Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee - Senate
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Transcript
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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…”
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TO CREATE THE PAIN RELIEF PARITY ACT; AND TO REQUIRE PAIN RELIEF PARITY IN THE … | Vaught | Notification that HB1186 is now Act 960 |
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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…”
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TO AUTHORIZE A LICENSURE BY ENDORSEMENT FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS. | Vaught | Notification that HB1187 is now Act 858 |
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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 |
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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…”
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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 |
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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…”
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TO AMEND THE LAWS CONCERNING CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORDS CHECKS FOR EMPLOYEES OF SERVICE PROVIDERS; TO … | Bentley | Notification that HB1454 is now Act 674 |
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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 |
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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…”
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TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "CREDENTIALING INFORMATION" WHEN THE ARKANSAS STATE MEDICAL BOARD IS PROVIDING … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1458 is now Act 851 |
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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 |
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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…”
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TO REPEAL THE LOCATION ACT FOR COMMUNITY HOMES FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES. | Ladyman | Notification that HB1537 is now Act 850 |
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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…”
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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 |
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HB1679
Act 861
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1679 M. Brown TO AMEND THE REVISED ARKANSAS ANATOMICAL GIFT ACT;…”
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TO AMEND THE REVISED ARKANSAS ANATOMICAL GIFT ACT; TO ALLOW CERTAIN CLASSES OF PERSONS TO … | M. Brown | Notification that HB1679 is now Act 861 |
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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…”
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TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN THIS STATE. | Joey Carr | Notification that HB1712 is now Act 639 |
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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…”
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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…”
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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. |
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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…”
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TO AMEND VARIOUS LAWS RELATED TO THE DIVISION OF WORKFORCE SERVICES; AND TO AMEND THE … | J. English | Notification that SB598 is now Act 743 |
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- October 2, 2026
Um Public health, welfare, and Labor Committee to order. I appreciate everybody being here this morning. I know we have a busy agenda. We have a full agenda, uh, 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, um, and then we're going to move as quickly as we possibly can, uh,
with that being in mind. Uh, we are going to try to limit people's debates to 2 minutes each, um, without objection, if you're here to speak for or against the bill, uh, it's gonna be a two-minute, uh, unless there's an objection from the members of the committee, uh, but without objection as the chair, I'm gonna make that uh ruling because we got a lot of work and we're at the end of session. Um, alright, with that, we're going to go straight ahead, Senator Davis, 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, it would be true with Senator Clark. I know he is chairing judiciary at the moment, um, so we're just gonna have to be as flexible as we possibly can. Senator Penzo, uh, Senate Bill 311. Are you ready for that one? And OK. him.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:57
that correct? Um, thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, Senate Bill 311, we've, we've already ran this if you remember I had someone come testify this had to do with uh forced organ harvesting and then selling uh uh genetic information, uh, we had the geneticists sit here and
we talked about uh uh the CCP being able to access genetic information, this limits genetic sequencers that originate in that country. software from that country and then also storing data, uh, and, and uh adversarial countries, um, we had an amendment, we pulled this down instead of running it last time because we thought DHS had an issue, um, after conversations with DHS,
they're now neutral on it. They 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 adopt the amendment
in committee on 225 and that was the amendment
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
3:00
that cleaned up all the issues that UAMS had with it. We did that amendment to uh to work with the hospital. So, um, if, if we want to go into further details, we can, but we've already discussed this bill
twice and this is just uh the section that Peyton, I think was questioning, um, if I remember correctly, it was top of page 3, that language was struck, uh, on. 2 of the amendment, um, I wish I could have got it, uh, uh, engrossed before bringing it back, but with the timelines, I was worried I'd miss an opportunity to run it, uh, so that, uh, line, line 1 through 5, on page 3,
as I think has been struck from the, the bill, and I think if I'm not mistaken, that's part that Peyton had some
questions about. Yeah, so, so this is, this is, 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 equipment.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
4:07
It's my understanding. That was the request of UAMS
and then the state doesn't pay for
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
4:12
that section was struck with with the amendment. OK. All right. Any
other questions from the senator Hill you recognize her question.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
4:22
Remind me, remind me again what we're trying to accomplish with
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
4:29
this bill. So We, we don't know where technologies, OK, let's, let's talk about COVID vaccines MRNA. I mean, that's kind of a new technology. They can, you could, you could technically tailor. Uh, a virus. To take out a specific person. I mean, there's 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, um, we don't really know at what level uh tech technology has advanced to, but we do know that we can trick our own human cells into making spike proteins, uh, God knows what can be done if, if they have the blueprint for a for a certain individual that they want to take out, so, um, you know, I've got, you know, I had
the uh the the data privacy bill and, and 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, uh, with genetics. Any other questions from the members of the committee? Seeing no
other questions. I make a motion to pass.
Second, all those in favor say I, uh, it's Du pass as amended as amended. Yes, we did adopt the amendment, so it would
be motion to pass as amended, uh, any opposed? No oppose, I have it, 311 is a is passed as amended. Thank you. OK, Senator Penzos 590. Do you want to continue or do you wanna It to any other senate. I'm not sure if there's any other senators that are here right now. Everybody else comes in I'm welcome to take my seat, but
I'll roll while I'm here. That'd be fine. 51.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
6:34
OK, just state your district for the Senate District 31, uh, 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, is the trigger, um, 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 the subchapter. will not be prosecuted or held liable. The penalties are for physicians who violate the law. If there are no questions, I would. As for a good
boat. Um, I have a question, uh, just
on the, the, the penalties, um, are
those, uh, are those consistent with existing state statute or, um, are they different? I believe they're consistent with current. penalties. good Senator Love, you
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
8:06
had a question. Thank you, Madam Chair. So Senator Penzo,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
8:16
what are we trying, what issue came about that brought about this, this piece of legislation. I wouldn't say there's a particular issue.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
8:26
Being that the laws are where they are today. It's just some states have had certain bands or peeled or modified, um, and it just strengthens the existing Uh, prohibitions, uh, against abortion if if certain laws are removed. Like I said, there's a, there's a trigger in section 2 that this doesn't come into effect unless a couple other sections of code or uh repeal.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
8:57
OK, but I'm 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
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
9:10
if it's a, if it's a mixed race, uh, baby. Oh, OK, alright, alright, so the, the, the yeah. Somebody might choose to uh an abortion specifically based on that, just like they might for
if the child has Down syndrome, we don't, we don't want it to be. Based on race, based on the civil rights principles in this
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
9:39
country. So you're trying to give me to vote
Speaker 45
9:42
yes for an abortion bill, huh? I mean, maybe. All right, thank you. Thank you,
Madam Chair Senator Hill, then Senator Flippo. Would this not already be covered
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
9:52
under the current law since abortions are ille illegal in the state of
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
9:58
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. Uh, provide other limitations to abortions. OK. Like I said, Section 2 has the trigger that if something's repealed, it's just. This goes into effect. Senator Flipin.
OK. Any other questions from members of the of the committee, it's
seen none are here to speak or against. Nobody's here to speak for or against. You're recognize the close for the bill. I'm closed and I'll make a motion to pass, uh, any discussion? All those in favor say aye and opposed. I think the eyes
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
10:53
have it. Thank you committee. Senate bill. 255, if I may.
Yes, 591 is past. I'm sorry, 255. That's correct. OK. Senate Bill 255. Please proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um,
Senate Bill 255, uh, changes the definition of drug, um, I'll, I'll kind of start to
kind of explain where we're going with this, uh, new, new technology, um, I actually, uh, Just kind of learned of some of this recently, um, we all know about the mRNA vaccines creating I brought this up, your, your, your cells to create spike proteins to elicit an immune response. Um, what they're doing now is either genetically modifying plants, uh, to, to
produce virus-like particles that will trigger an immune response and they also are uh they can use a certain type of bacteria, uh, as a genetic messenger, uh, bat bathe plants in a solution with these. in it, the plants absorb the genetic material and then uh they produce these virus like proteins. So there's, there's two different methods, uh, that this is happening with, we also
have uh uh we, 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 you
If she needs assistance, we can get Capitol Police to assist. OK, thank you. Right. Thank you.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
13:22
Sorry, please proceed. No. So, so, you know, there's, there's different methods of turning the the plants into bioreactors to produce these virus-like proteins. All this bill does is state that if if these pharmaceutical companies and researchers want to develop uh plants, uh, that, um.
That are producing these virus-like proteins. I just want people to be informed so they would fall under the same drug disclosures that that drugs do. So it's be classified as a drug instead of a food because the whole point of the food is to, uh, like I said, elicit an immune response. So That's Pretty much what this bill does. Senator Peyton, you're recognized for question. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator
Senator John Payton
Unverified
14:15
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, and standards that try to protect the food source downstream, but it's necessary. To vaccinate cattle and hogs and chickens when you're raising them for
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
14:41
it is, and when you use a conventional vaccine, um,
The that response happens, you develop immunity, but it doesn't continue a prolonged event within the organism. If, if you look at, if you look at, uh, right, right now they're talking about uh vaccine injuries, but I, 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, um, you know, if, if, if it's conventional vaccines, it's one thing. If it's MRNA vaccines, like I, I've heard and I think Canada they're using uh MRNA vaccines and pork. I don't know if we're doing it in the United States yet. um, but, but that, that remains in the animal. So my follow up is because of that gray
Senator John Payton
Unverified
15:47
area, who's gonna be the, who's gonna be deciding? What is
the deciding factor and who gets to determine What is OK and
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
15:58
what isn't. That's, that's a, that's a really good question on who, 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, with uh, with the animals. I know for a fact that they're doing it with, with actually genetically modifying the Arkansas plant board has taken
Senator John Payton
Unverified
16:16
up a lot of issues in this area that 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 lab
Speaker 72
16:33
board. There's, there's, I'm not sure who I'd be comfortable with making this decision. so
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
16:39
now that we're sitting here discussing this, um, this, this falls under the, the food, drug, and cosmetic Act. So whoever's currently Arbitrating those decisions over
Senator John Payton
Unverified
16:52
drugs is who would be so I think for the most part the state 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, I'm just questioning since we defer so much to the FDA whether or not we're equipped as a state to to address that. Right. Well, I mean, I, I know, I know that.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
17:24
There's, I'd have to ask, is anybody in here with uh Department of Health Department of
Health or pharmacy? Pharmacy may be able to, I think this is more of a
Department of Health issue. I'm Miss Xu is here at to speak to it. I, I think Senator Payton has brought up some very strong Points need to be addressed. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the committee, I'm Laura, I'm
Speaker 86
17:55
general counsel for the Department of Health and the Department of Health is neutral on this bill. Um, we have not evaluated it from a standpoint of the Department of Agriculture, but um as stated by the sponsor, this is placed in the food, drug, and Cosmetic Act, and we are neutral on this bill.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
18:15
So does the Department of Health have anybody or any department that currently makes these decisions on On how Genetically modified or vaccinated.
