State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs- House
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Transcript
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Bills discussed (49)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SB181
Act 242
· 6 mentions in transcript
Matched: “…t said we can't find people with that qualification I wrote Senate Bill 181 and just said you can have that degree or someone approved…”
|
TO AMEND THE LIBRARY LAW; TO AMEND THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE STATE LIBRARIAN; AND TO … | D. Sullivan | Notification that SB181 is now Act 242 |
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SB536
· 4 mentions in chapter, transcript, agenda
Matched: “SB536 D. Sullivan TO ABOLISH AND TRANSFER THE ARKANSAS STATE LIBR…”
|
TO ABOLISH AND TRANSFER THE ARKANSAS STATE LIBRARY AND THE STATE LIBRARY BOARD; AND TO … | D. Sullivan | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1024
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1024 A. Collins TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC EMPLOYEES; AN…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC EMPLOYEES; AND TO REPEAL THE LAW PROHIBITING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING. | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1028
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1028 A. Collins TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE LAW CONCERNING OBSCEN…”
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TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE LAW CONCERNING OBSCENITY AND THE PROCESS FOR CHALLENGING MATERIALS INCLUDED … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1035
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ORITY GRANTED BY ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51, § 19. HB1035 A. Collins TO CREATE THE ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 2…”
|
TO CREATE THE ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 2025; TO ALLOW ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION; TO … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1036
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1036 A. Collins TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION;…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION; TO ALLOW VOTER REGISTRATION DURING EARLY VOTING AND … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1037
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…OT QUESTION COMMITTEES AND LEGISLATIVE QUESTION COMMITTEES. HB1037 A. Collins AN ACT TO CREATE THE PREREGISTRATION TO VOTE ACT…”
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AN ACT TO CREATE THE PREREGISTRATION TO VOTE ACT; AND TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF ARKANSAS … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1038
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1038 A. Collins TO CREATE THE NO-EXCUSE ABSENTEE VOTING ACT OF 2…”
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TO CREATE THE NO-EXCUSE ABSENTEE VOTING ACT OF 2025; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1039
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…NG; AND TO REPEAL VOTER QUALIFICATIONS FOR ABSENTEE VOTING. HB1039 A. Collins TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE BALLOT…”
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TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE BALLOTS; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS. | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1040
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1040 A. Collins TO CREATE THE WATER IN LINE ACT OF 2025; AND TO…”
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TO CREATE THE WATER IN LINE ACT OF 2025; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1041
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1041 R. Scott Richardson TO PROHIBIT DECEPTIVE AND FRAUDULENT DE…”
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TO PROHIBIT DECEPTIVE AND FRAUDULENT DEEPFAKES IN ELECTION COMMUNICATIONS. | R. Scott Richardson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1042
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…RNING PENALTIES FOR MISDEMEANOR OFFENSES RELATED TO VOTING. HB1042 A. Collins TO CREATE THE DIRECT DEMOCRACY ACT OF 2025; TO R…”
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TO CREATE THE DIRECT DEMOCRACY ACT OF 2025; TO REPEAL THE ENSURING ACCESS FOR ALL … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1043
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1043 A. Collins TO REQUIRE DISCLOSURE AND REPORTING OF NONCANDID…”
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TO REQUIRE DISCLOSURE AND REPORTING OF NONCANDIDATE EXPENDITURES PERTAINING TO APPELLATE JUDICIAL ELECTIONS; AND TO … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1058
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1058 Unger TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ETHICS AND CONFLICTS OF I…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ETHICS AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST FOR PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES; … | Unger | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1059
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…GIVING ADVANCE NOTICE TO ENTITIES OF REQUIRED INSPECTIONS. HB1059 Unger TO PROVIDE THE OPTION FOR A FREE LIFETIME HUNTING AND…”
|
TO PROVIDE THE OPTION FOR A FREE LIFETIME HUNTING AND FISHING LICENSE TO A COMMERCIAL … | Unger | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1069
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1069 S. Meeks TO OBSERVE STANDARD TIME YEAR ROUND IN ARKANSAS; A…”
|
TO OBSERVE STANDARD TIME YEAR ROUND IN ARKANSAS; AND TO ELIMINATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN … | S. Meeks | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1078
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1078 Long TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING RUNOFF ELECTIONS; AND…”
|
TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING RUNOFF ELECTIONS; AND TO PROVIDE FOR A RUNOFF ELECTION FOR … | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1162
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1162 Duffield TO ESTABLISH GOOD FRIDAY AS AN OFFICIAL STATE HOLI…”
|
TO ESTABLISH GOOD FRIDAY AS AN OFFICIAL STATE HOLIDAY. | Duffield | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1281
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…CANDIDATES FOR THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. HB1281 McAlindon TO AMEND REPORTING FOR A CANDIDATE FOR CERTAIN MU…”
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TO AMEND REPORTING FOR A CANDIDATE FOR CERTAIN MUNICIPAL OFFICES AND FOR COUNTY OFFICE; AND … | McAlindon | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1352
Act 937
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1352 Beaty Jr. TO AMEND VARIOUS LAWS CONCERNING ACTIONS RELATED…”
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TO AMEND VARIOUS LAWS CONCERNING ACTIONS RELATED TO CERTAIN FOREIGN ENTITIES. | Beaty Jr. | Notification that HB1352 is now Act 937 |
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HB1415
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…E ARKANSAS CODE THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1996. HB1415 L. Johnson TO REQUIRE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TO RESPOND TO A…”
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TO REQUIRE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TO RESPOND TO A REQUEST FOR A FIRE INQUIRY. | L. Johnson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1459
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1459 L. Johnson CONCERNING RECURRING REPORTS SUBMITTED TO THE GE…”
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CONCERNING RECURRING REPORTS SUBMITTED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. | L. Johnson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1461
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ERNING RECURRING REPORTS SUBMITTED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. HB1461 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE EVALUATION OF NE…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE EVALUATION OF NECESSITY OF VARIOUS COMMISSIONS AND BOARDS. | L. Johnson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1494
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1494 Hawk TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS GUIDANCE OUT OF THE DARKNESS AC…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS GUIDANCE OUT OF THE DARKNESS ACT; AND TO REQUIRE STATE AGENCIES … | Hawk | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1604
Act 943
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…AWS CONCERNING ACTIONS RELATED TO CERTAIN FOREIGN ENTITIES. HB1604 McAlindon TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PROHIBITED CONTRACTS…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PROHIBITED CONTRACTS BY STATE AGENCIES; AND TO PROHIBIT THE USE … | McAlindon | Notification that HB1604 is now Act 943 |
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HB1614
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1614 Lundstrum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DESIGNATIONS RELATED…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DESIGNATIONS RELATED TO CERTAIN CRIMINAL JUSTICE GRANT PROGRAMS. | Lundstrum | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1621
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1621 Wardlaw TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AN…”
|
TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO EXEMPT PERSONAL INFORMATION OF … | Wardlaw | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1631
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…S, ELECTED MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS, AND THEIR IMMEDIATE FAMILY. HB1631 Wardlaw TO ADDRESS THE ISSUANCE OF HUNTING AND FISHING LICE…”
|
TO ADDRESS THE ISSUANCE OF HUNTING AND FISHING LICENSES TO FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENTS. | Wardlaw | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1667
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…AND THE STATE LIBRARY BOARD TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. HB1667 Bentley TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AN…”
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TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING … | Bentley | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1694
Act 996
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…STATE AGENCIES TO PURCHASE PROMOTIONAL ITEMS MADE IN CHINA. HB1694 Hawk TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ALTERNATIVES TO ELECTRONIC…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ALTERNATIVES TO ELECTRONIC FILING FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS. | Hawk | Notification that HB1694 is now Act 996 |
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HB1720
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…RKANSAS; AND TO ELIMINATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ARKANSAS. HB1720 Vaught TO CREATE THE BABIES AT WORK ACT; TO ALLOW STATE AGE…”
|
TO CREATE THE BABIES AT WORK ACT; TO ALLOW STATE AGENCIES TO PERMIT PUBLIC EMPLOYEES … | Vaught | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1753
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…DIANS TO BRING THEIR INFANTS SIX MONTHS OR YOUNGER TO WORK. HB1753 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION; TO OPT…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION; TO OPT-OUT OF THE NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT … | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1769
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…BLIC MEETINGS UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967. HB1769 Barnett CONCERNING LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER STANDARDS; AND T…”
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CONCERNING LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER STANDARDS; AND TO REQUIRE A PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION OR ASSESSMENT TO BECOME … | Barnett | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1773
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…END PROVISIONS OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51, § 5. HB1773 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CONTRIBUTION LIMITS FOR BA…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CONTRIBUTION LIMITS FOR BALLOT QUESTION COMMITTEES AND LEGISLATIVE QUESTION COMMITTEES. | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1849
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1849 Gramlich TO ALLOW FOR THE CROSS DEPUTIZATION OF MUNICIPAL,…”
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TO ALLOW FOR THE CROSS DEPUTIZATION OF MUNICIPAL, COUNTY, STATE, AND TRIBAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ON … | Gramlich | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1878
Act 978
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1878 McGruder TO ENSURE EARLY VOTING ACCESS FOR ARKANSANS RESIDI…”
|
TO ENSURE EARLY VOTING ACCESS FOR ARKANSANS RESIDING IN POPULATION CENTERS; AND TO REQUIRE A … | McGruder | Notification that HB1878 is now Act 978 |
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HB1883
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1883 Long TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS FOURTH AMENDMENT PROTECTION ACT…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS FOURTH AMENDMENT PROTECTION ACT; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE … | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1884
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…CONCERNING THE COLLECTION OF ELECTRONIC DATA AND METADATA. HB1884 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE MARKING AND COUNTING O…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE MARKING AND COUNTING OF PAPER BALLOTS. | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1973
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1973 B. McKenzie TO PROVIDE THAT A GOVERNMENTAL BODY SHALL NOT U…”
|
TO PROVIDE THAT A GOVERNMENTAL BODY SHALL NOT USE STATE OR LOCAL FUNDS TO ENTER … | B. McKenzie | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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SB12
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…bers and Staff Only'. SENATE BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle SB12 B. King TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AN…”
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TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING … | B. King | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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SB184
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB184 D. Sullivan TO TRANSFER THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE ARKANS…”
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TO TRANSFER THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE ARKANSAS EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION COMMISSION AND THE STATE … | D. Sullivan | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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SB376
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB376 A. Clark TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; A…”
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TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING … | A. Clark | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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SB471
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB471 A. Clark TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CANDIDATES FOR NONPART…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CANDIDATES FOR NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS; AND TO ALLOW CERTAIN CANDIDATES FOR … | A. Clark | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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SB486
Act 955
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB486 B. Johnson CONCERNING SAFETY AND PRIVACY IN CERTAIN ENTITIE…”
|
CONCERNING SAFETY AND PRIVACY IN CERTAIN ENTITIES; AND CONCERNING THE DESIGNATION OF MULTI-OCCUPANCY RESTROOMS, CHANGING … | B. Johnson | Notification that SB486 is now Act 955 |
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SB489
Act 950
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB489 G. Leding TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE PLACEMENT OF…”
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TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE PLACEMENT OF A MONUMENT ON THE STATE CAPITOL GROUNDS … | G. Leding | Notification that SB489 is now Act 950 |
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SB491
Act 956
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB491 K. Hammer TO REQUIRE A VENDOR THAT CONTRACTS WITH THE OFFIC…”
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TO REQUIRE A VENDOR THAT CONTRACTS WITH THE EMPLOYEE BENEFITS DIVISION TO SUBMIT DATA FOR … | K. Hammer | Notification that SB491 is now Act 956 |
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SB565
Act 936
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…AW CONCERNING THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE JOINT BUDGET COMMITTEE. SB565 Flippo TO ALLOW PROCUREMENT CERTIFICATIONS TO BE COMBINED;…”
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TO ALLOW PROCUREMENT CERTIFICATIONS TO BE COMBINED; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE REPRESENTATION IN … | Flippo | Notification that SB565 is now Act 936 |
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SB570
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…Y AND THE STATE LIBRARY BOARD; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. SB570 J. Dotson TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE MEMBERSHIP O…”
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TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE JOINT BUDGET COMMITTEE. | J. Dotson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB613
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…AND TO AMEND THE COOPERATIVE PURCHASING REPORTING DEADLINE. SB613 C. Penzo TO CREATE AN ELECTION PROCEDURE TO DETERMINE FLUOR…”
|
TO CREATE AN ELECTION PROCEDURE TO DETERMINE FLUORIDATION OF A PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM. | C. Penzo | Died in House at Sine Die adjournment. |
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This meeting of state agencies is hereby called to order. Cha Corum. Uh, as I said just a moment ago, we have a lot of business to do in this committee and we have a very limited amount of time and I wanna let all those in attendance know looks like there's not as many people as there was this morning, but I want to let everyone know that I've already heard requests from members to limit public comment. That has not been the practice of this committee over the course of this session, and I want to make it clear that I do not want to do that. I think it's a very important
part of the process that everyone who has come to the Capitol to speak has the opportunity to do so, but please be aware. That you need to give our time constraints, keep your comments brief. If other people have made the point that you have made or that you intend to make, you may just want to say I echo someone's comments and forego speaking um. Because we only have a limited amount of time and if this continues to become repetitive or drag on for longer than would be necessary and someone makes
that motion I'm gonna be inclined to take it. The the amount of time that we have is finite. The session's gonna end April 16th and we only have a few more committee meetings left and we've got a lot of business to do, so I hate to do that. And I'm taking a lot of time explaining this, but. Uh, With that being said, just please be aware of that going forward, Senator Sullivan. You are recognized on Senate Bill 536, and my understanding is that you have an amendment. That's correct, Mr. Chair. All right, Staff, do you have that
Unknown speaker
2:06
amendment? I Staff will pass out that amendment to the committee members.
