Transportation, Technology & Legislative Affairs - Senate
Video
Transcript
1 document
Bills discussed (18)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1549
Act 489
· 4 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…ATION Richardson SYSTEMS CONCERNING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. HB1549 R. Scott TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS CYBERSECURITY ACT OF 2025.…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS CYBERSECURITY ACT OF 2025. | R. Scott Richardson | Notification that HB1549 is now Act 489 |
|
HB1557
Act 480
· 4 mentions in transcript, chapter, agenda
Matched: “Which one would you like, uh, let's start with uh HB 1557. And”
|
TO AMEND THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE DIVISION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCERNING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. | R. Scott Richardson | Notification that HB1557 is now Act 480 |
|
SB397
Act 931
· 4 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “SB397 D. Wallace TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION OF…”
|
TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION OF RAIL EMPLOYEES IN REPORTS INVOLVING RAILROAD FATALITIES. | D. Wallace | Notification that SB397 is now Act 931 |
|
HB1547
· 2 mentions in transcript
Matched: “…e was a previous bill that Representative Meeks ran. It was House Bill 1547, I believe, and that's already been sent to the governor's…”
|
TO AMEND THE WATER AUTHORITY ACT; AND TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "QUALIFIED CORPORATION" UNDER … | L. Johnson | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1606
Act 922
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1606 Steimel TO ALLOW A LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO AUTHORIZE THE OPERAT…”
|
TO ALLOW A LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO AUTHORIZE THE OPERATION OF A UTILITY TASK VEHICLE ON … | Steimel | Notification that HB1606 is now Act 922 |
|
HB1654
Act 490
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1654 Tosh TO AUTHORIZE THE ISSUANCE OF A SPECIAL LICENSE PLATE F…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE THE ISSUANCE OF A SPECIAL LICENSE PLATE FOR THE MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF THE … | Tosh | Notification that HB1654 is now Act 490 |
|
HB1666
Act 656
· 2 mentions in agenda, transcript
Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. HB1666 S. Meeks TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS SELF-FUND…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS SELF-FUNDED CYBER RESPONSE PROGRAM. | S. Meeks | Notification that HB1666 is now Act 656 |
|
HB1688
Act 710
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1688 Cavenaugh TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE USE OF A DEA…”
|
TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE USE OF A DEALER'S EXTRA LICENSE PLATE. | Cavenaugh | Notification that HB1688 is now Act 710 |
|
SB498
Act 581
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB498 J. Petty TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE OF DRIVER A…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE OF DRIVER AND VEHICLE RECORDS AND TO PROTECT DRIVER … | J. Petty | Notification that SB498 is now Act 581 |
|
SB258
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ORITY; AND TO REPEAL REGIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY DETACHMENT. SB258 C. Penzo TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS DIGITAL RESPONSIBILITY, SAF…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS DIGITAL RESPONSIBILITY, SAFETY, AND TRUST ACT. | C. Penzo | Died on Senate Calendar at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB330
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…OF 2025. Richardson DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle SB330 J. Scott TO AMEND THE CONTENTS OF THE WRITTEN DRIVER'S LICE…”
|
TO AMEND THE CONTENTS OF THE WRITTEN DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST AND THE DRIVER'S INSTRUCTION MANUAL; … | J. Scott | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB447
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…OF RAIL EMPLOYEES IN REPORTS INVOLVING RAILROAD FATALITIES. SB447 J. Petty TO REQUIRE PERMITTED COMMON CARRIERS TO SUBMIT REP…”
|
TO REQUIRE PERMITTED COMMON CARRIERS TO SUBMIT REPORTS DETAILING SHIPMENTS OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES INTO THE … | J. Petty | Died on House Calendar at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB478
Act 738
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…DETAILING SHIPMENTS OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES INTO THE STATE. SB478 G. TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS DIESEL ENGINE FREEDOM ACT OF 2025…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS DIESEL ENGINE FREEDOM ACT OF 2025; AND TO PROHIBIT STATE ENFORCEMENT … | G. Stubblefield | Notification that SB478 is now Act 738 |
|
SB492
Act 699
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…mie Scott SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS Number Sponsor Subtitle SB492 J. Bryant TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE RELOCATION OF UTI…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE RELOCATION OF UTILITY FACILITIES; AND TO AMEND THE LAW … | J. Bryant | Notification that SB492 is now Act 699 |
|
SB496
Act 700