Uh, food products. Plant animal based to the extent that
Speaker 85
18:30
we're not preempted by the Federal FDA, um, the, uh, Department of Health would do some enforcement with
Speaker 86
18:36
regard to food, um, we don't feel like the amendments in this bill are affecting the Department of Health in a negative manner and we're not concerned about this bill. OK. And, and I
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
18:50
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 the intent is that if you're, if you're genetically modifying a tomato to produce spike proteins to 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, and I kind of agree with that. I'm
Senator John Payton
Unverified
19:36
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 gonna have to complain or point it out and file a complaint. I don't know if that's going to be the courts or the Department of Health. That'll hear the complaint, but I mean somebody's going to have
Speaker 72
19:53
to. Accuse somebody of doing it well, that they, they are doing
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
19:58
it and they're openly doing it and they're actually talking about it and running ads on, on advancements, um, the, the, the thing is, I don't think any of the agricultural products have made it to market yet. Um, I would, being that we only meet every 2 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, Madam Chair. Um, Senator Hill.
You said they're already doing this. Who's doing it? Um, well, being that there were lobbyists reaching out to me. I don't know the uh uh 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, um, some of it's being done by, by, by some pharmaceutical companies, um, not all of it's happened in the United States, but A lot of it is and it's it's at
the university level and at the, uh, some pharmaceutical companies.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
21:02
And do you, do you not feel like we're actually limiting the advancement of science. Or this, this doesn't prohibit anything.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
21:11
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, uh, in, in, I mean, I, I'm not trying to stifle advancements because this may be a good way to get uh um vaccines into livestock by growing a, a,
a food crop and then feeding it to the animal, uh, might be the most efficient way to, to vaccinate, but I I want. I want informed consent for my, for my constituents when they're making a decision to buy this genetically modified tomato or, or conventionally grown or organic tomato, um, it's, it's not to stop it. I just want, I just want to be transparent, what's in that tomato, that there are vi virus-like proteins in that food product.
Um, OK, so I My concern with the bill is the way that you have it written because, because now a cow is food and a chicken is food. And so now cows and chickens are going to be qualified as
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
22:22
drugs. No, not, not, not if they're not genetically modified to produce a
virus-like protein, but they contain vaccine and vaccine material because, because you do have to vaccinate your cows and
chickens, and so they do. those types of, um, I mean, materials when you, when, when Like for poultry, so,
so and same with cattle so so conventional. Immunizations. Do not remain. In in the livestock,
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
22:51
but, but you can't, I've, I've had, I've had
flu vaccines before and I would highly doubt that I have
any flu, uh, uh, 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. Um, but conventional does not And, and so, so we don't want people knowing that they could have mRNA in their, their food products. I
mean that's the question. No, no, my
question is specific to the language. You're 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's products or a synthetic substitute treated to act as an antigen with without inducing the disease. that is authorized or approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. This, this covers all vaccines, not just the ones that you're talking about, not just MR MRNA type of vaccines, you're talking about every single vaccine, a flu
vaccine, and measles vaccine, a chickenpox 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 va cc in ate our cattle, then our cattle is going to become food in 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
24:45
Senator Payton brought up a uh a comment about, uh, uh, a period of time after vaccination. Um, I, I would like him to kind of explain, uh, from somebody who has livestock would, what,
what that means. Well, I, I, that's fine but that will
Speaker 32
25:03
answer the question. Well, again, I'm asking,
I'm asking you a question. So, that's where
we're, we're at, members are asking you questions. 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, 2 weeks ago, so the, the question is, will there still be
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
25:29
vaccine material after a certain period in the product, but there's nothing defining here. Well, and I think, I think that there's a
time period after a vaccination, you're not supposed to butcher an animal, um, I was just saying that, uh, Senator Peyton. discussion might want to discuss that time period, uh, that might shed some light on whether or not there would be vaccine material in the animal at that point. 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 they'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's department of agriculture, then that would be appropriate, I guess, but again, I'm going with a language that's written in the bill. Are there any other questions from the members of the committee? Senator Payton. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
26:29
So I'm, I'm, 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 can't make it sound like that somehow we're we're doing a disclosure or
labeling or something like that, and I'm just not seeing that language. How, how does it, it's not in the
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
26:52
bill. I mean, if it's classified as a drug, it falls under the regulations of a drug, so anything Anything that's classified as a drug has. To have disclosures. So we're not just talking about a
Senator John Payton
Unverified
27:05
package labeling that says this food may contain a drug we're talking about. Whatever, whatever this deems as
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
27:16
in the, in the food, drug, and cosmetic Act that has to, yeah, so because it is a drug, it's not a food at that point.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
27:23
And on the withdrawal period that you were discussing. There's 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, I can give one of my animals a drug and say, OK, I'd 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 and who's going to be trying to nail down uh those details, but So anyway, I, 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, see you in none. Do we have people to sign and
Anyone here to speak for or against this bill. Please come forward. And um I, 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
28:51
name for the record, please. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I'm Marvin Childers with the Poultry Federation and Preface this with I'm definitely no veterinarian, but I have talked to a lot of veterinarians about this bill, and we read um 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, um, by the FDA and USDA and I would call your attention to the 2nd thing is. is that the federal food and drug and cosmetic Act which Arkansas's Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is based on specifically exclude food products from being considered a drug. So we believe there's
Speaker 132
29:37
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. Anyone else here to speak
for or against this bill. All right, seeing none, your clothes for your bill. Or you make clothes. Thank you. All right, committee, um,
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
30:08
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 um. The uh I,
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
30:43
federation, um. So that that's the the issue
from uh the growers, um, so I think that will eliminate. Opposition to the poultry Federation. I just get a Yes, on that, OK. No longer posed if I strike that language, uh, we'll leave it strictly to vegetable, uh. to plants to be consumed, um. OK, well, I, 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, um, sponsorships. Uh, what's the pleasure of the committee? I'd love
to see it amended, but I'm not
Senator John Payton
Unverified
31:35
sure that. Like you said, there is a substantive change, so I don't know if that'll survived the rules
or not, but I mean, um. Every other committee I've
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
31:46
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. OK, so you're, you're just one moment. You're going to make a motion to suspend the rules to allow for a verbal amendment that's substantive amendment, OK? There's a motion made. Is there a second, 2nd. All those in favor, discussion on the motion.
Senator Greg Leding
Unverified
32:23
You're right. I've seen a lot of Senate committees that do agree to verbal amendments. I've 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. Yeah, I will, uh, hold on. Is there any
other discussion from the members of the committee? Senator Penza, you're recognized for discussion on the motion. Um
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
32:59
A written do verbal written will come over to be signed, um, we just did a couple of them and transportation the other day and state agencies and um there will be written amendment come by, so, um, If you all would like me to pull this down and as long as I'm able to run it again today with the amendment, we'll get a written amendment over here, uh, so I can have a commitment from the chair that I'll have an opportunity to we're going to be here for a while, so um 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. Nobody would care about but I promise
Speaker 150
33:36
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 Miss 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 work at
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
33:53
the ag department as well, not just Mr. Childers on this, OK, so Department of Ag, OK,
west of the veterinarian, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna assume you're gonna withdraw your emotion to suspend the rules. Yeah, just, it's fine. Um, OK, 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, uh, back up, uh, somebody can go grab her real fast. We'll get her right back in here. Yeah, one moment.
All right, members, Senator Davis is coming. We're going to start with 606. So go ahead and get out 606. educational the bank later. And we have a handout for 606, so we'll go ahead and get the folks, uh, Handout 606.
OK, Senator Davis. 606, uh, we're, we're passing out your handout right now. All right, if you'll just state
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
36:10
your name for the record, you may proceed. Thank you, Brianne Davis, State Senate District 25,
and if it's OK with you and the committee, can I please have Secretary Corey and Bailey Taylor. Yes, please come forward, set your name for
Speaker 172
36:32
the record. Good morning, Bailey Taylor, DEQ director and chief administrator of environment. Good morning, Shane
Speaker 174
36:39
Quarry, secretary for the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment. All right, thank you. Please proceed.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
36:49
OK, thank you. This is Senate Bill 606, and There are really two main purposes in this bill. The first one is to dissolve the waist higher districts and privatize the handling of our waste tires across the state, um, 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 um abandoned sites, but also at, um, lots of places including our some of our waist higher 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. Um, we are also allowing a tire retailer to charge a fee for the cost of legally hauling and disposing of waste tires, um, 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. a place where um there are more valuable commodity that can be used. Um, we also create a waist higher abatement fund to be used for administration expenses and and an abatement grant um 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 75 cents, um, 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 $1.50 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, uh, all that money left will be transferred to the waist higher abatement fund, and that's July 1st of 2026. So, um, next year in in January of 26, we'll have the creation of that waist hier abatement fund, um, and that's where any money collected now that's in the fund, that's reimbursing our waste higher districts, whatever is left from that after this program ends on January.
will roll into that new um tire
abatement fund. And then lastly, tire retailers can charge a fee for the cost of legally hauling tires on the day this bill would become effective. We have some waste tire districts that are not picking up tires and they're piling up, um, at tire retailers and they um 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, um, imposing on other businesses or land. owners next to them, and so that was something that I felt strongly that they needed to be able to do immediately, um, to ensure their tires are picked up and, and to make sure that we take care of those small business owners. Uh, with that, uh, we are all up here to answer any questions. All right, thank
you. Are there questions from the members of the committee. Senator Payton. Thank you
Senator John Payton
Unverified
40:20
and I appreciate you working on this. I know how hard
it is and uh and I really do appreciate
it. I want you to know that and and I appreciate any. I just want point out something.