All right, everyone should have a copy of the amendment. Senator Sullivan, you're recognized to present the amendment. Thank you again, Mr.
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
3:04
Chair and committee. So I had a call recently. Uh, we've had many several amendments to the bill, multiple at the request of librarians and community members that we've made that this bill is a result of that. I was called the other day or uh on page 19 lines 5 and 6 where it says the collection under subdivision of this section, uh.
shall not include any material described under 5 dash that was inappropriate material. So I, I don't think there was a problem with it, but in order to clarify that, we have stricken that line. So the concern was that a collection would have to meet standards where it was appropriate. Um, without a definition there, nor a definition to collection. Uh, and we struck those lines. That's the amendment. Senator Sullivan
has explained his amendment. Are there any
questions by the committee saying no questions by the committee. I have a motion to adopt the amendment, Representative Meeks is there any discussion on that motion seeing done all those in paper say aye, all those opposed, the ads have it, the
amendment has been adopted. Senator Sullivan, you're recognized to present the bill as amended. Thank you, Mr. Chair,
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
4:18
and again, I don't want to be too repetitive, but I think it's critical for our members to know that the original bill um had ATN in it and the PBS or I'm sorry, the library board and we met with
AETN with a short. a couple of hours and they agreed uh and they were, they, we pulled that bill down. I had the same meeting with the state library director and members of the library board, a special meeting was called, and I spoke to most of the members individually, uh, didn't ask them to make a commitment, but just ask that they take a stand uh with a public statement for the board only non-binding that said we're going to protect children from sexually explicit
material. A and B we disaffiliate at the state library board with the American Library Association. Uh, they declined on a vote of 4 to 32 very simple request, uh, that were denied and that opened the door then we, we came up with 563. Members, I'm going to assume, I think you all have read the bill, you've heard from people, uh, on this, so I'm not gonna go through the bill, uh, very much just to address a couple of points on issues that
I've heard. Oh One of them I heard about the people were concerned about the definition of a director. That who can be a director of a library, the current. Statute is that librarians must have a, a uh master's degree on a course approved by the American Library Association. Folks, there are no universities or colleges in the state of Arkansas, to my knowledge, it offered that. So they're going out of state.
So as a result of that, and hearing from board members that said we can't find people with that qualification I wrote Senate Bill 181 and just said you can have that degree or someone approved by the board. Well, I heard from a number of librarians that said, we don't like that. We're a professional organization. We want professional standing. So we put that in the bill. Um, in the bill, it offers two options. I don't have the page in front of me right now, but there are
two options. One is to have a master's degree approved by national accrediting agency, not necessarily the ALA or to a bachelor's degree with some experience, um, so we're offering. Very good options there to maintain quality work. Also, I know we have regional libraries. So if you have a regional library and you're the librarian in charge, which is in the bill, then you don't have to have all of those at each individual library. You have to have
somebody in charge at the regional level that has that higher degree and if you don't have someone, they have 3 years to reach that. Um If you notice on page 13, it talks about definitions of libraries and directors, uh, again, those are just definitions. There's people that are confused or um about what passed a couple of years ago, um, 372.
This bill does not address the appropriateness of material in the library. It does talk about uh sexually explicit material as defined by federal law, it references that and that talks about genital to genital contact. It talks about what uh uh what you, how to define that, but that's just in definitions. It has nothing to do with what's in your, in your uh collection. What the bill does say is that you have to have a plan.
And that plan, the Department of Education will work with you on that plan on how to protect children. So for example, if you have a one-room library and you have material that falls under that classification. What might your plan be and how might you work with the department where you would work with the department, for example, to put a sign up that says adults only. You have worked your plan and you qualify for state aid. Um Couple of things in general, folks.
Under the Department of Education, everything we're doing is geared towards literacy. I think you know that in every step we've taken has been geared towards literacy. We have libraries that have what they call libraries of things and they have everything from uh lawn mowers to garden equipment to um fishing rods to all kinds of things. Folks, that's fine. If they want to have a library of things in their county wants to pay for that, have at it. Uh, it's a great thing. However, if
we're going to have a library of things, we shouldn't be using state money to have that. Um Another question that's come up is whether the Department of Education can handle that. And Mr. Chair, with your permission, I'd like to bring um Secretary Oliva to the table. Yes sir, Secretary Leva.
Speaker 14
9:35
You're recognized. Good afternoon, Jacob Leber Department of Education. Thank you for allowing me this
session to speak in a committee that's not an education committee, so new charity territories here. Um, I think we've been asked a question a lot about if if we were to dissolve the state library, which functions as a separate state agency and bring in those programs and services under the umbrella of the Department of Education, would there be an interruption of services, so we, we've done an analysis of the programs that they support, uh, primarily a big program of state aid. We feel very
confident that if we bring um those tasks under our agency, especially with the staff that currently works within the library. We can make a full seamless transition, maintain a lot of the state level procurement and services that we provide to state libraries, we do not believe that there will be a reduction in service. In fact, we feel like we can be even more efficient and eliminate a little bit less bureaucracy, any rules that would need to be promulgated under the capacity that was formerly in the state library. system where they just be able to come to the state Board of
Education, which we already have a process in place for promulgating and implementing those rules, so we feel very confident that if this bill was to pass favorable, we'll make sure that we're not only continuing high level support and services for our libraries across the state but maybe find ways to help make them even
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
10:59
better. And just to piggyback on that a little bit and just committee a few minutes ago, Department of Education was streamlining reporting. They were helping people do a better job and more streamlined report last in the
Senate we had a gentleman that testified that he had 1200 data points on reports to fill out. I asked for a copy of those reports, folks, most of it was just duplicate, a different name, a different address, the same thing. They just have to fill it out 7 times. I get that. That's hard. But there are ways to streamline those things but we just passed that bill on education, and there are a lot of ways to do that if you read another place in the bill talks about incentives, folks, we, we
have about $5800 that we use for to distribute to our libraries. Uh, it's done on a capitated. break, um, it doesn't have any incentives in it for libraries that are doing special things and there are things that we can do to incentivize uh increasing uh literacy rates in our libraries. We can give money, for example, if you want to hire uh staff trained in the uh science of reading. We can make accommodations for that. I've already talked to the secretary.
They have one of the largest professional development, uh, library. bra ries in the state, uh, that right now is not accessible to librarians, charter schools, we can make that accessible. So there's a lot of great things that can happen that the board in the past has not sought to do those things. This board under the Department of Education will be forward looking, uh, we can achieve that. Folks, we have, for example, the Cal's library here in in town
gets $500,000 over $500,000 about 10% of the entire budget, and I have it on record and a quote from the director that says he doesn't need the money. $500,000. He doesn't need the money, but he keeps getting it while some of our rural library struggle. Well, why are we not having some incentives out there and some other criteria. The previous board has not done that. Um, members, I think there's if we could go on and on about this, you could read the uh the
bill and. Representative, if you have anything to add or we'll take questions. We'll take any questions.
Thank you. All right, Senator Sullivan has explained his bill. Are there any questions about the committee, Representative Clowney, you're recognized for a question. Thank you Mr. Chair,
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
13:32
and I'm sorry I was a few minutes late to the presentation, so if you missed or if you said this and I missed it, I apologize, but a concern was raised to me about some rural libraries, um, specifically with respect to the degrees that are required under current law versus what would be required if this change went
through, um, it's my understanding that if this change goes through in order to be um to be a librarian, you would have to have at least a bachelor's degree, uh, is that true of all librarians? currently and if not, what happens to those rural
librarians who aren't um who aren't, don't have those degrees. Sure, good question. One I've
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
14:11
gotten. So one, there's 3 years to remedy that. And an opportunity to meet with the board if you need extended time to achieve that. Our goal
is not to close libraries. Our goal is to keep professional people in there. The Senate Bill 181 that passed, uh, allowed a library board to hire whomever they choose, and I heard from a number of librarians who thought that was a terrible idea that there needed to be a professional standard. So this bill has a professional standard. You either have a master's degree or you have. a bachelor's degree in library sciences or a related field, so you really have three different
choices there, and you have 3 years to get there and you have an appeal process if you can't make it. Um, does that
answer your question? Thank you. Representative Ray, you're
Representative David Ray
Unverified
15:04
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator Sullivan, I, I've gotten a lot of emails about this bill, as I'm sure not a surprise. To anybody here, um. I guess I'm, you know, a lot of these emails say the same thing, and I just want to give you a chance to address them if you
would like. It says um that Libraries are going to lose millions of dollars, um, disrupt library services to the people of Arkansas, including things like in library loan and things like that, um, can you comment on that? Sure, it's in the bill that all
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
15:42
the inner library loans stay, you know, folks, it's much like, uh, having a business and your business sells and you have new ownership, new leadership. It doesn't mean the business
goes out of business because they bought it because they want to stay in business. So our goal is to keep libraries going and fully funded. I think we've done a poor job of allocating funds in order to help maximize what they're, what they do, and I think uh Secretary Oliva said that exact same thing. There's a lot of streamlining we can do. There's, there are no incentives built in. Again, if you have um I don't know where in the bill they say that I've talked to a lot of people, many of the
people, when I said, have you read the bill, said no. I haven't read the bill, but the things that you're addressing are in the bill. The data points, the um databases of online, all that stays we're just taking the leadership and replacing the leadership. The very first two paragraphs say everything stays so if someone's going to say we're going to lose our funding, I need to see. Specifically where that is and how they would lose it. Does that address your question?
Thank you. Representative Collins are recognized. Thank
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
17:02
you, Mr. Chair. So it's from your initial story, it sounds like, uh, you
came to the library board with a couple of demands, and they didn't heed the demands and therefore we have this bill, but I guess I kind of want to understand why, why you think that it should work that way. I mean, you, you're, you're one legislator, you're not the entire legislature that's passed a law
signed by the governor that is the policy of the state, um, you're one of us, you know, and you have things that are important. you and I understand that, and that's fine, we all do, but why should this
board, which is an independent board, uh, you know, answer to your call. I, I mean sure a
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
17:43
couple of things. One, they're not an independent board. They're under the oversight currently of the legislature. So, yes, I'm one of several in the legislature. I think you ran a couple of bills the other day, um, having to do with libraries
and books and things. They don't answer to you anymore than they answer to me. We come before the committee, uh, people vote on your bills, they vote on my bills. Uh, second, it wasn't a demand. It was a request. That if you would like to remain solvent and do what you do to do, do these two simple things, very easy, and they chose not to. Now that
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
18:25
Yeah Well, um, OK, I mean, I, I guess
that sounds to me like a like a threat, and now we're delivering on the promise behind the threat, but why not, why not just propose the legislation with the things that you wanted them to do. That's the other related part to this. Why not if affiliation with the American Library Association or whatever it is, is important. Why not just make that the policy of the state with the buy-in from the legislature rather than the or else, which is I guess where we are right now.
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
18:55
I think they can do a lot better and I think this bill helps with
accountability after talking with librarians, uh, in, in the Senate testimony. People said, We just want the money. We don't want oversight. Well, that's our job, you know, you hear that librarians are the experts and library book selection. That's true. Uh, they have oversight over that. That's true. They're the best trained to do that. That's true. Were the legislation legislators, we're the keepers and the how to distribute the taxpayers' money. We're the
experts in that and that's where we came to a disagreement. The librarians want very little oversight and it was testified almost word for word that way. They want to run their library the way they want to run their library. And I agree with that. I hope that would work. Uh, they did not take the. Uh, offer an opportunity for them to be in charge. Now, I don't see how one can say I'm threatening them when I gave them a very easy opportunity to
stay solvent. That's not a threat. That's an opportunity, but you can take it how you want. I can't determine how you take it, but I gave an opportunity to do that and any decision will be made by
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
20:16
135, 136 people. Well, I, I will say it does sound like a threat even as you put it that
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
20:23
way, but I, I appreciate the answer and Representative Collins, if I may, uh, I personally have received numerous complaints from citizens that have expressed their disappointment
that the library ward does not seem to be willing to address what they think is the real need. I think several of them are going to be here tonight to,
to speak about their um um I Um Um. problem that they have basically, you know, with the board not being receptive to
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
20:56
their complaints. You know, I'll just add one more thing when, when people came to me, I asked them if they had gone to
the board. I did not talk to one librarian that
called the board up and said, why did you make the decision that you made? Would you talk to Senator Sullivan and see what he, if we agree to what he's requested. Would he drop the bill? I mean, that's exactly what happened with the with the AETN. We had some problems. They agreed to work together. When we had problems when I had problems with the board and I'd say other legislators have problems with the library board. They refused to sit down at a table and address it. I didn't have anybody come to me on
Senate Bill 181 and 184. I don't have any librarians come to me and say, can we work with you? They only came when it passed the Senate the other day and people literally chased me down in the hall. Uh, I had to hang up on one because they just were so aggressive and rude that I did. didn't need to talk to him, but I made the change they requested in this amendment right here. Representative Crawford, you're recognized.
