State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs- House
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Bills discussed (78)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1707
Act 524
· 4 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…CONCERNING ELECTIONS; AND TO PROHIBIT RANKED CHOICE VOTING. HB1707 Hawk TO REQUIRE CERTAIN CANDIDATES TO FILE REPORTS WITH THE…”
|
TO REQUIRE CERTAIN CANDIDATES TO FILE REPORTS WITH THE SECRETARY OF STATE; TO AMEND PORTIONS … | Hawk | Notification that HB1707 is now Act 524 |
|
HB1037
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…NTEGRITY; AND TO AMEND PORTIONS OF INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1996. HB1037 A. Collins TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING PERSONS WHO MAY…”
|
AN ACT TO CREATE THE PREREGISTRATION TO VOTE ACT; AND TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF ARKANSAS … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1041
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1041 A. Collins TO PROHIBIT DECEPTIVE AND FRAUDULENT DEEPFAKES I…”
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TO PROHIBIT DECEPTIVE AND FRAUDULENT DEEPFAKES IN ELECTION COMMUNICATIONS. | R. Scott Richardson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1069
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1069 S. Meeks TO OBSERVE STANDARD TIME YEAR ROUND IN ARKANSAS; A…”
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TO OBSERVE STANDARD TIME YEAR ROUND IN ARKANSAS; AND TO ELIMINATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN … | S. Meeks | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1187
Act 858
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1187 Vaught TO AUTHORIZE A LICENSURE BY ENDORSEMENT FOR MARRIAGE…”
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TO AUTHORIZE A LICENSURE BY ENDORSEMENT FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS. | Vaught | Notification that HB1187 is now Act 858 |
|
HB1243
Act 994
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…END THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE ARKANSAS FAIR HOUSING COMMISSION. HB1243 Underwood TO INCREASE TRANSPARENCY REGARDING CAMPAIGN CONTR…”
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TO INCREASE TRANSPARENCY REGARDING CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS AND EXPENDITURES; TO AMEND CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTING AND PROTECT … | Underwood | Notification that HB1243 is now Act 994 |
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HB1422
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1422 Long TO CREATE THE ONLY CITIZENS VOTE ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW…”
|
TO CREATE THE ONLY CITIZENS VOTE ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE DRIVER'S LICENSES … | Long | Died on House Calendar at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1549
Act 489
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1549 R. Scott Richardson TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS CYBERSECURITY AC…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS CYBERSECURITY ACT OF 2025. | R. Scott Richardson | Notification that HB1549 is now Act 489 |
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HB1614
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…aty, Jr. CONCUR IN SENATE AMENDMENT Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1614 Lundstrum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DESIGNATIONS RELATED…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DESIGNATIONS RELATED TO CERTAIN CRIMINAL JUSTICE GRANT PROGRAMS. | Lundstrum | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1621
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1621 Wardlaw TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AN…”
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TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO EXEMPT PERSONAL INFORMATION OF … | Wardlaw | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1631
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1631 Wardlaw TO ADDRESS THE ISSUANCE OF HUNTING AND FISHING LICE…”
|
TO ADDRESS THE ISSUANCE OF HUNTING AND FISHING LICENSES TO FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENTS. | Wardlaw | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1632
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1632 Wardlaw TO REQUIRE REIMBURSEMENT TO THE ARKANSAS STATE GAME…”
|
TO REQUIRE REIMBURSEMENT TO THE ARKANSAS STATE GAME AND FISH COMMISSION FOR FREE OR DISCOUNTED … | Wardlaw | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1706
Act 829
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1706 McCollum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS; AND TO PROH…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS; AND TO PROHIBIT RANKED CHOICE VOTING. | McCollum | Notification that HB1706 is now Act 829 |
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HB1720
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1720 Vaught TO CREATE THE BABIES AT WORK ACT; TO ALLOW STATE AGE…”
|
TO CREATE THE BABIES AT WORK ACT; TO ALLOW STATE AGENCIES TO PERMIT PUBLIC EMPLOYEES … | Vaught | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1739
Act 814
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…RKANSAS; AND TO ELIMINATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ARKANSAS. HB1739 M. Brown TO ADOPT THE UNIFORM ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIALS AC…”
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TO ADOPT THE UNIFORM ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIALS ACT. | M. Brown | Notification that HB1739 is now Act 814 |
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HB1753
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1753 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION; TO OPT…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION; TO OPT-OUT OF THE NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT … | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1773
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1773 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CONTRIBUTION LIMITS FOR BA…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CONTRIBUTION LIMITS FOR BALLOT QUESTION COMMITTEES AND LEGISLATIVE QUESTION COMMITTEES. | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1774
Act 562
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…OT QUESTION COMMITTEES AND LEGISLATIVE QUESTION COMMITTEES. HB1774 Beaty Jr. TO AMEND THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE ARKANSAS FAIR HOUS…”
|
TO AMEND THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE ARKANSAS FAIR HOUSING COMMISSION. | Beaty Jr. | Notification that HB1774 is now Act 562 |
|
HB1797
Act 944
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1797 Beaty Jr. TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS DEVELOPM…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS DEVELOPMENT FINANCE AUTHORITY; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. | Beaty Jr. | Notification that HB1797 is now Act 944 |
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HB1800
Act 998
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…FROM INITIATED ACT 1 OF 2000; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. HB1800 McAlindon TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE FOR CAMPAI…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE; TO REQUIRE DISCLOSURE BY A REPRESENTATIVE … | McAlindon | Notification that HB1800 is now Act 998 |
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HB1803
Act 657
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1803 Joey Carr TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE PLACEMENT OF A MO…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE PLACEMENT OF A MONUMENT ON THE STATE CAPITOL GROUNDS … | Joey Carr | Notification that HB1803 is now Act 657 |
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HJR1001
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…PROCESS. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS Number Sponsor Subtitle HJR1001 A. Collins A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO CREATE THE CITIZEN…”
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A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO CREATE THE CITIZENS' REDISTRICTING COMMISSION AND TO REPEAL THE BOARD OF … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1002
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1002 J. Richardson AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO…”
|
AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO REPEAL THE EXCEPTION TO THE PROHIBITION OF SLAVERY … | J. Richardson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1003
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1003 A. Collins THE ARKANSAS GOVERNMENT DISCLOSURE AMENDMENT.”
|
THE ARKANSAS GOVERNMENT DISCLOSURE AMENDMENT. | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1004
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1004 Ladyman APPLYING TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS FOR AN ARTIC…”
|
APPLYING TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS FOR AN ARTICLE V CONVENTION OF THE STATES FOR … | Ladyman | Died on House Calendar at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1005
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1005 Long AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO CREATE TH…”
|
AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS TAXPAYER BILL OF RIGHTS. | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1006
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1006 B. McKenzie AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION PROVI…”
|
AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION PROVIDING THAT A GOVERNMENTAL BODY SHALL NOT USE STATE … | B. McKenzie | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HJR1007
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1007 Cavenaugh A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO CREATE A PROCEDURE…”
|
A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO CREATE A PROCEDURE FOR THE RECALL OF CERTAIN ELECTED OFFICIALS. | Cavenaugh | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HJR1008
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…TE A PROCEDURE FOR THE RECALL OF CERTAIN ELECTED OFFICIALS. HJR1008 S. Meeks AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION CONCERNI…”
|
AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION CONCERNING THE TAXATION OF PERSONAL PROPERTY AND REAL PROPERTY … | S. Meeks | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1009
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…RSONAL PROPERTY AND REAL PROPERTY IN THE STATE OF ARKANSAS. HJR1009 K. Brown AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO BE KN…”
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AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO BE KNOWN AS THE ARKANSAS VICTIMS' BILL OF … | K. Brown | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1010
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1010 Unger A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO PROVIDE THAT BY A TWO-T…”
|
A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO PROVIDE THAT BY A TWO-THIRDS VOTE, THE SENATE MAY REMOVE MEMBERS … | Unger | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1011
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1011 S. Meeks A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT CONCERNING THE CONSIDER…”
|
A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT CONCERNING THE CONSIDERATION OF BILLS OTHER THAN APPROPRIATION BILLS DURING A FISCAL … | S. Meeks | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1012
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1012 R. Scott Richardson AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTI…”
|
AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO REPEAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING THE REAPPRAISAL AND REASSESSMENT OF … | R. Scott Richardson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1013
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 79, CONCERNING REAL PROPERTY TAXES. HJR1013 Pilkington A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO PROVIDE THAT CERTA…”
|
A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO PROVIDE THAT CERTAIN VACANCIES SHALL BE FILLED BY APPOINTMENT BY THE … | Pilkington | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HJR1014
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…N VACANCIES SHALL BE FILLED BY APPOINTMENT BY THE GOVERNOR. HJR1014 Beaty Jr. A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT CONCERNING ECONOMIC DE…”
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A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT CONCERNING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE STATE OF ARKANSAS; AND AUTHORIZING THE GENERAL … | Beaty Jr. | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HJR1015
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1015 Lundstrum A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ENSURE TRANSPARENCY…”
|
A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ENSURE TRANSPARENCY BY REQUIRING A JUDICIAL CANDIDATE TO DECLARE HIS OR … | Lundstrum | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1016
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HJR1016 Ray A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO REPEAL THE PROVISION OF A…”
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A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO REPEAL THE PROVISION OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 5, § 1, ALLOWING … | Ray | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1017
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…TIVE OR REFERENDUM PETITION TO CORRECT OR AMEND A PETITION. HJR1017 Ray A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROVIDING THAT A PROPOSED ST…”
|
A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROVIDING THAT A PROPOSED STATE-WIDE INITIATED ACT OR CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT SHALL BECOME … | Ray | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HJR1018
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…N THE ELECTION AND A MAJORITY OF THE COUNTIES OF THE STATE. HJR1018 Ray THE CITIZENS ONLY VOTING AMENDMENT. HJR1019 S. Meeks AN…”
|
THE CITIZENS ONLY VOTING AMENDMENT. | Ray | Approved by the Governor |
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HJR1019
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…THE STATE. HJR1018 Ray THE CITIZENS ONLY VOTING AMENDMENT. HJR1019 S. Meeks AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO REMOV…”
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AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO REMOVE REFERENCES TO GREYHOUND RACING FROM ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, … | S. Meeks | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB12
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…EDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967 CONCERNING PUBLIC MEETINGS. SB12 B. King TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AN…”
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TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING … | B. King | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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SB227
Act 505
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…AND PICKUP TRUCK ACQUISITION ACT FOR THE STATE OF ARKANSAS. SB227 C. Tucker TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967;…”
|
TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND THE PROVISIONS OF … | C. Tucker | Notification that SB227 is now Act 505 |
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SB271
Act 460
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…IONS REGARDING REDISTRICTING BY THE BOARD OF APPORTIONMENT. SB271 Crowell TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A COUNTY CLERK'S CERTIF…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A COUNTY CLERK'S CERTIFICATION OF SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES TO THE … | Crowell | Notification that SB271 is now Act 460 |
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SB293
Act 487
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…PROGRAMS. RE-REFERRED TO COMMITTEE Number Sponsor Subtitle SB293 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE REQUIRED POSTINGS…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE REQUIRED POSTINGS AT A POLLING SITE; AND TO AMEND … | K. Hammer | Notification that SB293 is now Act 487 |
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SB299
Act 403
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB299 K. Hammer TO REQUIRE A STAFF MEMBER TO WITNESS AN ADMINISTR…”
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TO REQUIRE A STAFF MEMBER TO WITNESS AN ADMINISTRATOR ASSISTING A RESIDENT OF A LONG-TERM … | K. Hammer | Notification that SB299 is now Act 403 |
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SB343
Act 734
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB343 Irvin TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING STATE-OWNED MOTOR VEHICLE…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING STATE-OWNED MOTOR VEHICLES; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC PROPERTY; … | Irvin | Notification that SB343 is now Act 734 |
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SB344
Act 444
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB344 Irvin TO TRANSFER THE HEALTHY EMPLOYEE LIFESTYLE PROGRAM FR…”
|
TO TRANSFER THE HEALTHY EMPLOYEE LIFESTYLE PROGRAM FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO THE DEPARTMENT … | Irvin | Notification that SB344 is now Act 444 |
|
SB351
Act 592
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB351 J. Dismang TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ETHICS AND CAMPAIGN…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ETHICS AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE; TO AMEND PORTIONS OF INITIATED ACT … | J. Dismang | Notification that SB351 is now Act 592 |
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SB353
Act 405
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…D CANDIDATES TO THE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS. SB353 Hester TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE DATES FOR ELECT…”
|
TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE DATES FOR ELECTIONS; TO AMEND THE DATES OF PRIMARY … | Hester | Notification that SB353 is now Act 405 |
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SB370
Act 462
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB370 Irvin TO TRANSFER THE ARKANSAS WINE PRODUCERS COUNCIL FROM…”
|
TO TRANSFER THE ARKANSAS WINE PRODUCERS COUNCIL FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TO THE DEPARTMENT … | Irvin | Notification that SB370 is now Act 462 |
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SB403
Act 449
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…NGE THE DATE OF THE FISCAL SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. SB403 C. Tucker TO CREATE THE THE 2030 ARKANSAS COMPLETE COUNT CO…”