We have a A site in cotton Plant, Arkansas 395,000 tires 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. If
Speaker 180
41:09
they were reimbursed, it was for a different facility and, and they were transporting tires over there.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
41:17
What I'm trying to say is there are people. Who get
permitted. Or their, 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. We're we're part of the program and they were supposed to be properly handled, and they weren't. So can y'all share any information on why? I can't speak to their business
Speaker 172
41:58
decisions, but those tires were reimbursed. So the state, especially in Jefferson County, the
Speaker 180
42:02
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
Senator John Payton
Unverified
42:29
these tires for a product. Well, unfortunately, The want to doesn't get it done, you know, you can want in one hand and spit in the other, and which one's going to fill up faster. The 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 tower was properly processed. It creates a risk that people with good intentions
Start a business, they say I'm gonna do, 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 and we're left
Speaker 180
43:14
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 for its facility.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
43:24
The tire dealer is going to collect from the customer. Up front
Where 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 gonna be the tire dealer's responsibility to pay the transporter when they pick up the tires. Then the money's going to be in the transporter's account paid upfront. And it's gonna be their responsibility to pay the processor when they deliver the tower to the processor. I understand we have we're gonna have fines and we're gonna, we're gonna permit and we're gonna try to force them to do this and they're gonna have
every intention of doing it right. But when you cut payroll and your truck broke down and you have repairs and And you're running a business and you've got 300 tires out back that you need to pay somebody $5 apiece the hell off. And you want to put that off till next month and then next month the problem's 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 is the fact that you're paying people upfront. Now, I know it's not state money or it didn't go through our hands. That's why we've lost, we lose control of that. And the tire dealer collects from the customer upfront.
Speaker 189
44:50
Sir Peyton, let me try to address some of your questions and first I think we can all recognize that the specific
Speaker 190
44:56
problem areas that you're bringing up weren't created overnight, they weren't created under our administration and E&E, but they do exist and
part of the problem that we have right now. Is the current system does
Speaker 189
45:09
not generate 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. 2 years ago, right, we had two options at that point in time. We had The same two options we're looking at today, say basically a privatization option or an increased fee
Speaker 191
45:27
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 as it does increase the fee, um, you know, basically going back 2 years ago, we, 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 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, um, 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 New Corps 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 approcreation bill, the governor's office approved a $5 million transfer so that we
can Used 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, we are reimbursing $2.85 per tire. Obviously we can't sustain a business model where we are getting receiving 257 per tire and paying out 285 per ton.
So we're looking for ways to allow the beneficial use or reuse 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 opened 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 higher 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 do abatement. We want to have
Senator John Payton
Unverified
48:14
funding for abatement. Right. And, and obviously you and I have had these conversations. Uh, so for the benefit
of everybody here. You, you gave your side. The uh 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 dollars, so I mean that's a much larger rate. than what we need if we continue the current management. Now, 2 years ago we did pass a bill that changed the way the four higher districts. We went from 11 to 4, and, and we changed the, the way people were selected to sit on those boards. And we projected that that the system would run out of money in
6 months, and it made it 18 months. So, I mean, I'd say that what we did 2 years ago created a lot of efficiency. I know that there were bids. by processors. To the four boards. If, if, 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 285. If we solve that issue, then those
boards are free to enter into contracts with privatization, private companies such as Davis Rover and Liberty and others. New court. Those are private companies that have a demand and want to participate. And those 4 district boards have the authority, they just don't have the money to enter into those contracts. But um I'm trying to figure out how in this bill.
You do anything other than cost the consumer. $5 an hour more than
Speaker 191
50:19
they're paying now. Well, first I will say that the $1.50 dollars is the max the fee. Right,
Speaker 189
50:26
and the statute and under Senator Davis's proposal. On the abatement aspect is taken care of, that fee can be reduced from $1.50 down to 75 cents. Um, so I don't think it's $1 50s
Speaker 191
50:36
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 6 months to 2 years somewhere in there depending on how it happens, so I think, you know, I appreciate your support last time and then 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 of subsidizing waste hires.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
51:15
OK and I have two responses to your to your I
have two responses to your question, um, the first one is where you spoke of, you know, the money not running out for 18 months and, 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 waist higher district, and that is happening in some places across the state. So and 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 waist higher district. And so to me, I, I think that's probably one of the reasons that um the funds took 18 months to run out instead of the 6 months. So the second thing is, you know, you spoke to tired districts being able to enter into a private contract, um, 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 tier 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, you know, whatever, all the different names are Boston Mountain, like
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, 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 higher 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 waist higher district won't come pick them up, but they're paying a monthly rental fee for a trailer to sit in their parking lot, 100 bucks a month. Even if the West Higher District doesn't come pick up the tires. And
Senator John Payton
Unverified
53:37
I appreciate your perspective. You've obviously got problems in your district that are not. Standard for the whole state.
There were 2 or 3 issues in my district that we were able to get solved. And I know that 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 that 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, I think they're here and I'll let them speak to that
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
54:23
themselves. I think they can probably make a compelling argument to the committee.
OK, thank you. Any other questions from the member Senator Hill, you recognize
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
54:34
my question? I, I want to go back to what about Senator Peyton mentioned and says that, you know, the retailer charges consumer directly for costs associated with actual tire recycling in which you get probably roughly roughly $5. You can not even charge. The dollar $50 and take it to 0
in the consumer's still going to pay more if it's $5. It so
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
55:00
what are you asking? I'm sorry, Senator Hill on
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
55:03
that. How can we sit here and say we're not taking the price up to the consumers because we are.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
55:09
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 waist 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 gonna continue to exacerbate the problems that we're seeing. and some of the waist higher 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. I think they're all going to sit
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
56:11
there and, and look at whoever got the highest price, they're all gonna 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 this industry. How long would it take for someone to get up and running?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
56:27
There's companies doing it right now, I mean, there's companies that are hauling in the state
of Arkansas right now multiple, yes. Well, why do we need this if we're already doing it because they're not allowed to work outside of their tire district. They they're working, well, they're working, they're working with it, let me correct that. So they're working within a entire district if they have a contract. They can go pick up outside of that, but the um entire retailer is not allowed to charge the fee. So let me
correct that. I, 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 is already remitted $3 to the state for a service that their waist higher district is not providing, and then they're having to pay that call so I
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
57:13
can follow you. Do they talk a little slower so I can follow
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
57:19
you. OK. Say that again. So if you are, if you have a contract with a waist higher district. And I have a business, I have a tire
shop outside of your entire district. If I want you to come pick up my tires. Because I cannot get my waist higher district to pick them up. I am remitting $3 to the state. My waist 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 the tires hauled off and processed. OK.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
58:08
Now, with, with that being said, Who does The district report to Attorney
and them not picking their tires, who, who does a retailer turn in? Why is someone not getting after that district. For not picking the tires up. Who's responsible for making sure they pick the tires up. So when we're made known of this,
Speaker 180
58:30
then we contact the district or whoever would be responsible and ask them and and a lot of times, you know, we'll hear the reasons we're broke 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, that's um the temporary solution in in Senator Davis's district right now is another district is traveling further, um, eating that transportation cost in order to service this area. So, so we try to make do with what other areas um are available, other processes that
are available, but they may be at
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
59:03
a further distance. OK. So do you, at that point, do you
Speaker 180
59:08
send that $3 to the other district? The, the $3 is always remitted to the state and so we just reimbursed whoever processed the tire at a different rate, so the, the. Rates are different based on your district and so this entire district that is um this processor that is traveling further now to collect tires is losing money, right? OK. Thank you. OK,
uh, other questions from members of the committee, Senator Love, then Senator Peyton. Thank you.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
59:39
So, so I guess. With this bill we're trying to fix one issue, and that's the issue and you. Western
District because the only issue I'm hearing because I I talk to my district
and so my wife's entire 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,
Speaker 225
1:00:07
have you all not resolved that issue in
Speaker 180
1:00:09
that area? 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 um we don't dictate which contractor they control the youth program.
Speaker 189
1:00:33
And Senator Davis, or Senator Love, I'm sorry, I, 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 that's the true answer. The current fee we don't have enough to reimburse we said that
Speaker 230
1:00:51
last we said that last session. And we had and we bought a bill last session for that and and that that bill was voted out of here, sent to the house. You all
worked against that bill. That's that's, 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, no,
Speaker 227
1:01:12
we passed it out of here. So that's, we pass it out of here. And you all worked against that bill on
Speaker 230
1:01:19
the other end and it defeated that that is, that is the facts. That is the thanks. I don't want to debate the facts I don't I don't want
Speaker 189
1:01:27
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 it today.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:01:42
OK. All right, thank you. Senator Payton. And thank you Senator Love for simplifying it because that's exactly what happened. I was very careful 2 years ago in that bill that we passed that is now law. To make sure that the 4 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 interdistrict contracts, which currently Davis Rover, 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. Uh, but they, they did not bid the contract according to the law that we've 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 3.
Three collection sites for 18 counties, so they, their bid was not considered. Now this is the information I've
been given, if I'm wrong, please correct me. I was just going to say that's obviously a part of the process we're not
Speaker 190
1:03:21
involved in, but I believe that Liberty and others are here
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:03:26
as well, so I'm just explaining that if there's so much private demand for these tires, where were the bids? And, and I'm willing to concede and say, hey, it was, 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 Brian's district. is not capable of producing a product that Newcore wants. Davis is the only processor in Arkansas that can produce a product that Newor wants. We need new equipment. We need new processors. They can be private. They don't, the state's not gonna 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, and you and I have had these conversations, so
Speaker 190
1:04:25
you and I know my answer, and my answer is 2 years ago we did not have new Corps in a position
Speaker 189
1:04:31
to take the amount of tires they can take today. We didn't have the beneficial use. Let's correct that. They're not taking tires at all. Well,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:04:37
they can't use the beneficial use of waste tires.
Speaker 191
1:04:43
So I think that is greatly grown in the past two years since we were here in the past. 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 so 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 4 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. OK, and thank you. Uh.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:05:28
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 from members of the committee.
All right, see you then. I'm going to go to for and
against. We have, um, liberty, we have 424 and 1 against. Newcore, uh, Kylie Clampton. We have 4 and then we have, uh, one, we'll go to the next person against and then the last person 4. If
you'll just, uh, state your name for the record, you'll be recognized. Uh, before you start, um, representative Matt Brown is here. Raise your hand. If you can step out in the hallway, and there are people
here on 1617, 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 Represent a brown so he can explain the amendment to you, it may change your mind on how you want to testify on that bill. So Represent 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. Uh, please follow him into the hallway. OK, if you will state your name for the record, please. Thank you.
