ALC - Administrative Rules
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- October 2, 2026
thank you for your attendance. we will call this administrative rules subcommittee to adjourn to start here. thank you for being here wantn to remind everybody that if you wish to comment on a rule to go ahead and sign in at the sheets in the back of the room be sure to specify which rule in which you wish to comment on and it will be taking up that sheet momentarily. members go ahead and log in and your station if you've not already done so so we can begin I also want to make a quick note to indicate that the revised agenda posted last week
that ardott utility accommodations rules were pulled from the agenda at the agency's request. In addition, we will pass over the upper southwest regional solid waste Management district's rule at the agency's request as well so
just make note of those on your agenda strike those as we go forward but before we start let's go ahead and stand and let's pray and kick off our meeting. Thank youlord thank you for today thank you for safe
travels and to get here and and to do the people's work we asked that we stop and put our eyes fixed on you, the author and perfector
of our faith to give us wisdom and guidance as we try to do the work of of the state well in that we filtered all through you and honoring you and thanks for this ability to get to serve these people and we don't take that lightly do the same pray amen right all right members let's go to B. this is a report from the executive subcommittee concerning the emergency rules
so let's see here. right this month we have two reports in your packet from the ALc subcommittees. let's see excuse me we have we have one report from the executive subcommittee concerning its review and approval of the emergency rule. The report is in your packet if there's any questions please light up the screen. If not this without objection this report will be filed seeing none this will be filed all right moving to C this is ALc subcommittees concerning the rule the review of rules this month we
have two reports in your packet from the Alc subcommittee concerning the rules and the review of their rules we will take those two rules up under item E today. they'll be later in the agenda but if there's any other questions please light up the screen if not these will be filed without objection this will be filed. OK. right we are moving to d right all right we have a quarterly reports of the administrative rules administrative directives which are in your
packet neither neither the department of Corrections nor the postrison transfer board had any new directives and so if there's not any other questions we'll move on from item D. any other questions for that group? All right, thank you all right we'll move on without objection those will be reviewed and approved. All right, so moving to E on your agenda all right this is our rules and we'll go start going through them let's see we've got agency rules for this month so
let's see let's just start out we've got the Department of Transportation and the state highway commission. you're welcome to join this table. thank you
for being here oncece you get seated and turn on your microphone, please introduce yourself for the record.
Speaker 14
6:47
Good morning. I'm Michelee Davenport. I'm the chief legal counsel for the Arkansas Department of Transportation. good morning. I'm Jeffholmes.
Speaker 18
6:54
I'm the chief of the Arkansas highwaylice.
Speaker 14
7:00
you are recognized to present your rule. thank you. The first rule that we have to come before you today is our permit rules for the movement of oversized and overweight vehicles on Arkansas state highway system. this rule was amended due to two separate acts of the legislature one dealing with the definition of a manufactured home and the second dealing with a definition change of a farm equipment dealer to
include a farm equipment hauler while we had the rules that we knew we needed to be amended we went through and conducted a thorough review of the rules updated any outdated language as well as any language that did not fit well within the new Arkansas code of rules style. So we took that opportunity,
Speaker 20
7:40
cleaned up our rules and that's what we have before you today. Happy to answer any questions thank you
members any questions on one a I think the only question I have is I do want to take this opportunity to to speak about
something going on in my district and it does relate to
this the overweight changes on state highways now I didn't see anything in this rule but please help us understand when there are changes on state highways on weight requirements what
does the public comment situation look like? how how soon and how easily is the communi communications sent down to the communities where there's changes on major volume highways
Speaker 24
8:27
so uhir on on the if it's a state law that applies to to general freight or movement on on oversize overweight then it would be communicated after it would take effect but as far as changing the the weight limits on publishing a rule and and special permits that would be for like over dimensional and oversized loads so they would follow the same format
as we're doing here I think the concern has been we've had whether it's maintenance or if it's
completely a change due to the due the weight requirements of of a state highway bridge specifically in my district. and then a highway patrolman is sitting there issuing out tickets in which communication was not sent out and it may be just changed a a slight change on a on a sign that there's been some frustration there so I think that's what I I think the people would like
to understand is is how should communication be handed out when there are those changes happening on the on
Speaker 24
9:24
the particular situation I believe you're talking about so there's press
releases that go out and then our officers are more or less education trying to keep those heavy trucks from crossing the weight restricted bridge by trying to stop them before they get there and then if if they are trying to explain the reason for the reduction in weight on on that specific instance because of the the limits of the bridge and then they try to educate instead of just write tickets for it so it's more of an education trying to keep people from crossing the bridge than then let's get you
so do you in your opinion I hate to harp along on this but in your opinion you believe tickets shouldn't be issued until at least after the press release is sent out,
correct that's helpful thank you all right members any other
questions on this rule oh we've got
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
10:22
one herepresentativeladyman Second you will be recognized you're recognized thank yous Chairman. I'm over here I just was wondering it
doesn't look like it changed but oversized loads
the time limits did did that change at all or or kind of give us a summary of what that is are there certain hours that extra wide loads can be moved Yes sir it's from sunrise
Speaker 24
10:48
to sunset and and and and the permit rules it was kind of confusing because it said during daylight hours so this just helped clarify to what it's always been the sunrise to sunset OK thank you sir
all right see no further questions without objection a one is reviewed and approved.
Speaker 14
11:12
second set of rules is rules regarding automatic license plate readers and that is concerning the retention and use policy for Arkansas highway Police. these rules were adopted due to the passage of Acts668 of the general assembly which included highway police in the definition
of a group that needed specific rules governing how that data would be retained and how those license plate readers would be used by the department so that is what we have done we mirrored the existing rules for the division of state police so that there would be uniformity across law enforcement and so these
Speaker 20
11:51
rules are substantially similar other than changing our name basically to the ones that were already in effect by the state police thank you for
the description members if you got any questions
I see Senatoriceich recognized Thank you
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
12:10
Mr Chair. just scanning through these I don't see the ok it said and
I just quickly went back and looked at the bill this says the designation for a period of not more than 150 days
did I not see something about60 days in the legislation I went back through the
Speaker 14
12:35
legislation and use the same language that state police had. I did not see a reduction to60 days in that we maintain the 150 days for any type of data and then 100 or 18 months for any cumulative data if there was a summary report done or statistical data that would then
Speaker 50
12:54
be deleted after eight months. Individual data is I believe at a very lesser level unless there's an investigation
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
13:00
what I saw was on it just said the terms of contractual agreement
shall be expressly prohibited a third party processr for processor from using a captured data for any other purpose and impose a data retention period not to exceed60 days from receipt of the captured plate data. Yes sir
Speaker 56
13:21
and that would be within the these rules
Speaker 14
13:27
the data once it comes to us. eachach contract with a provider for those services would have that 60 dayy retention rule that that outside
provider was not able to retain that data for anything more than60 days and
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
13:41
that's a lot of the public's concern I don't think it's as much about y'all having it as it is
sharing it thank you're welcome thank you senator Representative Long, you are recognized thank
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
13:53
you Mr Chairman. I'm not a member of the committee but I appreciate you give me a chance to ask a question I'm just wondering what type of cameras are are y'all using we see a lot in the news about the flock cameras does the Department of Transportation
use flo cameras or is this a government owned
Speaker 14
14:12
cameras we actually have several different types of cameras so we have a type of camera that is used at our weigh stations we have a separate type of camera that is used at our virtual weigh station and then for security purposes on our facilities we do have a contract with Flock. for providing the cameras that are on our actual campus. those are under a lease we do not own those the rest of the cameras we do own.