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…T OF FEDERAL REGULATION OF CERTAIN TYPES OF DIESEL ENGINES. SB496 Caldwell TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PERMITS FOR SPECIAL CA…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PERMITS FOR SPECIAL CARGOES; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING … | Caldwell | Notification that SB496 is now Act 700 |
|
SB540
Act 702
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…PROTECT DRIVER AND VEHICLE RECORDS FROM PUBLIC DISCLOSURE. SB540 M. Johnson TO LIMIT THE SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF A DRIVE…”
|
TO LIMIT THE SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF A DRIVER'S LICENSE OR IMPOSITION OF RESTRICTIONS ON … | M. Johnson | Notification that SB540 is now Act 702 |
|
SB541
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…A DRIVER'S LICENSE OF A PERSON WHO HAS SUFFERED A SEIZURE. SB541 G. Leding TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE TOWING OR STORAGE…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE TOWING OR STORAGE OF A VEHICLE, IMPLEMENT, OR PIECE … | G. Leding | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB96
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SPOSITION OF REAL PROPERTY BY THE STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION. SB96 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DETACHMENT BY A REGION…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DETACHMENT BY A REGIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY; AND TO REPEAL REGIONAL … | C. Penzo | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin
- Processing date
- October 8, 2026
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
0:00
Let's call the meeting to order. We're going to get started and we're going to start with Senator Wallace, SB 397. If
you would, Senator Wallace, please introduce yourself for
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
0:31
the record. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members, Senator Dave Wallace, District 19.
397 is a real simple bill. What we're trying to do, 90% of all railroad accidents are not the fault of the members
and the employees that work on the train. This bill will redact their names from any newspapers or anything to keep their names out of the press. However, if somebody wants to FOIA the bill, then it's FOIAble.
The bill doesn't stop that at all, and with that, I'll stand by for your
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:23
questions. We heard the bill. Do we have
Speaker 11
1:28
any questions from the committee? Senator Johnson? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator Wallace, I'm thinking
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:34
more of equity. I hate that word, but I'm going to use it here. Do we have other entities, other professions where we have this protection?
I mean, I'm thinking most people, we want to protect their privacy. But I'm just wondering, do we have some parallel example to doing this with railroad equipment? Senator Johnson, none that I am aware of. Okay. All right. Thank you, Senator. Yes,
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
1:56
sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Any other questions from the committee? Seeing
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:04
none, is there anyone here to speak for or against the bill? Anyone signed up? And there's no one signed up?
Senator, you're free to vote. I'm closed. You're closed. So what is the will of the committee? Motion to
pass by Senator Love, seconded by Senator Scott. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. All opposed, same sign. Senator, your bill passed. Thank you, sir. What we're going to try to do
today is we're going to try to push through most these bills this morning that are non-controversial and so
if you have a controversial bill kind of
kind of hold tight with
Speaker 26
3:04
You can't run that until this afternoon. Until this afternoon. Senator
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
3:17
run yours this afternoon. Yes, sir.
Speaker 32
3:31
Senator Wallace, do you have another one? Yes,
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
3:38
sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And is there anyone here to run HB
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
3:50
1666 for Meeks? Go ahead, Senator. Sir, Senator Dave Wallace, District 19. Another simple bill,
it's a creation of a new license plate, and we are retiring an older license plate.
This is for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-South. It comes at a popular request from a lot of people out there. It's going to replace the Mid-South Community College Education Special License Plate, and DF&H says they have plenty of those available if anybody else wants to ask for one. And with
that, I stand by for your questions. Any questions? Senator Scott.
Speaker 37
4:32
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senator Wallace, how many license plates have you created this session? This
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
4:40
will be my second one. Oh, okay. Yeah. I thought so. Yeah, this one, I created the one for the women veterans. This one I'm a co-sponsor on, so
Speaker 42
4:54
I didn't really create this one. I'm just messing with you. Keep a track. Mr. Love. And Senator Wallace, we might have to get DF&A to the table for this question.