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TO CREATE THE THE 2030 ARKANSAS COMPLETE COUNT COMMITTEE; AND TO PLAN AND CONDUCT STATEWIDE … | C. Tucker | Notification that SB403 is now Act 449 |
|
SB409
Act 406
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ESS AND PARTICIPATION IN THE 2030 FEDERAL DECENNIAL CENSUS. SB409 B. Johnson TO PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODU…”
|
TO PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS BY FINANCIAL SERVICES PROVIDERS; AND TO ESTABLISH THE FARMER … | B. Johnson | Notification that SB409 is now Act 406 |
|
HB1024
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TION, AMENDMENT 100. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1024 A. Collins TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC EMPLOYEES; AN…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC EMPLOYEES; AND TO REPEAL THE LAW PROHIBITING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING. | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1028
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…S; AND TO REPEAL THE LAW PROHIBITING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING. HB1028 A. Collins TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE LAW CONCERNING OBSCEN…”
|
TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE LAW CONCERNING OBSCENITY AND THE PROCESS FOR CHALLENGING MATERIALS INCLUDED … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1035
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…OOK BANNING IN ORDER TO RECEIVE STATE FUNDING. Page 4 of 6 HB1035 A. Collins TO CREATE THE ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 2…”
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TO CREATE THE ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 2025; TO ALLOW ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION; TO … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1036
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…MENT 51; AND TO AMEND THE DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE. HB1036 A. Collins TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION;…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION; TO ALLOW VOTER REGISTRATION DURING EARLY VOTING AND … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1038
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51. HB1038 A. Collins TO CREATE THE NO-EXCUSE ABSENTEE VOTING ACT OF 2…”
|
TO CREATE THE NO-EXCUSE ABSENTEE VOTING ACT OF 2025; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1039
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NG; AND TO REPEAL VOTER QUALIFICATIONS FOR ABSENTEE VOTING. HB1039 A. Collins TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE BALLOT…”
|
TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING ABSENTEE BALLOTS; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS. | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1040
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EE BALLOTS; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS. HB1040 A. Collins TO CREATE THE WATER IN LINE ACT OF 2025; AND TO…”
|
TO CREATE THE WATER IN LINE ACT OF 2025; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1042
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RNING PENALTIES FOR MISDEMEANOR OFFENSES RELATED TO VOTING. HB1042 A. Collins TO CREATE THE DIRECT DEMOCRACY ACT OF 2025; TO R…”
|
TO CREATE THE DIRECT DEMOCRACY ACT OF 2025; TO REPEAL THE ENSURING ACCESS FOR ALL … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1043
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NG OF A BALLOT INITIATIVE PETITION AND REFERENDUM PETITION. HB1043 A. Collins TO REQUIRE DISCLOSURE AND REPORTING OF NONCANDID…”
|
TO REQUIRE DISCLOSURE AND REPORTING OF NONCANDIDATE EXPENDITURES PERTAINING TO APPELLATE JUDICIAL ELECTIONS; AND TO … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1058
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ield TO ESTABLISH GOOD FRIDAY AS AN OFFICIAL STATE HOLIDAY. HB1058 Unger TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ETHICS AND CONFLICTS OF I…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ETHICS AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST FOR PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES; … | Unger | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1059
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…GIVING ADVANCE NOTICE TO ENTITIES OF REQUIRED INSPECTIONS. HB1059 Unger TO PROVIDE THE OPTION FOR A FREE LIFETIME HUNTING AND…”
|
TO PROVIDE THE OPTION FOR A FREE LIFETIME HUNTING AND FISHING LICENSE TO A COMMERCIAL … | Unger | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1078
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…PROVIDES CERTAIN INFORMATION RELATED TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING. HB1078 Long TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING RUNOFF ELECTIONS; AND…”
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TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING RUNOFF ELECTIONS; AND TO PROVIDE FOR A RUNOFF ELECTION FOR … | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1162
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TO ADOPT NEW LAWS CONCERNING APPELLATE JUDICIAL CAMPAIGNS. HB1162 Duffield TO ESTABLISH GOOD FRIDAY AS AN OFFICIAL STATE HOLI…”
|
TO ESTABLISH GOOD FRIDAY AS AN OFFICIAL STATE HOLIDAY. | Duffield | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1281
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CANDIDATES FOR THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. HB1281 McAlindon TO AMEND REPORTING FOR A CANDIDATE FOR CERTAIN MU…”
|
TO AMEND REPORTING FOR A CANDIDATE FOR CERTAIN MUNICIPAL OFFICES AND FOR COUNTY OFFICE; AND … | McAlindon | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1415
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…E ARKANSAS CODE THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1996. HB1415 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE DUTIES OF THE ST…”
|
TO REQUIRE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TO RESPOND TO A REQUEST FOR A FIRE INQUIRY. | L. Johnson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1459
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TATE AGENCIES TO PUBLISH FEDERAL GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS ONLINE. HB1459 L. Johnson CONCERNING RECURRING REPORTS SUBMITTED TO THE GE…”
|
CONCERNING RECURRING REPORTS SUBMITTED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. | L. Johnson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1461
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ERNING RECURRING REPORTS SUBMITTED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. HB1461 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE EVALUATION OF NE…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE EVALUATION OF NECESSITY OF VARIOUS COMMISSIONS AND BOARDS. | L. Johnson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1470
Act 582
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EVALUATION OF NECESSITY OF VARIOUS COMMISSIONS AND BOARDS. HB1470 Beaty Jr. TO REPEAL THE LAW CONCERNING THE REVIEW OF INFORM…”
|
TO REPEAL THE LAW CONCERNING THE REVIEW OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PLANS. | Beaty Jr. | Notification that HB1470 is now Act 582 |
|
HB1494
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…INQUIRY BY THE DIVISION OF ARKANSAS STATE POLICE FOR ARSON. HB1494 Hawk TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS GUIDANCE OUT OF THE DARKNESS AC…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS GUIDANCE OUT OF THE DARKNESS ACT; AND TO REQUIRE STATE AGENCIES … | Hawk | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1667
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…AT WAS MANUFACTURED IN WHOLE OR IN PART USING FORCED LABOR. HB1667 Bentley TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AN…”
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TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING … | Bentley | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HB1683
Act 924
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LIBRARY BOARD TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. Page 5 of 6 HB1683 McAlindon TO PROHIBIT THE PROCUREMENT BY A GOVERNMENTAL ENT…”
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TO PROHIBIT THE PROCUREMENT BY A GOVERNMENTAL ENTITY OF AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE OR A COMPONENT … | McAlindon | Notification that HB1683 is now Act 924 |
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HB1740
Act 585
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1740 K. Moore TO EXEMPT CERTAIN AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION FROM TH…”
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TO EXEMPT CERTAIN AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION FROM THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967. | K. Moore | Notification that HB1740 is now Act 585 |
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HB1769
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…BLIC MEETINGS UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967. HB1769 Barnett CONCERNING LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER STANDARDS; AND T…”
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CONCERNING LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER STANDARDS; AND TO REQUIRE A PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION OR ASSESSMENT TO BECOME … | Barnett | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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HJR1020
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 3/18/2025 @ 8:00 AM) Removed HJR1020 House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs…”
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A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO BE KNOWN AS THE VICTIM’S BILL OF RIGHTS; AND TO PROVIDE … | K. Brown | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
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SB184
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LAW CONCERNING THE REVIEW OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PLANS. SB184 D. Sullivan TO TRANSFER THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE ARKANS…”
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TO TRANSFER THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE ARKANSAS EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION COMMISSION AND THE STATE … | D. Sullivan | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
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SB414
Act 463
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB414 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE ELECTION LAWS OF THE STATE OF ARKANS…”
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TO AMEND THE ELECTION LAWS OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW … | K. Hammer | Notification that SB414 is now Act 463 |
Machine transcript
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- October 2, 2026
top of our regular agenda today. It doesn't look like Representative Ward Laws here. He actually talked with me about that. Representative McCollum has a bill that he's not going to run, so it looks like we'll begin with House Bill 1707, Representative Hawk.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
0:45
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee, RJ Hawk, District 81. Mr. Chair, could I get somebody from the Secretary of State's office here to answer any questions
if need be. Do we have anyone here from the Secretary of State's office? Welcome to join Representative Hawk at the end of the table.
Would you identify yourself for the record, please. Josh
Speaker 11
1:16
Bridges, assistant director of elections for the Secretary of
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:19
State. All right, Representative Hawk, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee. I apologize for the voice, the allergy season is starting
to get to me a little bit, but either way, uh, bringing House Bill 1707, and what this does is right now all state officials have to file their election reports with the Secretary of State's website and over the course of the last probably 4 years, I have heard from constituents and I've heard from others that say, you know, with our local officials, it's a
little bit harder to find those election reports because oftentimes, The county clerk doesn't have it online and they have to uh either go up there or do a FOI request on those reports. Sometimes it could take a little bit. And so what this bill does is it allows for anybody that's an elected official, local or state, to file their election reports on the Secretary of State's website like we currently do and like state officials do. What this does, it then leads for a centralized transparency, uh, location for
uh any citizen, um, anybody, um, the ethics commission. whoever it may be, to be able to go on there and see financial reports during elections for candidates and you, you can be at any part of the state to be able to go on there and see those reports. Now, after discussing this with the Secretary of State's office. They were open to the idea of doing it, and having that centralized location. They did say there would be a cost, and it's $50,000 to upgrade their system. They do have that in their budget to be able to update that without having to do
an appropriation or anything like that. Um, and so from that point, once they upgrade the system and I, I can let the Secretary of State talk more about that, but from that point it would just be going through and adding city council members, like as far as titles, um, court members, uh, sheriffs, things that school board members, things of that nature, to the, the platform, so whenever those candidates go online to file, they just do the drop down, they click their title, and then they're able to file their election reports online. And with that, I'll take
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
3:17
any questions. All right, Representative Mayberry, you're for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to, uh,
You used the word allows. I just want to make sure that
Speaker 21
3:33
it, it requires it requires. I apologize. That's my fault and
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
3:36
that's fine because I'm reading shall and I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding that they, they won't have an option, it will be through the Secretary of State's office. It
is a must. OK. And then the second question when so it's a one time cost of $50,000 approximately Secretary of State's office has it, um, potentially though it could save some money for our local government. because they're not having to do all the the work, so could there be um a a savings long term as well? Yes, ma'am.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
4:08
So and there are some county clerks, uh, officials that are here today, I think are going to testify for the bill, but yeah, so, uh, because of when you've got
school boards, you've got corm courts, city councils, you know, a lot of counties are doing that via paper right now. And so you've got staff that is having to handle those paper requests and things like that. So this would take a lot off of our county clerks. I, I can't give you a savings as far as what that would be locally, but yes, from everything I've talked to with our county clerks, this would help them tremendously. OK, thank you. Thank you. Alright, Representative Barry, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Did,
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
4:51
did you just answer it, my question, or what about training? Training, training to get in the system and and uh being able to use it, uh, who's gonna Who's going to provide that training to
Speaker 34
5:08
the county officials. Representative Barry, I think I can answer that. Uh, Secretary of State's office will um get a game plan together for conducting and holding training sessions via either virtual or,
or uh on site, uh, we feel like we are equipped to handle, uh, handle that, um, there is a customer service aspect to this that we feel like we can,
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
5:31
we can meet that demand. Thank you. And Representative Barry, I'll also say after talking with our county clerks, you know, it'll be a change for a lot of local officials, but uh our county clerks are often, they'll also help navigate that, you know, as far as getting people to the website and things like that, talking with some of them, they said, look, we're not just going to say you're on your own, you know, the people are gonna still ask them questions
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
5:53
and and they'll help navigate them to the to the portal to help do that. Well, and the reason I asked that, you know, we, we fought that battle when we changed uh and it's, it sometimes it's not easy and you have to know who
Speaker 40
6:12
to call and and find out those answers or it's, it's really a
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
6:17
nightmare sometimes. And, and I, I will say having conversations with the Secretary of State's office in the
election department like in Northwest Arkansas and South Arkansas, you know, they've got offices in place. And they'll have kiosks in those Secretary of State offices. So if you're in Northwest Arkansas and you have a question, you can
go to your local office to, to help do that as well. Thank you. All right, I have a question. It seems like Representative Underwood and maybe even another representative had
a bill similar to this. Uh, to require local
Representative Kendon Underwood
Unverified
6:54
Candidates to file with the Secretary of State Representative Underwood, is that right? No, I think, um, you may be thinking of, I have a bill and Representative McAlinden has a bill changing the reporting calendar um for how frequently they have to change, which I have here today if we get to to present present um
his bill is kind of in relation
to that, but it's not changing the Secretary of State's office, so yeah, that's right. OK, I remember. So how often are municipal candidates, uh, city council,
mayors, quorum court members, how often are they required to file? because it sounds like Representative Underwood's bill would require the frequency with which They're required to file these reports, your bill says that and I think if I recall his required them to also file with the Secretary of State, but yours is just requiring them
to file with the Secretary of State. Do you know how often they have to
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
7:45
file compared to how often state candidates file. I believe that's an ethics question, but I, I want to say that for local folks, it's like right before the election is up, like they
don't have to do as many as we do, but I, I think that would be an
ethics question on on local folks on when they need a, when they need to file. Currently Graham Sloane, uh, director of the Arts Ethics Commission under current law, County Municipal school board candidates file two reports per election, a maximum of 2 reports per election.