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
14:39
in in the the the cameras that we see
I believe they're used for speed checking people speed in speeding in the work zones and also it also has I guess the capability of you making out if you're using a cellphone do those also read the license plates uhir they just take a picture of the license plate
Speaker 24
15:03
they don't just take a picture to share with the officer to help him identify the car or the
vehicle but then it's deleted immediately if he doesn't issue a
citation thank you very much I appreciate yourri. thank you all
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
15:21
right Senator Irving you're recognized thank you in your contract with
Flock is there provisions of protecting the data to where it is not used by that company? Yes ma'am it can only be used in accordance with the Arkansas law
Speaker 24
15:45
ok but and so there's no law enforcement purposes only for and it's it's not accessible
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
15:54
by nonlaw enforcement agencies so so the the company that
you're doing a lease with a third party with Flock in the contract that you've signed with them it states explicitly that they have no they have they have no right to access or view or sell that data is that correct? That is
language explicitly stated in the contract you signed with
Speaker 24
16:21
them without the contract in front of me ma'am but I I don't have it here in
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
16:26
front of me but they have to'd like if you don't mind I I would appreciate if you would look at that or give me a copy of that contract so I could see that because I want to make sure that language is explicitly stated in that contract with this company the contracts that I've seen and reviewed that they have signed with other entities
outside of you, that is posted on their website, says that they have the ability to retain that data and to use that data for their own purposes as they develop more technologies and so umm that is problematic in my opinion. so I would just like to make sure and verify that it is only for your purposes and you're the only ones that can see that we'll be happy to get that information for you
Speaker 75
17:14
senator thank you senator. Senator Rice
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
17:18
do you recognized thank you Mr Chair. I I appreciate Senator Urban's request and and just ask if they could send that to the committee I I think that would help us report back to the public that's got heightened to work heightened the wormin on this right now that we read to a contractor self thank you right
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
17:41
cochair shepherd is recognized thank you Mr Chairman and just just to be clear I wanted to make sure I understood correctly
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
17:49
what what's your testimony was earlier with regard to the flock cameras themselves I think you testified that those are only deployed around uhard dot property could you be more specific as to as to their use yes sir
Speaker 24
18:08
they're located in interstate rest areas interstate truck parking areas and then around the central campus in littleRock.
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
18:20
so those flo cameras are are at least the ones that that you have and and have access to or
not stationed on public highways no no sir they're on the entrance of truck
Speaker 24
18:34
parking areas on the interstate the rest areas and then around our central campus inRock thank you yes sir thank you for the clarification on
that and and it pro probably would be good clarity
too for folks to realize that I believe it's my understanding that you took the very similar language from the state police and applied it to your rule here
today is that correct? that is correct. OK thank you for that clarity. Members see any other questions seen none this will be reviewed and approved OK thank you thank you for your your time today you're dismissed we're passing over C as a reminder we'll come back to that in future months. moving to E2 Department ofcomerce you're welcome to join the table.
right when you get situated please turn your microphone on and introduce yourself for
Speaker 88
19:32
the record. Good morning. I'm Saraherris general counsel for the state insurance department. thank you you're recognized to present your role. thank you so much this is our vision plan coverage rule pursuant to actct 142 of2025. I want to point out we had two public comment periods for this rule as well as two public hearings we believe we have a good rule here that has been thoroughly vetted by all interested parties and I'm happy to take any questions thank you for the description members any questions for 2 a
See none. this is without objection this is reviewed and approved thank you thank you so much members going to3 Department of Education you're welcome to
Speaker 92
20:22
join the table. Good morning Courtney Salisford Department
of Education. thank you thank you for being here you're recognized
Speaker 92
20:30
to present 3a so3a is the rules governing the courseho program which was
Speaker 95
20:36
created by Act237 of2023 the Learns Act and then modified by Act7:30 of2025. The courseho program allows students in grades6 through 12 to take courses that are not offered by their local public schools or to take courses at another school that is required for graduation if they are in a d or F letter graded school. so this rule is new. it sets forth the standards for a provider to become approved to
be in the program. it sets the standards for funding and the responsibilities for school districts and again those course choice providers. it was put out for public comment. we did receive a few public comments made nonsubstantive changes and the rules were given final approval by our state board on July9th and I'm happy to answer any questions Thank you Miss Ford.
just for clarity for this rule if it were to implement what's the timing again for
this this role to take effect for which school year it would take effect
Speaker 95
21:37
for this school year because the law was already in place we went ahead and sent out information to schools in the spring that would allow students to go ahead and start enrolling. so these would take if the rules would of course take effect in 10 days and but it's
already available for the school year. thank you for the clarity members any questions see none without objection this is reviewed and
Speaker 95
21:59
approved. Item B Ite B is rules governing overnight travel and use of public school lavatories, revisions to these rules were necessary to implement Act 119
of2025. the amendment allows athletic personnel to enter a multiple occupancy restroom or changing area to address supervise or treat student athletes. if that individual is overseeing that student during an athletic event. so this was just kind of a common sense modification if you will so that necessary personnel could enter those spaces if necessary to treat the students. We did hold a public comment period and the student state board gave final approval on July9th. Happy to answer any
questions thank you for the description members
any questions on B? seeing none thank you for taking our our student safety serious
with this with this rule. I appreciate that without
Speaker 95
22:55
objection this rule is reviewed and approved Item C and then finally these are the rules governing consolidation and annexation of school districts, um, which really these changes were to implement Act919 of2025 and Act 157 of2026 which allows schools that were previously
consolidated or annexed to have a local vote to detach from that existing school district. so we needed to put some provisions in place that address funding and distribution of property after such a vote. we did have three schools schools detached from their previous school districts and so those schools are already up and running for this school year and so we're excited to see how they how they succeed throughout the year and um'm happy to answer any questions about the rules
members any questions for C? C none without objection this ros reviewed and
approved. thank you for being here today. thank you our members moving to4 Department of financedministration you're welcome to join the table. we're on page 19
in the packet for those falling along at home all right thank you for being here if you'll turn your microphone on and and introduce
Speaker 110
24:13
yourself for the record. Good morning. I'mrie Lorigan the regulatory administrator for the regulatory
Speaker 111
24:19
division of DFA. I'm Katie Hinojosa. I'm head of legal
for the regulatory division. Brandon Crawford, staff attorney
Speaker 112
24:29
for DFfa. thank you for being here you're recognized to present your rule. we are seeking review of medical marijuana rule for management contracts the proposed rule has three components it requires disclosure of the management contracts upon certain events it imposes substantive requirements
on the management contracts and it places responsibility in the medical marijuana commission for approval or denial of those contracts. Happy to answer any questions for the description members
any questions well thank you for being here today I do know that this had extensive review in previous subcommittees I know for myself I would like if you could help me understand managing contracts
maybe versus other vendor contracts and could you add a little bit more clarity on that for the for
Speaker 112
25:23
the committee today Absolutely a management contract it's a defined term in the rule. it's an agreement between a licensee and a separate entity or person for services related to the licensee sale of medical marijuana. so this would
Speaker 120
25:36
not touch other types of contracts outside of that that's correct and there are
Speaker 112
25:40
specific exclusions and some specific inclusions as part of the rule as well just to provide some additional clarity
Representativeladyman you're recognized thank you
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
25:52
Mr Chairman. I'm over here in the
meeting that we had previously there's some discussion about the time delay in some of these changes that the industry might be delayed in decisions might be a two month delay if they were making a change in management or
some other change can you talk about that a little bit and
describe you had some comments on that so what what was your response to
Speaker 110
26:26
those comments about the time delays so the medical marijuana commission meets once a month they also have a submission deadline for the previous month to get on that agenda but this is standard practice for any other transfer of location transfer of ownership the industry has been always submitting those before the next meeting so I can understand that there might be the assumption that there's a delay but in the
practice of how things are working everything is submitted before the next meeting right now anyways for any other transfer of location or transfer of ownership. Well
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
26:58
I mean if you're running a business and you need to make a decision it it might need to be made before60 days. is there any exception is there any way that in an event of a serious situation that needs to be addressed is there an exemption or a way that some that a company could come to you and
Speaker 110
27:21
get a quicker decision. there is not an exemption built in but we are always happy to schedule an extra meeting if we understand that time is of the essence for a specific reason. we can always hold an extra emergency meeting as long as we follow foia to make sure that we can get everybody together call
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
27:35
emergency meeting and address a a serious issue if requested we've never been requested requested to
Speaker 110
27:39
do that since I've been there but there's no reason why we couldn't do it. right thank you thank you thank you all right see no further
questions. this is considered without objection reviewed and approved. thank
you. all right members moving to5 department of Health you're recognized to join us at the table.
right turn your microphones on and introduce yourself for the record please.
