every time I drive by it and see the traffic, I have seen one bicycle since they put these things up one bicycle, but I A lot of people trying to make left turns into the Capitol grounds and have some near collisions because you're trying to basically just have two lanes of traffic with this, this monument to bicycles, taking its place, so this wouldn't, wouldn't say it changes. It just says the people that are in charge of this area can regulate that. OK, now.
I would just ask like, sometimes cities get, you know, federal grants, you know, if they do, you know, greenways, they allow for a bicycle lane. I get your aggravations with it. I see the same thing, but are you aware of any monies that the city of Little Rock has received or the state has received, you know, from the federal government or any other, you know, you know, agency that, you know, for, you know, for, you know, doing these bike lanes and if so, would they be required to pay that money back if the Capital zoning commission was to go and undo that. No,
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:48:45
sir, and let me clarify that the federal government does have
grants for that, but they tend to allow local people to decide, for example, in my district in Conway, they have some wonderful bike paths and they're well thought out, but in most cases they don't want you to where they're having to compete with cars and set up a dangerous situation for the pedestrians, the motorists, and the bikers. Also, I might add that this this idea was brought to me by Little Rock City official. OK, right. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
So, obviously we can see in the bill who you're giving the authority to, who we taking away from
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:49:26
the city of Little Rock only in this 1
mile radius of the how big a 1 mile radius is. I mean,
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:49:33
that's 2 miles in diameter. Yes sir,
we have this area from here to the governor's mansion that has this additional layer of regulation, and that's the Capitol District zoning commission. How much
do they know about roads and traffic patterns and.
I probably as much or less than the city board of Little Rock. I mean, I might, I hate that bike lane. I come in that way. It used to be two lanes. But I don't think we need the capital zoning commission handling a 1 mile radius, which is very significant part of the downtown area crossing 6:30 for a wide area. I think you need to narrow this down significantly. Well,
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:50:15
and I like to think that that organization who has a mandate to protect the capital
and its area would not be concerned about what happens on the other side of 630 as they are the things along 7th and 3rd in those streets. I don't think they
would abuse it, Senator. I think they'll do it with some measure of reason and just like any entity that is charged with taking Senator Tucker, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to clarify, it would not only be taking
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:50:41
authority from the city of Little Rock. It would, it would also be the city of North Little Rock too, since we're less than a mile from the Arkansas River and 1 mile goes well into the city of North Iraq
that the Capitol zoning commission would be controlling what's happening over in North Little
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:50:57
Rock within 1 mile from here. I'm not so sure that that applies because the Capitol District zoning commission has a specific thing about the radius and I don't think this changes well, it does, but I don't think we are a mile. From uh uh now say downtown North Little Rock would be a mile from say the marina over
there, but I don't think they would abuse this. Senator Tucker, if you let me jump in,
sir Johnson, you're not gonna have the votes fastest bill. So if you want to pull it down, that's going to be your call, but if not, I can tell you which way this bill's getting ready to go with respect and
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:51:32
appreciation to the committee, we, I will pull this bill down. That would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all. Alright. Represent Macyon, you come back up.
I appreciate Senator Johnson warming you all up. And if you'll uh introduce yourself and what what are you gonna be
running says House Bill 1683. House Bill 1683. Yes. All right, go ahead
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:52:10
and introduce yourself for the record. You'll be recognized to proceed with House
Bill 1683. OK, Representative, Mindy McAlinden, House District 10. This is House Bill 1683. It's a measure to ensure that Arkansas taxpayers do not support industries that are built on forced labor. This bill specifically prohibits governmental entities from procuring electric vehicles and
their components if they are manufactured using forced labor. It's not a hypothetical issue. It's happening right now. A significant portion of the world's cobalt and mineral essential to electric vehicle batteries is mind using children as young as 4, according to our congressional commission in the Congo, these children spend up to 12 hours a day in dangerous gravel fields. are in perilous mind shelves, not by choice, but because they were forced, because the demand for cobalt has skyrocketed. Likewise, in China, where over 60% of the world's lithium and coal water refined, Uighurs and
other ethnic minorities are subjected to forced labor under state imposed labor transfer programs. These programs involve coercion, mass detentions, and constant surveillance, with workers being forced into mining and refining operations for critical minerals. And for a firm believer in the free market as an educated market can and should regulate itself, but there are also some more lines that we should not cross. One of those lines is allowing children to be exploited for the sake of electric vehicle production. Especially when ethical alternatives exist. Just as the diamond industry took steps to
eliminate blood diamonds, automakers are working to source minerals responsibly. Many leading manufacturers are shifting towards battery technologies that reduce or eliminate the need for cobalt, for example, Tesla uses a lithium ion phosphate battery in some models which require no cobalt. General Motors is transitioning to a nickel magnesium, excuse me, manganese, cobalt aluminum, as well as the LFP battery chemistries, which significantly reduce cobalt. And Rivian is also investing in ethical sourcing and developing battery technologies that minimize the reliance on cobalt.
