Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee - Senate
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Transcript
1 document
Bills discussed (55)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SB235
· 5 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…that said, I'm turning it over to the the expert experts to Senate Bill 235. turning it over to the experts to explain.”
|
TO CREATE THE VOLUNTARY PORTABLE BENEFIT ACCOUNT ACT. | J. Boyd | Sine Die adjournment |
|
SB285
· 3 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…T COMPACT. RE-REFERRED TO COMMITTEE Number Sponsor Subtitle SB285 J. Payton TO MODIFY THE COMPENSATION RESTRICTIONS UNDER THE…”
|
TO MODIFY THE COMPENSATION RESTRICTIONS UNDER THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT … | J. Payton | Sine Die adjournment |
|
HB1382
Act 481
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…8, NO. 4. SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1382 Ladyman TO REQUIRE CERTAIN REPORTING BY THE DESIGNATED PROT…”
|
TO REQUIRE CERTAIN REPORTING BY THE DESIGNATED PROTECTION AND ADVOCACY AGENCY FOR THE STATE AND … | Ladyman | Notification that HB1382 is now Act 481 |
|
HB1712
Act 639
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…HERAPY SERVICES THAT ARE NOT REIMBURSED BY MEDICARE PART A. HB1712 Joey Carr TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN THIS STATE. | Joey Carr | Notification that HB1712 is now Act 639 |
|
SB111
Act 395
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 3/18/25 @ 5:11PM) Moved SB111 to Concur in House Amendment Senate Committee on Public Hea…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE DENTIST AND DENTAL HYGIENIST COMPACT. | K. Hammer | Notification that SB111 is now Act 395 |
|
SB238
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB238 J. Payton TO AMEND THE USED TIRE RECYCLING AND ACCOUNTABILI…”
|
TO AMEND THE USED TIRE RECYCLING AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT. | J. Payton | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB286
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…OMPENSATION LAW THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 4 OF 1948. SB286 J. Payton TO ALLOW ADDITIONAL WAGE LOSS BENEFITS IN ADDITIO…”
|
TO ALLOW ADDITIONAL WAGE LOSS BENEFITS IN ADDITION TO SCHEDULED INJURY PAYMENTS UNDER THE WORKERS' … | J. Payton | Sine Die adjournment |
|
SB287
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB287 J. Payton TO MODIFY CERTAIN ATTORNEY FEES FOR CONTROVERTED…”
|
TO MODIFY CERTAIN ATTORNEY FEES FOR CONTROVERTED MEDICAL EXPENSES, APPEALS, AND CHANGES OF PHYSICIANS UNDER … | J. Payton | Sine Die adjournment |
|
SB440
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. SB440 D. Wallace TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING EMBALMERS AND FUNERA…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING EMBALMERS AND FUNERAL DIRECTORS; TO REGULATE THE USE OF ALKALINE … | D. Wallace | Sine Die adjournment |
|
SB444
Act 970
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…HYDROLYSIS; AND TO REGULATE ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS FACILITIES. SB444 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE MEDICAL ETHICS AND DIVERSITY ACT. SB…”
|
TO AMEND THE MEDICAL ETHICS AND DIVERSITY ACT. | K. Hammer | Notification that SB444 is now Act 970 |
|
SB460
Act 697
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB460 Irvin TO MODIFY THE COMPLIANCE ADVISORY PANEL; TO REPEAL TH…”
|
TO MODIFY THE COMPLIANCE ADVISORY PANEL; TO REPEAL THE MARKETING RECYCLABLES PROGRAM OF THE COMPLIANCE … | Irvin | Notification that SB460 is now Act 697 |
|
SB9
Act 622
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…OGRAM FOR THE STATE. REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle SB9 B. Davis TO CREATE THE MAKE ARKANSAS HEALTHY AGAIN ACT; AND…”
|
TO CREATE THE MAKE ARKANSAS HEALTHY AGAIN ACT; AND TO PROHIBIT MANUFACTURING, SELLING, DELIVERING, DISTRIBUTING, … | B. Davis | Notification that SB9 is now Act 622 |
|
HB1131
Act 959
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ERABLE AGING ADULTS. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle 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 |
|
HB1171
Act 625
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…E PERCENT OF PREMIUMS ON HEALTHCARE CLAIMS AND WAGE CLAIMS. HB1171 K. Moore TO MODIFY THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE…”
|
TO MODIFY THE MEDICAID PROVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE ACT; AND TO AUTHORIZE AN ABBREVIATED INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT … | K. Moore | Notification that HB1171 is now Act 625 |
|
HB1185
Act 799
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NEFICIARIES ENROLLED IN A RISK-BASED PROVIDER ORGANIZATION. HB1185 L. Johnson TO ADOPT THE DIETITIAN LICENSURE COMPACT IN ARKA…”
|
TO ADOPT THE DIETITIAN LICENSURE COMPACT IN ARKANSAS. | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1185 is now Act 799 |
|
HB1186
Act 960
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…hnson TO ADOPT THE DIETITIAN LICENSURE COMPACT IN ARKANSAS. HB1186 Vaught TO CREATE THE PAIN RELIEF PARITY ACT; AND TO REQUIRE…”
|
TO CREATE THE PAIN RELIEF PARITY ACT; AND TO REQUIRE PAIN RELIEF PARITY IN THE … | Vaught | Notification that HB1186 is now Act 960 |
|
HB1218
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EQUIRE PAIN RELIEF PARITY IN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM. 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. |
|
HB1252
Act 965
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…HIBIT FLUORIDATION OF THE WATER IN THE PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM. HB1252 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH THE CERTIFIED COMMUNITY-BASED DOULA…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE CERTIFIED COMMUNITY-BASED DOULA CERTIFICATION ACT; AND TO CERTIFY BIRTH AND POSTPARTUM DOULAS … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1252 is now Act 965 |
|
HB1285
Act 856
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ND TO PROVIDE FOR LICENSURE OF ANESTHESIOLOGIST ASSISTANTS. 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 |
|
HB1403
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ULANCE SERVICE'S OPERATORS FOR CERTAIN HEALTHCARE SERVICES. HB1403 Pilkington TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS HEALTH AND OPPORTUNITY FOR…”
|
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 agenda
Matched: “…NONHOSPITAL ENTITIES TO BE COMMUNITY BRIDGE ORGANIZATIONS. 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 |
|
HB1429
Act 854
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…GHT REQUIREMENT FOR MOBILITY ACCESSIBLE ROOMS. Page 3 of 4 HB1429 M. Shepherd TO INCREASE ACCESSIBILITY WHILE ENSURING QUALIT…”
|
TO INCREASE ACCESSIBILITY WHILE ENSURING QUALITY FOR CERTAIN FACILITIES PERFORMING MAMMOGRAPHY SERVICES; AND TO AMEND … | M. Shepherd | Notification that HB1429 is now Act 854 |
|
HB1439
Act 853
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…STANDARDS FOR ACCREDITATION OF FACILITIES FOR MAMMOGRAPHY. HB1439 Ladyman TO REMOVE THE CERTIFICATION PROCESS OF THE DEPARTME…”
|
TO REMOVE THE CERTIFICATION PROCESS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES FROM LICENSURE AS A … | Ladyman | Notification that HB1439 is now Act 853 |
|
HB1440
Act 629
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…OF HUMAN SERVICES FROM LICENSURE AS A PRIVATE CARE AGENCY. 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
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ESTABLISH REGISTRATION FOR MASSAGE THERAPY ESTABLISHMENTS. 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
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…AND TO ESTABLISH PHARMACEUTICAL PATIENT FREEDOM OF CHOICE. HB1454 Bentley TO AMEND THE LAWS CONCERNING CRIMINAL HISTORY RECOR…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAWS CONCERNING CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORDS CHECKS FOR EMPLOYEES OF SERVICE PROVIDERS; TO … | Bentley | Notification that HB1454 is now Act 674 |
|
HB1456
Act 852
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EQUIRE DIALYSIS CENTERS TO HAVE A BACKUP GENERATOR ON SITE. 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 |
|
HB1471
Act 966
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RD IS PROVIDING INFORMATION TO CREDENTIALING ORGANIZATIONS. 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 |
|
HB1523
Act 951
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RD OF EXAMINERS IN SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY AND AUDIOLOGY. 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 |
|
HB1537
Act 850
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ERT SYSTEM; AND TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS PURPLE ALERT SYSTEM. HB1537 Ladyman TO REPEAL THE LOCATION ACT FOR COMMUNITY HOMES FOR…”
|
TO REPEAL THE LOCATION ACT FOR COMMUNITY HOMES FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES. | Ladyman | Notification that HB1537 is now Act 850 |
|
HB1559
Act 632
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…DIVIDUALS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES. 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
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…R INPATIENT TREATMENT SERVICES FOR SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS. 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. |
|
HB1585
Act 849
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ULAS IN THIS STATE TO IMPROVE MATERNAL AND INFANT OUTCOMES. HB1585 L. Johnson TO PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION FROM LICENSURE AS A HOME…”
|
TO PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION FROM LICENSURE AS A HOME HEALTHCARE SERVICE TO AN ENTITY THAT … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1585 is now Act 849 |
|
HB1682
Act 942
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SOLID WASTE LANDFILL TO BE PLACED OVER A KARST TOPOGRAPHY. 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 |
|
SB117
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ING LOCATIONS FOR AND GEOGRAPHIC AREAS OF A HOSPICE AGENCY. SB117 C. Penzo TO CREATE THE NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIAN PRACTICE ACT;…”
|
TO CREATE THE NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIAN PRACTICE ACT; TO PROVIDE FOR LICENSURE OF NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIANS IN … | C. Penzo | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB120
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. SB120 C. Penzo TO REQUIRE LICENSURE FOR ALL PRIVATE CARE AGENCIES…”
|
TO REQUIRE LICENSURE FOR ALL PRIVATE CARE AGENCIES IN THIS STATE; AND TO ENSURE CONSUMER … | C. Penzo | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB121
Act 968
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO PERFORM ADDITIONAL CARE AND DUTIES. SB121 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE AUTOMATIC OCCUPATIONAL LICENSURE FOR…”
|
TO AMEND THE AUTOMATIC OCCUPATIONAL LICENSURE FOR OUT-OF-STATE LICENSURE ACT; TO APPLY THE AUTOMATIC OCCUPATIONAL … | C. Penzo | Notification that SB121 is now Act 968 |
|
SB122
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…URE FOR OUT-OF-STATE LICENSURE ACT TO PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS. SB122 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE AUTOMATIC OCCUPATIONAL LICENSURE FOR…”
|
TO AMEND THE AUTOMATIC OCCUPATIONAL LICENSURE FOR OUT-OF-STATE LICENSURE ACT; TO APPLY THE AUTOMATIC OCCUPATIONAL … | C. Penzo | Died on House Calendar at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB2
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…VISE THE ARKANSAS FIRE TRAINING ACADEMY ON CERTAIN MATTERS. 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. |
|
SB217
Act 969
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…AND TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS STATE BOARD OF NATURAL MEDICINE. SB217 C. Penzo TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO REQ…”
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TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO REQUEST A WAIVER TO EXCLUDE CANDY AND … | C. Penzo | Notification that SB217 is now Act 969 |
|
SB221
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…AIN TASKS TO MEDICAL ASSISTANTS AND OTHER UNLICENSED STAFF. 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. |
|
SB255
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…FOODS UNDER THE SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. 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. |
|
SB262
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…FOOD, DRUG, AND COSMETIC ACT; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. SB262 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE CORPORATE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE DOCTRI…”
|
TO AMEND THE CORPORATE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE DOCTRINE; AND TO AUTHORIZE A LICENSED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL … | C. Penzo | Died on House Calendar at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB264
Act 483
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB264 Irvin TO ESTABLISH THE ARKANSAS PRIMARY CARE PAYMENT IMPROV…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE ARKANSAS PRIMARY CARE PAYMENT IMPROVEMENT WORKING GROUP. | Irvin | Notification that SB264 is now Act 483 |
|
SB269
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SET AN ANNUAL REIMBURSEMENT CAP FOR ADULT DENTAL SERVICES. SB269 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE REQUIREMENTS REGARDING LOCATIONS FOR…”
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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: “…OVIDER-LED ORGANIZED CARE ACT; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. 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. |
|
SB306
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ERSHIP UPON AN INACTIVE LICENSE OR RETIREMENT. Page 2 of 4 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. |
|
SB311
Act 772
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…WAIVER FOR THE AGING AND ELDERLY POPULATION IN THIS STATE. 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 |
|
SB347
Act 1025
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NAL LICENSURE FOR OUT-OF-STATE LICENSURE ACT TO PHYSICIANS. SB347 C. Penzo TO REQUIRE THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO INCREA…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO INCREASE REIMBURSEMENT RATES FOR CERTAIN DENTAL SERVICES AND … | C. Penzo | Notification that SB347 is now Act 1025 |
|
SB348
Act 567
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RTAIN GENETIC SEQUENCERS AND GENETIC ANALYSIS TECHNOLOGIES. SB348 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE ANNUAL CAP FOR DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORY…”
|
TO AMEND THE ANNUAL CAP FOR DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORY SERVICES WITHIN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM; AND … | C. Penzo | Notification that SB348 is now Act 567 |
|
SB371
Act 653
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB371 J. Scott TO ESTABLISH A STANDARDIZED SYSTEM TO AID IN THE S…”
|
TO ESTABLISH A STANDARDIZED SYSTEM TO AID IN THE SEARCH OF MISSING CHILDREN WHO DO … | J. Scott | Notification that SB371 is now Act 653 |
|
SB418
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SION TO BE AN ADVISORY COUNCIL TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. SB418 J. Payton TO AMEND THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW THAT RESUL…”
|
TO AMEND THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 4 OF 1948; AND … | J. Payton | Sine Die adjournment |
|
SB473
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB473 Stone TO AMEND THE DUTIES OF THE ARKANSAS FIRE PROTECTION S…”
|
TO AMEND THE DUTIES OF THE ARKANSAS FIRE PROTECTION SERVICES BOARD; AND TO PROVIDE FOR … | Stone | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB474
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…R ACT; AND TO CLARIFY FOOD DONATION LIABILITY AND IMMUNITY. 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. |
|
SB95
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…E MANDATE FOR WATER SYSTEMS TO MAINTAIN A FLUORIDE CONTENT. 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. |
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OK, Senator Boyd, sir, you are welcome to come up here and Present your bill. Thank
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
0:36
you, Mr. Chair. Senator Justin Boyd from Fort Smith, and then I've got a couple of guests here to help me present. Um, oh, sorry, go ahead. My name is Gabriella Hoffman. I'm with
Speaker 14
0:50
Independent Women Center for Economic Opportunity. My name
Senator John Payton
Unverified
0:54
is David Iglesias. I'm here with the Libertus Institute. Thank you. Go ahead, Senator. Thank
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
1:00
you, Mr. Chair and committee members. What this bill does, it's a very simple bill that introduces the enabling legislation so that you can have portable benefits for gig economy workers, and with that said, I'm turning it over to the the expert experts to Senate Bill 235. turning it over to the experts to explain.
Speaker 13
1:25
Independent women Center for Economic Opportunity supports Senate Bill 235, the creation of a voluntary portable benefits account because a lot of women,
Speaker 14
1:32
especially Arkansan women are freelancers, and they're looking to maintain their flexibility while also having access to portable benefits. I'd like to share a little bit of my own personal experience with um obtaining benefits as someone who spent 7 years as a full-time freelancer. I was empowered in my work and fully capable of obtaining benefits on my own accord without entities mandating choices. Uh, this work arrangement
allowed me to excel compared to certain traditional jobs I had before, um, although I'm a part-time freelancer today, I credit independent contracting for the success I enjoy. I recognize that not all independent contractors can secure benefits such as healthcare coverage, but there's a solution to address this, and we believe that our organization, that a voluntary portable benefits account can do that. Um, women will greatly benefit because nearly half of freelancers nationwide are women. They do a multitude of things, um, earning incomes from raising children.
caregiving for aging parents and managing their own health issues, not out of 10 female workers who shifted from full-time employment to independent contract works said they did that tour as flexibility over stability. And Um, since a lot of independent contractors can't access workplace benefits, um, they're looking for other options, and I also want to share briefly for you, um, a contextualization of this uh through a storyteller that we have worked with, um, Cheryl Myers, who's an Arkansan, um, as to why she would like to
maintain her independence but also explore the possibility of obtaining portable benefits. Um, she's a former freight broker and now owner operator with nearly 30 years of experience in the trucking industry, she contracted with the Department of Defense. She her story with independent women and she emphasized that protecting independent contracting is a matter of freedom and personal choice. Meyer said that her career afforded her and her husband the lifestyle of their dreams, and she doesn't want to lose that. She's quoted as saying, I have the great privilege of coming home for a month at a time, teaching my children and grandchildren how to hunt, kayak, fish, and cook, and doing
quality things with my family. It has been a real blessing to lay out our business strategy the way we choose, and it's worked well for us, but freelancers like Cheryl shouldn't have to choose between their maintaining their independence and securing benefit like health. Disability retirement, independent contractors are their own best negotiators, but they can't negotiate benefits into their contracts, they would appreciate more options to secure the benefits without the threat of
Speaker 22
3:49
force reclassification into W-2 status, and that is why our organization supports SB 235. We go.
Speaker 25
3:59
Love, did you have a point, sir? OK. OK.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
4:05
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, just exactly what are we trying to do? What, what is, what is going to change
what What, what are we basically trying to do with this bill. Yes, uh, introduce
Speaker 31
4:19
yourself for the record. I'll introduce myself. I'm Jonathan
Speaker 33
4:21
Wolfson. I'm the chief legal officer at Cicero Action and have been working on this issue. I've worked at the US Department of Labor before I came to Cicero.