Speaker 131
28:31
Charles Thompson attorney Arkansas department of Health Shane David Bran chief healthalystems licensing and certification department
of healthalth. Craig Smith attorney for Arkansas Department of Health thanks for
Chair
Unverified
28:43
being here you're recognized to present 5a iveA is our proposed amendments to the list of controlled substances as a reminder, the department of healthalth is required under Arkansas code564216 to update this list annually
the proposed amendments are to include ass substances that have been identified under Act9342025 regarding intoxicating hemp substances as well as other schedules related to DA substances and and substances identified as concern in Arkansas the department published notice on425 last day for comments was526 public hearing was held but no comments were received and these rules have or this list has been reproved reviewed by a joint public
healthal earlier this month. thank you members looking for questions.
Senator Hester, you recognized Oh I think my colleague sitting next to me pushed my button. Well that's that's
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
29:37
fine. I'm sure you were gonna ask who is the sponsor of the spill and it was me and I do believe it is a great
bill and I'm glad we have this real tied to it so thank you for for drawing the attention to thatembers any other real questions? see a nunne without objection
this is reviewed and approved. You can move to
Chair
Unverified
30:02
B. yes sir ive is our proposed repeal of the rules and regulations pertaining to synthetic marijuana products the products on this list or or these rules are duplicative they are identified on our list of controlled substances and so it is more efficient to go ahead and repeal these rules and rely on the list of controlled substances for identifying those substances and regulation. thank you for your description
members any questions? seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. thank you for being here today. thank you chair right members moving to6
let's see the psychology board with the department of healthalth right thanks for joining us today if you'll turn your microphones on and introduce yourself for the record.
Speaker 142
30:56
Matt Gilmore department of healthalth Colin Davies Arkansas Department of Health Arkansassychology Board we're here to present for
Speaker 144
31:10
acts that affected us Act432433434 and 869.'d be happy to take any questions all right members any questions on6
a right will you give us a little description about what6A is
Speaker 142
31:30
sir432 created theha analysts registration433 created the technician limitation removal so they expanded their scope of practice434 created the licensed psychological practitioner in 869 accompanied432 with adding qualified behavioral analyst credentialing board as a report
Speaker 149
31:51
with credentialing for them members any questions
seeing none this is without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. thank you for being here right moving to7 Department of Health Arksvill State Board
Speaker 152
32:20
of Aaccupuncture. Welcome to the table if you will introduce
Speaker 153
32:26
yourself for the record Sorry Russell Bynes director of the Arkansas state Board of accupuncture andlated
techniques. Matt you more Department
Speaker 155
32:36
of healthalth thanks for being here. You recognized to present se a the rule revisions the board is proposing today are based upon the following three factors first Act 141 of2025 which allows a healthcare provider to create maintain transmit receive and store medical records in an electronic or written format secondcond, the updating and
clarification of language to reflect the code of Arkansas rule format and finally the updating of language to reflect the recent name change of the national certification boardard for acupuncture and orriental medicine. thank you for your consideration of the proposed rule revisions I'll do my best to answer any questions you have thank you Mr urns. Members any questions for7 a? seeing none without objection this
rule is reviewed and approved. thank you for being
here all right we'll move to
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
33:40
the Arkansas State Medical Board 8A Mr Chair, my director couldn't be here today so I'm going to present this one. Matt Gilmore Department of Health members this is the rule to go along to go along with act437 of2025 this allowed a physician assistants to delegate mirrored some language that was already there for physicians and so just added that to their scope we didn't receive any public comments we received a
question fromblr we addressed that did a second round of public comments and happy to take any questions y'all have. thank
you for the description members any questions for 8 a seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you
you right moving to 9 Department of Human Services vision of aging there we are
like if you're being here turn your microphone on and please introduce
Speaker 166
34:45
yourself for the Thank you Mr Chair Jay hill with Department of Human Services division of
Speaker 169
34:50
agging Adult and Behavioral Health. thank you I'm Deborah Inman. I'm an assistant director in aging
with the division of humanman Services thank you for being here you
Speaker 172
34:59
are recognized to present 9 a thank you sir. So this this presentation to you this morning is to bring forth the Arkansas Personal Care manual and ARE manual, our Arkansasendent assessment manuals for change
and presentation the agency has been working for several months to streamline make improvements to our state plan personal care process our our this program these changes will really serve two purposes to streamline the process and create make it faster to get persons who qualify for personal care enrolled in the program and then secondarily to do a better job to ensure that the persons who are receiving personal care are actually qualified for this service and if not to help
potentially direct them to more appropriate services that would meet their their their respective needs under state plan independent assessments are not required we do complete independent assessments our current contractor with the state is Optum for our waiver programs but this is an expense in our state plan process that we don't we don't have to have this particular measure in place and so our intention is to create some efficiencies save some funding
by eliminating the necessity for an actual independent assessment but to continue to use our contractor our provider in this case Optum as our front door for the process by having them conduct a claims data analysis so going forward Optum will be able to utilize our MMIs system to look for medical diagnosis and to run checks against applicants to make the determination that they do in fact have an identifiable medical diagnosis that is a
qualifying factor for state planned personal care for that medical eligibility piece again it'll eliminate the necessity to schedule send out a staff a registered nurse and conduct an actual independent assessment and then the financial elig eligibility piece is also in place and so eligibility for these programs is twofold medical and financial we are making some improvements to the medical determination side of this simplifying the manual we are also going to lengthen the prior
authorization timelines from6 months to 12 months and it's it just to also that benefits our beneficiaries and reduces a lot of the administrative burdens on the agency for that continued process we have approximately 15,000 beneficiaries in personal care so this will really help us to just oh eliminate and streamline that workflow for those prior authorizations also bringing the manual to you to bring it into compliance with Act853 of
the w5 general session which now moves licenger for personal care agencies to Arkansas department of Health that was previously at DHS and we need to clean that up in the manual as well so with that
for your description members any questions for 9 a? ce ne onepresentative ladyman you're
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
38:08
recognized thank you Mr Chairman well this was a lot of changes and I noticed that you had a lot of comments they were summarized but I know you
touched on a couple of things that you responded to there but what what were the major concerns that you got in the
Speaker 166
38:29
comments did you can kind of summarize that sir yes sir sure can. so the
Speaker 172
38:33
biggest questions we we what we did we took those comments and tried to put those into buckets primarily they they were around the background check requirements for the state this is a vulnerable population and the state has moved to our DHS has moved to implement twoyear
background checks for persons that work in these industries who serve vulnerable populations that really makes that consistent across the agency for what we require in background checks. there were questions around the utilization of ours so the personcented service plan it's a it's called we call it a pCSp this is developed for each individual and it is unique to that person's needs personal care is limited to64 hours a month. and a person may not need all64 hours but for the hours that
they qualify for and need our providers work to develop a plan of care for them so that we can guarantee and ensure that services are provided throughout the month rather than all of your hours be used up in the first three days and then there's no you know there's no services for a person for the remainder of the month. So we require our beneficiaries and ask them to develop these plans to stretch those services out we are making a provision to allow for a change in what your daily allowance is for instance if an individual goes to a hospital
may have a hospital stay they may miss a few days of services but it may also be that when they discharge back home there is a greater need for a period of time to help them in their recovery so we're creating a process by which our providers can ask for exemptions or exceptions to what their personcented service plan outlines as the array of services in order to meet the individual's needs deb what were some Yes we we had a lot
Speaker 177
40:18
of questions about what Director Hill was just speaking about and we have