Speaker 241
1:06:47
My name is Kyli Claton. I'm with New Corum Auto 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 New Corps to expand the amount of waste hours we currently utilize in Arkansas. We utilize tires during the steelmaking process as an alternative source of carbon. Uh, traditionally what we would do is mine raw carbon in the form of pet coke, Coke, anthracite, and That's what we had utilized, 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 the challenge. Is that under the current tap structure we are capped out at the quantity of tires that we can use. There's 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 3 phases of
our operation. The first is what we call charge carbon. So we introduce carbon into, into the, the, 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 whole tower or any type of tire for the charge portion of that, which is what we currently do with Davis Rubber and um 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 a top feed, we have to have it in between. We need it a little bit bigger than the chrome, but not as big as what we use for charge carbon. So we have utilized sources outside of the state of Arkansas to 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 of this is, is we only use about 3000 pounds per heat of charge carbon, but we use 6000 pounds of heat of injection, which is what we currently can't process, and we use about 500 pounds of
top P carbon, which we don't have a source for either. It is important for NewCor to be a strong partner with Arkansas, and we want to maximize the use of tires from Arkansas and not elsewhere. We believe injecting private sector innovation into waste fire management would open up competition and bring more and better uh processing capacity to our region. This would allow New Corps to utilize more than 3 million past your 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 2 minutes. OK, and you're
past your 2 minutes. That's OK. If you'll just up the comments real fast. We stand ready
Speaker 241
1:09:41
to continue working with the state on this issue and are confident we will find a solution that works both for Nuorp and Arkansas.
Thank you. Are there any questions? All right, thank you so much. Seeun we'll go to against, uh, Craig Douglas.
Again, you have 2 minutes. I apologize. I should have
Speaker 253
1:10:12
2 minutes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Craig Douglas. I'm the director of District 2, Waste our program. Uh to uh appreciate Senator Davis focusing on this issue and DEQ and E&E, it is a problem I've been working on, uh,
working toward a solution, particularly with Senator Peyton since 2017 session of the uh 2019 session, the 21 session and the 23 session. Uh, I am very much appreciate both Senator Payton and others to bring up the consumer in all of this, uh, and for Senator Hill to bring up the small business as Senator Davis did. Here is the problem. Uh, the
current $3 rim removal fee will continue under Senator Peyton's bill that this committee passed due passed last week that $3 fee will not be raised. Uh, the, 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 uh program only and all of our contracts, by the way, in our district, uh, are private with private industry done through competitive bids, uh, but if that were to happen, uh, then the holler and the processor follows the money, uh, large, uh 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. Uh, that, uh, the Davis is supplying uh tires to new core.
We've worked with Mr. Clinton over the years, the last quarter, Davis provided over 2600 tons to new core and we'll continue that process, uh, 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 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. Um, for, uh, Mr. Curtain, Liberty Tire, and then we also have another person here that speaks for. Everyone, I want
Speaker 257
1:13:17
to start by thinking the committee's attention to this. You have 2 minutes,
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:13:22
so cut the small talk and get right to your point, Stratton Liberty Tire, the only coast to coast tire recycler,
Speaker 257
1:13:29
processor, and manufacturer, you know, I'll throughout my prepared remarks,
except to say when we're looking at waste tier laws, our principles are, does it protect the taxpayer? Does it produce better results for the environment and does it appropriately regulate waste tower 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, 2
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 the work you've done on
this over the many years. Thank you. Excellent job,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:14:53
Senator Payton. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just real simple, is there anything in Arkansas law that
we passed 2 years ago that prevents you from bidding. On
Speaker 257
1:15:05
Whatever segment of business you want in Arkansas, uh, we did that 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
1:15:28
So what you're saying is the problem that prevented you from having the collection sites required under the law. was the reimbursement rate?
Speaker 257
1:15:37
That's correct, but I think it's because there 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, you know, we're just going to assume that's what
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:15:47
we have to work with. Thank you. Thank you, Madam
Chair. Thank you, Senator Hill. You're recognized for question. Who'd you
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:15:53
say you're with? Liberty Tire Recycling. Thank you. Yes, sir. All right, any other questions
from members of the committee. All right, seeing Nunn, 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.
Speaker 266
1:16:07
Thank you. Rusty McMill and Greene County judge, president of the County Judges Association but not speaking exclusively on behalf of that group, and thank you all with us, uh, for, for your work on this. Um. In 2017, I was in my 3rd year of office and didn't know anything very knew very little about being a county judge, knew even less about waist hires and and landfill processes, but there was a support a bill that was
ran then for that rim rim removal fee, I believe, or anyway, it changed up the that that particular program to the tire accountability program and then fast forward to where we are now. Yes, 2 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 to learn their jobs but not knowing anything about the waste hier program, so, um, there's a,
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 um in my 10 years in office now, there's still several large tire sites was illegal waste tire sites that exist, so we have not been able to utilize abatement money for that, the current program is underfunded, uh, 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 Tower has a trailer, uh, then they may have to pay somebody to do that and I've seen those cost $1.50 to $250 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 entire service centers to uh to change out customers tires. Um, and I
talked with individuals that have tire dealers in in Arkansas as well as Missouri, and they have spoken overwhelmingly how much more they liked 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. OK, nobody else
here to speak for or against your, any other questions you're recognized to close for your bill.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:18:42
Thank you, Madam Chair and thank you members of the committee for agreeing to be open-minded to hear the pill. Um, I just want to say a few things, uh, you know, putting a dollar amount on this issue is not what is ultimately going to fix the issue. We've had a dollar amount, a fee on these tires for years and the programs are underfunded and they are not sustainable. We have waist higher dumps all 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 um private business to come in and take over this issue and create competition and let them work it out. I, I can't think of when any of us can think of a time that private or that government did something better than private business. We all know that the market and competition and opening that up, um, it's
typically what drives the best result for the consumer, and that's what this bill allows for, um, 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. Um, my concern is that if we don't do this, then we'll continue to have issues across the state, um, 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. Uh, what is the pleasure of the committee? Motion to pass? Is there a second? No 2nd, OK, I'll do some favor, say I, if you want to ask for discussion, ask for discussion. You can ask for discussion and I'll recognize you for discussion. OK. I'll let some papers say aye and opposed? Sorry, the bill failed.
Do you want to do, uh, your Senate Bill 6. 22. I don't have it. Brianne Davis
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:20:51
State Senate District 25. Thank you. The Senate Bill 622. Yeah OK, please proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair. This just uh strikes language in two places.
It's a fairly simple bill, um, it strikes the 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, um. Again, it goes back to the issue we discussed on the previous bill. We have um tires piling up at small businesses for sure
between Morralton 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 a at least a $100 trailer fee monthly and then paying an additional fee. On top of that to waste higher 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, um, 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, if we're not going to fix the issues that small businesses are having in some parts of the state with the waist higher districts, then
please let us let them solve their own problem in charge a fee if they're not able to have their waist higher to come pick up their tires. I'm happy to take questions. Any
questions from the members of the committee. Senator Payton, you're recognized for question. I'm sorry,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:23:03
I wasn't familiar with this bill. I'm not really understanding what you're doing. Are you just saying that the That
the uh recycling fee which the bill we've already passed in the Senate that's over in the House changes this wording and calls it to recycling fee.
But are you saying that that'll be voluntary? By the retailers if they
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:23:25
want to, if they need to charge a fee, I'm saying, here's what I'm saying on this bill. If your bill passes. All the way through. And if it is veto, 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. If they can pull their
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:24:03
towers out of the program is what I'm saying. It it becomes voluntary whether they remit the fee? No, they'll still have to remit the
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:24:10
$3. That doesn't touch that at all. And if your bill passes and if, if there is or is not a veto, if it is overridden, this doesn't this bill doesn't even matter, but if Nothing happens if everything stays the way that it is today.
These tire uh 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, so that's what I'm asking. Are you
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:24:37
saying that they don't have to remit it. They still have to
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:24:40
remit it. I didn't even touch that as to
Speaker 283
1:24:43
not over complicate it. What does the bill right
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:24:45
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 1000. an d s of dollars out of their
Speaker 286
1:24:59
own pocket to get someone to a line item to their invoice that says. For the hauling and disposing of the
tire. OK, thank you. Are there any other questions from the members of
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:25:12
the committee, Senator Hill. Davis on this, I, I see what you're gonna do, just put a line out
in there or whatever. All your business has to do because the cost of doing business is increase our price of $1 or $2 or $3 or $10 whatever they feel like it's costing to their
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:25:24
tire. Well, a tire retailer did that several years ago because they were told by a group that it was OK and then they ended up having
to pay DFA tens of thousands of dollars back because they were told that it is illegal, they were not allowed to
Speaker 289
1:25:36
do that. Well, increase your price, yes, you can all day long.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:25:39
Well, it's, it was for the hauling and disposing. Yeah, but that's just the
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:25:42
cost of doing business. I mean, they increase their price. 3 or $4 on the tire. Yeah, there is a sales tax that's added to that 3 or 4. 3 or $4 whatever they go up. But it also covers the cost of doing business. They
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:25:57
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 waist tire district's not picking them up, and I think it's fair to 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. OK, thank you, Senator Peyton. Any other questions from the members
of the committee? All right. See, none. Is there anyone here to speak for or against this bill? See none, you recognize the
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:26:32
clothes 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 extends past my district, beyond my district, and private business owners are not able to resolve the 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 uh tire retail shops, charges 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. Uh, what's the pleasure of the committee? Motion to pass. Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor say aye, I opposed.
Sorry, the bill fails. Thank you. Alright, I'm gonna 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 a commit an amendment, we'll get
it to you next. 627, if you'll take the chance. Yeah
OK, we do have an amendment bill. Thank you. I'll make a motion to
adopt the amendment, all those. We have, we have an amendment. We have a motion a second to adopt all in favor. Say aye, and he 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 go through it succinctly. Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator, and for your support. My name is
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:28:38
Dan Parker. I'm the chief legal counsel for the Department of Labor and Licensing. Uh, 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, um, 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, uh, some of the things it's going to do, there's, it's going to eliminate some unnecessary licenses. It will improve procedures for licensing or apprentice electricians. Um, it also improves procedures for elevator owners and manufacturers to be able to comply with testing requirements.