So the, the concept senator, is that workers who are independent workers, if they negotiate with that business for that business to not just pay them dollars for window washing or for lawn care or for computer programming, whatever that project may be, if they say we would like you to put some of that money into a 401. or into a health savings account, then the way that the US Department of Labor treats those dollars or as if that person is now an employee and so now the business and the worker don't get to negotiate for what they want. So the concept of
this bill with the senators putting together is to say that the Arkansas Department will not treat those dollars as if that is making an employee employer relationship that that can remain an independent contract relationship. OK, alright, that's That's what I need to know. Senator
Speaker 40
5:14
Payton, you recognize, sir? Thank you, Mr. Chair. So
Senator John Payton
Unverified
5:21
why are we talking about a bank? Is it, are we creating a
An account on the books of the state where the state is going to be the fiduciary. That's a great question,
Speaker 33
5:36
Senator. No, this was not create new accounts. This, what this does is it would allow individuals who want to set these accounts up at a bank in the state of Arkansas to be able to do so. And so if the dollars are going from again that business to that bank rather than from that business directly to the worker as compensation, that that is those banks are legally entitled to create these sorts of accounts if they would like to. This is not a state account. So we're going to be compelling.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
6:04
The employer, for lack of a better term, are we going to be Uh, forcing them to do this or I mean if you have contractors that want to do this, you also need to have customers that want to participate. That that's absolutely right. No, and
Speaker 33
6:18
this is completely voluntary. I think that it says the word voluntary in the text of this bill, I think 4 or 5 different times. So this is absolutely voluntary, so an individual would say to the business whether that is a gig worker working with an Uber or Lyft, and this is going on in
Pennsylvania. Utah has already passed this, so you've got workers who would interact with those businesses, and they would say, hey, I want to do this, but I would like you to put some of the money in my health savings account, that would be an option, and the business might say no, we just want to hand you a check. for $5000 for the gig, and that's what we're going to pay you and then you can go put the money where you want, but in certain circumstances as a way to attract those workers or maybe as a way to incentivize them to do more work for your business than the one down the street where you're independently working with them, then some businesses might say, yeah, we're happy to help you
put these in some sort of tax deferred type of account that you might
Senator John Payton
Unverified
7:10
prefer. OK, so how is that not an employer employee relationship instead of an independent contractor. So I think the
Speaker 34
7:16
key point is that the worker still has the choice of whether or not to
Speaker 33
7:21
enter into that relationship, and so this would be someone who's doing gigs with lots of different businesses around town. They might be washing windows for 10 different restaurants in town, and one of the restaurants they would say, hey, we would prefer our compensation package to not
just be cash compensation. We'd like you to put money into this retirement account into this health savings account, and this allows them to do that. And so those workers wouldn't in almost all other circumstances meet the definition. Of an employee, but providing benefits has traditionally been one of those triggers that most employment lawyers will be advise their customers, their clients against providing any sort of access to benefits because that is almost always courts are saying, hey, we we look at that and think of that as an indicator of employment
and so that's the point of this bill is to make it clear that in Arkansas, the
Speaker 34
8:09
mere delivery of dollars that the worker wants into an account like this does not make them an employee.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
8:18
OK. Thank you. She the Hill, you recognize her? And this not already be accomplished
through just a regular out right. I mean, what, what's that, that offer is out there for anyone that's a a contractor or any other 1099 type employee. So an
Speaker 34
8:36
IRA is one place the issue with an IRA is that obviously you don't have access to those dollars until retirement, so there's certain ro you do. Well, you do with a tax penalty though, right? So I, I think, I think that for a lot of
Speaker 33
8:49
workers they want money in a health savings account. They want money into other things than just retirement accounts. There are workers who are independent who want to buy their own, uh, kind of workers' compensation type of plan. There are private policies that individuals can buy for disability, and they want to be able to put
Speaker 56
9:01
money toward those things, and those would not, you wouldn't be able to use an IRA for that.
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
9:07
Thank you. Members or are there any other questions? If you look on page 2, 13 health insurance income replacement insurance, life insurance, and retirement benefits.
So it's a multiple things that would be Available depending on
Speaker 64
9:25
what the company and what the worker wanted. And uh sorry, so
Senator John Payton
Unverified
9:31
I'm David Iglesias with the Libertus Institute. We, we worked on this issue in Utah. um, we had a very
similar bill introduced a couple of years ago, Senate bill, I, I spacing the exact name, but Similar concept voluntary portable benefits, um, similar proposals are being considered as well in states like Tennessee and Alabama right now, but um I might add that from our experience in Utah, when we passed this two years ago, the actual implementation of what this looks like was there was a company that came in named Stride Health, and they are a portable benefits service provider. So what they do is they help create the accounts which those workers can then
open up and have those contributions made to them. When, when we pass or when that legislation was passed in the Utah legislature. Stride Health came in and struck up partnerships with Shipped and Lyft, so that Utah drivers for those uh those gigs, specifically in Utah could start opening accounts with Stride and then the, the importance of having those accounts opened with stride is that it allows them that portability to go transfer their work, whether it be in a different industry, different location, you know,
whatever it is on their terms and as was mentioned before, you know, the, the importance of this is it's a product in itself. It's not an insurance or a benefit product in itself. Rather, it is a means by which those workers can save up and have access to the accounts, which is, I would say what a large part of the difference between the employee and employ contractor relationship because in traditional employment what you're seeing is benefits products and services and offerings, whereas this is merely saying if the hiring
entity or the party that the contractors go into business with, decide to do business with them. One of the deals that they can, you know, if they feel it appropriate, they can opt into is making these receiving these contributions from those hiring entities. Um, we've seen, we haven't had any, any concerns, any problems arise in Utah, it's been a success. Um, I might also add that there are other programs that have been underway. One of them was in Pennsylvania. It was a temporary pilot program, um, they saw a lot of success. It was a partnership with Stride and
DoorDash, and they put out public findings of things that those workers were actually using. their accounts for, and some of those include uh time off, emergency savings, health-related expenses, and even retirement. That full report is public. It is made available online, so, um, if, if you all are interested, you can take a look. I'd be happy to send it over to you, but we've seen that this has a very positive impact. Georgia just announced that they're going to initiate a similar pilot program, um, and as I mentioned before, other states are considering legislation like this. So this is something that
we've seen a positive impact in um we were excited about it in Utah, which the reason why, you know, I'm here today to share some of our our experience and insights with y'all, so, um, I'll, I'll I'll stop there. Senator Payton, you're
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I missed the name, was it David? Who are you with? Uh, the Libertus
Institute. What, what is that? We are a 501c3 think tank based in Utah, so this was an issue that we've done a lot of research on. OK,
well, and the reason I'm asking is I'm trying to figure out, is it the workers that are asking for this, or is it the vendors
Speaker 65
12:53
that want to sell the product. Um, I think what we've seen in in the,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
12:59
the experience is that this is something the workers are, they're, they're having to trade off the time, their, their flexibility for benefits and so this is merely showing that there is an alternative route and with the program in
Pennsylvania and Utah, we're seeing that workers want this sort of program, this option. I'd just like to add I've been a licensed
auctioneer since I was 18. years old, have worked for multiple companies under contract labor as an auctioneer. And these products have always been available to me. It's not like I needed this program from to go out and buy a life insurance, health insurance, uh, wage loss insurance, you know, all the things that you're talking
about. I, I had the freedom and the choice to to do that. So I, I just don't know that I
understand the demand for this. I'll work on that. Thanks, Senator, if I may, I think that the the
Speaker 34
13:56
concept here is not that people don't have the ability to go out in the market and buy these things. I that we don't dispute that people could go and buy and get an IRA. They can, they can get these accounts. Some of the accounts are harder to get because it's hard to get a bank to let you have an account that other people may be contributing to. The point here is that if you as
an auctioneer had said to the auction house, what I have is a health savings account over here that's tax preferred by the federal government, and I would like you to put some of the compensation that I'm going to get for doing the auction today into this account. As of right now, if they were to do that, both the state of Arkansas, the state of Arkansas. would potentially come to the auction house and say Senator Payton is actually your employee because you put money into his health savings account as part of that agreed compensation package and so despite the fact that you want that for tax
advantage purposes that you would get from it coming directly from them rather than having to pay the payroll taxes on it if it comes to you first, you're no, you're not allowed to do that because the auction house's lawyers would tell them, Don't give Senator Payton these dollars into his health savings account. He's got to do that on his own, and he's going to lose that tax arbitrage and That's the real concept is allowing those businesses, if you had said to them, hey, can we put some of this money in there? They're not allowed to do that under current law without risking the investigation and the determination that you are actually an employee when, as you know, and as the auction
Speaker 33
15:16
house knows, nobody wants this to be an
Senator John Payton
Unverified
15:20
employee employment relationship. It seems like we're just put something in our tax code to correct that, but I
appreciate it. Members, are there any questions? Senator Love, you're recognized. Thank you,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
15:36
Mr. Chair. So let me ask you, did, did
you you mentioned lift, you mentioned a couple of other businesses. Did they come out and speak for this bill in Utah?
Speaker 65
15:49
Um, I, I was not in the specific hearing, so I don't recall if they, they came out and themselves and spoke on behalf of this bill. Did they speak against the
Speaker 79
15:58
bill? I don't, I don't believe that they spoke against the bill. OK. All right, thank you. Just to clarify,
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
16:06
I've had no one since this bill's been filed for a
while. I've had no one reach out with any opposition or quite frankly for for any questions. Members, are there any other
questions? Seeing none. Is there anybody here to speak against this bill. See none. Senator Bo, you have others that wish to speak. No, so we're, we're done and I'm ready
Speaker 64
16:37
to close whenever you want me to what is the will of the committee.
Well I have a motion. Do I have a second? the board. Sir, your bill does not have a second
motion. OK. Yes, sir. Hill or you recognized to do, Senator Hammer. Hey, Senator Hammer. Go ahead and grab a seat. This is you concurrence, yes.
Speaker 87
17:21
He has a con that um that we that we can pass out the concurrence. OK. Sent a hammer, if you will recognize
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
17:44
yourself. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members Committee, Kim Hammer, State Senator District 16. Thank you,
sir. You may continue. Thank you. Actually, I believe this bill has an amendment in it that was attached to it on the House end is coming back by you and the summary of what it does is it puts control in ALC's hand so that if there's any issues dealing with the compact, then thank you. It actually says for the purpose of the member state ability to reject a rule under Section 9D of the dentists and Dental Hygiene Compact, Arkansas delegates its authority in this provision to the General
Assembly or legislative counsel. So it's just an extra buffer that's been added to make sure that when it comes to the dentist hygiene compact that ALC will have the governing authority over any rule change and the intent is we don't want any national compact organization delegating to what you know what we should do with regards to, you know, anything that we feel doesn't align with what we want in the state of Arkansas, so it's a good amendment that was added on the
House in and just puts ALC in the driver's seat, and I'll be glad to answer any questions. Members, do you have any questions for me? And I believe it's Mr. Chairman, I may be wrong, but I think it's in an amendment that needs to be adopted in the committee. Am I correct on the A procedural to we're going to concur with the amendment. is what this is about, I believe. members, do I have a motion? I have a motion.
I have a second. All in favor say aye,
aye. Any polls say nay. See that. that We We there we do concur.
All right, thank you. Do I need to present the bill as amended or that takes care of it. No,
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
19:39
sir. I think you're done. All right, thank you all very much. Appreciate the vote. Thank Senator Hill for stepping in for me and being ready to. Thank you. Senator Payton, sir.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
19:57
You recognized for Senate Bill 285. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee, we have an amendment that we need to consider. If she could pass out the amendment and I'll need a copy of it as well.
Thank you. Some members, we passed this bill out of here. Um, week or 10 days ago. And I've been working. With both sides. I don't have an agreement, but I do have an amendment that makes it more agreeable, if that makes sense to you. Uh, but anyway, it lowers the cap.
From 120 to 100,000 in the amendment it establishes an effective date of January 1st of 2026 because
there had been some concerns that we needed to have a firm, effective date. And then it was kind of an oversight on my part, but the original bill.
Affected permanent partial disability in a way that drove the cost
way up. And so this takes the permanent partial disability back to 75% of the temporary. Total disability. Sorry, I get all the acronyms messed up in my head. So anyway, that's what the amendment does, and I move that we adopt the amendment. Excuse me, members, I have
second autumn paper, say aye, aye. Any opposed? See none.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
22:06
Sir, your amendment is adopted, OK, and I would ask that we consider the bill as amended. And uh Send it back out with a new pass. So these 4. again. begins. against.
Anybody, you know. And sooner, I have people that have signed up to speak against. OK. First of all, is
there anybody that wishes to speak for this bill. See none. By and Mr. Zook, Randy Zook, sir, you were recognized.
Speaker 110
23:12
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you, Mr. Chairman, members Randy Zook, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce. Yes, sir. I'm at a little bit of a loss at this point. We haven't had a chance to take a look at this, um, we'd appreciate the time if it were available or could be made available to give it due consideration. We've got several people here who are Experts in this field I'd like to call them at least one of them to If we could have a short term or
sort of a immediate reaction to the proposal. Uh, I was hoping Carol Worley were in, was in the room, but there's. Can I have Carol
Speaker 113
23:53
Worley come up? Yes, sir. Thank you. that Ma'am, please introduce yourself.
Chair
Unverified
24:10
Carol Worley. I am the current, um, chair of the legislative Committee of the
Speaker 121
24:14
Arkansas Self-insured Association and I'm also speaking on behalf of the Chamber of
Speaker 122
24:21
Commerce today. So, same thing with what I
Chair
Unverified
24:24
had said last week or the week before when we came in, I mean the, the cost on this is going to be very detrimental to the employers in the state of Arkansas. I think Senator Peyton at the last time we came forward had brought up a chart and was telling you about the profits insurance companies make and how much um cushion they have and everything and the thing about it is with me and representing
Self-insured employers that there's no insurance premium, that's their dollar for dollar money. And so any increase for self-insured and I, I emailed um someone at the commission this morning to see if I could get the number, but I there's hundreds of self-insured employers in the state of Arkansas. And every $1 for dollar increase for them is going to be directly out of their pocket. Um, I did, I crunched some numbers, so in the current with the current year using the state average weekly wage which we have used since the beginning of time, I
think, um, the, the, um, current rate for TTD is $903 and based on this increase, it'll be $1,346 per week. That's $400 per week. Probably doesn't sound like a whole lot there, but When, when the, um, when you go through and calculate the permanent disability benefits, which is something they're entitled to once, once they're healed, um, the, the difference in a 10% rating, which is a pretty standard rating in workers' comp is $15,000 per
claim. When you multiply that when we settle claims, rule of thumb is you double the impairment rating. You're going from settling a claim that would be $60,000 to now you're, you're right at $100,000. So those are Substantial substantial numbers. Self-insured employers in the state of Arkansas. Um, I, I, I told, you know, when I came in here the first time, I said that I am more than willing on behalf of Asia and any other employer that I represent to sit down with labor and ATLA and the
Bar Association and the commission and whoever else the parties are, but at this point, what you have that driving force or trial lawyers. The driving force on this is not management, it's not labor. There's been no agreement. There's been no sit down. There's been no effort to get a joint bill, um. And so for that, you know, for all the, I guess, economic reasons. I would say this needs to be delayed and kicked down the road and let us make a genuine effort to change things.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
26:55
Senator Hill, you're recognized sir. OK, you just called my attention with what you just said. You
said that, you know, you'd be willing to reach out, but there's been no contact. To travel or whoever else. Did you try to contact them? They there's a two-way street you I'm saying that is a
Chair
Unverified
27:13
two-way street and yes, there have been negotiations with ALA. Yes, OK, thank you. Yes. Members, are there any other questions of the witness?
See on, ma'am, thank you for your testimony. Sure. Mhm Members of the audience, is there anybody
here that would like to speak for the bill. See none. Is there anyone that would like to speak
against the bill. Go ahead. And sir, just to confirm, you are speaking against the bill.
Speaker 131
27:59
Introduce yourself. Mr. Chairman, thank you. My name is Kurt Kickrum. I am with a company called McGriff Insurance. We're a brokerage house representing employers for a variety of benefits here in support of the chair and if you would pull your mic
a little bit closer. Is it so. Go ahead, sir. Uh,
Speaker 131
28:30
the, the situation that I'm, I guess, bringing to the table is the fact that workers' comp, I really can't tell you much that I know about workers' comp, but I certainly do know about long term care and long term disability insurance, and that really seems to be the product that much of this bill seems to be replicating at the same time, so our our position really is that most companies, 51 of the companies in the state of Arkansas offer a type of long-term care insurance or long
term disability policy that's available for folks, which is probably the most important after medical expenses because it is a wage replacement. Does not cover all of your wages, but it covers a wage replacement component, much of which is a product that's already in place today and not necessarily part of what we think the workers' comp should be. Members, are
there any questions of the witness? Are you here?
Thank you. Are there any questions for the witnesses? See none. Thank you so much. here to speak for or against
the bills. OK, Eddie, anyone else here to speak for or against the bills. See, none, you're recognized then to
close for your bill. Thank you, Madam Chair, colleagues, I'll
Senator John Payton
Unverified
30:06
be short. They brought up the driving force for this, and I am the driving force. I called them. They
didn't call me because as an employer I discovered that any employee that I pay more than $71,000 a year, and I'm paying the premium for those dollars of payroll and I'm not receiving any coverage for it. Uh, the only claims that this will increase. Are those employees that are making more than $71,000 a year and less than 100,000. We're, we're still capping, we're just modifying the cap to
come more into modern pay scales, uh. I understand that. To cover to change an employee that's making $100,000 a year. To a cap of $903 a week to a cap of 1340 whatever it was, calculated it out. But can you imagine the impact of the employee and the family when they go from taking home $2000 a week to taking home 1,346. It's still
Uh, a very conservative way to do it. The amendment that we just adopted. It moves the needle in the direction of those that just testified against it. And it's not moving it enough for them to be satisfied, but I did move it as much as I thought we could reasonably move it. So I'd appreciate a good vote and I move to pass. All right, thank you. Is
there a second, 2nd, uh, is there any discussion? None? OK, all those in favor say
aye and opposed. Um, roll call. Senator Flippo. In a flippo yes.