let all of our providers know that if they provide medical documentation in their client's records there will be no negative consequences for changing the days up other than that pursuant to Cms guidance the hours need to be delivered in accordance with the treatment plan and also if the treatment plan isn't working for that client, they can change it. they're the ones who create that plan so they're they don't have to wait for the year to run up before they change that representative there are also several questions around the
Speaker 172
40:55
protection of proprietary data that belongs to the beneficiary their care plan there were several questions around insurances that these changes would not necessarily impact the past and how our passes provide personal care for for those beneficiaries that received through them and standardizing the personal care certification process which again as I just mentioned under under act the actc's passed in the 25 general session licensure for personal care
agencies private care agencies now transitions to department of
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
41:35
healthalth. all right thank you thank you for the question Representative Rye you're recognized thank you, Mr. Chair. Mrim what they these folks that were speaking about here is this folks that are actually mentally and maybe physically unable to take care of their sel or yes
Speaker 172
41:51
sir this is not a mental health program this is a program for persons who are physically disabled have a
have a need for or medically have a medical diagnosis is what I should say that really warrants justification for personal care services these are not skilled services these are not services provided by licensed nurses these are for instance as an example, services for your activities of daily living. it may be that you need assistance with getting up with changing with toileting with tran with transferring or ambulation you may need assistances with meal preparation so it is service that provides those types of service assistances to
individuals to help them stay safely in their home thank
you thank you Mr chairman thank you for the question members any other questions on this rule see none without objection this is reviewed and approved. thank you for being here thank you all right members
we'll move to 10 the division of county operations and division of medicalical Services on page 46 in your packet
thank you for being here if you'll turn your microphone on
Speaker 187
43:15
and introduce yourself for the record. Good morning I'm Mary Franklin with the division of county operations with Department of Human Services this is a medicaid eligibility rule it does a few things. one, it clarifies that foster care and adoption subsidy income is excluded for all a to the age blind and disabled eligibility groups
it also clarifies that a529 education account is considered an asset and is will affect the determination of the person who owns the account, not the beneficiary of the account. also on independence accounts we're clarifying a few things one that there's no limitation on the type of account or the number of accounts that can be designated as an independence account but the account must be
established and approved by DHS during an individual's enrollment in the workers with disabilities programme they will remain those approved accounts will remain disregarded during the workers with disability enrollment and continue to be disregarded if the workers with disability coverage is ended. there is no minimum or maximum limit that can be deposited into the existing account and withdrawals and actions that come out of the independence
account will the treatment of that will follow regular eligibility rules and that no additional deposits can be put into those accounts once the individual is no longer in workers with disabilities one final clarification that was made in this update to the policy is that although tax refunds or advance payments of tax refunds are excluded for 12 months. any
interest accrued and retained on that on those funds would be counted as an asset Happy to take any questions you
ranklin members any questions on 10 a seeing none thank you for your description without objection this is reviewed and approved. thank you. members
you're going to 11 Department of Human Services division of medicalical Services.
Speaker 190
45:45
right if you'll turn your microphone on and introduce yourself
for the record. Good morning Elizabeth Pitman division of medicalical
Speaker 191
45:57
Services thank you for being here you're recognized to present 11a. the first rule I have for you today is a rule regarding continuous glucose monitors? this rule was implemented as a result of an act that was passed in the last session to require
Chair
Unverified
46:09
us to move the continuous glucose monitor benefit back to be split between pharmacies and d durable medical equipment providers
we worked with the providers over the past month. we've implemented a pilot program to test to make sure our systems will process the claims the same way for both pharmacy and durable medical equipment providers as required by the act. It is all working as intended and then we worked with those providers to put out some messaging that also indicated the parity between the two programs everyone seems very happy with it so we're here today to get approval of this role and happy to take any questions thank you
for the description members we've got some questions Representative beatty you're recognized
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
46:49
over here thank you Mr chairir. just wanted to make certain that the the concerns raised by Representative Wardlaw that those have been taken care of and addressed and and everyone's satisfactory approval on this rule yes sir that's why we spent the
Speaker 191
47:01
past month working with those providers to do that pilot program. the concern was that the pharmacists and the DME providers were not being treated the same. so we worked through that process with them to make sure it would work the way we intended it to so far everything has worked according to the way it was supposed to go. they feel very confident in this process
have been very complimentary of my staff about it and how well they've worked with them and then we again put out some messaging in coordination with that group of providers to make sure that it
Chair
Unverified
47:30
did not raise the same concerns as the messaging that was put out thatpresentative Wardlaw had asked about. right so all parties are
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
47:36
happy. Yes sir Good deal. thank you very
much thank you Leader beatty Senator Irving you're recognized yeah just
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
47:45
thank you thank you so much. I know that was a difficult and bumpy road perhaps but I mean doing our job and you're doing your job so
appreciate y'all working with us. and public health committee and not just representing boardlaw but many others that knew that this issue had happened kind of because of an unintended consequence from a previous act that was passed. so we kind of had to fix it and and follow up with the rules. So I just want to extend my appreciation. thank you. thank you thank you senator members any other questions see none
without objection the rules are reviewed and approved. thank you. all right moving to B the second rule I have for you
Speaker 191
48:24
today is regarding maternal health it is implementing several pieces of legislation that were passed in 2025. iss that right? Sorry I'm los losing track of my years now and initially the healthy momms healthy babies so it includes the implementation of doulla in medicaid so we will
Chair
Unverified
48:41
now be paying for doullas effective September 1st. it also implements the the law requiring us to pay for lactation consultants so that piece is also being implemented effective September 1st. there was also a
piece of healthalthy momms healthaly babies that required us to pay for remote monitoring for a continuous glucose monitors and blood pressure cuffs for pregnant women. We already paid for the equipment. this rule will turn on the monitoring codes themselves and allow those providers to bill for monitoring those patients. it also will transition from paying for blood pressure cuffs on a daily rental to actually allowing them to purchase the blood pressure cuff for that pregnancy and have it for themselves. So those two changes are being made regarding
Speaker 206
49:25
remote monitoring and then the last piece of this that may be it. holdld on let me
Chair
Unverified
49:37
check Yes, I believe that is it think the other piece got split off so happy to take any questions thank you for the
description members any questions seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. thank you. Item C
Speaker 171
50:01
right so reintroduce yourself for the record Jay hill with
Speaker 168
50:09
DHS division of agging Adultha behaviorvioral Services deborah Eman with
DHS division ofdult you for being back here today we are on 11C you're recognized to
Speaker 171
50:17
present your role. Thank you Mr chairir. this rule is the our changes and updates made
Speaker 172
50:21
to our pace manual pace is the program for all inclusive care for the elderly this is a state plan home and community based home and community based Medicaid service
it is a facilitybas service and it serves individuals who are55 and older and can demonstrate that they can safely live in the community the manual changes are really to to cover two things for us one is to be responsive to new federal requirements around nomenclature specifically pertaining to plans of care, medical personnel, grievances and appeal process requirements for services and timelines and secondarily
to bring the program manual into compliance with actct 144 of the w5 general session in which the our pace organizations and presently we have4 in the state are exempted from licensing as private care agencies through the department of healthalth these are hospitalbased programs and working with Adh it was agreed to allow them to to be exempt from that as they do provide personal care services to their beneficiaries and with that Mr Chairman happy to take any questions thank you for your description members any
questions for 11C see none
without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you.