Um, it reduces education requirements that aren't needed uh for electrical inspectors that help city 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. Um, the sponsors that were added today, we reached out to them specifically because we are aware that they work in these industries, especially Representative Kozar, Representative McGrew, and Senator Josh. Bryant with contractors, homebuilders, and electricians. Each of them were supporters of the bill. They 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 recognize her? OK, you just mentioned one go. It makes it
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:30:53
makes your off a little more efficient by having your having all of them to renew their license every year. How does that make you more efficient when you have to touch something every year instead of having a 2 or
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:31:04
3 or 4 year license. That's a good question. Um, we've gone to an electronic licensing program so that our um
licensees can get online and just do all the legwork to license themselves online without having to come in or mail any money in. 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 for renewal every year, and we've got to make sure that they either get licensed or get
notified that they're, they need to get license and we try and handle that across the board on an annual basis, so it's kind of more effi
Speaker 300
1:31:50
for our office to make sure that we're licensing everybody properly, so it's more important to be efficient for the
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:31:56
office than to be efficient for the workers out here in the, in,
in the real world. No. I have licenses that go 34, and 5 years. I love it because I don't have to do it every year. I wish the medical licenses 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 with their licenses. Yeah, it's a little I
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:32:27
would love to see this, but I just can't support it if we're going to put more burden on the worker. Other than that,
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:32:34
I like everything about it. Well, and I guess the ease of renewing your licenses now since we've implemented that online platform. We've actually saved um 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, uh, and it's really easy and we worked with our licensees to make sure it's not a burden on them, you know, 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, um, as well to, 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 very efficient if you're
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:33:20
going to run this one this way, then ask me to come back and
run something. That's not efficiency. I think, I think licenses for individuals are determined based on their industry. So again. We were at a longer term before
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:33:34
that with these with these licenses. Actually, I think that's just in one
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:33:38
area of the electrician's license where they could do it. I'm sorry about that. It's 12 or
3 years in that area, um, but, uh, our office is at the front end of uh licensing everyone electronically with our electronics 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, um, you know, we are committed to doing that and that's why more than anything, it's a good government efficiency measure. Thank you. Thank you.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:34:20
Members of Senator Love, you recognize her. Thank you. On page 11, I'm just curious as to why we struck
Speaker 316
1:34:30
Class C license. Yes, that Class C license is seldom used, and we're converting those Class C
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:34:36
licenses. They basically have the same training and education requirements as a 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 know 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 with their
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:35:03
license. OK, what was the difference between the Class C and the Class B
Dan Parker
Unverified
1:35:09
license prior to this legislation. I think I would need my expert Lindsay Moore to expound on the
Speaker 300
1:35:17
difference between the two licenses are. I just know that
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:35:24
the class is this Lindsay? Yes, this is Lindsay. Lindsay 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, they just uh they couldn't do actual replacement units. We've become 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 opportunities. OK, so
Speaker 229
1:36:00
we, so we've done away with that class and just everybody's in the Class B where
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:36:05
they can, they can do more work. OK, now, so
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:36:08
are we ensuring that that the people that were in class C have the same training as the ones in Class B or are we just grandfathering them in. Well, we're
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:36:17
grandfathering him. That's true, but the, the testing requirement It's 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 gonna slap some refrigerator in it like they did 30 years ago, you, they have the same continuing education requirements that we have, everything is the same. It just expands them to do more just plain and simple, sir. OK. And then the, the,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:36:45
the other one I have is on page. I see it through kind of throughout some of the pages. What's up? was it? What does with parking lot endorsement.
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:36:57
There are two different types, sign maintenance electricians. These are the ones that work on these are electricians that work on the digital signs, lighted signs. They also do what's called parking lot where they can go into the parking lot, replace the receptacles, lighting out there like we're going to a new greener light initiative, if you will. And that's always been in the ad on endorsement. Uh, what we're wanting to do is give them the flexibility, both the companies and the uh, the workers to be able to
just take that test at once and they got both endorsements at the same time spans him to work in other areas, expands the company, the companies that do into that go into that area as well. OK. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. the hell do you reckon, sir? OK, I'm
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:37:48
I'm looking through grass when I was reading it earlier, I saw, saw it. You were doing everybody with the grandfather clause on something. What was that you were doing with the grandfather clothes on. The grandfather clauses were
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:37:59
originally initialed when we went to a statewide mandate for licensing everyone that had a license that wasn't an electrician at that time. or excuse me, not that they were not electricians, they were electrical people. They had individual local jurisdiction licensing. we grandfathered all those licenses like for like into the statewide system. was there, 1997, 97. So if you have some of those out here
Speaker 308
1:38:21
still working, they're gonna be out of a job now. If they were still working, they would have a state license, sir. Say it
again. If they were still employed, they would have a state license. OK, they would have it now. Yes, sir. OK, thank you. Members, are
there any other questions? Seeing none. Is there anybody that'd like to speak for or against this bill? Seeing none. Senator
Thank you, um, 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, um, angst about it, I would have heard absolutely, I know I would have
from certain individuals that this would affect. So, uh, we've looked through it, we think that it's a good cleanup bill, um, and allows for just some reasonable, um, improvements. based on the technology as things have changed, um, and so, but it's, these things are important and appreciate the hard work. So I would, uh, 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 2nd. Members all in favor say aye. Any opposed? Congratulations, your bill has passed.
Senator Penzo, I think you have. Are we back with Senate Bill 255. Is that correct? And we have your amendment.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:40:11
I do. I've got signed copies if you want to. that Uh Yeah. Uh, OK.
OK, so I'll go ahead and explain the amendment why that's been passed around, um.
In the section that says food that contains a vaccine or vaccine material, uh, we inserted other than meat, so now it says food other than meat that contains a vaccine or vaccine material, um. I obviously think it should include everything that has MRNA vaccines, but uh like I said, I can read the room and we'll we'll stick with vegetables that are, uh, intentionally, genetically modified to produce
an immune response. Um, also on page 2, line 6. We struck or other animals, uh, from the vaccine definition, um, that, uh, eliminates the opposition. from the poultry Federation. OK, any questions from members of the committee? have
a motion. Do you have a question? Sen Payton, I was just wondering if You
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:41:26
had any conversation you said with the poultry, but with livestock or cattlemen's
association, did you have any that was I haven't
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:41:37
followed up with him, but the Poultry Federation had reached out, but the livestock or the cattlemen's head and that was their concern as well. Um, so I'm pretty confident. It has addressed their concerns as well, being that they mentioned to me that was so, uh, so I'm good with past the health committee. Thank you. And if, and if they come to me and tell me that that's not accurate, I will state in the well, uh, that
they have opposition, but I do not think they do, Senator Hill, what were the comments from the AG department? Um, did not connect with the Ag department. Um, I don't know if, if they're good. Neutral Ag department's neutral. OK. Senator Hill So you haven't talked to them yourself then?
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:42:28
I wasn't able to connect with them, um. I believe somebody in the room had tried to get us connected, but we hadn't got connected yet.
But the word is they're neutral. I'd appreciate if you could talk to them to to get to get that input. That would satisfy me if you could. The OK.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:42:50
So you just want me to personally speak to that department and before I agree to go into it one of the two. I
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:42:55
mean, I, 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, and I was not
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:43:07
able to do it in the timeline. I don't know if anybody's here or could be here. Um, if we can, I, I
that uh let me uh I tell you what, let's, uh, let's see if we can do that. I know they're in the capital. So if somebody from the Department of Agriculture could come and visit with Senator Penzo directly, that would be nice. Uh, 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 gonna go to, um, some, we have house members that have been sitting here waiting, um, so I'm just gonna go down the list, uh, Representative Mayberry. Your first, then we have Kendra Moore. Yeah, and then we'll come right back to Senator Penzo. Is that OK?
All right. Representative. Yeah, I'm sorry, what? 12:41. Um
Is anybody here before we 1734 House Bill 1734. Anyone here to run House Bill
1734. You are, OK. 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. Uh, I'm sorry, and I'll come right back to you. 1734. Uh 1679, 1131 and 1576, but if they're not here, I'll go to you next. OK, if you'll state your name for the record, uh, this is
going to be House Bill 1734. Yes ma'am. Paul
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:44:44
Childers, State Representative District 83, and with permission from the chair, I would like to have Kevin Cleghorn, the Sla 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 Cleghorn, I'm the president of the Arkansas Foreigners
Association. OK Madam Chair, we have an amendment. Um, that has been,
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:45:04
I think being passed out in 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. OK, thank you.
Is there a motion to adopt the amendment? Motion in the 2nd. Second, to adopt the amendment.
Second, all those in favor say aye and opposed. I
have it, the amendment is adopted. Please proceed with House Bill 1734 as amended. And I'll be brief and I'll pass it on
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:45:35
to Kevin Glegg when I know y'all got a busy schedule, but what, what this bill does, it allows uh 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 and gives permission to and also if there's no other, uh, position available other than an ER physician at the current time. So if, if I'll pass my time to uh foreigner Clegg Horner, he can explain the
reasoning 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?
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:46:15
Yes, Kevin can explain that, but when the ER physician leaves the emergency room, they have to log out and go to the floor like my hospital, for example, is 6 stories and if they leave the emergency room to go pronounce a body at 2 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 um I don't.
mean to be rude, but what's why, why is
there a rush? The person has already died. So why, why is there why is there why does a delay With the emergency room
doctor coming up to the 6th floor to sign a death certificate and then to leave. Why is that a problem? Well,
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:47:07
just for example, if the hospitalist leaves at say 8 o'clock and there's a 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 him dead before they can move them. That could take, you know, before the ERs finished slows up currently, it could take 4 or 5 hours before there's time for the ER doc to get up there. Does that answer your question?
What my concern though is that are we, is this a move to try to replace emergency room doctors with nurse practitioners. No, ma'am, not at all.