Federal guidelines already encouraged this shift in order to Get rebates by 2025, at least 60% of battery components must be manufactured or assembled in North America, and critical minerals must be sourced from US and free trade partner countries. So this transition is already underway. House Bill 1683 ensures that Arkansas leads by example. As legislators, we are entrusted with taxpayer dollars, and we have a duty to spend them wisely and ethically. This means ensuring that we do not fund industries that exploit and
enslave children. How spell 1683 upholds Arkansas's commitment to human rights and moral responsibility. The Otta Alliance engaged extensively in
discussions on this bill, and that remain neutral. The governor's office supports it, and with that, I'd be happy to take any questions. All right, let's
try. Define forced labor. I'm gonna start with these
iPhones. I know there are a lot of components are made in China and I forget the industry, but it's, I mean, maybe they're paid, but they're like people jumping out of windows committing suicide. I've got an iPhone, so like, is it
just, you know, slavery in the sense of like forced servitude and no payment and no freedoms, no rights. You
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:55:05
do what you're told. It is defined in here on page 3 starting at line 4, obtained by forest fraud, coercion, including threat of serious harm, physical restraint against person, a scheme plan pattern intended to cause the person to believe that the person did not perform the labor services, another person
would suffer serious injury or harm, means of abuse or threat of abuse of law or legal process, and
you're confident that currently the Arkansas state government
doesn't procure any products in which any component is made,
you know, what, you know, was manufactured in a way that
Speaker 19
1:55:36
would fit the definition of forced labor. This is
Speaker 418
1:55:38
only talking about electric vehicles, but so when
Speaker 19
1:55:40
gets to this, electric vehicles. a couple of reasons. One, because
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:55:43
it's different than your phone, for example, or a computer, forced labor. I want to get to
like the forced labor component. I mean, like what you're making iPhones or electric vehicles or lithium batteries. I don't think the person who's in the forced labor really makes a distinction, correct?
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:55:57
So a couple of things this is honestly is a stake in the sand.
Electric vehicles require so much more of those essential minerals than a phone does or than a computer does, so it has a This is OK if it's like not OK, but it's a start and so it's not, it's not all, but it is a start to say let's stop doing this, and it's at a position where we can do that because we have a few counties that have started to buy electric vehicles and so it's we can start by saying let's not perpetuate it. Um, but let's go ahead and start there and say let's not buy any that are made that way. Was
there an industry that brought you this? I mean, was this an idea that you came up with on your own. How
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:56:38
did this idea originate? Sure. So it came from a conference that I went to and heard about this bill and heard about the ability to kind of say let's stop this where it's starting, and I figured we're kind of ahead of that in terms in Arkansas in terms of buying those electric vehicles as a governmental entity. And so if we can stop that, I figure it's, it's, it's I guess where I'm getting at is this, is this
a way to like, like that where you got, you know, apparently some pretty large deposits of lithium in South
Arkansas. So, you know, and I have no idea, but is this just a roundabout way to, you know, to help out with that industry and using this forced labor and servitude as this kind of, you know, back door. Is this really about forced labor? It is truly about forced
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:57:15
labor. It is also, I will say just on a side note, it's also not about climate, so I'm not against electric vehicles, um, because that has been brought up before. This is truly about forced labor and saying let's stop where we can where we can make a difference. Let's make a difference. OK, fair enough. All right,
Speaker 223
1:57:29
Sullivan, we're gonna ask for a question. So it refers to anyone
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
1:57:35
who has found doing this. Who's doing the finding? Is that a court
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:57:39
order? So you, um, someone could report that. Right? So if, if someone said, hey, I think that they're doing that. The report that and believe that, as I recall this goes through the Attorney General's office. So is
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
1:57:49
that when you're found, who's doing the finding? Is that a court. That would be my, that is my understanding. And is there, is there an appeal? Oh, wait a minute now, so you're
That's your opinion that it's a court finding? Well, if it's a I mean, it's not defined in the bill. It just says they're if they're found, I don't know is that us that finds them, but the next, next question, follow up question where's the appeal process here. So we're going to be found by someone that we don't, it's not defined and then they're going to pay a fine and there's no process for an appeal unless it's a court decision, but that's not defined here.