Speaker 46
5:07
Is there anyone from DF&A here? Thank you. Please introduce yourself to the
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
5:25
record. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee, Alicia Austin Smith with DFA. Okay, so we're going to be retiring the
Mid-South Community College. How many license plates and how many renewals do we have annually for that license plate? That
Speaker 52
5:36
is very specific information I would have to get from our administrators
Speaker 54
5:40
if we have that? Okay. We're thinking they're 90
Speaker 46
5:46
annually. Okay. So currently we have enough in inventory that any
Speaker 52
5:50
individual who currently already has that license plate would be able to continue to renew it. They would not have an issue with that current inventory, but a new individual would not be able to get that repealed license plate. Does that make
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
6:08
Yeah, okay. So tell me, so when we take it out of circulation,
that means the people that already have one then can continue to renew it? Absolutely. Consider grandfathered in. Okay. Yes, as long as we still have the inventory, which this
Speaker 59
6:24
one we do. And then once the inventory just
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
6:26
expires, I mean, it's just. We would not make new plates. That's correct. Gotcha. All right. Thank you. Senator Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Speaker 11
6:47
There you go. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to clarify this, and it's
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
6:53
not a big deal, but you have so many new Mid-South plates in inventory. But no one could, after this bill passes, obtain one of those. But anyone that already had one could continue to renew it as long as they wanted to. But it wouldn't -- when we -- and I know what we're doing, we close one out and we issue a new one. But
the one that we're closing out, those unused new tags are not issued. Am I understanding that correctly? That's correct. An individual who does not currently have
Speaker 64
7:31
one of those plates would not be able to apply for one. But if I had one, I could keep it as
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
7:38
long as I kept renewing it. That's correct, Senator. I guess within some reason, because they'll wear out, I guess. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
7:46
Thank you. Senator Wallace, I have a question for you. How did you determine which license plate to do away
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
7:54
with. I can speak in the case of the women's veterans and this one I was not involved I was a co-sponsor but in that situation we just reviewed all the license plates we saw how many had been used and and how many were left available in my case I had a hundred and fifty two lift available and it was in my case World War II. Pearl Harbor survivors? There's only 16 of
Speaker 38
8:26
those generally left in the United States.
Right, and probably most of them are not driving now.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
8:32
Probably. Yeah, do you know the answer to that from
Speaker 46
8:38
DFNA? I know that we receive queries from time to time as to which plates
Speaker 52
8:42
are the least utilized, and we provide that information, but we don't make a recommendation as to one that
Speaker 42
8:51
should be repealed. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, Senator Love? So it's going
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
8:56
to be my assumption that this is probably one of the least used license
plans since it was chosen. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
9:07
Seeing no other questions, is there anyone here to speak for or
against the bill? Seeing no one. Senator, you're free to close. I'm closed.
Closed. Got a motion to do passed by Senator Johnson. Second by Senator Scott. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor?
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
9:30
All opposed, same sign. Ayes have it. Senator, your bill passed. Thank you, and I promise you
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
9:52
it'll be my last license plate bill this session. Representative Richardson. I know you're ready. We talked last
night. Yes, we did, Mr. Chair. Which one would you like, Representative?
Let's start with HB 1557. And please introduce
yourself for the record, and you're free to introduce
Scott Richardson
Unverified
10:14
your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Scott Richardson, House District 13. This bill is an agency bill coming to us from the Office of State Technology, or newly will be named Office of State Technology. This is specifically to amend the responsibilities of information technology
in response to a number of different areas that need to be refined, realigned and provided a little bit different structure, specifically we're dealing with how these agencies work together. This is also part of the Arkansas Forward which was reviewed from the governor's plan to provide significant efficiencies in cost savings and how we work things. One of the areas
that I like to talk about when introducing this bill is the project management. And if you were in ALC this last couple of years, you noticed that I spent a lot of time asking questions around project management, who's responsible for projects coming to completion, who's responsible for making sure that the state is getting the best bang for their dollar, how are we prioritizing projects, and that's a significant gap in our current technology environment. This aligns technology project management underneath the Office of State Technology
to ensure that all of our technology resources are focused, that we're doing the best we can to get the best product for the money that we have available. We don't have endless funds, so we need to prioritize and make sure that we're spending those funds in the way that most makes sense. Additionally, we make sure that we're doing a better job of reporting. The agency will be responsible for getting reports back to ALC and the members
to make sure that we all know where their dollars are being spent, where their focuses are and priorities, and publish those lists, and to ensure that we're managing the limited funds that we have in a productive manner. And with that,
Speaker 81
12:31
I'm happy to try to field any questions. Thank you, Representative. Any questions from the committee? Senator Love.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
12:45
Thank you, Mr. Chair and Representative. Good to see you. Do you
Speaker 84
12:49
have anybody here from the agency?