There's a what's called a 10 day pre-election report and then there's a final report, um, and that would be for when I say each election, that would be for the primary for the, if there was a runoff, if there's a general, so it would be 2 reports for election and then meanwhile, state and district candidates, you know, they file quarterly and non-election years, but then in the election year it's monthly and then they also have the pre-elections and finals and so there's a, there's
Speaker 53
8:57
A lot more filings required of a state and district candidate. All right, thank you, Mr. Stallone.
Representative Beck, you're while you're at the at the table, some of our reports, you know, uh, are required
based upon the amount of expenditures and the amount of money that we pull in, would that affect
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
9:19
the frequency of the reports you just talked about. The The reporting trigger is $500 and so it doesn't apply to final
reports. Everybody always has to file a final report, but you're excused from the other reports, uh, until you've received or spent $500. So, and did,
and I'm, I'm sorry just to make clear though if they, if these local elections
went over 500, there would not be like a an additional quarterly or monthly report or anything like that that they would have to do, not under current law. All right, thank you. All right, to follow up on that.
So I remember talking with Representative Underwood
about this. You have so many local candidates, you know, whether that's school board or uh mayor and especially in smaller communities, they're not. They're not used to filling out this paperwork, uh, and that's, I know you would make it electronic. But they're not used to doing this sort of thing. They're not raising any real money, and then, you know, we impose, and I know this is not your bill necessarily Representative
Hunter was, we impose upon them the same type of reporting requirements that we were, we impose upon state officials where there's significant money raised. And it's, you know, there's kind of clear campaign seasons, etc. um. I just have some concerns, especially with those candidates in smaller towns and the sophistication. I mean they almost have to beg people to run for mayor in some places and run for city council and other places and then if you start putting extensive reporting requirements on them and filing reports in Little Rock. Um, you know, as opposed to just at
their county clerk's office locally. Um I just have some concern with
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
11:04
that. Would you address that? Yeah, so the forms that they're currently filling out
at their county clerk's office is gonna be the same exact form that they're gonna be filling out in the state, uh, Secretary of State's website. It's the same forms that you and I fill out, um, so if there's a, you know, if there's a box that says, uh, you didn't raise $500 or more, you check that box. At the end of the day, all these forms are
for ethics and it's being housed on the Secretary of State's website, right? And So, uh, I understand that concern and with this bill, all we're doing is making it a little bit easier to be able to get on the computer and follow your report and it's how centrally with the Secretary of State's website. I think to to address your concern about, you know, people and frequency. I, I think that's a different bill than what this one is. All this is really doing is giving it a central location so that all Arkansans can be able to look up
whatever report is being filed in those municipalities. Yeah, and I
understand that and that's a fair point, but I think there's also a point that these are local candidates and so they filed their reports locally. We don't, we're state candidates, we don't file FEC reports. In Washington, why would we require someone who files for the, you know. Horning school board to file a report in Little Rock. Well, no, no, no, hang on, so it would seem the most logical place to
require local candidates to file would be to file their reports would be in their local clerk's office. Why do we want to centralize everything to Little Rock. I'm not, again, I'm not necessarily for or against it. I just kind of know how this process works and, you know, currently local candidates file local reports. They're locally, you know, accessible to local people. Now we're gonna require them to do it, the reports. Little Rock. So why should we do that? I, I think
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
12:57
that I mean, it's not like they're having to drive to Little Rock. I think once again it's, it's
the housing mechanism for these candidates since this transparency issue because I've had constituents that that go, I, I can't, I don't know how to go to my county clerk and get the report and, and also we're not seeing it until, you know, after it's all said and done, and they, they may forget about it and they may go back and say, you know, what did my mayor candidate from 2022. How much money did he raise in that election and uh General citizen can just go online and type in that candidate's name on the Secretary of State's website
like they do us or anybody else and have it at, at a click of their finger rather than going down physically to the county clerk's office and and pulling that report because a lot of our county clerks don't have it online. They're still doing the paper or if they, they then have to spend the money on an FOI request because we've got county clerks that are that are having to physically pull the papers out and do that report. I think it's just at the end of the day, it's an efficiency. thing. It's a transparency thing, and it just helps everybody
across the board. Yeah, well, I'm sure the county
clerks are for it because they just don't want to fool with the paperwork. They don't want all these people coming in their office all the time to file these
Representative Kendon Underwood
Unverified
14:15
reports. I totally understand that, um. Representative Underwood, you're recognized. Sure, and I think groups kind of addressed what I was gonna mention and although the chairman, I think. You know, I understand your points, but I What you said was right now, maybe, maybe I'm wrong about this, but counties, most of them are not putting their these online, right? So if you're Just, you know, if you're just a constituent who wants to know
this information, you physically have to go get it to do that. So this, in my view, provides as a benefit to our Kansans because now they can just get online and find out this information quickly, right? Correct. And to your point too, I think even if it is not locally um filed, they this is pretty simple if you can just do it online, um, to file these reports rather than have to physically drive somewhere to do that. Is that, am
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
15:01
I mischaracterizing any of that. Whenever, so like whenever I was
a city council member in Bryant, right? I would fill out my report, right? And I would, I would get it, um, notarized and I would take it down to to the um county clerk's office. While I'm also working, while I'm doing everything else. If I could just simply just go on to the Secretary of State's website, fill it all out. Do an e-signature, call it good. It, it, it saves time and efficiency for the candidates and then for the general public that wants to be able to go look up, you know, representative under or council member
Underwood if you were, uh, they could just go from their laptop at their house and type up and see what election reports you
had on the system. Thank you. Representative Beck. I For long I, I, I love the new website. It works
great, but there were a lot of members that struggled with that when we started that as to how to do that. So I'm just saying the training part of this thing might be a little bit larger. than than we think, but I, I'll leave that to you guys, but the
main concern is it seems like we're trying to address transparency here, which I like and I, I love the idea of someone if they wanted to be able to go on to the website, the Secretary of State's website and see what the councilmen or whoever was done. I, I like that concept, but I, I guess I, I do believe that the training is going to be a bigger issue than than what we think. So is it, is it possible that somehow we we might ify this To say that the county clerk
basically loads that information up to the Secretary of State. They still get the information. The the the local candidate that there's no more on them. They're still doing the same reports just like I did before, but that the that the county clerk then could load that
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
16:52
up to the Secretary of State. Now it becomes visible. Uh, for, you know, someone who'd want to see it and, and you'd avoid all that training and, and, you know, putting an extra
load on someone who might be considering running for the county clerk. Uh, do you not think that might?
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
17:09
Wouldn't you agree or something, I guess I can, I can see your point, um, I, I think that From what I've been
told with a lot of our county clerks, we're understaffed as it is, right? And and it's hard to get people to come in there and work and so if we are not only taking the paper and then saying, OK, now somebody in the office is going to have to sit over here and manually input these things on the Secretary of State's website. I, I think that takes away the efficiency part and it takes away from our county clerks doing other jobs and other tasks when they're already
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
17:41
understaffed and and potentially underfunded. But it, it couldn't be as simple as taking the actual form that they fill out scanning it into the system and then it's logged under that candidate's name and they could actually look at
that. This is the form they filed saying whatever, you
Speaker 11
18:00
know, Representative Beck, I'm assuming uh just kind of reframing your question a little bit. Under your idea, you
Speaker 34
18:07
basically are saying scan it in and have
it as a PDF available, is that correct? I would have to see if the system has a capability. I believe it does, uh, but you know that would just simply be a PDF of a document as opposed to as, as you all, most of you all file you put those contributions and expenditures in manually and it all breaks it down electronically and, and all that. I'd have to look into that and see if that's uh possible. I love the new system. I,
I think it's great. This is not against the new system. I'm just trying to say what's the easiest way to
get what you guys at, which seems to be transparency on some of these local elections, and I think, you know, scanning the PDF that the information we require them to to give us scanning that. Into a PDF that that could be logged into the state website with
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
18:55
their name on it, uh, that's searchable by some local would be a great compromise, I think. Yeah, and I'll
just make one more point and, you know, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. And these are local elections.
It's local election of a local school board. The local city council person, a local mayor. local JP. etc. Are we trying to make the Secretary of State the master of all elections, including all local elections in Arkansas, uh, I mean, right now we've kind of kept local elections local and you know, this is just kind of more centralization. I'll go back to.
And so can you address that?
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
19:44
Once again, these election reports are for ethics and, and ethics is
the state house for like they handle all, whether it be local, state, federal issues, right? And so all we're doing, the Secretary of State, all they're doing is housing these documents, right? And so I I think my answer to you would be if somebody had an issue locally, right, off of the form that was submitted. They're going to go back to the state ethics board and file that
complaint, um, it's the same forms as, as what we're doing and so I think that I, I can see what you're saying. Are we making the Secretary of State, the central authority, but at the end of the day, all they are is the housing. They're the
server that's going to house all this for the ethics commission. So Representative Beck's point, do you have a problem with those documents being kept locally and just transmitted to the Secretary of State. I mean, I, once again, I don't, I don't have a problem
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
20:42
with it. I just know talking with um the, the county clerks, that would
just be an added step for them to do when sometimes they're underfunded and You know, undermanned. Does this include statements of financial interest and other documents is
just only your reports. I see, because those are filed locally too, uh, as I recall with the city clerk or the county clerk depending on the appropriate correct person,
correct. All right, any other questions about the committee, Representative Rose? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
21:17
Quick question for ethics. Um, our local candidates.
The campaign finance rules that apply to like statewide office holders are more or less the same with regards to uh contribution um maximum allowed contributions, not being able to accept contributions from uh business entities and those kinds of things, are those, are those ethics, those laws, rules,
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
21:44
all mostly the same. Yes,
candidates play by the same rules whether they're state district, county municipal school board. And then the differences in the law are the reporting statutes, and it's not even really the information in the reports. It's the frequency of the reports. Typically
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
22:04
when there's violations in those areas that's brought to you through
the form of a public
complaint, is that correct? Um, Representative Hall, would it be accurate to say that it's
difficult for members of the public to access this type of information should they be wanting to. Uh, keep a candidate or an elected official and check with their campaign
and their fundraising and those types of things. Um So would it also be accurate to say
that this would make those reports more readily available for the public and also for anybody running for
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
22:43
office. Correct. And I would say to that, that if, if there was
somebody that was doing something nefarious, um, you could catch that during the election rather than after it's
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
22:56
over and nobody cares anymore. Yeah, and my, my follow-up would be, would it be easier to do those things, the, the way they're filing. system is currently set up versus the way our filing system is
set up. Would it be easier to get away with some of those
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
23:12
violations. All right, thank you. So, uh just one more statements if you would agree with this because you've obviously talked
to the county clerks more about this, but it seems to me
like it would be easier for the county clerks, yeah, I, I understand that scanning the documents in would be an additional step for them, but then possibly we could do the legislation that would say that once they scan those into the Secretary of State, the PDS, and now the, the county clerks no longer have to keep a copy of those that they would, the, the Secretary of State would then be The official keeper of those documents and that would actually save them a lot of work too. Uh, so they wouldn't have
to keep those massive files of all those things for however many years they have to keep them, and I, I think it would also probably help with the ethics group that that that you would have better access to them via the Secretary
of State's site than you would. Uh, filed in some
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
24:08
county uh file cabinet somewhere just to and Chairman, I think I would, I would want to defer to somebody with the association of counties or the county clerks just on, on that workload even cause I've
just talked to a few county clerks about these issues, you know, they have a a broader scope on the workload
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
24:30
and things of that nature when it comes to that. OK, seeing no other questions from the from the committee, uh, we have one person to speak for the
bill. Alison Crane. I'm sorry. Please identify yourself for the
Speaker 100
24:50
comedian who you may be representing here and uh then you're ready to go. Thank you. I'm Alison Kaine.