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
22:09
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for bringing this bill. I know we've had some issues, um. In my area, not my district, but
in my area of um. Sexual books when kids walk in the door, that they were displayed. Um, so we do need some regulation, the things I guess that the emails that I've gotten, gotten, you've touched
on, but Some are saying that. They received private funds that if it's a government entity, they would no longer be able to receive. Have you heard that? Yes, and that's in the bill that they
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
22:56
can still receive that they have foundations and private funds they can still receive those private funds and federal government funds, all those flow the same way and I'll touch on what you just said about
sexually explicit material. This bill defines what that is, but it doesn't prevent the library from having sexually explicit material in the library. If folks choose to do that, they can. They just need to make it, uh, uh, have a plan on keeping children from that, uh, if they do that, then they have met the qualifications to receive state aid. Uh, I don't know if you all saw it, but yesterday, day before yesterday, Meta, uh, Instagram said that.
Protecting children from sexually explicit material is critically important and they are changing their format to protect children. They're going to gray out and block out sexually explicit material. They're going to have parent signatures, folks, the whole nation. Just taking steps to protect children. Why that was so hard for the library association to say we will have a statement, non-binding statement, non-binding statement on how we're going to protect children, and they refuse to do that.
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
24:13
That's just incredible to me. Follow up Recognized so they'll still be able, the libraries will still be able to
have their own boards and friends of the
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
24:28
library and all of those that help raise funds. Yes, their local library board will stay intact, as will the their funding streams, foundations, all those remain. Whatever is there now remains there. This bill does not affect the local library board directly.
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
24:44
It's just the oversight board. OK, thank you. Representative, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, if you already addressed this, please forgive me, um. Who will make decisions about
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
25:04
content restrictions. The local library and local library board. follow up. You're
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
25:11
recognized if this passes, what are the department
of education's plans to increase workforce training
opportunities through the state. Library and to share those programs are available in every corner of
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
25:26
the state. Yes, I mean that's in the bill that the all whatever programs are being done now remain. The goal is to improve those, like I said, to have access to the state, um. Uh, professional development library. They don't have access to that now. Our goal is to give them access. Personally, my goal
is to have training in the science of reading available on that website and for our teach our folks, our goal as a state and our policies as a state is to improve literacy and that's what I think we can do a better job of focusing on and the key to that is professional development. Thank you. Representative Clowney, you're recognized.
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
26:10
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to go back to follow up on some something that Representative Collins was asking, um, and we keep talking about the current
makeup of the board and votes that they didn't take and all of that, um can you let me know when the next appointment will be made because it sounds
like it was a close vote. It was 4 to 3. So
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
26:31
when is the next appointment being made? Um, I've heard that it's like 45 days from now,
from, I don't know, I didn't hear the detail of it. I could have been 45 days ago. I just don't know the answer to that. I know that's a, it's a tough job, uh, they only meet once every quarter, uh, and
their ability to effectuate uh significant change we haven't seen that and I think there's significant opportunity and again I think that's a key word. There's great opportunity here. Just as we've seen in the Department of Education, other areas, there's great opportunity there and I think we can uh effectuate that, and I think the legislature will be a big part of that, you know, we, it's our job to have oversight. They, we can call this department of education before uh ALC we can
call them before our body to ask those questions. I'm not aware that ever happened. Uh, with the current library board that we called them and legislate to ask questions of them, but I expect that to happen. Does that answer your question? It does, I guess
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
27:35
I'm just my my sort of overarching question is if this is going to be a new appointment that we get in just a matter of a month or two by this governor, why not wait and see how, um, you know, I think some of these issues could be resolved without doing this complete overhaul of the system that this bill proposes, so why
is this preferable to just kind of waiting and seeing if if we can work
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
27:58
out some of the issues that you have according to their website, Representative Clowney, when I was looking at it recently, I think
the next person's terms. Expiring, I believe it was like October, uh, that gives you, you know, of course, much longer than 45 days from now and that would be, of course,
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
28:14
if that person was replaced. I'll just add to that, it's a tough job. Can you imagine a board member who's never faced criticism, y'all face every day, thousands, hundreds of emails
they're getting telling you that you're stupid, telling you as they walked out of the gallery the other day we're all crazy and we'd have no idea what we're doing. How long does a normal person, can they take that? And for us to effectuate significant change. It's going to take people like you and me to make the hard decisions to move forward and make our library, help our libraries achieve all that's all the opportunity that's out there. Representative Meeks are recognized.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
28:57
Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman. So, uh going to the function of the library board itself, as I understand it, the, the, the main purpose of the library board is to give grants to to local libraries and then set policy, I guess there was an actual state library itself, so what we're doing is moving that state library, the one library under Department of Ed and then that grant making to also the Department of A is that it? Is that a characterization of what they do, they basically,
they do grants and set policies for the, the one state library. So there
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
29:33
are actually two things there. There, the library board that oversees county libraries and there's a state library that's pretty much the repository of professional, uh, the documents that we have other federal and state documents, that's their primary responsibility and if, if you look in the bill that separates sections 1 and 2. That's what it does. It says this is now under the Department of Education. So Department of Education will
now be the repository for all those state documents and other things that the state library does. Then they also take over responsibilities of the board. So the board's supposed to do several other things. I suppose, the board is also supposed to be in charge of training and training for all of our libraries. And if you'll look at the bill, the bill is very specific on what they're gonna help, help with documentation, help for grants, uh, help write the grants, help. You know, what can we do with the plan to improve our
services. So it's very um comprehensive and what we can do to streamline and what we can do to help our libraries improve and the Department of Education already has those people in place, but we're also transitioning all the staff that are currently working. They'll move with the with those functions. So we're not firing, I don't know how many people worked there, 30 or so, but nobody is being terminated as a result. of the transition. OK.
Speaker 69
31:02
Any other questions by the committee? Seeing no Representative
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
31:12
Beck, you're recognized. Sorry. Uh, so this is the sort of lines of of representative rights.
One of the things that I I've heard from emails is that there's additional reporting and there's no funding for that the additional reporting and I'm Uh, that's fairly close, so my,
my, my, my question is, is, as far as you know, is there any additional reporting and if our or is
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
31:42
it the same or what but yeah, I answered that in two ways. One, the gentleman that testified, and he may be testifying to that today. He's here that said he had 1200 data points to fill out, um, you know, we can streamline that. We can make one report for your 7 libraries and consolidate that into one. So all the regional libraries, I would say would have less
reporting and the data that they're reporting is most likely the very same data they're going to report anyway. I mean, it's the, you know, who's in charge, what are you doing? What are your services you provide? What's your plan to do better, what's your five-year plan, your 3 year plan. I don't know if they have been doing. Multi-year plans, they should be. Um, you're a business guy, I bet your businesses have 1 and 3 year and 5 year plans. Those are good things. So to say that one,
it's harder, uh, maybe, uh, some of it will be easier, but that's the goal in education is for us to streamline those services and make it easier. Our goal is not to make it harder, which is what you're hearing, uh, but I don't think that's our goal and not what we're gonna do. Does that answer your question? Yes, thank you.
All right, seeing no other questions by the committee. Thank you, Senator Sullivan. We do have and Representative Long, we do have several individuals signed up to speak for and
against the bill. I'm gonna start at the top of the list, but I want to give you all the same admonition that I did before. Please to the extent you can't keep your comments brief. I've been asked by members already to limit the debate. I'm not going to do that at this time. But I'm trusting you to keep your comments to what's necessary and not go on and on. Unnecessarily and so with that. looks like our first uh witness is. June Matheny.
Adam Webb
Unverified
33:40
Speak for the bill. If you would state your name and any organization you're here representing,
June Matheny
Unverified
33:54
you'll be recognized to present your remarks. Right. My name is June Matheny and I'm here uh representing myself, um, I've been fighting this
Speaker 80
34:00
type of thing for a very long time and I did go address the library board in January.
I presented my situation that I didn't feel comfortable taking my grandkids to the library because of explicit books that were eye level with them. One's 8, one's 4, and they, so you know how low the carousels are. I also had a handout that I gave out, no one even bothered to look at it. The people behind me that were there speaking for like just like I was, they wanted to see it, um, I went in the library the other day here cause I go a lot. But I will not take the grandkid.
There's too many things and you cannot hold on to them and they love books we're in the imagination library and all that, but what I would ask the the library board to do is remove these books. From eye level of my kids. And put them where their parent will have to take them in to get it or whatever. I should not have to be the person that is guarding them to keep them from seeing something that's readily available.
I know it's my job and that's OK. I do it, but I choose not to take them now so and I also have to look at the books if I get them with some because I've gotten a couple before and I've had to take them back because they were inappropriate. So that's my concern. Mm And that's all I have
to say. Thank you, thank you, Mini. Would you, before you leave, are there any questions by the
committee? All right, thank you very much for being here and thank you for those remarks. Next we have Miss, I'm sorry, we have to
Speaker 84
35:45
speak against the bill, John McGraw. Thank you for uh, for having
Speaker 85
35:57
me, uh, in my, in my, when I'm on the clock, I'm representing uh Faulkner County, Van Buren County libraries, but
Speaker 86
36:03
I'm here today in a personal capacity. I've been doing, I've been libraries for over 32 years now. Uh, I represent a large system uh that has a pretty solid uh tax base to handle a lot of
these problems, but I'm mostly speaking for rural and small libraries today, um, my main concern with this bill is the loss of local control. There's a Given that we're supposed to be talking about abolishing the library board, there's a grab bag of ideas in here, many of which are are great, many of which we do, but which are expensive and costly and if you don't have a good return on investment. I don't know that they're good for every single library, and I don't know that your state aid should depend on things like having 30 hours a week of operations. I don't
think the interlibrary loan is as cheap as people think it is. Last month alone, we spent about $800 in postage just for library alone and looking at some of my peers. my interlibrary loan numbers are very, very small. I don't think that mandating, you know library alone is going to be a good solution for a lot of libraries that are small libraries, rural libraries, they're struggling to get by. Most of the libraries in Arkansas, most of the libraries in the United States are small and rural libraries, and I think there are lots of uh lots of costs here that have not been
laid out for you. Um, I do not think that many libraries are going to be able to have a year's operation budget available in order to qualify for state aid. If any of these libraries go out of, of eligibility, I don't know that they're going to be able to meet standards like that in the absence of having state aid in order to requalify for state aid that would include the hours requirement of many of my libraries are not open 30 hours a week, but that's not because I don't want to serve the people who live there. It's because that is appropriate for the communities that we have, uh, or
that's the the the appropriate to the staffing that I have, uh, last month I was speaking, uh, about, and I I'm the guy with the 1200 data point annual report, but that came up in committee last time because uh the senator was saying that libraries do not want accountability. We have a ton of accountability and while yes, I have a few things on my 1200 data points that don't change like phone numbers or street addresses, almost everything in that report does change. The books we check out, the audiobooks we check out, how many audiobooks are for
children? How many programs are for children? Are they in these programs looking at getting people back to work. All
Speaker 85
38:24
of these things document the things that we do, and they're all very important, uh, but, uh, they're not nothing and, and we do have a lot of accountability now and to say that we don't is just not
Speaker 86
38:34
accurate, um, there's a lot of stuff in here. I, I also testified against the change uh in requirements, but I eventually came around to see your point of view about having experienced, uh, qualified, but now this bill goes in the opposite direction and it goes
even further than where we're at now. It only says that regional library directors will have to have the degree, but every public library director will have to have the degree. It is true that you cannot get that degree in the state of Arkansas, but I did my program uh online through Alabama, there are tons of programs. There are services through the state library to help librarians get the degree if they want the degree. The absence of the program in the state of Arkansas is not an obstacle for anybody to get a degree in this day and age. We
have more degreed librarians probably than we have jobs for degree librarians, um. Sorry, uh, other structural issues for me include whether or not the Department of Education is ready to take on the job a couple of years ago, I was part of a committee that recommended changes to the funding uh. So that smaller uh communities that are unable to have a millage, would be able to get uh state aid. I do not know what has happened with those recommendations, those rules were sent off the Department of Education as far as I know
they're still waiting to get promulgated. I have concerns that anything that would get promulgated would be done in a timely fashion. Uh, I'm not confident the archives is prepared to take on the role that the archives is given in this document. I'm not sure what's happening with patents as well. That's not even terribly. mentioned in here. And finally, yeah, the next appointment is in October. I don't really see that waiting until October to get a 4-3 turn into a 3-4 majority is, is, is that big of a burden, um, I think that, uh, we're just
throwing the baby out with the bathwater in this case, uh, also March 31st of the IMLS, the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences was shuttered, and I don't know that um millions of federal dollars are going to be coming to Arkansas in the near future. I don't know that the state library is prepared right now for the loss of millions of dollars in operating funds and if they have to have a plan to do that, I'm sure that's going to curtail the services that they're able to offer. I do not think it's realistic with IMOS
shuttered just last week that we're gonna be doing
Speaker 85
40:55
business as usual if we dissolve the state library. I've already gone through two once in a generation, uh, recessions in my career and if a 3rd 1 arrives next quarter, people, Arkansas. are going to be showing up to the libraries in
Speaker 86
41:07
order to search for jobs to go back to school for degrees they don't have currently or to simply start a small business. This is what's happened to me in the past recessions, and I don't think our small and rural librarians are going to be there for
Arkansans in the next recession when they're needed, so that concludes my remarks, and I'm happy to take any questions.
