ALC - PEER
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- October 2, 2026
Speaker 2
1:53
seats we'll get started call the meeting to order
Speaker 10
2:19
we'll begin with the items for approval item B Billy get us started. thank you Mr
William Parrish
Unverified
2:26
Chair. we're in section B. these are various temporary appropriation requests the first item is a letter from the department of Military. This is for 243,000 in appropriation it's to provide a 25% match to the federal cooperative funding agreement. This agreement is to design an addition and an alteration to the thirtyninth ride brigade headquarters the funding would come from a restricted reserve transfer that will be requested later in the agenda.
Next itemb2 is a letter from the department of Public Safety division of statelice. This is for 100,000 in preparation and to establish a construction line item. This is to rebuild the troop ICdL facility that was destroyed by a tornado in May of 2024 and it's supported by insurance proceeds and FEMA disaster funds. B3 is a letter from the department of Public Safety division of state Police is for405,000. This is to replace live skins and accessories and supported by a criminal history fees. before the last item this is a
letter from DFNA it's for4.5 million in appropriation it's to cover contract contract expenses in the rural health transformation programme that are more appropriately classified as maintenance and operation as opposed to the grants and aid as they are currently situated Mr chair those are all of the various temporary appropriation
requests right members everybodydy knows the procedure here set forth
Speaker 14
3:43
by senator dismay so we'll does anybody have any questions with B one B2
B3 Or before all right singun do I have a motion to approve B1 through B4
have a motion in a second all in favor say aye. Any he opposed motion is passed. Billy see thank you miss chair
William Parrish
Unverified
4:15
we're in section C. this is an infrastructure investment and jobs actct appropriation requests it's by the department of Energy and Environment
division of nvironal Quality it's for4.2 million in appropriation. This is to design and implement statewide energy plans and programs. right senator Dismay you're recognized I don't know if
staff or agency I'm just curious what
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
4:36
it doesn't really specify what they are what kind of grant programs are we looking at? we've got 2 million in grants and a million in other just highle just really curious what just come to the table and identify yourself please for the record
Speaker 25
5:00
Lauren Ballard, chief of staff, Energy andnvironment Mitchell Simpson deputy director Arkansas Energy Office of Energy and Environment.
Speaker 24
5:12
OK you're recognized. OK. and now I'll take a stab at answering this and let
Speaker 27
5:15
Mitchell jump in here and rescue me if I go go awry. so the statenergy plan is actually a a yearly award we receive so we have some existing energy performance contracting some alphabet soupgy efficiency community block grants and other things that we're supporting with these funds as I understand it and looking this is annaja
allotment so we're also kind of evaluating how we can use that but that was the original grant is how we did that was to support existing programs. ok so just give me an
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
5:42
example of what that means like mean when you say energy efficiency is this Well I'll start with energy performance contracting
Speaker 27
5:48
as a program that thenergy office administers with ADfa and that helps I think local school districts municipalities do some of these contracting upgrades where they can upgrade their HVAc and use their energy efficiency savings to help pay for some of those that's the
schools the community block grant I might need Mitchell's help on kind of the work that does the
Speaker 25
6:08
community block grant provides funding to city and county owned governments to do building upgrades maybe it's deferred maintenance maybe it's to improve their energy efficiency their equipment, their energy equipment to upgrade it so that's essentially what the community block grants do. OK got you and so what's the 1 million other
Speaker 35
6:36
Oh OK the other that's a good question. I might
Speaker 24
6:43
have to go and and dig and find and I could get back with the committee and let
you know. seeing no other questions, do I have a motion to approvec1? have a motion in a second. any discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor say aye any opposed motion passes. Billy moving on tod
William Parrish
Unverified
7:11
Thank you miss chair we're in sectiond this is an appropriation and or fund transfer requests it's from the department of Education division of elementary and secondaryducation special language in their act allows a transfer after approval by ALC and they're requesting to transfer40,000 from teacher salary equalization and school funding contingency to minimum teacher salary and raise. The letter explains teacher salary equalization is in a gradual phase L to accommodate the new compensation requirement for minimum teacher salary and
raise. any questions seeing none do I have
a motion to approved oh I'm sorry Senator hickey you recognize No, no question. I just, I think we just, I think
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
8:06
we said40,000 so just for the record
we need to get that correct I guess since it's live streamed. it's it's
William Parrish
Unverified
8:18
it's a combined I'm sorry40 million yes32 million from teacher salary equalization and 8 million from school fundingucci. Thank you sir you sir seeing no other questions do I have