Speaker 152
32:21
Senator Hill, Senator Hill, yes. Sooner letting. Senator Leadding. Senator Penzo, Senator Penzo, yes. Senator Payton Center Payton. Yes Say no love. Senator Love. Senator Love, yes.
Senator Wallace? Senator Wallace, no. OK, 5
yeses. Congratulations, you've passed your bill as amended. Is that correct? Thank you Madam
Senator John Payton
Unverified
33:11
Chair. Thank you. All right, we're going
to now go to Representative Ladyman. He's had a special order, um. Thank you, Representative Ladyman, you'll
Uh, special this uh special order had been requested for a couple of weeks, and we had it scheduled now for a couple of weeks. So I appreciate, uh, we're trying to get Senate bills heard today, um, but this had been scheduled about 3 weeks ago. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that.
Oh, you do have an amendment? If you'll pass out
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
33:47
that the amendment, I believe, will have to be run later as right now, OK. Yeah, it, it we'll need to
do it now. It's HB 1382. OK,
the amendment just adds Senator Dees as the Senate sponsor, motion to adopt the amendment. And second, all those in favor say aye and opposed, I have it amendment is adopted, uh, please proceed with House Bill 1382 as amended. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um,
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
34:26
members recently the legislative council passed a rule that changed the uh name of the hospital and Medicare study subcommittee of counsel to include the developmental disabilities. Uh, this was done to allow legislators to understand and be more informed of how individuals with disabilities are being served in Arkansas. That was the purpose of doing that. One corporation operation that provides services
to individuals with disabilities in Arkansas is disabilities rights Arkansas. Disabilities rights Arkansas. I'll try to use DRA to shorten the time here is designed as as designated as a protection and advocacy agency for Arkansas. They are an independent nonprofit corporation appointed by Governor David Pryor back in 1980. To comply with the Olmstead Act
that was passed during that time. Uh, they received no state funds directly. They have oversight. Uh From their funders, the people that fund their company. They submit reports to a federal organization and uh other organizations that they receive funds from, uh, these reports could easily be reported to us as a legislative body and
discussed twice a year. Uh. They actually, I think they received, if I'm correct, $2 million of federal funds. Each year. They have no oversight by the state of Arkansas. While they provide services to our most vulnerable citizens. Some people who they serve think they exhibit overreach in some of the areas that they work in. So that's just background on on why I'm running this bill. So
what does this bill do? This bill simply requires disability rights Arkansas to attend our subcommittees or subcommittee meetings of council when requested. And to communicate to the legislature their successes and their challenges. This is a parent's rights bill. That's what this is. Parents and guardians need to be
involved in decisions of their children's lives, even adult children. You're gonna hear from uh parents that feel they have not been involved in some of the decisions that affects their children, adult children, and I think even small children, their lives, so in a nutshell, that's what it is. You, you'll hear a lot of debate about this. There's going to be people speaking for and against it. Uh, but basically this organization
Inspects audits, human development centers, waiver programs, the elderly in some areas they do, they do very well. I don't hear complaints, but I get a lot of, I shouldn't say complaints, I get a lot of input from parents of disabled individuals about not being involved in decisions when the ERA is involved, so that's all this bill does. We want to communicate with them. We want them to come to the legislature and uh and talk to us about what they're. doing, uh, the director in our
uh House committee meeting, said that he would be willing to sit down and talk to anybody at any time. That is all we're asking. Come and talk to us, give us a report, which you already make twice a year and let us be involved and let let the parents have a sounding board to be able to come and talk about the lives of their children. So with that, I'd be happy to take any questions.
Thank you. Are there questions for Representative Layman on the bill. Yes, Senator Love.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
38:33
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for bringing this bill. Representative. I'm just curious, so they, they do not report to the legislature currently, but under this bill they would
who now who are they who do they report to? Who does DRA report to?
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
38:52
They provide reports to the federal agency that they are funded under and they're funders. The answer that I got to that question was they're funders, which include the federal government.
But they don't have any reporting or discussion with anyone at the state level. OK, have you all been
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
39:18
in contact with the funders. In regards to, I guess the issues that that you often or or the I guess the people that you're bringing on behalf, have
Speaker 171
39:27
you, have they been in contact with the funders. Have I been in
Speaker 174
39:33
contact with them or you know, I have not, uh, Representative Womack, District
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
39:41
3, has discussed this at the federal level. I'm not contacted him directly. I've watched committee meetings where he brought the same subject up. So I have not talked to him directly. OK. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Senator Payton, did
you have a question? Oh, no, OK, sorry, I thought you were
reaching for your button. Um, OK, I just have one quick question and um,
On page 2, just give me your reasoning for including lines 12 through 15 on the Freedom of Information Act applying to disability rights of Arkansas, um, You know, understanding they are
a nonprofit organization and so some of the concerns that I have heard specifically about this bill is from just that section, um, is opening up a nonprofit to FOIA, uh, and so I'm just going to give you a chance to
address that concern or explain that.
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
40:46
Well, uh, that was not in the original bill. We
added that during the discussion process and Me and some others just felt like because, because they are actually going onto state facilities, you know, they're they're looking at Arkansas citizens. This is a unique nonprofit organization, not like any other, uh, because it's, it's our employees, our state employees that they're going to
audit, inspect, look at. And again, let me just say we, we need them and we need this process, but it needs to be an improved process where Everyone is involved, including parents. Uh, so I believe that's why we added that in there is if someone, a parent say, wants to know something about what this organization is doing with their child involved. They, they need to be able to get that information, and the argument I've heard or the discussion is that well if we do
this every other nonprofit would be required to do this. I think that's a what if. I don't believe that's the case because this organization is unique. But if that becomes the case, I think that would be discussed on an individual organization basis, there actually may be other nonprofits similar to this that we as a legislative body, need to communicate with. So I, you know, I think it might be that that's
why it's in there. I hope I answered your question. Yes, sir. Thank you so
much. All right, any other questions from members of the
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
42:21
committee on the bill from for representative lady men. OK, no. All right, thank you. Uh, we will now go to the people that are here to speak. For and against, uh, we'll start with Julia Frost or, is that correct? OK, if you'll just state your name for the record, you'll be recognized to speak. Thank you, Madam Chair. My name
Speaker 188
42:44
is Julia Frost. My husband John Frost and I are
residents of Clarksville, Arkansas. We are the parents and guardians of Stephanie, age 47, who functions on the level of a preschooler. We adopted Stephanie through DHS when she was 4.5 years old. When she was in high school, she became quite aggressive toward me. We then began attempting to find the right placement for her. We went through almost every community-based organization in
the state. The final one was Arkansas Support Network where she lived in a duplex in Springdale with a roommate and 24 hour supervision. Stephanie ran away frequently from this setting, especially in late 2005 and early 2006. The final time she was missing for 3 days and was finally found in Fayetteville, covered in excrement with a new tattoo and
stating that she had had sex and used drugs and alcohol. At that time, she was imprisoned in the Washington County jail for a month just simply for her safety until she could be admitted to the Southeast Arkansas Human Development Center. In April 2007, her unit was moved to the Boonville Human Development Center from late 2011 until 2014, Stephanie began to have many psychotic episodes. She was sent to the state
hospital. been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Typical medications did not seem to work for her and her behavior we can't get more and more out of control and began to include suicidal ideations as a result, it was frequently necessary to restrain her for her safety and the safety of those around her. Each time this happened, we were notified with a phone call and
written documentation. We knew exactly what was happening and why. I felt so much comfort in knowing where she was and that the staff of BHTC cared about my child and we're working to help her. This situation was so much better than her being lost on the streets of Northwest Arkansas and ending up in jail. In my career as a school psychologist, I worked with many students with disabilities and fully understand at least
restrictive environment. I'm convinced that a human development center, an HTC is the least restrictive environment for our daughter. She is not safe when served in the community. I recall the shock I felt in 2014 when disability rights Arkansas, DRA, the organization charged with being the protection and advocacy system for Arkansas citizens with disabilities contacted us to
explain that they had been reviewing Stephanie's case without our knowledge and found that she had been restrained too many times. I learned a few weeks later through a Democrat Gazette article that DRA recommended shutting down the Boonville Human Development Center because the facility's physical condition and the quote inordinate a number of patient restraint instances. I couldn't imagine the community-based program was never investigated by DRA during Stephanie's
various elopements when she was in extreme danger. But BHDC was investigated and closure threatened. When they were doing their best to help Stephanie and working closely with our family throughout the process. In late October of 2024, I received a letter from DRA that they are continuing to monitor the HTCs and they can speak to any of the residents when they are on the campus without any expressions of concern by their guardians.
That's quite concerning for me since my husband and I are Stephanie's guardians because she lacks the cognitive ability to make decisions that are in her best interest. It is unacceptable for DRA to use her as an example of inappropriate treatment without even talking to my husband and me, her legal guardians. Do your staff advocate for community-based placement for all individuals with disabilities. In the experience with our daughter and experience
of all of us involved in families and friends of care facility residents, community-based placement is not appropriate for all individuals with disabilities. If our daughter could live in the community, that's where she would be. I am so thankful that Stephanie continues to receive care through an HTC. She was moved to the Conway HDC in September of 2017 because she needed more medical intervention.
We have been very pleased with her care there. I urge you to support House Bill 1382 that requires DRA to report to the hospital, Medicaid and Developmental Disability Studies subcommittee of the Legislative council twice a year. In the House committee meeting on February 11th, the executive director of DRA stated that he submitted reports to the state annually, but that nothing was ever done. It would seem to me that he would be pleased to
report to this subcommittee since they would have the authority to provide support to address any concerns that DRA found. Currently no one in the state level uh oversees DRA. Which is a big concern for me and others with children in the human development centers. Since these reports are already being prepared by DRA. No additional time would be taken from their already busy schedules of
advocating for so many with disabilities in our state. DRA has raised several issues to try and encourage the legislators to vote against House Bill 1382. We have already heard about one of those. The second one is that they will um be forced to tell the names of individuals, um, personal and provide personal information to the legislator, which is illegal. This bill is not at all asking them to relinquish personal information
about clients under the care of any other institutions that they investigate. Our families are calling for legislator, legislation, sorry, that would ensure that Arkansas's federally mandated protection and advocacy system is held accountable and that it's a work supports a full spectrum of care options, including the HTCs to meet the diverse needs of Arkansas citizens with disabilities. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your testimony. Are there any questions from members of the committee? All right, thank you
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
50:11
so much for being here and for sharing your story. Um, now we will go to someone against, um, Thomas Nichols.
And I, I would, I would also
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
50:26
say, we want to hear everybody's testimonies, and we want to
hear everyone's stories. Um, however, we do have a very, very long agenda, so I'm going to try to
say keep your comments, um. As short as you possibly can as to why you want the bill to pass or why you're against the bill. Um, I
Uh, state your name for the record and
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
50:52
you may proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is Thomas Nichols, and I'm the director of legal and advocacy services at disability rights Arkansas, and I have with me today Reagan Stanford, who is our managing attorney for our
abuse and neglect work. Um, I'm going to not give you an overview of our organization. I think that was done fairly well. There are 7 organizations like ours around the nation, most of whom are completely private and provide representation and advocacy for individuals with disabilities. I'm sorry. Um, I appreciate it, um. We represent people.
Right, we provide private representation to individuals with disabilities and their families to do things like access Medicaid, access special education, remove barriers to work. We also are charged under federal law to investigate abuse and neglect and to monitor for human rights violations in all settings where people with disabilities live or receive services. Um, if this bill as Representative Leman said,
It was solely to require us to provide the reports that we annually provide to our federal funders and to meet with the subcommittee twice a year, we would be happy if that's what the bill said. We would not oppose it if it required us to provide our reports to our federal funders and meet with the committee twice a year, but this bill goes so far beyond that that we have to speak out against it and would have loved an opportunity to talk. an amendment prior to today.
Um, like I said, we represent people, not organizations or governments, any of you who have had to retain an attorney know the importance of having a private attorney-client relationship. And the needs that exist for privacy in those communications and because we represent people sometimes who are going through very, very difficult things in their lives, uh, that privilege of our communications, of our notes, of our work product is very important. And under FOIA, attorney-client privilege just
does not exist. Our Supreme Court has been fairly clear that if you are receiving public funds, state funds, or you're doing the work of the government. As a private contractor, then you, uh, you do not have the benefit of attorney-client privilege under FOIA, right? That's very clear. And so what this would do is this would completely impair our ability to provide adequate representation to the individuals and their families that we serve because we could not guarantee the
privacy of those documents. Legislature has spent years going through FOA and carving out exceptions when there are um things that are particularly of a sensitive nature, things like maltreatment records. Those are things that we receive, and yes, they will still be protected, but not our notes about those maltreatment records, not our communications about those maltreatment records, so I believe that this is a haphazard way that is that
that will not only cost us time and resources but will impair our ability to actually represent individuals I'm gonna let Reagan talk about the abuse and neglect work that she's doing and how this will impact that specific area. I think it spoke to that song, but we
Speaker 204
54:40
are particularly concerned about some of the abuse and neglect work
Speaker 206
54:43
that we do in one moment, state your name for the record, uh, and then who you're with. I'm Reagan Stanford. I'm the
abuse and neglect managing attorney for disability rights Arkansas. So we are particularly concerned about the FOIA provision and how that would affect our abuse and neglect investigations. We receive
Speaker 207
55:02
highly sensitive information like Thomas said, we received um direct allegations of maltreatment, things that the State, the legislator has deemed should be protected even with our expansive Foa law when they are reported to the state, but because our FOIA law does not envision an agency like ours being subject to FOIA, we are
not a part of those exemptions, so even if ultimately it were decided that our notes are um other documents related to those records, um, were protected. It would take litigation as the bill is currently drafted that it would take litigation for us to determine that, which would expend a lot of resources. um, from our agency, um, and abuse and neglect is is one of the major things that we do. We do all kinds of things to advocate, like Thomas said, for people, individuals with disabilities, but the reasons
that the protection advocacy agencies were initially established was to safeguard people that were in large institutions, um, as a secondary oversight mechanism that is independent from the state, that is why the protection and advocacy agencies were created, um, so. Like impinging on that um function that is supposed to be independent of the state and Possibly making these records that would identify um reporters of abuse, um, which a lot of
times might be employees, could be anyone, um, victims and even perpetrators of abuse, things that otherwise would be protected. We have a lot of concerns about, um, and then also there's the time and effort generally, not just with FOIA, that would be a giant expense. The state is set up to, um, they know that they are subject to FOIA and they are set up to do that. Um, they have dedicated staff that review things. conduct things. They have attorneys on staff um that look at those and verify them and attorneys that can defend them
if there are things that come up about Foya, we do not have that. Um, so if you, I know someone said earlier they run a business, if you've ever been a part of a nonprofit or run a business, um, starting from zero, not being subject to something like this and having to rework, you know, rework everything to now see how you could and dedicate that staff to be looking at providing the information, um, Not just to the foyer for whatever might be requested under FOIA, but this also says that the subcommittee could
request anything of us at any time. Uh, so like, without knowing what that could be, we can't even really allocate our resources of our, you know, of our staff and figure out um what it's definitely going to take from something. Um, it's definitely gonna take resources that we currently are dedicating to advocacy for individuals with disabilities, um, but we don't even have a way to plan currently. For how much that will take and what that will look like. You know, our go ahead. Can I ask you a
question? How often do you submit FOIA requests to the government. Um, I mean we we submit
Speaker 207
58:02
FOIA requests pretty regularly to, to the, to the department. I will say most of the things we are in communication with the things that my department, right, OK, so how many Off the top
of your head, how many times a week do you, are you submitting FOIA requests a week. Maybe uh, probably not even
Speaker 207
58:24
once. I think I have heard people say that we have submitted 70 or 100 in a week, and that's not true. Um, we also, we have authority because we are the protection and advocacy agency. We have authority to access records not through FOIA, um, but through our authority as the protection and advocacy agency, um, and so sometimes it is necessary that we request records through that authority, um, and so I think that that might be something that um is being confused first. some people, and the FOIA requests that we do generally
are revolving FOIA requests that the like it's usually DHS they're aware, they know that we're looking into those things and it's something that's
yeah, I understand, but I mean you're saying that y'all don't have, I mean the taxpayers, that's the tax dollars are resources too, and so a lot of tax dollars, resources are tied up in FOIA requests and responses, which are incredibly, you know, which is very frequent and regular with your organization, that's a fair statement
to say, correct? Sure, I would say, yeah, we request a
Speaker 207
59:27
lot of records. I'll say some of them like we created a database for the psychiatric residential treatment facility, so we have to submit FOIA requests to the state to get those records to then, you know, put into the database so that the public can have them. So it's our position that the state could should be, you know, like those should be made public, um, so then we wouldn't have to be spinning those FOIA requests if they were already being
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
59:51
made public. OK. Question if it's OK. Thank you. Um, our federal funders are even
puzzled as when presented with this bill as to if we would even be able to use our program funds to comply with, uh, or to combat a FOIA request that conflicts with federal law and federal regulation. But,
but like. The federal the Is there not foy on federal There
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
1:00:20
is federal FOIA, yes, it does not apply to grant funded organizations like ours. And
in creating our organizations, there are some protections that exist and the laws or in the statutes, but those do not the laws and the regulations as they exist do not go to the lengths of this bill, and I would say no other entity like ours in the nation is subject to FOIA in the same way that this bill would require us to be subject to FOIA. The two states In which uh in which this bill
was somewhat modeled after Ohio and North Carolina, Ohio just established a committee. It didn't require ongoing reporting or subject their state to FOIA and in North Carolina, it required just a report and encourage them to host public meetings, public forums for the public 6 times a year, and they are expressly removed from FOIA, so this will be a first of our organization.
