Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee - Senate
Video
Transcript
1 document
Bills discussed (73)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SB311
Act 772
· 6 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “SB311 C. Penzo TO CREATE THE END ORGAN AND GENOMIC HARVESTING ACT…”
|
TO CREATE THE END ORGAN AND GENOMIC HARVESTING ACT; TO PROHIBIT COVERAGE OF CERTAIN HUMAN … | C. Penzo | Notification that SB311 is now Act 772 |
|
SB255
· 5 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “SB255 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "DRUG" WITHIN THE FOOD,…”
|
TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "DRUG" WITHIN THE FOOD, DRUG, AND COSMETIC ACT; AND TO … | C. Penzo | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB591
Act 973
· 5 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “SB591 C. Penzo TO PROHIBIT RACE-SELECTION ABORTION IN THIS STATE;…”
|
TO PROHIBIT RACE-SELECTION ABORTION IN THIS STATE; AND TO CREATE THE RACE DISCRIMINATION BY ABORTION … | C. Penzo | Notification that SB591 is now Act 973 |
|
HB1004
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1004 Pilkington TO REQUIRE MEDICAID COVERAGE FOR POSTPARTUM MOTH…”
|
TO REQUIRE MEDICAID COVERAGE FOR POSTPARTUM MOTHERS FOR ONE YEAR AFTER GIVING BIRTH. | Pilkington | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1131
Act 959
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1131 Pilkington TO AUTHORIZE AN ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NUR…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE AN ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSE TO DELEGATE CERTAIN TASKS TO MEDICAL ASSISTANTS AND … | Pilkington | Notification that HB1131 is now Act 959 |
|
HB1142
Act 859
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1142 A. Brown TO CREATE THE REPRODUCTIVE EMPOWERMENT AND SUPPORT…”
|
TO CREATE THE REPRODUCTIVE EMPOWERMENT AND SUPPORT THROUGH OPTIMAL RESTORATION (RESTORE) ACT. | A. Brown | Notification that HB1142 is now Act 859 |
|
HB1171
Act 625
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…AIN TASKS TO MEDICAL ASSISTANTS AND OTHER UNLICENSED STAFF. HB1171 K. Moore TO MODIFY THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE…”
|
TO MODIFY THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE ACT; AND TO AUTHORIZE AN ABBREVIATED INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT … | K. Moore | Notification that HB1171 is now Act 625 |
|
HB1185
Act 799
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1185 L. Johnson TO ADOPT THE DIETITIAN LICENSURE COMPACT IN ARKA…”
|
TO ADOPT THE DIETITIAN LICENSURE COMPACT IN ARKANSAS. | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1185 is now Act 799 |
|
HB1186
Act 960
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ATE'S ELECTRICIAN, HVACR, ELEVATOR, AND BOILER SAFETY LAWS. HB1186 Vaught TO CREATE THE PAIN RELIEF PARITY ACT; AND TO REQUIRE…”
|
TO CREATE THE PAIN RELIEF PARITY ACT; AND TO REQUIRE PAIN RELIEF PARITY IN THE … | Vaught | Notification that HB1186 is now Act 960 |
|
HB1187
Act 858
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…TO REQUIRE CERTAIN REPORTING OF PROCUREMENT ORGANIZATIONS. HB1187 Vaught TO AUTHORIZE A LICENSURE BY ENDORSEMENT FOR MARRIAGE…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE A LICENSURE BY ENDORSEMENT FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS. | Vaught | Notification that HB1187 is now Act 858 |
|
HB1218
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1218 J. Mayberry TO CREATE LICENSURE FOR THERAPEUTIC RECREATION…”
|
TO CREATE LICENSURE FOR THERAPEUTIC RECREATION SPECIALISTS; AND TO CREATE THE THERAPEUTIC RECREATION PRACTICE ACT. | J. Mayberry | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1241
Act 568
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1241 J. Mayberry TO ENSURE THAT THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM RE…”
|
TO ENSURE THAT THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM REIMBURSES FOR DENTAL AND ANESTHESIA COSTS FOR HIGH … | J. Mayberry | Notification that HB1241 is now Act 568 |
|
HB1251
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…SION TO BE AN ADVISORY COUNCIL TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. HB1251 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH THE ARKANSAS ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSIS…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE ARKANSAS ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSISTANT ACT; AND TO PROVIDE FOR LICENSURE OF ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSISTANTS. | L. Johnson | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1252
Act 965
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…R ACT; AND TO CLARIFY FOOD DONATION LIABILITY AND IMMUNITY. HB1252 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH THE CERTIFIED COMMUNITY-BASED DOULA…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE CERTIFIED COMMUNITY-BASED DOULA CERTIFICATION ACT; AND TO CERTIFY BIRTH AND POSTPARTUM DOULAS … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1252 is now Act 965 |
|
HB1285
Act 856
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…R INPATIENT TREATMENT SERVICES FOR SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS. HB1285 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH AN EXEMPTION PROGRAM FOR AMBULANCE…”
|
TO ESTABLISH AN EXEMPTION PROGRAM FOR AMBULANCE SERVICE'S OPERATORS FOR CERTAIN HEALTHCARE SERVICES. | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1285 is now Act 856 |
|
HB1439
Act 853
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1439 Ladyman TO REMOVE THE CERTIFICATION PROCESS OF THE DEPARTME…”
|
TO REMOVE THE CERTIFICATION PROCESS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES FROM LICENSURE AS A … | Ladyman | Notification that HB1439 is now Act 853 |
|
HB1440
Act 629
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…EQUIRE PAIN RELIEF PARITY IN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM. HB1440 Bentley TO AMEND THE MASSAGE THERAPY ACT; AND TO ESTABLISH…”
|
TO AMEND THE MASSAGE THERAPY ACT; AND TO ESTABLISH REGISTRATION FOR MASSAGE THERAPY ESTABLISHMENTS. | Bentley | Notification that HB1440 is now Act 629 |
|
HB1442
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1442 Achor TO SET RESTRICTIONS ON PHARMACY CONTRACTING AND CONFL…”
|
TO SET RESTRICTIONS ON PHARMACY CONTRACTING AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST; AND TO ESTABLISH PHARMACEUTICAL PATIENT … | Achor | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1454
Act 674
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ESTABLISH REGISTRATION FOR MASSAGE THERAPY ESTABLISHMENTS. HB1454 Bentley TO AMEND THE LAWS CONCERNING CRIMINAL HISTORY RECOR…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAWS CONCERNING CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORDS CHECKS FOR EMPLOYEES OF SERVICE PROVIDERS; TO … | Bentley | Notification that HB1454 is now Act 674 |
|
HB1456
Act 852
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…OF HUMAN SERVICES FROM LICENSURE AS A PRIVATE CARE AGENCY. HB1456 Rose TO AMEND THE STATE KIDNEY DISEASE COMMISSION TO BE AN…”
|
TO AMEND THE STATE KIDNEY DISEASE COMMISSION TO BE AN ADVISORY COUNCIL TO THE DEPARTMENT … | Rose | Notification that HB1456 is now Act 852 |
|
HB1458
Act 851
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ND TO PROVIDE FOR LICENSURE OF ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSISTANTS. HB1458 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "CREDENTIALING INFORM…”
|
TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "CREDENTIALING INFORMATION" WHEN THE ARKANSAS STATE MEDICAL BOARD IS PROVIDING … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1458 is now Act 851 |
|
HB1471
Act 966
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1471 Wooldridge TO AMEND THE EXPIRATION DATE OF ALL LICENSES OF…”
|
TO AMEND THE EXPIRATION DATE OF ALL LICENSES OF THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS IN SPEECH-LANGUAGE … | Wooldridge | Notification that HB1471 is now Act 966 |
|
HB1537
Act 850
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…RD IS PROVIDING INFORMATION TO CREDENTIALING ORGANIZATIONS. HB1537 Ladyman TO REPEAL THE LOCATION ACT FOR COMMUNITY HOMES FOR…”
|
TO REPEAL THE LOCATION ACT FOR COMMUNITY HOMES FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES. | Ladyman | Notification that HB1537 is now Act 850 |
|
HB1543
Act 631
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…E FURNISHED TO A PERSON WHO IS UNDER EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE. HB1543 Underwood TO ESTABLISH THE WORKFORCE EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITI…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE WORKFORCE EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITIES ACT OF 2025. | Underwood | Notification that HB1543 is now Act 631 |
|
HB1559
Act 632
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1559 McGrew TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO SEEK…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO SEEK A WAIVER TO THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID … | McGrew | Notification that HB1559 is now Act 632 |
|
HB1576
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1576 Lundstrum TO PROHIBIT A SOLID WASTE LANDFILL TO BE PLACED O…”
|
TO PROHIBIT A SOLID WASTE LANDFILL TO BE PLACED OVER A KARST TOPOGRAPHY. | Lundstrum | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1582
Act 708
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1582 McAlindon TO REQUIRE CERTAIN ACTIONS AND ENCOURAGE CERTAIN…”
|
TO REQUIRE CERTAIN ACTIONS AND ENCOURAGE CERTAIN ACTIONS FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR … | McAlindon | Notification that HB1582 is now Act 708 |
|
HB1585
Act 849
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1585 L. Johnson TO PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION FROM LICENSURE AS A HOME…”
|
TO PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION FROM LICENSURE AS A HOME HEALTHCARE SERVICE TO AN ENTITY THAT … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1585 is now Act 849 |
|
HB1619
Act 634
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…CONSIDERATION UNDER THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT. Page 3 of 5 HB1619 Gramlich TO SET ADMINISTRATION FEES UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDI…”
|
TO SET ADMINISTRATION FEES UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR IMMUNIZATIONS AND MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES FOR … | Gramlich | Notification that HB1619 is now Act 634 |
|
HB1622
Act 635
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…FOR BENEFITS UNDER THE DIVISION OF WORKFORCE SERVICES LAW. HB1622 Gramlich TO AMEND THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; TO MODIFY THE…”
|
TO AMEND THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; TO MODIFY THE DEFINITION OF "ADVERSE DECISION" UNDER THE … | Gramlich | Notification that HB1622 is now Act 635 |
|
HB1653
Act 636
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…TS FOR CORRECTIVE ACTION REGARDING PETROLEUM STORAGE TANKS. HB1653 Cavenaugh TO SET STANDARDS FOR LICENSING AND REGULATION OF…”
|
TO SET STANDARDS FOR LICENSING AND REGULATION OF PSYCHIATRIC RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITIES; AND TO DECLARE … | Cavenaugh | Notification that HB1653 is now Act 636 |
|
HB1677
Act 637
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1677 Bentley TO AUTHORIZE ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT PROGR…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT PROGRAMS TO MAINTAIN EMERGENCY MEDICATION KITS. | Bentley | Notification that HB1677 is now Act 637 |
|
HB1679
Act 861
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1679 M. Brown TO AMEND THE REVISED ARKANSAS ANATOMICAL GIFT ACT;…”
|
TO AMEND THE REVISED ARKANSAS ANATOMICAL GIFT ACT; TO ALLOW CERTAIN CLASSES OF PERSONS TO … | M. Brown | Notification that HB1679 is now Act 861 |
|
HB1712
Act 639
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…HERAPY SERVICES THAT ARE NOT REIMBURSED BY MEDICARE PART A. HB1712 Joey Carr TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN THIS STATE. | Joey Carr | Notification that HB1712 is now Act 639 |
|
HB1734
Act 862
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1734 Childress TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DEATH CERTIFICATES; A…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DEATH CERTIFICATES; AND TO CLARIFY THE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS WHO MAY … | Childress | Notification that HB1734 is now Act 862 |
|
HB1751
Act 640
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1751 Underwood TO REQUIRE AN APPLICANT FOR TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE…”
|
TO REQUIRE AN APPLICANT FOR TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES PROGRAM BENEFITS TO ENGAGE IN … | Underwood | Notification that HB1751 is now Act 640 |
|
HB1758
Act 641
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1758 Gramlich TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING HEARING INSTRUMENT DIS…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING HEARING INSTRUMENT DISPENSERS; AND TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "PRACTICE … | Gramlich | Notification that HB1758 is now Act 641 |
|
HB1767
Act 863
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1767 L. Johnson TO ABOLISH THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES ADVISO…”
|
TO ABOLISH THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES ADVISORY COUNCIL; AND TO CREATE THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1767 is now Act 863 |
|
HB1768
Act 815
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1768 Lundstrum TO REQUIRE A SOLID WASTE LANDFILL CONTRACT RELATI…”
|
TO REQUIRE A SOLID WASTE LANDFILL CONTRACT RELATING TO A HOST FEE TO BE VOTED … | Lundstrum | Notification that HB1768 is now Act 815 |
|
HB1782
Act 642
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…AND ANESTHESIA COSTS FOR HIGH COMPLEXITY ORAL HEALTH CARE. HB1782 Hudson TO PROHIBIT OVER-THE-COUNTER DIET PILLS FROM BEING S…”
|
TO PROHIBIT OVER-THE-COUNTER DIET PILLS FROM BEING SOLD, TRANSFERRED, OR OTHERWISE FURNISHED TO A PERSON … | Hudson | Notification that HB1782 is now Act 642 |
|
HB1784
Act 864
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…E TREATMENT PROGRAMS TO MAINTAIN EMERGENCY MEDICATION KITS. HB1784 Wardlaw TO MODIFY THE INFORMAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCESS F…”
|
TO MODIFY THE INFORMAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCESS FOR LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES. | Wardlaw | Notification that HB1784 is now Act 864 |
|
HB1801
Act 961
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1801 K. Moore TO AUTHORIZE AN OUTSOURCING FACILITY OF LEGEND DRU…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE AN OUTSOURCING FACILITY OF LEGEND DRUGS AND CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES THAT COMPOUNDS A PRODUCT … | K. Moore | Notification that HB1801 is now Act 961 |
|
HB1817
Act 865
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1817 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH ELIJAH'S LAW IN ARKANSAS; AND TO RE…”
|
TO ESTABLISH ELIJAH'S LAW IN ARKANSAS; AND TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1817 is now Act 865 |
|
HB1840
Act 967
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1840 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CAR…”
|
TO AMEND THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE ACT TO ENSURE THAT SEDATION DENTISTRY IS COVERED … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1840 is now Act 967 |
|
HB1841
Act 1021
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1841 L. Johnson TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS REVENUE INVESTMENT IN VIT…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS REVENUE INVESTMENT IN VITAL EMS SYSTEMS (ARRIVES) ACT; AND TO CREATE … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1841 is now Act 1021 |
|
HB1854
Act 643
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1854 Bentley TO EXEMPT A HOME CAREGIVER FROM HOME CAREGIVER TRAI…”
|
TO EXEMPT A HOME CAREGIVER FROM HOME CAREGIVER TRAINING IF HE OR SHE PREVIOUSLY COMPLETED … | Bentley | Notification that HB1854 is now Act 643 |
|
SB2
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…WAIVER FOR THE AGING AND ELDERLY POPULATION IN THIS STATE. SB2 C. Penzo TO REPEAL THE STATEWIDE FLUORIDATION PROGRAM; AND…”
|
TO REPEAL THE STATEWIDE FLUORIDATION PROGRAM; AND TO REMOVE THE MANDATE FOR WATER SYSTEMS TO … | C. Penzo | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB306
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. SB306 C. Penzo TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO APP…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO APPLY FOR A HOME- AND COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES … | C. Penzo | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB312
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…OMPLIANCE; AND TO PROHIBIT CERTAIN DISCHARGE OF WASTEWATER. SB312 Stone TO REMOVE THE MORATORIUM ON THE CONSTRUCTION OR ADDIT…”
|
TO REMOVE THE MORATORIUM ON THE CONSTRUCTION OR ADDITION OF ANY ADDITIONAL BEDS WITHIN PSYCHIATRIC … | Stone | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB474
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…RENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CERTAIN 340B-COVERED ENTITIES. SB474 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS;…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS; AND TO ALLOW THE BOARD OF A … | C. Penzo | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB532
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…WHO PURCHASES THE SERVICE OF REMOVAL OF A TIRE FROM A RIM. SB532 Hester TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "SPECIALTY HOSPITAL" RELA…”
|
TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "SPECIALTY HOSPITAL" RELATING TO THE ASSESSMENT FEE ON HOSPITALS UNDER … | Hester | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB556
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…L BEDS WITHIN PSYCHIATRIC RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITIES. SB556 M. Johnson TO PROTECT PUBLIC DRINKING WATER SOURCES; AND TO…”
|
TO PROTECT PUBLIC DRINKING WATER SOURCES; AND TO PROHIBIT SURFACE DISCHARGE OF WASTEWATER INTO A … | M. Johnson | Sine Die adjournment |
|
SB557
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…SMENT FEE ON HOSPITALS UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM. SB557 M. Johnson TO AMENDS LAW CONCERNING WATER PERMITS AND DISCH…”
|
TO AMENDS LAW CONCERNING WATER PERMITS AND DISCHARGE OF WASTEWATER; TO AUTHORIZE DENIALS OF APPLICANTS … | M. Johnson | Sine Die adjournment |
|
SB587
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…SAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO PERFORM ADDITIONAL CARE AND DUTIES. SB587 G. Leding TO CREATE THE PARENTS' PEACE OF MIND ACT; TO ESTA…”
|
TO CREATE THE PARENTS' PEACE OF MIND ACT; TO ESTABLISH AUTHORIZATION FOR AND USE OF … | G. Leding | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB589
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…PROHIBIT SURFACE DISCHARGE OF WASTEWATER INTO A WATERSHED. SB589 C. Penzo TO CREATE THE 340B PROGRAM TRANSPARENCY ACT; AND T…”
|
TO CREATE THE 340B PROGRAM TRANSPARENCY ACT; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING TRANSPARENCY AND … | C. Penzo | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB606
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…en. Fredrick J. Love REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle SB606 B. Davis TO AMEND THE USED TIRE RECYCLING AND ACCOUNTABILIT…”
|
TO AMEND THE USED TIRE RECYCLING AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT; TO CREATE THE TIRE MANAGEMENT AND … | B. Davis | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB616
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB616 C. Penzo TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY RES…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY RESIDENT MONITORING AND COMMUNICATIONS ACT; AND TO ESTABLISH … | C. Penzo | Sine Die adjournment |
|
SB622
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…FOOD, DRUG, AND COSMETIC ACT; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. SB622 B. Davis TO REMOVE THE PROHIBITION ON A TIRE RETAILER FROM…”
|
TO REMOVE THE PROHIBITION ON A TIRE RETAILER FROM CHARGING OTHER FEES TO A PERSON … | B. Davis | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB627
Act 746
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…MONITORING AND COMMUNICATION IN LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES. SB627 Irvin TO ASSIST THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT…”
|
TO ASSIST THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT SECTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND … | Irvin | Notification that SB627 is now Act 746 |
|
SB95
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB95 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS ATHLETIC TRAINERS ACT; AND T…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS ATHLETIC TRAINERS ACT; AND TO CLARIFY THE DEFINITION OF "ATHLETE" WITHIN … | C. Penzo | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1277
Act 706
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1277 Gramlich TO AMEND PAYMENTS FOR CORRECTIVE ACTION REGARDING…”
|
TO AMEND PAYMENTS FOR CORRECTIVE ACTION REGARDING PETROLEUM STORAGE TANKS. | J. Boyd | Notification that HB1277 is now Act 706 |
|
HB1403
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 4/4/25 @ 4:15 PM) Moved HB1403 to Deferred Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare, and…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS HEALTH AND OPPORTUNITY FOR ME ACT OF 2021 TO ALLOW NONHOSPITAL … | Pilkington | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1428
Act 855
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1428 Steimel TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING PUBLIC LODGING; AND TO P…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING PUBLIC LODGING; AND TO PROVIDE A BED HEIGHT REQUIREMENT FOR … | Steimel | Notification that HB1428 is now Act 855 |
|
HB1523
Act 951
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1523 Vaught CONCERNING MISSING PERSONS ALERTS; TO CODIFY THE ARK…”
|
CONCERNING MISSING PERSONS ALERTS; TO CODIFY THE ARKANSAS AMBER ALERT SYSTEM; TO CODIFY THE ARKANSAS … | Vaught | Notification that HB1523 is now Act 951 |
|
HB1682
Act 942
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1682 Puryear TO CREATE THE GOOD NEIGHBOR ACT; AND TO CLARIFY FOO…”
|
TO CREATE THE GOOD NEIGHBOR ACT; AND TO CLARIFY FOOD DONATION LIABILITY AND IMMUNITY. | Puryear | Notification that HB1682 is now Act 942 |
|
SB110
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB110 C. Penzo TO AUTHORIZE CERTIFIED NURSE AIDES OR CERTIFIED NU…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE CERTIFIED NURSE AIDES OR CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANTS WHO PROVIDE IN-HOME SERVICES TO BENEFICIARIES … | C. Penzo | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB221
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LANDFILL IS LOCATED. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle SB221 B. Davis TO PROHIBIT RISK-BASED PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS FROM…”
|
TO PROHIBIT RISK-BASED PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS FROM USING CERTAIN TYPES OF CONTRACTING PRACTICES WHEN CONTRACTING WITH … | B. Davis | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB225
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…GANIZED CARE ACT; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. Page 4 of 5 SB225 J. Scott TO REQUIRE THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO PROVID…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO PROVIDE A CATEGORY FOR BENEFICIARIES WITH SICKLE CELL … | J. Scott | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB269
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…VIDE A CATEGORY FOR BENEFICIARIES WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE. SB269 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE REQUIREMENTS REGARDING LOCATIONS FOR…”
|
TO AMEND THE REQUIREMENTS REGARDING LOCATIONS FOR AND GEOGRAPHIC AREAS OF A HOSPICE AGENCY. | C. Penzo | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB273
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ING LOCATIONS FOR AND GEOGRAPHIC AREAS OF A HOSPICE AGENCY. SB273 D. Wallace TO REQUIRE DIALYSIS CENTERS TO HAVE A BACKUP GEN…”
|
TO REQUIRE DIALYSIS CENTERS TO HAVE A BACKUP GENERATOR ON SITE. | D. Wallace | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB542
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EQUIRE DIALYSIS CENTERS TO HAVE A BACKUP GENERATOR ON SITE. SB542 B. Davis TO AMEND THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE…”
|
TO AMEND THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE ACT; TO IMPROVE THE ENROLLMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS … | B. Davis | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB543
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…GANIZATIONS; AND TO EMPOWER BENEFICIARIES WITH INFORMATION. SB543 B. Davis TO REQUIRE CERTAIN REIMBURSEMENT RATES FOR HOME- A…”
|
TO REQUIRE CERTAIN REIMBURSEMENT RATES FOR HOME- AND COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES WITHIN RISK-BASED PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS. | B. Davis | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB598
Act 743
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…Y- BASED SERVICES WITHIN RISK-BASED PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS. SB598 J. English TO AMEND VARIOUS LAWS RELATED TO THE DIVISION OF…”
|
TO AMEND VARIOUS LAWS RELATED TO THE DIVISION OF WORKFORCE SERVICES; AND TO AMEND THE … | J. English | Notification that SB598 is now Act 743 |
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin
- Processing date
- October 7, 2026
Good morning, everybody, calling the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee to order. Appreciate everybody being here this morning. I know we have a busy agenda. We have a full agenda. It is my intention to go through all the Senate bills that we have on today's agenda, first and foremost. And then the second priority will be House bills that have amendments. We need to hear those House bills and get them back over to the House.