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:47:40
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 ER physician having
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
1:47:55
to go do that. All right, go ahead with your testimony. Thank you, Madam Chair. So what brought this to into, into life, in, in our, in our larger hospitals, Pulaski County, Washington County, there's emergency, there are physicians on the floors throughout the entire hospital throughout the night. Our rural Arkansas, we do not have that. So what what is happening is uh if that emergency department is,
is full, they are busy. They have ambulances waiting on the on the, the walls because they don't have beds available. We have patients that are dying in our hospitals in the wars 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 or to the actual floors to pronounce. What that does is it causes problems on the other side as as Representative Childress just mentioned. Number one, if there, if, if a trauma or a, a, a cardiac arrest comes in. Now that doctor is away from the floor, but they also, every time they log out and they 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, and
there's really no reason why the nurse practitioner can't pronounce the death in the facility. We have conferred with the medical exam, the the medical society, the hospital association, uh, they, and they are, they are 100% for this, but that's the reason and why all of this is taking place. I got you. And could you just state your name and
who you're with again? Yes, Kevin Cleghorn. I'm the
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
1:50:13
Arkansas coroner's Association president. I got you. 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 patience deceased. Yes, ma'am, so I just want to make sure we're not making a blanket statement because there's many, many physicians in rural parts of the state of Arkansas because I've lived there for now over 20 I'm the Arkansas coroner's Association president. I got you. 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 patience deceased. Yes, ma'am, so I just want to make sure we're not making a blanket statement because there's many, many physicians in rural parts of the state of Arkansas because I've
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
1:50:42
lived there for now over 2028 years that go every single night at one o'clock in the morning and
go and pronounce their patience to, ma'am and thank you. That's the reason for the. Let's just make sure that when we're speaking, that we're not speaking in these broad general terms where you actually 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. Mat 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 your bill. Thank you,
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:51:14
Madam Chair. Um, We feel like it's a good deal. We're just
trying to make hospitals more readily available, protect emergency rooms and um and I do appreciate the doctors that still go in and
in my in Seline, they, 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'd appreciate a good vote. Thank you. Is there an amendment on We feel like
it's a good deal. We're just trying to make hospitals more readily available, protect emergency rooms and um and I do appreciate the doctors that
still go in and in my in Seline, they, 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'd appreciate a good vote. Thank you. Is there an amendment? We, we did adopt the amendment, so to be in motion to pass as amended. Is there a motion? Do pass as amended. Is there
a 2nd, 2nd, all those in favor say aye. And opposed as habit. Congratulations. The bill passes as amended. Thank you. All right, uh,
11:31. 15, are you 11:31? OK. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh,
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:52:16
We've, we've heard House Bill 1131, uh, here in committee. This was the APRN task delegation bill, um,
Senator Peyton had some concerns about a section that Stated, um, Uh It authorized the, the, I believe the task list was kind of open-ended and you wanted it more, uh, specific,
um, so it says a nursing task to be delegated under this section may include the following tasks, uh, and I believe it said without limitation, uh, and now it says the following tasks and
any additional tasks authorized by the Arkansas State Board of Nursing, uh, so it'll have to
Speaker 240
1:53:06
be. No, I don't have an amendment. That's right. This
amendment is not been adopted. We need a pass sorry, we need to pass
this amendment out. Yeah, we've got it signed. OK, so I'm explaining the amendment. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. I was trying to
Speaker 30
1:53:22
find it too. I couldn't find it. So we removed
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:53:32
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 test to somebody that task could not be delegated to somebody else.
Speaker 62
1:53:45
Uh, so that's the second part of the, uh,
the amendment amendment, OK. OK, motion to adopt the amendment. Second, all those some papers say aye
and opposed, I habit amendment is adopted, you may present, uh, House Bill 1131 as amended. You already
have. I mean we are there any questions? OK, all right, uh, clothes for your bill or you have a question? OK, you have a motion to pass as amended. Sorry.
You OK? OK, thank you. Motion to pass as amended is their 2nd, 2nd, all those in favor say aye and opposed as
habit. Congratulations, you passed that bill. Thank you. OK, let's go to 1576. Anybody here to run 1576
the House bill that has an amendment. All right, see none, Representative Mayberry. I'm sorry, 1679. Are we still debating that bill? OK. Let's go to Representative Mayberry. Sorry which one do you want to go?
Speaker 357
1:55:06
due to. Sorry. first. I think we're still waiting
Speaker 360
1:55:13
on an amendment to come over. I do not, uh, Senator Penzo,
you have other bills on here that are Senate bills or Senator Leding. 587. Uh No. 587 it's not running. Senator Hester's bill is not running.
OK, motion to send Senate Bill 532 to interim study, OK, motion 2, all those in favor
say aye and opposed as habit, Senate Bill 532 will go to interim study. Uh, Senator Ludding, do you want to do the same? OK, motion to send Senate Bill 587 to interim study. Is there a second? All those in favor say aye, uh, post, I habits, Senate Bill 587 will go to interim study.
Uh, Senator Johnson and Senator Stone or the other two senators that have Senate bills other than Senator Pino All yours are good. OK, representative, OK, so we have gone through all Senate bills. All right. 1241. Hm
OK, 12:41 does have a fiscal impact. It's in your folder. All right, please state your name for the record, and
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:56:58
you may proceed. State Representative Julie Mayberry, and I'll let my guest also
Speaker 369
1:57:04
introduce themselves. Jamestown. I'm a physician here in central Arkansas.
Speaker 370
1:57:07
Thank you. Please proceed. Dr. Jessica Slager, pediatric dentist from Springdale, Arkansas. Ashley McMillan, dentist
Speaker 372
1:57:14
here in Central Arkansas. Thank you. Please proceed.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
1:57:23
Please proceed. OK, 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 uh 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 um 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 You know, we have put on the house side some um regulations in this that keep the the cost down. I'm going to let our um guest here kind of explain what this bill is going to do. Thank you. OK.
Speaker 376
1:58:24
Thank you committee members for having us. And so our goal
Speaker 369
1:58:29
was to employ academic medical centers and any 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, um, whether that care is exam and 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 to provide human beings, citizens of Arkansas like my son, that access.
Speaker 378
1:59:15
Thank you. As someone who spends one day a
Speaker 379
1:59:26
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 peace to them that will affect the whole body. So
by being able to go in and do their dentistry and uh a manner that will address those things like Down syndrome, you have a higher propensity to have periodontal disease. What does that do? That 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 and operating room setting. The burden has also increased after COVID. All of the emergency
rooms, um, saw an influx of patients for dentistry and also operating rooms stop 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
Speaker 381
2:00:46
state. Thank you. Go ahead. The only thing I wanted to quickly add is that this
Speaker 372
2:00:51
particular problem knows no socioeconomic status or age, um, 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. Um, so I just wanted
to remind everyone about. OK, thank you. Questions, Senator Love, and then
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:01:09
Senator Payton. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I, I guess I'm trying to. I'm trying to think about, did we not pass a bill regarding this issue. Not too long ago. You and I, I'm gonna
Speaker 230
2:01:22
ask DHS that, did we not discuss this issue? Um Yeah, we did, we did not discuss
the reimbursement for this type of service just last week.
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:01:37
This is different than that other bill. This does something different. The other one is reimbursement if you'll come to the table. Thank you. No, it's not, it's
Speaker 386
2:01:46
not. I mean, I'm supportive. I'm just, I'm, but I want to make sure that if we pass this, it doesn't conflict, but yeah, Elizabeth Pitman and Miss
Janet Mann can come to the table, please. Hi Elizabeth Pitman, Department of
Speaker 389
2:02:00
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 anesthesia. OK. All right, that's, I mean This bill is specific
Speaker 390
2:02:18
to those that require anesthesia. OK. All right, that's,
Is that OK? Yes, sir. OK, Senator Payton, question. Thank you. So when we
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:02:26
say anesthesia, are we talking about like the full spectrum of anesthesia? The letter, anesthesiologist answer that. And so,
Speaker 369
2:02:37
Patients that patients that don't require, 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 a chair with perhaps some minimal sedation or angiolysis like many of us may pursue those those people are not, it's not part of the population we're addressing here. We're addressing specifically those that need Um, comprehensive direct.
Deep sedation or general anesthesia in order to accomplish their oral health care. OK, and
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:03:14
so the way the system is right now, we've been denying them dental care because of this? Yes, sir. The funds
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:03:24
have not been there to provide those services, so they have
Speaker 397
2:03:28
not been able to get those taken place correct. So without this
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:03:31
bill, they still, they would not be able to receive those services. So we have people who are waiting.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:03:40
What happens when they're not receiving the services. They just go around with
Speaker 369
2:03:47
out of state, they do not receive services or they revisit recurrently the emergency departments in the state and sometimes get hospitalized. OK. Thank you. Or they have to pay out of pocket and it's thousands
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:03:58
upon thousands of dollars that families don't have. The anesthesia or the whole procedure the whole procedure.
OK, thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions from the members of the committee? Senator Hill. I'm going
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:04:21
to back up on that in just a second. sit in the fresh and and 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 the dental service is available.
Speaker 372
2:04:42
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, um, adult Medicaid is much more limited than
Speaker 403
2:05:07
pediatric Medicaid, which covers whatever needs to be done for. Patient adult Medicaid does not
from a dental perspective. OK. And I'm gonna go
Speaker 236
2:05:15
with Senator Love, but I think I'm thinking I'm going to think back.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:05:19
I'm gonna say 2 years ago, Brianne Davis ran a bill. Because she had these 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's bill. I can look it up, but I promise you she filed one. Yes sir, I'm
Speaker 69
2:05:38
gonna ask Elizabeth and the also step up. So yes,
Speaker 381
2:05:45
this problem came out of several changes, um, in the Medicaid I'm sorry, DHS. So, um, I'm not exactly sure on the timeline, but a couple of maybe 2 years ago, um, um, a hospital that was seeing um 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, um, and it has been start and stop and then found a little continuity of care. It is, it did have a waiting list to to see patients that needed sedation and 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 2 to 3 academic centers across the state. It would open up some access and maybe alleviate some
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:06:49
of that weight for care. OK, so is that where we're going with this bill? Yes sir, that is. You were right, Senator Love. OK. Now, now back to my original question that I had before I got sidetracked. OK, uh, we got the fiscal impact study here. shows up to 2.8. And as low as 567. You said it's probably around 250 or so. How did you come up with that?
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:07:20
Well, we took that there might be 600 cases, I think is what
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:07:25
we've kind of Estimated, um, and at 3750 we added amendment at 3750 per episode, that's 670,000 for the state match. is actually the numbers
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:07:33
that we have come up with. Thank you. OK. Any other questions from the
members of the committee, Senator Payton, thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:07:50
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, that some doctor or surgeon or dentist is going to have to determine whether they're eligible or how's
Speaker 376
2:08:10
answer that as physicians. Um, so, um, we didn't define whether these patients were a tier 3 category for, for Medicaid, meaning qualifying for
Speaker 369
2:08:23
residential services or not, um, because, uh, some patients who, who may be a little more functional in the community may still not be able to tolerate having the dental care, uh, due to sensory or behavioral mechanism needs. The fundamental question was whether or not Um, those patients, those patients that would require this service um 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 3 limb or 4 limb cerebral palsy or um
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:08:58
whether to simplify my question. This
fiscal impact has a category for 250 up to 1250. And I'm trying to 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. Pitman can come to the table. Sorry, can we uh can we get one
of these chairs over to the end of the
Speaker 389
2:09:39
table, please. Again, Elizabeth Pittman, Department of Human Services.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:09:42
So do we have a well-defined population that we're
Speaker 389
2:09:45
trying to do. The population is actually the developmental disability population, which is defined in a statute that governs developmental disabilities. There's 6, I think, specific conditions that actually
qualify. So it's a, it's a very limited and easy to identify population that's the
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:10:00
case, why, why can't we have a fiscal impact knowing the number.