It's not something that's been contemplated by our federal funders and so we do not even know if we would be able to comply with it in the first place, which is why a conversation about this is appreciated. Um, providing information to the committee, you all as a body know that if you want the law to say something, it should say what you want it to do. Um, this bill does far more than that, and like I said, if if Representative Ladyman, if If we really wanted this bill to
achieve that, we are providing our annual program performance reports. The reports from our annual independent audit, uh, and To come to the legislature and speak twice a year. We're fully in support of that. This bill not only does more than that, but it accepts it would require us to then redact from those federal reports anything having anything to do with our institutional work. It's just solely a requirement to report
about our work in the community, which I I frankly do not understand the motivation for that. Um It also extends to any other requests that the legislature might have that we would have to fill, right? Any information that is requested by the legislative subcommittee that acts as an unfettered ability of any subcommittee member to request as excessive information as they want to and
does not permit us to oppose that or even discuss it, we would just have to submit it on Um, upon request. So And we like the opportunity to discuss our work. We'd like to have a forum. We love a forum. Lawyers love to talk, right? Um This bill would not be achieving that. It goes so much farther than that, and it, and instead it would exclude our discussion of the work in the facilities
and create unreasonable and unfunded burdens on our ability to assist the people we serve for those reasons, we would ask you to vote against this bill, and I thank you for your time and I'd be happy to answer any questions the committee has. Thank
you, Senator Love. You're recognized for a question. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:03:54
Now help me understand this, so. Well, well, I really wanted you
all to really go over what you, what you actually do is because
the, the testimony before you and I know you all were in the room when you heard. Um You did an investigation on this
person's child. Why is it that you did not contact the that family, is there any particular reason why you would not have. There's no particular like
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
1:04:28
she should have been contacted and and I understand that she was in per her testimony. No, no, no, no, no.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:04:39
What I'm asking is when you were when you allsought the investigation. That is, that is. Part of the
investigation not to contact the family to let them to inform them. I was, yeah, here's what I'm saying I'm just trying to understand the process, so don't get defensive. I'm just trying to understand what is it that you are actually are doing and I'm not sure so I can't I wasn't there in 2014, so I can't speak to
Speaker 204
1:05:03
specifically, you know, what happens in that case. I think
Speaker 207
1:05:10
she was contacted, but we do so as part of our investigation, so as the team like when we go out, if we monitor or if we're investigating something. Um, certainly if we are going to be looking into something or um requesting records related to um an or or wanting to request records related to an individual to investigate something, we do reach out um to the Guardians, so you do reach out to the, OK, I thought this
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:05:30
was just OK, so you do reach out to the Guardians, you let them know we do contact the guardians, and I think she also mentioned that
Speaker 207
1:05:36
we had sent out a letter last year, so that's what we um part of we
are supposed to notify guardians just generally that like who we are that we exist, that we on, you know, on the campus where their loved one is, um, to monitor because that is a part of what we are mandated to do and we have traditionally relied on the state. They have um been reluctant to give us guardian information, so that's something we've been, we've been in conversations with the state about, um, and recently got the guardian information for one of the HTCs so that we could send out those letters ourselves to make sure that guardians were
aware of who we are, not, we don't notify, you know, each time we go out, but that this is who we are that we might be on campus that we might monitor that we might come into
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:06:24
contact with your loved one. OK, so this, the state is reluctant to give you information regarding guardianship information. They
Speaker 207
1:06:31
have, they have been in the past. They did give us all the guardian information for that that HTC this last time that we asked, but prior, they, yes, they, they had been reluctant to give us guardian information.
Speaker 214
1:06:44
They had chosen instead to notify them. themselves. OK.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:06:48
So, do you all work alongside the state? I mean, I guess you, you're, you're investigating their institutions, but I mean what is a work relationship like between, I guess it's you and DHS DHS and we do do so like this and I
Speaker 228
1:07:05
know that the Guardians here I think are mostly associated with the, the
Speaker 207
1:07:09
state-run facilities, but I mean we also monitor and investigate private facilities as well, um,
probably more of our work, actually more of our work is done in private facilities, um, so it's not just the state of course we are still are in contact with DHS about those about because really it is, you know, it's the state's job to provide oversight of these facilities and to ensure that they are free of abuse and neglect. Um, so we are just a secondary um where we can highlight issues that maybe the state is, you know, like, um, the state's not overfunded and doesn't have too many people that are doing these kinds of things, so sometimes maybe they're too busy or getting caught up in all that, um, so we
can see something or notice a pattern that maybe as they're going along, they haven't seen um and work with them. ways like that to help make sure that people are safer. I mean, because at the end of the day, that's what we want like we, I honestly um never expected working in this position um to be seen as the enemy or someone that is opposed to guardians or individuals with disabilities, like we want people to be safe wherever they are. That's it. OK, and
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:08:11
then I guess my final question is, is
When you talk to your funders. When they and and I guess here's the thing, before your piece in this bill. What specifically is your objection to the like. The information that
is provided because I'm I'm starting, I'm looking through this. I'm like, alright, is this HIPA information? Is it what type of information are you all really specifically concerned about coming out. As it relates to the foyer piece
Speaker 236
1:08:48
and you're I guess you're investigations. Well, with regard to
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
1:08:57
the investigations, it would be It we receive. Lots of complaints through our intake database, right? Those complaints are sometimes very, very specific, uh, about individuals, the facilities, the events that occurred, they're not always anonymous. Sometimes they are, right? And
so an individual by chance in an HTC, uh, who is named in that they live there either the perpetrator or the The victim that is private information that the state would not be required to disclose but if we're subject to FOIA, That information is going to be available to be published in the newspaper, right? And it goes beyond that, right? The, the attorney-client relationships that I, that I discussed. We produce a lot of work product in
representing individuals, right? People who are trying to get access to Medicaid services who were trying to get access to education who are at odds with uh Social Security who are going through an EEOC complaint, right? So we, we provide representation to those folks, and we communicate with them in writing, uh, we have Our own work product that we're doing when we assist them in that legal relation that private legal relationship, and now, uh, somebody who's on the other side. We get access to all of
our writings and communications that we're using in preparation to represent our client and like I said, if any of you have had an attorney you recognize the importance of that relationship being private. Come on, can I
Speaker 207
1:10:35
start real fast. I would say like for example, like for the investigation, sometimes people will report things to multiple agencies or even if they did just report to us, but say someone reported alleged child abuse or abuse to adult protective services even that's protected, so if they reported the same thing to them and to
us, that is protected the file of the investigation is completely contained into what would be protected under the FOIA law as reported to the state, but it is not clear that that would reply to us also, um, even though it's the exact same. Thing that the legislator has decided that that should not be released to the public, um, the information in that
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
1:11:13
report and from the cost perspective, some of our grants aren't even enough to fund one full-time person, right? And so if a FOIA request comes in under that grant, um, and requires significant
collection redaction to comply or would require us to litigate whether or not something is subject to FOIA, that would completely erase our ability to represent anybody under that grant. Our TBI grant, for example, we don't get enough to fund one full-time person. Uh, so if it is a TBI issue that will impair that grant and require us to litigate in order to protect our clients' information or to protect information that we're required to have to do with abuse or neglect. That would zap those funds for
the rest of the year. We wouldn't be able to help anybody under our TBI grant, um, so the legislature in recognition of the cost of FOIA allocates money for that, right? That's in the state's budget. How are we going to comply with FOIA? Our federal funders aren't going to give us more money. That takes an act of Congress, right? There's no other, no other state that this has happened to, so it is not part of their budgetary analysis.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:12:29
Thank you. Peyton. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, uh, I think we're pretty clear on the fact that y'all are nonprofit status. You get federal funding when you do these lawsuits for, you know, the disability rights for the
patients, um, do you get any compensation from the lawsuit?
Speaker 236
1:13:07
OK. The only time we can recover attorneys' fees as
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
1:13:11
if the law provides it. We can do that in special education cases in most circumstances we reduce our waive attorneys' fees in order to ensure that the school district is providing more than they ought to for the child, so we have that ability to be able
to use that as part of the negotiation process. We don't get anything back for Medicaid cases. Right, and that, and so when you've
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:13:40
got an HDC and, and, you know, there's several residents and you bring your class action lawsuit against that HDC. Is there a monetary settlement? Do you get to
keep attorney fees on that? I I've never
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
1:13:53
handled a class action of uh against an HDC. I don't know under what law that would be, um, but, uh, no,
I, I. Without knowing the circumstances, I don't know if we'd be entitled to attorneys' fees, but that's certainly a class
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:14:08
action y'all don't bring suit against and maybe not class action, maybe that is the wrong
word, but y'all don't bring suit against the HDCs when you find abuse and neglect and report our
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
1:14:19
findings to the state and try to encourage them as much as we can to exercise more oversight in their investigations. We really
want them to do a bang up job of investigating themselves so that we, so that
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:14:36
we don't have to focus on
that work, right? Because if, if I'm just sorry, I mean when you talk about attorney-client privilege, I assumed there was a lawsuit involved where you were representing a client in
Thomas Nichols
Unverified
1:14:50
a suit that applies to Medicaid cases to special education cases in which we are actually exercising an attorney-client relationship. When it comes to investigations, they're not always our client. Rarely, rarely are they actually
our client. U uh, it, it is not necessarily because we have advocates and investigators, right? Reagan oversees the work as an attorney because of the importance of that. Uh, however, the people who are going in and investigating are in large part advocates or investigators. So no, we, we don't go into the human development centersin up lawsuits, sue them and get attorneys' fees for it. Um, that's.
Speaker 207
1:15:35
And I guess just to speak. But um, With everything that this requires, it's also not going to change anything, um, and it's not going to, it is, it does seem like some of these guardians that are going to speak today, um, were failed by the system, um, and maybe needed more supports, um, but it, that's the state, that's not like that's not us and no matter how much we have to report or how much we're, how many resources we have to expend on
going to meetings or reporting things, that's not going to change the, any of their situations, um. We are still going to have to do our job and what we are doing, um, and all this is going to do is take away from resources where we could be expanding what we do and looking at additional, um, placements. Members, are there any additional questions of the witnesses.
Speaker 168
1:16:42
See none. Thank you for your testimony. He someone for
the car. Members I'm sorry, audience, Mr. Mrs. Carroll Sherman. You're welcome
to come up and introduce yourself and I understand you're speaking for the bill.
Speaker 252
1:17:17
Chairman Wallace, members of the committee. I'm Carol Sherman. The mother and guardian of John. My son is 56. He's nonverbal and he functions on the level of a young toddler. John's care is beyond my capabilities and for many years his safe home has been the Arkadelphia HDC. And prior to that for many years, 8 years, we received our
family received respite care from the Conway HDC. I'm so grateful for the HDC system, what it's meant to our son, to our family, and to countless Arkansans and to their families. And I'm grateful to the legislature and to governors for supporting a human service system that provides the option of HGC care. I speak today in favor of HB 1382.
It passed the bill would provide legislative oversight to a federally funded nonprofit organization which operates as the state's required protection and advocacy system or P&A. The P&A system is one of 4 programs created by Congress in the developmental disability assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 1975. And it was last reauthorized in
the year 2000 for only 7 years, and yet all this time there has been no congressional hearings about the bill. Under the DD Act, the PNAs are mandated federal programs and they operate in every state. I'm especially familiar with the Arkansas PNA program because of the many years I worked in my husband's law office. My late husband Bill Sherman
practiced law in Little Rock over 53 years and I'm familiar with the system of P&A's nationally because of my years as a volunteer advocate. Working with others in support of individuals like my son who are unaware of danger and unable to care for themselves. My husband and my introduction to the use of class action litigation to force changes to
the state's human service policies began in 1991. When Bill represented the statewide parent guardian organization by intervening in a class action lawsuit filed by an advocate advocacy group to close the Arkansas centers. At that time, the Arkansas P&A was called advocacy Services Inc. It's had 4 names since I've been aware of it. The parent group aligned with
the state, the PNA uh aligned with the plaintiff and to our family's enormous relief, the federal judge decertified the class and dismissed the case. 10 years later in May of 2003, the Arkansas P&A, which by then had changed its name to Disability Rights Center or DRC. filed a class action lawsuit against the state using a
resident of the Conway HDC who had a guardian without notice to the guardian or consent. The suit challenged challenged the admissions and discharge policies of the HDCs. My husband intervened in the case representing the parent association and aligned with the state. After that plaintiff died the following year. The Arkansas PNA sought to substitute 3 other plaintiffs in
the case. These also were residents of HDCs who had legal guardians, and they did not consult or uh their guardians before bringing a legal action in their disabled ward's name. The judge dismissed the case. The PNA brought a third lawsuit this time not seeking class action status, but still using two of the three named plaintiffs in the
suit. Again, my husband represented the parents association intervened in the case and aligned with the state. After the judge's decision, the Arkansas PNA appealed the case to the 8th Circuit Court and my husband cross appealed, the court affirmed the lower court's ruling. May I just say here how frustrating. How lack of common sense. How wasteful it is for one
federal program in this case, the PNAs, which are funded through the federal Department of Health and Human Services to sue another federally funded program, our HDCs are finance primarily through The Department of Health and Human Services of the federal government. Class action litigation or the threat of litigation has been
the driver of the elimination of long-term care facilities in 14C work programs nationwide and the nation's human service system is weaker because of it. It might be surprising to this committee that HTC families would challenge the work of an organization which on its face is supposed to protect and advocate for individuals unable to care for themselves.
Speaker 251
1:23:35
HDC family support all fair and impartial oversight activities at the HTCs. We object
Speaker 252
1:23:42
that the PNA has access to HDC residents without oversight. Arkansas P&A is a partisan organization which has sued the state multiple times over policy issues, and it has not recognized the role of the guardian. It uses the media to undermine
public support for the HDCs. It has testified against adequate funding for the HDCs before legislative panels and it aligns itself with national organizations. which seek to eliminate congregate care programs. DRA does not support the option of congregate care. Its executive director said at a public meeting in May 2023 that his vision for
The HDCs is that in 10 years they would cease to exist. My son's annual individual program plan review annually. I have affirmed the document our family placed in his file many years ago that no one from the Arkansas P&A may visit John without notice to me. Or without my being present. The PNAs and other DDA programs receive annual federal grants
from the US Department of Health and Human Services that federal department is so remote and it has been unresponsive to our complaints about the programs. Other Arkansas nonprofit organizations are not federally funded. They're not operating under a federal statute that provides no oversight. Therefore, other Arkansas nonprofits would not be affected by this spill. I ask respectfully for your
Speaker 251
1:25:42
support for HB 1382. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thank
you, ma'am. Members, are there any questions? Senator Payton. A pardon. Thank
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:25:54
you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make sure I, I
understand this right. And I may use arcade I may use some terminology that's insulting or something, and I, I'm sorry, I don't know what words to use, but somebody that's been declared or established as incompetent through a court and they, and
they have a guardianship. And, and we have a third party coming in and signing them up for legal representation without the guardian's knowledge or permission in those three cases in Arkansas
Speaker 252
1:26:24
that happened. I don't see how that can happen, but I
Speaker 146
1:26:28
believe you. Thanks. Members, or are there any other
questions for the witness? Ma'am, thank you for your testimony.
Audience, is there anyone else to speak against the bill? Please
Speaker 83
1:26:53
Yeah. I. If you will identify yourself. Thank you, Mr.
Sayer Evans
Unverified
1:27:04
Chair and committee. My name is Doctor Sayer Evans. I'm the CEO at Arkansas Support Network and the president of the Arkansas Waiver
Association and I appreciate the opportunity today. I know it's been lengthy discussion and still some to come, and I want to be brief, but I'm here today to be able to reinforce, um, Arkansas Support Network's position, Arkansas Waiver Association's position, um, and the value and importance of the work of DRA and also to provide a little bit of clarification around the bill, our concerns on the bill and the opposition to DRA's work. You've heard a lot of testimony about
um DRA as a threat to HDCs and the rights of guardians who who support folks with disabilities in HDCs, um, the bill actually looks at an oversight of DRA in a way that is alarming and concerning honestly for anyone that's responsible for nonprofit organizations, um. So or I'm speaking against that, that was the question.