Speaker 210
51:46
Moving tod thank you sir.d is a as an amendment to the
Speaker 172
51:51
Arkansas medicaid State Plan concerning our pace programs it is an update to the rate determination methodology and so primarily what has taken place is that the state has removed all references to upper payment
limits when determining pace capitation rates and replaced that with a new term now this is a federal requirement it's called and it's called the amount that would otherwise be paid or AOP so we're replacing UPL with AWOP what this is the the amount that would otherwise be be paid is a projected cost of providing comparable services similar topace medicaid beneficiaries but to persons who are outside of pace and so
it is a cost comparison that we're looking at the cost of services provided topace beneficiaries and what that would be to persons who were not in the program and it ensures that pace capitation rates must remain below the amount that would otherwise be paid to persons who are not in the medicaid program then that is what we're bringing to you today thank you for the description
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
52:59
members any questions? seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. thank you thank you chairman thank you sir All right now we're moving to EF andg
all right you don't need to reintroduce yourself you can present you a recognize present.
Speaker 191
53:19
Thank you. rule E is for electronic visit verification for in home personal care, attendant care and respite as well as home health. this rule does several
Chair
Unverified
53:27
things including cleans up some language in our old electronic visit verification orevVV rule. It also does some cleanup of our provider enrollment section for provider enrollment it removes the requirement to submit a W9 tax form
which had resulted in several issues with providers in the past so this just we are still required to verify the tax identification number social security number but this gives us flexibility in how we do that it does not have to be via a W9 form. it also requires that they submit a national provider identifier if they have one or annPI number if that's an applicable part of of their provider type, um, which had already been required under federal rules but this adds it to our our manual for EVV additional to the clean up language we are
also setting some floors of when you have to use the electronic visit verification system versus what we call a manual override, which means that for whatever reason the electronic system did not capture the visit or it captured it incorrectly and you go in and you actually hand key that into the computer system a certain percentage of that is allowed but after a certain threshold it will flag it for that provider we'll send them a letter noting that concern and ask them to to try
Speaker 193
54:35
to fix it before we implement any penalties we'll work with them thank you for your description members any questions on 11e
see none without objection the rule is reviewed and approved. itemdam F.
Speaker 193
54:52
I think Director Stone is going to join me
for F great. right turn your microphone on and reintroduce yourself for
Speaker 214
55:03
the Good morning. Paula Stone, director of officefice of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Department of Human Services thank you
for being here you're recognized for item 11F. this is
Speaker 214
55:12
the permanent rule this body already heard the emergency
rule that we had last month and this is to allow a general hospital to open up a substance use disorder unit a locked unit on within that hospital to and medicaid to reimburse for adolescent treatment services within that unit. thank you for the
description and it's my understanding this is happening now where is the hospital that this is really being requested so
Speaker 214
55:43
the hospital that joined us in in providing that service is Unity
Hospital in Sarcy. so they've had the grand opening of their unit they've not accepted their first patient yet but they anticipate that within the next weekon members
any questions seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. thank you. Itemg my last
Speaker 203
56:09
rule for you this morning is a rule that updates our hospital manual. It does two
Chair
Unverified
56:14
things. The first thing it does is it extends what we call our medicaid utilization management programme or mumm
Speaker 191
56:21
review and that is the review of hospital stays that currently exceed4 days. This extends that time frame to7 days which would mean that that hospital stay would not get reviewed until day7. if after
Chair
Unverified
56:32
day7 you would have to have a review for us to continue to pay for it. The first seven days will remain on retrospective review so we'll pull a random sampling of those claims and review them for appropriate medical care. The second part with the mump also just rehabilitative hospitals will remain at 10 days that's in line
with the medicare time frame for review is a 10 daym review the second piece of this rule is actually allowing for us to pay for a lower level of care in acute hospitals. Currently we have one level of care. A hospital is reviewed for providing that level of care it is an acute level of care if the hospital does not provide any acute services for that day or current practices to deny the day so they just do not get paid for that day. With this rule will allow us to do is actually pay for that day at a lower level of care rehabilitative
level of care. description we've got a few questions lighting uppresentative painter you're recognized thank
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
57:31
you Mr Chairman. just kind of help me. I was reviewing some of the comments and it looked like there was a pretty lengthy comment from children's and and my concern is by reading your response they they state they're they're not allowable to do this under their licensure and so forth like that but when you guys responded you didn't really respond to that aspect you kind of responded to the pediatrics so
can you help me understand or what is
the response to their legal questions if we didn't want to respond there maybe we can get it on
Speaker 203
58:04
the record here yes sir so we have actually discussed this with them quite a bit. we we
Chair
Unverified
58:09
do not believe that they cannot do it under their license. we believe we have checked with the health department on this and any level of care under your license you can provide. so they're providing rehabilitative services in the hospital already when they provide those services we just don't have a mechanism to pay for them. So where we had
run into problems is they did not believe they could enroll as a rehabilitative hospital to accommodate that we instead of requiring them to enroll as a rehabilitative hospital have created a level of care under their acute patient license. OK so let's
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
58:37
just assume for a minute here you know that children's is right they can't do this. what's the what's the plan for DHS then? because I mean what we have had approval from CmS to allow us to pay for this so I
Chair
Unverified
58:49
I don't think there's going to be an issue with whether or not children would be allowed to do this. We have been
Speaker 193
58:57
given federal authority to make this payment to an inpatient hospital. OK and I appreciate Mr Chair.