Thank you, Mr. McGraw. Are there any questions by the committee, Representative Rose, you're
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
41:35
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair I'm sorry, could you remind me of your last name? uh McGraw, M C E G R A W. Thank you, Mr. McGraw. Thanks for joining us today,
uh, so I understand, am I correctly understanding your testimony or your representation here is that you are supportive of the Arkansas library system.
Speaker 85
41:56
Yes, I mean, I, I, I've, I've been on committees to make recommendations. I've made recommendations.
Speaker 86
42:00
I've been a critic, but overall I think this is a net negative that is going to cost small
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
42:06
rural libraries a lot of money that they do not have. I got it. In your position,
uh, have you or your libraries, uh, received any type of requests, uh, concerning. Children's books, materials that uh may be inappropriate, we get them all
Speaker 97
42:21
the time. We're currently doing one on a teen
Speaker 86
42:27
book, uh, based on a Lifetime movie that uh allegedly has a language that is perhaps stronger than teens are are ready for.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
42:33
So have you, have you complied with or responded to all of those requests. I have
one outstanding request based on this book based on a Lifetime movie, yes. So when you say outstanding, does that mean you haven't complied or you are complying, we are complying. we've been,
Speaker 85
42:46
we have to put it out to a committee to read, we have a single copy of the book, so getting that through 5 or 7 hands of people to read a book while we're doing everything else that's on our, our plates,
Speaker 86
42:58
uh, it takes a little time, but we have, I have all my committee reports in and I'm ready to
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
43:04
write that report to the, to the complainant. So the state library system or the library board,
pardon my lingo here. They request these materials and your process is that you then have your folks look. Through them and decide whether you're gonna send
that to them or not. No, no, this is all strictly done in my county system it has nothing to
Speaker 85
43:24
do with the state library board whatsoever.
Speaker 86
43:29
OK, so who requested that you review those? Oh, anybody can request that we reconsider materials, whether it belongs in our collection or whether it's properly cataloged. Is is this book too strong for teens? Does it belong in the
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
43:41
adult section, for example. So have you had any kind of requests from the state board? Not
that I recall, no. So it's, it's your recollection, your testimony, you have not received any requests from the state board concerning any materials that may be inappropriate for children. That's correct. OK, all right, thank you.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
44:00
Representative Meeks, you're recognized. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman, and appreciate you being here and uh taking some questions. So
to kind of what Representative uh Rose was, was asking. I first became aware of this issue and, and before I even get to that, uh, that this is my library system that that that we're dealing with here, um, I've done uh programs for the library system, supporter of the library, try, try to be there. However, that being said, when I learned the issue with the inappropriate
books. I did come down to the library, as you know, uh, I did find two extremely explicit sexual books in the children's section and I did bring that to your attention. I filled out the form for the uh, you know, to ask for that to be reviewed and uh and I thought that that was, it was gonna be taken care of at that point. I didn't hear anything for a year and a half and a year and a half later, I get a response from you that uh you said that.
You felt the books were OK and they were back on the shelves and not only that, since I've been back, we actually have new and more copies of those books and, and you can understand why that's concerning to myself as a parent. I don't take my time. I would love to take my child to the Faulkner County Library, but we can't because of the fear of some of the material that's there, but uh I would love to take my, my child there. We've got a great library there, um. So I, so this is a concern that I know in my local library hasn't been properly addressed
and actually unfortunately the doubled down on my, so now I'm gonna get to my question here. uh, the hope of the bill is to buy uh putting under the the the Department of Education, the Department of Education has literally billions of dollars of more resources available than the state library board. Uh, there's a more experts. uh, uh, you know, more dollars potentially there, so I, I know you shared some of your
concerns. Do you see any potential benefits that would come by putting this under the Department of Education and what benefits might they be? I, I, I
Speaker 88
46:11
can't speak to what benefits there might be from the Department of
Speaker 85
46:16
Education. Uh, I can say with regard to your specific book challenge when you filed that challenge, we had had no staff who'd done a book challenge at that point, so we took an opportunity to stop and retrain all of our staff in what it was actually we were going to do, and that created unnecessary delays, and I do apologize for
that. The, the, the, the, uh, challenge that we're currently dealing with was filed the last week of
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
46:40
January and that letter is ready to go out roughly 8 weeks later, right. And, and, and I, and I understand that and and and appreciate you did all that training, but the, the point is that that those books are still
Speaker 88
46:51
out there on the shelves, I'm assuming. They are sex ed books in their appropriate sections. OK. All right, I
have a question, and I, I would like Representative Meeks possibly at the appropriate time to clarify
exactly the nature of these books that you referenced that. You made a challenge about when you took your kids into the library because that's what this is all about. And Uh, Mr. McGraw, my question is. Did the state library board reach out to you about these books that they
believed was inappropriate. I, I've never had any
Speaker 85
47:25
communication with the state library about the contents of our collection. Uh, we are, we are praised based on the survey that we do the 1200 data points survey that I do, uh, that
qualifies me for state aid and then that is reviewed quarterly under this proposal, it looks like I would be reviewed annually, so it was seen that I'd have less accountability under this than the quarterly reviews that I'm currently getting into the state library. But it's never about the content of our collections or anything like that, that is done at the at the county level that is done um. Yes, by our county boards. So
I just want to make clear your, your, it's your testimony here today that
the state library board, uh, did not ask you about book titles last year.
Speaker 88
48:09
I, I don't know that that is something that is on their radar. But no, I've never been contacted by the state library about the contents of of our collection.
OK, so you've never refused to respond to their requests. I don't recall that ever happen because you're saying you were never contacted by them. I don't recall them asking about the contents of our collection. All right, well, I've gotten, I've got some information to the
contrary, maybe at some point we can. Try to figure out uh You know exactly where the truth lies there, but, uh, Representative Meeks, do you have any follow up?
Uh, I'm trying to look that up now. OK, now I guess I suppose I can ask you, Mr. McGraw. Do you recall
Speaker 88
48:48
the books that represented Meeks pointed out that he believed
Speaker 85
48:52
were inappropriate, uh, one was called It's Perfectly Normal, and it was uh, it's frequently challenged, it's a frequently challenged book, uh, it is in our juvenile nonfiction collection with the other health books about other aspects of the body. OK, and what's the, uh, the other one was in the teen
section. I don't recall the title. OK, I mean, so what is challenged about those books. You said they're commonly
Speaker 85
49:17
challenged. What specifically is challenged? Well, I mean sex book is going to be challenged, uh, when the, when
Speaker 88
49:22
the audience is younger. I mean, that's just a was that book available to? What age
Speaker 85
49:29
group was that book available to? Uh, juvenile collection is roughly middle school and up to what ages would that be? Uh, that might be 12 and up or so. I mean, it, it
Speaker 88
49:40
varies from kid to kid. I mean, I was Not, not everybody's reading at the same level, at the same age. Yeah. All right, um, And then what was the other book? I don't recall, but I remember it was a teen book, uh, that was aimed at an older, older
audience, but I don't recall the title. Representative Meeks can recall the title at some point, but I think. You
know, the point is, I mean, you would agree with me that we don't allow children to
go into PG-13 movies. They have ratings on movies, right?
Movies do have ratings have rated R movies. The children are not allowed to go into. I believe that's, yes, there are rated R movies that children are allowed based based on the content of, of what's contained in
Speaker 88
50:22
those movies. Is that fair? Uh, that would be fair at a movie theater. I don't know about a streaming situation. I'm sure a child at home could watch an R-rated movie if they had a TV. All right, but we do a lot
of, we don't allow children to do a lot of things without, uh, in some cases even parental consent can't cure it. So for example,
up to a certain point, we don't allow children to get a tattoo. True, we don't allow children to, uh, obviously have a driver's license until they're 16. We don't allow them to. Um, enter into contracts. We don't. Allow them to take out a loan or do a number of things because we believe that they're not sufficiently advanced uh to do that. Is that fair? That is fair. That's
Speaker 88
51:05
why we have an unintended channel policy we ask the patrons uh uh parent their children when they're in the library.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
51:12
OK. All right, Representative Meeks. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. So I, I do have the two books. I, I took photos of the covers and I'm happy to, to pass them around. I think it is a red flag if they keep getting challenged over and over again. The, the first one is perfectly normal, uh, changing bodies, uh, growing up, sex and sexual health, uh, the other one, is sex a book for teens and uncensored guide to your body, uh, both of these have extremely uh graphic uh
images, uh, in them that I think any one of us would be. Um Embarrassed to, to read in public, but and I, I'll pass these around if the committee's interested and they can actually see what the coverage of these books look like and, and to clarify, I've
Speaker 85
51:56
not had multiple challenges on either of these books. I'm just saying that that it's perfectly normal as a title is a frequently challenged book in public
Speaker 86
52:02
libraries. All right, Representative Rose, you're recognized. Question, Mr. Chair.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
52:16
turn it back on. It recognized How many other individuals do we have signed up to
speak for or against this bill. It's a number. It's,
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
52:27
I'd say probably at least 10 and 556 and we go back in at what time? Thank you. Alright. Representative Rose, you're recognized. Thank you,
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
52:42
Mr. Chair. So I've recently just communicated with state library
board member who said, your library in particular. One of them at least, I think both refused to submit the survey that was sent last year with regards to books from the Arkansas
State Library Board. true or false True or false, sir, I, I did not submit a a response to that
now. So when we asked you a little bit ago about this very thing, you were very
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
53:13
flippant. And, and. I think this questioning is getting into here.
Wait, wait. What's your point of order? I, I think the line of questioning is getting to beating
the witness who's coming before the committee. OK, well, it's the chair's ruling that I've not heard anything from Representative Rose that would be berating. I think he's asking. the Relevant questions at this point. Representative Rose, you're recognized. Thank
Representative Ryan A. Rose
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53:40
you, Mr. Chair. So is your testimony earlier that you support the Arkansas Library Board, and yet you fail to comply with the requests of their survey, yes.
Speaker 85
53:51
Can you explain that? I frequently do not respond to their surveys if I am pressed for time or if I have nothing substantial to offer, the request was made in the springtime when I'm working on that 1200 data point thing. My staff will tell you I, I'm doing very little beyond that survey for about 2 months. And also the request was, do you have these titles? That is literally a question you can answer by looking at my catalog. The state library has produced a union catalog called Mockingbird that has the collection of every
library in Arkansas. You could do a quick search
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
54:24
on that and get every library my question was if you supported the board, if you'd had these surveys, you originally said no, now it's yes, I, I this is not
Representative Nicole Clowney
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54:32
on the bill. Let's hear your point of order. This is not on the
bill. Can we please speak to the bill? So your point of order is that Representative Rose's questions are not related to the bill.
Representative Nicole Clowney
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54:43
He is not asking questions on the bill. He's asking questions about the witnesses' personal background. Um.