Did I, did I misunderstand that? Is that me? Is that OK? OK, uh, to be very clear, uh, we, I, I'm speaking against this bill, um, as a disability service provider. I'm a home and community-based disability service provider. We support all across the state of Arkansas. We were mentioned by one of the, the previous, uh, individuals to provide testimony as someone who often provides support to individuals with really complex
support needs, and we are a community-based provider. We do our absolute best. With the resources that we have to support folks in their communities when that is the decision that they make and the choice that they make. Um, DRA is an organization that provides oversight for abuse protections for disabled Arkansans and as such we as a community based provider, a home and community-based provider. We receive oversight and monitoring
from DRA. There's been testimony provided today. And previously that DRA is not active and involved in home and community-based settings as a support provider DRA represents individuals that receive services from us in advocacy conversations. They also have been instrumental in the rights protections of Medicaid service for recipients as we have transitioned to pass and managed care services on the home and
side. DRA worked beginning in 2018 and continues to do so to ensure that the managed care decisions that are made do not negatively influence eligibility, access, authorization and approval to services and home and community-based services. One of the topics of conversation that comes up a lot is about the monitoring aspect of DRA and how that is not present in home and community based. services, um, individuals with
disabilities, with intellectual disabilities specifically experience abuse and neglect at a rate 7 times increase from the general population and often as some studies indicate as much as 98% of that abuse and neglect comes directly from paid caregivers, family caregivers, natural support systems. The federal law that mandates DRA's work. It specifies their focus and
attention on that oversight and protection and advocacy for avoiding abuse in the human development centers. It is a part of the support options that are utilized to support people with complex behavioral support needs are mechanical restraints, chemical restraints, and physical restraints. That is the primary data point that D is monitoring in those settings and those reports, the letters
that have been mentioned that is the focus of abuse protection and prevention, community-based providers are not by regulation, are not allowed to utilize chemical restraints, mechanical restraints, and physical restraints. So the the the suggestion that there's a different perspective or bias has to do with the nature of services that are provided. Our concern With access to Medicaid, Medicaid eligibility, people
with disabilities not being able to get the supports that they need in the environments they choose, whatever environment that is, DRA is instrumental in helping to advocate for and protect people's rights in that work and the nature of this bill and the way that it is laid out and the administrative burdens that would come from the requirements of complying with FOIA regulations. will cause those vital services to be limited restricted, and, and there's a real threat that
it would prevent DRA from being able to operate in the work that they do as a disability service provider who is monitored by DRA who, the people that we support are advocated for by DRA we embrace their role in supporting the entire process of ensuring people with disabilities who have a far greater likelihood of experience. abuse, experience advocacy for rights protections around that. I would also say that the the
bill sponsor uh indicated earlier that this bill could be conceptualized as a parent's rights bill, um, and I think that's a, that's a good um description for it. Our concern is that in the disability services system, parent advocacy is very much a prominent component and that the department of developmental disability services has an oversight governing board that consists of parent advocates, parent advocates directly
connected to the human development centers. There is not a counterpart on the community-based side that looks at advocacy protection for disabled people and DRA they do not, I do not want to suggest that their influence or their ability to do the oversight and work and and advocacy at a state level is. Comparable to the DDS board, but they do serve a very valuable purpose in ensuring that
disabled Arkansans have advocacy for their rights protections. Specifically around treatment. Avenues that involve mechanical restraints, chemical restraints, and physical restraints as a part of that treatment. DRA's role is is to ensure that there is someone that is available for the oversight and advocacy of that and to make themselves available for the legal representation of people who
invite them to do that work and those are valuable pieces of the entire disability services puzzle. That we support and, and we ask a vote against this bill because of the threat that it has to limit their ability to do that important work. I appreciate the time and I would answer any questions that I might be able to. Members, are there any questions of the witness. See none, ma'am. Thank you for
your testimony. Audience, is there anyone else that
would like to speak against this bill. OK, I'll come back to you. Not, not yet. OK, speaking for the bill. Ms. Katrina Robertson.
Speaker 272
1:35:37
Hello, um, I'm Katrina Robertson, and a resident of Garland County and I am Noah's mother and guardian. He's 22 years old. He resides at the Boonville Human Development Center. It functions at a preschool level. I'm getting ready to completely ditch my testimony here. I, because I'm really um confused by this, uh, talk about them not currently being subject to FOIA, I was kind of even confused as to why that was added. I think it's because they've
been completely uncooperative at um providing information. I myself made a simple FOIA request asking how many FOYO requests they were making in that request was denied, but I am on this, I am on the USDA.gov website that discusses who's subject to FOIA, and it says that, um, FOIA applies to data collected by institutions of higher education, hospitals, and nonprofits who receive grants
provided by the federal government. So I'm not real sure why this is a concern, and then there was brought up about client attorney privilege and when you go to the justice.gov website. There's a whole article about um whether client attorney privilege is protected against FOIA and it says that it is at the conclusion says it is important to remember that the attorney Giant privilege is applied under
Exemption 5 of FOIA does apply, it says as defined by the supreme Court, the privilege protects all confidential communications and those containing purely factual information or information generally known to third parties. It says, um, this is a privilege that is protected, so I'm not, I, I don't really even, they should already be. subject to FOIA. They receive federal funds. If they wanted to get rid of their federal funds and only rely on private
donations, then they wouldn't be subject to FOIA. So, um, there are other individuals that, that still want to speak, and I'll summarize mine in that we adopted our son when he was 9 years old, fully aware of his uh complex needs and intellectual disabilities, but we were completely confident that we would be able to meet his needs in a community setting based um on care providers provided. by waiver, it's an amazing program and it works for the majority of individuals with disabilities. Unfortunately for
us, it ended in a nightmare of a situation. He became a danger to himself and others, uh, and eventually he was uh fired from every community home-based provider in the state due to their inability to meet his needs and the liability and risk that he posed. He ended up in homeless shelters on the floor of the ER. heavily sedated for 45 days and eventually in jail before we could get the attention and him
placed where he currently is and where he currently thrives and as the individual before stated a lot of the problem is that, um, the DRA will focus on restraints that are used. Unfortunately, um, that is one of the reasons why community placement does not work for a lot of these individuals is in a perfect world. Obviously, we would not want to use mechanical or chemical restraints on an individual, but when we refuse to look at
reality, we end up causing harm. Some of these individuals for the safety of themselves and others must be restrained. My son is one of them, and that is not an option in the community, but I'm very thankful that it is an option in the HTCs and because he has to be restrained does not mean he's being abused. He's being protected, and So I'm going to skip then to the very short testimony from a couple who could not be here as they were having a medical
procedure done, um, uh, and I'm going to read it. We are Steve and Susan Wilson,
residents of Lone Oak County. I'm sorry. I appreciate your testimony. You're not allowed
Speaker 272
1:39:58
to read testimony, OK, I'm sorry. Well then, I, I will just, I will just say that there was a, a family that just last year, their daughter was put in restraints, DRA came in late at night, went into her room, took pictures, um, and then contacted the family, so they were
contacted after the fact of them, um, Going into their daughter's private residence and taking pictures of her, wanting to know why she was in restraints. This individual has complex behaviors and has severe self-harm behaviors. The, the family had agreed to soft restraints for her to keep her safe, um, she had a pretty significant injury she had already caused herself, um, but then you have again a
third party coming in and trying to say something is abuse, um. When it is not in this family expressed their extreme stress that this organization has caused them by their interference. So they asked, so you know, I'll just wrap up by saying that, you know, as a guardian and of an individual who cannot self-advocate. I would seek your assistance and vote in favor of this bill. Thank you so much for your testimony. Any questions from
members of the committee, Senator Hill, you recognize her question. I'm gonna start out by saying
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:41:25
just thanks for going away from your original issue the way you're going to do it and just read it to us. It means so much more and it's so much more compelling when you speak from the heart. You've lived this. You don't have to read it to me. When you tell me a story, and that's for anyone else here that wants to speak. When you talk to me from the heart, that means something. Whether you're for or against it, don't compare and read to me.
Just speak from the heart. You did great. Thank
you. Thank you, I appreciate. Senator Hill, right, seeing no other questions. Thank you so much for your testimony. I apologize. I've been in and out and running bills in other committees. OK. Again, I think there's somebody in the back that's against the bill. OK, if you'll please come forward.
Um, without objection, uh, I'd like to be able to just, um, give everybody else from this point on 3 minutes each. Is that without objection? Without objection. So we'll just do 3 minutes, but I bet you can do a great job within that 3 minutes. All right. Go ahead. Yeah, state your name for the record and you may proceed. I'm sorry,
I read lips. That's why I was kind of popping up. Oh, I see. I'm sorry. OK, if you'll state your
name for the record, and then you may proceed thank you, Madam Chair. My name
Bethany Baldwin
Unverified
1:42:54
is Bethany Baldwin. I am here to speak against this bill. And
Speaker 282
1:42:59
I'm also here at a direct representative of minority, which is the disability group, which happened to be the largest minority in the world. We have 1.3 billion people. I'm against this bill because one also professionally I have worked nonprofits and as we know, nonprofits already have 200 criteria points to report to and to provide
Outcomes and progress reports and all of those
Bethany Baldwin
Unverified
1:43:31
things. Um I am profoundly deaf. I am a student of Arkansas
Speaker 282
1:43:36
for the Deaf mainstreamed into the public school system. For that, I appreciate the Department of Education. I also appreciate disability rights are concerned, and their role in my journey going through life as a person with a disability. Even though we have protections in place. This society still has been wrought with blatant
discrimination, retaliation, humiliation, and then went into acknowledge it is often with a tone of aloofness or cast aside altogether. I will be so bold as to say I am one of the very few of this minority in this room. Disability rights allows us to have a voice and to allow us to be heard in the certain circumstances. All right did not even begin to be established until 1960 with the civil rights movement. Not
even 100 years ago. Olmstead came in 1980s with the community living, which is direct correspondence to the protection and advocacy program, the disability rights embodies. I would urge you all to fully understand
Bethany Baldwin
Unverified
1:44:45
after I've said all that, the repercussions of
Speaker 282
1:44:47
this. Allowing legislative oversight. For a nonprofit that is already doing the good work that needs to be done. It's not the solution that needs to happen.
The solution needs to fall on the people who are responsible for providing resolution responsible for listening. Two of the outcome of the reports. We do have rights. We do have a voice, and my mother, one of the greatest advocates out there. And it was really hard for her to let go and to allow me to find my life. Because when I went to Arkansas for the dad. They almost didn't let me out of our for the death.
That's one of the things that we can talk about another time, but because of her experience with disability rights, and then educating her, allowed her to become a bit better advocate and to be able to stand up to the school boards and to be able to say no, my child has a right to mainstream into public education. My child deserved to have education at the same level as her peers. I'm going to end this
Bethany Baldwin
Unverified
1:45:59
by saying the repercussion of this bill would mean the start of calling
Speaker 282
1:46:05
to heal the only bulldog that we have
Speaker 286
1:46:11
in this fight. Thank you. Thank you. Well, well done.
Uh, any questions from members of the committee?
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
1:46:16
See none. Thank you so much for being here and for your testimony. OK, we have 34 more, uh, for the bill, Suzette Maynard. And we have 3 minutes. You'll state your name for the record, and you may proceed. My name is Suzette Maynard.
Speaker 288
1:46:38
I am the mother of a, I'm from Carroll County, I'm sorry. I am the mother and guardian of a 48 year old daughter that is probably the age of a 6 year old mentally. They've talked about the lawsuits. I'm going to just Cook to my hip. They talked about the lawsuits. My daughter's name was on that lawsuit. And they wanted her out of there, out of the HDC. She was in Arkadelphia at the time, and they wanted her out. They went down there and they
Talk to her and they got her to agree to come out. It doesn't matter. I mean, she was 6 years old, mentally. They got her to agree to go on this lawsuit. She's been in numerous group homes. She was abused in both of them. They, they tied her up, they gagged her, they shoved styrofoam cups in her mouth. They've overdosed her with several medications that I did not.
Say that she could be on these medications. And So I just, my daughter has, doesn't have the cognitive ability to make her decisions on her own. She needs a guardian. I am her guardian. I am her legal guardian. And I am not some dumb woman. That takes my child for granted. I want her to learn as much as possible. Now she's not able to learn
anything. Now she is in a wheelchair. She went from a, a young lady that would talk your ear off. Now she is medically fragile. She's got diabetes. She can't, her, her blood sugars go from 24 to over 800 within a 24 hour period. They've got 24 hour nursing for her and that's what she needs 24 hour nursing. The group homes don't allow a 20. 4 hour, most of them
don't have 24 hour nurses there. You have to wait a couple of hours maybe before you can get somebody. But my daughter was on, on this, the lawsuit that they talked about. I advocated with my legislatures and my senators. To get her name off of this lawsuit. I did not want to have to go through that. And I'm assuming that it was because of the legislators and the senator that got her name off. I'm thankful that they did and
so I did not have to go through all the stuff. I mean, I have went through enough grief as it is when they walked in and they didn't tell me that they were coming in to Arkadelphia to see her. It and then I didn't know anything about the lawsuit until the director of the HDC at that time in Arkadelphia, she called me to tell me that her name was on there. I just want to say that I'm thankful for where my
daughter is now in Conway HDC and that she is medically taken care of. She's not been abused there, and, but I thank you for your time.
Thank you, Senator Love has a question for you. Thank
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:49:59
you, Madam Chair, and ma'am, I, I guess I'm a little perplexed because in your testimony you said that your
daughter was abused. That you wanted her off the lawsuit. I guess she
was in in two different The group homes.
Speaker 288
1:50:17
I did not like the fact that they came in to the HDCs and Without my knowledge. I and her dad at the time we took her to the group homes. We have been through. When we first started group homes when they first came out with school age group homes. She went to the group home. There was a fight between the counties of where we lived and the county where she was residing. There was a fight on that and there was a lawsuit on
that. That was, I don't, I don't. Know who ended up having to pay, but because of that lawsuit, we brought her home. Then After that, we put her in public school. She was abused in public school. She had her behaviors in public schools, so we took her back to Arkadelphia, then later on, when all of this came up, we moved her out. We went to a group home in Northwest Arkansas,
Springdale, and she was tied, she was gagged, she was, I mean, even the director of the group home at the time said, We apologize. The young man had been fired. There was, I'm
Speaker 272
1:51:33
gonna help you and clarify the lawsuit that she wanted the name of was not in relation to the beast she's talking about the abuse, she's talking about was in a home and community-based provider. She's saying that her daughter suffered abuse in home and community-based providing situations, but at the HDC she
has not suffered abuse and but there was a lawsuit brought in which her daughter was named that she did not want her a
Speaker 295
1:51:57
part of that. And did I help clarify, OK, I'm glad you clarified. Usually we don't
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:52:01
allow somebody I'm glad you clarified because I was like, we'll allow
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:52:09
sorry, I'm very nervous up here, you're doing just fine, it's fine, so now, now I do understand because I was, I was wondering, OK, she's never been abused in
Speaker 299
1:52:17
any of the HDC OK, got you. OK. Thank you, appreciate it. Any
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
1:52:22
other questions from members from the committee. Thank you so much for your testimony and for you being here today. OK, Ms.
Kimberly Dodd. to state your name for the record, you'll be recognized and you'll have 3 minutes. Thank
Speaker 301
1:52:37
you. Thank you. My name is Kimberly Dodd, and I'm a resident of Pulaski County. I
Speaker 302
1:52:41
thank you all for the opportunity to speak to this committee today, and I am here in support of HB 1382. I had mom and co-guardian of Matthew. Matthew calls the
Arkadelphia Human Development Center home. I spoke to you guys about Matthew back in I think April of last year, so I won't go into a lot of his story, and, but the HDC has been a success story for him. Today, I want to share my experience with partners in policymaking. It's a program known as PIP. It is sponsored by DRA. It's an advocacy training program for people
Speaker 304
1:53:18
with disabilities and for their caregivers.
Speaker 305
1:53:25
I was in this um program for, it was an eight-month program when I did it and they
Speaker 302
1:53:31
gave us 10 core values that we must follow and I had trouble with this because some of these core values are against the institutions and are against guardianship. One of them, core value number 9 is that people with disabilities must be able to live in homes of their choice and choose the supports they need. Homes of their choice, meaning not institutions. Because of this core value, I was not allowed to present any
work or have any project that would promote supporting or improving NHDC. This program is against institutional care and developing programs to benefit institutions was prohibited as one of my projects. Core value number 7 states that people with disabilities must have
Speaker 304
1:54:11
the freedom to choose how they want to live their lives and receive the supports they need. That sounds
Speaker 302
1:54:17
wonderful, but my son's not capable of making those choices. As parents, we don't allow our 2 year old to
choose to run into a busy street. Some people in, um, well, many of our loved ones in the HDCs function at a low level of cognition and need guardians to make decisions for them, and this core value stands against that guardianship. As a federally funded program, DRA has a duty to be nonpartisan in presentation of materials and information. These examples show a bias against individuals with disabilities who need the close
supportive care found in an HDC. I'm aware of this bias, but until HB 1382, I didn't have a path to bring my concerns forward. I also want to introduce This appendix J.
Speaker 301
1:55:13
This appendix, you guys can see how big this is. This is from the Office of Long Term Care, and they do visits. Surprise visits to all the HDCs and they cover all this
Speaker 302
1:55:31
material, so they cover things such as It's a complex process. The surveyors review the individual program plans and other documents, they tour the facility, they look for. Environmental issues and um I just want to say DRA stands against the guardianship and and they showed me through this program that they are against institutional care. OK, thank you. Question, Senator Love.
I've, I've heard a couple of times that
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:56:01
You said the word partisan. You know, I heard someone else say it before. You said DRA is partisan. Is, is that Yes, I believe DRA is
Speaker 309
1:56:14
politically partisan. I believe they are not impartial. OK,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:56:20
all right, because I, I was like partisan. I'm like, is it OK, all right, I'm just, I was just curious. I'm like, hey. All right, Thank you. Thank you. Any other
questions from members of the committee? All right, thank you so much for your testimony. Um, Terry Johnson.
Thank you very much. Perfect. If you'll just state your name for
Speaker 314
1:56:49
the record, you're recognized. I'm Chery Johnson, my son Danny is at the Jonesboro Human Development Center, and I'm a resident of Baxter County. Thank you. Um, I'm appearing today in
support of HB 1382, which if passed would provide legislative oversight to a federally funded nonprofit organization which operates as the state's P&A system. Now, like the others, I'm going to basically gut my presentation and get it down to the 3 minutes and try to hit just the highlights if, if you don't, don't mind my situation, and the reason I'm here, I'm a little bit different than the others in that uh I am the president of Our group of parents here, uh, that, that represent and
advocate for the HTCs, but before that, I have been in several, my son's 43, uh, was in 4 different waiver uh community, uh uh operations. I was on the board of two of them. You might have heard of Boast and Lifestyles. I was on their boards. I was part of Arkansas support network and pathfinders. So I guess my point is the reason I'm a little different is that I can absolutely I tell you I fully understand both sides, both of the services
types that they, that they offer and there are pros and cons, I guess, with all of them, they fit different models. My son was not appropriate in the community waiver settings, the HTC was an absolute godsend for me and I'm, I'm very proud of our Arkansas legislators that have kept the HDCs uh functioning and strong in Arkansas. They've, they've been invaluable. Um, Danny gets a real loving community in his HTC, which he did not get in the waiver
communities, which is basically one on one care 24 hours and that I won't even go into the nightmares that that came as a result of that. So the primary issue that we have here is with the performance and the primary goals of disability rights Arkansas and how to bring the organization more in line with their federal mandate as the protection and advocacy program for Arkansas. P&As were created
to protect and advocate for all disabled Arkansas citizens, not just the ones that DRA and their national funders, uh, prefer, which is more of the community. In simple terms, this is, this is what you've got. You've got a group of people that say, uh, people should never be in an institution. That's bad, you know, that's where they have the electric shock treatments in the clipboards and all of the uh horror movies from the 40s that DRA still shows, that is not
what's going on in the HTCs and then you call them institutions, you can call them what you want to, but it's a community, it's a care facility that gives awesome care to, to our Kids that have to absolute have it. Um, we all, all of us here sign a letter every year saying we do not want DRA or other groups to come in and interview our kids without our knowledge, but those letters are basically uh discharged. Was that about 3 minutes? Yeah, I'll just let you finish wrapping up there.