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
59:01
I just hope that it may behoove of you to have a plan because if the if the children's just saying they can't by their legal authority I I it may be safe to have a plan if they're saying they can't do it and so and and if you do that I'd like to be part of those conversations because I'm concerned of what if we don't have a plan where are our children gonna go? So I'd appreciate it thank you. thank you Mr chairir. thank you for the discussion I I think that's probably what we've we've
heard from others as well just carrying on that line of of thought there may be a legal side to this where maybe legally they can but economically there there's a sounds like there could be an issue with
a well intended rule here do you have any concerns that services start getting turned away at some of these acute facilities just because the dollars and cents don't make sense anymore do you have any concerns there? understand the concern that you're expressing
Chair
Unverified
59:56
and have heard it as well and it
is our belief that this will actually open up a door for those acute facilities to provide these services that we are not currently able to pay for. So as I said previously if you're providing this level of care and we get a day submitted to us for review that does not include any acute inpatient services we deny that day we just give you $0 for it. This would actually allow us to
Speaker 191
1:00:21
pay you at the rehabilitative hospital rate for that
service. thank you for your descriptionpresentativeladyman you're recognized thank you chairman
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
1:00:31
wellrector Pitman, I know y'all are working hard to try to resolve this issue and it's a thorny issue very difficult to to to know how to to fix this but you know to build on what representative painter said you you know this decision
may go back to the families and they may be in a difficult situation because the hospital may choose not to keep that patient because their costs for a critical bed is higher than the
cost for a rehab bed and they're gonna get paid at a lower rate so they've got overqualified people and they also are taking an acute bed and using that for rehab which may be needed for an acute situation that's the problem but my question and and we talked about this in public health meeting and we don't have a rehab hospital that can take children or or is in the business of taking children
and I know you've worked with some hospitals and they've taken them but that's not an absolute so my question is can we contract or make an agreement with an out of state hospital we're real close to Memphis up there in northeast Arkansas they have hospitals there that can take children can we somehow make an agreement so that those children can go to those out of state hospitals and still get paid under our program
so that these families at least have an option they may choose not to use that option but at least there's a definite option whether it be Memphis or Shreveport or Saint Louis or Tulsa there's a number of large cities around Arkansas that could address this iss that allowable? can we do that and can we pay for those children to go to those hospitals yes sir it is allowable and we have two
Chair
Unverified
1:02:27
mechanisms to work with out of state hospitals. Most of the cities you're talking about we actually they're called border
cities in our state rules and we actually enrolled them as regular medicaid providers so like Lebonner in Memphis we actually enrolled them as a regular medicaid provider and pay them as we would any other Medicaid provider. Other hospitals that are not in those bordering cities that we just regularly enroll. we can do what's called a single case agreement and we do that often for children who need services that are not able to be provided here and we enter into it an agreement with that hospital to provide services for that child and then they enroll with us so that can be done without
legislation or rule changes yes sir we do it
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:03:14
all the time thank you thank youpresentative Senator dismang you're recognized thank you and so if I'm kind of listening to everything there's probably some disconnect between children's and DhS and what they think the outcome is going to be and how much have we worked towards trying to reconcile, I guess the disagreement or maybe children's just as a misunderstanding I mean my concern is we pat and I think you've heard it we passed this out of here y'all
start implementing rule and we've got consequence that may be y'all didn't perceive or whatever or maybe you're completely right and there's this is a better situation for children so I just but but I think the fact that there's an inability to get to an agreement on what's going to happen is is a little concerning and I think it's what you're hearing about how how do we get past that? I mean is there have you already gone through hours of education with children's and they just no one agrees or what's happening
we have had conversations with children's hospitalstal on this issue and for a
Chair
Unverified
1:04:10
while. I I don't know that we're going to agree at this point. They they have given you their opinion. we we believe that this will allow us to pay for services that I mean quite frankly we have denied for both children's and other hospitals
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:04:23
in the past. so and there's just I mean that's it
is such a big void between seeing it the way that you're seeing it and seeing it the way that the providers seeing it and
again I have concerns because I don't want to have some unintended consequences that we all find out about here in the next couple of months or whatever so how how do we reconcile that to make sure that we're all comfortable in in in doing the right thing today I mean we can continue
Chair
Unverified
1:04:55
to talk to childrenldren's hospitalspital about this and make sure they understand what we're doing outside of that we if this is not passed we will not have a mechanism to approve
care that does not include acute services and we will continue
to deny those thank you for the question
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:05:17
Senator Irving you're recognized thank you so this isn't just about children's hospitals it's about every hospital in the state of Arkansas that has the ability to now provide rehabilitation within those hospital walls with beds that are not being utilized so if you have a small rural critical access hospital, this opens up another avenue and a
pathway for them. So for example, the hospitals in my district now have the opportunity to become a rehabilitative beds and be paid for that and so you know this is a really really important pathway and a door that's being opened for a lot of rural hospitals in the state of Arkansas this isn't just about one hospital just a representative ladyman's point my husband sends patients all the time and has for the past30
years to Laboner for care when they can't get into children's hospital so Laboner of course Saint Jude they have an incredible working relationship with a lot of the providers all across the state to be honest with you and they've done an amazing job with our patients and they have for years that are on medicaid but my understanding to me is if you're not providing a critical a critical care acute care you're providing a lower level of care we're paying for that appropriately with this rule.
That's my understanding of this. You may want more money.body wants more money but we're paying at the appropriate level of care. so we're instead of denying it we're saying ok you can keep these people no matter who they are. adults or children and children also can be served in a rehabilitative manner, not just at childrenldren's hospitalspital but at any other hospital. I mean that's true if you have rehabilitation and they can provide that level of care at their hospital. they
can provide that to children as well as adults at any hospital. So this opens up a pathway and it's incredibly beneficial to all the hospitals in the state of Arkansas in my opinion and so and I want to make sure that we're paying for something appropriately and I think that's what this rule doesc according to the testimony that was in public health and to this testimony I don't want to pay for acute level of care. this is the same argument we have with you know, long term nursing care
which is completely different from assisted living or homeme health or personal care or paying for the appropriate service. we're not paying for a higher level of service that we're not getting. So I I appreciate this rule and I think that it's important that we talk about it from the standpoint of all the hospitals particularly rural hospitals of allowing this we had this meeting down in was it Arkadelphia but those hospitals down in south Arkansas really gonna they
we talked about this and they wanted this pathway when we went to Texarkana and Arkadelphia because they have areas of their hospital that are not being utilized because they just don't have the numbers of inpatient critical critical acute care. So this opens up a whole another source of of service line and pathway for that that hospital down in Texarkana and hopepe and Arkadelphia area. So I, I appreciate the rule. I support the rule and I thank you for your work on it. Thank you think it is important
Chair
Unverified
1:08:44
to remember this is for all hospitals all hospitals that are providing acute levels of care.
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
1:08:50
youir shepherd you're recognized thank you Mr Chairman. just a question in particular related to children's hospitals have have attorneys from both sides sat down and talked through this sir Well I mean I guess I don't I know attorneys can have different opinions but I would certainly encourage folks to just continue those discussions because it seems like something that should be able to be worked out. Thank you.
Yes, so it it does seem like there are still some concerns on on both sides as I said
before, I think the rule that aims to do good and there's a lot in here that is good without
controversy I I think the the review from4 days to seven days is a is a great measure and great effort that there are some concerns you know I'm I'm hearing from those I'm receiving texts and calls
about those as well and so here's what I'm gonna ask members'm I'm gonna ask for a motion that we hold this rule in
this subcommittee for further review and discussion but that does take a vote and so we'll make that motion. I would need a second there's a second and then all in favor say aye I'll pose say no eyes have it so we will
hold this in our subcommittee for further review just to get some of these answers back. thank you for being willing and able to answer questions with pittman and your team but but please be ready with with those so we can continue this conversation OK thank you thanks for being here
Unknown speaker
1:10:24
Hold on one second Miss Pittman. holdld on. One second members we're gonna ask staff a few questions just one second.