Yes, my, my, my point of order is that Representative Rose is
not asking questions on the bill. My
ruling as chair is, I think as attenuated as it may be. I think relevance is very broad. Uh Topic and so I'm
going to allow Representative Rose to continue. Representative Rose, thank you,
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
55:12
Mr. Chair. So as we continue on this conversation, you're here as a representative of your libraries testifying against this bill, and so I think the point that
I'm trying to make, and I believe I am making, uh, along with the bill sponsors on this is that What's currently going on is not working. And when Representative Meeks brought up the books that are of concern and I guess haven't actually been addressed, uh, you weren't able to name them, this is obviously something that's regularly occurring and concerning, um. When It was mentioned earlier about, you know, we don't let kids into
R-rated movies, your response was, hey, you know, they can watch an R-rated movie at home, and I think it just lends more credence to why uh This is needed, uh, because we do need to be able to hold libraries accountable when they're not doing it. And so I guess I would like for you to respond to that because a lot of what I asked the first time around, you didn't really respond to or you denied, and in fact, that
Speaker 85
56:20
is the case, so. I did not respond to a request during the annual survey. That
is correct. I frequently miss a lot of questions during the annual survey, and that was one,
Speaker 86
56:30
especially when I considered that you could actually look up any of that information through multiple sources. It wasn't privileged information that I alone had. We
Speaker 88
56:38
do not have frequent reconsideration requests at our library either that,
that, that's not the case, OK, yeah, they're very rare. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Collins, he's not here. Representative Clowney, thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
56:49
Um, I apologize for my colleagues. I think that we need to get back to the importance of this bill,
particularly or on importance of this bill, particularly at this late
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
57:00
hour, so I just want to ask one question. To your point of order respect Representative Clowney. We disagree, but I do not need her
Speaker 136
57:07
to apologize on my behalf. My questions are related to the bill,
and I'm not sorry. I understand Representative Clowney's free to make whatever statements she believes is necessary at this point, Representative Clowner, you recognize. Are there current bills
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
57:18
that have been passed this legislative session that would solve the exact problems that we've heard over and over and over again over the last few
minutes, particularly um the appearance of certain materials. Um, it's my recollection. I may be wrong on this, I'm trying to look it up, but it's my recolle that we just passed through this house at least a few weeks ago, a bill that would make all of these materials be behind a locked in a locked portion of the library or behind a locked case. Do you know that that's true
Speaker 139
57:43
or not? Uh, no, I think there was something about school libraries to that regard, but that doesn't extend
Speaker 86
57:49
to public libraries, and that would be a difficult thing for public libraries to do, and that, that came up during the Act 372 discussions, uh, most libraries
in Arkansas are single rooms. I don't know how you would put adult material in a lockbox so
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
58:02
that. I was just asking if if that
applied to y'all. Thank you. Representative Beatty, it's not here. All right. Seeing no further questions, thank you, Mr. McGraw, for being here. Thank you. We appreciate your remarks. Next we have signed up to speak for the bill, Tony Rose. Miss Rose, if you would identify yourself for the record, state
the name of any organization you
Tony Rose
Unverified
58:31
may be here representing in you recognized to present your work, thank you. My name is Tony Rose. I'm with the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, and I will skip everything else but talk about My personal experience with the Arkansas State Library Board and its culture, um, For months, the board ignored or denied their ability or responsibility to make policies to encourage libraries to remove sexually explicit material from children in our public libraries
and during the August 2024 meeting and trying to get the board to understand their level of authority to act on a motion former Senator Rapert read to them from their own documents, the Arkansas Library Boards Authority specifically Article 2, Section 1. states, quote, the board shall act as the policymaking and responsible body for the Arkansas State Library and its functions. Rather than take it under advisement, he was chastised that as a former legislator he
should understand the documents better. Another one cried, We don't ban books. It suggests to me and the point of this is, it suggests to me an unwillingness to consider taking any responsibility beyond what they have carved out for themselves and arrogance that someone who had read, sponsored, and passed more bills other than this body. Will ever read might deserve consideration in at least one of them had not read or understood
the purpose of the bills at it's not to ban the books to move them. That's all that's ever been asked is to move the books away from the children. I presented the board with graphic pictures and language from it's perfectly normal, which shows Very graphic sex positions, same sex, um, Um, heterosexual sex, frontal
nudity bent over backwards, nudity. I mean, and there was a complete disinterest in that at all, as there was disinterest, uh, in the other 5 people that presented that day. It may serve to remind or inform the committee that when a state survey of inappropriate titles was done that you have been referencing by the state library board. It was reported that Arkansas Public Libraries carried over 350 of those
inappropriate titles. And that does include the libraries that does not include the libraries that refuse to respond like uh Mr. McCraws. Three months later in November because they only meet 4 times a year. Sarah Dubusque from the Attorney General's office confirmed the board did have the authority to make rules as they see fit to disperse funds as long as it goes through the promo promulgation process, excuse me. I and 5 others testified that
the books containing pornographic images were still in some of the library's children's sections, what had been done in Conway schools to fix the issue and pointed out that now that they knew they had the authority to do something about it, to please do so. It became apparent from at least the last 4 meetings now representing a year. Because we only meet quarterly. That quarterly meetings of this group do not best serve the interests of Arkansans, the refusal to acknowledge an
appropriate material in our libraries after seeing it, hearing it, and personal testimony to the fact their allegiance to the American Library Association's values which state that there should be no age restrictions to any material and they just do not match up with the uh Arkansans. So the will of this legislature and the will of governor. Huckabee is that children not be exposed to inappropriate sexual material.
This is not doomsday for the libraries as they have whipped into believing under the Department of Education. You have a staff of professionals, responsive daily that are already dealing with not only a state library budget, but a wide range of issues related to implementation and understanding of the laws of our legislators who represent the people. So In closing, many of you have seen or used the testimony of uh
Secretary Aliva or his staff and I believe the Department of Education would add a level of expertise, professionalism, and responsiveness in the best interest of Arkansans, Arkansans as represented by their state legislator. It just makes sense. It creates deficiency, removes those who refuse to be accountable and ensures the legislature has full oversight and authority. Thanks for your time. Thank you, Mrs. Rose. Before you leave,
are there any questions by the committee?
Seeing no questions by the committee, thank you for those remarks. Next, we have signed up to speak against the bill. Robin
Adam Webb
Unverified
1:03:50
Campbell. Campbell, if you would identify yourself for the record, state the name of any organization you may be here representing and you'll be
Robin Campbell
Unverified
1:04:00
recognized to present your remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Robin Campbell and I live in Representative Mayberry's District 92. I'm here
today representing myself and to express concerns about SB 536. The bill's sponsor has said he introduced it because the Arkansas State Library Board declined to disaffiliate from the American Library Association or create non-binding guidance to protect children from sexually explicit material. What hasn't been mentioned is that at that same March 13th meeting, Lupe Pina de Martinez of Mapleville made a motion asking the board to create
non-binding policies that would protect children while honoring First Amendment freedoms and library selection policies. That motion passed 4 to 3. As Mr. McGraw said, the Department of Education already has a two-year backlog in reviewing local library funding. Can it truly absorb this agency without sacrificing services or oversight. The bill's consequences are wide-reaching and unclear. For
example, SB 536 is silent on the future of the Arkansas patent and Trademark Resource Center, which is the only one of its kind in the state. The center provides support to Arkansas entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses. It's trained librarians collaborate with US patent and trademark offices, the Small Business Administration, and the State Department of Commerce to help inventors and startups protect their intellectual property and bring ideas to market. If it's not explicitly preserved, we risk losing it.
And with it, opportunities for innovation and economic growth. The bill also eliminates the federal documents collection at the Arkansas State Library, which currently supports 13 smaller depository libraries, including the Arkansas Supreme Court Library. Without a regional hub, those libraries, I'm sorry, they're not libraries, they're depositories. Those depositories will face increased federal compliance compliance burdens or may have to give up their designations altogether.
This bill transfers the state documents collection to the Arkansas State Archives without a clear plan for funding, staffing, or infrastructure. And deletes the legal definition of state and local publications. Without that definition, how will agencies know what records must be preserved. This opens the door to loss of vital public documents which undermines transparencies. transparency. I respectfully ask this committee to slow the bill down. Request that it be sent to legislative fiscal Services
Review for study and send it to county and local affairs for further review. Thank
you. Thank you, Ms. Campbell. Are there any questions by the committee? it
makes. OK, Representative Meeks has a motion. Uh, seeing no questions by the committee. Thank you, Ms. Campbell, for being here and thank you for those remarks, Representative Meeks, you recognized for a motion. Thank you, Mr.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:07:05
Chairman. So at this point we've heard 2
4s and 2 against and the but the hour being late and I know we still have several people on the list and we want to make sure to
give as many people an opportunity to speak before we go back into session. So I'd like to make a motion that we limit testimony to 3 minutes per person not not including any questions from
the committee. All right, uh, Representative Meeks has made a motion to limit public comment. That's a proper motion and it's non-debatable.
All those in favor say aye. All those opposed. The odds have it so public debate will be limited
Speaker 152
1:07:54
to. 3 minutes any patients per person, not
including questions by committee. All right, next we have signed up to speak. For the bill. Keith Kellum.
Speaker 155
1:08:20
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I'm Keith Kellum. I'm a just the Peace Saline County, but I'm here on my own behalf and uh first off, I want to commend uh Senator Sullivan and Representative Long for bringing this forth. Um, to me, this has been a long time coming, um. As far as the ALA, the American Library Association and my personal opinion, Um, and they're a terrible
organization or they have become because they just are, um. If you read their website, they're more in a political organization that wants to, uh, Um, promote. These, this literature. That to me is this indoctrination for kids cause I've read them and you're seeing them go around the table. And um as far as um The library board In our county, uh, and I'm
speaking as a citizen. Uh, they've been asked to move them. They're not doing anything. It's like they don't care. And I don't know what the the Fascination is to not move these books. But that's all that's been asked from the beginning, which was 2 or 3 years ago. And they just said no, we're not doing it and I I don't know if it's because they want children to see these. But it's not a book banning.
It's not a defunding, it's just do the right thing. I mean, it's common sense if you read these books. They're not appropriate for children. You know, I mean, realistically parents want their children to have these books. You can buy them online, but you know. Uh, children can't adult books, I can't buy, so why can't they go in the library? This is not a these are not private. They talk like they're private libraries. Taxpayers pay these and I've knocked on doors before and 3/4 of the people don't want this.
So, but, you know, the tune of wokeness and DEI and all that which they change around the DIE it's the same thing, uh. They're just um They just don't want to cooperate. So I think it's time for drastic measures. So I support this bill and I hope all of you support it. Because it didn't have to come to this, but I think it has, so. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.
Callum. Are there any questions by the committee? Seeing no questions about the committee, thank you for being
here and thank you for those remarks. Next we have signed up to speak against the bill, Bobby Guerrera. OK. Sorry, Ms. Carrera. Guerra, I apologize if you would, uh, state your name in any
Adam Webb
Unverified
1:11:16
organization you may be here representing, you're
Bobby Garrett
Unverified
1:11:18
ranking to present your remarks. My name is Bobby Garrett. I'm here representing myself. I am a constituent from Lowell, Arkansas.
3 hours to be here today. My husband and I will be homeschooling our son. Technically we're currently teaching preschool. My issues with this bill are as follows the ill-defined term access, the objective case of age appropriate material, the use of the word may in place of shell and the likely impact on taxpayers. Many parents choose to homeschool so they may educate their children as they see fit, though the library is currently under the Department of
Education. It operates independently, placing the DOE and direct control of public libraries would put homeschooling parents who utilize libraries as educational resource at the mercy of the DOE and what the DOE deems age appropriate. As a constituent, I did not ask for this. The definition of access is incredibly vague and several what if scenarios immediately come to mind, which should not be the case for something that is to be law. What if something
deemed unsuitable was taken by an adult accidentally left in the children's section. Does that deem access or was that an accident by a patron. This bill states numerous times that the DOE may do things in support of the libraries, but not that they shall see page 14, section 13-21103 lines 28 to 36 and page 15 lines 1 through 27 as the term may applies to each line in this section.
This occurs multiple times throughout the bill. This should not be open to interpretation. The DOE shall or it shall not. Finally, as a taxpayer, I must ask why we are considering becoming the only state in the US with no state library and why we're considering transferring the clearing house to the archives, which would be a Herculean effort and doing so is unnecessary and costly. For those of you who use your libraries, you know how valuable the resources they provide can
be. My family lives in a town that has no library, nor do we have free access to a library, so we voluntarily pay to become paid. and access several libraries and their resources and catalogs. This also means that I have read a number of agreements from libraries when getting a card, including that I, the parent, am responsible for the materials that my child either checks out or uses on premises. My child is not the library or a librarian's responsibility. Libraries offer many resources
our family has benefited from, like bicycle clinics, author readings, and seed libraries where we find new food to grow in our backyard garden. I know the care that librarians put into organizing content for children, for example, the book Dog Heaven, which is a book written for children ages 3 to 5 that discusses the death of a beloved pet is often shelved with parenting books because librarians know that death is a sensitive subject, and that should be discussed in a safe place between a. or guardian, and their child.
Librarians are not here to take the place of a parent. Libraries are a safe place for gathering, independent learning in our community hubs. As a student growing up in Arkansas far under the poverty line. I owe much of my educational success to the access and use of libraries. In closing, we have procedures in place to protect the children. The library is not your enemy, and if you do not have a library card, I highly suggest that you get one. And
Chair
Unverified
1:14:54
I will take questions. Thank you, Ms. Guerra there any questions by the committee?