And then we're going to move as quickly as we possibly can. With that being in mind, we are going to try to limit people's debates to two minutes each without objection. If you're here to speak for or against a bill, it's going to be a two-minute, unless there's an objection from the members of the committee. But without objection, as the chair, I'm going to make that ruling because we've got a lot of work and we're at the end of session. All right, with that, we're going to go straight ahead.
Senator Davis, is Senator Davis here? All right, moving to the next. Senator Penza, Senator English is not here. As soon as Senator Davis and Senator English come into the room because they're over in education, I'm going to pop them in. Same would be true with Senator Clark. I know he is cheering judiciary at the moment. So, we're just going to have to be as flexible as we possibly can. Senator Penzo, Senate Bill 311, are you ready for that one?
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:52
amendment. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senate Bill 311, we've already ran this. If you remember, I had someone come testify. This had to do with forced organ harvesting and then selling genetic information.
We had the geneticist sit here, and we talked about the CCP being able to access genetic information. This limits genetic sequencers that originate in that country. and software from that country and then also storing data in adversarial countries. We had an amendment. We pulled this down instead of running it last time because we thought DHS had an issue.
After conversations with DHS, they're now neutral on it. There were some misunderstandings about what exactly it did. We do have an amendment here that I don't remember if we adopted it or not. We did. We did. We did adopt
the amendment in committee on 4-2-25. And
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:55
that was the amendment that cleaned up all the issues that UAMS had with it. We did that amendment to work with the hospital. So if we want to go into further details, we can.
But we've already discussed this bill twice. And this is just the section that Peyton, I think, was questioning, if I remember correctly, was top of page 3. That language was struck on page two of the amendment. I wish I could have got it engrossed before bringing it back, but with the timelines, I was worried I'd miss an opportunity to run it. So that line one through five on page three has, I think, been struck from the bill.
And I think, if I'm not mistaken, that's part that
Peyton had some questions about. Yeah. So this would be moving forward. They
would need to comply with it moving forward, not that they would have to go back and remove existing
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
4:02
equipment. That's my understanding. That was the request
of UAMS. And the state doesn't
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
4:07
pay for that. Right. That section is struck with the amendment. Okay.
All right. Any other questions from Senator Hill? You're recognized for a question?
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
4:17
Remind me again what we're trying to accomplish with
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
4:24
this bill. So, we don't know where technologies, okay, let's talk about COVID vaccines, MRNA. I mean, that's kind of a new technology. They can, you could technically tailor a virus to take out a specific person. I mean, there's technology there to do those types of things. And the last thing we want is American genetic information to be leaked to adversarial countries.
We don't really know at what level technology is advanced to, but we do know that we can trick our own human cells into making spike proteins. God knows what can be done if they have the blueprint for a certain individual that they want to take out. So, you know, I've got, you know, I had the data privacy bill in transportation and technology. This is just this version for our own genetic code. And I think that's probably some of
the most protected information we should have,
especially moving forward, not knowing where technology is going with genetics. Any other questions from the members of the committee? Seeing no other questions. Make a
motion do pass. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. It's do
pass as amended. Do pass as amended. Yes, we did adopt the amendment, so it would be motion do pass as amended. Any opposed? No opposed. Ayes have it.
311 is passed as amended. Thank you, committee. Okay. Senator Penzo, 590, do you want to continue, Or do you want to pitch to any other Senate? I'm not sure if there's any other senators that are here right now. If anybody else comes in, I'm welcome to take
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
6:14
my seat, but I'll roll while I'm here. That'd be
fine. Senate Bill 591. Okay. Just state your district for the...
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
6:29
Cloppenzo, Senate District 31. Senate Bill 591 seeks to prohibit race selection abortions in the state of Arkansas. It introduces a new subchapter in the Arkansas Code that is very similar to the other non-discrimination abortion bans, such as the sex selection and Down syndrome ban that already are in code. It stipulates that a physician or any individual cannot perform or attempt to perform an abortion if they know that the pregnant woman is seeking the procedure solely based on the race of the unborn child.
The act will only take effect if Arkansas's existing laws against abortion are struck down or repealed. Section 2 in the bill is the trigger. The bill also outlines criminal and civil penalties for violations and categorizes knowingly performing a prohibited abortion as a Class A misdemeanor. This bill ensures that women who receive or attempt to receive an abortion in violation of this subchapter will not be prosecuted or held liable.
The penalties are for physicians who violate
the law. If there are
no questions, I would ask for a good move. I have a
question. Just on the penalties, are those consistent with existing state statute or are they different? I
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
8:01
believe they're consistent with current penalties.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
8:07
Senator Love, you had a question. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Senator Penzo, what are we trying, what
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
8:19
issue came about that brought about this piece of legislation? I wouldn't say there's a particular issue, being that the laws are where they are today. It's just some states have had certain bans repealed or modified, and this just strengthens the existing prohibitions against abortion if certain laws are removed.
Like I said, there's a trigger in Section 2 that this doesn't come into effect unless a couple other sections of code are repealed. Okay, but I'm
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
8:51
trying to figure, because, I mean, you specifically say race. This is about race. So what, I mean, I'm trying to think about an applicable application for
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
9:05
a mixed race baby. Oh, okay, all right. All right, so.
The, the, the. Oh. Yeah. Okay. Somebody might choose an abortion specifically based on that, just like they might if the child has Down syndrome. We don't want it to be based on race, based on civil rights principles in this country. So you're trying to
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
9:34
give me the vote of yes for
Speaker 45
9:37
an abortion bill, huh? I mean, maybe. All right. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. senator hill than senator flippo would
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
9:47
this not already be covered under the current law since abortions are illegal in
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
9:52
the state of arkansas well i will i will say one more time they they are illegal currently but in some states those certain provisions have been repealed and if if they are repealed in arkansas this would strengthen other sections provide other limitations to abortions. Okay. Like I said, Section 2 has the trigger that
if something's repealed, this just, this goes into effect. Senator Flippo. Okay. Any
other questions from members of the committee? All right. Seeing none, is there here to speak for
or against? Nobody's here to speak for or against. You're recognized or closed for the bill? I'm closed and I'll make a motion to pass. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed? I think the ayes have it.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
10:48
Thank you, committee. Senate Bill 255, if I may. Yes. 591 is passed. I'm sorry, 255? That's correct. Okay. Senate Bill 255.
Please proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senate Bill 255 changes
the definition of drug. I'll kind of start to kind of explain where we're going with this. New technology, I actually just kind of learned of some of this recently. We all know about the mRNA vaccines creating, I just brought this up, your cells to create spike proteins to elicit an immune response.
What they're doing now is either genetically modifying plants to produce virus-like particles that will trigger an immune response, and they also are, they can use a certain type of bacteria as a genetic messenger, bathe plants in a solution with these bacteria in The plants absorb the genetic material, and then they produce these virus-like proteins.
So there's two different methods that this is happening with. We also have, we know that whether you've had COVID or have been immunized. Just a moment. Is there somebody
in the room named Tanya? Tanya, I need you to come, please, to the front. Thank you for coming to find us. If
she needs assistance, we can get Capitol Police to assist.
Okay. Thank you. All right.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
13:17
Thank you. Sorry. Please proceed. No. So, you know, there's different methods of turning the plants into bio-reactors to produce these virus-like proteins. All this bill does is state that if these pharmaceutical companies and researchers want to develop plants that are producing these virus-like proteins,
I just want people to be informed so they would fall under the same drug disclosures that drugs do. So it's be classified as a drug instead of a food because the whole point of the food is to, like I said, elicit an immune response. So that's pretty much what this bill does. Senator Payton, you're
Senator John Payton
Unverified
14:08
recognized for question. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Penzo, is there any possibility that this could affect meat products,
like if we vaccinate cattle or chickens or hogs or something like that, that now it's going to be questioned? I mean, we already have withdrawal periods and standards that try to protect the food source downstream, but it's necessary to vaccinate cattle
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
14:36
and hogs and chickens when you're raising them? It is, and when you use a conventional vaccine, that response happens.
You develop immunity, but it doesn't continue a prolonged event within the organism. If you look at right now, they're talking about vaccine injuries, but I would say that there's a gray line between, you know, when they're talking about long COVID, they're talking about is that long COVID or is that a vaccine injury because there's a blurred line there. Because, you know, once you've been infected with COVID, there's a chance you're still running the infection and producing these spike proteins,
and the spike proteins are causing damage. So, you know, if it's conventional vaccines, it's one thing. If it's mRNA vaccines, like I've heard in, I think, Canada, they're using mRNA vaccines in pork. I don't know if we're doing it in the United States yet. But that remains in the animal. So my follow-up is, because of that gray area,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
15:42
who's going to be deciding? What is the deciding factor, and who gets to determine what is okay and what isn't?
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
15:53
That's a really good question on who's going to decide that. I know we're not there yet, or at least I don't think we're there yet, with the animals. I know for a fact that they're doing it with actually genetically modifying produce. So I think the Arkansas Plant Board has taken
Senator John Payton
Unverified
16:11
up a lot of issues in this area. It had to do with genetically modified soybeans and rice and things like that. I don't know if your bill designates anybody or if the other sections of code,
but I'm not comfortable with the plant board. I'm
Speaker 72
16:28
not sure who I'd be comfortable with making this decision. So now that we're
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
16:34
sitting here discussing this, this falls under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. So whoever's currently arbitrating those decisions over drugs is who would be. So I think for the most part, the state
Senator John Payton
Unverified
16:48
of Arkansas defers that to the Food and Drug Administration at the federal level.
So I'm not sure we're equipped as a state to deal with it. And I don't know. I'm just questioning, since we defer so much to the FDA, whether or not we're equipped as a state to address that. Right.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
17:12
Well, I mean, I know that there's... I'd have to ask, is anybody in here with the... Department of Health? Department of Health or Pharmacy?
Pharmacy may be able to... I think this
is more of a Department of Health issue. Ms. Hsu is here to speak to it. I think Senator Payton has brought up some very strong points need to be addressed. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members
Speaker 86
17:48
of the committee, I'm Laura Hsu. I'm General Counsel for the Department of Health. And the Department of Health is neutral on this bill.
We have not evaluated it from a standpoint of the Department of Agriculture, but as stated by the sponsor, this is placed in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and we
Senator John Payton
Unverified
18:10
are neutral on this bill. So does the Department of Health have anybody or any department that currently makes these decisions on how genetically modified or vaccinated food products, plant, animal-based? To
Speaker 85
18:25
the extent that we're not preempted by the federal FDA, the Department of Health would do
Speaker 86
18:33
some enforcement with regard to food. We don't feel like the amendments in this bill are affecting the Department of Health in a negative manner and we're not
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
18:45
concerned about this bill. Okay. And I would like to add that this is for specifically to create a product that's going to cause an immune reaction i mean it's it's creating food that's going to be a vaccine i mean that's that's what this is to curtail it's not meant to meddle with with vaccinations and livestock
i mean i understand there could be some concerns on the on that gray area but the the intent is that if you're if you're genetically modifying a tomato to produce spike proteins to prevent to cause an immune response to COVID, that's a problem. And I want my constituents to know that that tomato is a vaccination, not
just a tomato. And I kind of
Senator John Payton
Unverified
19:31
agree with that. I'm just wondering who's going to
raise their hand and say, hey, I'm genetically modifying a tomato over here.
Do y'all want to regulate me? Or somebody's going to have to complain or point it out and file a complaint. I don't know if that's going to be the courts
Speaker 72
19:48
or the Department of Health that will hear the complaint. But,
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
19:53
I mean, somebody's going to have to accuse somebody of doing it. Well, they are doing it, and they're openly doing it, and they're actually talking about it and running ads on advancements. The thing is I don't think any of the agricultural products have made it to market yet. Being that we only meet every two years,
I would like to get ahead of this before they start putting genetically modified tomatoes on the shelves. All right. I think I can be supportive. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Hill? You said they're already doing this. Who's doing it? Well, being that there were lobbyists reaching out to me, I don't know the specific names off the top of my head of the companies that are doing it, but I do know that the research is being done. A lot of it's being done at certain universities.
Some of it's being done by some pharmaceutical companies. Not all of it's happened in the United States, but a lot of it is, and it's at the university level and at some pharmaceutical companies.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
20:57
And do you not feel like we're actually limiting the advancement of science? Oh, this doesn't prohibit
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
21:06
anything. This just states that if you're going to put a tomato on the shelf, it's going to have a drug disclosure with it. I mean, I'm not trying to stifle advancements because this may be a good way to get vaccines into livestock.
By growing a food crop and then feeding it to the animal might be the most efficient way to vaccinate. But I want informed consent from my constituents when they're making a decision to buy this genetically modified tomato or conventionally grown or organic tomato. It's not to stop it. I just want to be transparent what's in that tomato, that there are virus-like proteins in that food product.
Okay, so my concern with the bill is the way that you have it written because now a cow is food and a chicken is food. And so now cows and chickens are going to be
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
22:17
qualified as drugs. No, not if they're not genetically modified to produce
a virus like protein. But they contain vaccine and vaccine material because you do have to vaccinate your cows and chickens.
And so they do contain those types of materials, like
for poultry, and same with cattle. So conventional immunizations do
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
22:46
not remain in the livestock. I've
had flu vaccines before, and I would highly doubt that I have any flu vaccine material in me.
Now, anybody in here that's had a COVID vaccine, there's a good chance that they still have vaccine material in them. But conventional does not. And so we don't want people knowing that they could have mRNA
in their food products. I mean, that's
the question. No, my question is specific to the language. You have vaccine or vaccine material means a substance intended for use in humans or other animals to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against disease prepared from the causative agent of the disease as products or a synthetic substitute treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease that is authorized or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
This covers all vaccines, not just the ones that you're talking about, not just mRNA type of vaccines. You're talking about every single vaccine, a flu vaccine, a measles vaccine, a chicken pox vaccine, a measles, rubella. Any of those vaccines is what you're talking about here as it's defined in the language that you have written. And so if we vaccinate our cattle, then our cattle is going to become food, and our cattle will contain that material, and then that cattle, that cow, is going to be classified as a drug and now be under this new section of law and regulated entirely differently.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
24:40
So Senator Payton brought up a comment about a period of time after vaccination. I would like him to kind of explain from somebody who
has livestock what that means. Well, that's fine. But
Well, again, I'm asking you a question. So that's where members are asking you questions. Okay. So, again, I am very specific to what's written here.