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:58:38
So it will go through the Attorney General's office, and so I assume that any other way that you, you had a finding in any other appeal process that would normally attorney's office, I guess I missed. Let me see. Well, it does not
Speaker 325
1:58:57
say that in here. It doesn't say Attorney General's office in here.
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
1:59:26
I mean, it says the state government should take steps to But I just don't see any mechanism for All right, let you hold
on that, Senator Sullivan Senator Tucker real quickly for a question. Senator Tucker, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr.
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:59:50
Chair. I'm, I'm looking at that definition of forced labor on on page 3. Yeah.
So it starts there on line 4. It goes
down through line 20 and there's there's 4 options for forced labor. And it's there's an or, so it's any one of those qualifies as forced labor. I'm reading that right. So 16, it's the third option, subdivision 2C there. And so if the, if the service is not provided voluntarily
by the worker, it qualifies as forced labor. Uh, OK, I just think. Um, most of the work that I do
as a lawyer is not done voluntarily, right, right um. So I, I just think there's a ambiguity in the way that that, I mean, if you're being paid for your work and you're not doing it voluntarily. I don't I think that's how, that's not how I read it. It says if
Speaker 325
2:00:46
it's not offered or provided voluntarily by the worker. You're doing work, you were making you were agreeing to do
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:00:53
it. No one is forcing you to do that, right? So it is voluntary. So even though you do work as a lawyer, maybe you didn't want to
voluntarily do it, but you're not. Not, you're not choosing to not do it, so you are actually doing it voluntarily. OK. I,
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
2:01:08
I, I understand what you're saying. I, I think there's an ambiguity with the way that that's written. Just mentioning it. Thank you. Thank you, Senator.
Speaker 29
2:01:15
All right. Any questions for the committee? Alright,
see you know for questions, um, don't have everybody signed up to speak for against this representative, you recognized to close for your
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:01:34
bill. Thank you. Just to recall what we're doing here. The point of this is to have HB 1683 helps Arkansas lead by example to be sure that we are spending our tax dollars wisely and ethically, and we are not funding industries that exploit and enslave children, and with that I would ask for a motion. All right,
Speaker 405
2:01:50
members. got a motion to pass from Senator Dodson. Do I see a second? All right,
sorry, you built bells for lack of a thank you, chair. Representative Brown, come on down.
Speaker 446
2:02:16
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have Jamie Jones, please join
me at the table. Y'all introduce yourself and then you're going to
Speaker 447
2:02:26
be running. Carly. House Bill 1739. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Matt Brown, House District 55. Jamie
Speaker 449
2:02:33
Jones, Arkansas Bar Association, and Friday Eldridge and Clark, if I may be heard. Great. All right, go
Speaker 447
2:02:38
ahead and proceed with 1739. Thanks. I'm standing in for Senator Dees, who had some other bills this morning. I
Speaker 451
2:02:42
think that the committee had already heard this earlier in the week and had a
question regarding the language at the very end of the bill, which provided this act preempts a federal law and the gist of that preemption, that federal law which governs electronic materials as well, has a specific provision that says state law may preempt it if it cites this law and and contains these provisions which our bill does. I have the expert here that can get a lot more into the weeds on that than I can. Thank you, Senator. I
Speaker 452
2:03:07
wanted to make sure I had an accurate answer to your question. And so since I had not looked at that, I wanted to make sure to get a complete answer to
your question, and that is that the federal law has what's called a reverse preemption clause, which allows state law to have their own law under two circumstances. One is that you have to expressly mention that you have specific reference to eSign, which is what this provision does is have the specific reference to e-sign, and the second requirement is that the state has to have their own e-sign bill, which we do. That was the electronic transaction
Act that was passed in 2001 in its codified at 2532, 106. So there's absolutely no conflict.
Speaker 44
2:03:57
All members, you've heard an explanation of the bill. Senator Dodson, you're going
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
2:04:03
for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was my question actually, and so. Just
to just make 100% certain because the situation I foresee is if that is ever reversed, where they come back and say no,
you can't supersede, and then we have a whole bunch of contracts and things like that that are out there, you know, that's 5 years from now and for 5 years we've been doing it the wrong way. It cannot invalidate any of the things that were happening. So if they make that change down the road, those would still be grandfathered in, so to speak, uh. So that hey, we're operating under this this standard now we make this change. Everybody starts e-signing stuff and doing
all that. I 5 years down the road, they make a change and say, OK, we're superseding all these state laws and invalidating them, the things that happened in that period of time from when we passed this to then
Speaker 452
2:05:02
we'll be grandfathered in. Yeah, that's not going to be a concern for you, Senator, and you know, the E sign. Act is actually the current act as it is right now, so this doesn't do anything to change Arkansas law. In fact, we're just being consistent with Arkansas law is and what federal law is. So the federal law allows for the states to have
their own e-sign law which this assembly did enact in 2001 and has been the law since 2001 and so this language is just consistent with Arkansas law and federal law. Alright. Any other questions from members?