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
1:15:01
Representative Clowney, you're. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not a, not a question. I just want to say thank you for driving all this way and for
staying around and letting us hear your testimony. Appreciate it. Well done. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for those remarks, Ms. Garrett. Thank you for being here. Next we have. Signed up to speak. For the bill, Stephanie Nichols. Nichols if you'd state your name
in any organization you're here representing, you'll be
Speaker 161
1:15:35
recognized to present your remarks. Stephanie Nichols, I
Speaker 162
1:15:37
am staff attorney for Family counsel, but I am also here as in my capacity as a mother. You're recognized. Until 2024, I lived in a county, um, where my family and I were not able to take our kids to the library because of extremely graphic and explicit materials.
A lot of parents, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, a lot of library board meetings and requests for policies to keep sexually explicit materials out of sections of the library for kids 12 and under were completely unheeded. I now have the joy of living in a county where my kids can go to the library again and freely explore books in the children's library section. We don't have to have sexually explicit materials.
And sections of the library for kids 12 and under. We can do better than that. However, um, In the library system that we moved from when we requested to keep graphic sexual materials out of sections for kids. Instead, the library doubled down on the right to this social media post uses the word pornography. It says, hey, it's a parent's duty to keep their kids away from pornography. We have the right to shelve
whatever we want, wherever we want to shelve it and um we tried to fight back against that. We were unsuccessful. So many parents have the same story where we have gone to the local library board. We have submitted the silly material reconsideration forms over and over and over. For twentysomething books for years, no action. It is time for the legislature
to act and restore access to libraries for kids and families who want to use them and to protect the innocence of our kids. Thank you. Thank you,
Ms. Nichols. Are there any questions by the committee? Seeing no questions by the committee, thank you for being here and thank you for those remarks. Next we have signed up to speak against the bill. Crystal gates.
Ms. Gates, if you would identify yourself for the record and state the name of any organization you're here representing,
Brittany Stockton
Unverified
1:18:15
and you'll be recognized to make your remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Crystal Gates. I'm a resident of Austin in Loanoak County, representing myself. Today is National Education Day. It's also National Library Week, so how appropriate that I have the honor and privilege of speaking to you today. I'm a lifelong library visitor and would tell anyone that libraries have changed my life. They made it possible for me to explore the world and become a first generation college
graduate, plus read for fun. I discovered that I could learn about the world through reading books. My curiosity grew based on Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. I also know that small rural libraries like mine depend on the state library for funding, for expertise, for training, for traveler, and more. My concerns about this bill are numerous, but I'm just gonna to focus on a couple. This bill places new restrictive hour requirements on libraries across the state without additional resources. Basically, it's an unfunded mandate.
Our rural and underfunded libraries struggle with limited staff and budgets, making it difficult to meet the bill's strict hours requirement without additional resources, which could be compounded by the potential loss of state aid in low note, Cabot's library may meet the hours requirement because the city contributes to the library in addition to the county funds. The other small branches do not have that option. This mandate could force libraries to prioritize extended hours over quality services and programs, ultimately reducing their effectiveness.
Or they may be simply forced to close completely. So my question would be, does the hours requirement apply to every branch and a system or would one branch do? Regarding the federal funding, according to the state senior program officer at the federal level, an entity cannot simply declare themselves the state library administrative agency, they would need to have their own 5-year plan. See page 17 of the MSLA or demon and demonstrate that the state library administrative agency is set up in a way that is able to carry out the plan and
administer the funds. This representative also shared that they would have to consult with chief legal counsel if Arkansas continues on this path because No state has attempted to completely dismantle a state library. Moving forward on this path impacts our federal funds. We should not be willing to just give up those funds. We should be utilizing those funds for the best for Arkansans. We depend on those funds for traveler, which saves us over $40 million. If traveler funds are reduced or removed, our local library simply cannot afford to purchase
those resources locally. I personally use those medical databases to research my cancer diagnosis last year. I wasn't looking for WebMD or Google. I wanted doctors and researchers to share information. My final point is this, the current library board, state library Board is split 4 to 3 on issues. Governor Sanders will have an appointment to this board in October, which is only a few months away. So can we please not dismantle the entire system and instead give us a
chance to change what's going to happen. Can we just slow down and refer this so that more research can be done. Thank you. All right, thank you, Ms.
Gates. We appreciate you, those remarks. Is, are there any questions by the committee? Seeing no questions by the committee, thank you for
being here. Next we have, and I believe that completes those that we have signed up to speak for the bill. So to speak against the bill, Debbie Hall.
Debbie Hall
Unverified
1:21:55
Good evening. My name is Debbie
Hall and for full transparency, I am an employee of the Arkansas State Library. I am not here as a representative of the library. I am here on my own time. I believe that my 39 years of employment gives me the insight and knowledge to address this bill. Senator Sullivan said this bill would not have been filed if the state library board had passed two motions he supported the motions that were. That he supported were both
voted no, but there was an extra motion as already previously stated that was passed that would um Address the protection of children and um. So that there was a motion passed to do a policy to protect children. The second motion that did not pass was very long motion, but in essence it was to prove any public library that accepts state aid funds to be a member
of ALA uses library funding for ALA memberships conferences, resources, seminars, materials. In my opinion, a simple fix for this would be to put it in the rules for state aid, stating that no state aid funds shall be used for ALA membership conferences, training, or resources. It seems overreaching to include any public. Library funding. Arkansas librarians are intelligent, savvy, and with critical analysis, know how to use ALA for their benefit and the benefit of their libraries and
communities. ALA has much to offer, including grants. 13 Arkansas libraries have received libraries transforming community grants. These grants were given to small and rural libraries to increase the accessibility of facilities, services and programs to better serve people with disabilities. In July 2023, the Arkansas State Library submitted draft rules for state aid to public libraries to the Department of Education. In August 2023, this
was reported reported to the state library board with an explanation on the promulgation process by an ADE attorney. These are waiting for the next steps. ASL wants to distribute state aid in a way that elevates the level of library services statewide, but without making eligible bill. so difficult that the communities that need it the most won't qualify. This bill goes a long way to actively regulate local library services while the state's relationship with public libraries was never
regulatory. We do not regulate libraries the same way ADE regulates schools. We provide the libraries with support, professional development, consultation, and access to many statewide resources. Arkansas code enshrines the rights and obligations of local government to make these types of decisions. This bill conflicts and undermines those rights and obligations while simultaneously increasing unfunded mandates. yes, there should be requirements on qualifying for state aid, but if they are
codified into state law, they become much less able to respond to
Speaker 176
1:25:04
emerging technologies to finish your thought real
Debbie Hall
Unverified
1:25:06
quick to the economy and to events and local communities. It is better to have rules. Then codified. I
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
1:25:15
think seeing, are there any questions? Seeal questions thanks for your testimony. Next up we have um Debbie Hall. That was just
me. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, during the Kahan.
To speak against the bell, please identify yourself for the community and who you're here to
Judy Calhoun
Unverified
1:25:42
represent, if any company. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee. My name is Judy
Speaker 181
1:25:46
Calhoun. I'm here representing myself. I am the recently retired director of the Southeast Arkansas Regional Library System, which serves Bradley Chico Diche Drew in Lincoln Counties and has 9 libraries. I have dedicated over 32 years of my career to library profession. I'm here to express my opposition to this bill. It
introduces new and restrictive requirements for libraries across Arkansas, but it fails to provide the necessary funding. Our resources to to support these changes, and this presents significant challenges, especially for rural and smaller libraries that will result in closures in communities where library services are already scarce and highly needed. A recent poll was done of libraries in Arkansas and almost a third of our libraries will be
unable to meet the proposed service hours, requirements outlined in this bill, a 3rd. The question arises, who will bear the cost of these additional hours. Will it fall to the already overburdened counties with limited resources and high tax rates. Additionally, the bill mandates that libraries provide interlibrary loan services, but does not allocate funding for this program. Several years ago, our region decided we did not have the money to send out in a library loans and no longer do it. And now this bill will
mandate that we spend funds to mail material across the. across the state to libraries who want to borrow material from us. We have no choice but to allocate our material to other people. And who is going to fund that? This bill, um, also proposes the elimination of the Arkansas State Library, a crucial agency that facilitates access to shared resources and provides vital support to libraries statewide. It is difficult to
understand why such an effective and well-run functioning agency will be dismantled as this decision would have far-reaching negative consequences for the libraries and the communities that rely on them. I have to say in the last 12 years, I have attended almost every board. Me that's been at the Arkansas State Library. I think I've missed 2 in 12 years and until the recent until a year, uh, it has been a well functioning board. They are very attentive. Usually there is an average of 10 to 15 library directors that
are always at these meetings if they have questions, they uh will ask us sometimes to clarify things, uh, it is just a shame to see this agency, uh, be undermined. Thank
Judy Calhoun
Unverified
1:28:20
you for your time and consideration. I have, I have
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
1:28:27
one question just to ask you to elaborate on something for me. You, you said it was a very functioning board and, and I'm not saying it's not a functioning agency and the board itself, the, the
Speaker 181
1:28:41
board meetings as you were the board until a year has been a very functioning board. Yes, and I, I know, uh, earlier Mr. Sullivan asked the board if you'd just go back and look at what the last meeting. I would say you need to go back and look at the last year
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
1:28:58
of meetings and I think a lot would be explained. And and I'm not being critical. I'm really trying to get a good understanding of this. When you say that it's very functioning. Can you elaborate just a little
bit what what type of things are they doing? What's
Speaker 181
1:29:15
going on with the board and the board itself, uh, like I said until a year ago, like I said, whatever they, whatever they uh do any present any they do the scholarships, any grants, um. If they have questions on stuff that a lot of times they will ask library directors for for feedback, for clarification. So they're very attent they're very diligent in what their responsibilities are, and they
Speaker 183
1:29:42
ask a lot of questions, um, thank you, we do have
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:29:47
one other question Representative Rose. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Calhoun, thank you for your testimony.
I've spoken to some of your colleagues, um, I think I knew you by name, but I didn't know you in person, but your colleagues regard you very highly and I think your years of service lend to your knowledge and, and, um, you know, wisdom in this arena and this, I think it's germane to the topic.
I just wanna know if you could opine, share your opinion, so it gives you some latitude. Why do you think in local libraries, we continue to have the same or similar problems with explicit material in children's sections like I remember, I remember my librarian as a child, Mrs. Arnold, and I would go and I would get, you know, Jurassic Park books or whatever it was and librarians, I looked up to, you know, it's like a grandmother figure or an aunt or something like that
or um we had a, a, a gentleman who was our librarian when I was a teenager. They love kids and I'm sure you and and your librarians, uh, the feel the same way. I just don't understand why this problem persists. Can you,
Speaker 181
1:30:57
could you share a little insight? I don't think it's a new problem. I think there's always been books that somebody is going to find objectionable and, and they should. I mean, we still have a lot of people that refuse to read Harry Potter, uh, and there's not a bad word in Harry Potter or any sex, but they
refuse to let children because they have objections to it and that's fine. That is what every parent should be doing, um, I, I think it's what a lot of people don't understand too, and libraries were, were very diligent about making sure things are appropriate section. We have unattended children laws and our policies and we, we definitely uh keep an eye on where children are and what sections they're in and just as we don't want
children maybe running around by their self in the adult section. Uh, we're gonna be just as diligent on seeing a male run around in the children's section by his self and we might uh actually ask him to go into the adult section if he doesn't have a child with him, so we want to protect children. It's, it's very um important to us that we do that. However, what one person finds objectionable, somebody else may not. That is why we do have the challenge book um. policies.