The reason that I was here is I was also at the meeting, uh, that the director of DRA made the comment that he saw the ACC ceasing to exist in 10 years. That's what scared me because I, me and my family, we totally depend on the HCCs, that would be a horrible thing in our life and to have DRA in their parent groups so against the institutional type of care, uh, would be very harmful for us. And so for that
reason I'm, I'm trying to preempt that and, and I, I want them to be more accountable for the things that they do in all of the FOIA requests and everything that they dump on these HTCs. Because they are so valuable to us. I'm sure I've left out a million things, but thank you, thank you.
Senator Love, you had a question. OK, so, all right, let me,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:00:57
let me get this right. Because I'm trying to figure out
what is the crux of of what you all are trying to do with this
bill. What what is it that you really want to see the
legislature do that is not being done now. Well, and at the risk of really
Speaker 314
2:01:19
going off script and saying something that that I wasn't prepared with evidence like in a trial or something. The fact of the matter is DRA is very much against the HDCs and institutional type care facilities. They, they are very much their parent group is very much against it. It's advertised. It's in their national media. I even attended
a seminar one time at the Capitol where the the brochure said this is the year we're going to shut the door. shut the front door of all institutions. They are a protection and advocacy group mandated to take care of all of the disabled people. They're not the God of which service model is best, but they, in, in my opinion and in the opinion of more people that I could fill this room is they are very much against the HTC model of care,
and they, uh, and whether and why that is, I'm not, I, I don't know. I don't know if it's uh they feel like all of our funding if the HDCs went away, maybe they'd have more funding for more community type opera. I do not know. That's where I, I got to draw the line in, in my testimony, but I think that's that, have I answered that? Well, well, I'm just
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:02:30
trying to figure out because, because I, I, I, I, I have heard uh
uh kind of a reoccurring thing that that uh they want to shut down the
HDCs, but I'm trying to still figure out what the crux of this bill is like. What are you all aiming, what do you all wanting to see that it's not being done right now. The DR
Speaker 314
2:02:53
is DRA had to report to Arkansas legislative folks like y'all on what they're doing and hear from parents that are affected on a daily basis by what they do and what happens at the HDCs. We feel like they would, they would most likely stop attacking the HTCs like they are, but they've
been getting funding automatically. every year for a long, long time without any question. At the end of the day, the governor appoints who the PNA is for Arkansas, and we want a P&A that's going to be fair in their treatment of, of institutional care as well as community uh community care. A lot of things DRA does, I'm sure are fine. Uh, I, you know, I, I'm not an expert. I don't have a, my attorneys and everybody here, we don't have attorneys. We're all
volunteers. We're all parents. We're just sitting here. Talking from the heart of our experiences. Looks like
I still didn't answer your question. Thank you, Senator Peyton, you're recognized for
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:03:57
the question. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just real short here. I thought I heard you say. The the PNA
4 years the, the HDCs all the time. Did I hear you say that?
That that DRA FOIA HTCs all the time so the embassy group that's arguing that they should not be subjected to FOIA. They constantly use for you to gain information from the HTC. I don't think
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:04:26
that's what I was saying. I think what I, what I mentioned was, uh, is that they, they flood HTCs with FOIA requests all the time you're saying that they were a lot of time and effort and and to try to, to do that because I was just curious to me that
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:04:44
that they are so resistant to be subject to for you, but they take advantage of the fact that the HDCs are subject to to it thank
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
2:04:53
you OK, thank you. Thank you for your testimony and being here, um, OK, I, I, I. I can be overruled
by the members of the committee, but there is somebody who has not signed up to speak, uh, to speak against
the bill in response, I will allow you to come. You only have 3 minutes and the committee can overrule me, they would like.
2 minutes, uh, you got 2 minutes. Thank
Speaker 328
2:05:19
you. 2 minutes is all I need. I'm Tom Massa. I'm the executive director of Disability Rights Consent. I just wanted to kind of give an overview about how we're funded and how we operate because that seems to be the the the questions. So a lot of the work that we do is dictated by our terms and conditions, and we have 9 grants coming into the agency, though the work that we do, specific to that is is tied to our grants, so we cannot per our grants advocate for placement in a restrictive setting. We cannot do that throughout the
administration and community living in the grants that we get. Thomas Nichols mentioned a FOIA request. One of our programs, the traumatic brain injury, we get $50,000 a year. So if we get a FOIA request related to a TBI, and we gather all that information, that would absorb that cost of money because our 9 programs are geared towards individual or disability characteristics. So the work that we are doing is within the parameters of our grants. We supply those grants, our annual. reports to our federal funders
yearly, and if there's any problems with those, they will certainly do a site review and a monitor and the way that we are designated, this was back in 1977 and it was designed to be nonpolitical, nonpartisan. It's when the DD Act was authorized, they said the govern the governors of the 5 other states had to designate a nonprofit organization and in here in Arkansas, we are the nonprofit organization, and they did that because for every 4 years, if they had to redesignate then the
the disruption of advocacy services in the states could potentially be impacted. So that is why that every time there's a a changeover in governorship across the the all the states and territories, there is not a redesignation. The administration on community living as one of our largest authorizing agencies can, if we're not adhering to our terms and conditions in the scope of our work can come on site and ask for a redesignation. Meaning that we are not doing the work of our grants, and the
concern that we have is the additional biannual reports that
OK, thanks. Yes, thank you. Other questions, Senator? Letting And it should
Senator Greg Leding
Unverified
2:07:32
be a very short answer. It was mentioned earlier that DRA has a parent organization, but my understanding that there is no parent organization.
Speaker 328
2:07:38
That's correct. That's correct. We are, we are private nonprofit organization, National Disability Rights Network is a is a membership. They do not dictate our work. I have a governing board who dictates who dictates all of our work, so they provide technical assistance to us, um, and
there's often times that we don't see, we don't see eye to eye, so they are not our parent organization. We do
not have a private nonprofit. Thanks. OK, thank you. One last person, uh, Marion Hodges. You'll have 3 minutes. Marion Hodges Oh, OK, alright. OK, uh, with that represent lady men, you're
recognized to clothes for your bill.
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
2:08:24
Well, we covered a lot of ground here and I had some comments that I was going to make in closing. But Senator Hill, I think you made a good point to speak from the heart instead of from the paper. I think that's what we ought to do. Uh, but just before I talk a little bit more, uh, there is a national organization, the ERA, and I can't figure it out, and I worked in business for many, many years, but DRA is a nonprofit organization. There's an umbrella organization, uh, that they work with and if you
go to their website, I don't have their name, sorry about that, but there's a goal on there to close human development centers and also to stop the, I think it's 14C work program where people with um Developmental disabilities work in sheltered workshops. Uh my son is one of those, and those are great places. These people work there, they make things, they feel like they're valuable, um, he gets paid every Friday. I ask him about it. Did you get your check? He says, Yeah, I got
it. I said, how much is it? He said, I don't know. He don't care. All he cares about is getting a check. And that's just one example. And if you close down one of I, I may get off subject here, Madam Chairman, but If you go to one of the places, I won't mention the name, but they actually stopped the 14C program and they went to paying individuals minimum wage. That's the program. It allows them to pay less than minimum wage. So these individuals in this facility worked 6 hours 5 hours
a day, I believe it was. I go down there to visit with them, which I do occasionally, and they're sitting in the break room in the middle of the morning, and I said, why are y'all sitting in here? Why aren't you out there working? And they said, well, they gave us a raise and now we can only work 2 hours a day, so we have to sit in here the rest of the time. So the, that's just an example of one of the programs that this organization is trying to close. The other thing, and I know there's confusion because y'all aren't as close to this as I am. My son Heath, who's 50 years old, he's been in every program in the
state. He's been in 3 of the HDCs, a home-based program in Springdale, Little Rock, Jonesboro, uh, other places. So I, I know the full spectrum as Terry talked about, as he does with his son. He and my son are friends in HDC, um. So I know what it is. We cannot exclude These uh HDCs or programs like that because these are the only facilities that are capable of
providing services to some people in the state of Arkansas. Now, This parent organization and I'll just say that Mr. Mr. Mazi was, he should be informed about these goals because he was the president and the vice president of this organization. I think he's currently the treasurer. So he was a, a, a leader in this national organization, so he should know their goals, but we can, some of these people would not survive.
My wife who passed away recently, wrote a letter just like the one that was mentioned, to put in Heath's file at the Human Development Center to say, Don't let DRA talk to Heath unless they contact us because we're the guardians. And she actually worked in the external programs and and it can be bad out in the community for some people. It's not bad for all people. This bill says to protect all individuals, not the ones out in the community, not the ones in the HDC, not the
ones in the elderly programs all. So we need to have a continuum of service and that's what this bill is about is to have discussions in the legislature. It only asks for two things. This bill's been filed for 6 or 7 weeks. None of these people have called me to talk about the bill. But, and they say it goes way too far and we haven't talked and it's been out there for a long time. It only does two things. It requires them to come to a
subcommittee if we request it and talk to us. Why do we want to do that? We want to know what they're doing. We are the oversight. They said they talked to the government and they never get any responses. They don't talk to the legislature. Maybe they might get a response if they would come to our meetings and talk to us. So we want them to come and communicate with us on a regular basis. And we want them to give us a report twice a year. It has been left open because we're not wanting to tie them down, and I want to put something in there that would be
illegal. So we can work with the committee, the subcommittee, to figure out what they report. We don't want to put a lot of extra work on him, but we want to communicate. We also want to get parents and guardians an opportunity or a voice, a public voice to be able to come and talk about this and ask questions about, well, why is this happening? So I know that's a lot, but uh I think we really need this. To be able to provide the services that people in Arkansas
with disabilities need, I think we need this
bill to be able to do that. So with that, Madam Cha unclosed. Thank
you, um, thank you. What's the will of the committee? Motion to pass. Second, there is discussion. Senator Wallace asked for discussion. You're recognized for
discussion. Board members, we We heard a lot
of good testimony today. I'm a parent. I'm a grandparent.
We heard testimony. So parents who have walked the walk to have lived the life. They know This situation better. than I ever will. And I'm gonna be a yes on on this vote. Senator Ledding, you're recognized for
discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do
Senator Greg Leding
Unverified
2:14:27
know what the HTCs mean to these families. I have visited all of them, including the one in Jonesboro,
the only one I've not made it to is the one in Boonville. Um, so I do understand the concerns. That said, I still have a lot of trouble with the legislature giving itself oversight of a nonprofit just because we might disagree with its mission. I feel that is a bad precedent to set, and I feel like there are other ways to address these concerns, so I will be voting no. Thank you, Senator Love,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:14:53
you're recognized for discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, let me, let me start by
saying I apologize to everybody about the heat because I
was the one that was, I was freezing and now I'm
too hot, um, but here's, here's what I want to say and and I, I wanna say that I am in support of the of the spirit of this bill. The only
thing that I can't support is is the the foyer piece and I, and I was really curious about the foyer piece of this bill. And Throughout the conversation. Well, let me back up and say that if DRA is in the business
of of of trying to shut down HDCs, I think that is problematic, so I'm not, I'm not gonna argue with that. That is problematic. But on the other hand, when
you begin to talk about the abuse that people can face even if they're in a community-based setting or a facilities-based setting. I think that it's important work and I'm just not sure that we should. allow for you to be used in a manner
that turns over all that information because it is it is some important work that is being done so because I know because I have a cousin that's that's in a facility, so uh with that, I mean representative Lady Man, I'm just not with the foyer piece. I'm in the spirit of the bill, but I'm not with the foyer piece and for that I cannot support this bill as it is drafted. Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion
from members of the committee? All right, seeing none, all
those in favor say aye and opposed. I just have it. Congratulations, you've passed your bill. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. I'm sorry, as amended, as amended, we're going to go to Senator Scott, then Senator Stone, and then I will just move our way down the agenda. We're gonna keep going as long as we possibly can. We'll come back after session to continue. Senator has an amendment. Yes, I have an amendment,
Speaker 150
2:17:05
um, just to add a co-sponsor, Senator Scott, District 12.
OK, and uh uh and motion to adopt the amendment and second, all those
in favor say aye and opposed as habit. Amendment is adopted, you may proceed Senate Bill 371 as amended. OK, um, I'm,
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
2:17:25
this is, I think an easy bill and it's an issue that came up in my district last summer, um, there were several kids that. For some reason went missing and parents and principals and community leaders didn't understand why they didn't warrant an amber alert, so I
start working with BLR and we looked at what other states did um for kids who didn't meet the qualifications for Amber Alert, so they pulled up 18 different states and all their different laws and how they addressed um putting out notification if someone went missing like a child or a youth and so um But we have today is what the state police department actually worked with me on, um, so. The problems with the Amber Alert is that The Amber Alert only goes out
right if there's evidence of an induction and so the data shows that there are hundreds of children in Arkansas who don't meet that qualification every year. So in working with the state police, this new alert will create a system for missing children who don't meet the qualifications of an Amber Alert. It'll be a statewide notification process. It alerts, um, issues through law enforcement, media, and digital highway signs when necessary. Similar to the civil silver
alert used for missing seniors, um, the criteria for issuing this alert is the child must be under 18, law enforcement must determine that the child is missing and their whereabouts are unknown, the child is believed to be in potential danger even if abduction is not suspected, um, there will be collaboration with state agencies from the local law enforcement and so it will be a partnership with the Arkansas State Police local law enforcement, the Office Emergency management to ensure swift actions and a coordination
with the schools and child welfare agencies to improve our response efforts in the state for kids who don't meet the qualifications of a missing Amber alert and I think it's Y'all want me to say anything else? OK. Senator Peyton,
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:19:34
you recognized? Thank you and great bill, appreciate it. I think it's important and, and obviously I think the Amber Alert has been successful. The silver alerts have been successful. Do we, I, I'm just curious because I do have one little worry about.
The old adage about crying wolf. Do we have any idea how many of
these we're looking at a year that would activate the system. They did not tell me that. OK, I'm, I'm still voting for it, but I do have a concern that if, if we end up
with 10 a day, then it ends up being like spam in your email, you know, and it's so we got to. I think we need to be concerned about that. So the real issue came is I
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
2:20:15
had a um a kid in elementary in one of my schools.
He went missing. His grandmother had just died, so he's living with his grandfather. He had actually ran away but he had some disability issues and so he did kind of meet the criteria and every everybody that was in an uproar and then we just had several other kids in my area and I was just trying to figure out what 2 or 3 instances in my
Senator John Payton
Unverified
2:20:36
area. That's what worries me about the volume, but I was concerned. about the volume, that's why I, I
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
2:20:41
sent it to my local police chiefs and I sent it to the state police, and they were the ones who gave me and they didn't they didn't seem like it would
be overburdensome cause I did ask, um, and I think that's why we kind of lowered it from 21 to 18 to make sure we were trying to really focus on kids um and children and not because at first I sent them older, you know, through through college and so we were just trying to really narrow in on, you know, what we were really trying
to address and focus you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Any other questions from members of the committee?
Great. OK, see you no motion to pass as amended. Second, all
those in favor say aye and opposed. I have it. Congratulations so much for your time. Thank you, Senator Stone, you're recognized. 473 Right here. If you'll
state your name for the record. This is Senate Bill
Senator Matt Stone
Unverified
2:21:54
473. Matt Stone, state senator, District 2. Members, boards have meaning in one word can change the meaning of everything. And that is exactly what has happened and that is why I'm running Senate bill. 473. Historically, the fire protection Services Board has been advisory. Committee to the Arkansas Fire Academy. The Arkansas Fire Academy is located squarely in
my district, but it trains men and women all over the state to be firefighters, to be EMTs. It sits on the campus of Southern Arkansas University Tech. Historically, The our academy is answer to the sitting chancellor of SAU Tech. Last session there was a bill that was passed to change one word from advisory. To oversight. I was contacted by the
leadership of the academy and they shared with me that we're confused historically, we've sat on the campus of SAU Tech and we've always answered to the chancellor. Now we have an independent board that is dictating curriculum, training, who can be hired. We put the fire academy in an untenable position. So I also went and talked to Doctor Jerry Thomas, who was the sitting Chancellor of SAU Tech, and he said, you know, this is on my campus and everything that
happens on this campus ultimately I'm going to be held accountable before. Now there's an outside agency that's having input to what happens in the fire academy. Now listen, I'm not opposed to the fire service academy or any other firefighter organization. And I would even go so far as to say that myself and um representative Wade Andrews, who was the house sponsor on this bill were recognized by them last year is the legislatures of
the year for the fire for the firefighters protection. So we're not against anybody, but while we're for is order on SAU tech campus. This is just a simple one word change removing the word oversight back to advisory where it was. I even went so far as to talk to Doctor Ken Ward, secretary of Higher Education and said this is what, this is what happened in unintended consequence, and I said give me your thoughts on
it, and he said, you know, I think you're right. It at the end of the day, if that program sits on the cabbage, which it does, Doctor Thomas is sitting chancellor is going to be held. responsible for success or failure and ultimately nobody can serve two masters that they're needing direction from the legislature, so I believe we need to put it back to an advisory board. I think any chancellor, whether it's Dr. Thomas or future Chancellors
would covet their advice to make sound decisions on hiring, training, curricula, or any other matter that may come up, but at the end of the day, they need to be able to make sure that There's no undivided loyalty from the And for our training academy and the fire training academy has historically been under the purview of the Chancellor and that is where they want to remain. So with that, I'm open to any questions. Thank you. Are there questions from members of the committee.