Of course. Would you like for me to bring them? Yes, please bring them forward. Please
Speaker 86
13:03
introduce yourself to the record. Jay Harton, Director of Office
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
13:10
of State Technology. All right, good to see you this morning. All right, so I'm just, I heard the explanation of the bill, but I'm looking at the practical, what's going to practically happen in regards to this bill.
What are we, what is going to change in the functionality of the department across the state agencies? Right. So currently there's really
Speaker 86
13:34
no IT governance across all the 15 executive branch departments. And so we'll be setting those standards and policies and guidelines for the procurement of any IT product. So currently, like right now, all the 15 departments can go out and buy any PC that they want that's on state contract at any configuration.
However, you know, there should really be a standard configuration. So what we've seen is, you know, a standard laptop should be about $1,200. But sometimes we see people purchasing laptops that are $2,400 or $2,500. So we'll put some governance in place that they have to, you know, basically come to us and explain why they need to spend more than what the standard basis is for
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
14:24
a laptop. Okay. Now, a couple of years ago, I know we looked
at not only the governance, but the sharing of data across state agencies so that we could get smarter and just say our criminal defense and different things like that.
And so is that piece in here as far as the—because this is establishing it for statewide—is that piece here, or
is that going to be something else? Are we still looking to get buy-in from other—
Speaker 86
14:56
That piece isn't in this bill. There was a previous bill that Representative Meeks ran. It was House Bill 1547, I believe, and that's already been sent to the governor's office for signature, which required each of the departments to define a data steward within their department,
and then they will be working directly with our AR data team to be able to do that data sharing agreements. And it puts DIS in charge of those DIS sharing agreements so that we can better have control of it and have that. Okay. All right. I
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
15:32
think I'm good. Thank you. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
15:37
Any other questions? Seeing none, is
there anyone here to speak for or against the bill?
Seeing no one, what's the
Speaker 92
15:56
bill? Okay, cool. You mentioned procurement and purchase. Do you have
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
16:00
a cooperative? Are you all part of the cooperative as far as when it comes to your
Speaker 86
16:12
on a state contract or on a NASPO contract, a cooperative contract that we utilize through Office of State Procurement.
Some of the bigger projects and software type things, those do go out for
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
16:25
RFP. Okay. All right. So now with this bill, we're going to set up, it may be a little concerning, I guess, until we get the system up, of actually them purchasing, or are you just going to be checking off on the purchases to make sure, kind of like, hey, you know, our office needs 20 new computers. You're going to be helping them configure the software, data, all that is going to be
working through your office, through the person that they have, what did you call that person that they were supposed to establish? Well, we'll
Speaker 86
17:05
have an IT governance team that will review the requests and everything. Now, in this bill, it does have a predefined list of approved laptops, software, and all that kind of stuff. Okay. That way, we're not creating a roadblock. creating the efficiency of it not having to come through us if you're buying off a pre-approved
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
17:25
list. Gotcha. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
17:31
other questions or comments? Seeing none, what is the will of the committee?
I have a motion by Senator Scott, second by Senator Johnson. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Oppose the same sign? Representative, of your bill
Speaker 81
17:52
passed. Thank you, committee. And we are ready now for HB 1549. Wonderful. And with
the chair's permission, I'll go ahead and get our state
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
18:01
agency cybersecurity expert to the table so that if you guys have any questions, we'll be ready and prepared. No problem there. Scream on up. So this bill, once
Scott Richardson
Unverified
18:12
again, Scott Richardson, state representative, District 13. This bill, Of course, it's another agency bill and something that I've been in conversations with the agency for, I don't know, a year and a half or so. The conversations revolved around how do we better align the overall security posture of the state.
And one of the challenges you have with a large environment is you can create a lot of different, a very large outward-facing footprint for those that would do bad things to attack. And you need to ensure that you have a very clean front end. I used an analogy in the House committee of a football team. You place a football team, you have a variety of offensive linemen that are there to establish your front line of defense.