Speaker 455
2:05:32
All right, so no further questions, don't have
Speaker 44
2:05:40
everybody signed up to speak for this. Representative, you're
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
2:05:42
close. I'm closed. Appreciate a good vote members to members, what's the rule of the committee? a motion to be passed by Senator
Sullivan, seconded by Senator Tucker in discussion on the motion say none. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Congratulations,
Speaker 203
2:06:02
your bill passed. I appreciate your support see no further business committee, we are adjourned. Right
Speaker 457
2:06:10
Is that the fastest bill? I tried to be. Was I the fastest bill I tried.
Agenda
COME TO ORDER - Senator Scott Flippo
SB343 Irvin TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING STATE-OWNED MOTOR VEHICLES; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC PROPERTY; AND TO AMEND THE AUTOMOBILE AND PICKUP TRUCK ACQUISITION ACT FOR THE STATE OF ARKANSAS.
SB241 J. Scott TO AMEND THE UNIFORM ATTENDANCE AND LEAVE POLICY ACT; AND TO GRANT PAID LEAVE TO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES IN THE EVENT OF THE DEATH OF A PUBLIC EMPLOYEE'S FAMILY MEMBER OR CHILD.
HJR1018 Ray THE CITIZENS ONLY VOTING AMENDMENT.
HB1524 Wooldridge TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE BIDDING PROCEDURE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS AND FACILITIES.
HB1925 Beaty Jr. AN ACT TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE BALLOTS; TO AMEND THE ABSENTEE BALLOT VOTER STATEMENT; AND TO REQUIRE A WITNESS FOR THE SIGNATURE OF AN ABSENTEE VOTER STATEMENT.
SB569 M. Johnson AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION CONCERNING BALLOT TITLES OF PROPOSED MEASURES; AND AMENDING THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 5, SECTION 1.
HB1706 McCollum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS; AND TO PROHIBIT RANKED CHOICE VOTING.
SB608 M. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING RUNOFF ELECTIONS FOR COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL OFFICERS.
HB1739 M. Brown TO ADOPT THE UNIFORM ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIALS ACT.
SB617 M. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CAPITOL ZONING DISTRICT; AND TO AMEND THE ZONING AUTHORITY OF THE CAPITOL ZONING DISTRICT COMMISSION.
HB1683 McAlindon TO PROHIBIT THE PROCUREMENT BY A GOVERNMENTAL ENTITY OF AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE OR A COMPONENT OF AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE THAT WAS MANUFACTURED IN WHOLE OR IN PART USING FORCED LABOR.
HB1837 McAlindon TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE FOR MATTERS REFERRED TO VOTERS; AND TO BAN FOREIGN FUNDING FOR BALLOT MEASURES; TO AMEND PORTIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1996.
HB1846 S. Meeks TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS 2036 COMMISSION.
HB1949 Schulz TO ADD MEDICAL, EMERGENCY MEDICAL, AND AMBULANCE SERVICES TO THE LIST OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FOR PURPOSES OF PROCUREMENT.
HB1952 Hawk TO ASSIST THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATE ATHLETIC COMMISSION; TO PROVIDE FUNDING TO THE STATE ATHLETIC COMMISSION TO CONTINUE ITS MISSION TO PROMOTE A ROBUST, HEALTHY, AND SAFE COMBATIVE SPORTS INDUSTRY.
SB640 J. Dismang TO RECONSTITUTE THE STATE LIBRARY BOARD.
ADJOURNMENT
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — STATE AGENCIES & GOVT'L AFFAIRS-SENATE, Apr 10, 2025 | Agenda | 3 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Scott Flippo Chair
Unverified
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
Speaker 19
Senator John Payton Chair
Unverified
Speaker 29
Speaker 44
Speaker 47
Speaker 52
Speaker 53
Speaker 55
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
Speaker 58
Speaker 76
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 86
Speaker 90
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
Speaker 100
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Speaker 113
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
Speaker 132
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Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
Speaker 147
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Speaker 88
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
Speaker 169
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Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
Speaker 187
Speaker 14
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Speaker 45
Speaker 206
Speaker 159
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Speaker 223
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Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
Speaker 204
Speaker 71
Speaker 270
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Speaker 62
Speaker 292
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Speaker 166
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 326
Speaker 335
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Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
Speaker 360
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Speaker 325
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