Speaker 102
24:58
I'm the election coordinator for Saline County. Um, I believe HB 1707, it would help in a lot of ways, some of which have already been addressed. The biggest I see is transparency and we've an availability for the public we do get a lot of requests for these reports, uh, especially during election season. Um, so to have it all in one central location for us just to
be able to direct the person requesting it would help them get it, I think in a very timely and efficient manner they could just go to one, the portal and have it right there for anyone, uh, that they would like to get it from, um, I see that as the biggest probably pro of this bill is for the public to give them the availability to readily get what they need for the candidate. I think it helps them, they have all their reports filed in one area. We do get um candidates that come in and say hey can I get my
last report I filed, uh, which we do help and we do give that to them um but it would just help them to have availability to them as well at any time if they're working on it on the weekend, in the evening, that way they can just go to the portal and you know, pull that down for themselves, um, as we've already said, I think it would help the public most of all, um, that's probably the biggest requester is the. public wanting to see what candidates or spending and what they're receiving for the
candidate. It gives them accessibility and then for the clerk's offices, especially the smaller offices who don't have the funds to put these reports online. I mean, we just went probably last year to assist them to allow us to have them available to the public. So for your smaller offices, it is a fee involved to have a program. To have these available online so to just to use what's already in place as Representative Hawk said as a housing agent, I think would be really helpful for everyone.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
26:57
All right, are you ready for questions? Yes sir. Well, the first question is you've heard of some of the talk back and forth about scanning the documents in and going to the Secretary of State and while we, well. We perceive as The committee, some of the committee members perceive as a uh as
an easier way to go about this. What's your feeling on them or, or maybe you can tell us some more with that ideal is lacking or or. To have them scanned in, is that the county clerk does the exact same they're they're doing now, but they just scan them into the
secretary of state and then therefore they wouldn't have
Speaker 102
27:31
to file them they'd just be kept at the Secretary of State's office. Um, so right now just for an example in Sling County and our county clerk's office, I mean, there's 5 of us that are full time. Now we do bring in um additional people during elections for part-time help so it would have to be a designated person to do this, um. Just for workload, um, we still have our other issues, you know, that aren't just elections, we
do probate filings, issue marriage licenses, house a lot of other county documents, so it would, it would need to be a person designated that you know you're gonna get these and scan them in it's not hard, it would just be a time and having the manpower to do that and if the offices had
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
28:20
someone to come in. Thank you, uh, Representative Beatty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I appreciate you coming today and sharing your thoughts on this question, uh, the county
clerk there in Salle County in, in favor of, of moving forward with this um proposal. They are, um, and, and right now in your assigned duties there at the county level, um, are you assigned any, uh, duties related to to maintaining and keeping the um the campaign finance report in Saline County, or is there someone else in
your department or in the clerk's office that handles
Speaker 102
28:51
that. Yes, sir. um, so as coordinator on the point person for that or ladies that work up
front do accept these reports and file them, but usually I'm the, the contact and um It's myself and the voter registrar that are full time in the elections department, so to speak, so, um, it's just it's us, so it would require us bringing in a part-time person to help with that, especially during election season when we have just a lot of other things
Speaker 100
29:20
that I would say or just pressing for time during those times, especially during voting and
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
29:26
things like that. And just a follow up. Are, are
you currently utilizing any scanning or electronic versions of these reports for, for folks do you keep them in a database or something there, uh, or do you just keep them in a file folder in a in a cabinet somewhere there
Speaker 102
29:40
at the at the courthouse. Yes, sir, so we actually do both. We use a program by local consulting firm that we scan all those in and like I said, last year we went um with him as well as having these available to the public and then we also keep a backup paper
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
29:55
copy. Good deal. I appreciate you coming today. Thank you.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
30:05
Seeing not questions from the committee. Is there anyone else in the audience want to speak for or against this? Say now represented Underwood, represent a hawk here, uh.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
30:17
Re to close for your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, while Saline County is one that that does do it online. They, they are
in the very, they're in the minority of counties that do this online. There's a lot that don't, that are still, you know, they've got the old filing cabinet that they're filing these reports
away and they've got more and more and so at the end of the day, this is a transparency bill that's going to allow for our Kansans that aren't running for office to be able to go on and see candidates and how much money they've raised and what they've done in their elections.
So with that being said, I, I think this is a good bill. I think this is a good thing for Arkansas and I would make
a motion to pass. Uh, we have a motion to pass. Is there any discussion on
Representative Kendon Underwood
Unverified
31:00
the motion? Underwood make this quick. I, I, I agree with Representative Pak on this.
I do think that the benefit to Arkansans um is is. Great with this bill, I guess, maybe that's an overexaggeration, but I do think it's really good. And so
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
31:18
I'm gonna be voting for this bill. Seeing no other comments on the motion. All right, all those in favor say aye aye
Speaker 118
31:28
and he oppose. Congratulations of hocke, you passed your bill. Thank you.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
31:46
OK, next up we have House Bill 1422 Representative Long. Please identify yourself for the committee and you are. OK to go. Thank you,
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
32:05
Mr. Chairman. Representative Wayne Long, House District 39, and if I could go ahead and invite, um, some
folks from the Secretary of State's office up because I'm sure you'll have some questions for
them. I hope Who's with the Secretary of State is going to be up. Please identify yourself with the committee and then. You're
Speaker 131
32:31
there to go. Josh Bridges, assistant director of elections for
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
32:38
Secretary of State. Good morning, committee. Um, I attended a meeting last year at a conference and the subject of
non-citizens registering to vote came up and when I got back from that meeting, I contacted the Secretary of State's office to find out if that was a problem in Arkansas. And what I found out led to the writing of this bill. Under current Arkansas law, only two documents are required to register to vote. A valid driver's license and Social Security card. According to the Department of Finance and Administration, Arkansas currently has 71,648 legal aliens with driver's licenses, uh, or state issued IDs.
These cards resemble. Everybody else's driver's license except in small print. It has the statement limited term, which until I started researching this bill. I had no idea what that meant, and I would imagine most of the people that work at the polling places wouldn't know either, but what that limited term means is the um license is set to expire whenever they're um visa would run out. Um So I got to thinking it's like
71,648 people is more people than we have in two house districts. Um, of course, you know, they were all concentrated one geographic location. But due to their legal status, these uh aliens would have eligibility to get a Social Security number so they can legally work in in Arkansas and in the United States. So therefore they, they possess all the necessary documents to register to vote. The only obstacle left is to check the box on the registration form that says you are a citizen. And that's basically just
requiring uh someone being, being willing to lie. Currently, the Secretary of State's office lacks the information that DFA has on these 71,648 individuals to be able to cross reference these folks' names and addresses with our current Arkansas voter registration rolls. This bill provides the Secretary of State with the required access to DFA data on these individuals. It also authorizes um the use of other databases uh in helping
them to, um, uh, purge, uh, non non-citizens or uh ineligible people from our voter rolls. Additionally, it mandates that the um in addition, excuse me, additionally, it mandates that the limited term driver's licenses and ID cards be printed in a vertical uh or portrait type format. Uh, such as we use for for uh young people under 21 years of age currently. Uh, under this bill also poll workers would receive training
to be vigilant and identifying these limited term cards uh that are issued to non-citizens. So when they, you know, show
up to to the polling places. You know, they'll know what to look
for. Um I guess that's about it, about all I have. It's a pretty simple bill. Um, I'll be happy to take any
questions. the Secretary of State's office like to add something or?
Speaker 137
35:55
I'm here for questions if there are any. Alright, thank
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
36:01
you. in it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, can you provide specific data on how many non-citizens have been found to have illegally voted here in Arkansas.
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
36:10
I'm glad you asked that question because when I went to the Secretary of State's office to find out if this was a problem in Arkansas, they said, basically, we don't have any way of knowing because they cannot access the data from
DFA to see if these folks are even registered to vote. So they, they were pretty excited about the idea of being able to see that because, you know, it's almost 100,000 people that could potentially be voting, but we don't really know and will not know until this bill passes and goes in into effect next year, uh, then they would be able to do the query to find out, uh, are these people registered and if they do find out they're registered, they would also be able to find out if they've been
voting in the past. I'm gonna add just a little bit
Speaker 11
36:59
to that if I, if I may, representative,
Speaker 34
37:01
um, Act 441 of 2023, uh, mandated the Secretary of State's office to basically figure out a way to check for citizenship status for registered voters, um, since then we have been diligently looking for a good methodology to to find that, um, and we just have not found a good way to, to check for that. Uh, we looked into something at the federal level called the Sa program and the data that was there was not
necessarily conducive to what the the law had required at that time. So, um, and to kind of add a little bit more to your question, representative, the, the voter registration application in and of itself is an affidavit. Uh, they're swearing, swearing under the penalty of perjury, uh, that they meet all the qualifications to register to vote, but you know, in order to question that would have to come up in a court of law at this time and and we just, we don't have that's kind of a blind spot. We don't know
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
38:01
how many or if any at all, um, you know, are on the rolls at this time. Um Representative
Mayberry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You mentioned something about the identificate the the driver's license would be vertical, um, it, is that correct? So that would be a little more noticeable to see. What about if you currently have that um driver's license, or
Speaker 146
38:28
you're gonna have to go back and get a
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
38:33
different one or just when it comes up for renewal, when it comes up for renewal, and of course like I mentioned earlier, the limited term coincides with their, their visa, so, you know, at some point it's gonna run out. Um, and when they come in, basically they'll just change the format, uh, which basically it's not, you know, much of a big deal since they're already
Speaker 148
38:51
set up to do that for the young people, um, so it's only, only new ones being issued. If you already have it, you're good and you don't have to go back and renew
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
39:05
and get something. OK. And um and the reason for trying to do the, the portrait style is, it's very small print on there currently. I, I wanted to try to make it bigger or something, you know, so it'd be noticeable, uh, to the poll workers, um, I'll leave it to the federal government. They say exactly what size the print has to be on the license and um what color it had to be because I wanted to make it, you know, a different. color to make it stand out. No, got to be just like this, um,
but that was tied to the real ID Act, I think from 19. 86 or something like that, no, I don't think it's 86. I'm sorry. I think it's 2006, um, that limited term, uh, being on there was required because folks can use their driver's license to get the real ID and um if so if we change that, it would mess these legal aliens up from being able to get the real ID, which was not the intention of this bill. We just want to make sure that nobody is voting that's not a citizen.
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
40:09
in it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. How many registered voters
Speaker 152
40:25
right around 1.8 million registered voters
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
40:27
at this time. OK. um, what mechanisms are in place to ensure the accurate accuracy of the state's data. And how will you prevent lawful
residents from being wrongfully purged from voter rolls are having
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
40:48
their licenses suspended. Um, I'll jump in the first, uh, in the first edition it did uh in the first edition it did require the last be suspended, um, when I make some other changes, I thought, well, we probably could do without that in because it is illegal to register to vote, uh, if you're not a citizen, so I thought the um.
That would be enough punishment there that they would possibly be prosecuted for. illegally signing up to vote, um, and Representative, what
was, what was that the party question? I'm sorry. I got one track mine
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
41:27
I got derailed. How will, how will this bill prevent lawful residents from being wrongfully purged from voter rolls are having their licenses suspended. We,
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
41:36
we address that in the bill
that uh if the person that is being removed if you registered vote, it doesn't appear to be a citizen, they're going to receive a letter uh saying that you know, basically, uh, you need to provide proof that you really are a uh a registered, or excuse me, a citizen, so you
know, they would not be. Removed from
the water rolls at that point. Because no more questions, of course the attention is not
to try to stop legal citizens from,
from voting. We we never want to do that. It's just basically trying to make sure
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
42:19
that um Uh, that only citizens are voting. Alright, see no other questions from the committee. We do have a couple of people that
want to speak on the bill. The first one, to speak against the bells, Maria wreath. And I apologize if I'm Mispronounced your name. Please identify
Speaker 158
42:36
yourself for the committee and who you're here representing.
Speaker 159
42:43
Thank you so much, uh, Mr. Chair. Uh, it's, uh, Mireiari, um, but I appreciate the effort and I'm the founding executive director of Arkansas United, and I've been accompanying these legislative processes for 15 years, um, to build a bridge between policy and our immigrant community, and I'm really excited to say we're a membership-based organization of hard immigrant workers um who've actually worked successfully with this legislature to pass bills that expanded opportunities, especially for our
students with DACA and to make sure that they could be in that workforce pipeline contributing to our economy. Um, the, our number one concern with HB 1422 is um the basis by which it's presented, um, and, uh, this idea of non-citizens voting, um, amongst um the various work programs that we run at Arkansas United. We've been very proud for 15 years to do, um, nonpartisan, um, civic engagement. engagement with our community,
and we actually support immigrants in becoming citizens, um, and we accompany them through that whole process of um making sure that they have the right legal assistance to be able to file those citizenship applications, uh, we work uh with various partners to help uh get them uh prepared for that citizenship test and then we're there at the naturalization ceremony is to register them to vote and then uh we do that voter registration with the community of citizens. And only of citizens to make
sure um that they too um have access um to be uh there in the voting process and they've been proud um to turn out an increasing numbers uh in voting in our state, um, and to also do things like the census. And I just wanna uh affirm um that that citizenship process and everything involved with it is very arduous, um, and it is multiple steps, and there is um awareness um deeply in our community that only citizens can vote, um, and,
uh, as somebody, um, myself and then within our organization, we'll come up alongside election commissions with interpreters, um, volunteer interpreters, just to interpret and help, uh, where sometimes there's access, um, we will say that we have never witnessed in 15 years anyone uh who's anything but a citizen that's coming up, uh, to register to vote or to actually execute um the process. There's just so much ceremony around citizenship, um, the
naturalization, the flag, um, that, that really is something um that for us, uh, we wanna say we we wish that this bill wasn't felt that it was necessary in Arkansas, uh, because, um, it's something that we, um, just really have not seen as an issue and where um the data sharing is something that um we have observed, um, we have witnessed over the years, members of our community who've been purged from polls. through the name uh checking and data sharing within this. Our biggest concern within our
members um is the vertical um license, um, because in addition to voting, those driver's licenses are used um for other reasons. Most importantly, reporting crime, um, and engaging with law enforcement. Um, we've been very proud over the last year to work with your human trafficking commission to work with your state police, to work with law enforcement, um, for, uh, years. Now we've had issues of immigrants reporting on crime and um being able to have a safe
document, um, that doesn't immediately get jumped out because it looks different from everybody else's. It's something that's critical for us in terms of being able to help our broader community, um, in this process and we wanna be part of the change we want to see in Arkansas. Uh, we wanna see Arkansas be a safe place where we have strong relations and we've spoken with law enforcement about this bill. and they share their desire of continuing to work with us and so, um, yeah, overall, um, again, we stand against HB 1422
because we don't feel it's necessary, but we especially appeal to this committee, sir, um, and, and, um, and members of the committee, um, that, um, the consideration around the vertical um licenses is not necessary and something that may actually hurt other important functions, um, as our community relates to just being. Arkansans and being proud of um trying to to do the best for the state. Thank you so much. OK. Representative Rose.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
47:24
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your testimony today. Thank you for your work, uh, helping folks who are becoming citizens in this country and uh becoming, you know, very successful members of our state. Uh, I had a
couple of quick questions, um. The two concerns I heard you say in your closing, I think the two that I took notes on while you were speaking, stemmed from the different, the different driver's license and then uh your stance or your organization's stance that it's not necessary. Um, what I will say.