And then you have a quarterback behind that or potentially coach or whoever you want to call that's calling the plays and making sure that everybody is doing the same thing and moving in the same direction so that your defense of your outside influencers to your play can be effectively managed. Right now we have none of that. We have some interconnection and conversations, but really the overall governance of how we're going to establish that front line defense and the internal alignment of that is missing.
This bill puts us in a position so that the department has the responsibility of ensuring that that front line is well coordinated, that they are in the places that they need to be using the right kinds of tools that they need to do to face these outward challenges that are coming. A couple of pieces of that that I want to point out that are in the bill, and then I'll be ready for questions. We do make sure that within this we have the agency reporting to us our security posture on a regular basis to the technology team,
the Advanced Communication Technology Joint Committee, making sure that we have that oversight as the people's representative to ensure that we know what's happening there. We also ask the agency to develop a cyber response team, a team that is specifically focused on moving quickly to mitigate any gaps or risk or incidences that occur within our protective field so that we have the right representatives
that are trained to mitigate any ongoing risk and ensure that we return to a good posture as quickly as possible and minimize the
Speaker 81
21:03
damage that might occur with a particular failure. And yeah, with that, I'll be happy to try to field questions. Thank you, Representative.
Speaker 42
21:15
Any questions from committee? Senator Love? Thank you. I think my question is going to be
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
21:21
similar to the last one I asked. So talk me through the functionality of this piece of legislation.
How is it going to? What's going to be the overall effect after you implement the change?
Gary Vance
Unverified
21:37
So the idea, I might just add a little narrative that over the past three or four years that I've been in the position, One of the things that we've established is that we're doing a decent job at a department level with cybersecurity. Where we can improve and do better is when I look at the executive branch as a whole.
And so we have areas outward facing, as Representative Richardson said, that put us in a better posture from being able to protect ourselves from adversaries that attack us. And so the idea with the functional alignment is to align the individuals that are in the departments today that are in our cybersecurity role, and we will begin to work together as a virtual team
or a dotted line team, if you will, and we will bring forth these cyber frameworks and cyber strategies that give us a more mature, outward-facing model than what we have today. Okay. I'm
Speaker 105
22:55
looking through the bill, trying to quickly...
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
22:59
I know... So do you all have a cybersecurity person in each division, in each department, each state agency department?
Gary Vance
Unverified
23:10
Each department today has cybersecurity personnel in their departments today. So now you're going
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
23:17
to be coordinating all of those. You're going to be quarterbacking those people. That's
Speaker 81
23:26
correct. Okay. That's correct. I think the key there, Senator Love, is
Scott Richardson
Unverified
23:32
that when we're looking at an overall posture and making sure that the state cybersecurity is moving in the right direction as we advance, We want a single point of expertise to ensure that the entire state is making the right advancements in cybersecurity at a rate that is acceptable to the industry.
The reality is, at the end of the day, there's only so many cybersecurity experts in the state doing the best that they can, and there's literally millions of outward people trying to get in at all times. So we need a coordinated effort to ensure that we put forth the best security posture that we have available to us. And that includes things like what kinds of technology we're going to use on the front end, what kinds of interference software that we might use, what kinds of monitoring do we do,
what kinds of testing are we doing on a regular basis to ensure that all of our devices that have outward capabilities have the right patches, the right updates, whatever it happens to be, to ensure that those outward attackers that are coming toward us, that we've mitigated the potential that they might find a gap
Speaker 99
24:46
or might find an opportunity to get through. No, I'm good. I'm good with that.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
24:52
Yes, but how about the agencies that the state agencies work with? So you have institutions of higher education.
You have K-12, you have what about those agencies, what about the peripheral agencies that we work with? Because it's not only the threat of the agencies themselves, but the other people that we interact with. So talk me through that. This
Gary Vance
Unverified
25:21
particular bill is focused on the executive branch. Okay, just the executive. Let me add that we are a resource and will continue to be a resource for the state.