I also own cattle. I also own livestock and cattle. So I'm very familiar. I just vaccinated my cows, you know, two
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
25:24
weeks ago. So the question is, will there still be vaccine material after a certain period in the product? But there's nothing defining here. Well, and I think that there's a time period after a vaccination you're not supposed to butcher an animal. I was just saying that Senator Payton, during discussion, might want to discuss that time period
that might shed some light on whether or not there would be vaccine material in the animal at that point. Well, I
can't speak to that. I'm not an expert in that area. I don't know
if anybody at this table would actually be able to speak to that because we're not experts in that area. Unless you want to have a food, animal, science, nutritionist come to the table from the University of Arkansas Department of Agriculture, then that would be appropriate, I guess. But again, I'm going with the language that's written in the bill. Are there any other questions from the members of the committee?
Senator John Payton
Unverified
26:22
Senator Payton? Thank you, Madam Chair. So I went
back and forth. It's just a two-page bill, and I'm looking it over. I don't see where it's requiring the labeling. You kind of make it sound like somehow we're doing a disclosure or labeling or something like that, and I'm just not seeing that language. It's not in the
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
26:47
bill. I mean, if it's classified as a drug, it falls under the regulations of a drug. So anything that's classified as a drug has to have disclosures.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
27:00
So we're not just talking about a package labeling that says this food
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
27:08
may contain a drug. We're talking about whatever this deems as in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that has to, yeah. Because it is a drug. It's not a food
Senator John Payton
Unverified
27:18
at that point. And on the withdrawal period that you were discussing,
every different medicine that you may give to livestock, the labeling has a withdrawal period that's recommended or demanded.
but there's no testing. I mean, so, I mean, I can, it's kind of an honor system. I can give one of my animals a drug and say, okay, I better not take it to market for 90 days because there's a 90-day withdrawal period. But if I showed up tomorrow morning at the cattle auction with that animal, nobody's testing it to find out whether that drug is present in their bloodstream or not. So that's why I was asking the questions I was about enforcement and who's going to be trying to nail down those details.
So anyway, I don't know. I mean, there is a withdrawal period recommended on the drugs that we give
to our animals. Any other questions from members of the committee? All right, seeing none, do we have people to sign? And anyone
here to speak for or against this bill? Please come forward. And I apologize, Ms. Kristen Foster, are you still in the room? You had signed up to speak against 591, and I apologize, we missed that, but I can allow
you to come up after this bill. If you'll just state your
Speaker 131
28:46
name for the record, please. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I'm Marvin Childers with the Poultry Federation, and I preface this with I'm definitely no veterinarian, but I have talked to a lot of veterinarians about this bill. we read contains a vaccine or vaccine material to mean that the meat product was harvested from an animal that was vaccinated and therefore it becomes a drug and would then be regulated
by FDA and USDA. And I would call your attention to the second thing is that the federal food and Drug and Cosmetic Act, which Arkansas's Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is based on, specifically excludes food products from being considered drug. So we
Speaker 132
29:32
believe there's a preemption problem as well. Thank you. Are there questions from
the members of the committee? That clears
up my questions as well. Thank you. Thank
you. Anyone else here to speak for or against this bill? All right, seeing none, you're closed
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
30:03
for your bill, or you may close. Thank you. All right, committee, I can
read the room. So what I'd like to do is make a verbal amendment, if the committee will allow. And on line 6, on page 2, strike or other animals.
And I believe that will alleviate the concerns of the poultry
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
30:38
the issue from the growers. So I think that will eliminate opposition
of the poultry federation. I just get a yes on that. Okay, no longer opposed if I strike that language. We'll leave it strictly to vegetable
for the plants to be consumed. Okay, well I would need the poultry federation to come back to the end of the table. But, again, I'm not sure if, I mean, this is a substantive amendment change, and we've been suspending rules just for sponsorships. What's the pleasure
of the committee? I'd love to see
Senator John Payton
Unverified
31:30
it amended, but I'm not sure that, like you said, it is a substantive change,
so I don't know if that'll survive the rules or
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
31:41
not. I mean, every other committee I've been in the Senate has been suspend the rules to make verbal amendments, and I don't see why it should be any different here, especially this is the last day we're hearing
Senate bills in this committee. I make a motion
to allow a verbal amendment to suspend the rules and make a verbal amendment. Just one moment. You're going to make a motion to suspend the rules to allow for a verbal amendment that's substantive amendment. Okay. There's a motion made. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, discussion on the motion.
Senator Greg Leding
Unverified
32:21
You're right. I've seen a lot of Senate committees that do agree to verbal amendments. I'm never really comfortable with them, unless, as we've seen, we've just been doing sponsors. Maybe that's just because I got my start in the House, but verbal amendments just make me super nervous. I do agree that would alleviate a lot of my concerns, but I'm just, I'm not comfortable doing that
today. Thank you. Hold on. Is there any other discussion from the members of the
committee. Senator Penzo, you're recognized for discussion on the motion.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
32:52
A written, due verbal written will come over to be signed. We just did a couple of them in transportation the other day and state agencies and there will be a written amendment come by. So if y'all would like me to pull this down and as long as I'm able to run it again today with the amendment. I will get a written amendment over here. If I can have a commitment from the chair that I'll have an opportunity to introduce us. Absolutely. We're going to be here for a while.
It'll be on its way shortly. Thank you. I just will caution there is a national championship basketball game tonight. That's very important to me.
Speaker 150
33:31
Nobody would care about it. But I promise you once you get your amendment back
here why don't you go and work with Mr. Childers and try to figure out some amended language. I know Ms. Beal will work very rapidly bring it back to us and we can get this squared away. That'd be awesome. Senator Hill? I would actually like to see him
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
33:48
work with the Ag Department as well, not just Mr. Childers on this. Okay, so Department of Ag.
Okay. With Westwood or the veterinarians. Okay, so I'm
going to assume you're going to withdraw your motion to suspend the rules. Yeah. Yeah, it's fine. Okay, so Department of Ag and Mr. Childers with the Poultry Federation, if you can get with Senator Penzo right now, that would be awesome. That'd be great. Senator Hester, Senator Hester in the room. Senator Davis is back up. Somebody can go grab her real fast.
We'll get her right back in here. Yeah, one moment. Let's see. All right, members, Senator Davis has come in.
We're going to start with 606, so go ahead and get out 606. We have a handout for 606, so we'll go ahead and get the folks' handout, 606.
Okay, Senator Davis, 606, we're passing out your handout right now. All right, if you'll just
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
36:05
state your name for the record, you may proceed. Thank you. Breanne Davis, State Senate, District 25. And if it's okay with you and the committee, can I please have Secretary Corey and Bailey Taylor?
Speaker 172
36:18
Yes, please come forward. Set your name for the record. Good morning. I'm Bailey Taylor, DEQ Director
Speaker 174
36:34
and Chief Administrator of Environment. Good morning. Shane Corey, Secretary for the Arkansas Department of Energy
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
36:44
and Environment. All right, thank you. Please proceed. Okay, thank you. This is Senate Bill 606, and there are really two main purposes in this bill.
The first one is to dissolve the waste tire districts and privatize the handling of our waste tires across the state. And the second was to deal with the abatement issues across our state. We know we've got tires stacked up everywhere, not just at abandoned sites, but also at lots of places, including some of our waste tire district areas and also our tire retailers, our small business owners. So with that in mind, we are looking to reduce the rim removal fee from $3 to $1.50 and moving that to the new tire.
So we're just putting that fee at the correct point in the life of a tire, which is at the very beginning. We are also allowing a tire retailer to charge a fee for the cost of legally hauling and disposing of waste tires. And of course, that's to ensure that, you know, privatization essentially, that the tires are being hauled up, picked up, hauled and processed and then taken to a place where there are more valuable commodity that can be used. We also create a waste tire abatement fund to be used for administration expenses and an abatement grant just to ensure enforcement of waste tires across the state.
If the fund exceeds $5 million, then the fee will be cut in half from $1.50 to $0.75. We also kept in the uniform used tire manifest system to record information related to tire collection, transportation, distribution, and the recycling and disposing of the tires. um then there's a few dates to note in the bill so as we phase this out i think that was the most important piece was the transition and doing it smoothly um january 1st of 2026 the rim
removal fee will expire and the tire generator fee starts which is that dollar 50 fee on the front end of a new tire at the purchase of a new tire and then any remaining money um after all the used tire programs have been reimbursed. All that money left will be transferred to the Waste Tire Abatement Fund, and that's July 1st of 2026. So next year in January of 26, we'll have the creation of that Waste Tire Abatement Fund, and that's where any money collected now that's in the fund
that's reimbursing our waste tire districts, whatever is left from that after
this program ends on January 1st, will roll into that new tire abatement fund. And then
lastly, tire retailers can charge a fee for the cost of legally hauling tires on the date this bill would become effective. We have some waste tire districts that are not picking up tires and they're piling up at tire retailers and they are not allowed right now to charge anything. They're remitting money
to the state but their tires are not being collected. They're getting in trouble by the city, getting written up, imposing on other business or landowners next to them and so that was something that I felt strongly that they needed to be able to do immediately to ensure their tires are picked up and to make sure that we take care of those small business owners. With that, we are all up here to answer any questions. Alright,
thank you. Other questions from the members of the committee? Senator Payton?
Senator John Payton
Unverified
40:13
- Thank you, and I appreciate you working on this. I know how hard it is, and I
really do appreciate it. I want you to know that, and I appreciate E&E. I just
want to point out something. We have a site in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, 395,000 towers that need to be abated. Was that site permitted through ADEQ rules when those tires were stockpiled?
No, sir. So what was the process that created that? Because I was told that that person that did that got reimbursed for all those tires for
them to be processed, and then they weren't. They're just stockpiled.
Speaker 180
41:04
If they were reimbursed, it was for a different facility and they were transporting tires over
Senator John Payton
Unverified
41:12
there. What I'm trying to say is there are people
who get permitted or they're properly in the system and they go bankrupt and we're left holding the bag.
And that was my impression of what happened at Cotton Plant. I think that's basically what's happened at Jefferson County. Those tires were part of the program. Yes, sir. And they were supposed to be properly handled, and they weren't. So can you all share
Speaker 172
41:50
any information on why? I can't speak to their business decisions, but those tires were reimbursed. So the state, especially in
Speaker 180
41:57
Jefferson County, the state did reimburse for the activities that were to occur that did not occur.
And so now they're having to outsource that and pay for private transporters and processors to take care of the problem. Because to those private entities, these tires are a commodity. And so they want to be able to take care of the problem and take it back to their facility and recycle these tires for a product. Well, unfortunately, the want to doesn't get it done.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
42:25
You know, you can want in one hand and spit in the other, and which one's going to fill up faster?
I've been in business a long time, and I've seen a lot of businesses fail. And for us to reimburse prior to knowing that the tire was properly processed, It creates a risk that people with good intentions start a business. They say, I've got a great idea, the greatest idea in the world of what to do with these tires and turn them into some byproduct. And they stockpile 100,000 tires and then they go bankrupt.
Speaker 180
43:07
And we're left to have to clean that up. Each permitted processor, so this bill does not change how we permit, how we regulate these permitted facilities. They're required to maintain financial assurance. But here's
Senator John Payton
Unverified
43:19
what it changes. The tire dealer is going to collect from the customer up front, where we reimburse after we know it made it to the processor. Now the money is going to be in the tire dealer's account, and it's going to be the tire dealer's responsibility to pay the transporter when they pick up the tires.
Then the money is going to be in the transporter's account, paid up front, And it's going to be their responsibility to pay the processor when they deliver the tire to the processor. I understand we're going to have fines and we're going to permit and we're going to try to force them to do this. And they're going to have every intention of doing it right. But when you cut payroll and your truck broke down and you have repairs and you're running a business and you've got 300 tires out back that you need to pay somebody $5 a piece to haul off,
and you want to put that off until next month, and then next month the problem is twice the size. Or you've got a transporter that's got a load of tires when their truck breaks down or whatever, and those tires... See, the
problem I couldn't solve with this was the fact that you're paying people up front. Now, I know it's not state money or it didn't go through our hands. That's why we lose control of that, and the tire dealer collects from the customer up front.
Speaker 189
44:44
Mr. Payton, let me try to address some of your questions. And first, I think we can all
Speaker 190
44:51
recognize that the specific problem areas that you're bringing up weren't created overnight. They weren't created under our administration at E&E, but they do exist. And part of the problem that we have
Speaker 189
45:04
right now is the current system does not generate enough money to adequately process tires. Now, you take that, coupled with the fact that, you know, let's just kind of walk back two years ago, right?
We had two options at that point in time. We had the same two options we're looking at today, say,
Speaker 191
45:22
basically a privatization option or an increased fee option. And I know that this committee has heard your bill. And the reason I think we all know that we can't support that bill is it does increase the fee. You know, basically going back two years ago, we, the legislature, us, we kind of came together. We adopted what I would call a tire patch. It was a temporary fix to get us from last session to this session.
And as part of that, you know, E&E agreed that we would reduce our administration fee so that we could get to this point in time. But we also knew that we couldn't do any abatement under the current program. So what we're looking for is a way that does generate money for abatement problems of those tires. I heard your testimony when you presented your bill, and I 100% agree that it costs more to abate tires once they are improperly disposed of. But this program allows an abatement fee for the Department of Energy and Environment, DEQ specifically, to address some of those problems there,
but also then privatizes the disposal of tires. What we didn't have two years ago that I think you'll hear today, specifically we did not have a real good handle on the beneficial use of used tires that we do have here today. and I think you'll hear that from Nucor and Liberty and everybody else, that there is actually a market for waste tires because they can be and they are being used for beneficial reuse. If we get the state out of the business of disposing of tires and get our fund to only do what we should be doing,
and that is regulating improper disposal, doing enforcement, and abating those programs that we know that we exist. It's also why part of this, in our appropriation bill, the governor's office approved a $5 million transfer so that we can use to help alleviate and remedy those waste tire sites that were created under programs in the past. You know, right now we are receiving of that $3 fee. We have $2.57 that we're able to reimburse a tire processor.
On average, we are reimbursing $2.85 per tire. Obviously, we can't sustain a business model where we are receiving $2.57 per tire and paying out $285 per tire. So we're looking for a ways to allow the beneficial use or reuse of waste tires, encouraging that system, providing for abatement, and letting the free market do what it needs to, and that is create new and alternative ways. Also, by removing the four existing tire districts, we open it up for competition. That's the benefit of this bill is we are opening it up for free market competition
that right now are wholly controlled by those four waste tire districts. I don't know if that answers your question, but I think that's how we see. We recognize there are problems. That's why we want to
Senator John Payton
Unverified
48:09
do abatement. We want to have funding for abatement. Right. And obviously, you and I have had these
conversations. So for the benefit of everybody here, you gave your side. The problem is you're still collecting $1.50. And then
you're expecting the consumer to pay whatever the free market drives
the value of disposing of the tire, which I don't think anybody has disagreed with the fact that that's going to be at least $5 a tire, maybe more. And we're still collecting the $1.50, so that's a much larger raise than what we need if we continue the current management. Now, two years ago, we did pass a bill that changed the way the four tire districts, we went from 11 to 4, and we changed the way people were selected to sit on those boards.
And we projected that the system would run out of money in six months, and it made it 18 months. So, I mean, I'd say that what we did two years ago created a lot of efficiency. I know that there were bids by processors to the four boards. If we have, if we solve the cash flow problem that you identified there, that we're taking in $2.57 and we're paying $2.85.
If we solve that issue, then those boards are free to enter into contracts with privatization, private companies such as Davis Forever and Liberty and others, Nucor. Those are private companies that have a demand and want to participate. And those four district boards have the authority. They just don't have the money to enter into those contracts. But I'm trying to figure out how in this bill you do anything other than cost
the consumer $5 a tower more than they're paying now.
Speaker 191
50:14
Well, first I will say that the $1.50 is the max, the fee. Right?
Speaker 189
50:21
Under the statute and under Senator Davis's proposal, once the abatement aspect is taken care of, that fee can be reduced from $1.50 down to 75 cents.
Speaker 191
50:31
So I don't think it's $1.50 forever. Secondly, the 18 months, like I said, I think that was because of our decision to not take 7% to 8% administrative fee on the DEQ side,
as well as not doing abatement. That created the ability because we knew it was a patch. And we knew that we had six months to two years somewhere in there, depending on how it happened. So I think, you know, I appreciate your support last time and us coming together and having that patchwork that got us through. But we're here today, and if we do anything other than privatize, I think we perpetuate a system
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
51:10
of subsidizing waste hires. Okay. I have two responses to your question.
And the first one is where you spoke of, you know, the money not running out for 18 months. And I would say that's because tire retailers are remitting money to the state, $3, and then their tires are not being picked up by their waste tire district. And that is happening in some places across the state. So it's my opinion that the fund is being floated by all these retailers that are turning money into the state, but are never having their tires picked up by their waste tire district.
And so, to me, I think that's probably one of the reasons that the funds took 18 months to run out instead of the six months. So, the second thing is, you know, you spoke to tire districts being able to enter into a private contract, but I would argue that that gives that private contractor a monopoly in that tire district. I mean, Davis Rubber, well, you could say someone who's picking up and hauling the tires that has entered into a contract with the Waste Tire District,
they're charging different rates in different places within that tire district, and the rates are also fluctuating daily. So there's no consistency there. If you open it up and privatize and let the market do its work and let there be competition, then you can have the Liberties and the Davis Rubbers and the Boston Valley or whatever all the different names are, Boston Mountain, come in and compete to be able to pick up tires, which will drive rates down because they're in competition with each other trying
to get the business. So, I mean, I would argue that privatization in the free market works best across the state. And we know that this is true because there are states across the country who have been doing this for decades and it's worked for them. But I can say that what we have now is not working. It is not working for all of our waste tire districts across the state, and it's certainly not working for all of our small business owners that sell tires and have them heaped up in their parking lots because the waste tire district won't come pick them up. But they're paying a monthly rental fee for a trailer to sit in their parking lot
a hundred bucks a month, even if the waste tire district doesn't come pick up the tires.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
53:32
And I appreciate your perspective. You've obviously got problems in your district that are not standard
for the whole state. There was two or three issues in my district that we were able to get solved, and I know that the processor in your district has had trouble keeping up with the volume. I totally agree with the free market idea.
If there was a demand for these tires, it was willing to pay for them. But unless you've uncovered something new in the last week or 10 days, The people that you have that want the tires, they want them for free. They're not willing to pay for them. So I don't see how free market works when you have a product that nobody will pay for. Well,
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
54:17
I think they're here, and I'll let them speak to that themselves. I think they can probably make a compelling argument to the
committee. Okay, thank you. Any other questions from Senator Hill?