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
2:25:35
All right, seeing no questions. We do have someone here to speak against the bill. Brad
Speaker 358
2:25:43
Hoen yeah I say one other thing too, I had uh Chancellor Dr. Thompson, Dr. Thomas and the leadership team traveled
Senator Matt Stone
Unverified
2:25:50
up from Camden today, so they're here and if you would, I wouldn't mind letting them have just a minute or so a piece just to speak to this bill, and they can personally convey their concerns about the untenable position
that they've been placed in over one word
change, OK, they're going to need to come up here and sign the sheet and speak for the bill while they're doing that, uh, we'll allow that, but uh that's the process that we need to utilize. So, We have a record of it. Uh
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
2:26:25
If Brad will go against and then for. If you'll just state your name for the record, then you, you, you can be recognized.
Speaker 362
2:26:37
Uh, so my name is Brad Hardin and I am here to speak on behalf of the Fire Chiefs Association. We represent our chiefs all across the state of Arkansas and, you know. As a fire chief, you know, we, we, we oversee our people, right, and the most important thing that we can give our people is training. I mean, it's, it's at the highest level of importance to us, and we want
to ensure that our people recede the level of training that they deserve. That training is what ensures that they go home safe at night or that following day after a shift and It just this bill really, really concerns us as the senator pointed out this was a cleanup of legislation and we did clean it up. We cleaned it up last session, uh, whenever we put in there that we are a, you know,
an oversight board and we cleaned that up because if you read just above that in the law, it clearly states that the fire protection Services Board is past with establishing these minimum standards and by putting it to where we have an oversight. We now have the ability to ensure that that curriculum meets the standard that our people deserve and, uh, you know, I, I
I found myself in a in a in a um a position I've not been in before. I've said before this committee, but many times and spoke in favor of the fire academy. We want nothing more than the fire academy to be successful. Um, you know, this group and, and the representatives have established a process, a form for the fire service to work in. And that fire protection Services Board represents the
fire service, not just, not just the fire chiefs, it's the professional firefighters. It's the rural firefighters. It's the state firefighters. It represents all of our firefighters, and we sat on that board and we take our job seriously and we work together in that forum that you've created for us to work within and, and now then we, you know, we have a an administrative change. The at the fire academy and instead of us working through
that forum trying to uh fix differences. We come here and try to modify our relationship where we no longer have that. And I, I would just, I would beg you, please, please do not allow them. Why this change may seem insignificant. It's huge, and it means a lot to the fire service, and there is not a member of the fire service that is in support of this aside from SAU and the fire academy. So that's all I got. Thank you very much for hearing me. Other questions, Senator Ludding. Thank you, Madam Chair, and good
Senator Greg Leding
Unverified
2:29:45
morning, Chief or good afternoon now. Good to see somebody from Fayetville. Uh, you mentioned how the board makes sure that there's the proper training and certification, the right curriculum. Does the board provide any kind of like operational oversight or fiscal oversight or
Speaker 362
2:30:00
anything of that nature. No, sir, and that and I certainly didn't want to be speaking against him. I'm no attorney. We have a very narrow focus of oversight, and it is the curriculum. Um, you know, oversight of the funding. I mean, we would certainly
welcome that if you're going to give it to us. I think that we could do a good job of making sure that it's spent correctly, but no, we don't have that ability and as far as selecting, uh, you know, the individual that's hired we have the ability to pick from the top 3 or establish the top 3, and then that's handed over. Now the Chancellor for the previous two appointments has been kind enough to include us in that process. Thank you. And when
Chair
Unverified
2:30:39
I say yes, I'm talking about the fire protection Services Board. Thank you. Thank you Senator Hill, you're recognized for question.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:30:53
Just looking at, looking at this bill and The process is basically it sounds like nothing is changing. I
mean, What is going to be different from the training that's required there that they're doing now. Then what's going to be done tomorrow? Is there anything? I mean, y'all are still involved in it.
Speaker 362
2:31:12
I, I can give you an example if you would like, back in the fall, which I think may have been the start of us sitting where we are today. And
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:31:24
in the fall, it's a little different than what we're looking at right now, so be
Speaker 362
2:31:29
careful what hole you dig, I'm not digging, so a, a policy was brought forward to us specifically with training. Offsite fire academies now there's just a few communities in the state that are fortunate enough to be able to do that, you know, it's a Little Rock, um, it's Northwest Arkansas, I think Jonesboro, maybe Fort Smith, they do that and they brought forward this this well
intended policy, well written, had a lot of very good ideas and points, but buried down in the bottom of that, they placed a charge. They placed a $250 charge, uh, for every one of our certificates. another $25 for that seal. Now that equated to $1550. Now that may seem insignificant, but in Northwest Arkansas we trained 60 in two different academies we train 60 firefighters. Now
that's 1620 hours of our people training those firefighters, meaning that our departments bear the burden of doing all that teaching. The only role that the firehay plays in that is to proctor the exams and the fire. For the two academies total, that's 16 hours of work. That's 60 students at $1550 is $90,000. We were going to impose a tax of $90,000 on on and yes we are. I mean we, we are a wealthy community, no doubt about it. I
mean, and I understand, but why would we impose something like that on our community whenever, I mean the work that they're doing is a very minimal amount of work while I could send my people to Camden to get And there is no such fee. We would have to pay for their meals, which they would eat, which we give our students per diem anyway, so I mean that that works out fine for us. So that, that's an example. Our oversight stop that from happening, so, and I can go into other details if you would like.
Feel free to if you want to. Um, no, I appreciate that. Thank you for your answers. We have other people here
to testify for and against the bill, so let's just go ahead and move. There are no other questions for him. Is that OK? Is that OK, Senator Hill? I'll leave the floor open to
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
2:33:44
Senator Hill. You want some? OK Um OK, for the bill, Jerry Thomas. Which, by the way, is the name
Speaker 371
2:33:58
of my father. You'll state your name for
Speaker 372
2:34:12
the record. Jerry Thomas, Chancellor of SAU Tech. Please proceed. Um, SB 473 it clarifies the role of the Fire Services Protection Board by shifting back to an advisory capacity rather than an oversight body, um, the fire training academy was established
in 1973 and since that time, it has operated under the leadership and the purview of the Chancellor of SAU Tech, um, the fire chief who is here with me today. He's a direct report to me and I report to the board. of trustees that SAU Magnolia. It's a 5 member board that's governor appointed. This bill ensures that the authority which it's already been discussed, the curriculum of any policy changes, anything that's key to
operations of finance, all that will be aligned, um, they're at the fire training academy with our current governance structure that's currently in place at SAU Tech. uh running a campus effectively can be tough. It can be really, really hard and it makes it a little bit tougher when there's an external uh board um that's there, um, rather than the leaders leadership they're making decisions and making the calls and and telling what decisions need to be enforced and what needs to be happen and when it
takes place. SB 473 provides the clarity though, the much needed clarity they clearly defines our roles. My role as a chancellor, the role of the fire service is Protection Board. And I think this really strengthens the academy's ability to serve Arkansas firefighters effectively. Now with that said, we deeply value the fire service's Protection Board, their experience, their perspectives on and what they bring the intent of this legislation is not to diminish that at all, um, any of their
contributions, their input is invaluable as they represent a broad range of expertise and that enhances the quality of training. at the fire Training Academy, but under this bill, the board will continue to provide that critical advice and recommendations to me, ensuring that the training remains relevant. We still have high quality training that really meets industry standards. However, the final authority on educational and training matters would rightfully rest with SAU
tech just as it does with all other educational programs within the college's purview. Um I the community's time and thoughtful consideration of SV 473, our shared goal at SAU tech is to provide the highest quality of educational training for Arkansas firefighters, and this bill strengthens that mission by streaming streamlining governance while preserving the valuable contributions of the Arkansas Fire Services Protection Board with them serving in an advisory capacity to the Chancellor and
the board of trustees at SAU Magnolia. Thank you. Thank
you so much. Other questions from members of the committee, Senator Lavier recognize us
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:37:15
for question. Thank you, Madam Chair. So let me, let me try to understand the history. This This board has always been on the campus of SIU
Speaker 372
2:37:26
Tech since 1973. The campus was started in 1968. The college was founded and since 1973, um, the fire training academy was established and the purview it reported to the Chancellor of SAUtech.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:37:41
OK, and so when did that change? Last session
OK, so then last session we changed it so that the fire protection board would provide oversight. And at the time I assumed that was It
Speaker 124
2:37:53
Sorry, go ahead. Hit hit one of those microphones because they can't both
Speaker 126
2:38:04
be on. I assumed that that was an that that that was
Senator Matt Stone
Unverified
2:38:11
an oversight and it was never meant to take away, um, their advisory capacity and replace it with with oversight, but you know, the testimony today, I don't know if they, you know, I don't understand how operated efficiently since 1973, then all of a sudden it needed their oversight, you know, I don't believe that a leader. Has any oversight. That's the law enforcement training academy that's also on SAU campus, the Environmental Academy doesn't
have an independent border commission providing oversight and they ran from 1973 until last session, and now they have to interject and have to have oversight and cause confusion in the chain of command between the academy and the Chancellor of the university, you know, I'm just sitting there listening. I don't know if it's oversight and. Attend a consequence or a power grab that is taking place, but I think we have put Chancellor
Thomas in an untenable position to be held accountable for everything that happens on the campus at SAU Tech with somebody else having oversight over the academy, OK, so I just
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:39:22
want to make it clear that it wasn't advisory
position before then just last session, we changed it to an oversight position, so now we're just trying to change it back. OK,
I just want to understand the history. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions from members of the committee?
Right, see none. Thank you so much for being here and for your testimony. Um, we have a person against, and then 2 more 4. Brad Moore. If you'll just come board
and state your name for the record. Yeah can get out
Speaker 382
2:40:03
on the committee and Brad Moore. I'm the state legislate chair for the state firefighters Association. When our association represented all firefighters in the state of Arkansas from fully career guys
all the way down the row, Bill Hunter, firefighters in the state of Arkansas. We
Speaker 383
2:40:18
are a combined joint with are the two associations the state against, against this bill. If you go back to the legislation, the, the, the um bill and look at the first section letter A, the Arkansas 5 Texas board shall, it says shall on that very first part of the code in 2022. 804 and it gives us dictates
that we shall oversee the training and curriculum, and that's the reason we made that change last session to make the Clean up to give us that oversight on the training and curriculum with the fire academy, um, so today we're just here to oppose the bill and ask you to vote no on it due to that reason, the claim that we made last session. Senator Love, you're
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:41:07
recognized for Christian. OK, so I'm basically ask you the same question. So you heard the history that was was outlined is is.
Uh, is it your testimony that the history that was outlined by Senator Stone. Was that incorrect? I'm not
Speaker 383
2:41:23
gonna say history is incorrect. What I'm gonna say is there's been confusion over the last decade or so to, to the authority of the board was given that to do these things and have been an advising committee versus the oversight committee where you didn't have that ability to do all the things that we're tasked to do. Yes,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:41:40
sir. OK, so let me, let me ask you, so it's your testimony that you all have served as an advisory committee
until last session. When they changed it to providing oversight is that OK. So is it your testimony then that
you won't be able to to administer this portion of your duties if you are not. If you're
an advisory committee, I mean like I'm trying to figure out if you're advisory committee before. That's correct. So in the past, there was, there was policies
Speaker 383
2:42:20
and procedures made and to do with training that was never brought before the board and we made a clarification change in the last legislation to have that come before the board for the policies were changed and approved by the board with this if it goes back, they will not have to have that bring them policies back before us. OK, so were you all working
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:42:39
through the Chancellor before this change, I guess with your with your curriculum and Were you all working with the Chancellor. from there. We were working as a board through the through the
Speaker 387
2:42:51
director of the fire academy. So then you
Speaker 311
2:42:57
weren't working as an advisor for. Uh, the law
Speaker 383
2:43:03
says that we should have been an oversight committee, but we were actually working as an advisor. OK. All right, thank you. I,
I just have a question. So what activities have changed since the language in the bill has changed. What procedures that dealt with,
Speaker 382
2:43:23
dealt with training guns before the boards of approval. So before
you did not have approval. After the language was changed to provide oversight. Now you do have approval and your approval extends
to what exactly now anything it does with firefighter training policy manuals, things of that nature.
Speaker 391
2:43:41
Including employment of people. That's when it comes to employment of the director, the
Speaker 383
2:43:54
board reviews applications and resumes, and we picked the top 3 and that goes back to SAU tech for the Chancellor to interview process and they make the decision for that top, that top pick. Yes, ma'am. Is that the way you
did it before the language changed? As advisory was done
Speaker 382
2:44:11
in a couple sessions ago. That was not made in this the change last session that was done a couple of sessions ago. OK. Any other questions?
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:44:24
Senator Love, OK, yeah, all right, so I'm just trying to figure out the crux of this, so. I guess what is the crux of the issue now
because if you all were an advisory, did you submit anything to the chancellor? I guess it wasn't this chancellor,
but the previous chancellor. So how did you work with the previous chancellors.
Speaker 382
2:44:48
The only time we work with the Chancellor is when it comes to the hiring of the the director
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:44:55
of the fire academy. OK, and so all those have been submitted to the Chancellor previously. In the previous before the before the before the law changed,
Speaker 383
2:45:03
they made, they made all the decisions when we come to hiring firing the fire academy director, and then the law changed that gave us the ability to review all applicants and we picked the top 3 and it went back to the Chancellor to for the interview process and they selected the peak from that top 3. OK. All right, thank you. Thank you. Other questions from members
of the committee. All right, thank you so much for
being here and for your testimony, uh, Grant.
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
2:45:28
Warner. Is that correct, Mr. Warner? OK, thank you. If you'll just state your name for the record and who you're with. You may proceed. You're speaking for the
Grant Warner
Unverified
2:45:40
bill. Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Grant Warner. I'm the director of Arkansas
Speaker 394
2:45:46
Fire Training Academy. Since nearly the inception of both the fire academy and SAU Tech, the state of Arkansas has seen that the academy be under SAU tech with the Chancellor,
and that makes us part of the SAU system. We have a board of trustees that we also had to report to. This board is very familiar with curriculum, training, education, and accreditation. Any problems that the fire Services Board had in the past could have simply been directed to the Chancellor or to the board. I would like to say that I've only been the director since October 1st.
I think I would like to think that I've had a good working relationship with the board. We've had great open communication, uh. Chief Horton brought up the Point about the charges. We talked. We open communication and we settled that. I agreed with him that
Speaker 395
2:46:49
I thought it was excessive, but it was not something. That had to Be
I'm not gonna say authorized, but it should have gone through the board.
Speaker 394
2:47:07
The uh How can I say this? The board is great for the state of Arkansas. It represents many different firefighters, many different Sources we have small rural fire departments that are on the board. We also have large metropolitan fire departments on the board. But when you look at the legislation as it is, it says they have oversight over all
things curriculum and training based. When you look at the fire academy, that's 90% of what we do. The operations of it is a very small portion and with the curriculum being that broad. That puts us in a bad spot because we also fall under the curriculum or the authority of the SAU tech board of trustees, which has their own curriculum policies. This legislation is simple. It's just to clean it up and ensure that we as the fire academy only
Speaker 395
2:48:03
have one oversight or only one board that we had to report
to. Thank you. Any questions from members of the committee Senator
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:48:16
Love. Let me ask you this. So as a as a fire
academy. Well, being part of the SAU system, is there some sort of um. A higher educational
standard or something that you have to also
adhere to just besides. The curriculum at I guess at the I'm just trying to see if there's a threshold that you all would have to meet being under the SAU system being part of the SAU system, we do fall under higher ed. OK. And so is there
another crediting accreditation body that you all have to To satisfy along with your curriculum. I mean we are accredited by
Speaker 395
2:49:06
other entities, but that has to do with our curriculum, but that's not mandated by state law. OK. All right.
Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions from members of the committee? All right, thank you so much for being here, Mr. Warner. James Goodwin, last
one. You'll come and state your name for the record and who you're associated with, we, uh, you may proceed. All right. Good afternoon. My
James Goodwin
Unverified
2:49:30
name is James Goodwin. I'm the deputy director of the Arkansas Fire Training Academy have been for about 3 years now in that
capacity. Um, I'm here to speak for the bill just in the premises of what they've talked about earlier, we, we now report to the fire protection Services Board. We report to Dr. Jerry Thomas and to the SAU tech board. Uh, you know, My concern was with the bill is if I get if I, if I get Differing directives from Dr. Thomas and the Fire Protection Services Board, where do I go? OK. You know, and yes, we should be
able to sit down and discuss it among us, but what if there's a divide? Between what SAU Tech and Dr. Thomas says were the Chancellor and Services Board. You know, I've got to go with the guy that signs my check. And you know, that would be SAU tech, and you know, and there's nothing against. I have nothing against fire protection Services Board. You know, I wrote the the document that Chief Harden was speaking of earlier and the charges that he was speaking of. You know, the charges, yes.
They were excessive. It's like I told him in the meeting when he brought it up, those were arbitrary. We could discuss them and do what, what we see fit. Um You know, everybody in the states saying, you know, that we could charge for our classes, which we do not. You know, we have to charge for our meals now because we just simply can't afford it. So the, those were numbers that we put in there. I knew that that was not going to fly, but it was a placeholder, it was numbers and you know it's like as Director Warner said.