right thank you Miss Pitman and thank you members for just clarification on rules and and
procedures there so that that motion did pass and we will hold this in our committee at this time. I will tell you that we are going to look to see I would encourage y'all to maybe be working with some of the interested parties even in the next 24 hours because if there is sort of any agreements or changes that could be brought to the table for tomorrow. we do want to make sure that's available so stay tight for any
other action we may make in this committee. later
through the agenda. thank you thank you very much senator Irving you're recognized thank you'd like a
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:12:16
legal statement from the attorneys from Children's hospitalspital as to the legal standing as to why you believe that you cannot meet this under your current license and then I would like a legal statement from DHS and the Department of Health because the Department of Health is the one in charge of their licensure if that is the issue because what I
don't want is a money grab. I'm just going to be real frank about that. and so I think I want to see the legal, those legal statements and I need that you need to be on record in public testimony childrenldren's hospitalspital does about this. Thank you. right
members here's what we're gonna we're going to do in
good faith effort to try to give grounds for for these
interested parties to continue to work on this. I'm going to ask that we expunge that vote that we just took so that it gives the option for these interested parties to be working in the next 24 hours. to potentially bring forward solutions for changes so staff I just want to confirm so that'll be a motion to expunge the vote by which it passed will that need a second? Yeah we'll need a second. we got a question on that motionpresentative Painter you're recognized
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:13:39
so help me with that motion so if we expunge it you said and we're then we're giving them 24
hours or are you talking about till Friday? just take it up on Friday? yes then if that's the case then I will work with them and and and I'll second that motion then but in good faith if we're gonna make other people come on the record and everything else we dadd gum better be working in good faith bothth sides both sides you understand
and and I will direct this to staff so if this motion passes and we expunge that vote
would we need to pass this rule in order for it as is I want to make sure that's that's clear. I don't believe that's correct but I
want to make sure we do that the right way. Please give us some direction there Mrir you would expunge the vote
Speaker 246
1:14:23
that was just taken and then you would there would be a motion to hold this till till council tomorrow so that the full council could determine that's that's
the clarity we needed right members any questions on on what we're doing here OK right
so I'll say it again we're going the motion is to expunge that last vote to
hold this in subcommittee and we're just checking double checking one more time back here right we have a motion to expunge the vote by which it
just passed. do we have a second? We have a second all those in favor signal with say a opposed like sun all right motion to expunge passes ok right so
now we have a motion to hold this item which is leg to hold till tomorrow's full Alc committee. needed a second we have a second all in favor signaled by saying aye opposed
like sign. all right motion passes all right thank you members appreciate the
leniency to get that done right correct? and co-chair shepherd recognized thank
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
1:15:52
you Mr Chairman and hopefully the parties involved I mean I would expect over the next well not even 24 hours now that there would be indepth discussions about where things stand and hopefully it may be that everybody can get on the same page but I think that
having been one of the concerns I had about holding it for a month is that that's that's a long time and that there could be a hardship worked in other ways but hopefully both sides will make a really concerted effort to try to resolve this or to understand which understand and hopefully reach a consensus on what the rule the application of the rule would be so I I I would hope and would be disappointed if there's not extensive discussions over the next 2 4 hours
you'representative shepherd all right members appreciate the the time on that. let's move
to 12 Department of laborbor and licensing he recognized you're welcome to the table thank you for being here if you'll
turn your microphones on and introduce yourself. Lacey Kirchner counsel for the department
Speaker 252
1:17:17
Lindseay Moore, director of code enforcement Arkansas Department of
Labor andliccensing thanks for being
Speaker 254
1:17:24
here you're recognized to present t2a today we're here to produce or excuse me we're here to present the rules changes for the elevator safety boardard. this is a result of act735 and Acts746 of2025 they're changing the clarifying the consisting moderning modernizing the the verbiage of application of the elevator safety boardard framework we're including the
electronic mail we compact it down and clarified the administrative's procedures actct to a more easier to read type of document and we clarified the information of having inspections performed30 days prior to the expiration date of the certificate with that I'll be happy to take any questions thank you for the description members any questions on 12A? seeing none without objection
this rule is reviewed and proved. Thank you.
all right members 13 Department of laborbor and licensing, Arkansas Motor Vehicle Commission. this is page66 in your packet. right Miss Kirchner you don't need to re reintroduce yourself but if you will
Speaker 257
1:18:40
pleaseor Danielpace director of the Arkansas Motor Vehicle Commission.
Glad you're here. thank you for being here and you're recognized to present 13
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:18:48
a members 1a is a very minor
exception that's been added to the authority of the motoremission for new sales of electronic bikes classified as type one or type 2 and these are ones that are rated for less than 2 they're 20 MPH or less therefore your big box stores, Walmart, Lowe's anyone can sell these bikes without having to have a dealer's license from the commission and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Sarah Moore
Unverified
1:19:16
Thank you for the description. Members any questions on 13 a?
seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you. right members moving to 14 right you'll turn
your microphone on and introduce yourself for the record. my name
Speaker 260
1:19:42
is Heather Henries. I'm the deputy director for the Arkansas Real Estate Commission. thank you for being here you're recognized to present your role. Thank you. The rules presented today are necessary to comply
with x392 which creates two new property management licenses Act559 that creates an exemption for continuing education and actct335 which clarifies language regarding dual agency and we're happy to answer any questions thank you for the description members any questions see none nope nope seeing none
without objection the rule is reviewed
and approved. thank you thank you for being here
alright members moving to 14 oh I'm sorry 15 excuse me 15 a Arkansas towing and
Speaker 261
1:20:45
recovery boardard. right if you'll introduce yourself for the record. good morning sir paul Burnett the director of
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:20:52
the Arkansas Tonecoverboardard thank you. You recognize to present 15 a members today we are presenting rules for the Arkansas towing and recovery Board. these are
rules that we have modified in excuse me after the act of oh my lord 932 of2025 I'm sorry members and these rules are to comply with that act as well as some clean up language that we have noticed when we converted to the cars format of the rules and we are happy to address any questions. representative painter you're
Chair
Unverified
1:21:24
recognized get you turned on here
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:21:33
Thank you Mr Chair some of these rules kind of concern me as the sponsor of of of this bill and worked very hard to get something to satisfy the the big issue in our state and for example, I've heard from folks about on page 51 of the rule that's the proof of insurance part you know in in the in the bill itself it specifically says what that proof of insurance is a letter from the insurance company not just a simple card
because I can carry a simple card and it's not valid and so I think that's very vague that doesn't meet the legislative intent of what we were trying to do. Second question is or just very puzzled is on the same page of the rule51, the type of assurance of future financial responsibility that is very very vague and I've had towing companies and cargo companies telll calling me saying we've read the bill that's not the
intent there's shalling there this has May and so just kind of helped me through the
process of where you guys are coming from because as the legislator of this bill that that's not
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:22:49
where we're wanting to go of course sir so specifically I'll start with the part about the proof of insurance. so we were looking in that particular instance there the statute does state that they have to provide the individuals provide an insurance of future financial responsibility the
statute actually does not clarify it does not define the future of financial responsibility in that particular section as to what that would be so we were trying to give tow companies and the consumers and understanding of what they could present as an option of what that future responsibility could look like as same with on the second half of the question about the may it's not to say
that that they shouldn't take a financial assurance of future financial responsibility it's saying that the tow company or the cargo or the owner or the cargo owner can help determine what that future what that looks like what that assurance of future financial responsibility looks like. It was trying to help give some clarity because we received those same questions what is a what is an assurance of future responsibility. we've had when this first passed we had calls
where people were wanting them to s to hand over their bank statements to hand over their tax records to hand over a surety of5,000 dollars you know from the bank a letter of credit saying that they've got5,000 dollars that they can hand over to this company if necessary. So we were trying to give examples and opportunities of where these sorts of instances could be. it was strictly trying to give an understanding of what an assurance of future financial
responsibility is it wasn't even touching that second half of the act where it does mention the the letter from the insurance company that particular section wasn't on the future financial assurance from the individual owner that was a separate instance where if there is a dispute regarding a non a police tow and the payment and receiving that cargo and when it comes out and how they can get it this particular instance was focusing
on the earlier language of specifically the future financial assurance. I just mean Mr Chair,
Speaker 265
1:25:16
I've got a motion at the proper time but I I think we just need we need to sit down I I
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:25:22
I think we've got a lot of issues with this rule and and and those are just the top two of my concerns with this and and maybe we can work offline and and narrow this down a little bit. thank you for the question members any other
questions all right seeing none representative painter you're recognized for your motion.