Speaker 389
2:10:03
So the problem with the fiscal impact originally was that when we had tried to get a price of the services. based
Speaker 416
2:10:09
on cost, um, because they were originally the the way the original bill was written, the services were based on cost and when we talk to UAMS and the clinic that is doing those services now, the costs varied from anywhere from 2000 to $13,000 but what I'm talking about has nothing to do with
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:10:27
cost. I'm talking about the number of qualifying
patients and this fiscal impact is a range of 250 to 1250. Yes, because we don't know, didn't know how
Speaker 416
2:10:36
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 was written. OK, so that's going to fall between the 500
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:10:47
and 750 category. Yes, sir. OK, thank you. But, 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 can have one patient that comes in for 5 procedures. Does that make sense? So then that
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:11:28
would adjust the fiscal impact. Yes. Something was said earlier about, you know, I ask if, if we're denying these services and you said something about them going out of state. What,
what prevents somebody from out of state from coming here and taking advantage of this.
Speaker 421
2:11:48
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 and at those
qualifications. OK, thank you. University of Tennessee, would they be qualified? To participate,
we only enroll as providers and state providers
Speaker 416
2:12:10
if we have the ability to provide the the service in state, we don't send Medicaid clients out of state. I, OK, I just know that they have. I mean, they
have a lot of our Arkansas students there for
dental students, but they, and they built a specialty clinic specifically for this. So we did not write, we did not
Speaker 416
2:12:26
intend and did not calculate in our numbers
that University of Tennessee, the dental school in Memphis, would, would qualify. OK, thank
you. Any other questions from the members of the committee? I ain't seen none, uh, you're recognized
Speaker 424
2:12:42
to clothes for your bill. There's nobody else to
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:12:47
speak here for or against. Members without this bill we're going to have adults with special needs, complex medical care, not getting
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:12:53
the dental services that they need, and I just asked for a good vote today. say
Motion in a second, do pass, there's no, is there amendment? No. All
right, all those in favor say aye and opposed. I have it, congratulations, the bill passes. Thanks we're back to 255 or we,
Speaker 426
2:13:17
do we have that? you 1218. You want to As Bill 12218.
Right. OK, if you'll explain the amendment. State your names for the record and then please proceed and and explain the amendment. State Representative Julie Mayberry. State your
Speaker 6
2:13:53
names for the record and then please proceed and
Speaker 431
2:13:59
and explain the amendment. State Representative Julie Mayberryennzo District 31. OK, please proceed. Marshall Dickey certified
Speaker 432
2:14:04
therapeutic recreation specialists and Katie Hall, also a certified therapeutic recreation specialist. Thank you. Please proceed.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:14:09
Uh, yes, the amendment was just asked by UAMS to just clarify some terms here and make sure that we're not um including occupational therapists in this, and that's all that amendment is. OK. Is
there a motion to adopt the amendment, so moved and a second. All those in favor say aye and opposed, I have an amendment is adopted.
Please proceed with 1218 as amended. You should also have a sheet of paper that I
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:14:36
gave earlier um that can be passed out on this
as well. I'm sorry. OK. Go ahead and we'll pass that around if you'll explain your bill. OK, sure, um, members, first of all, I, I've got to give kudos to Brian Sanders, our first gentleman, and Deshay 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 meetings. Um, almost quarterly, sometimes even monthly on how to make perks more accessible. You may have seen the track chairs uh that's now available at, at um Pinnacle Mountain. That is so wonderful, but we need to make sure that the people get out there and actually use it. Um, one day we went to Camp Aldersgate as a committee, and um I, I have, I have two people here who are recreational therapists from Camp Baldur's Gate. Camp Baldur's Gate offers summer camp programs to
individuals with complex medical needs like diabetes, uh, spina bifida, cancer, um, they make life fun. And when we went there, um, we, 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 gonna let them explain what a recreational therapist does and why we need this bill. OK. Thank you, Senator Mayberry. So
Katie Hall
Unverified
2:16:17
Representative may be pardon. So again, my name is Katie Hall. I'm a recreational therapist working at Camp Baldur's Gate, um, 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. Um, there are currently 76 certified therapeutic recreation specialist, or CTRS for sure. 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, uh, as well as assisted living facilities all over the state. So we are here today as Representative Mayberry said to pursue licener for our profession, for the therapeutic
recreation profession. We feel that this is a huge need. There are currently 5 states, 6 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, uh, while it is, it does not happen frequently. There have been um
Instances, um, where our national council for certification has needed to take disciplinary measures for uh certified rec therapist, um, because they Um Yes, uh had unethical conduct and action 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, um, 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, as the
executive director of the licensing board. They have over 1000 certified and licensed recreational therapists, and she um is able to fulfill that role in a part-time capacity, so. Thank you. Please proceed. Um Marshall Dickie,
Speaker 430
2:19:12
just thank you so much for this opportunity. I will, I'd just like to add that um currently as it stands the national certifying board does
not have really any um avenue to which there's accountability for for any mishaps that might be happening in your state. It's strictly through recommendation or like an anonymous call, um, so this would, we're just striving to kind of create accountability for individuals who are considering themselves recreational therapists. here in our state, um, just as an opportunity to create um that accountability and safety for our fellow Arkansans. All right. Thank you. Questions from
the members of the committee, Senator Peyton.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:19:58
Thank you, Madam Chair. Number one, 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 2. Yeah.
We start the definition. Of a therapeutic recreation. I guess 13 is where I wanted 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 to find in it. It's just the way the bill was, was crafted to just
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:20:49
give it a better definition to give a broader scope of practice. That's what
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:20:53
I'm saying. It's just defining it. That's all that's, that's doing.
Well, we've got 13 paragraphs that define it seems to me like it'd 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 creating a committee. We felt
Speaker 384
2:21:21
that it would be uh best fit for the Department of Health, uh, this would be a task, task force, a committee under the Department of Health. It was under the Department of
Health. Yes sir, as the bill is written. Sorry, I
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:21:34
just hadn't had a lot of time to review it. OK, thanks. All right.
Speaker 446
2:21:40
Any other questions for the committee? Senator Hill, you have a question? Do you recognized? Kind
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:21:50
of, kind of go through the background and training that it takes to become one of these, uh, Give me the background the
Speaker 321
2:21:58
training that you have to go through. Sure, so both Marshall
Katie Hall
Unverified
2:22:03
and I pursued the academic path for certification as recreational therapist. 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. Um, so through our, our Program at at tech, we completed our, our degree, we had to complete an internship of um The fifteen-week internship.
And either a clinical or community-based setting under a certified therapeutic recreation specialist, um, So after
Speaker 430
2:22:44
that degree program, there's to be an internship with the academic route, um, equivalency um academic, um, path, um, after that path you have the opportunity be kind of in the midst of your graduation period simultaneously doing an internship. It's about 15 weeks, I believe it's about 1400 hours
of facilitation time overseen by a current CTRS, um, and then after that you can you um submitting your academic, um, and work experience through that internship, you can sit for the national certification exam. That exam, um, primarily focuses on, um, And a knowledge ability, it's a written exam, um, and then also there's an equivalency path that follows us as well. So if you, um, for instance, if you were to graduate with a uh 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 I do, I do
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:23:51
want to add if uh if possible we 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. Um, I think the
other part of this that's key, we, 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 1000. recreational therapist in North Carolina. We're missing out on finding more people to pursue this degree.
Speaker 377
2:24:29
Any other questions to the committee? Any at all.
Speaker 446
2:24:39
All right, say no questions. Do we have anybody sign up to
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
2:24:55
speak for against this bill. Should be 2. go on the end table and Introduce yourself and who you're with and you'd be recognized proceed. And we're going to cap that remarks, testimony at 2 minutes, so.
You guys want to go together or you want to go individually? You go together, we'll give you 4
Tyler Rollins
Unverified
2:25:20
minutes. You go individually, you get 2 each. OK, I'll just go for 2 minutes I'll try to be as quick as I can. My name's Tyler Rollins. I work for Chanel Family Therapy and Bryant, I'm a mental health clinician, um, 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, was paralyzed instantly from the middle of my chest down. My hands were also paralyzed, um, 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 um Greg Hospital in Denver, uh, so I'm here uh just to support my, my colleagues um to kind of clarify what what we're getting at is the professionalism it takes to do this job properly, um, 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 re-establish a life for themselves. So if Tom, my recreation therapist was there to help me, you know, build birdhouses or something, it would, it would not have given me through Rick. creation, the skills it takes to build a lifestyle, and since then I've, you know, 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, my rehab experience. So I think it's important to clarify um what we're asking is protection for the consumer, and had I been in the scenario where the professionalism was lax. There, there's no telling what trajectory my turnaround would have been on, so I appreciate what Katie, uh, and, and Marshall are trying to pursue here as the clinicians because um it protects the consumer to
get exactly the services that they would expect from a professional in a certified recreation specialist. It's a lot more than building birdhouses. It's more like building purpose for appreciate your
Speaker 449
2:27:31
testimony. any, any questions for the All right. Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am. Um,
Speaker 458
2:27:39
good afternoon. I'm Doctor Kathy McMahan. I'm certified therapeutic recreation specialist. I am a professor at Arkansas Tech University. I do teach our therapeutic recreation
courses. Um, my concern, um, I think as we came together to, to look to this and certification is once again the protection of the consumer. Um, we are an allied health profession. Our students are required to complete a bachelor's of Science, um, 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 um essentially maybe places of employment um employing individuals that are considered
or that are a CTRS um and so just like other allied health professions, they have that level of licensure at the state, um, and once again just coming back um as protection of that consumer, um, so that we do not have someone I can think of and 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 um using terms a little bit differently, um, and, and once again not that certified
therapeutic rec specialist, um, we do have a need in the state to continue to promote this profession, um, as most of you know, um, and I think, uh, uh, Representative Mayberry mentioned to you um there we we're saying. um, different, all different types of allied health facilities, especially behavioral health facilities, um, or I don't like to use the term pumping up, but essentially are um popping up throughout our state. Also, um, we haven't even mentioned um the
elderly and the services that needed to be be provided to our elderly population. Um, 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, um, and, and once again I I like to say we are the only university in the state, the majority of our grads are staying within state. Are there any questions
Speaker 449
2:29:44
for the witness? All right, see you then. Thank you so much. Alright, Senator Penza represent
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
2:29:48
Mayberry, you're recognized to quickly close for your bill.
Oh, represented or Matt Gilmore is good. He doesn't need to say anything. ADH is against it, folks. They're against it. So what happens when you get to the 3rd on deck to chair,
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:30:19
Matt. You have to be serious. They're against it, yeah. Members, I, 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 therapist 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 this bill.