We work with county. We work with K-12. We work some with higher education. And the spirit of that collaboration is no different than what's in the bill. We will work with them to help them review common cybersecurity controls and practices that will improve their given entity. We've done a lot of work with K-12 over the last two years. We've done a lot of good work working with them to reduce the number of attacks and ransomware
Speaker 84
26:09
events that they've been experiencing. And that's really my
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:13
main concern, because K-12 is, but cities, we have little smaller cities, there's smaller cities, smaller communities that actually interact with the, you know, we're shipping them turn back funds. We're doing different things like that. So those are kind of So from a scope perspective, what we looked
Speaker 84
26:34
at in this is the reality is this is a, just this
Scott Richardson
Unverified
26:43
portion of the building is a very monumental undertaking. Let's get our house in order here and then we're ready to expand that to look at those other opportunities for us to work. The reality is K-12, like U of A, they do a wonderful job. They have governmental contracts and things that
Speaker 81
27:00
they have to deal with, so they have to be in the right area. But you're right, the small towns and cities, municipalities, even our county governments, they don't have the resources that we could potentially provide from a state level
to just say, here's your framework, now go implement it. And that's hopefully something in a future iteration of this, but at this point, the focus, we really need to get the state agencies, the executive branch in the right order, and then we can
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:29
move forward with other areas. Okay. And my last question is, so you're the czar. I'm just going to call you a czar. You're the cybersecurity czar for
Gary Vance
Unverified
27:38
the state. And I apologize. I didn't introduce myself when I sat down. So my name is Gary Vance, and I am the state cybersecurity officer.
within the Office of State Technology, and so that's my role. Okay,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:52
so you're the czar for the cybersecurity. Okay, I'll be the czar. I'm going to call you the czar. Okay, all right. Do we have a, just from your perspective, not in this bill, but do we have a functioning, I went to Georgia probably three or four years ago, and this is why this is interesting to me. I went to Georgia, and they were connected through Fort, I forgot what Fort, a military Fort that I went into, but they had a whole team of actually people working on cybersecurity.
They were connected to the military, they were connected to higher ed. Do we have that framework already set up
Gary Vance
Unverified
28:32
in Arkansas, and are you a part of that framework? So we do not have that framework set up today. However, I will tell you that we have been actively working to get that in place. And Representative Richardson mentioned incident response. So one of the things that we're currently working on, have been working on for a while, is to establish what I would call a state cyber task force, right?
And so this task force would be made up of a number of entities, state, local, K-12, our National Guard. We work with National Guard with tabletop exercises on incident response. But the idea there is to stand up a formal state cyber response task force that we could use to represent the state as a whole. It's part of the bill, and it's something that we're focused on.
And we want to use that same functional alignment, if you will, to help to create that task force. But it's not in place today. We have worked with other states, North Carolina, Louisiana, some others that I can't think of. But they have used those entities, as you described, to form that task force. And so we're collaborating with them as well as we build ours and stand ours up as well.
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
30:12
Chair, for your attitude. Senator Scott? Okay. Senator Johnson? Thank
you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Fance, thank you for your enlightening comments. and Representative Richardson as well. On page three of the bill, starting on line seven, it says that twice a year that the Cybersecurity Office will,
in a closed meeting of this committee, of the Joint Committee, will detail cyber assessment. Basically, twice a year you brief us in a closed meeting. Mr. Chairman, I don't remember any closed meetings I've ever sat in in a legislative committee now. We've had meetings where nobody from outside showed up, but I've never known about that. And I just want to ask, do we bump up into any kind of existing, either in our own committee rule,
would we need to have that clarified in the rule? I know that a lot of this has to do with we wouldn't want to disclose any methodologies that allow these folks or others, even in other agencies that are outside the executive branch, to put up defenses against things, just like we exempted the things that the state police does to secure the governor and her family from FOIA
because we don't want the bad guys to have access to their methodologies. And I assume that's why we do it in this closed meeting. But, and again, methodologies might not necessarily need to be disclosed. But I am concerned that you're going to tell us how many incidents, for example, happened and how they were, not the details hopefully, but we resolved this one, this one popped up. And Senator Lovett, and I've served on audit, and you have two senators now,
and we have had the word is escaping me for a moment, the ransomware attacks. And, of course, that becomes an audit issue when they actually have to pay some of these crooks to get their data back up again. Am I following kind of what we're trying to do here?