Let's set the DL to aside for just a second, uh, we had a constitutional amendment proposed
in here earlier this week and there was a poll that was taken and
it had um dramatic numbers that Arkansans had concerns about only citizens voting in our elections. So I recognize um the focus of your organization and the work that you do and why you may take the stance that you do, um. But
Aside from the vertical driver's license. Is there something else in this bill. That you see as Wrong or incorrect or um I know you say it's, you
don't believe it's necessary, but for um a large number of Arkansans, they may feel that it is necessary. So I just kind of, if there's any more detail that you can give me other than just being opposed, which I
can understand, but I want to know why. No, thank you, sir.
Speaker 159
48:57
And, and again, um our principal goal
with today um it's, it's probably twofold. One, that we do want to be able, as somebody who works directly with immigrant voters in the state, um, to affirm that non-citizens are not voting in Arkansas, um, and there's a lot of check and balances as related to that, um, and bills like this give us concern that it propels um that uh interpretation that that is the. case and um and for us it's just so important on behalf of our members that it be known that
immigrants are very aware of the citizenship process and aren't trying to um uh vote when they're not able to and that there's a lot of protections and checks to balance against it. And then the second is is related to the vertical, sir. Um, we don't love the data sharing, but at the end of the day we feel confident in our members, um, and so, um, we will continue to make sure that they're checking voter view and making sure that they are registered as they are to be, but it is that vertical designation that really makes them stand out. In other
cases where they're presenting their ID as somebody who's different from everybody else and in ways that could be negative to those interactions. And that's where our members um brought to us their primary concern was in the vertical, um, uh, uh, a license, sir. Uh, just a,
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
50:17
a follow up on this, uh, not in regards to your organization, um, I'm, I'm believing in everything you're saying about the work
you guys are doing and I'm, I'm grateful for the, uh, the voter registration as they're becoming citizens. I think that's a great thing. Um, are you aware, I'm, I'm sure that you are, but I'm
asking for the sake of the committee. Uh, are you aware
of other states and cities that not only allow but encourage non-citizens to vote in their elections. across
Speaker 159
50:46
our country. Uh, so sir, we, we are aware of at least one city, New York City, that actually has changed their own local laws to be able to allow individuals who haven't achieved citizenship to vote in local elections, um, but that was a very intentional decision by just the city of New York,
um, that we know is is right now being discussed in courts and in other spaces that, um, but that is the only one I'm aware of. We've never had a conversation like that, uh, here in Arkansas. Um, and, uh, for our community, um, and the way that we run our elections here in Arkansas, um, because they tend to be on cycle with state, there's not that confusion or that possibility of confusion between the difference of a local election versus state and federal election, um, our community, especially rallies
and unites around election day, um, and it's a big issue, whole families will come together, we'll go out and celebrate
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
51:44
the Civic act of those of us of citizens voting. Thank you and I'll hop out
of the queue after this one, Mr. Chair. I will say that there, there, I believe it's 20 plus cities that have um opened their elections to non-citizens, and then there's multiple states so that there is a concern broadly that this is something that is being proposed and encouraged in other places. Again, not your
organization, but more broadly that it is something that um is happening and this is, I
believe that this bill is attempting. to uh put some safeguards in place to deter that. Do you
Speaker 159
52:19
have anything to say about that? Um, I, thank you, sir, and uh thank you. um I'll, I'll trust you on the numbers there. Um, I will say that um we are deeply committed to Arkansas politics, and we know that a proposal like that has never been presented or debated here in our state and that are again members um our
immigrant community is very clear that only citizens vote, um, they celebrate the citizenship process, they celebrate this, and our Concern is the othering of um our immigrant community by a different identification. And again, these are legal immigrants, um, and we get nervous because of all the changes happening and the immigration, uh, world right now, um, any time we put the state or local government having to try and interpret that. I know I do that for a living and it's hard to do so and it always makes us worry about individuals who might be maliciously,
although unintentionally affected by um those changes.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
53:20
Thank you. Representative Beatty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, I just wanted to say that I appreciate the hard work and, and what you do for the immigrant community that comes to the state, uh, I, I think you've stressed and you made your point that the importance of, of becoming a citizen and, and, and the values that we have here is, is, as Americans, uh, and to
participate in, in our form of government. So I, I applaud your efforts there, um. And I'll get around to a question in just a second. Uh. So I, I understand that you may view this somewhat as an attack or singling out the immigrant population. But from your perspective, the people that come to you are, are good actors. They're coming here to be part of something that's important, uh, something that they, they have sacrificed and and given up.
A lot to come and be a part of. So my question to you is if you have one individual that is not following that and following the right path and they don't have good intentions and if this issue catches one or two of those people, is that not an improvement and does not, does that not back up your, your demographics and your and your segment of the population that you're advocating for every day. Does that not reinforce the importance of that and the value that we place on. our immigrants that come here to
seek citizenship and voting. If we just catch
Speaker 159
54:47
one, would you agree with that? Well, well, sir, I, I guess I would offer, um, maybe a slightly different perspective. I would offer, how are we going to catch that one? And, and for us part of how we catch and and um get ahead of finding who those individuals are, is our community feeling safe to report in our community feeling that they can go to law enforcement, they can go to other entities and be part of identifying those individuals. As I shared, I
think some of the work we've been most proud of this last year is our collaborations with your. Human trafficking commission and unfortunately when they're given an ID that makes them look different and distinguishes them from others. That's the kind of thing that gives them pause from being able in terms of reporting on
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
55:31
those individuals that you speak of, sir, and just to follow up, my perspective is the fact that
they're going through that process and identifying and they've got that ID lets me know if I'm working a pole or I when
I was uh election commissioner that that's somebody that values and they're, they're working hard To, to get to that point of citizenship and, and where they have the same full rights that we do as American citizens. So someone that, you know, yes, it's gonna to single them out, but not for persecution, but for me for a little bit of respect for what they've gone through to get here and, and, and the, the sacrifices they made to become an American citizen, so I, I would ask that you look at that perspective as well. And thank you again for coming today and the work that you do. Thank you.
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
56:19
Right, Representative Bennett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, can you, um, earlier in your testimony, you mentioned some. If I
heard you correctly, unattended consequences if 1422 passes, can you expound on some of those unintended consequences.
Speaker 159
56:35
So, um, the unintended the, the umbrella by which uh we're looking at unintended consequences is kind of the othering of, of our legal immigrant community and um beyond the execution of the
vote, all the other ways that one uses their identification and um we're concerned about our community feeling comfortable and being able to approach police or others if their ID looks differently, um, they're using it for banks, using it for any other, uh, purpose, city government or such and in their interactions, um, and, and we are concerned, um, as related to um the execution of this and the issuing of it, um, there will be
some costs to the state. I know there was a fiscal impact report to this. There's no way to do this without some cost to the state and to taxpayers and um and I appreciate um uh Representatives long clarification that this would be um happen at the time of re I will say when we read the bill, it was our interpretation that uh this goes into effect January 1st of, of 2026. And so, um, we would be concerned about people losing their driving privileges, um, in a transition for this, and if there is any
question and so maybe kindly beseech to this committee, if it really is when it's up, that that's clear, um, uh, because, uh, if there is any sort of date of implementation that could disrupt um again potentially 70,000 people from getting to work legally, right? um, and driving and again all the other uses um that
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
58:15
they might have as related to that. All right. Seeing no other uh. Questions that I would appreciate your testimony and next.
A is Marcela Garcia to speak against the bell.
Please identify yourself for the committee and uh
Marisa Garcia
Unverified
58:38
you're good to go. Good morning. My name is Marisa Garcia. I'm with Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families for more than 47 years, Arkansas advocates has worked with the legislature to endorse policies that are founded in data and
research and that are going to improve the lives of all Arkansas's family and children. This bill has a number of issues that are substantially um dangerous inside of it. First, Arkansas has a very low voting turnout and the bill itself reduces the amount of uh or the types of um identification that can be used to register to vote. In addition, if a non-immigrant
were to use their uh driver's license that they currently have and their social security card, they would automatically be identified as not eligible to vote because their Social Security card up until the point you become a US citizen, so that means you could be on a visa, become a permanent resident, meaning a green card holder and I, and you will have a Social Security card that says not valid for work without employment authorization. The Social Security card itself says that
on the top, and that itself makes it clear that that person is not a US citizen because no US citizen will have that on their Social Security card. Um, I think it's important to understand there are no reports in other states that have seen reports, it's been very low numbers and There is not a group of non-migrants or non-US citizens who are looking to vote. Knowing that they do not have
the status to vote because it is the most dangerous thing they can do. Voting, if you're not eligible to do so will permanently ban you from ever having status in the United States. I said I worked for Arkansas Advocates, that's true, but I wasn't the director of Catholic immigration Services for 9.5 years and so I worked in immigration for a very long time and I have spoken to the community at length, no one. wants to do the one of very few
things that will permanently bar you from being eligible for any status. It means their visa could be revoked. And it also means that they uh they will never be eligible ever to return to the United States. So the problem is that this doesn't exist and we are using a huge overreach to try to address it. Requiring a report every month from DFNA itself would be costly. In addition, uh, two
years ago, DFNA testified when there was talk of driver's license changes that it would be very difficult for them to change uh driver's licenses to be vertical because the the reason we already have a vertical license is to ensure that we have people who are under 21, have that vertical license so that they can be identified, they're not, they cannot get alcohol. I cannot get cigarettes, all of those things, and instead we would have to switch that driver's license to some other
format, um, and furthermore, it's uh not. Um, Easy for them to do that, and it's not easy for them to then meet the requirements for real ID. So that is likely that that rule that was put in place to ensure that minors aren't getting access to harmful things, uh, would end up with the regular driver's license because there's not another format that they could easily transition it to. I think we should also not overlark
overlook what is a large data intrusion when the sec when the of DFNA has to send a report every single month with all of the information of people who are non-US citizens who provided that information for the sole purpose of getting a driver's license, that information is confidential. It's not meant to be given out for any other purpose, it would make more sense to me if we in fact were trying to catch people that we went through the voter roll and
identified those people that you think you have some reasonable belief that they have, they are not eligible to vote, and then you could contact those people to provide the documents as opposed to turning over thousands and thousands of data, thousands and thousands of individuals' data every month because immigration law is fluid and it changes and so a person in under 4 years, I can think of multiple types of visas that you could. Your visa could be valid for 4
years. You could be a non-immigrant on a visa, switch and because you applied and you qualified, become a lawful permanent resident and then become a US citizen in less than that 4 years. I, I have been to uh citizenship ceremonies at the Capitol, and oftentimes when they have that here, they have voter registration at that moment. So that person who is registering as eligible to vote, but the way that this is
set up, they would automatically be kicked off, not only kicked off the voter roll, but then that goes back to the FNA and they have their driver's license suspended without any due process, without proof that this actual person has done something wrong and it means that they will, if they are stopped by the police and they are yet unaware that their license is suspended that a suspended driver's license sentence
carries with it a mandatory two-day jail time plus a very hefty fee, um, even though it's a misdemeanor. We, we see that as heavier than, uh, just striving without a license. I think when we look at this case, it's really difficult to determine status, as I said, it's fluid. We shouldn't be in the process of gathering large groups of data that are meant for one thing and granting it to another for a different purpose.