Speaker 449
2:31:06
Right. They got a motion passed by Senator Penzo, seconded by Senator Ludding in a discussion on the motion saying no and all in favor say aye. Opposed. Sorry, Phil. All right. You jump on. Have you talked to
Speaker 464
2:31:30
Secretary Ward Senator Ben, do you have a sworn affidavit? Has it been notarized? Do not want
Speaker 45
2:31:35
to come over, OK, yeah, just, just getting it down here. I think that's a good idea. Thank you, Senator Hill.
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:31:43
Um, I, I did, I did receive a call back from him and he said they're neutral, um, and you show Senator Hill where he called your phone. I'd be happy to. OK, yeah, sure, but, but they're neutral, uh, like I said, meat 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. Would you define neutral for me? What does he mean by that? It means that they do not
have a position on this particular bill, but does it affect La. No, he said, he said they were, he, he said they were neutral before, but they had concerns. OK. We're we're we probably need to adopt this amendment, don't we?
Speaker 45
2:32:26
I don't we adopted the amendment? We have not, but it
feels like we should adopt it. It's motion to adopt. OK, I got a motion to adopt by Senator Penzo, seconded by Senator Pay Payton in the discussion so you not on Thursday. I opposedendment's been adopted I yield the
chair. This 255 motion to
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
2:32:49
pass on Senate Bill 255 as amended motion 2.
Is there a second? All those in favor say aye and opposed as habit Bill passes as
amended. OK. All right, no more Senate bills, is that correct? You do have You have a Senate bill coming, but it's not in, it's not
have 20 minutes before we get into the session, uh, I know we have represented Bentley and Representative Brown
here. Representative Brown. I'm gonna let you go ahead. I know there's, let's go ahead, Representative Brown. Um, We've got 10 minutes, so I'm adjourning this committee in 10 minutes, and if we have
to continue with testimony, we'll have to come back after session, OK? While we were in the hallway, Madam Chair, I think we've got ours worked out now.
Speaker 466
2:33:53
OK, if you'll state your name for the record, Matt Brown District 55, uh, uh, 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 had a, we would request the committee to to make an oral amendment that takes care of the other 2% that just kind of came up
while we were in the hallway. I'd rather get that in writing, if that's possible. Um, Yeah, we need to get that in writing because we did that with Senator Penzo.
So why don't you work with uh Jessica Biel to get the amendment, the 2nd Amendment that you need, and then we'll come back immediately upon adjournment, um, from the session. We should be quick when we come back. That'll be fine. Well, you'll just get with uh Miss Beal and try to get the 2nd Amendment or get this one completely reworked to where you can have one amendment, that'd be great. OK, thank you. Uh, OK, we've got 10 minutes representative Bentley.
Anybody knows status on Senator Johnson's bills or Senator Stone's? OK, Representative
Bentley, state your name for the record and then please proceed with whichever bill you have. State registered Mayor Bentley District 54. Let's start with House Bill 1440. I'm sorry, hold on. Do you have anybody here to
testify for your bills. OK, Miss Representative Kavanaugh does have 3 people in the room. Let me yield to her, Representative Kavanaugh, sorry, musical chairs.
Uh, 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. OK, if you'll state your name and
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:35:52
proceed. Uh, thank you, members. Fran Kavanaugh, State Representative District 30. Um, this bill is an attempt to correct an issue that we discovered, um, 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 uh PRTF beds, and this is an attempt to correct that, um. was actually discovered that the actual former, uh, 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 licener and it also addresses the actual quality of care in these facilities. All right, other questions from the members
of the committee. See none we have people here to testify for the bill if they'll come to the table,
all of them. Can in case y'all have DHS
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:36:53
is here, they worked on the language and so they understand this is here. If you'll just come to the
table. All right, if you'll state your name for the record, please.
Speaker 473
2:37:08
My love, can you hear me? OK JD McGee. And who are you with? Americans for Prosperity, Arkansas chapter, our serve as deputy state director. Thank you. Please proceed. OK. Uh, good morning to all of you, um, this our organization has been talking about this particular issue for some time. We recognized a tremendous amount of work that has gone into getting us today with
Representative Capitol. 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 bids, 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, um, 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 apologize. Do you still
Kristen Harper
Unverified
2:38:37
want me to proceed, or yes, please. 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, um, 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 PRTF 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 um uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but we're 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. 806 in 2023, have been stripped. Now I'll give you on page 9, 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 reference 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 um minimum licensing standards res, but they were not expanded upon and 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 um keep that framework there, um, we have no issue with it being moved to the Office of Long Term Care. We're willing to try new things, um, I just want to mention for context, I work for DCFS. for about 15 years before joining advocates a few months ago and one of the programs I oversaw there most recently served care agents serve kids ages 14 to 21. Kids cycle in and
out of these PRTFs and there are ongoing reports to the child abuse hotline. There are sometimes issues with children being overmedicated, 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 of the committee,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:41:10
Senator Layer recognized. Yes, and I, I knew that you were you the DCFS No, sir, um, previously my most
Kristen Harper
Unverified
2:41:18
recent role there, I was an assistant director with
Speaker 230
2:41:22
DCFS with DCFS, assistant directorant director with DCFS, OK, and so. And I remember a friend, I should say, Representative Kavanaugh, I'm sorry, um, that you, that you did bring this bill now what do we what do we try to, and I guess, you
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:41:40
know what I'm gonna let you go so I can actually have questions. Thank you.
Speaker 223
2:41:52
Madam Chair, can I My question is directed to Representative Kavanaugh. Yes, please. OK, so
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:41:58
Representative Kevin, I now, now what are we trying? I remember the bill you bought last year, uh, now what are we trying to address
Speaker 386
2:42:05
with this specific view here? What, what
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:42:08
I actually wanted to accomplish last session was to get the licener away from the current board that it's
under because we determined that there was some problems with that licenger process and the current board that it was under actually
issued more licenses 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. Um, we have people that have already built beds, they're waiting for their last licenger to be able to finish, to be able to have people in those beds, um, 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 a new quality of care guidelines in their manual because we do feel that's a 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,
um, 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
2:43:31
OK, so was it necessary to strike the The existing uh quality assurances. Palliative care assurances because we feel that they didn't go far enough, and we're looking to go even
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:43:43
further so that there'll be more regulation on them. So they'll have the proper people that work there, so they'll have everything that they need.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:43:55
OK, so, so we're taking these, these assurances out of statute. And then we're relegating them to the manual. Is
that Melissa Weather can better answer your question. If you'll identify yourself for the record, please
Speaker 477
2:44:12
proceed. Yes, ma'am. Melissa Weatherton, uh, Medicaid specialtyation director. So having that language in
Speaker 478
2:44:18
Act 806, um, I understand why it was there because we, Medicaid was
not regulating or overseeing the licenses of psychiatric residential treatment facilities. It was this independent board. And so I think um not to speak to Representative Kavanaugh, but she saw a need to have more regulations to make sure we were having higher quality in those um facilities and she put it in state statute. What this bill is doing, it's going to make PRTF's a long-term care facility that falls under the code, the same sections that we regulate, um, assisted living facilities,
skilled nursing homes, um, intermediate care facilities like the HDCs. Highly regulated facilities. We are already in the process of working with the providers to set up um a a licenser manual that will outline everything we expect in this facilities, including what they do with the kids, with 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've enforced regulations and quality through our manuals that run through you guys, you will be promulgated through an 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. OK, so then let me ask you,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:45:52
then all this quality, I, I could. I would assume that all these
quality assurances would then be in the manual. Yes, so there won't, OK, all
right. OK, thank you. Any other questions from the members
of the committee, right? See none. I do know that we have some people in the audience. If you could just stand that are here for the bill, correct? People just come to the end of the table quickly and state
Speaker 481
2:46:22
your name. Uh, my name is Matt Wiltshire. I'm the division president with the Acadia Healthcare and we run 3 PRTFs in the state of
Arkansas. So, um, I wanted to, one of the, one of the things that this bill does that we are very much informed 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. You have to, it's really backwards because you have to build your facility and then after you build it and you get it, 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 a, um, Basically a pre-approval and then you work with the entities moving forward. This bill will, will do that. It will make us make it to where uh PRTFs go through the Health Services Permit Board for um any, you know, if they build anything over, I think it's $3 million is what I saw on the bill, so, and then plus it strengthens regulations which we are 100% for. OK, thank you. If you'll state your names for the record
quickly, um, adjourning in 2 minutes. I'm Ben
Speaker 482
2:47:34
Beasley. I'm the CEO of Mill Creek of Arkansas, um, we're a psychiatric residential treatment center in uh Fordyce, uh. House Bill 1653 is critical for facilities like ours because it sits clear licensing and regulatory standards, um, for PRTFs while recognizing the necessary exception to the moratorium. It will allow us to um license two smaller units on our campus which we'll be able to uh do some more specialized treatment in those, um. And, uh, you know, be able to
serve more kids not only in Arkansas but across the country. um, just to speak on the demand for services that we see, uh, on average per month we have 484 referrals, um, we admit 288 um youth per year in our PRTF program, uh, we have a successful discharge rate of 88% and a disruption rate of 5%. So that just kind of speaks to um the solid, you know, foundation
OK, thank you. If you'll just go ahead, it gives you
Justin Hoover
Unverified
2:48:37
one minute. All right. my name is Justin Hoover. I'm the CEO of Yellow Rock Behavioral Health, that's in Northwest Arkansas. I'll be quick, so we are um we're looking to expand our program as well by 36 beds and this bill allows us to do that. Um, the, 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. Are
there any questions from members of the committee? Right, see none. Thank you, Representative Kavanaugh, you're recognized
to close for your bill. Remember I'll
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
2:49:15
be quick. I really appreciate y'all talking about this bill, uh PRTS is something that I've really worked on in the last 4 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 that 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. Yeah, because if they are actually in a bed without a medical diagnosis and medically unnecessary, you're committing fraud, and so we don't need to be committing fraud. So appreciate. I just wanted to make those comments. Oh, Madam Chair, motion, um, with the will of the committee. I make a motion to pass. Is
there a second? All those in favor say aye. And opposed Well, I have it because I don't hear any nos. Thank you. Thank you, members. All right. Uh, OK, members, we're gonna We're gonna 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.
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
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
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 6
Speaker 431
Speaker 432
Katie Hall
Unverified
Speaker 430
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
Kristen Harper
Unverified
Speaker 223
Speaker 477
Speaker 478
Speaker 481
Speaker 482
Speaker 483
Justin Hoover
Unverified