a motion to approved one have a motion in a second any discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor say aye any opposed motion passes section
William Parrish
Unverified
8:46
Thank you Mr Sher we're in section E this is a restricted reserve fund transfer requests is from the department of military. this is a $243,000 transfer from the various general discretionary and majority votes set aside it's to provide matching funds to a national Guard Bureau grant to design in addition to the thirtyninth infantry brigade headquarters on Camp Robinson. share
Speaker 10
9:06
that's your request. any questions on this item seeing none do I have a motion to approve this we have
a motion in a second and he discussion on
the motion seeing none all in favor say aye any opposed motion Thank you M Sherber in
William Parrish
Unverified
9:23
section F these are miscellaneous federal grant appropriation requests the first one f one is for the department of the military. This is729,000 in federal appropriation. This is again that grant for the National Guard Bureau is's to accompany state match from their strict reserve fund for the irinth Infantry brigade combat teamam headquarters F2 is it's department of commerce division of workforce
Services this is35.6 million. This is a grant from the US Department of Labor to support the expansion of manufacturing registered apprenticeship F3 through F5 are three different grant awards for the same program at DFNA. they totaled6.7 million. These are grants from the US Department of Justice to create and implement extreme risk protection order programs crisis intervention court proceedings and gun violence reduction initiatives OK members are there any questions
Speaker 50
10:22
3 through5 right senator you're recognized for F3 through5. you'd like
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
10:37
somebody to come up and give us some more information on this6.7 million dollars three grants
Speaker 54
10:56
please identify yourself for the record. Jimhutson SecretarydFfa
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
11:03
Andy Babbett DFfa you recognize thank you appreciate you gentlemen coming up. again I'm not on the committee but to save time from having to do it Friday. could you give us some background what research I've done this was a little bit more abbreviated in description on the Arkansas site when I google it versus what happened when they call it the
bipartisan safer Communities Act of 2022 came out and this was launched in 2023 which was from a different administration the ideden administration we know there were some things targeted into Bideden administration. I'm not not trying to get wild but can you tell me what safeguards and and I'll be glad to read what is on the federal website
that causes a little bit more concern can you tell me what Arkansas has agreed to do with this money.
Speaker 57
12:06
Sure well good morning to you senator and I'll take a s start with it and then Mr. Babbitt can chime in as well I think is originally envisioned by the Biden administration there was an emphasis on you know, socalled red flag sort of laws where there is potentially and confiscation of personal weapons if somebody was you know perceived to be a
danger we obviously have strong objections to that line of thinking and we're very very concerned about protecting citizens Second ammendment rights and so we worked hard in our grant application to make it very clear we would not be engaging along those lines and then as we make awards to various communities we will write into the grant agreements that the grant funds cannot be used for that purpose and that we will safeguard citizen's' 2cond ammendment rights it's really more about violence
prevention than anything else education programs helping our courts helping our police departments have the tools that they need but you know we're not gonna do it at the expense of the Second ammendment. Andy you can
Speaker 58
13:17
Secretary Hudson hit it very well. I think our safeguard in what we're going to do in our grant agreement is just make sure that it when a city county or prosecuting attorney agrees to accept these funds that we have definitive language in there that says it will not be used to
infringe on the Second ammendment rights of any
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
13:42
citizen appreciate that and I expect no less from either of y'all in in that directive will go out let me quickly read you I won't take much time on this but let me quickly read you what this says is the justice department launched the national extremeristection ordersourceenter which will provide training and technical
assistance to law enforcement officials prosecutors attorneys judges clinicians, victim service and social service providers community organis community organizers in behavioral health professionals responsible for for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others you can you can more possibly that's what I was wanting to hear if you can more narrowly def ine that to who you're putting
it out to that is good but we have seen law enforcement I'm supportive of law enforcement we've seen law enforcement in some areas in some cases that in interject their own thinking into that and I point out the fact that atF paid local law enforcement officials like you're hiring the security guard extra off duty
they pay them in supplement to their salaries and use them to kick in the door of Brian Malinkowski at6 o'clock in the morning at dark and he's got a widow is all here to testify this is what I'm trying to keep narrow that everybody understands what this is we don't want people danger to themselves or others to have guns but it's a very meticulous thing to get everybody to understand so I appreciate what you're doing
you're telling us you're gonna do everything you can it's what I'm hearing from you put it out that way and