If there was a non-citizens who had voted, we would have seen it in the news stories as we see in other states, it's not happening here because many, many people No, the impact that would cause for them and no one is trying to lose their future immigration status. Um The last thing I would say is if we are gonna penalize people on the basis of, uh, their, their supposed status, we have
to be clear before we we pull that data off. When you become a US citizen, you can legally change your name. If you are from uh many foreign countries, you might have two last names, a first name and middle name. It's very complicated, people mix your names up and things, but I have had clients who US citizens who were turned away from different things, accidentally caught up in ice raids because they have the same name as another person. Accidentally taken in by the
police on a, on a, you know, order that was not for them. So there needs to be more clarity in how we make that determination and ensure that there's a due process for these individuals who are not actually doing anything wrong, they're providing their information to DFNA as required to get a driver's license. So again, I would ask you to vote against the bill.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:06:40
Thank you. OK, uh thank you for your testimony. Uh, we have nobody
else, no one else has signed up to speak for against the bill. Is there anyone in the group that would like to All right. I singing that one, I represented
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:06:59
longer, you're recognized the clothes for your belt. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I did want to point out that um uh that the lady had just mentioned, um, was incorrect that the um uh portion of the bill that required suspension of the license was in the 1st
1st bill before it was amended, so that's no longer in there. So that, that shouldn't be a problem. Um As far as the, the um The distinctive driver's license. I mean, we're doing that on, on purpose because a lot of the folks that work at the, the polling places or for older people that's the volunteers should do that and um I basically I was just trying to make it easy for them to, you know, recognize, uh, if someone's trying to vote that should not be voting. Hopefully it's not going to be happening a
lot, but as the Secretary of State's office had mentioned earlier, they really don't know how many, how much is happening because they, they're forbid. to have the data, um, they've also mentioned that the data that's available through the Social Security Administration through the federal government has been uh lacking as far as it's um um Usefulness, I guess. Uh, but You know, the, the folks that
are that we have these student driver's licenses. They are guests here in our country, um, they, you know, they, they're required to have a visa to to get into the country. Uh, I don't think it's um really a burden to ask them to help us protect the integrity of our our voting system and if, if they really do plan to become citizens, I think that they probably would have an appreciation for the fact that we're trying to make sure that only citizens vote and someday when they're Citizen that non-citizens might
not be voting in diluting their vote, um, so I really don't think. It's, it's certainly not intended to, uh, single people out uh in a bad way. It's just basically kind of a fact of life that um we need to have these licenses, you know, to, uh, it would would be able to um. Easily be noticed at the polling place and also, uh, by
being able to cross reference the data, um, we will
be able to, to prevent people from even being registered or or purged them from the voter registration, uh, books. Um, I think that was everything I was needing to cover, um. I think we all would agree that only citizens should vote and um. Um, I closed on a bill and would make a motion to
pass. Thank you. Uh, we have a motion to pass. Is there any discussion on the motion? representative in it.
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
1:09:54
Thank you. I'll be voting on this, sorry, voting on this bill, um, due to the unintended consequences that this might have and it's not really an issue here in
Arkansas. Thank you. All right, is there any other discussion on the
motion? Saying none. All those in favor say aye. He posts. The eyes have it. Congratulations. OK.
OK, roll call that. I see two hands. Fine.
Speaker 196
1:10:34
All right. I'm, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you had,
two hands. We're gonna roll
Speaker 202
1:10:48
call it. Sorry. Representative Meeks, Representative Meeks, yes. Representative Wardlaw.
Representative Wardlaw. Representative Barry, Representative Barry, yes, Representative Mayberry. Representative Mayberry, no. Representative Crawford. Representative Crawford. Representative Clowney. Representative Clowney. Representative Collins, Representative Collins, no. Representative Evans. Representative Evans. Representative in it.
Representative in it? No. Representative McElroy, Representative Mcroy, no. Representative Ray, Representative Ray. Representative Beatty Representative Beatty, yes. Representative Carr, Representative Carr, yes. Representative Underwood. Representative Underwood, yes. Representative Long
Representative Long, yes. Representative Hawk. Representative Hark, yes. Representative Rose. Representative Rose, yes. Representative Wooldridge, Representative Woldridge, yes. Representative Gazaway Representative Gasaway, yes.
Speaker 211
1:12:29
Congratulations, your bill is passed. Thank you. do
you about. OK, uh, without objections, we're gonna, I'm gonna jump out of order here. We're gonna listen to Senate bill 227 next so representative view banks without is there are there any objections? Saying none representative Eubanks, you're recognized to present Senate Bill 227.
I'm sorry, excuse me. I OK, you know, please identify yourself for the committee, uh, and uh
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
1:13:25
you guys are state representative John Eubanks District 46. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members
Clark Tucker, State Senator, District 14. I want to thank the chairman and committee for taking, taking this bill out of order, uh, unfortunately, I have a appointment from a little surgical procedure. I had a couple of weeks ago, so I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna introduce the bill and then I'm gonna have to ask that you excuse me so that I can go ahead and leave and make it to my appointment, but this is a bill that Senator Tucker's been working hard on for uh quite some time, yeah, 2 years.
I know he's, he's worked a lot in the last month. He's met with all the stakeholders and uh I think he has put together a bill that I think we all can get behind I served on a school board for 10 years myself, and I've learned um. That maybe there's a good thing there's not any statute of limitations on some of the things that we did because I don't think we were necessarily following the law. So I think this is something that is good
for uh for members of the boards and commissions, whether it's the city council, the quorum Court, school board, whatever the case is so that we can clearly state exactly what a public meeting is and all the requirements that we must meet in order to follow the law, and with that, I'm going to have to ask to be excused and turn it over to Senator Tucker to actually get into the meat of the bill and be able to
take questions. All right, thank you, Representative Eubanks or Senator Tucker, you're
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
1:15:06
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members as representative Eubanks mentioned. I've been working on this with, with a whole group of people for about 2 years and I don't wanna go into too much detail about that, but we've all been presented with bills over the course of our legislative careers about how to define a public meeting and the reason that we have those bills consistently is because there's a lack of clarity in the current law. That lack of clarity is unfair both to members of the public and to members of governing bodies. This bill, I think the reason this is a
good bill is because it's prot transparency for the public, and it's also pro fairness. For members of governing bodies and the way that it does that is it brings clarity to the law for both. So, uh, you know, just a short circuit the process a little bit after the last toward the end of the last session in Senate state agencies, Senator Payton said to me, uh, Senator Tucker, you vote all against all these bills that have fund public meetings. Where's your proposal? And I told Senator Payton he was right. So I got to work and the attorney general
convened a working group on FOIA, the other legislators besides me that were on. Representative Ray, a member of this committee, and then also Senator Davis, and then Ashley Wimberley, who, as you know is the head of the Press Association. John Toll were on there and then really are the chair of our working group was Ryan Owsley, who y'all all know works at the Attorney General's office and is a FOIA expert in Arkansas. We produced a bill that we worked on over a long time, 18 months or so, we filed that bill and then the bill got got worked over a ton in the process, and
again, I'm not gonna tell you every step of the way, but we've had numerous amendments. Every amendment had multiple changes, worked extensively with Lindsey French at the Association of Counties also. with John Wilkerson at the municipal League. I don't know if Mr. Wilkerson's in here at the moment. They both did incredible work in good faith on behalf of their constituencies, uh, at the end of the day, the Association of counties and the municipal League is for not, they're not neutral on the bill. They're for the bill at the same time, you know, I worked with the Press association, other
folks that you consider to be strong transparency advocates for the people of Arkansas, Professor Rob Steinbach, some other folks sitting back here who I think want to testify for the bill, Joey McCutchen and Jimmy Cavin who know, y'all know from testifying in this committee, they're all for the bill. So there's everybody that I, there's no, not only is there no known opposition to the bill. Everybody is for the bill. They want the bill. And again, because it brings clarity to the law, um, I'm happy to go into as much detail as y'all want. I'll just hit really the main, the main high point, uh, and happy to take any questions on the
rest. The main high point is. Right now members of governing bodies don't, it's, it's hard for them to know unless you're a trained lawyer and you read 50 years of case law. What, what you are allowed or not allowed to have a conversation about outside of a public meeting and then quite frankly, even if you can read 50 years of case law, it's impossible to reconcile all the cases with each other. So what, what the bill does is it establishes a definition for deliberation. You can see it toward the top of page 2 and
basically what that definition says is if you're talking about a business about how you might vote. About how your colleague might vote with another member of the governing body, whether you support something that you're going to vote on whether you oppose something you're gonna vote on, that's deliberation. You cannot have that conversation with another member of the same governing body outside of a public meeting. Uh, you can communicate with other members of governing bodies about background and non-decisional information that's defined in the bill on
page one as not deliberation. So, you know, one of the last things that we work through on the bill is should background and non-decision will have its own definition, and I think there's fair arguments on both sides of that, but the, the best way to bring true clarity to the law on this is to really have one bright line standard. If, if we had a different definition for background and non-decisional, then you're going to leave a gap. And once again, people aren't going to know what they're allowed or not allowed to do. This is one bright light standard. If you're
deliberating, it has to be in a public meeting where the public can the whole. Point is the public needs to be able to know not only what decisions governing bodies make that affect their lives, but also why they're making those decisions. So if it's a deliberation, it has to be at a public meeting, you know, if you're the example I gave in the Senate committee is if you're two members of a school board and you're at a football game on a Friday night, you need to be able to stand next to each other and not have people accuse you of a FOIA violation, and you ought to be able to say, hey, in this coach doing a great job or isn't the principal at the middle school doing a great job.
Those sorts of things, those are not violations of public meetings in Arkansas, and they won't be if this bill passes. So there's some other, other changes in the bill. Again, I won't go through all of them in great detail, but uh in terms of providing notice to the public, there's more notice to the public in the bill, uh, for public meetings, what's going to be on agendas at public meetings. There's also some, some other perks for governing bodies. It allows them to meet in private in a court ordered alternative dispute resolution proceeding. That means if there's a lawsuit and there's a
mediation. They can negotiate in private rather than have the, the person who's suing them know, know what they're negotiating authority is, if there's a cybersecurity attack, another issue that we've discussed in the legislature, they can go into executive executive session to discuss how they're going to address their the response to the cybersecurity attacks. So there's some other, I think, uh, good pieces of the bill, both for members of the public and members of governing bodies, but again, the, the big pieces uh we're bringing clarity to the law about
What members of governing bodies are allowed to discuss uh outside of a public meeting. So with that,
I'll be happy to take any questions. Senator Tucker has explained the
bill. Are there any questions about the committee? Seeing
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:21:01
no question. Representative Mayberry, you're recognized. Thank you. I'm just hoping you could explain to me a little bit more about that deliberation because it's, it's not really defined and I'm not trying to, I'm, I'm for this bill. I'm just really trying to make sure that people
have a clear understanding of what that conversation could be like, you know, school board is getting ready. I'm gonna pick something that whimsical, OK, they're, they're gonna change their, their mascot to the school, um, so they're not allowed to share. how they plan on voting. They're going to vote for um the wildcats versus instead of the tigers, you know, whatever. They're not allowed to discuss
that, correct? So, but they could share that there's a certain number of wildcats already and in the state and a certain number of Um, tigers in the state, uh, uh. I mean, can, can you help, help me understand because I just want to make sure that our, our school board members, our city council members
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
1:22:07
really understand that. Right. So the definition of deliberation, as I mentioned, is on the top of page 2 and there's
two pieces to it. The first piece is decisions. If you have made a decision about how you're going to vote or your colleague has made a decision. You're not allowed to seek a decision from your colleague, disclose your decision or inquire about their decision. The second piece is one level below that and it's support or opposition, but it's really the same thing. I can't disclose to you my support or opposition for particular matter, nor can I solicit or inquire about your support or opposition and the qualifying language on this, and
this is a term that's used frequently in the law is foreseeably. The qualifier is any matter on which official action will foreseeably be taken by the governing body, and I think that's really the language that you're asking about Representative Mayberry. So to stick with your example of the mascot, let's just say, uh, you're two members of a school board. Right now, your mascot is the Tigers, OK? And, and You have a desire for it to be changed to a wildcat. If you're at the football game, there's no current notion that the mascot
might change, you can turn to your colleague and say, boy do I wish our mascot was a wildcat instead of a tiger. That's a permissible conversation. If the the uh a new mascot is on the agenda for your meeting next month. You cannot turn to your colleague and say, I'm voting to change the mascot from the tiger to the wildcat. OK, that,
Speaker 225
1:23:37
that helps. Thank you. All right, any other questions by the committee?
Seeing no further questions by the committee, we do have individuals signed up to
speak for the bill. I'm not sure we
have anyone to speak against it. First we have Jimmy Cain. Mr. Kevin, if you just identify
Speaker 229
1:24:05
yourself, any organization you're representing, you'll be recognized to present your remarks. Sure, Jimmy Camp with Arkansas First News, but I'm representing myself as a Is a citizen. Uh, I want to start out by reading 2519102, which is the
legislative intent. There's a reason I want to read it to you. It is vital in a democratic society. The public business be performed in an open. In public manner so that the electors. shall be advised of the performance of public officials and the decisions that are reached in public activity in making public policy. Toward the end of this chapter is adopted, making it possible for them or their representatives.
To learn, to report fully the activities of their public officials. 227 in bodies that legislative intent, but more importantly, it embodies what the people have told us they want and with all the things that have gone on in for you the last few years in 2023 and 2024. Myself, Joe McCutchen, Ashley Wimberley. John told others have gone out across the state and conducted town halls.
Uh, with, with people, uh. Zoom meetings, countless Zoom meetings, uh, social media groups, conversations and in those we didn't just invite people, we invited governing body members. And through those discussions, the number one thing that they told us when it came to for you. The concern was with, with open meetings. They did, they were very much against uh secret meetings where decisions were made outside the body, and I'm not saying everybody does that at all, OK?