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:25:47
sorry Mr Chair I make a motion to not approve this rule due to not
the legislative intent right you've heard the motion members as a reminder in this committee any rule that that is deemed to not fall legislative intent or has fees and penalties is subject to this type of motion and so it is a voice vote so one more time the motion is to deny this rule based on those situations so all in favor to deny
this rule signaled by saying aye opposed like sign
motion carries this rule is denied thank you for your your time
being here today. all right members we are moving to 16 boardard oflectrical examiners 16a right thank you for being here
today if you'll recognize yourself, Lindseay Moore,
Speaker 271
1:26:41
director of code enforcement Arkansas Department of Labor andliccensing. right
you're recognized for 16a. we're here
Speaker 254
1:26:48
to present today the rules as a result of Act746 and the adoption of the 2026 national Electric code. We reduced two licenses with Act746 and we increased the scope of work with a third license we also clarified apprentice registrations to make a smoother registrations for both the the students and the employers with that I'll take questions thank you for the description members any questions for 16 a
see none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you. thank you all right and thank you for being here. All right members we're going to 17. we're on the home stretch here. thank you for your time and attention. 17A Department of Parks and Heritage and tourism. This is page 81 in your packets all right gentlemen thank you for being here if you'll introduce yourself for the record
Speaker 274
1:27:53
or ty Ra director of legislative affairs Department ofarks
Speaker 275
1:27:57
heritage and tourism Jeff King deputy director
Speaker 277
1:28:03
of division of state parks mike Wilson assistant parks director Arkansas state parks thank you
for being here you are recognized to present
Speaker 275
1:28:12
17a so the proposed rule regarding firearms hunting explosives and fireworks in Arkansas state parks is being presented for amendment. This amendment brings our state park rule regarding possession of
firearms in compliance with current state laws and in alignment with opinions provided by the attorney general's office the rule also maintains restrictions regarding discharging of firearms to those areas designated for that particular use within state parks the amendment also expands hunting beyond just Hobbs State Park conservation area to include any property jointly managed by Arkansas State Parks and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. This includes Queenilhelmina State Park and the newly added property associated with the trails atina
Project totaling 8,865 acres the rules were were published for notice on June 14th and comments were accepted through July13th with no comments being received a public hearing was also held on July13th and we did not receive comments with that I'm happy to answer any questions. thank you for the description. Members we've
got Senator Rice you're recognized for question thank you gentlemen for being
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
1:29:19
here and I'm I'm sorry I just saw this day and it looked looked just like you said it
updated where it should be but there was absolutely no comments that's correct they give me that and
job OK thank you. all right members any other questions seeing none without objection this rule is
Speaker 277
1:29:46
reviewed and approved 17b right good morning we'd like to present an amendment to the hang gliding and paragliding rule currently permitting hang gliding and paragliding at Mount Nebo State Park and also
Mount magazine State Park. the proposed amendment includes three key adjustments one is the reduction of the personal liability insurance from a million dollars to500,000 second adding passengerrelated safety and rating requirements consistent with the United States hang gliding and paragraphing association standards and clarifying language concerning pilot rating requirements the primary change the reduction in the personal liability insurance aligns with the United States hang gliding and paragliding
associations' current insurance standardard and reflects and improved equipment training protocols and robust national ilott rating systems that have contributed to the exceptional strong safety record of that report arkansas Statearks is also documented significant and ongoing declining and hang gliding and paragliding at our two parks largely due to the the existing higher personal liability requirement. the proposed update is intended to restore reasonable access for
recreational pilots while maintaining safety expectations consistent with the nation's best practices so we're respectfully requesting these amendments to the policy thank you for your description and now this one did have
a wealth of public comment but looks to be in favor on in fact
I didn't know we had quite the hang gliding and paragliding community in Arkansas. so it was glad to see that but overall it did look like they're in favor of
the rule. sir I'd like to point out
Speaker 277
1:31:33
that as deputy director stated we'd also publish the rule in June 14th and then also had those public comments on the 13th and the I would like to point out that the umbuffalomoun tain fliers which is the primary flyers in the state of Arkansas very much to help with this policy so I wanted to go on record thanking them for their participation and help in this policy. great job members any questions
seeing none without objection this rule is
reviewed and approved. thank you for being
here gentlemen. right members 18 Department of shared administrative Services you'll turn your microphone
on introduce yourself for the record. Grant Wallace, director
Speaker 282
1:32:20
of the employee benefits division and officefice of property Risk. you Mr Wallace you're recognized the rule you have before you today is in response to act 956 of2025 and just lays out the process by which we will have an
independent party review the data that vendors who work with EBd submit in response to fiscal impact statements the party that we've identified as our actuary public consulting group. it was in their contract to do this work when we went in when we agreed into that process this rule has been reviewed by the state board of finance and the ALc statesurance subcommittee yesterday I'd be glad to answer any questions thank you Mr. Wallace. Members any questions? EBD rule
seeing none without objection 18 a is reviewed and approved. Thank you. members 19 section529 plan review committee. if you'll introduce yourself for the record please yes
Michael Harry
Unverified
1:33:35
sir my name is Michaelerry I'm the chief compliance officer and director of government affairs for the
treasurer of state. thank you for being here you recognized to present your role. This rule in regard to the529 accounts it is in direct response to legislation that was passed that required 100% divestment from Chinese investments
on der thank you for being here members any questions on the529 accounts seeing none without objection the rule is reviewed and approved. thank you
thank you all right members 20 treasureerates yes go ahead me again yes sir
Michael Harry
Unverified
1:34:12
this is basically incorporating the same statute with the ABc accounts members any
questions on 2 A? seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and
proved as well. thank you thank you all all right members as a reminder we're skipping over 21 per the agency which takes us to the last few items on the agenda as a reminder this is the review of the group re agencies pursuant toxct781 of2017 and
Act65 of2021. and so we now continue our review of those eroup re agency reports under Act71. today we have the office of Early
Childhood here on site for their report we will invite them to the table for a quick review are they here today? there we are yes right if you will introduce yourself for
the record Good morning Courtney Salis ford
Speaker 95
1:35:13
Department of Education. the office of Early Childhood has6 rules that we are requesting to keep and continue. we feel these rules are necessary to implement state and federal requirements for childcare facilities. um, any outdated or unnecessary rules have already been repealed and
Speaker 285
1:35:27
so we're just requesting that these continue on. thank you for description members any questions for the
agency seeing none as a reminder this does take a motion to end a ok we have a motion in a
second so all in favor to keep these rules signaled by saying aye opposed like sign all right congratulations it passes we will keep these
rules all right that is all thank you so much we're moving to G nowg andh this is our outstanding rulemaking process for 2021 or 23 and for 25 and so ong let's see here we actually have all
these agencies available they've sent their response in your packet if
anybody has any questions you can light up the screen otherwise we will
thank them for being here. Any questions? seeing none thank you for being here that takes us to H as
well the same requests all these agencies are here as well for the 2025 regular session pursuant to actct595 of2021. Any questions for any of these agencies? seeing none thank you all for
being here and being available. all rightu check with staff
Unknown speaker
1:36:51
right. nothingthing else on the agenda. Members thank you for being here we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Report from the Executive Subcommittee Concerning Emergency Rules
C. Reports from ALC Subcommittees Concerning the Review of Rules
D. Reports on Administrative Directives Pursuant to Act 1258 of 2015, for Quarter Ending June 30, 2026
E. Rules Filed Pursuant to Arkansas Code § 10-3-309
F. Evaluation of Rule Review Group 3 Agencies Pursuant to Act 781 of 2017 and Act 65 of 2021
G. Agency Updates on the Status of Outstanding Rulemaking from the 2023 Regular Session Pursuant to Act 595 of 20211
H. Agency Updates on the Status of Outstanding Rulemaking from the 2025 Regular Session Pursuant to Act 595 of 2021
I. Adjournment
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Senator Tyler Dees Chair
Unverified
Speaker 14
Speaker 18
Speaker 19
Speaker 20
Speaker 24
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 50
Speaker 56
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 75
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
Speaker 88
Speaker 92
Speaker 95
Speaker 110
Speaker 111
Speaker 112
Speaker 120
Speaker 131
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 142
Speaker 144
Speaker 149
Speaker 152
Speaker 153
Speaker 155
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
Speaker 166
Speaker 169
Speaker 172
Speaker 170
Speaker 177
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 187
Speaker 190
Speaker 191
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
Speaker 206
Speaker 171
Speaker 168
Speaker 210
Speaker 193
Speaker 214
Speaker 203
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
Speaker 246
Speaker 252
Speaker 254
Speaker 257
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
Sarah Moore
Unverified
Speaker 260
Speaker 261
Speaker 265
Speaker 271
Speaker 274
Speaker 275
Speaker 277
Speaker 280
Speaker 282
Michael Harry
Unverified
Speaker 285