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
54:27
You recognize my question? Okay, I want to go back to part of what Senator Payton mentioned. says that, you know, the retailer charges consumer directly for costs associated with actual tire recycling, which you get over probably roughly $5. You can not even charge the $1.50
and take it to zero, and the consumer is still going to pay more if it's at $5. So what
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
54:55
are you asking? I'm sorry, Senator Hill.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
54:58
My question is on that, how can we sit here and say we're not taking the price up to
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
55:04
the consumers? because we are. Well, I'm not saying that. I'm arguing that it should be privatized, that what is being remitted to the state now is not covering the cost of hauling off a waste tire. And that's exactly the problem. And when we put a dollar amount in law of what these tire districts can charge, then we're going to continue to bump into the same problem, which is a fund that is not fully funded, which is going to continue to exacerbate the
problems that we're seeing in some of the waste tire districts. There's not enough money. They're broken down. They're not able to pick up the tires. We're losing money on it because it actually costs more than $3 to haul and process a tire. And we've got to acknowledge that at some point. And if we let the market be open and let the competitors compete against each other for the tires, then that will resolve itself. It will drive prices down and someone will come and take the tires instead of the government being in the business of putting an exact price tag that doesn't
even cover the cost of the service that we're requiring. I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
56:06
I think they're all going to sit there and look at whoever's at the highest price, they're all going to kind of join in and be at the higher price on it. I
can see the consumer paying more on that. And let's just say we do privatize this industry. How long would it take for someone to get up and running? There's companies doing it right now. I mean, there's companies
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
56:22
that are hauling. In the state of Arkansas? Yes. Multiple, yes. Well, why do we need this then
if we're already doing it? Because they're not allowed to work outside
of their tire district. They're working, well, they're working, they're working with it. Let me correct that. So they're working within a tire district if they have a contract. They can go pick up outside of that, but the tire retailer is not allowed to charge the fee. So let me correct that. I'm sorry. I don't want to say that wrong. So if they're going out, then it's the tire retailer outside of that tire district that has already remitted $3 to the state for a service that their waste tire district is not providing. And then they're having to pay that hauler.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
57:07
Talk a little slower so I can follow you. Do what? Talk a
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
57:14
little slower so I can follow you. Okay. Say all that again. So if you are, if you have a contract with a waste tire district and i have a business i have a tire shop outside of your tire district if i want you to come pick up my tires because i cannot get my waste tire district to pick them up i am remitting three dollars to the state my waste tire district is not picking up my tires so if i want you to come
get them. I have to pay out of pocket as a business owner because it is not legal for me to charge any fee on top of the $3 that I'm remitting to the state. So our small business owners are paying it out of pocket themselves to be able to have
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
58:03
the tires hauled off and processed. Okay. Now, with that
being said, who does the district report to to turn in them not
picking their tires? Who does the retailer turn in? Why is someone not getting after that district for not picking the tires up? Who's responsible for making sure
Speaker 180
58:24
they pick the tires up? So when we're made known of this, then we contact the district or whoever would be responsible and ask them. And a lot of times, you know, we'll hear their reasons were wrote down or whatever it is. We will try to call other districts or other processors in the area to come get them. And that's the temporary solution in Senator Davis's district right now is another
district is traveling further, eating that transportation cost in order to service this area. So we try to make do with what other areas are available, other processes that available but they may be at a further distance. So do
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
58:58
you at that point do you send that three
Speaker 180
59:03
dollars to the other district? The three dollars is always remitted to the state and so we just reimburse whoever processed the tire at a different rate. So the the rates are different based on your
district and so this tire district that is this processor that is traveling further now to collect tires is losing money. Right. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
Other questions from members of the committee? Senator Love, then Senator Payton. Thank you. So I guess
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
59:34
with this bill, we're trying to fix one issue, and that's the issue in your West Tire District? No, I think it's the only
issue I'm hearing, because I talked to my West Tire District, and so my West Tire
district said everything is fine. So I've talked to Senator Davis and they're having issues. Like, have you not tried to replace that? I mean, have you all
Speaker 225
1:00:02
not resolved that issue in that area?
Speaker 180
1:00:04
We don't have the authority to dictate the contracts that the used tire programs puts in place. We review their business plans. And if those all meet the standards of the law, then we can submit those to the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission for approval and subsequently the legislature, but we don't dictate which contractor they should.
Speaker 189
1:00:25
Who has control of it? The used tire program. Senator Love, I'm sorry, I want to clarify. This is an issue that Senator Davis has specifically, but what we're trying to solve is a program that at the current state fee can't sustain itself. I mean, that's the true answer. At the current fee,
Speaker 230
1:00:46
we don't have enough to reimburse us. But we said that last session, and we bought a bill last session for that. And that bill was voted out of here, sent to the House.
You all worked against that bill. That's the record. That is the record. You're talking about a bill that didn't pass out. So the $3 fee has been the same thing. No,
Speaker 227
1:01:07
no, we passed it out of here. You're talking about Senator Payton's bill from last time. Yes, we passed it out
Speaker 230
1:01:14
of here. And you all worked against that bill on the other end, and it defeated. That is the facts. That is the facts. I don't want to
Speaker 189
1:01:22
debate the facts. I don't want to disagree with you. I'm just saying we worked against it as it was an increase in the state fee.
The same reason why we can't support
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:01:37
it today. Okay. All right. Thank you. Senator Payton. And thank you, Senator Love, for simplifying it, because that's exactly what happened. I was very careful two years ago in that bill that we passed that is now law to make sure that the four districts, the four boards had the authority to do any portion or all of their district in one contract. also gave them the authority to do inter-district contracts,
which currently Davis Rubber, who's a private processor, is doing all of one district and several counties in another district that he contracted for. The boards took a while to get organized. They've only been up and running for about 15 months. And they had the authority. I don't know if they recognized how much authority they had. But they only had a couple of bidders for the contract. If there's so much private interest, why didn't the private interest bid on these contracts?
Why didn't they show up? I know Liberty showed up and bid on District 2, I guess it is. But they did not bid the contract according to the law
that we passed. The law we passed said they had to have at least one collection site per county. There's 18 counties in that district, and
they proposed three. Three collection sites for 18 counties, so their bid was not considered.
Now, this is the information I've been given. If I'm wrong, please correct me. I was going to say, that's obviously a
Speaker 190
1:03:16
part of the process we're not involved in, but I believe
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:03:21
that Liberty and others are here as well. So I'm just explaining that if there's so much private demand for these tires, where were the bids? And I'm willing to concede and say, hey, it was a fast trying to reorganize. Maybe the private industry didn't realize that there was an opportunity to come bid
on it. But the truth of the matter is we did not fund it.
And it's been starved to death for years. And the equipment in Breanne's district is not capable of producing a product that Nucor wants. Davis is the only processor in Arkansas that can produce a product that Nucor wants. We need new equipment. We need new processors. They can be private. The state's not going to put it in. But you can't get free enterprise to bid on contracts not knowing if there's any funding to pay the bill when the bill comes in.
Speaker 190
1:04:20
And you and I have had these conversations, so you and I know my answer. And my answer is
Speaker 189
1:04:26
two years ago, we did not have Nucor in a position to take the amount of tires they can take today. We didn't have
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:04:32
the beneficial use. Let's correct that. They're not
Speaker 191
1:04:34
taking tires at all. Well, they can't use the beneficial use of waste tires. So I think that has greatly grown in the past two years since we were here in the past. I think that is a product, and they have a need for it. Now, I understand logistically we can't transport every tire in Arkansas to Mississippi County.
I understand that. But their use, other people's interest in it have really changed the dynamics to this is no longer a waste, but actually something that can be used beneficially. And like I said, the tire districts, and you and I have had these conversations, the tire districts, I think they basically, they set the prices, they control the prices for each of those four districts. They have the authority to control how the tires are picked up. And if we remove the tire districts, that's a piece that we're subsidizing with the state level now that doesn't need to be subsidized.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:05:23
Okay, and thank you. I don't know that we're paying the boards anything, but I think we've taken enough time. So I'll settle down and
listen. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for members of the
committee? All right. Seeing none, I'm going to go to four and against. We have two four and one against. Nucor, Kylie Clampton. We have four and then we have one.
We'll go to the next person against and
then the last person, four. If you'll just state your name for the record, you'll be recognized. Before you start, Representative Matt Brown is here. Raise your hand. If you can step out in the hallway, there are people here on 1679, not sure if you understand that it's being amended, but let me just invite you if you're here on 1679 to go and visit with Representative Brown so he can explain the amendment to you.
It may change your mind on how you want to testify on that bill. So, Representative Brown, if you can exit the committee room, and if you're here on 1679 and want to visit with Representative Brown about the amendment, please follow him into the hallway. Okay, if you will state your name for the record, please.
Speaker 241
1:06:42
Thank you. My name is Kylie Clanton. I'm with Nucor Yamato Steel Company. Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for allowing me to testify today regarding SB 606. We appreciate Senator Davis sponsoring this legislation and believe this would allow Nucor to expand the amount of waste tires we currently utilize in Arkansas.
We utilize tires during the steelmaking process as an alternative source of carbon. Traditionally, what we would do is mine raw carbon in the form of pet coke, met coke, anthracite, and that's what we'd utilize. But a molecule of carbon is a molecule of carbon. So what we've done is adapted our process in order to utilize tires rather than raw coke. We currently use around 1.8 million tire equivalents annually. The challenge is that under the current TAP structure, we are capped out at the quantity of tires that we can use.
There is currently no processing available in the state that can produce the size we need to increase the amount of tire equivalents we can utilize. So basically, we utilize carbon in three phases of our operation. The first is what we call charged carbon. So we introduce carbon into the heat at the beginning of the making of the steel. During the making of the steel, we inject carbon, what we call injection carbon, and at the end, we fine-tune our product with what we call top feed. So we can use a hull tire or any type of tire for the charge portion of that,
which is what we currently do with Davis rubber. But for the injection carbon, we have to have very small crumb. Currently, Davis, nor anybody else in the state of Arkansas makes that. For our top feed, we have to have it in between. We need it a little bit bigger than the crumb, but not as big as what we use for charged carbon. So we have utilized sources outside of the state of Arkansas to find those sizes that we need in order to prove out our process. So we've done the trials to prove it. Now, the big benefit to this is we only use about 3,000 pounds per heat of charged carbon,
but we use 6,000 pounds of heat of injection, which is what we currently can't process, and we use about 500 pounds of top heat carbon, which we don't have a source for either. It is important for Nucor to be a strong partner with Arkansas, and we want to maximize the use of tires from Arkansas, not elsewhere. We believe injecting private sector innovation into waste tire management would open up competition and bring more and better processing capacity to our region. This would allow Nucor to utilize more than 3 million pasture tire equivalents per year, roughly the number produced in the state.
We've also been talking with other tire processors. We had a call from someone like Net
Zero that's out of Fayetteville and Springdale area. Just wrap up your comments real fast. We have two minutes. Okay. Okay, and you're
past your two minutes. Oh, sorry. That's okay. If you'll just wrap up your comments real fast.
Speaker 241
1:09:36
We stand ready to continue working with the state on this issue and are confident we will find a solution that works both for
Nucor and Arkansas. Thank you. Are there any questions? All right. Thank you so much. Seeing none, we'll go to against Craig Douglas.
Again, you have two minutes. I apologize. I should
Speaker 253
1:10:07
have two minutes. Craig Douglas: Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Craig Douglas. I'm the Director of District 2 Waste Tower Program. I, too, appreciate Senator Davis focusing on this issue and DEQ and E&E. It is a problem I've been working on, working toward a solution, particularly with Senator
Payton since 2017 session, the 2019 session, the 21 session, and the 23 session. I very much appreciate both Senator Payton and others to bring up the consumer in all of this, and for Senator Hill to bring up the small business, as Senator Davis did. Here is the problem. The current $3 rim removal fee will continue under Senator Payton's bill that this committee
passed, due pass last week. that $3 fee will not be raised. The bill that y'all have given a due pass and passed the Senate does not increase the fee. It does apply the fee to tires that are currently not being charged and are ultimately recycled. If the program envisioned by Senate Bill 606 were to be a private program only, And all of our contracts, by the way, in our district are private, with private industry done through competitive bids.
But if that were to happen, then the hauler and the processor follows the money. Large populated areas, of course their tires would be picked up. Small rural areas, small mom-and-pop tire retailers who need their tires picked up as well, would be at a competitive disadvantage because they, like other tire retailers who do rim removal, sell tires, collect waste tires, they will have to pay, through individual contracts,
their own processing and hauling. And hauling is the number one charge. I would only say this to wrap up, that Davis is supplying tires to Nucor. We've worked with Mr. Clanton over the years. The last quarter, Davis provided over 2,600 tons to Nucor and will continue that process. If Senator Payton's bill were to pass in the House and signed by the governor, then that additional funding would fund abatement and would fund additional equipment.
But we need to look at the consumer and look at the small
districts. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions from members of the committee?
I'm trying to be as generous as I possibly can. Thank you for your testimony. For Mr. Curtin, Liberty Tire, and then we also have another person here that speaks for. Hey, everyone. I want to start
Speaker 257
1:13:12
by thanking the committee's attention to this. You have two minutes, so cut
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:13:17
the small talk and get right to your point.
Stratton Curtin Liberty Tire, the only coast-to-coast tire recycler, processor, and manufacturer.
Speaker 257
1:13:24
You know, I'll throw out my prepared remarks except to say when we're looking at waste tire laws, our principles are does it protect the taxpayer, does it produce better results for the environment, and does it appropriately regulate waste tire haulers and recyclers to ensure good outcomes? We believe this legislation meets all of those principles. And now I will say, I know there's a lot of concern, rightly so, on, you know, what does this mean for service for rural areas?
We cover every state in the country. We cover small retailers, large retailers. On the collection side, we have 50,000 clients. And the reason we have 50,000 clients is because there's only one Walmart. There's only one discount tire. The vast majority of those are local landfills, small retailers, like small mom and pop chains. And if we're not going to do it, I will tell you what we have seen is competitors move in and they might start with those small mom and pops, but then they're going to turn around and they're going to eat our lunch. And that's what the marketplace does, is if we don't service our customers well, we're
not talking about, you know, one year, 18 months, two years, our customers will break our contracts and fire us in 30 days if we're not doing what we're asked to do. So I really appreciate, I think, whether it's Senator Payton's bill or this bill, we're all looking to get to the same place. So I appreciate the committee's attention and all of the work
you've done on this over the many years. Thank
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:14:48
you. Excellent job. Senator Payton. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just real simple. Is there
anything in Arkansas law that we passed two years ago that prevents you from bidding on whatever segment of business you want in Arkansas?
Speaker 257
1:15:02
We did bid for the UTP process. I think the process you described before is when we looked at it, we said, how can we make this price work at a market level? And part of that is, can we do consolidation for efficiency, bringing tires to fewer locations so that it costs less to pick up? And that's the process you were describing.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:15:23
So what you're saying is the problem that prevented you from having the collection sites required on the law was the reimbursement rate?
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:15:30
That's correct. But I think it's because there
Speaker 257
1:15:34
are hidden costs of this program that that $3
fee currently isn't covering. But we're going to go into it and assume, we're just going to assume that's what we have to work with.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:15:42
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Senator Hill, you're recognized for question. Who'd you say you're
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:15:48
with? Liberty Tire Recycling. Thank you. Yes, sir. All right. Any other questions
from members of the committee? All right. Seeing none, thank you for your testimony. We have one more individual that wants to speak for the bill. Please come to the table and state your name for the record. Thank you.
Speaker 266
1:16:09
Rusty McMillan, Greene County Judge, president of the County Judges Association, but not speaking exclusively on behalf of that group. And thank you all for your work on this. In 2017, I was in my third year of office and didn't know anything, knew very little about being a county judge, knew even less about waste tires and landfill prices. But there was a support, a bill that was ran then for that rim removal fee, I believe. Anyway, it changed up that particular program to the tire accountability program.
And then fast forward to where we are now. Yes, two years ago, 75 county judges did support the bill. We had 38 brand new judges. And they, like me, in 2017, were kind of taking the word of the judges, senior judges before them and trying to learn their jobs, but not knowing anything about the waste tire program. So there's a challenge in trying to understand all of the parts of that and support of it, trying to support individuals such as yourself, governor's office, and so on and so forth.
But in my 10 years in office now, there's still several large tire sites, illegal waste tire sites that exist. So we have not been able to utilize abatement money for that. the current program is underfunded, more money, Senator Payton, yes, would be helpful to run the program at its current rate. Tire dealers that I have spoken with in my local area, if they don't haul the tires to the landfill where the Davis Tire has a trailer, then they
may have to pay somebody to do that. And I've seen those costs be $1.50 to $2.50. And so there's an additional charge, I would think, from their business plan that's paying for somebody to haul that to the landfill because they need somebody, they need their bodies at their tire service centers to change out customers' tires. And I've talked with individuals that have tire dealers in Arkansas as well as Missouri, and they have spoken overwhelmingly how much more they like that Missouri program.
I think it's similar to the model that we're looking at. So with that, I'll thank you.
Thank you. Are there any questions from the members of the committee? All right. Thank
you so much for your testimony. Okay. Nobody else here to speak for or against. Any other
questions? You're recognized to close for your
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:18:38
bill. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, members of the committee, for agreeing to be open-minded to hear this bill. I just want to say a few things. Putting a dollar amount on this issue is not what is ultimately going to fix the issue.
We've had a dollar amount of fee on these tires for years, and the programs are underfunded, and they are not sustainable. We have waste tire dumps all around the state in the form of tire retail shops where their tires are not being picked up. The government created a problem. We put a burden on small business owners, and we continue to kick the problem down the road. And I think the answer here is to allowing private business to come in and take over this issue and create competition and let them work it out.
I can't think of when any of us can think of a time that government did something better than private business. We all know that the market and competition and opening that up is typically what drives the best result for the consumer. And that's what this bill allows for. With that, I know it's a complicated issue and there's been people that have put in a lot of work and I know this committee has spent a lot of time on this issue as well. My concern is that if we don't do this, then we'll continue to have issues across the state and that will impact, greatly impact our small business owners across the state.
And it's based on an issue that we created. And with that, I'm closed for
my bill. Thank you. Thank you. What is the pleasure of the committee? Motion do pass. Is there a second? No second? Okay. All those in favor say aye. If you want to ask for discussion, ask for discussion. You can ask for discussion and I will recognize you for discussion. Okay. All those in favor say aye.