And we really want people, if you have an objection, you should do that. I know some of the people that actually testified at the state library board meetings, they were asked if they uh did challenges in their library and most of them said no, we actually had a rep I think it was a senator representative said that she found some stuff objectionable with her grandchildren, but yet she did not look uh do uh object to it to the library personnel. So if you don't speak,
We don't know, uh, and we do have um a policy and a procedure to follow and it's usually not by one person making that decision. A lot of
Judy Calhoun
Unverified
1:32:58
times it's a committee. It could be the quorum Court or it could be a committee of people who make that decision.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:33:04
It's not to one person. Well, and I, and I appreciate um kind of the, the broad experience that you're, you're, you're drawing from, I guess, and I'll try, um, one more time and I'll, um, kind of, uh, let you rest. I appreciate you testifying this
evening. Um, I wanna go back to instead of just explicit, but sexually explicit. Ms. Rose, no relation who I who I know representative Meeks. I have in my library and many, many people brought it to me before I ever saw anything. This is the this is what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about Harry Potter, ideological differences people. I'm talking about where it's, it's, you know, sexually explicit images in literature. for children. I'm not talking about, uh, I'm not even talking about human development in a
teenage section. We had somebody up here earlier he was talking about, well, the age range is subjective. Well, you know, I think you and I know what children are, and I think you and I would agree, some things are not appropriate for children, yet they keep ending up in children's sections and and I'll leave you with this. I just, can you, can you elaborate for why that
Speaker 181
1:34:10
happens, continuously. Most of the time we're going by with the industry says that's where it should be placed. However, if you object. to that, that is definitely each person needs to be going to
their library boards and taking care of it locally, have a voice and it's just like anything else. Do you have a voice and that's where it needs to be done on the local level, go to your, go to the director or then go to the board, but make your voice heard. And, and if nothing else, I, I really, I don't really want this book. Withdrawn, but can we move it to a higher section. I personally have done that myself, uh, many years ago, we did not have a young adult section. It went from juvenile to a straight to
adult we got material that was classified as juvenile, but we really knew it was not gonna be appropriate in the area for our community. So we can make decisions to bump it to a different section. And most librarians are open to listening to that if people will meet with them.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:35:10
I'm I'm grateful for your testimony and my wish, and I'm sure yours as well, is that
what you just described is what was happening, but based on testimony and and personal accounts and accounts have been brought to us just
like with Representative Meeks, that just doesn't seem to be happening. I think that's why we're at this crossroads.
Judy Calhoun
Unverified
1:35:29
I thank you for your testimony. Thank you. The biggest thing on this bill is gonna be the cost that it's gonna cost libraries.
Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Calhoun, saying no other questions by the committee. That's the next one. No, I know. Uh, thank you for those remarks. Next we have signed up to speak against the bill. Carlton M. Sunny Rhodes.
Adam Webb
Unverified
1:35:56
Mr. Rhodes, if you would state your name for the record and the name of any organization you
Sonny Rhodes
Unverified
1:36:03
may be here representing, you'll be recognized to make your remarks. Yes, sir. Thank you. Yes, my, my name's uh Sunny Rhodes. I'm a lifelong uh Arkansan. I'm representing myself. I live in North Little Rock, um. And I've worked for newspapers for 25 years. I been taught on the college level for 21 years and I'm also a historian Currently I'm working on a book
about a civil war, uh, newspaper editor and politician. I'm concerned about this bill, uh, in a number of ways, ranging from how it could affect journalists' ability to gather information and historians' ability to uh gather information, educators' ability to do research. And the public's right to stay better informed and make better decisions about their lives. Um, earlier today, We heard a lot of discussion about the Freedom of Information Act.
And that really resonated me with me because that relates to this issue as well, I think. Um A couple of my chief concerns are uh the negative impact. This could have on academic research. And the negative impact on journalistic integrity and public accountability. Um, the state libraries, uh, traveler databases, which include vast collections of
public records and information are invaluable. For researchers in a variety of fields. And just, just this weekend, I used Traveler to, to look up uh information and a and a uh journal article that was Very old and I couldn't have found it any other way than through traveler. And as I understand it, um, You know, If Traveler goes away, that's going to be a huge. Huge impact on local libraries.
Uh These these databases offer uh often serve as basic resources for understanding trends, compiling data for analysis and verifying facts of SB 536 results in the loss or restricted access to such databases, it could hinder research efforts, making it harder to produce informed and accurate academic research.
Getting back somewhat now to the Freedom of Information Act. I, I see transparency and trust issues. Democracy cannot operate in the dark. The press plays a vital role in shedding light on government actions and thus upholding democratic values by providing transparency. SB 536 restrictions could foster a sense of distrust in public institutions by limiting access to essential records that citizens have the right to, not, not just journalists, but, but
citizens anybody if public perceives that information is being withheld or restricted, it could erode a confidence in government and media institutions alike. And I'm sorry. Now,
Mr. Rhodes and appreciate your remarks and I I really hate that we've had to limit the time, but uh. The time is up. Yeah, thank you very much before you go
though, were there any questions about the committee? Seeing no questions by the committee, thank you for being
here and thank you for those remarks. Next we have signed up
to speak against the bill. Carol Egan. Carol Egan Carroll Egan does not appear to be here. Next we have signed up to speak against
the bill. Adam Webb. Adam Webb There he is. couldn't see you back there. Mr. Webb
you would identify yourself for the record, state the name of any organization you
Adam Webb
Unverified
1:40:03
may be here representing, and you'll be recognized to present your remarks.
Speaker 197
1:40:07
Thank you. My name is Adam Webb. I'm the president-elect of the Arkansas Library Association. All the testimony I've heard today so far has talked about regulating sexually explicit materials. Um, the recent court case that just happened in Crawford County, talked about sexually explicit materials and definitions. I want you all to guess how many times sexually explicit materials are addressed in this bill. 0
It uses the same flawed and fatal language that was in the Act 372 lawsuit about age appropriateness without defining it in a way that aligns with Arkansas's harmful to miners law, which was just amended out of this bill. Or Arkansas's obscenity laws. Our truck with this bill is not that we don't want to protect kids. I'm a mandated reporter. I've been involved in some really difficult cases with kids in my library whose parents smoke meth around them. And I protect those kids and so
this rhetoric that we don't protect kids is not true, but our problem is once again we've stumbled at the goal line. This bill does not address sexually explicit material. It doesn't mention it once in the whole bill. It doesn't mention obscenity or any of the other legal barriers that we know there are for speech. It uses the same vague terminology that got us into a two-year lawsuit over Act 372, which The library associations and the
librarians prevailed. I beg the board, please, when judges tell you here's the type of speech that you can regulate sexually explicit. Here are the definitions. Use it. Don't reinvent the wheel, but here we are again 2 years later with the same vague language that's not defined in Arkansas law, that's not propped up by the courts trying to apply it to state aid, so I, I'm gonna respect your time. I'll close there, but if you have any questions, I'm, I'm here to answer.
All right, thank you, Mr. Webb. Are there any questions about the committee,
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:42:12
Representative Long, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, what was your new position you were
Speaker 197
1:42:17
just elected to, sir? I'm the president-elect of the State Library Association. We're a nonprofit trade group, not the state library. I'm not affiliated with them. We are an association of librarians and library supporters, and y'all are
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:42:28
the ones that brought the suit against was it over in Fort Smith area of
Speaker 197
1:42:32
Act 372 and it was specifically on the vague language in Act 372, which Judge Brooks
In the Western District of Arkansas overturned last year in a fairly scathing ruling about the vagueness of the language
Speaker 199
1:42:45
and what about, what about that bill? You know, prompted
Speaker 197
1:42:51
y'all to, to take it to court. It was because we were being asked or being mandated to uh. curtail First Amendment rights of the people of Arkansas. So children. No, it applied to everybody. Act 372 lawsuit applied to adults, teens, children, everyone.
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:43:10
It said that they they couldn't be exposed to sexually explicit materials. It
Speaker 197
1:43:13
didn't mention sexual explicit once again. that, that those words are only here in the air with us. They're not on the page and if that's the sponsor's intent, then. It needs to be on the page. I'm, I'm not a mind reader. I don't know if I want to be a mind reader, but We got to go by what's on this page and sexually explicit content is not here, it's not defined in the way that the courts have said it needs to be defined. So
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:43:40
I guess you've been with your association for quite some time since you been elected the president,
I guess, um, did you y'all have any recommendations on um how we can get the local um libraries to Protect children this materials because we've heard I've
I've got numerous uh contacts over. We've heard a lot of people tonight talk about, you know, they, they, they challenged challenged these books and they still come back. I think the
gentleman from Faulkner County mentioned that they ended up deciding that those books were OK. Um, it, I think maybe people are are getting maybe a little worn out asking and maybe a lot of them have just quit going to the library at all, which is not, you know, helpful because I've always loved libraries myself. But uh You know, I could understand if I still had small kids, I sure wouldn't take them in there if these things are on that level. So what, what do y'all recommend that we do appreciate
Speaker 197
1:44:36
that representative Long and just, just to be clear if this bill
passes, it's still exempts sex ed materials which the two books that have been discussed today. It frequently, it's perfectly normal and uh sex, a teen teen guide to sex. They're both exempted in this bill, so we still wouldn't be able to do much with them. I mean, it says on page 13, uh, age-appropriate materials does not include sex ed materials, blah blah blah blah blah. I mean, it's, it's right there. So we're, we're arguing about two different things here. I appreciate your uh responses.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:45:12
Thank you. Representative Rose, you recognize. I think it was true. Um, your commentary
on the bill, um, it's from your position as a library director in the association president, is that correct? Just as I'm just here as the association Press, OK, but you're not a lawyer, is that correct? I'm not a lawyer. OK, I just kind of felt like
Speaker 197
1:45:31
you're making some legal determinations. They were your opinions, correct? I am a plaintiff in the case on Act 372, both the named plaintiff and as a member of the association talking about this bill. Yes sir. OK, thank you.
Any other questions by the committee? Seeing no other questions by the committee. Thank you, Mr. Webb, for those remarks. Thank you. Next we have sign up to speak against the bill, Deborah. Wegger
Chair
Unverified
1:45:58
I'm sure I probably didn't pronounce that correctly. Deborah. You have to turn your mic on.
Speaker 204
1:46:17
Oh, there we go. OK, thank you. Deborah Meyer with the Bay and Buren County Library. I'm going to keep it short and sweet, um. I have an appreciation for the Arkansas State Library and the board. I've attended about For the last 10 years I've gone to their meetings and they have been very helpful. And help providing guidance, training and support whenever we have questions. My concern is
there are better ways to do this without Doing a new bill, maybe. I mean, you guys need to write. A different law or something. I am 67 years old and I remember when I was in high school, there was a book called Our Bodies Our Souls. Which was I thought at the time fairly explicit. But the bottom line on this. When you have a patron has a complaint about a book, they can
go either to Of course, the director. Or any of the staff. They can take it up with the board, but the next step is if you're not getting satisfaction with the board, the Quorum Court. I have not heard anybody say they've discussed this issue or taking it up with the Quorum Court. There are over 200 libraries in Arkansas, I believe. And what I'm wondering if there is this problem, how many
I keep hearing a lot of complaints, but what libraries so where is this happening? Because I haven't had too many of them. I've had one parent come to me and make a mention of a book that she didn't think was appropriate, and we looked at it and we took Issue with it. I've also talked with parents when they We're looking for a particular book that their child wanted to read and I say, well, that's probably not age appropriate for that child. We took many of our books and moved them over into the adult section. If we see
there's a book that's inappropriate. So the libraries I believe most librarians are doing the best they can. We are not fully. I believe in protecting freedom of speech and protecting people's rights. We are here open to the public and it's not just the children, uh, I have a patron who wanted me to move to Christian books out of the other books because she felt offended. You know, so you're gonna miss, you're not gonna please
everybody. I'm asking you. Let's not knee jerk this. Take some time and think about what you're going to sign because it could have some ramifications for quite some time and it may not address issues that may become issues that were not thought out, so that's all I have to say. Thank you. And if you have any questions. All right. Are there any questions by the committee? Seeing no questions by the committee.
Thank you, Ms. Meyer, for being here and thank you for those remarks. That concludes all of the witnesses that we have signed up to speak for and against the bill, Senator Sullivan, Representative Long, you're recognized
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
1:49:37
to close for the bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'll be really quick. I just want to address a few things. First of all, folks in the bill all means all. So when they testify that they're afraid this will close. If you look in section one, everything stays the same. Nothing gets moved to a new building. It stays the same. Hm
The group you heard them talk about, they need to be independent. Well, they're not independent. You heard folks say we need to change, but yet no one went to the library board. No one went to the director of the Library Associate of the library state library. No one goes to them and says it's time to change. Um, you heard it, um, the director of the, the president of the association. Uh, wanted to litigate Act 372 again, folks, it's not what we're doing.
We're just talking about what it's gonna take to get state money and what does it take? Have a policy to protect children, has nothing to do with the ALA right now. It's just have policies to protect children. That's all we're asking, had plenty of time to make those changes. They
Speaker 17
1:50:42
have not. With that, I'm closed. Representative and I'm closed also, uh, make a motion
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:50:47
to pass as amended. We appreciate a good vote. Representative Long is closed
for his bill. He's made a motion to pass as amended is there any discussion. On the motion, Representative Barry, you're recognized.