But there's a reality there. And so we got feedback from the governing body members as well. And, and I think one thing is very important when we talk about Lindsay French at the Arkansas Association of Counties. She can verify this because I forwarded all the emails. She, she emailed every elected county official in the state and keep them up to date on this bill. What was in it and what they wanted to see in it. And she worked hard with Senator
Clark Tucker to tell him that in, and so what we got from that is we didn't just get feedback from the people. We got the feedback from the municipal League. The Arkansas School Board Association, uh, the Arkansas Association of Counties, and this is what everybody uh agreed on what is so good about this is it everybody has a misconception that people like me and everybody believes every school board and every city council is corrupt and that's not true at all. You know, I know my members and
they're all good people but what they have asked for and what the public have asked for is just simple guidelines and guard rails. For them to operate under, right? And so we had these conversations about, uh, like I was telling Representative Hall, I think you ought to be able to share information. With each other, but then we get into deliberation and so this is really come a long way in in where it needs to be for the people and I say this. And I, maybe I can easily
represent Mayberry's concerned because nobody wore him out more with scenaos than I did. OK. I know he felt like stretch Armstrong by the time this got done, right, and so to ease your mind a little bit that we went over those and I'm famous for saying corruption finds loopholes. OK? I can't find a loophole in 227. I think it's clear for everyone. I think it's clear for everyone, and I think, I think it's what
everybody's wanting to finish up on the togetherness on this. You're gonna hear me brag on the AG's for you working group. Did anybody ever think they would hear me say that, OK. Uh, they did a great job. They did a great job on it. And more importantly, then you take the people that factored in, uh, that really got involved this that Joey McCutcheons, uh, Ashley Wimberley, I can't say enough about Ashley Wimberley. John Toll. You know, a lot of thought and Clark is telling you the truth when he says this was over a two-year process.
But this really in the beginning was born of the people, was it not? It was born of the people in the governing bodies have listened and so far everybody's on board with this, so let me say. The supports this, the, uh, for your task force supports this. The Senate supports it by a vote of 30 to 2. Governing bodies, we all decided we've proven that they support this, but more importantly, this is what the people want. And I, and I feel like y'all are gonna
support it too and so I'm gonna close by saying just real simply when I and the Attorney General agree on 4 legislation, uh, either, either hell is frozen over or there's hope. And, and I'm gonna prefer to believe it's hope. OK. And I'll be glad to take any questions. Thank you, Mr.
Kavin. We do have a question, Representative Mayberry. You're recognized. Thank
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:29:23
you, Mr. Chair. OK, because my mind just continues to go with a whole bunch of scenarios, and I just want to
make sure it's really clear to those cause I don't want anyone caught in a ha ha, I got you, you know, type situations. So, you know, there's an event, it's a fundraiser at the school or something, and spaghetti dinner and there happens to be two school board members who were standing there. They weren't really even conversing, just, you know, standing there and um uh a parent comes up and says, hey. Have you seen the condition of the bathroom. Um, this bathroom needs some fixing up or and, in
my world, I'm always pointing out how it's not accessible, how there's not a handicapped stall, that a wheelchair can get into or whatever. If I go to both of those because they happen to be standing next to each other and I say, will you come here and look at this bathroom. Is that that would not be considered deliberation that would just be considered, I wanna give you some information. I want you all to see this, but if it ends up being on the agenda for next month's, um, school board meeting, it still
would not have been considered deliberation, is that correct? Cause this, this is just an awareness of this bathroom problem. You can't get a wheelchair in here, um, something needs to be done to be fixed. Those two members. could then say to the superintendent or whomever can we discuss accessibility in bathrooms at our next meeting is that, is that OK
Speaker 229
1:30:54
by this? The way I read it, yes, ma'am. Yes ma'am, it is and and and I'm not a lawyer but I study this
stuff really well and I've gone through these scenarios and yes ma'am, there's nothing wrong with that, you know, when you become aware that something is gonna be the only agenda foreseeably then if then if me and that members sit there and start discussing if we foreseeably see that's gonna be on the agenda and we start discussing, you know, how each of us want to rem and what we're gonna do, then we've crossed the line and I think Senator Tucker's done a fantastic. job of drawing that line. I'll give you, I'm gonna boil it down to this because I get this all
the time and uh I had a school board member of mine was upset because they, they were lunching in another school board was gonna speak at that luncheon and, and the other one was just there to attend and eat. And he said, well, I'd get up and walk out because I said, why'd you get up and walk out? You don't have to get up and walk out from that, so I'm gonna boil it down to something simple. When it comes to these interactions like uh Senator uh Tucker said you can go to ball games together you can be married and be on the same body. You can have orgies on the same
body. You just can't discuss and deliberate the business. In those activities now that maybe that's a bad analogy, but
Speaker 240
1:32:12
that's too much to drive home a bad analogy, but we'll, we'll let it go.
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:32:17
I, I did not hear that. We'll delete. Mr. Chair, with
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
1:32:23
your permission, may I respond to Representative Mayberry. Of course. Thank you, thank you. I, I appreciate this committee's graciousness, uh, so representative, there's, there's two points, and I, I agree with Mr. Cavin here that that wouldn't be a violation, but I
think there's two other broader points I want to make to ease your mind. The first is there's almost nothing, and again, there's 50 years of case law, so it's impossible for me to say 100% certainty, but there's almost nothing that is is made illegal by this bill that is not already illegal under the law. It's just case law instead of in code and the, the problem is that people don't know what the law is because they can't go read 50 years of cases. So I'm going to give you two examples, OK? I had
one colleague tell me when they were on the school board, they never, this is what Mr. Cavill was getting at. They never had a conversation outside of a school board meeting with another school board member because they thought they were breaking the law. And I, and I said, well, no, there's actually some conversations you could have had that would have been perfectly permissible. That's one end of the spectrum. I had another uh another colleague on the other end of the spectrum, and he, he came to me and he said, I don't like your bill. And I said, oh yeah, why's that? And he said, well, when I was on the city council, we just met one on one and decided how we were going to vote on the budget and we handled it that way, and your bill makes that illegal. And I
said, brother, that was illegal when you were doing it. And so they, they didn't know that neither one of them knew the law and this is going to make It so much better for the municipal League and the association of Counties of School Board Association to train their members so their members know what the law is. This isn't changing the law really all that much. So that the, the you can come up with a number of hypotheticals, but I can answer all of them by saying, if it's illegal now, it's illegal here. If it's not illegal now, it's not illegal here. This is just clarifying it
for members of governing bodies. The, the, the second and and again, you might be able to nitpick that, but from a big picture standpoint, that's pretty much true. The second point is. That, uh, you know, you mentioned gotcha. If you look at the last subsection of of section 106, which is the public meeting section of the FOIA subchapter. The ramifications of a violation are, and this was something that we litigated a great deal that a court may invalidate an action. That's what the consequences
are. Now, if it's a harmless That that we left it to the discretion of the court to determine whether something was a harmless violation or not. And so we have to have a bit of trust in the court system that if it's a basically in like in the hypothetical you just said where it's a harmless violation, the court's not going to invalidate the action that the governing body took with the illegal communication or at the illegal meeting, but if it's a serious violation, of course, we hope that they will. So, um, but there's not really the potential for a serious gotcha moment either. So I, I hope that helps
Speaker 228
1:35:11
ease your mind. Can I, can I add real quick to that that there is a lot 25 19104
Speaker 229
1:35:18
that declares any violation of avoids a Class C misdemeanor that has to my knowledge that is never been prosecuted on any anybody. Right,
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
1:35:28
and if this bill doesn't change that anyway.
All right, seeing no further questions. Thank you, Mr. Cabin. Next we have Mr. Joey McCutchen.
Joey Mccutcheon
Unverified
1:35:44
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good to see you. Good to see you and thank you members of the committee. My name is Joey McCutcheon. Uh, I'm from Fort Smith, um, I have, uh, I'm here on behalf of several of my clients, 4 of which I'm one of them, uh, they have taken case after case uh to either the court of appeals or the Supreme Court. Um, I'm here on behalf of Bruce Wade, uh, that case involved a
secret meetings regarding um trying to um dismantle our civil service commission. I'm here on behalf of myself, a case taken to the Supreme Court, uh, in which uh we were having uh secret discussions on high fire authority. I'm here on behalf of Kristen Kitchens, uh, which Mr. Uh, Tucker has Senator Tucker has included in uh this bill as
well, clarifies that case law. I'm also here on behalf of June Bradshaw. It wasn't the wildcats versus the tigers. It was the Mavericks versus the Rebels, uh, that was our discussion and uh was taken up on secret meetings. Uh, so I say that to say, uh, these are important issues to communities and I appreciate Senator Tucker, uh, but one thing I don't want to do is get rope a dote. When I was a kid
in, in um uh 12 year old kid, I watched Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and I love that fight. Muhammad Ali stood on the ropes, and Joe Frazier swung and swung and swung and lost the fight in the 14th round. I don't want to lose this fight in the 14th round, uh, and I don't want to get rope a dope. That's why I was very, very concerned, I guess, when I heard that Mr. Tucker was working with the uh municipal League and the Association of Counties and the school boards because I fought
them repeatedly on open meetings and open meetings violations. So I was a little concerned, so I went to Mr. Tucker, uh, Senator Tucker, and um, and he accommodated the questions that I had because those Supreme Court decisions and in virtually dozens of of cases that I've tried around this state on open meetings. The problem is the people and governing bodies are concerned about the definition of a
meeting and what we proceeded to do was define representative Maberry, what, what uh what a meeting is in a bright line test we had, we had many, many discussions on this went back and Forth on emails and so we do have a bright line test. Um, I would say that I have brought numerous times, including in 2001, the definition of a meeting to this body Senator Sullivan, um,
defined what a meeting was and and it was a very strict definition. I think you need to know this in terms of background. It said that 2 or more members of the governing body cannot discuss our public business, um, and then, uh, in 2023. Um, uh, representative Allan Clark took the definition, took that definition again, a very strict definition cannot have discussions between two or more members, um, strict definition,
met the standard of 102, the intent of our FOIA, um, many didn't like that. On the other end of that there is a bill that's floating around this body right now, 376, um, which says that 2 or more members can meet. The problem is that leads to serial serial meetings. A meets with B. A then meets with C, D and F, and that's a very that's a very, that's, that's the rope a dope I'm talking about. I don't want
to get rope a doped here. We have worked with this coalition, Senator. worked extremely, extremely hard to define a meeting and to codify the case law so that it is no longer confusing to governing bodies or the people. Um So we do have a bright line test. People are not gonna be confused. It's a good government bill. It needs to pass. Yes, I would have liked to seen one that allowed no discussion
because I believe and I think the people believe when we went around the communities that the people are entitled to see the sausage making. We not only need to see the decisions we need to see how the sausage is being made and if we don't know the why uh why our governing bodies are voting the way they're voting, um, we're gonna be critical of those governing bodies. So Senator Tucker's bill, uh, it's, it's friendly to the people. They know the definition of
deliberation, the governing bodies know. I hope you all will vote unanimously yes on this. And I hope that when 376 comes up, you'll, you'll take it for what it is. It allows secret serial meetings. That our people do not want. Thank
you for your time. Thank you, Mr. McCutcheon. Are there
any questions about the committee? Seeing none. Thank you for those remarks. Thank you. Seeing no one else signed up to.
Andrew Bagley
Unverified
1:41:25
We do have one other Andrew Bagley for the bill. Mr. Chairman, I don't want to be like the preacher that has somebody on the verge of giving their life to
Christ and talk too long NBA supports the bill and I save my time. All right, Mr. Bagley said that the Arkansas
Press Association supports the bill, and he Sees this time, so with that seeing no further individual senator to speak for against the bill. Senator Tucker, you're recognized to close for the bill. Thank
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
1:41:50
you, Mr. Chair. I just want, I want to thank everybody who worked with me on this bill, and we've mentioned
several. I don't want to leave anybody out, I probably will, but on one side, you know, you've got the association of counties and municipal League. I didn't mention the school board association, the superintendents worked with the UFA systems, the ASU system, all across the board, um, and then, you know, on, on the pro-transparency side, the Press Association, John told Rob Steinbach, uh, Jo McCutcheon, Jimmy Cain and and others. I want to thank every I think everyone helped contribute to make this a good bill, um, because it is pro-transparency for the public. It's pro fairness to members of governing bodies. It brings
clarity to the law, as Mr. Cavin said, I've got, I've got him and the attorney General on the, the attorney General supports the bill. I've got him and the attorney General on the same side of a FOIA bill. And then I've also got Joey McCutchen and the municipal League on the same side of a FOIA bill. So when the session wraps up, we're gonna head over to Eastern Europe and see what we can get worked out. over there. uh, but before we do that, I sure would appreciate a good vote from this committee.
Thank, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm close. All right, thank you, Senator Tucker. Do I see a motion?
I see a motion do pass Representative Hawk. Is there any discussion on that
motion, Representative Hawk, you're recognized. Colleagues uh as as Senator
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:43:01
Tucker just said, I don't think in, well, since I've been here in times past that we've ever had an FOI bill that all sides agreed on. I, I think this might be, we
might be making history with, with this bill just because of everybody that that has agreed as a former city council member. I know that if we would have had this when I was there, this would have been a lot of clarity and would have, would have freed up a lot of questions that uh we would have done when I was on the city council and so
with all All that being said, I'll be a yes vote on this bill.
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
1:43:29
All right, any other discussion, Representative Crawford, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, to get Bill. And I would like to apologize to Joey McCutcheon for not being a co-sponsor on this bill, but uh it's a good bill and for that
reason, I'll be voting yes. All right, any other discussion? I also
want to commend Senator Tucker. his work on this bill, I think,
uh, if you can bring Jimmy Cabin and Joey McCutchen and the municipal League and and the Association of counties together, you probably deserve a Nobel Peace Prize, so congratulations on that, uh, just truly excellent work. This will provide a lot of clarity for governmental bodies and the public as to what's allowed and what's not, and that's excellent work, so. Uh, again, I commend you highly for that. Seeing no further discussion on the bill. We do have a motion to pass all those in favor
say aye. All those opposed, Yaz Abbott, congratulations, you passed your bill.