And opposed? No. Sorry, the bill fails. Do you want to do your Senate Bill 6? 22? Sure. I
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:20:46
don't have it. Brianne Davis, State Senate, District 25. Thank you. This is Senate Bill 622. Okay. Please proceed.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This just strikes language in two places. It's a fairly simple bill. strikes a language saying if a person establishes that he or she has paid one of the fees for a tire, which is the rim removal fee that we're talking about, or the commercial generator fee, then the tire retailer or tire generator shall not charge an additional fee for that tire. I've just stricken that language in both places in law. Again, it goes back to the issue we discussed on the previous bill. We have tires piling up at small businesses for sure between Moralton and Fort Smith that
are not being picked up, and these tire retailers are literally paying tens of thousands of dollars out of their own pocket to hire a company to come in and haul off their tires. Meanwhile, they're paying at least a $100 trailer fee monthly and then paying an additional fee on top of that to waste tire districts that are not coming to pick up tires. They're remitting $3 to the state, they're paying a monthly rental fee, and no one is coming to pick up their tires. So they are spending money out of pocket themselves to handle an
issue. They're getting written up by their city. There's a lot of issues there. And so all I'm asking on this is that we just strike that language. And if they need to charge a fee for the legal hauling and disposing of a tire, then please let's let them. If we're not going to fix the issues that small businesses are having in some parts of the state with the waste tire districts, then please let us let them solve their own problem and charge a fee if they're not able to have their waste tire district come pick up their tires. I'm happy to take
questions. Any questions from the members of the committee? Senator Payton, you're recognized
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:22:58
for question. I'm sorry, I wasn't familiar with this bill. I'm not really understanding what you're doing.
Are you just saying that the recycling fee, which the bill we've already passed in the Senate that's over in the House, changes this wording and calls it a recycling fee, but are you saying that that'll be voluntary by the retailers?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:23:20
If they need to charge a fee?
Here's what I'm saying on this bill. If your bill passes all the way through, and if it is vetoed, and I have no idea if it will be, and if we revert back to the way that it is today, and my bill did not pass, 606, then everything stays exactly as it is right now. So, my problem is that I've got small businesses spread out around the state that are not getting their tires picked up.
So, that's what this is for. So,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:23:58
this says they can pull their tires out of the program, is what I'm saying? No. It becomes voluntary whether they
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:24:05
remit the fee? No, they'll still have to remit the $3. That doesn't touch that at all. And if your bill passes and if there is or is not a veto, if it is overridden, this bill doesn't even matter. But if nothing happens, if everything stays the way that it is today, these tire retailers are remitting a $3 rim removal fee to the state, and they are not getting the services
provided by that money that they're remitting. Okay, so that's what
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:24:32
I'm asking. Are we saying that they don't have to remit it? They still
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:24:35
have to remit it. I didn't even touch that. So
Speaker 283
1:24:38
what are we doing? What does the bill do? Right
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:24:40
now, by law, they're remitting $3 to the state, and they're not allowed to charge anything else on top of that. So I have tire retailers that are spending tens of thousands of dollars out of their own pocket to get someone to haul up the tires. So it's a matter of whether they can add a line item to
Speaker 286
1:24:56
their invoice that says- For the hauling and disposing of the tire.
Okay, thank you. Correct. Are there any other questions from the members
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:25:07
of the committee? Senator Hill. Senator Davis, on this, I see what you're going to do, just put
a line item there, whatever. All your business has to do, because the cost of doing business is increase our price, $1 or $2 or $3 or $10, whatever they feel like is
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:25:19
costing them, to their tire. Well, a tire retailer did that several years ago because they were told by a group that it was okay. And then they ended up having to pay DFA tens of thousands of dollars back because they were told that is illegal. They were not allowed to do that.
Speaker 289
1:25:31
But increase your price. Yes, you can all day
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:25:34
long. Well, it was for the hauling and disposing of tires. Yeah,
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:25:37
but that's just the cost of doing business. I mean, they increased their price, $3 or $4 on the tire. Yeah, there is a sales tax that's added to that $3 or $4, whatever they go up, but it
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:25:52
also covers their cost of doing business. They should be allowed to let their customer know what they're being charged for, and they want to legally be able to pay for the hauling and disposing of tires because their waste
tire district's not picking them up. And I think it's fair to let them be transparent with their customer and say what they're being charged for, and right now the law does not allow for that. Thank
you. Senator Payton, any other questions from the members of the committee? All right, seeing none, is there anyone here to speak for or against this bill?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:26:27
Seeing none, you're recognized and closed for your bill. Thank you. Members, all I'm asking is that we all have issues in our districts and around different
places, and I have a really, really severe one, and it extends past my district, beyond my district. And private business owners are not able to resolve the problem that government created. And we continue to tell them they cannot solve it themselves. So all I'm asking is that we let these private tire retail shops charge a fee and show the customer what they're charging for the legal hauling and disposal of a tire. If we do nothing else, at least let us help out these
small business owners to stop paying money out of their own pocket for the disposal of tires because the Waste Tire District is not properly doing their job. Thank you. All right. Thank you. What's the pleasure of
the committee? Motion to pass. Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye. Sorry, the bill fails. Thank you. All right, I'm going to do 627
real quick because it has an amendment, and then we're going to get to House bills that have amendments so we can get them to the floor.
And there's a Senate bill that has an amendment. We'll get it to you next. 627, if you'll take the chance. Okay,
we do have an amendment. And you're recognized to present your bill.
Thank you. I'll make a motion to adopt the amendment. We have an amendment.
We have a motion and a second to adopt. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Your
amendment is adopted. Thank you. I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Parker. This is an agency cleanup technical bill, and I'll let him
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:28:29
go through it succinctly. Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator, and for your support. My name is Dan Parker. I'm the Chief Legal Counsel for the Department of Labor and Licensing. This is a bill with a lot of little but positive changes for our code enforcement section that
licenses and regulates electricians, HVAC professionals, and elevator and boiler safety. And as the regulator for the state, we get a lot of feedback from our licensees and interested parties and some of those have merit and when there are positive changes we can make that's going to help the licensees, help business and help consumers, we want to try and do that. And this bill checks all those boxes. So some of the things it's going to do, it's
going to eliminate some unnecessary licenses. It will improve procedures for licensing our apprentice electricians. It also improves procedures for elevator owners and manufacturers to be able to comply with testing requirements. It reduces education requirements that aren't needed for electrical inspectors. That helps cities statewide because there's about 320 or so municipal electrical inspectors. There's some obsolete statutes you'll see repealed
in this bill. There were grandfather clauses that are no longer serving any purpose. And we are implementing a standard one-year renewal cycle that this bill will implement across the board for all programs, which is a good government efficiency measure that will save the state money and make us more efficient. The sponsors that were added today, we reached out to them specifically because we are aware that they work in these industries, especially
Representative Cozart, Representative McGrew, and Senator Josh Bryant with contractors, home builders, and electricians. Each of them were supportive of the bill. They're not only supportive, each of them agreed to sign off and sponsor the bill. So we would also like the support of this committee, and with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions. Senator Hill,
you're recognized, sir? Okay, you just mentioned a while ago it makes
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:30:48
your office a little more efficient by having all of them to renew their license every year.
How does that make you more efficient when you have to touch something every
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:30:59
year instead of having a two- or three- or four-year license? That's a good question. We've gone to an electronic licensing program so that our licensees can get online and just do all the legwork to license themselves online without having to come in or mail any money in. But that platform is geared towards annual renewal periods. So we've gone to that across the boards.
And it also makes sure that people don't forget it's time to renew their license. So it kind of has that benefit as well. And it's easier on staff if we know everybody's license comes up to renewal every year. And we've got to make sure that they either get licensed or get notified that they need to get licensed. And we try and handle that across the board
Speaker 300
1:31:45
on an annual basis. So it's kind of more efficiency for our office to make sure that
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:31:51
we're licensing everybody properly. So it's more important to be efficient
for the office than to be efficient for the workers out here in the real world.
Because I have licenses that go three, four, and five years. I love it
because I don't have to do it every year. I wish the medical license was that way. medical licenses also annually though as well but I think it's because of the continuing education and the compliance that they have
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:32:22
with their licenses. Yeah it's a little I would love to see this but I just can't support it if we're going to put more burden on the worker.
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:32:29
Other than that I like everything about it. Well and I guess the ease of renewing your licenses now since we've
implemented that online platform we have actually saved in our electrical and boiler areas you'd be surprised with the number of licenses. So by being able to do it all online, we have saved a lot of money. And it's real easy, and we work with our licensees to make sure it's not a burden on them. But they do have to do it annually. I apologize for that. That's one of the
reasons why we reached out to the different legislators that work in these areas
as well to discuss the bill with them. I mean, that would be a whole different bill if you would have changed the licensing time frame. But again... That's not very efficient. If you're
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:33:15
going to run this one this way, then ask me to come back and
run something later. That's not efficiency. I think different... I think licenses for individuals are determined based on their industry. So again... But before that, we were at a longer
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:33:29
term before that with these licenses. Actually, I think that's just in one
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:33:35
area, the electrician's license, where they could do it for one, two, I'm sorry about that. It's one, two, or three years in that area. But our office is at the front end of licensing everyone electronically with our electronic licensing platform. We're doing that across the board for 20 different boards and commissions, and it is saving the state a lot of money to do it that way. So, you know, we are committed to doing that, and And that's why, more than anything, it's a good government efficiency measure.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:34:10
Thank you. Thank you. Members of Senator Love, you recognize her. Thank you. On page 11, I'm just curious
Speaker 316
1:34:25
as to why we struck Class C license. Yes, that Class C license is seldom used,
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:34:31
and we're converting those Class C licenses. They basically have the same training and education requirements as the Class B license holders. So we're eliminating the Class B, C license, and we're upgrading that to a Class B license.
If you note at the very end of the bill, there is a provision that will automatically convert the Class C license holders to Class B license holders, and that will enable them to do more
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:34:58
with their license. Okay, what was the difference between a Class C and
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:35:04
a Class B license prior to this legislation? I think I would need my expert, Lindsey Moore, to
Speaker 300
1:35:12
expound on what the difference between the two licenses are.
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:35:17
I just know that the class... Is this Lindsey? Yes, this is Lindsey. Lindsey Moore, Director of Code Enforcement, Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing. Specifically, Class C was from back in the day, in the early '90s, when Sears, Montgomery Wards, if anyone remembers them, would have people go out and they could do service work on them. They just charge up some free items. They couldn't do actual replacement units. We've come 35 years later.
It's a whole different technology in the mechanical program, and it allows them to actually do more service work expands their
Speaker 229
1:35:55
opportunities. Okay, so we've done away with that class and just everybody's in the class B.
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:36:00
We're grandfathering those into the class B where they can
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:36:03
do more work. Okay, now so are we ensuring that the people that were in class C have the same training as the ones in class B or are we
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:36:12
just grandfathering them in? Well, we're grandfathering them, that's true, but the testing requirements, the knowledge that you have to have is the same because you have
to know how the unit works. You can't just go up there and just say, "I'm going to slap some refrigerate in it like they did 30 years ago." They have the same continuing education requirements that we have. Everything is the same. It just expands them to do more, just plain and
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:36:40
simple, sir. Okay. And then the other one I have is on page, I see it kind of throughout some of the pages. What does with parking lot endorsement mean?
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:36:50
There's two different types, sign maintenance electricians. These are the ones that work on, these are electricians that work on the digital signs, the lighted signs. They also do what's called parking lot, where they go in the parking lot, replace the receptacles, the lighting out there, like we're going to a new greener light initiative, if you will. And that's always been an add-on endorsement. So what we're wanting to do is give them the flexibility, both the companies and the workers
to be able to just take that test at once, and they've got both endorsements at the same time, expands into work in other areas, expands the companies that go into that area as well. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senator Hill,
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:37:43
you recognize her? Okay. I'm looking through here. When I was reading it earlier, I saw you were doing everybody with the grandfather clause on something. What was that you were
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:37:52
doing with the grandfather clause on? The grandfather clauses were originally initially when we went to a statewide mandate for licensing.
Everyone that had a license that wasn't an electrician at that time, excuse me, not that they were not electrician, they were electrical people. They had individual local jurisdiction licensing. We grandfathered all those licenses, like for like, into the statewide system. How long ago was that? 1997. 1997. So if you have some of those out
Speaker 308
1:38:16
here still working, are they going to be out of a job now? If they were still working, they would have a state license, sir. Say that again. If they were still employed, they would have a state license. Okay, they would have it now then?
Yes, sir. Okay, thank you. Members, are there any other questions? Seeing none, is there anybody that
would like to speak for or against this bill? Seeing none. Senator? Thank you. Members, I appreciate the hard work that
these individuals do in working with the folks in our industry. And I know that they're in constant contact with them. And I think if there had been any angst about it, I would have heard, absolutely, I know I would
have from certain individuals that this would affect.
So we've looked through it. We think that it's a good cleanup bill. and allows for just some reasonable improvements based on the technology as things have changed. And so, but it's, these things are important and appreciate the hard work. So I would ask for a good vote from the committee and I make a motion to pass as amended. I have a motion. Do I
have a second? I have a second. Members, all in favor, say aye. Any opposed?
Congratulations, your bill has passed. Senator Penza, I think you have, are we back with Senate Bill 255? Is that correct? And we
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:40:06
have your amendment? I do. I've got signed copies. If you all want to, yeah.
Okay. Okay, so I'll go ahead and explain the amendment, why that's been passed around. In the section that says food that contains a vaccine or vaccine material, we inserted other than meat. So now it says food other than meat that contains a vaccine or vaccine material. I obviously think it should include everything that has mRNA vaccines. But like I said, I can read the room and we'll stick with vegetables that are intentionally genetically modified to produce an immune response.
Also on page two, line six, we struck or other animals from the vaccine definition that eliminates the opposition from the Poultry Federation. Okay. Any questions from members of the committee? I have
a motion. Do you have a question? Senator Payton? I was just wondering
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:41:21
if you had any conversation. You said with the poultry, but with livestock or cattlemen? association? Did you have any...
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:41:31
That was... I haven't followed up with them, but the poultry federation had reached out, but the livestock, or the cattlemen's had, and that was their concern as well. So I'm pretty confident it has addressed their concerns as well, being that they mentioned to me that was their concern. I would think so. So I'm good with passing the health committee. And if they come to me and tell me that that's not accurate, I will state in the well that they have opposition, but I do not think they do.
Senator Hill? What were the comments from the Ag Department? Did not connect with the Ag Department. I don't know if they're good. Neutral. Ag Department's neutral. Okay. Senator Hill? So
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:42:23
you haven't talked to them yourself then? I wasn't able to connect with them, I believe.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:42:28
Somebody in the room had tried to get us connected, but we hadn't got connected yet.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:42:33
But the word is they're neutral. I'd appreciate it if you could talk to them to get that input. That would satisfy me if you could. So you just want
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:42:45
me to personally speak to the Ag Department and hear if it's neutral? I can call before I agree to go into it, one of
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:42:50
the two. But I would take your word on it because I trust you if you want to talk to them.
That was one of the recommendations that I asked for. Yeah, and I was not able to do it in the timeline.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:43:03
I don't know if anybody's here or could be here. If I can, I've got two
what, let's see if we can do that. I know they're in the Capitol. So if somebody from the Department of Agriculture could come and visit with Senator Penzo directly, that would be nice. So let's do that because I think that's important. They should be able to come and connect with the senator. And I'm going to go to some, we have House members that have been sitting here waiting.
So I'm just going to go down the list. Representative Mayberry, you're first. Then we have Kendra Moore. Yeah, and then we'll come right back
to Senator Penzo. Is that okay? All right. Representative.
Yeah, I'm sorry, 1241. Is anybody here before we, 1734, House Bill 1734, anyone here to run House Bill 1734?
You are. Okay, Representative Mayberry, let me get to them first because these House bills
have amendments and I'd really like to get to these House bills first. I'm sorry, and I'll come right back to you. 1734. 1679, 1131, and 1576. But if they're not here, I'll go to you next. Okay, if you'll state your name for the record, this is going to be Houseville 1734. Yes, ma'am. Paul Childress,
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:44:39
State Representative, District 83. And with permission from the chair, I would like to have
Kevin Cleghorn, the Sling County Coroner, and also the chairman of the Arkansas Corners Association. Join me at the table. Thank you. If
you'll state your name for the record, you may
proceed. Kevin Clickhorn. I'm the president of Arkansas Corners Association. Madam
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:44:59
Chair, we have an amendment that is
being, I think, being passed out, and all our amendment does, it just says by the medical staff of the hospital and a physician
other than an emergency department physician is not immediately available. Okay, thank
you. Is there a motion to adopt the amendment?
Motion is a second, second to adopt the amendment,
second. All those in favor say aye and opposed. As have it, the amendment is adopted. Please proceed with House Bill 1734
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:45:30
as amended. Okay, and I'll be brief and I'll pass it on to Kevin Glegland. I know y'all got a busy schedule, but what this bill does, it allows advanced nurse practitioners to be able to sign death certificates and pronounce people dead in a hospital setting if the medical director of that facility allows it.
gives permission to, and also if there's no other physician available other than an ER physician at the current time. So I'll pass my time to Horner, Clay Corner, he
can explain the reason for this bill. I just
have a question before we do that. So,
but we're saying that there's not an emergency room doctor available to do this? Yes, Kevin
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:46:10
can explain that, but when the ER physician leaves the emergency room they have to log out and go to a floor like my hospital for
example is six stories and if they leave the emergency room to go pronounce a body at two o'clock in the morning they have to sign out if there might be a nurse practitioner on the floor and the ER doc might be 12 or 13 minutes from the emergency room if a trauma code or a cardiac arrest comes in the
front door and they got to get back there so okay but I don't mean to be rude
but why is there a rush? The person has already died. So why does a delay with the emergency room
doctor coming up to the sixth floor to sign a death certificate and then to leave, why is that
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:47:02
a problem? Well, just for example, if the hospitalist leaves at, say, 8 o'clock and there's death at 10, and they have other patients that need to get a bed, and we have a body just sitting in a room waiting on somebody to pronounce them dead before they can move them, that could take, you know, before the ER's finished slows up currently, it could take four or five hours before there's time for the ER doc to get up there.
Does that answer your question? Well, my concern, though, is that are we, is this a move to try to replace emergency room doctors with
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:47:35
nurse practitioners? No, ma'am, not at all. The emergency, we're trying to keep the emergency room physician from having to leave the emergency room and go do that. We're trying to allow nurse practitioners who are already on the floor to be able to pronounce the body instead of the
Speaker 343
1:47:50
ER physician having to go do that. All right, go ahead with your testimony. Thank you, Madam Chair. So what brought this into light? In our larger hospitals, Pulaski
County, Washington County, there are physicians on the floors throughout the entire hospital throughout the night. Our rural Arkansas, we do not have that. So what is happening is if that emergency department is full, they are busy, they have ambulances waiting on the walls because they don't have beds available. We have patients that are dying in our hospitals, in the floors, that we can't get physicians up there too to pronounce these deaths. So now these rooms are being occupied by deceased bodies
because a lot of our hospitals don't have morgues that they can move them to, and they can't be moved to a morgue until they've been legally pronounced deceased anyway. So what is happening when these ER doctors eventually get to make it up to the hospital, up to the actual floors to pronounce, what that does is it causes problems on the other side, as Representative Childress mentioned. Number one, if a trauma or a cardiac arrest comes in, now that doctor is away from the
floor, but they also, every time they log out and have to leave the floor, they have to report that to the Arkansas trauma system. And a hospital is only allowed to have a physician off of the floor for a very small length of percentage of time throughout the year before it starts to affect their trauma designation and their trauma funding. So under Arkansas law now, a nurse practitioner actually has the legal authority to sign a death certificate. It's a signature law that passed, I believe, in 2017 or 2019. They have the authority to sign a death certificate in lieu
of that physician. What they don't have under Arkansas law is the authority to pronounce a death. And there's really no reason why the nurse practitioner can't pronounce the death in the facility. We have conferred with the Medical Society, the Hospital Association, and they are 100% for this. But that's the reason and why all of this is taking place. I gotcha. And could you just
state your name and who you're with again?