Scott Richardson
Unverified
32:49
You are. And Act 510 of 2023 established that in code
so that we could have closed-door meetings. So we have official authorization to do so? Yes, sir, we do. And we did that, like I said, in 2023. I have the, if you'd like, I can... No, sir, that's not necessary. You've answered my question. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 38
33:08
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator Johnson. Any other questions? Seeing none, is there anyone
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
33:14
to speak for or against the bill? Seeing no one, what is the will of the committee?
Motion to pass, Senator Johnson. Second by Senator Love. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Opposed, same sign.
Representative, you pass both your bills. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee. Appreciate it. Appreciate you working on that. Senator Petty.
Speaker 119
33:57
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jim Petty, Senator District 29.
Speaker 120
34:04
And Senator, are you going to be running SB 447 or... 498.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
34:08
We're going to pass over 447 for a potential amendment. so this is 498. Okay, so we're going to pass over 447 and go to 498.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
34:21
is a law that will be amending the disclosure of driver and vehicle records.
In short, there's conflict between the federal and state laws concerning protection of motor vehicle records, protection of our records. Arkansas declares them public records while federal government requires substantial protections. And so SB 498 resolves this conflict and provides additional protections to our driving records here in Arkansas under the Arkansas law. Currently, the Arkansas law restricts courts and law enforcement officers to receiving driver's
records for the purpose of enforcing traffic laws. SB 498 allows more access to those records for courts and law enforcement who need those for other crimes. And SB 498 creates a single standard of releasing those motor vehicle records and driver's records rather than having multiple standards in different code sections. And then finally, this current Arkansas law prohibits the disclosure of digital driver's license photos other than with the approval of the driver. And
And SB 498 allows that disclosure of the digital driver's license photos to courts and law enforcement agencies. And I have DF&A here if you want to add something to that. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Mr. Chair,
Speaker 52
35:46
members of the committee. Alicia Austin-Smith with DFA. Senator Petty did an excellent job explaining it. You know, this is agency legislation that we are bringing. we are needing to clean up our laws in this area. It's probably been coming for a long time.
Essentially, if you were to go and look at the motor vehicle record provisions in the code or the driver's
Speaker 57
36:09
record provisions, they right now say that all of your records are open to the public, right? Anyone
Speaker 52
36:15
could come and get any of your records, all of your vehicle accidents or all of your driving records. Now they can't because of federal law, right? But that doesn't stop an individual from thinking that they can get access to all of those records. And so we need to make sure that our code is compliant with federal law, that everything's clean. And if you look at the
actual bill, it's just very, very straightforward as to who's going to be able to get these records. You know, essentially the first half of the bill talks about your motor vehicle record. So there's a difference between, you know, the registration record of your vehicle and then your driving record. So the first part is talking about who can get access to your motor vehicle record. And that's going to be very limited to yourself, the person that you've authorized, a court, an attorney with a subpoena actually in a court action, or government agencies and law enforcement
agencies. So it's very, very streamlined. It provides clarity for the public. It provides clarity for our employees as to who is exactly is entitled to that information. And then same thing, if you go down to the driver services record, which really starts on page four, this is your actual driver confirmation record or your abstract of your information, same thing. Yourself, the person that you've authorized, a court, an attorney with a subpoena, it does not change the
law about your employer has access to that information if they're employing you in a driving capacity, an insurance company, those sorts of individuals. So it's really just cleaning up what we're already doing right now. The only thing it's actually adding to the law is right now, law enforcement, they can get a copy of your digital driver's license photo under the Arkansas Crime Information Center, ACIC. But if that goes down, we need the ability to share that photograph with law enforcement. Usually they're working in real time. And you think about an
Amber Alert or something like that, we need to be able to provide that to them. So that's the only thing that the bill is adding that we do not currently have. And
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
38:21
we're happy to answer any Thank you. My question is going to be a little bit off
Speaker 119
38:29
the record here. With the digital driver's license, is every state accepting that now? I don't know.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
38:35
I'd be hard-pressed to answer that because so many states do so many things differently, and digital driver's license
is fairly new. So I would say my personal opinion would be that not all of them are recognizing them yet, but I don't know that. Can't answer that affirmatively. And when you're, thank you, Senator Petty,
Speaker 46
38:51
that's correct. When you're talking about is every state recognizing it? I mean, even in the context of Arkansas, just because we
Speaker 52
38:56
have a digital driver's license does not mean that law enforcement have to accept that on the side of the road, for example. So it's even limited right now within the state. We
Speaker 46
39:06
are certainly issuing it, but that doesn't mean that anyone has to actually accept it. So we need to
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
39:11
make sure we have a hard copy plus the digital if we
Speaker 52
39:14
You are required to continue to carry your hard copy at this time. Yes, that's correct. You know, they will need that technology to be able to actually accept your digital driver's license on the
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
39:25
side of the interstate. Okay, thank you. That saves me if I
Speaker 127
39:28
get pulled over when I'm out of state. Please
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
39:31
carry your hard copy of your license. I'm old school as well. Senator Johnson. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman. I had an incident yesterday that kind of piqued my interest. I was flying back to Little Rock from Denver, and I went to the TSA pre-check desk with my phone,
had my boarding pass on it, and I had my license, and I offered him my driver's license. I don't need it. And I realized he had it. And they take your picture. And I assume what he's doing is comparing it to the driver's license photo, which is the real ID. It's got the star on it. I don't know what you call that. But this is all being done anyway. And obviously, since it's TSA, this is the federal standard that we're complying with.