Speaker 208
1:51:02
Thank Mr. Sullivan, you have said very little that I disagree
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
1:51:08
with. For the last 4 or 5 years, this has been An issue that is not, I felt like not been corrected. The uh The last thing that I would like to see this bill do is go with the Department of Ed. I have little faith that
It would be corrected in any way. So that's one thing that I don't like about the bill. Um I think there's other ways like the lady said that uh to, to make this thing right to to satisfy the needs in it. But Give it to the Department of Ed, I don't, I, I'm sorry. I'm that that might offend somebody, but
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:52:08
I just don't think it's the, the way to fix it. And uh Right Thank you Any other discussion on the motion Representative Meeks you recognized. I'll be quick because we're almost out of time. So, uh, this is
more than just about fixing the problem. This is also about the opportunities that the future holds. The Department of Head has a professionals to be able to handle grants. They have all these resources, and I'd love to see those opportunities come down to our local libraries, uh, and I think that's a very important part of it that we maybe didn't discuss as much on
this and uh looking forward to voting for it. Representative Beatty,
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:52:45
you're recognized. I haven't listened to a lot of the testimony today. I just want to go on the record and, and say, uh, officially the confidence that I have in my libraries and librarians in my library boards in South Arkansas, uh, and the job that they do for the public and they take care of people and it's, and it's a shame that we get to this point and we have to deal with legislation like this and all the phone calls and the
messages and and all that we all received from librarians and everyone else has spun up on this and we've asked Witnesses and I've asked everyone I've spoken to, if they contacted that state library board, and everyone said no. No, well, there's two sides to every fight. two sides to every fight. And both sides are going to lose in this deal today. So shame on y'all.
And that's where I am on that. I think, I think this could have been resolved very easily folks dug their heels in and decided they weren't going to negotiate and weren't going to work. So whatever outcome comes out of this committee or comes off that
floor of the House today. You're gonna have to live with it. Representative Wooldridge, we have
like one minute before we're gonna have to go into session. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be brief. I think that um I agree with
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
1:54:04
my colleague Stan Berry. There are a lot of things that have been said here today that I agree with a lot of
things that the senator has pointed out that I agree with. No one wants to protect children more than me. I've got two little boys at home. There are parts of this bill that I think that are great and they're parts of this bill that I think, uh, make it hard for me to vote for one of those being the education requirement on some of these. rural librarians, I've spoken with every one of them in my district, every one of them will have to be replaced for that reason. I, I can't vote for it. Alright,
the motion before the committee is a motion to pass as
amended. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed.
Speaker 215
1:54:54
Yeah, I have it. OK. See two hands call the roll. Representative Meeks, Representative Meeks, yes. Representative Wardlaw, Representative Wardlaw, no. Representative Barry, Representative Barry, no. Representative Mayberry. Representative Mayberry. Representative Crawford
Representative Crawford, yes. Representative Clowney? Representative Clowney, no. Representative Collins, Representative Collins, no. Representative Evans. Representative Evans, Representative in it, Representative in it? No. Representative McElroy Representative McElroy, no. Representative Ray Representative Ray, yes. Representative Beatty. Representative Beatty.
No. Representative Beatty, no. Representative Carr, Representative Carr, yes. Representative Underwood Representative Underwood, yes. Representative Long Representative Long, yes. Representative Hawk. Representative Hawk Representative Rose. Yes. Representative Rose, yes. Representative Wooldridge, Representative Wooldridge, no. Representative Beck.
Representative Beck. Sorry, Senator Sullivan, the bill's failed. Thank you.
Thank you with that, we are. Recess.
Agenda
CONCUR IN SENATE AMENDMENT
Number Sponsor Subtitle
HB1614 Lundstrum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DESIGNATIONS RELATED TO CERTAIN CRIMINAL JUSTICE GRANT PROGRAMS.
HB1352 Beaty Jr. TO AMEND VARIOUS LAWS CONCERNING ACTIONS RELATED TO CERTAIN FOREIGN ENTITIES.
HB1604 McAlindon TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PROHIBITED CONTRACTS BY STATE AGENCIES; AND TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY STATE AGENCIES TO PURCHASE PROMOTIONAL ITEMS MADE IN CHINA.
HB1694 Hawk TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ALTERNATIVES TO ELECTRONIC FILING FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS.
REGULAR AGENDA
Number Sponsor Subtitle
HB1041 R. Scott Richardson TO PROHIBIT DECEPTIVE AND FRAUDULENT DEEPFAKES IN ELECTION COMMUNICATIONS.
HB1849 Gramlich TO ALLOW FOR THE CROSS DEPUTIZATION OF MUNICIPAL, COUNTY, STATE, AND TRIBAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ON FEDERALLY-RECOGNIZED TRIBAL LAND WITHIN THE STATE.
HB1878 McGruder TO ENSURE EARLY VOTING ACCESS FOR ARKANSANS RESIDING IN POPULATION CENTERS; AND TO REQUIRE A COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS TO CONDUCT EARLY VOTING IN A CITY IN CERTAIN INSTANCES.
HB1883 Long TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS FOURTH AMENDMENT PROTECTION ACT; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE COLLECTION OF ELECTRONIC DATA AND METADATA.
HB1884 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE MARKING AND COUNTING OF PAPER BALLOTS.
HB1973 B. McKenzie TO PROVIDE THAT A GOVERNMENTAL BODY SHALL NOT USE STATE OR LOCAL FUNDS TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH A LOBBYIST FOR THE PURPOSE OF LOBBYING ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENTAL BODY.
SENATE BILLS
Number Sponsor Subtitle
SB12 B. King TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING COMMUNICATIONS REGARDING REDISTRICTING BY THE BOARD OF APPORTIONMENT.
SB376 A. Clark TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC MEETINGS UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967.
SB471 A. Clark TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CANDIDATES FOR NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS; AND TO ALLOW CERTAIN CANDIDATES FOR NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS TO USE THE TITLE OF THE NONPARTISAN JUDICIAL OFFICE ON THE BALLOT.
SB491 K. Hammer TO REQUIRE A VENDOR THAT CONTRACTS WITH THE OFFICE OF STATE PROCUREMENT FOR SERVICES FOR THE EMPLOYEE BENEFITS DIVISION TO SUBMIT DATA FOR VERIFICATION BY AN INDEPENDENT AUDITOR; TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
SB486 B. Johnson CONCERNING SAFETY AND PRIVACY IN CERTAIN ENTITIES; AND CONCERNING THE DESIGNATION OF MULTI-OCCUPANCY RESTROOMS, CHANGING ROOMS, AND SLEEPING QUARTERS IN CERTAIN ENTITIES BASED ON AN INDIVIDUAL'S SEX.
SB489 G. Leding TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE PLACEMENT OF A MONUMENT ON THE STATE CAPITOL GROUNDS IN RECOGNITION OF THE DESEGREGATION OF THE CHARLESTON AND FAYETTEVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN 1954.
SB536 D. Sullivan TO ABOLISH AND TRANSFER THE ARKANSAS STATE LIBRARY AND THE STATE LIBRARY BOARD; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
SB570 J. Dotson TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE JOINT BUDGET COMMITTEE.
SB565 Flippo TO ALLOW PROCUREMENT CERTIFICATIONS TO BE COMBINED; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE REPRESENTATION IN STATE CONTRACTS REGARDING CONTINGENT FEES; AND TO AMEND THE COOPERATIVE PURCHASING REPORTING DEADLINE.
SB613 C. Penzo TO CREATE AN ELECTION PROCEDURE TO DETERMINE FLUORIDATION OF A PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM.
DEFERRED BILLS
Number Sponsor Subtitle
HB1024 A. Collins TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC EMPLOYEES; AND TO REPEAL THE LAW PROHIBITING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.
HB1028 A. Collins TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE LAW CONCERNING OBSCENITY AND THE PROCESS FOR CHALLENGING MATERIALS INCLUDED IN A LIBRARY; AND TO REQUIRE A LIBRARY TO HAVE A POLICY PROHIBITING BOOK BANNING IN ORDER TO RECEIVE STATE FUNDING.
HB1043 A. Collins TO REQUIRE DISCLOSURE AND REPORTING OF NONCANDIDATE EXPENDITURES PERTAINING TO APPELLATE JUDICIAL ELECTIONS; AND TO ADOPT NEW LAWS CONCERNING APPELLATE JUDICIAL CAMPAIGNS.
HB1162 Duffield TO ESTABLISH GOOD FRIDAY AS AN OFFICIAL STATE HOLIDAY.
HB1058 Unger TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ETHICS AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST FOR PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES; AND TO PROHIBIT PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FROM GIVING ADVANCE NOTICE TO ENTITIES OF REQUIRED INSPECTIONS.
HB1059 Unger TO PROVIDE THE OPTION FOR A FREE LIFETIME HUNTING AND FISHING LICENSE TO A COMMERCIAL TRUCK DRIVER WHO IS A RESIDENT AND PROVIDES CERTAIN INFORMATION RELATED TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING.
HB1078 Long TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING RUNOFF ELECTIONS; AND TO PROVIDE FOR A RUNOFF ELECTION FOR CANDIDATES FOR THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
HB1281 McAlindon TO AMEND REPORTING FOR A CANDIDATE FOR CERTAIN MUNICIPAL OFFICES AND FOR COUNTY OFFICE; AND TO AMEND PORTIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1996.
HB1415 L. Johnson TO REQUIRE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TO RESPOND TO A REQUEST FOR A FIRE INQUIRY.
HB1494 Hawk TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS GUIDANCE OUT OF THE DARKNESS ACT; AND TO REQUIRE STATE AGENCIES TO PUBLISH FEDERAL GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS ONLINE.
HB1459 L. Johnson CONCERNING RECURRING REPORTS SUBMITTED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
HB1461 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE EVALUATION OF NECESSITY OF VARIOUS COMMISSIONS AND BOARDS.
SB184 D. Sullivan TO TRANSFER THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE ARKANSAS EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION COMMISSION AND THE STATE LIBRARY BOARD TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
HB1667 Bentley TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC MEETINGS UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967.
HB1769 Barnett CONCERNING LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER STANDARDS; AND TO REQUIRE A PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION OR ASSESSMENT TO BECOME OR BE EMPLOYED AS A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER.
HB1621 Wardlaw TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO EXEMPT PERSONAL INFORMATION OF ELECTED CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS, JUDICIAL OFFICIALS, ELECTED COUNTY OFFICIALS, ELECTED MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS, AND THEIR IMMEDIATE FAMILY.
HB1631 Wardlaw TO ADDRESS THE ISSUANCE OF HUNTING AND FISHING LICENSES TO FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENTS.
HB1069 S. Meeks TO OBSERVE STANDARD TIME YEAR ROUND IN ARKANSAS; AND TO ELIMINATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ARKANSAS.
HB1720 Vaught TO CREATE THE BABIES AT WORK ACT; TO ALLOW STATE AGENCIES TO PERMIT PUBLIC EMPLOYEES WHO ARE PARENTS OR LEGAL GUARDIANS TO BRING THEIR INFANTS SIX MONTHS OR YOUNGER TO WORK.
HB1753 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION; TO OPT-OUT OF THE NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 1993; AND TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51, § 5.
HB1773 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CONTRIBUTION LIMITS FOR BALLOT QUESTION COMMITTEES AND LEGISLATIVE QUESTION COMMITTEES.
HB1037 A. Collins AN ACT TO CREATE THE PREREGISTRATION TO VOTE ACT; AND TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51, UNDER THE AUTHORITY GRANTED BY ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51, § 19.
HB1035 A. Collins TO CREATE THE ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 2025; TO ALLOW ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION; TO AMEND ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51; AND TO AMEND THE DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
HB1036 A. Collins TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION; TO ALLOW VOTER REGISTRATION DURING EARLY VOTING AND ON ELECTION DAY; AND TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51.
HB1038 A. Collins TO CREATE THE NO-EXCUSE ABSENTEE VOTING ACT OF 2025; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE VOTING; AND TO REPEAL VOTER QUALIFICATIONS FOR ABSENTEE VOTING.
HB1039 A. Collins TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE BALLOTS; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS.
HB1040 A. Collins TO CREATE THE WATER IN LINE ACT OF 2025; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PENALTIES FOR MISDEMEANOR OFFENSES RELATED TO VOTING.
HB1042 A. Collins TO CREATE THE DIRECT DEMOCRACY ACT OF 2025; TO REPEAL THE ENSURING ACCESS FOR ALL ARKANSANS AND VOTER PROTECTION ACT OF 2023; AND TO AMEND THE PROCEDURE FOR THE FILING OF A BALLOT INITIATIVE PETITION AND REFERENDUM PETITION.
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — STATE AGENCIES & GOVT'L AFFAIRS- HOUSE, Apr 9, 2025 | Agenda | 4 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Jimmy Gazaway Chair
Unverified
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
Speaker 14
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
Representative David Ray
Unverified
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
Speaker 33
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Speaker 69
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
Adam Webb
Unverified
June Matheny
Unverified
Speaker 80
Speaker 84
Speaker 85
Speaker 86
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
Speaker 97
Speaker 88
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
Speaker 136
Speaker 139
Tony Rose
Unverified
Robin Campbell
Unverified
Speaker 152
Speaker 155
Bobby Garrett
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 161
Speaker 162
Brittany Stockton
Unverified
Debbie Hall
Unverified
Speaker 176
Judy Calhoun
Unverified
Speaker 181
Speaker 183
Sonny Rhodes
Unverified
Speaker 197
Speaker 199
Speaker 204
Speaker 17
Speaker 208
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
Speaker 215