Speaker 343
1:50:08
Yes, Kevin Cleghorn. I'm the Arkansas Coroner's Association President. I gotcha.
And just for the record, there are doctors that do go and leave in
the middle of the night from their homes and pronounce their patients deceased. Yes, ma'am. So I just want to make sure we're not making a blanket statement. No, ma'am. Because there's many, many physicians in rural parts of the state of Arkansas, because I've lived there for now over 20, 28 years that go every single night at one o'clock in the morning and go and pronounce their patients deceased.
Speaker 343
1:50:37
Yes, ma'am. And that's... Thank you. That's the reason for the cause of
the medical society. Well, let's just make sure that when we're speaking, that we're not speaking in these broad general terms where you accidentally offend some of these rural physicians in the
state of Arkansas. Senator Wallace, you're recognized for a question.
Did you say the medical society supported this bill? Yes, sir. Matter of fact, that language was for the medical society.
Thank you. Any other questions from the members
of the committee? All right. Anybody here to speak for or against this bill? Seeing none, you're recognized to close for
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:51:09
your bill. Thank you, Madam Chair. We feel like it's a
good bill. We're just trying to make hospitals more readily available, protect emergency rooms, and I do appreciate the
doctors that still go in. And Selene, they don't do that anymore. And I remember when they used to when I worked at the hospital. So with that, I would close my bill
and I appreciate a good vote. Thank you. Was there an amendment? We
did adopt the amendment. So being to be a motion, do pass as amended. Is there a motion? Do pass as amended. Is there a second? Second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed, ayes have it.
Congratulations, the bill passes as amended. Thank you, committee. Thank you. All right.
1131. 15, are you 1131? I am. Okay.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:52:11
Thank you, Madam Chair. We've heard House Bill 1131 here in committee. This was the APRN task delegation bill.
Senator Payton had some concerns about a section that stated it authorized, I believe the task
list was kind of open-ended and
you wanted it more specific. So it says a nursing task to be delegated under this section may include the following tasks. And I believe it said without limitation. And now it says the following tasks and any additional tasks authorized by the Arkansas State Board of Nursing. So
don't have an amendment. That's right.
This amendment's not been adopted. We need to pass... Sorry, we need to pass this amendment out. Yeah, we've got
Speaker 30
1:53:17
it signed. Okay, so I'm explaining the amendment. Yeah,
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:53:25
yeah. Yeah, sorry. I was trying to find it, too. I couldn't find it. So we removed without limitation and replaced with any additional task authorized by the Arkansas State Board of Nursing. And then they wanted to specify that if you delegated a task to somebody, That task could not be delegated to somebody else.
Speaker 62
1:53:40
So that's the second part of the amendment. Amendment,
okay. Okay, motion to adopt the amendment. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed. As
have it, amendment is adopted. You may present House Bill 1131 as amended. You already have. Yeah, I mean, we already have. Are there
any questions? Okay, all right. Close for your bill. Or you have a question? Okay, you have a motion do pass as amended.
Yes. Sorry. You okay? Okay, thank you. Motion do pass as amended. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say aye. And opposed? I have it. Congratulations. You've passed that bill. Thank you, committee.
Okay, let's go to 1576. Anybody here to run 1576?
It's a House bill that has an amendment. All right, C9, Representative Mayberry. I'm sorry, 1679. Are we still debating that bill?
Speaker 357
1:55:02
Okay, let's go to Representative Mayberry. Sorry.
Speaker 360
1:55:08
Which one do you want to go? I do not.
Senator Penzo, you have other bills on here that are Senate bills or Senator Ludding? 587? No. 587 is not running. Senator Hester's bill is not running. Okay,
motion to send Senate Bill 532 to interim study? Okay, motion, second. All those in favor say aye. Aye.
And opposed? I have it. Senate Bill 532 will go to interim study.
Senator Ludding, do you want to do the same? Sure. Okay, motion to send Senate Bill 587 to interim study. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? As I have it, Senate Bill 587 will go to interim study. Senator Johnson and Senator Stone are the other two senators that have Senate bills other than Senator Penzo. All yours are good. Okay, Representative May.
Okay, so we have gone through all Senate bills. All right. 1241. okay 1241 does have a fiscal impact uh it's in your folder all right please state your name for
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:56:51
the record and you may proceed state representative julie mayberry and i'll let
Speaker 369
1:56:59
my guest also introduce themselves james a physician here in
Speaker 370
1:57:02
central arkansas thank you please proceed dr jessica sliger pediatric dentist from springdale arkansas
Speaker 372
1:57:09
ashley mcmillan dentist here in central arkansas thank you please
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:57:18
proceed please proceed okay thank you members we have had a situation in the state of arkansas where
adults with special needs, complex medical situations have not been able to get even basic dental care accomplished because they need anesthesia. They need to be put to sleep in order for someone to work on their mouth. And I think we have come up with a very innovative approach. And that's why we have so many people here at the table to tell you what a great idea this is that actually does not break the bank for the state of Arkansas. The fiscal impact that you will see is an old fiscal impact. I don't think it got updated, but we do not expect this fiscal
impact to be more than a quarter of a million dollars, just to let you know. We have put on the House side some regulations in this that keep the cost down. I'm going to let our guest here kind of explain what this bill
Speaker 376
1:58:19
is going to do. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, committee members, for having us.
Speaker 369
1:58:24
So our goal was to employ academic medical centers and any CODA accredited school
of dental medicine that could organize and concentrate the multidisciplinary care needs in dental and anesthesia services for a small population of the state that happens to be our most vulnerable, and that has least access to care with anesthesia if required for dental care, whether that care is examined, x-rays, or whether it's a root canal. My only child is a young man with Down syndrome who is 22 years of age and has no access to
dental care in the state of Arkansas. this bill is an avenue to provide human beings, citizens of Arkansas, like
Speaker 378
1:59:10
my son, that access. Thank you. As someone who
Speaker 379
1:59:19
spends one day a week in the operating room setting with patients with special health care needs, I feel really strongly about this bill, so being a mother of a child with autism. So if you're over the age of 18 and you're in the operating room to do dentistry, You likely have Down syndrome, severe autism, intellectual disability, or cerebral palsy.
So this bill is actually going to be a way for us to lessen the burden for DHS because a lot of these types of syndromes or issues will have a piece to them that will affect the whole body. So by being able to go in and do their dentistry in a manner that will address those things, like Down syndrome, you have a higher propensity to have periodontal disease. What does that do? increases your chance for Alzheimer's, diabetes, and it can cause severe cardiac issues. So this
is a way actually to alleviate that financial burden on DHS later because of the fact that so many of these patients haven't been receiving their care in the operating room setting. The burden has also increased after COVID. All of the emergency rooms saw an influx of patients for dentistry and also operating rooms stopped allowing dentistry to happen. And so this is a way for us to kind of catch back up and to have more dentists want to participate in this type of dentistry in our state. Thank you.
Speaker 381
2:00:41
Go ahead. The only thing I wanted to quickly add is that this particular
Speaker 372
2:00:45
problem knows no socioeconomic status or age. So any of us are one tragic car accident or one parent with Alzheimer's away from this affecting our family unit and their access to care. So I just wanted to
remind everyone about it. Okay. Thank you. Questions? Senator
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:01:04
Love and then Senator Payton. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess I'm trying to think about, did we not pass a bill regarding this issue not too long ago? And
Speaker 230
2:01:17
I'm going to ask DHS that.
Did we not discuss this issue? Yeah, we did not discuss the reimbursement for this type service just last week? This is different than
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:01:32
that other bill. This does something different. The other one is reimbursement for Medicaid. Ms. Pittman, if you'll come to the table. Thank
Speaker 386
2:01:41
you. No, it's not. I mean, I'm supportive. But I want to make sure that if we pass this, it doesn't conflict.
If Elizabeth Pittman and Ms. Janet Mann can come to
Speaker 389
2:01:55
the table, please. Hi, Elizabeth Pittman, Department of Human Services. This won't take very long. No, this does not conflict. The one last week was a dental rate bill, and that applied to all dental rate services, and then the adults with special needs population in general, not to when they require anesthesia. This bill is specific to those that require
Speaker 390
2:02:13
anesthesia. Okay. All right. That's, I mean, I
knew it. Is that okay? Yes, sir. Okay. Senator Payton, question?
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:02:21
Thank you. Sir, when we say anesthesia, are we talking about, like, the
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:02:28
full spectrum of anesthesia? a letter.
Speaker 369
2:02:34
Anesthesiologist answer that. Patients that don't require deep sedation or general anesthesia wouldn't necessarily fall into this category. Those that can show up in a dental office and sit in the chair with perhaps some minimal sedation or anxiolysis like many of us may pursue, those people are not, it's not part of the population we're addressing
here. We're addressing specifically those that need comprehensive, direct deep sedation or general anesthesia in order to accomplish their oral health care. Okay. And so the way the system is
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:03:09
right now, we've been denying them dental care because of this? Yes, sir. The funds have not
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:03:19
been there to provide those services. Correct. And
Speaker 397
2:03:23
you're saying that the services have not taken place? Correct.
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:03:26
So without this bill, they still, they would not be able to receive those services.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:03:33
So we have people who are waiting. So what happens when they're not
Speaker 368
2:03:40
receiving the services? They just go around
Speaker 369
2:03:42
with a toothache all the time? They either go out of state, they do not receive services, or they revisit recurrently emergency departments in the state and sometimes get hospitalized. Okay, thank you. Or they have
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:03:53
to pay out of pocket, and it's thousands upon thousands of dollars that families don't have. The
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:04:00
anesthesia or the whole procedure? The whole procedure.
Okay, thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions from the members of the committee? Senator Hill? I'm going
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:04:16
to back up on that in just a second. It's sitting in the question I'm going to come back to. I want to follow up on what Senator Payton just said now. They can get dental care now without the anesthesia. If they can tolerate, correct. So the
Speaker 372
2:04:36
dental service is available. Now, not in the OR setting or in this kind of setting,
because once you're an adult over a certain age, there are only certain procedures covered. So if I'm 42, an adult on Medicaid, I only get certain dental procedures covered by my dental insurance. Some of these patients need care outside of the standard fee schedule, the standard procedure codes, and we're not able to provide those services without charging the patient out of pocket for those services. Adult Medicaid is much more
Speaker 403
2:05:02
limited than pediatric Medicaid, which covers whatever needs to be done for the patient. Adult Medicaid does not from a dental perspective.
Speaker 236
2:05:10
Okay. And I'm going to go with Senator Love, but I think
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:05:14
I'm thinking, I'm going to think back I'm going to say two years ago, Breanne Davis ran a bill because she had a special needs child that did the same thing. DHS from here, I thought they were on the UAMS or somewhere to do that. That was Senator Davis' bill. I can look it
Speaker 69
2:05:33
up, but I promise you she filed one and it ran. Yes,
Speaker 381
2:05:37
sir. I'm going to ask Elizabeth to also step up. So, yes, this problem came out of several changes in the Medicaid program.
just state your name for the record. I'm sorry, Janet Mann, DHS. So I'm not exactly sure on the timeline, but a couple of maybe two years ago, a hospital that was seeing DD patients that needed anesthesia had changed their policy on ages and services. And so that did leave a gap. We, DHS, then reached out and worked with UAMS to try to set up a dental clinic to address those needs.
and it has been start and stop and then found a little continuity of care. It did have a waiting list to see patients that needed sedation and care that were IDD. So when this bill came up with academic centers and was with the new dental school and then could be seen at hopefully two to three academic centers across the state, it would open up some access and maybe alleviate some of that weight for care.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:06:45
Okay, so is that where we're going with this bill? Yes, sir. That is... Okay. You were right, Senator Love. Okay. Now back to my original question that I had before I got sidetracked. Okay. We've got the fiscal impact study here. Shows it up to 2.8 and as low as 567. and you said it's probably around 250 or so. How did you
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:07:14
come up with that? Well, we took that there might be 600 cases,
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:07:18
I think is what we've kind of estimated. And at 3,750, we added an amendment at 3,750 per episode. That's 670,000 for the state match is actually
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:07:28
the numbers that we have come up with. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other
questions from the members of the committee? Senator Payton? Thank you,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:07:43
Madam Chair. So I know you have language in the bill that describes who is eligible for this.
How narrow is that, or is there a gray area that some doctor or surgeon or dentist is going to have
Speaker 411
2:08:00
to determine whether they're eligible, or
Speaker 376
2:08:05
how's that going to work? I'll let y'all answer that as physicians. So we didn't define whether these
Speaker 369
2:08:14
patients were a Tier 3 category for Medicaid, meaning qualifying for residential services or not, because some patients who may be a little more functional in the community
may still not be able to tolerate having the dental care due to sensory or behavioral mechanism needs. The fundamental question was whether or not those patients that would require this service can or cannot sit in the dental chair to complete the service without deep sedation or anesthesia. We did not specify whether that person had three limb or four limb cerebral palsy. Let me
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:08:53
try to simplify my question.
Yes, sir. This fiscal impact has a category for 250 up to 1,250. And I'm wondering why could they not narrow that down? I mean, if we're being specific about who this population
is that will qualify, then why couldn't they narrow down the fiscal impact? And
Ms. Pittman can come to the table. Sorry. Can we get one of these chairs?
Speaker 389
2:09:27
We're to the end of the table, please. Again, Elizabeth
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:09:37
Pittman, Department of Human Services. So do we have
Speaker 389
2:09:40
a well-defined population that we're trying to cover? Yes, we do. The population is actually the developmental disability population, which is defined in a statute that governs developmental disabilities. There are six, I think, specific conditions that actually qualify. So it's a very limited and easy-to-identify population. If that's the
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:09:55
case, why can't we have a fiscal impact knowing the number?
Speaker 389
2:09:58
So the problem with the fiscal impact originally was that when we had tried to get a price of
Speaker 416
2:10:04
the services based on cost, because they were originally, the way the original bill was written, the services were based on cost. And when we talked to UAMS and the clinic that is doing those services now, the costs varied from anywhere from $2,000 to $13,000. Yeah,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:10:20
but what I'm talking about has nothing to do with cost. I'm talking
about the number of qualifying patients. This fiscal impact is a range of 250 to 1,250.
Speaker 416
2:10:30
Okay. Yes, sir. Because we didn't know how many would be seen at that time. We now understand it's closer to 600. That fiscal impact has not been updated since the original bill
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:10:42
was written. Okay. So that's going to fall between the 500 and 750 category. Yes, sir.
Okay. Thank you. But it's also not based just entirely on the individual. It's also based on the number of cases and procedures. So, I mean, I want to make sure that we understand, you know, I mean, I'm the sponsor of the bill,
but I just want to make sure everybody understands the fiscal impact. It's just like on 347, you have a range, but understand that if you have, you know, certain procedures that come in, then that adjusts, you could have one patient that comes in for five procedures. Does that make
sense? So then that would adjust the fiscal impact. Yes.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:11:26
Something was said earlier about, you know, I asked if we're denying these services, and you said something about them going out of state.
What prevents somebody from out of state from coming here and taking
Speaker 421
2:11:43
advantage of this? As the bill is written, it applies only to academic medical centers. So
they would have to go to UAMS or the dental school or any other academic medical center that opened them
at those qualifications. Okay, thank you. University of Tennessee, would
they be qualified to participate? We only
Speaker 416
2:12:05
enroll as Medicaid providers and state providers.
If we have the ability to provide the service in state, we don't send Medicaid clients out of state.
Okay, I just know that they have a lot
of our Arkansas students there for dental students, and they built a specialty clinic specifically for this. So we
Speaker 416
2:12:21
did not intend and did not calculate in our numbers that University of Tennessee, the Dental School of Memphis, would qualify. Okay, thank you. Any other questions
from the members of the committee? All right, seeing none, you're recognized or closed for your bill. There's
Speaker 424
2:12:37
nobody else to speak here for or against.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:12:40
Okay. members without this bill we're going to have adults with special needs complex medical care not getting the
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:12:48
dental services that they need and i just ask for a good vote today motion
and a second do pass there's no is there amendment no no all right
all those in favor say aye and opposed as have it congratulations the bill passes thank you we're back to 255 are we
Speaker 426
2:13:10
do we have that 12 18. hospital 12 18. okay
State your names for the record, and then please proceed and explain the amendment. State
Speaker 6
2:13:48
Representative Julie Mayberry. Clint Benzo, District
Speaker 431
2:13:54
31. Okay, please proceed. Marshall Dickey, Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist. And
Speaker 432
2:13:59
Katie Hall, also a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist. Thank you. Please
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:14:08
proceed. Yes, the amendment was just asked by UAMS to just clarify some terms here
and make sure that we're not including occupational therapists in this, and that's all that amendment is. Okay,
is there a motion to adopt the amendment? So moved. And a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed. Ayes have
it. Amendment is adopted. Please proceed with 1218 as amended. You should also have a sheet
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:14:31
of paper that I gave earlier that can be passed out on this as well. I'm sorry. Okay. Go ahead, and we'll pass that around if you'll explain your bill. Okay, sure.
Members, first of all, I've got to give kudos to Brian Sanders, our first gentleman, and to Shea Lewis from our Secretary of Parks and Tourism, because they are doing outstanding things to get people outside. One of the things that has happened is that there is a committee that's looking at trying to make sure that the outdoors are truly accessible to everybody. And they have been meeting almost quarterly, sometimes even monthly, on how to make parks more accessible.