Speaker 57
15:45
it's more than just kind of try and and do everything I can we're going to make sure that as the program is administered at DFfa that those sorts of things you're concerned about will not happen there is a reason why you know this program began in the previous presidential administration we did not apply for the funds at that point in time when we had a change in administration and a change in philosophy at the executive branch at the federal
level we got more comfort that we could tailor this to what our needs are here in Arkansas again without infringing in any way on ourkansan 2cond ammendment rights that's important to me personally it's important I know Mr Babbin as well so we'll we'll make sure that happens sir I have
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
16:26
full faith in you I'll just throw in this too this flock deal is is gotten big and I remember however many years ago that that and I sported it I told the state police yeah if you need a
camera to catch somebody kidnapping somebody coming down the interstate and you're going to use that information for a narrow period of time it's fine and look what it's blossomed into so I appreciate y'all being on guard and and doing the best you can. Thank you Mr Senator Bod
all right any other questions all right seeing none without objection
items F1 through5 will be reviewed. Billy sectiong Thank you M chair we're in section G. This is a
William Parrish
Unverified
17:22
pay plan appropriation request from the department of healthalth. it's for38,920 this is for extra help and match appropriation due to the need for a critical staff member. are there any questions members seeing none without objection
this item is reviewed moving on to reports
Speaker 10
17:45
members if you'll take the time to look over them if if you have any questions on any particular report we'll try to get them answered
Senator Irvin you're recognized which report you got to have a question
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
18:22
on if we could just get a little bit of an overview of the umh1 with the American Rescue Plan Act in the how that's gonna be sent throughout the state for water wastewater stormwater infrastructure projects if we could just kind of get a little update that would be nice. it's a good use of money and it's needed, especially in my area
Thanks if you'll identify yourself for the record you'll be recognized Good
Speaker 72
19:05
morning.ri calllazer, director of the naturaltural Resources division at the Arkansas department of agriculture. good morning
Speaker 75
19:11
Inu Suzaki department of right Senator Irvin, I'll answer
Speaker 72
19:16
your question. So this appropriation request is to continue the American Rescue
Plan Act funding that we had for water and wastewater projects which we're in our fourth and final year of that so we get about4.5 months for those systems to finish construction and so overall we awarded about 205 projects and so we've got about 81 that are still under construction some form of construction but they're all in the process of finishing up and so we don't anticipate having any funds left over we we look to for all of our systems across the state that were awarded
funds to use all those funds and so really we're just in the very end of that for four plus year period to finish up
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
20:02
so these are just these are draws that we take from the federal appropriation
Speaker 72
20:08
or how this was the original award so we we received28022 million to administer to water systems and then we received another6024 and so really we're just at the end of those construction periods just trying to finish up. OK. so
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
20:23
OK. and so that we're not starting any new ones this is just closing out and finishing anything else that's on the books. OK well, I just want to tell you thank you so much for your work that you're doing it and just really take the opportunity to say that on behalf of I think everybody because when our community is suffer and mine have recently with water you've been so great and so just thank you so much for responding to me and to my constituents and I just really wanted to tell you thank you publicly because it's really hard work
and for y'all to respond on a weekend and it was really great. So just on behalf of those folks I just fox Arkansas and westone County is very grateful. thank
Speaker 82
21:06
you bet we're glad to help and and obviously we get a lot of requests for assistance and we're always glad to help with that thank you you're welcome all right
members are there any questions on the reports in HI J or K all right seeing none and seeing no other business we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
Items for Approval
B. Various Temporary Appropriation Requests
C. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Appropriation Request
D. Appropriation and/or Fund Transfer Request
E. Restricted Reserve Fund Transfer Request
Items for Review
F. Miscellaneous Federal Grant Appropriation Requests
G. Pay Plan Appropriation Request
Reports
H. Emergency Action Reports
I. Semiannual Reports
J. Quarterly Reports
K. Monthly Reports
3. Tobacco Settlement Report
L. Other Business
M. Adjournment
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Speaker 10
Speaker 2
William Parrish
Unverified
Representative Jon S. Eubanks Chair
Unverified
Speaker 14
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
Speaker 25
Speaker 24
Speaker 27
Speaker 35
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
Speaker 50
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 54
Speaker 57
Speaker 59
Speaker 58
Speaker 64
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 72
Speaker 75
Speaker 82