They sat down with the board and discussed it and they figured it out once he got into the place, so. That all come about during an interim period where we didn't have a director. I was an interim director. Trying to get 4 or 5 different sets of policies out. To, to the ball still. And that's where that come from, um, again, I have, I, I will be talking to a lot of these guys, I'm sure tomorrow when I'm sitting in my office dealing with training, you know, I have nothing against.
Anybody on the board and um I do look forward to some clarity. And some, you know, in some direction as to Which direction we need to go. And
was that close. Are there questions from members of the committee. Right Thank you so much for your testimony. Appreciate it. Senator Stone, you're recognized to
Senator Matt Stone
Unverified
2:52:09
close for your bill. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members, I know that many of you are self-employed or have positions of authority, and if you have
someone that reports to you, you want them reporting to you and not some outside agency or group of people that causes conflict. If I was an employee, I want to report to one person so I don't get put in an untenable position myself. I took the time to do some research and there's not another college in this state. That has a program or anything that has an outside border commission that comes in and has
oversight of any part of their campus. I think we just need to realign SAU tech with the other colleges institutions of higher learning in our state where enjoyed peaceful, productive education of our men and women to fight fires from 1973 until now. If there wasn't a problem, then we wouldn't have gentlemen testifying. No longer have clarity about how the fire academy should operate with that I'm closed and I'd appreciate a good vote.
Thank you. What's the pleasure of the
committee? My shiny path 2. Is there any discussion? I'm gonna participate in discussion. There is a question that was asked by Senator Hill about funding. And I think the answer was, well, we'd
love to have it if you give it to us. Yeah That's beyond
oversight and advisory, and just to me
revealed where I landed on this boat, uh, with that, all those in favor say I am
opposed. Rocal. Senator Flebe. Sender Flippo, yes.
Speaker 152
2:54:20
Senator Hill, Senator Hill, yes, Senator Leding letting know. Senator Penzo, Senator Penzo, no. Senator Payton. Senator Payton, yes. Singer loves sitting of love, yes. Senor Wallace, Senor Wallaceen Wallace,
Speaker 329
2:55:05
Uh, 5 votes still passes. Thank you. OK. All
right. Senator Wallace, you're recognized. This is Senate
bill 440. Members, it's my intention that we
will, uh, we'll stay in here for about 15 minutes. We will recess,
then we will come back 10 minutes upon adjournment.
Transportation's meeting today. Oh, you're kidding. OK. Right, let me think through that. Senator Wallace, uh, you'll be recognized. Senate Bill 440.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Dave Wallace, District
19. Remember this, this bill is all about uh A board Being able to regulate new technology that's coming into the state. Um
There's new technology and uh What we have done cremation for. Centuries Uh, by the use of alkaline. Hydrolysis. They're able to liquefy. And Dispose of the bodies that way rather than burning the bodies. Uh Right now, the board didn't
have the authority to regulate that new technology.
Uh, 30 states have passed a very similar bill and what the board is asking for us to do is to
allow them to have, um, The oversight of this technology that they have with cremation and with the traditional burials that we've done for a long time. Uh, there's no one that I know of that is opposed to this bill. The Board of embalmers, funeral directors, And burial services brought this
bill to me, and they're the ones that would like to have the oversight that
they have on cremation and other duties, and with that, I stand by and For your questions. Senator
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
2:57:31
Hill, you recognize. to, is this going to Make it even cheaper for someone to pass away. to be buried. I, I doubt
that it will. Uh They didn't say one way or the other.
Those expenses like everything else, just Seem to be going up right. I just didn't know if this was an alternative to any of it that it's actually a green bill. It's a Uh considered Better for the environment. Thank you,
Speaker 1
2:58:01
sir. Yes, sir. Any other Senator Lo you recognized?
Thank you and Senator Wallace, I hadn't looked
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
2:58:10
at this bill in depth. Does this have to do? I mean, I know it, it says to
regulate the the process of alkaline hydrolysis. Um But, but is this issues mainly with unclean bodies, is that no, no, not necessarily. It'll be used across
the board whatever the family would like to use. OK. Yeah, it would be a discretion of the family, and if, if the funeral homes even offer this. But what the board wants to do is if it's going to be offered,
then the board wants to have oversight of it, just like they do with our current services. OK. All right,
Speaker 389
2:58:52
thank you. Thank you. Any other questions from members of
the committee? Do you have a House sponsor that you want to add to the bill. We can
suspend the rules and add a House member for sponsor. Make it easier if we did that here, I think we can do we can do that here. We can vote to suspend the rules and then add a house sponsorative Johnny, OK, um, motion to suspend the rules.
Second, all those in favor say aye, posed, I have a rules are suspended, motion to uh add by amendment Representative Johnny Rye. So moved 2nd, all those in favor say aye and opposed as habit by the amendment is to add Representative Johnny Rye as House member, uh, co-sponsor of the bill. Any other questions of Senate Bill 440 as amended. See now you're recognized to
close for your bill. Remembers, I am closed. This is not a burning issue, but it is an issue that we
need to, uh, Help out with. OK. All right, with that motion, do pass as amended. Second, all those in favor say aye and opposed I have it.
Congratulations, you've passed your bill, Senator David. Uh,
Speaker 149
3:00:23
9, Senate Bill 9. All right, if you will, you have an amendment. OK, we'll
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
3:00:38
pass that out. Brianne Davis, Senate District 25, Senate Bill 9. OK? Uh, please proceed
motion to adopt the amendment. And second, all those in favor
say aye and opposed. I have it amendments adopted pro proceed Senate Bill 9 as amended. Thank
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
3:01:00
you, Madam Chair. Um, so the amendment removes red ye 3, as you know, a couple of months ago, the FDA went ahead and said that they were banning red ye 3, effective, I think January 1 of 2027, um, so we just removed that from the bill. This bill, um, essentially mirrors what the state of California did several years ago, um, which I don't make it a
habit of doing things, uh, California does, but in this instance, um, they, their state is one of the largest economies. in the country and so um I, there are certainly plenty of other uh chemicals in our food that shouldn't be there, uh, but with that in mind about California, I thought it'd be easier for companies to transition their recipes, they would be making them for the state of California and we could sort of piggyback on that, um, and wouldn't see, you know, bear
shelves at the grocery store. So it has um two items in there, prople pear bins. Which oftentimes are found in candies and desserts, um, it just helps to extend, extend the shelf life. Um, and then, uh, potassium broomate, which is essentially a white powder that whitens bread and helps it bake a little more evenly, which in America, society has pushed a lot of things on us for affection being one of those things and certainly telling us that our food has to look perfect, so we're putting chemicals in our food to make it look a certain
way, so it'll be a more appealing to us to buy rather than letting it, uh, bake naturally and with less chemicals. So this just says that um effective January. One of 2028, that is also part of the amendment, um, that you cannot produce or sell these items, um, in Arkansas. The reason I pushed it from 27 to 28, uh, was to give a little more leeway for Arkansas companies that are producing goods about 2 years to let them
change their recipes to get things off the shelf, um, so we could accommodate that. Uh, with that, I'm happy to take any questions. Senator Payton, recognize for question. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
3:03:09
How will this affect my Cheetos Cheetos well unfortunately
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
3:03:14
still be on the shelves. I like them too. They should be a little cleaner, but this is
Senator John Payton
Unverified
3:03:19
not affecting my Cheetos. I don't, I don't know
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
3:03:21
if I did, yeah, I don't know if potassium bromate is in Cheetos,
but they can either take them out and maybe they bake a little
unevenly, um, but they should still be able to make Cheetos. I wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize
Senator John Payton
Unverified
3:03:37
my Cheetos. I know, I know. Well, thank you. the
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
3:03:42
health concerns on potassium bromate, um, are, are a lot, so it may be worth it to cut back. It may be worth it to cut
Speaker 61
3:03:53
back. I'm sorry I think we need to get some clarification Senator Hill, you're recognized.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
3:03:58
Senator I'm with you on that. Can you, can you get that clarified for
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
3:04:03
us to make sure. Well, I can do a quick Google search, but in the meantime, I can tell you that studies show that in animals, potassium broomate causes kidney cancer, thyroid cancer, can affect the nervous system, causing headaches and seizures, it's banned in the EU, Canada, and Australia. Does that affect her Cheetos though. Well, as I said, the FDA has been slowly killing us for years by approving thousands and thousands of chemicals in our
food that they, uh, generally recognize as safe, that are in fact not safe, um, we do not have a great offense when it comes to chemicals in our food. We play defense when someone shows that enough people have
died or had cancer or some type of illness from the chemicals we allow in our food. Thank
you. I have a question. I, I know red dye number 33 particularly has been linked to, um, there's a, it's a, it's a disorder, it's a behavioral issue, behavioral
disorder. I can't remember the name of it, but have you done? So it was actually my cousin, my cousin's child. I thought that he was autistic, um, but actually he was having severe food allergies to yellow and red, uh, dyes, um, and I can't remember the exact. name of the, there is an actual, um, documented, uh, Disease disorder, it's an allergic reaction that creates a
behavioral issue from, from different dyes, and I can't remember the name of it, but anyway, I would, I would encourage you to look that one up. Senator Leding. OK. And are there any other questions from members of the committee? I'm sorry, Senator Penzo, you recognize. Uh, thank
Senator Clint Penzo
Unverified
3:05:49
you. I, I just did a quick search and I, I do not see that ingredient in Cheetos. I think we're good. It's a
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
3:05:56
win-win. I think you got a vote because you left the Cheetos alone. OK,
anybody else? Question? Anyone here to speak for or against the bill. All right, see no, you're clothes for your bill as amended. I'm close. Thank you. All right. Motion do pass as amended. Is there a second? Second, all those in favor say aye. And opposed. I have it. Congratulations. The cheetahs are saved.
All right, um, OK. Kim Hammer is not here. We'll go to, I, I can do 2, my 2 bills relatively
quickly, um, and then we'll go to Senator Payton, so. Do what? I know, but you have 2 bills. Oh, OK. OK. I'll, I'll
do, I've got 264 and 2460
and then we'll refill. Ex Senator Irving, you recognize, ma'am. OK, thank you, Senator Missy Urban District 24. I'll be very quick. Senate Bill 264 is the first one, you've already heard this bill, uh, it got to the Senate floor and I realized there were some changes that we
wanted to make, um, we added uh a physician that
with. Ma'am, just one quick. We expunged the vote
or we need to expunge the vote. Yes. Oh wait, yeah, so that's where, that's
where you're headed. Yeah, I'll make a motion to expunge the vote by which Senate Bill 264 passed the committee. have
a motion in the 2nd. All in favor say aye, aye. OK It is expunged. Thank you. So
members, I actually had the amendment engrossed into the bill, and we added a physician that works with our, um, federal qualified health centers, uh, as part of this, and then we changed it to remove those different designations. There was an issue that came before the Supreme Court on the plant board, um, and so to avoid that, uh, I had to remove some of those references, so that's But it's exactly the same. Makeup consistent, so we did add
one physician to the that works with the community health centers and the FQHCs, Reggie Murdoch, I think, asked for that as well as others, so that's all it does. Payton. I'd
Senator John Payton
Unverified
3:08:51
have a motion for immediate consideration since we've already heard the bill. I have a motion of 2. All in
favor say aye. And now need a
motion to do pass. have a motion to 2. Second
Members have a motion to 2. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? I've seen none.
Your bill has passed. Thank you. The last one is Senate Bill 460. Um, this is a Department of Energy and Environment legislation. It amends a compliance advisory panel, small business stationery, source, technical and environmental compliance assistance program, marketing recyclables program. The changes reduce the cap to reflect the requirements of the Federal Clean Air Act. It converts the current panel of 9
members to an advisory panel of 7 in line with the requirement of the Clean Air Act. and discontinues a grant fund for marketing recyclables that is difficult to administer and generate any interest in, um, this is, this was from private landfill money. It doesn't affect some of our solid waste districts. It doesn't affect their, uh, that's a separate issue, uh, and it redirects that current funding to cap support of small business compliance with federal and state environmental laws and rules. Um, I do have somebody here with
the Department of Energy and Environment, if you have additional questions, uh. For the spill. I think she's right behind you. Bailey's
Senator John Payton
Unverified
3:10:31
here. And soon Payton, did you have a question, sir? Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in section 4, we're creating A new account called the Division of Environmental Quality fee Trust Fund. Can you explain where the money
going into that and and what it's going to be used for, is that just a renaming or what?
Speaker 222
3:10:51
introduce yourself first Bailey Taylor, DEQ director and chief administrator of Environment. So that's on a new fund that's our historic fund. It just looks like the way it was worded in the statute didn't have the language of is hereby created on the books, um, if you look in be, that's how it reads now just without A in there. So that that is our feed trust fund that is where our special
revenues go for each of the three divisions, air, water is not new. It is not a new fun, sir. Members, are there any other questions? And ma'am, would you like to give testimony? No, Senator, I've covered
it. Thank you, Senator Irving, are you close to make a motion to pass. Have
a motion. Do I have a second, have a 2nd on a favor
say aye. Any he opposed? Saying none. Congratulations,
your bill has passed. Thank you. OK, so we
Suzette Maynard
Unverified
3:12:04
need to break for lunch, uh, go and eat. We're going to recess this committee, and we will come back upon
adjournment, um, at that time, we will run the bills that we can run the bills if we can get
a quorum, uh, no transportation is meeting upon adjournment as well, um. So if there's, if there's bills that we can get out of this committee with 5, the 5 votes that are here, we'll, we'll hear those and then we'll just proceed, uh, and wait for the members of the other commit of the committee to get here after transportation means. So it's just gonna be a long Afternoon and a long evening, uh, but there is pizza back here for you guys. And with that, we are in recess.
Agenda
CALL TO ORDER
SB111 K. Hammer TO ESTABLISH THE DENTIST AND DENTAL HYGIENIST COMPACT.
RE-REFERRED TO COMMITTEE
SB285 J. Payton TO MODIFY THE COMPENSATION RESTRICTIONS UNDER THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 4 OF 1948.
SB286 J. Payton TO ALLOW ADDITIONAL WAGE LOSS BENEFITS IN ADDITION TO SCHEDULED INJURY PAYMENTS UNDER THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED MEASURE 1948, NO. 4.
SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS
HB1382 Ladyman TO REQUIRE CERTAIN REPORTING BY THE DESIGNATED PROTECTION AND ADVOCACY AGENCY FOR THE STATE AND THE DESIGNATED CLIENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM FOR THE STATE.
REGULAR AGENDA
SB9 B. Davis TO CREATE THE MAKE ARKANSAS HEALTHY AGAIN ACT; AND TO PROHIBIT MANUFACTURING, SELLING, DELIVERING, DISTRIBUTING, HOLDING, OR OFFERING FOR SALE A FOOD PRODUCT THAT CONTAINS CERTAIN SUBSTANCES.
SB235 J. Boyd TO CREATE THE VOLUNTARY PORTABLE BENEFIT ACCOUNT ACT.
SB371 J. Scott TO ESTABLISH A STANDARDIZED SYSTEM TO AID IN THE SEARCH OF MISSING CHILDREN WHO DO NOT MEET THE CRITERIA FOR ACTIVATION OF THE ARKANSAS AMBER ALERT SYSTEM.
SB440 D. Wallace TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING EMBALMERS AND FUNERAL DIRECTORS; TO REGULATE THE USE OF ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS; AND TO REGULATE ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS FACILITIES.
Motion to suspend the rule
Motion to add Rep. Johnny Rye as co-sponsor of the bill
SB444 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE MEDICAL ETHICS AND DIVERSITY ACT.
SB264 Irvin TO ESTABLISH THE ARKANSAS PRIMARY CARE PAYMENT IMPROVEMENT WORKING GROUP.
SB460 Irvin TO MODIFY THE COMPLIANCE ADVISORY PANEL; TO REPEAL THE MARKETING RECYCLABLES PROGRAM OF THE COMPLIANCE ADVISORY PANEL; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
SB287 J. Payton TO MODIFY CERTAIN ATTORNEY FEES FOR CONTROVERTED MEDICAL EXPENSES, APPEALS, AND CHANGES OF PHYSICIANS UNDER THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED MEASURE 1948, NO. 4.
SB238 J. Payton TO AMEND THE USED TIRE RECYCLING AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT.
SB473 Stone TO AMEND THE DUTIES OF THE ARKANSAS FIRE PROTECTION SERVICES BOARD; AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE ARKANSAS FIRE PROTECTION SERVICES BOARD TO ADVISE THE ARKANSAS FIRE TRAINING ACADEMY ON CERTAIN MATTERS.
HB1712 Joey Carr TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN THIS STATE.
ADJOURNED
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — PUBLIC HEALTH WELFARE AND LABOR COMMITTEE - SENATE AND HOUSE, Mar 19, 2025 | Agenda | 4 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Dave Wallace Chair
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Senator Justin Boyd
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Speaker 14
Senator John Payton
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Speaker 13
Speaker 22
Speaker 25
Senator Fredrick J. Love
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Speaker 31
Speaker 33
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Speaker 34
Senator Ricky Hill
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Speaker 56
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Speaker 87
Senator Kim Hammer
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Chair
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Senator Missy Irvin Chair
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Speaker 152
Representative Jack Ladyman
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Speaker 171
Speaker 174
Suzette Maynard
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Speaker 188
Thomas Nichols
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Speaker 204
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Speaker 168
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Speaker 251
Speaker 146
Speaker 83
Sayer Evans
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Speaker 272
Bethany Baldwin
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Speaker 282
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Senator Greg Leding
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Speaker 150
Speaker 344
Senator Jamie Scott
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Senator Matt Stone
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Speaker 358
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Speaker 124
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Grant Warner
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Speaker 394
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James Goodwin
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Speaker 410
Speaker 329
Speaker 1
Speaker 389
Speaker 149
Senator Breanne Davis
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Speaker 61
Senator Clint Penzo
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Speaker 222