You may have seen the track chairs that's now available at Pinnacle Mountain. That is so wonderful. But we need to make sure that the people get out there and actually use it. One day, we went to Camp Aldersgate as a committee. And I have two people here who are recreational therapists from Camp Aldersgate. Camp Baldur's Gate offers summer camp programs to individuals with complex medical needs like diabetes, spina bifida, cancer. They make life fun. And when we went there, we met Marshall and
Katie and they said, we have a problem. We need a licensure for recreational therapists, which is what they do every day. And so I'm going to let them explain what a recreational
Katie Hall
Unverified
2:16:10
therapist does and why we need this bill. Okay. Thank you, Senator Mayberry. So, Representative Mayberry, pardon. So, again, my name is Katie Hall. I'm a recreational therapist working at Camp Aldersgate. Therapeutic recreation is a systematic process that utilizes recreational modalities and activity-based
interventions to address the assessed needs of individuals with illnesses and disabling conditions. There are currently 76 certified therapeutic recreation specialists, or CTRS for short, working in the state of Arkansas. We work in a variety of settings, both clinical and community-based. We have recreational therapists working in the VA hospitals, in the medical and behavioral health hospitals, rehabilitation settings, Little Rock Parks and Recreation
Department, and then of course Camp Aldersgate, just to name a few, as well as assisted living facilities all over the state. So we are here today, as Representative Mayberry said, to pursue licensure for our profession, for the therapeutic recreation profession. We feel that this is a huge need. There are currently five states, six if you include the District of Columbia, that have achieved licensure for therapeutic recreation. There are 13 other states
actively pursuing licensure efforts, so we are we are one of many and many more to come. We work, as Representative Mayberry said, with very vulnerable populations. While it is it does not happen frequently, there have been instances where our National Council for Certification has needed to take disciplinary measures for a certified rec therapist because they, yes, had
unethical conduct and actually needed to be taken. So we want to protect the clients that we're working with. This, I think it's very important and I would like to drive this point home. This would not be a high cost to the state. The whole point of this is to protect the populations that we work with. There are two other states of the five that are licensed or have licensure. Utah is one. They have 643 licensed recreational
therapists in their state and one individual working part-time, not even in a full-time capacity who is overseeing licensure for their state. In North Carolina, again, one individual working as a part-time employee is the executive director of the licensing board. They have over 1,000 certified and licensed recreational therapists, and she is able to fulfill that role in a part-time capacity. Thank you. Please proceed.
Speaker 430
2:19:08
Marshall, thank you. Just thank you so much for this opportunity. I'd just like to add that currently as it stands, the National Certifying Board does not have really any avenue to which there's accountability for any mishaps that might be happening in your state. It's strictly through recommendation or like an anonymous call. So this would, we're just striving to kind of create accountability for individuals who are considering themselves recreational therapists here in our state.
Just as an opportunity to create that accountability and safety for our fellow Arkansans. All right. Thank you. Questions
from the members of the committee? Senator Payton. Thank you, Madam Chair. Number one,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:19:55
I have a hard time understanding how this is not a scope of practice bill. I mean, basically, we're creating a whole new practice with a scope here. But on
page two, line eight, we start the definition of a therapeutic recreation.
I guess line 13 is where I want to go. Therapeutic recreation includes without limitation. And we list 13 paragraphs defining it. Why do we need to say without limitation if we've got 13 paragraphs defining it? It's just the way the bill was crafted to just
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:20:44
give it a better definition. Just to give it a broader scope of practice.
Speaker 442
2:20:50
That's what I'm saying. It's just defining it. That's all that's
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:20:56
doing. Well, we've got 13 paragraphs that define it. It seems to me like it would be defined well enough without saying without limitation. What kind of a committee is it creating? I mean, why isn't this under like the Board of Health or something like that instead of
Speaker 384
2:21:16
creating a committee? We felt that it would be best fit for the Department of Health.
This would be a task force, a committee under the Department of Health. So it is under the Department of Health. Yes, sir, as the bill is written. Sorry, I
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:21:29
just hadn't had a lot of time to review it. Okay, thanks.
Speaker 446
2:21:35
All right, any other questions for the committee? Senator Hill, you have a question?
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:21:45
You're recognized. Kind of go through the background and training that it takes to become one of these.
Katie Hall
Unverified
2:21:55
training that you have to go through. Sure. So both Marshall and I pursued the academic path for certification as recreational therapists. So we both have our bachelor's degree in therapeutic recreation, which we received from Arkansas Tech University, which is currently the only state or the only, excuse me, university in the state that has a therapeutic recreation program. So through our program at Tech, we completed our degree.
we had to complete an internship, a 15-week internship in either a clinical or community-based setting under a certified therapeutic recreation specialist. So after that
Speaker 430
2:22:39
degree program, there's typically an internship with the academic route equivalency, the academic path. After that path, you have the opportunity, kind of in the midst of your graduation period,
simultaneously doing an internship. It's about 15 weeks. I believe it's about 1,400 hours of facilitation time overseen by a current CTRS. And then after that, submitting your academic and work experience through that internship, you can sit for the national certification exam. That exam primarily focuses on knowledge ability. It's a written exam. And then there's an equivalency path that follows this as well.
So, for instance, if you were to graduate with a recreation or a health degree, there's an avenue where you could do a longer internship, if you will, while working full-time or part-time under a certified recreational therapist as well. And then you could sit for that same exam process. And
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:23:46
I do want to add, if possible, we have someone here to speak from Arkansas Tech University, Dr. McMahan. And they are the only ones in the state that have this program.
And when we look at return on investment, I think this is key. I think the other part of this that's key, we know we have mental health issues in the state. And we have people who can help meet some of those needs. So when we look at return on investment from our colleges and we're trying to find more mental health workers, I think this is a fantastic program. As mentioned, there are 1,000 recreational therapists in North Carolina. We're missing out on
Speaker 377
2:24:24
finding more people to pursue this degree.
Speaker 446
2:24:30
Any other questions from the committee? Any at all? All right. Say no questions. Do we have anybody sign up to speak for or
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
2:24:50
against this bill? should be two so I'll go down to the end table introduce yourself and who you're with and be recognized for a seat and we're going to cap that remarks testimony at two minutes so
you guys want to go together or do you want to go individually? You go together, we'll give you four
Tyler Rollins
Unverified
2:25:15
minutes. You go individually, you get two each. Yeah. Okay, I'll just go for two minutes. I'll try to be as quick as I can. My name is Tyler Rollins. I work for Chanel Family Therapy in Bryant. I'm a mental health clinician. So when I was 17, I enlisted in the Arkansas National Guard at 20.
I had a training incident where I shattered my C6 vertebrae. It was paralyzed instantly from the middle of my chest down. My hands were also paralyzed. When my life started to get back on board was when I met Tom Horan, who is a certified therapeutic recreation specialist, when I was doing my rehab at Craig Hospital in Denver. So I'm here just to support my colleagues to kind of clarify what we're getting at is the professionalism it takes to do this job properly.
So someone who, for instance, is like a program coordinator or something like that for a facility or an agency would not have the professional skills it takes to help that person reestablish a life for themselves. So if Tom, my recreation therapist, was there to help me build birdhouses or something, it would not have given me through recreation the skills it takes to build a lifestyle. And since then, I've finished my undergraduate degree,
finished a master's degree, bought a house, got married, lived a very normal life despite being 85% paralyzed, and that turning factor was the professionalism that my CTRS had during my rehab experience. So I think it's important to clarify what we're asking is protection for the consumer, and had I been in a scenario where the professionalism was lax, there's no telling what trajectory my turnaround would have been on. So I appreciate what Katie
and Marshall are trying to pursue here as the clinicians because it protects the consumer to get exactly the services that they would expect from a professional and a certified recreation specialist. It's a lot more than building birdhouses. It's more like building purpose-free.
Speaker 449
2:27:26
All right. Appreciate your testimony. Any questions for the... All right. Thank
Speaker 458
2:27:34
you, sir. Yes, ma'am. Good afternoon. I'm Dr. Kathy McMahon. Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist.
I am a professor at Arkansas Tech University. I do teach our therapeutic recreation courses. My concern, I think, as we came together to look to this and certification is, once again, the protection of the consumer. We are an allied health profession. Our students are required to complete a Bachelor's of Science, to have a very structured internship, to go on for certification. And we do have a national certification body. But I think at the state level, sometimes we have concerns with essentially maybe places of employment,
employing individuals that are considered or that are a CTRS. And so just like other allied health professions, they have that level of licensure at the state. And once again, just coming back as protection of that consumer so that we do not have someone I can think of and no disrespect whatsoever to activity directors, but their level of training is not at the level of a certified therapeutic recreation specialist. And I think that we do have some possibly in the profession using terms a little bit differently
and, once again, not that certified therapeutic rec specialist. We do have a need in the state to continue to promote this profession, as most of you know, And I think Representative Mayberry mentioned to you, we're seeing all different types of allied health facilities, especially behavioral health facilities are, I don't like to use the term popping up, but essentially are popping up throughout our state.
Also, we haven't even mentioned the elderly and the services that needed to be provided to our elderly population. I would hope that they would have the opportunity to have the best services possible to them also, which could be in the form of a CTRS. And once again, I'd like to say we are the only university in the state. The majority of our grads are staying within state. All right. Are
Speaker 449
2:29:39
there any questions for the witness? All right. Seeing none, thank you so much.
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
2:29:43
All right. Senator Penzo, Representative Mayberry, you are recognized to quickly close for your bill.
Oh, Matt Gilmore's good. He doesn't need to say anything. ADH is against it, folks. They're against it. So what happens when you get to
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:30:14
the third on deck to chair Matt? They're against it, yeah. Members, I would appreciate you voting for this bill because this is not about the person that's being licensed. It's about the people who they're serving. This is a very special group of people.
We are talking about our veterans in the state of Arkansas. We're talking about our special needs children. We're talking about the elderly. And the recreational therapists are getting intimate knowledge of that person's life. Every detail, medical information, background history, their trauma that they've experienced. And to me, that's what this bill is about. it's protecting our most vulnerable people in the state of arkansas and that's why we need to pass
Speaker 449
2:30:58
this bill all right got a motion due passed second by senator penzo second by senator letting any discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor say aye opposed sorry your bell fails all
Speaker 464
2:31:22
right you jump on okay have you talked to uh secretary ward do you have a sworn affidavit has it been notarized
Speaker 45
2:31:29
notary to come over okay yeah like just just betting it down here i think that's a good idea thank you
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:31:38
senator um i did i did receive a call back from him and he said they're neutral could you show Senator Hill where he called your phone I'd be happy to but they're neutral like I said meat's been removed from it so meat producers are Senator Hill is that good for you would you define neutral for me
excuse me what does he mean by that it means that they do not have a position
on this particular bill but does it affect livestock No. He said they were neutral before, but they had concerns. Okay. We probably need to adopt this amendment, don't we? Have
Speaker 45
2:32:21
we adopted the amendment? We have not, but it feels like we should adopt it. Motion to adopt. Okay, we've got a motion to adopt by Senator Penzo, a second by Senator Payton.
Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Amendment's been adopted. Motion. I yield the chair. Is
this 255? Yeah. Okay. Motion do
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:32:44
pass on Senate Bill 255 as amended. Okay. Motion second. Is
there a second? All those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed? As have it. Thank you, committee. Bill passes as amended. Okay. All right. No more Senate bills. Is that correct?
You do have a Senate bill coming, But it's
Okay, so we have 20 minutes before we get into the session. I know we have Representative Bentley and Representative Brown here. Representative Brown, I'm going to let you go ahead. Let's go ahead, Representative Brown.
we've got 10 minutes I'm adjourning this committee in 10 minutes and if we have to continue with testimony we'll have to come back after session okay while we
Speaker 466
2:33:48
were in the hallway madam chair I think we've got ours worked out now okay if you'll state your name for the record Matt Brown house district 55 madam chair you were gracious enough to do a written amendment on this bill and if the committee would be willing to consider that amendment that takes care of 98% of our disagreements. And then we would request the committee to make an oral amendment that
takes care of the other 2% that just kind of
came up while we were in the hallway. Oh, I'd rather get that in writing, if that's possible. Yeah, we need to get that in writing, because we did that with Senator Penzo. So why don't you work with Jessica Beal to get the amendment, the second amendment that you need, and then we'll come back immediately upon adjournment from the session. We should be quick when we come back, Madam Chair. That'll be fine. If you'll just get with Ms. Beal and try to get the second amendment
or get this one completely reworked to where you can have one amendment, that'd be great. Okay, thank you. Okay, we've got 10 minutes, Representative Bentley. Anybody
know status on Senator Johnson's bills or Senator Stone's? Okay, Representative Bentley,
state your name for the record, and then please proceed with whichever bill you have.
State Representative Bently, District 54, let's start with House Bill 1440. I'm sorry, hold on. Do you have anybody here
to testify for your bills? Okay, Representative Kavanaugh does have three people in the room. Yeah, we can do this later. Let me yield to her. Representative Kavanaugh. Sorry, musical chairs. We have some people here that have been waiting to testify for Representative Kavanaugh's bill. Thank you, Representative Bentley. Representative Kavanaugh's bill is 1653. 1653.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:35:46
Okay, if you'll state your name and proceed. Thank you, members. Fran Kavanaugh, State Representative, District 30. This bill is an attempt to correct an issue that we discovered. Last session, we passed Act 806, and during the implementation of that act, we discovered some things about the board that does the licensing of these PRTF beds, and this is an attempt to correct that.
It was actually discovered that the actual former director of DCFS actually helped create this problem, and we're just trying to fix it, and that's what this bill does. It addresses licensure, and it also addresses the actual quality of care in these facilities. All right, other questions from the members of the
committee? Seeing none, we have people here to testify for the bill. If they'll come
to the table, all of them?
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:36:48
In case y'all have DHSs here, they worked on the language, and so they understand. Ms. Wetherington is here. If you'll just come
to the table. All right, if you'll state your name for the record, please. Am I live? Can you
Speaker 473
2:37:04
hear me? Okay. We can, just say your name. Jason J.D. McGee. And who are you with? Americans for Prosperity, Arkansas chapter, I serve as Deputy State Director. Thank you. Please proceed. Okay.
Good morning to all of you. this our organization has been talking about this particular issue for some time we recognize the tremendous amount of work that has gone into getting us today with representative capital afp is supportive of house bill 1653 arkansas has a serious mental health issue hb 1653 attempts to address the quality of care issue while opening more beds space to children who
need this level of care. House Bill 1653 is a step in the right direction. We want more quality of care, more competition of bed space and oversight and we think that this is a good way forward in this space. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any
questions from the members of the committee? Seeing none, thank you so much for your testimony. Is there anybody here else to speak for this bill? Kristen Harper.
I'm sorry, you're here to speak against. I
Speaker 444
2:38:32
apologize. Do you still want me to proceed or? Yes, please. Okay. Good afternoon. Kristen Harper, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. I am asking you to vote no against HB 1653 as it's currently written. In some respects, the bill would clean up previous licensing and nomenclature issues, specifically on page 2, lines 5 through 8 of the bill. Those beds referenced there are currently functioning as PRTFs, so we don't take issues with those at all. However,
on page 2, lines 9 through 11, those beds are referencing beds that were built, as I understand it, the DHS can correct me if I'm wrong, but were built without a permit from the health services permit agency, nor a license from the child welfare agency review board. So those are not, those do not currently have children in them, um, or at least they shouldn't be operating as such. Um, quality of care was referenced. Um, if you look at the bill starting on page 15, I believe line 18 and through line 16, the quality of care standards that were
implemented as a part of act 806 in 2023 have been stripped. Now we'll give you on page nine, There is a Medicaid manual reference there that does ask DHS to promulgate rules specific to quality of care, but I think it's a shame that the framework that was established in 806 has been stripped. I think it would have been helpful to have that referenced to be promulgated in the Medicaid manual. I think where we missed the mark in Act 806 is those quality of care standards were promulgated in June of 24 in the minimum licensing standards reds, but they were not expanded upon. They gave
no guidance in terms of what that looks like on a day-to-day operational basis. So I do think the Medicaid manual will be a better place, but those need to be expanded on, and I think it would be great if we could keep that framework there. We have no issue with it being moved to the Office of long-term care. We're willing to try new things. I just want to mention for context. I worked for DCFS for about 15 years before joining Advocates a few months ago. One of the programs I oversaw there most recently, serve kids ages 14 to 21, kids cycle in and out of these PRTFs. There are
ongoing reports to the child abuse hotline. There are sometimes issues with children being over-medicated so they can't properly respond to other therapeutic modalities or the education they receive in these settings. I know my time is up, but we just do have concerns with the bill as it's currently written. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any questions from the members
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:41:05
of the committee? Senator Love, you're recognized. Yes, and I knew that you, were you the DCFS? No,
Speaker 444
2:41:11
sir. Previously, my most recent role there, I was an assistant director with DCFS.
Speaker 230
2:41:17
So you were the director with DCFS? No, sir. Assistant director. Assistant director with DCFS. Okay. And so, and I remember a friend, no, I shouldn't say, Representative Kavanaugh, I'm sorry, that you did bring this bill. Now, what are we trying to, and I guess, you know what,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:41:35
I'm going to let you go so I can actually have questions. Of course. Thank you.
Speaker 223
2:41:47
Madam Chair, can I have my questions directed to Representative Kavanaugh? Yes, please.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:41:53
Okay, so Representative Kavanaugh, now, I remember the bill you bought last year. Now, what are we trying to address with
Speaker 386
2:42:00
this specific bill here? Well, what I
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:42:03
actually wanted to accomplish last session was to get the licensure away from the current board
that it's under because we determined that there was some problems with that licensure process. And the current board that it was under actually issued more license than they should have issued.
And that's why you see that number of 900 in the bill. It's because they have permitted and licensed that many already. We have people that have already built beds. They're waiting for their last licensure to be able to finish to be able to have people in those beds. So we discovered a loophole. And so that's what this bill is trying to do, is to fix that loophole so that it doesn't happen anymore. It sets the maximum that we have. It says that if DHS wishes to decrease or increase the number of beds,
they have to come before ALC and ask for that, and ALC has to approve it. We also go in there and we're asking DHS to set up new quality of care guidelines in their manual because we do feel that's the proper place where it needs to be, And that's why it was stricken, so that they can put it inside the manual where it needs to be. We're looking to have stronger quality of care guidelines than we originally had in 806, and that's what we're working for in this bill. And DHS can probably speak more to that.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:43:27
Okay. So was it necessary to strike the existing quality assurances? Yes. Quality of care assurances. Yes, because we feel that they didn't go far
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:43:38
enough, and we're looking to go even further so that there'll be more regulation on them, so they'll have the proper people that work there, so
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:43:49
they'll have everything that they need. Okay, so we're taking these assurances out of statute, and then we're relegating them to the manual.
Ms. Weatherton, if Melissa Weatherton can better answer your question, if you'll identify yourself for
Speaker 477
2:44:07
the record, please proceed. Yes, ma'am. Melissa Weatherton, Medicaid Specialty Population Director. So
Speaker 478
2:44:13
having that language in Act 806, I understand why it was there, because Medicaid was not regulating or overseeing the licenses of psychiatric residential treatment facilities. It was this independent board. And so I think, not to speak for Representative Kavanaugh,
but she saw a need to have more regulations to make sure we were having higher quality in those facilities, and she put it in state statute. What this bill is doing, it's going to make PRTFs a long-term care facility. That falls under the code, the same sections that we regulate, assisted living facilities, skilled nursing homes, intermediate care facilities like the HDCs, highly regulated facilities. We are already in the process of working with the providers to set up a licensure manual that will outline everything we expect in those facilities, including what they do with the kids, what the family engagement is, what the ratios are, down to the T of what we expect them to do.