I have to admit, Big Brother kind of coming at me from all directions does bother me a little bit. But I was shocked that he didn't actually need to see either on my phone or the physical license. He said, I don't need it. But that's because of what you just told us. That's correct. And
Speaker 123
40:38
also, I think all of us are probably a little bit more behind on
Speaker 52
40:42
technology than some of the younger individuals. But, you know, essentially all of that's digital now. The back of your driver's license is a barcode that's scannable. And you think about your passport as well. That's actually digital information that the Fed has access to.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
40:54
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, is
there anyone here to speak for or against the bill? Seeing no one, what
is the will of the committee? Motion to do pass by Senator Scott, seconded by Senator Johnson. All those in favor, or any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Opposed, same sign. Senator, you pass your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, committee. Okay committee, seeing no one else here to run any bills this morning,
We will stand in recess until 15 minutes after adjournment of the session. Mr. Chair, a question. Yes, sir. Which room did you
meet in the session? Old Supreme Court. Or no more room. No more room. He said no
more room. So that's where we are. So we'll be in recess until that time. So thank you, everyone, for coming. It's Senator Scott. I can't hear you. Okay.
Agenda
CALL TO ORDER
REGULAR AGENDA
SB397 D. Wallace TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION OF RAIL EMPLOYEES IN REPORTS INVOLVING RAILROAD FATALITIES.
SB498 J. Petty TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE OF DRIVER AND VEHICLE RECORDS AND TO PROTECT DRIVER AND VEHICLE RECORDS FROM PUBLIC DISCLOSURE.
HB1654 Tosh TO AUTHORIZE THE ISSUANCE OF A SPECIAL LICENSE PLATE FOR THE MAKEA-WISH FOUNDATION OF THE MID SOUTH; AND TO ADDRESS THE INVENTORY OF THE MID-SOUTH COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATION SPECIAL LICENSE PLATE.
HB1606 Steimel TO ALLOW A LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO AUTHORIZE THE OPERATION OF A UTILITY TASK VEHICLE ON A DESIGNATED PUBLIC STREET OR HIGHWAY WITHIN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT'S JURISDICTION SUBJECT TO CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS.
HB1688 Cavenaugh TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE USE OF A DEALER'S EXTRA LICENSE PLATE.
HB1557 R. Scott Richardson TO AMEND THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE DIVISION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCERNING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY .
HB1549 R. Scott RichardsonTO CREATE THE ARKANSAS CYBERSECURITY ACT OF 2025
ADJOURNED
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — TRANSPORTATION, TECHNOLOGY & LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS - SENATE, Mar 31, 2025 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
Speaker 11
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
Speaker 28
Speaker 26
Speaker 29
Speaker 32
Speaker 37
Speaker 42
Speaker 46
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 52
Speaker 54
Speaker 59
Speaker 64
Speaker 38
Scott Richardson
Unverified
Speaker 81
Speaker 84
Speaker 86
Speaker 92
Speaker 94
Gary Vance
Unverified
Speaker 105
Speaker 99
Speaker 97
Speaker 119
Speaker 120
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
Speaker 57
Speaker 127
Speaker 123