And it will be in a manual, just like we have in place for nursing homes and all of the other Medicaid programs we regulate. We don't put necessarily quality or regulatory language in statute. We enforce regulations and quality through our manuals that run through you guys and will be promulgated through and approved through all the committees, like the rest of our manuals. But these will be regulated just like other Medicaid providers when this bill passes. Okay, so then let me ask you.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:45:48
then all these quality, I would assume that all these quality insurances would then be in the manual. Yes, sir. And more. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from
the members of the committee? Right. Seeing none,
I do know that we have some people in the audience. If you could just stand that are here for the bill, correct? If you'll just come to the end of the table quickly
Speaker 481
2:46:17
and state your name. My name is Matt Wiltshire. I'm the division president with Acadia Health Care, and we run three PRTFs in the state of Arkansas.
Thank you. One of the things that this bill does that we are very much in for by moving it to the Health Services Permit Board, we followed the process that the Child Welfare Board had put in place whenever you build new beds. It's really backwards because you have to build your facility, And then after you build it and you get certified, as far as your environment of care, then you have to seek your license. It's just backwards. If you do that with acute care hospitals, you have to go through the Health Services Permit Board.
You get basically a pre-approval, and then you work with the entities moving forward. This bill will do that. It will make it to where PRTFs go through the Health Services Permit Board for any, you know, if they billed anything over, I think it's $3 million is what I saw in the bill. And then plus it strengthens regulations, which we are 100% for. Okay, thank you.
If you'll state your names for the record quickly, I'm adjourning in two minutes.
Speaker 482
2:47:30
Yes, I'm Ben Beasley. I'm the CEO of Mill Creek of Arkansas. We're a psychiatric residential treatment center in Fordyce. The hospital 1653 is critical for facilities like ours because it sets clear licensing and regulatory standards for PRTFs while recognizing the necessary exception to the moratorium. It allows us to license two smaller units on our campus, which we'll be able to do some more specialized treatment in those and, you know, be able to serve more kids, not only in Arkansas, but across the country.
Just to speak on the demand for services that we see, on average per month, we have 484 referrals. We admit 288 youth per year in our PRTF program. We have a successful discharge rate of 88% and a disruption rate of 5%. So that just kind of speaks to the solid foundation we
Speaker 483
2:48:23
have in our program. Okay, thank you. If you'll just go ahead,
it gives you one minute. My name is Justin Hoover.
Justin Hoover
Unverified
2:48:34
I'm the CEO of Yellow Rock Behavioral Health. That's in Northwest Arkansas. I'll be quick. So we're looking to expand our program as well by 36 beds, and this bill allows us to do that. The positive about that is that there's no general psych provider in Northwest Arkansas that serves males, and with this expansion, we'll be able to serve those clients up in Northwest Arkansas as well. Thank you. Thank you. Are
there any questions from members of the committee? - All right, seeing none, thank you. Representative Kavanaugh,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:49:04
you're recognized to close for your bill. - Members, I'll be quick. I really appreciate y'all talking about this bill. PRTFs is something that I've really worked on in the last four years through the mental health work. It is something that we have to have, but it's something that has to be regulated. We have to have income after the, when their treatment is done, we need to know that they're getting the treatment they need And that these kids don't just stay in these beds without a medical reason.
And that's what all this is really about, is to make sure they're used properly. And with that,
I would take a good vote. All right. Thank you. So, yeah, because if they are actually in a bed without a medical diagnosis and medically unnecessary, you're committing fraud. Correct. So, we don't need to meet committing fraud. So, appreciate. I just wanted to make those comments. You're right, Madam Chair. Motion. What's the will of the committee? I'll make a motion, do pass. Is there a second? All those in favor say aye.
Aye. And opposed? Well, eyes have it because I don't hear any no's. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, members. All right. Okay, members, we're going to adjourn, and we will come back upon adjournment, but we've done good work. We got through all the Senate bills, so we're adjourned. Thank you.
Agenda
CALL TO ORDER
SB606 B. Davis TO AMEND THE USED TIRE RECYCLING AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT; TO CREATE THE TIRE MANAGEMENT AND RECYCLING ACT; TO REPEAL THE USED TIRE RECYCLING FUND; AND TO CREATE THE WASTE TIRE ABATEMENT FUND.
SB311 C. Penzo TO CREATE THE END ORGAN AND GENOMIC HARVESTING ACT; TO PROHIBIT COVERAGE OF CERTAIN HUMAN ORGAN TRANSPLANT OR POST-TRANSPLANT CARE; AND TO PROHIBIT CERTAIN GENETIC SEQUENCERS AND GENETIC ANALYSIS TECHNOLOGIES.
SB591 C. Penzo TO PROHIBIT RACE-SELECTION ABORTION IN THIS STATE; AND TO CREATE THE RACE DISCRIMINATION BY ABORTION PROHIBITION ACT.
SB255 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "DRUG" WITHIN THE FOOD, DRUG, AND COSMETIC ACT; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
SB622 B. Davis TO REMOVE THE PROHIBITION ON A TIRE RETAILER FROM CHARGING OTHER FEES TO A PERSON WHO PURCHASES THE SERVICE OF REMOVAL OF A TIRE FROM A RIM.
SB532 Hester TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "SPECIALTY HOSPITAL" RELATING TO THE ASSESSMENT FEE ON HOSPITALS UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM.
SB557 M. Johnson TO AMENDS LAW CONCERNING WATER PERMITS AND DISCHARGE OF WASTEWATER; TO AUTHORIZE DENIALS OF APPLICANTS THAT HAVE A HISTORY OF NONCOMPLIANCE; AND TO PROHIBIT CERTAIN DISCHARGE OF WASTEWATER.
SB312 Stone TO REMOVE THE MORATORIUM ON THE CONSTRUCTION OR ADDITION OF ANY ADDITIONAL BEDS WITHIN PSYCHIATRIC RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITIES.
SB556 M. Johnson TO PROTECT PUBLIC DRINKING WATER SOURCES; AND TO PROHIBIT SURFACE DISCHARGE OF WASTEWATER INTO A WATERSHED.
SB589 C. Penzo TO CREATE THE 340B PROGRAM TRANSPARENCY ACT; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CERTAIN 340B-COVERED ENTITIES.
SB474 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS; AND TO ALLOW THE BOARD OF A PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM TO PROHIBIT FLUORIDATION OF THE WATER IN THE PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM.
SB306 C. Penzo TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO APPLY FOR A HOME- AND COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES WAIVER FOR THE AGING AND ELDERLY POPULATION IN THIS STATE.
SB2 C. Penzo TO REPEAL THE STATEWIDE FLUORIDATION PROGRAM; AND TO REMOVE THE MANDATE FOR WATER SYSTEMS TO MAINTAIN A FLUORIDE CONTENT.
SB95 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS ATHLETIC TRAINERS ACT; AND TO CLARIFY THE DEFINITION OF "ATHLETE" WITHIN THE ARKANSAS ATHLETIC TRAINERS ACT.
SB110 C. Penzo TO AUTHORIZE CERTIFIED NURSE AIDES OR CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANTS WHO PROVIDE IN-HOME SERVICES TO BENEFICIARIES IN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO PERFORM ADDITIONAL CARE AND DUTIES.
SB587 G. Leding TO CREATE THE PARENTS' PEACE OF MIND ACT; TO ESTABLISH AUTHORIZATION FOR AND USE OF A MONITORING DEVICE IN A LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY; TO PROVIDE FOR WAIVERS; AND TO PROVIDE FOR ENFORCEMENT AND PENALTIES.
SB616 C. Penzo TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY RESIDENT MONITORING AND COMMUNICATIONS ACT; AND TO ESTABLISH RESIDENT RIGHTS FOR ELECTRONIC MONITORING AND COMMUNICATION IN LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES.
SB627 Irvin TO ASSIST THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT SECTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND LICENSING AND THE STATE'S ELECTRICIAN, HVACR, ELEVATOR, AND BOILER SAFETY LAWS.
HB1186 Vaught TO CREATE THE PAIN RELIEF PARITY ACT; AND TO REQUIRE PAIN RELIEF PARITY IN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM.
HB1440 Bentley TO AMEND THE MASSAGE THERAPY ACT; AND TO ESTABLISH REGISTRATION FOR MASSAGE THERAPY ESTABLISHMENTS.
HB1454 Bentley TO AMEND THE LAWS CONCERNING CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORDS CHECKS FOR EMPLOYEES OF SERVICE PROVIDERS; TO ALLOW THIRD-PARTY EMPLOYEE EVALUATION SERVICES TO PERFORM CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORDS CHECKS; AND TO INCLUDE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS.
HB1428 Steimel TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING PUBLIC LODGING; AND TO PROVIDE A BED HEIGHT REQUIREMENT FOR MOBILITY ACCESSIBLE ROOMS.
HB1523 Vaught CONCERNING MISSING PERSONS ALERTS; TO CODIFY THE ARKANSAS AMBER ALERT SYSTEM; TO CODIFY THE ARKANSAS SILVER ALERT SYSTEM; AND TO CREATE THE MISSING ENDANGERED ADULT ADVISORY SYSTEM.
HB1734 Childress TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DEATH CERTIFICATES; AND TO CLARIFY THE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS WHO MAY SIGN A MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF DEATH AND PRONOUNCE DEATH OF A PATIENT.
HB1679 M. Brown TO AMEND THE REVISED ARKANSAS ANATOMICAL GIFT ACT; TO ALLOW CERTAIN CLASSES OF PERSONS TO REVOKE OR AMEND AN ANATOMICAL GIFT UPON THE DEATH OF THE DONOR; AND TO REQUIRE CERTAIN REPORTING OF PROCUREMENT ORGANIZATIONS.
HB1187 Vaught TO AUTHORIZE A LICENSURE BY ENDORSEMENT FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS.
HB1677 Bentley TO AUTHORIZE ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT PROGRAMS TO MAINTAIN EMERGENCY MEDICATION KITS.
HB1784 Wardlaw TO MODIFY THE INFORMAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCESS FOR LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES.
HB1854 Bentley TO EXEMPT A HOME CAREGIVER FROM HOME CAREGIVER TRAINING IF HE OR SHE PREVIOUSLY COMPLETED TRAINING.
HB1131 Pilkington TO AUTHORIZE AN ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSE TO DELEGATE CERTAIN TASKS TO MEDICAL ASSISTANTS AND OTHER UNLICENSED STAFF.
HB1171 K. Moore TO MODIFY THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE ACT; AND TO AUTHORIZE AN ABBREVIATED INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT FOR CERTAIN BENEFICIARIES ENROLLED IN A RISK-BASED PROVIDER ORGANIZATION.
HB1439 Ladyman TO REMOVE THE CERTIFICATION PROCESS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES FROM LICENSURE AS A PRIVATE CARE AGENCY.
HB1456 Rose TO AMEND THE STATE KIDNEY DISEASE COMMISSION TO BE AN ADVISORY COUNCIL TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.
HB1251 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH THE ARKANSAS ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSISTANT ACT; AND TO PROVIDE FOR LICENSURE OF ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSISTANTS.
HB1458 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "CREDENTIALING INFORMATION" WHEN THE ARKANSAS STATE MEDICAL BOARD IS PROVIDING INFORMATION TO CREDENTIALING ORGANIZATIONS.
HB1537 Ladyman TO REPEAL THE LOCATION ACT FOR COMMUNITY HOMES FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.
HB1442 Achor TO SET RESTRICTIONS ON PHARMACY CONTRACTING AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST; AND TO ESTABLISH PHARMACEUTICAL PATIENT FREEDOM OF CHOICE.
HB1471 Wooldridge TO AMEND THE EXPIRATION DATE OF ALL LICENSES OF THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS IN SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY AND AUDIOLOGY.
HB1185 L. Johnson TO ADOPT THE DIETITIAN LICENSURE COMPACT IN ARKANSAS.
HB1559 McGrew TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO SEEK A WAIVER TO THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR COVERAGE FOR INPATIENT TREATMENT SERVICES FOR SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS.
HB1285 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH AN EXEMPTION PROGRAM FOR AMBULANCE SERVICE'S OPERATORS FOR CERTAIN HEALTHCARE SERVICES.
HB1576 Lundstrum TO PROHIBIT A SOLID WASTE LANDFILL TO BE PLACED OVER A KARST TOPOGRAPHY.
HB1218 J. Mayberry TO CREATE LICENSURE FOR THERAPEUTIC RECREATION SPECIALISTS; AND TO CREATE THE THERAPEUTIC RECREATION PRACTICE ACT.
HB1682 Puryear TO CREATE THE GOOD NEIGHBOR ACT; AND TO CLARIFY FOOD DONATION LIABILITY AND IMMUNITY.
HB1252 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH THE CERTIFIED COMMUNITY-BASED DOULA CERTIFICATION ACT; AND TO CERTIFY BIRTH AND POSTPARTUM DOULAS IN THIS STATE TO IMPROVE MATERNAL AND INFANT OUTCOMES.
HB1585 L. Johnson TO PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION FROM LICENSURE AS A HOME HEALTHCARE SERVICE TO AN ENTITY THAT SOLELY PROVIDES THERAPY SERVICES THAT ARE NOT REIMBURSED BY MEDICARE PART A.
HB1712 Joey Carr TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN THIS STATE.
HB1582 McAlindon TO REQUIRE CERTAIN ACTIONS AND ENCOURAGE CERTAIN ACTIONS FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR BENEFITS UNDER THE DIVISION OF WORKFORCE SERVICES LAW.
HB1622 Gramlich TO AMEND THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; TO MODIFY THE DEFINITION OF "ADVERSE DECISION" UNDER THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; AND TO PROVIDE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE RECONSIDERATION UNDER THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT.
HB1619 Gramlich TO SET ADMINISTRATION FEES UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR IMMUNIZATIONS AND MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES FOR RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS DISEASE; AND TO PROVIDE CIVIL IMMUNITY.
HB1758 Gramlich TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING HEARING INSTRUMENT DISPENSERS; AND TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "PRACTICE OF DISPENSING HEARING INSTRUMENTS".
HB1241 J. Mayberry TO ENSURE THAT THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM REIMBURSES FOR DENTAL AND ANESTHESIA COSTS FOR HIGH COMPLEXITY ORAL HEALTH CARE.
HB1782 Hudson TO PROHIBIT OVER-THE-COUNTER DIET PILLS FROM BEING SOLD, TRANSFERRED, OR OTHERWISE FURNISHED TO A PERSON WHO IS UNDER EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE.
HB1543 Underwood TO ESTABLISH THE WORKFORCE EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITIES ACT OF 2025.
HB1767 L. Johnson TO ABOLISH THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES ADVISORY COUNCIL; AND TO CREATE THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
HB1801 K. Moore TO AUTHORIZE AN OUTSOURCING FACILITY OF LEGEND DRUGS AND CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES THAT COMPOUNDS A PRODUCT TO SELL THE COMPOUNDED PRODUCT TO CERTAIN ENTITIES.
HB1817 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH ELIJAH'S LAW IN ARKANSAS; AND TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO ESTABLISH A STATEWIDE ANAPHYLAXIS POLICY FOR CHILDCARE FACILITIES.
HB1840 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE ACT TO ENSURE THAT SEDATION DENTISTRY IS COVERED BY RISK-BASED PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS.
HB1841 L. Johnson TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS REVENUE INVESTMENT IN VITAL EMS SYSTEMS (ARRIVES) ACT; AND TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS REVENUE INVESTMENT IN VITAL EMS SYSTEMS (ARRIVES) FUND FOR EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES AGENCIES.
HB1004 Pilkington TO REQUIRE MEDICAID COVERAGE FOR POSTPARTUM MOTHERS FOR ONE YEAR AFTER GIVING BIRTH.
HB1751 Underwood TO REQUIRE AN APPLICANT FOR TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES PROGRAM BENEFITS TO ENGAGE IN JOB SEARCH ACTIVITIES WHILE THE APPLICATION IS BEING PROCESSED.
HB1142 A. Brown TO CREATE THE REPRODUCTIVE EMPOWERMENT AND SUPPORT THROUGH OPTIMAL RESTORATION (RESTORE) ACT.
HB1277 Gramlich TO AMEND PAYMENTS FOR CORRECTIVE ACTION REGARDING PETROLEUM STORAGE TANKS.
HB1653 Cavenaugh TO SET STANDARDS FOR LICENSING AND REGULATION OF PSYCHIATRIC RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITIES; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
HB1768 Lundstrum TO REQUIRE A SOLID WASTE LANDFILL CONTRACT RELATING TO A HOST FEE TO BE VOTED ON AT A REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING OF A HOST COMMUNITY IN WHICH THE LANDFILL IS LOCATED.
ADJOURNED
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — PUBLIC HEALTH WELFARE AND LABOR COMMITTEE - SENATE AND HOUSE, Apr 7, 2025 | Agenda | 5 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Missy Irvin Chair
Unverified
Speaker 3
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 41
Speaker 45
Senator John Payton
Unverified
Speaker 72
Speaker 86
Speaker 85
Speaker 32
Speaker 131
Speaker 132
Speaker 137
Senator Greg Leding
Unverified
Speaker 150
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
Speaker 172
Speaker 174
Speaker 180
Speaker 189
Speaker 190
Speaker 191
Speaker 225
Speaker 230
Speaker 227
Speaker 241
Speaker 253
Speaker 257
Speaker 266
Speaker 283
Speaker 286
Speaker 289
Senator Dave Wallace Chair
Unverified
Dan Parker
Unverified
Speaker 300
Speaker 316
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
Speaker 229
Speaker 308
Speaker 91
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
Speaker 343
Speaker 240
Speaker 30
Speaker 62
Speaker 357
Speaker 360
Speaker 369
Speaker 370
Speaker 372
Speaker 376
Speaker 378
Speaker 379
Speaker 381
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 386
Speaker 389
Speaker 390
Speaker 397
Speaker 368
Speaker 403
Speaker 236
Speaker 69
Speaker 411
Speaker 416
Speaker 421
Speaker 424
Speaker 426
Speaker 428
Speaker 6
Speaker 431
Speaker 432
Katie Hall
Unverified
Speaker 430
Speaker 442
Speaker 384
Speaker 446
Speaker 321
Speaker 377
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
Tyler Rollins
Unverified
Speaker 449
Speaker 458
Speaker 464
Speaker 14
Speaker 466
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
Speaker 473
Speaker 444
Speaker 223
Speaker 477
Speaker 478
Speaker 481
Speaker 482
Speaker 483
Justin Hoover
Unverified