Thank you, members. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, next we're gonna move to House Bill 1549. Representative Richardson.
Representative Richardson, if you would identify yourself. You'll be recognized to
Speaker 254
1:45:07
present your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, You'll be recognized to present your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair thank you committee. I am
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
1:45:17
Scott Richardson, House District 13. And I bring uh a a really uh a little old bill that probably doesn't do a whole lot. Sort of Um, for your attention, uh, this bill, uh, is a work of a number of people to try to get us to a
stage where we have um. Some focus around cybersecurity. This bill is named the Cyber Security Act of 2025. Uh, and has a, a purpose of attempting to align all of the cybersecurity throughout the entire state agencies under
Speaker 254
1:45:55
a single point of governance. And of. Of uh Control.
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
1:46:07
Given the nature of the, the bill that we're gonna discuss. I thought it might be helpful to provide you a little bit of statistical information upfront, um, according to the University of Maryland, somewhere between 2000 and 3000 targeted cyberattacks happen each day. Um, which is Obviously quite a few there are somewhere between 500,000 to 600,000 new malware detected, um, each day.
And that doesn't take into account uh user clicking something that they shouldn't and launching anything from a social engineering attack, um, or direct exploit or ransomware or the number of other things that have to be dealt with in cybersecurity, and I get a lot of the stuff that's uh in in cybersecurity and in that realm maybe foreign to some folks, and I, I'm reminded of uh all of my stint on the uh public health committee and the acronyms and terms and things that uh
We're thrown at us from, from that end. So if there is any part of this that you have questions around any terms or that need clarity or or any of the conditions within the bill, uh, uh, I'll be happy to address those, um, but we try to take a systematic approach in the bill in so much as definitions and you have the, the first very clear definition on the front end, uh, on page one, line 28, uh, to define. Uh, what cybersecurity really is
for, for our purposes here. Um, I think that's important when you start talking about Uh, the assets that we have that are protected by our um uh cybersecurity environment or at least that need to be protected. Um We have um. A lot of different areas of risk, uh, within the state associated with our technology assets, um, unlike most other
assets in the state, uh, those technology, um, assets are exposed, if you will, to the entire world. So you have uh 05 million or 5 billion or so folks that could potentially be a uh an adversary uh an attempt to make um and have access to make an attack. Against the assets that we have, um, those assets range from anything from our data, um, to all the way to our, uh, user information and then inclusive
of, of our financial uh positionings. So. With that, um, I, I don't want to take too much time explaining what's in the bill, but I did want to give you a, a brief synopsis. The bill establishes, uh, the framework to ensure that we have a centralized cybersecurity function. Contained in the cybersecurity office aligning our cabinet level agencies, cybersecurity efforts, um, it includes, uh, Some of the responsibilities
that are contained within this bill that are that are um the uh objective of, of ensuring cybersecurity within the state cybersecurity office include active monitoring of all risk points compliance, governance, uh, building an incident response team that can respond to any events that occur and then um of course that doesn't include uh oversight for security for new projects or uh Um, of course, remediation and
and uh ensuring that we have training and all those other things that have to happen around cybersecurity. And with that, since uh I think I'm boring everyone to death. I'll be happy to answer any of
your questions around uh this bill. All right, thank you, uh, Representative Richardson, are there any questions by the committee, Representative Hall recognized.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:50:05
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Representative Richardson, and I, and look, I, first off, I thought that this
should probably be in the technology committee, uh, and so I'm gonna defer to everything that I am
about to say to Representative Meeks, probably because he's probably the most knowledgeable one on this, but my question I guess is I, I think it's DIS that don't they currently have a cybersecurity mechanism that, that the state agencies
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
1:50:31
uh, abide by. Great question. So yes, uh, the, the DIS does have a cybersecurity office, yet they do not have alignment with any of the other uh cabinet level positions. And so it's kind of
uh think of it as um an approach of uh trying to build. An offensive line, right? Your offensive line is there to protect the quarterback, protect the backs, whatever. But none of the offensive linemen know what the other offensive line is doing. And so you have no central point calling the places to ensure that you're your protection is the protection of what's going to happen. They're just there. They're just standing there. OK, if something happens, I'm supposed to protect against it, but I don't really have any idea what we're doing
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:51:21
in the backfield, so just, so just to be clear, and I think it's a good I, I'm just trying to get the details. So this cybersecurity office is still going to be in place, correct? They're essentially going to make the policy and procedures for everybody in state government to abide by
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
1:51:37
because they are essentially the know it all when it comes to this kind of stuff. Essentially. Now there are cybersecurity, um, staff in those other areas, so that would be your other linement. Now we get them all together. We got one central quarterback called the plays understanding what's
going on. See in the overall scope and, and making sure that we have a good defense, defensive posture against the the variety of different attacks that occur and then also having that response team in place to mitigate or reduce the risk associated with any particular breach that may occur. Awesome. Thank you.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:52:15
Yes, sir. Representative Meeks, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm gonna phrase this in a
formal question because I have to do it at this point, but, uh, for, for Representative Hawks are cheap cybersecurity officer is um here present and if uh Representative Richardson, uh, and the chair would allow maybe him to come down to the end of the table and share, you know, why he supports this bill and why he thinks that that we need it. All
Speaker 259
1:52:45
right, who did you request The chief cybersecurity officer for our state. Mr. Vance. Mr. Vance.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:52:54
I think Representative Richardson's done a great job, but uh maybe having our the the the man who
Speaker 259
1:53:00
will actually be fulfilling the purpose of this bill, uh, might help us. Yeah, and that's so I did have
Speaker 254
1:53:07
a question, uh. Representative Richardson, is this an agency bill? I I would,
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
1:53:12
uh, I would suggest yes, it's an agency bill. This has been something that's been in the works for quite a while. It also aligns with the, the governor's uh Arkansas first initiative, so.
Well, Sounded a little equivocal to me. I guess you can ask the agency, so they'll they'll be happy to answer that. Thank you, Mr. Vance. You're, you're recognized.
Gary Vance
Unverified
1:53:35
Thank you. My name is Gary
Vance. I'm the TSS state cybersecurity officer, um, I, I think what I would say and, and, you know, to be concise is Representative Richardson, you know, what he has laid out in the bill and the discussion that he's had. The state of Arkansas is not
immune to any of those items that That he's mentioned malware, uh, ransomware, uh, you know, our attack surface is growing daily, uh, and our ability to work directly with the other agencies, uh, in a more concise manner so that we can develop uh standard cybersecurity controls and uh policies that uh at the end is going to make us a more
mature cyber. State. So it's about cyber maturity, it's about protecting our resources, our assets, and, and citizen data. All right, thank you, Mr.
Vance. Do we not already have cybersecurity policies in place. Yes sir we do. OK,
so then what's the purpose of this
Gary Vance
Unverified
1:54:47
bill? Well, the purpose of this bill would be able to take those cybersecurity policies and, and actually put those into action
at the, at the agency level. Uh, the policy is, is there, uh, but the practice, uh, is, is not as established as it should be, so we have, uh, we have agencies that um That exercise good cyber practices, and we have agencies that need
to improve cyber practices. Is
this going to require the hiring of additional staff to make sure that our state agencies are complying with this
Gary Vance
Unverified
1:55:27
law, no sir, not initially the way, the way we're the approach that we're taking is that we want to use the existing. Cyber resources that already exist in the agencies today and um I'll use Representative Richardson's uh football analogy. We just want to bring those folks together in a collaborative format so that we begin talking common standards and common practices that
will impact all state agencies. All right,
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:55:54
Representative Hawk, you're recognized. Thank you to
kind of go off of what he's talking about, um, so those liaisons, I guess you could say that are at each state agency,
would they then answer to you with this bill, or would they
Gary Vance
Unverified
1:56:09
still be in their capacity at their state agency. They would, they would remain their capacity within their state agency, uh, the way I envision this would be a cyber working group, if you would, and, and within that working group, we will use the policies that Uh, we have previously established through, through Act
504 actually, uh, but that working group of cyber professionals would begin to work on a common platform, uh, so that we've got visibility across all the agencies, uh, so that we can address vulnerabilities and other weaknesses that, that, you know, we
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
1:56:45
need to improve on from a cyber perspective. I'll add to, to that, we do define functional reporting within the bill on in the definition. on page one, line 35, which uh establishes the framework by
which they would be collaborating and and uh creating the, the overarching uh support.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:57:06
Uh, last question, um, you, you talked about the state of Arkansas is not immune to cybersecurity attacks, and I understand this is an agency bill and, and things like that, but some of this working group, would you, do you guys or will you guys send some of this down to some of our municipalities so that they can better their infrastructure. I know they're all they're individual, but just it kind of like this is what we're doing at the state level.
Would you guys be willing to pass
Gary Vance
Unverified
1:57:34
that down to make us as a state a better absolutely without. question. I mean, uh, it's how we get
better as a state as a whole, uh, and the, the answer is yes. Thank you. I'll,
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
1:57:47
I'll add to that, um, this is a, this is an initial step in this direction. Um, this is a very large undertaking for the for the collaboration and and establishment of processes, but in this bill we do establish a
cyber cyber response team that could be used at any level. Um, to help with any type of breaches that occur, and making sure that we get the right kinds of enforcement in place, law enforcement in place to gather the correct data that the, the time after a breach occurs that that is critical to establish or re-establish services and to ensure that the, the risk of ongoing impact is mitigated and so within this bill we we established that cyber response
team so that we can make that available to all of our
state agencies and wherever we need that help throughout. All right, any other questions by the committee? I know legislative audit was uh involved in some cybersecurity audits. Are, are they gonna be involved, uh, further, uh, through this bill of continuing to audit our, I guess number one response to cybersecurity attacks and then also compliance
Gary Vance
Unverified
1:59:06
with regard to agencies complying with with this bill? Yes, they are, and as a matter of fact, I've had uh several meetings with the legislative audit team concerning this bill, uh, if anything, we're, we're gonna form a tighter, uh, working relationship going forward than than what we've had in the past. All right, very good. Saying no further
questions, we have no one signed up to speak for or against the bill, Representative Richardson, you recognize the quotes for your bill.
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
1:59:38
I appreciate that, uh, Mr. Chair, um, essentially what we're trying to do here is get that first step um to bringing some uh significant visibility into um the area that uh provides so many, um, uh, so much of the possibilities for our state. Our technology infrastructure is critical. We cannot do what we do from a services perspective without the underlying technology that exists and so we have to do what we need to do to, to make sure that we've uh protected.
that, um, and with that, um, I am closed for the bill and would of course appreciate a good vote. Representative Richardson is closed for his bill. What are the wishes of the committee? I see a motion to pass Representative Meeks.
Speaker 259
2:00:20
Is there any discussion on the motion? Representative
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
2:00:23
Meeks, you're recognized. Thank you. So, um, uh, to Representative Hawke's point, I was kind of surprised this didn't go to technology committee either, but, uh, for, for what it's worth, I just want to let everyone know that I did work with Representative Richardson and uh the team over at DIS is part of this bill, uh, last
session, uh, as Mr. Vance, uh, alluded to, uh, we did pass some legislation to develop cybersecurity standards for the state, working with the cities, the counties, trying to create a comprehensive approach. This is the next step, uh, to, to basically the implementation of that and um you know, as my time is coming to the to an end here in the legislature. Uh, I appreciate, uh, Representative Richardson picking up the baton and and carrying it forward for me. So, um, with that, um, I'm definitely going to support this
and would ask everyone else on the committee to do so. All right. Is there any other discussion on the motion? Seeing no further discussion on the motion, we do have a motion to pass. All those in
favor say aye. All those opposed. Yeah habit, congratulations, Representative Richardson, you've passed your bill. I thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. All right, well, next we're gonna take up House Bill 1803. Representative Joey Carr.
He's been Patiently waiting, trying to get up here and present this bill. He's got a guest with him or
Speaker 259
2:01:41
did, uh, with the chair's permission, I'd like to ask District Director Jeff Pitchford from
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
2:01:47
Congressman Hill's office, please. Yes, sir. Representative Carr, you're recognized. Joey Car District 34, uh, House Bill 1803. What it does is it uh will amend the law that we have currently for monuments here and we're looking at a head and shoulder bust, uh, to acknowledge the contributions to Arkansas and the nation in the world of uh Maurice Foosy Britt.
Uh, he is an Arkansan from Lone Oak. Uh, but when he goes to, uh, World War 2, he, uh, steps up his game. He is the most decorated Arkansan in the military and he is the only one in history to receive the top 4 wards, awards from the military and that's Medal of Honor, distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, and the Bronze Star, um.
Afterwards he was after uh as the war was over, he was the person that dedicated War Memorial Stadium here in Little Rock and then he would go on to serve in community service with the Crippled Children's Hospital, Easter Seals, and the Federal Executive Association. Uh, he would later be inducted in the sports Hall of Fame of Arkansas in 1972 and uh he also would serve as lieutenant governor here in the state of Arkansas. So as you see on the bill, I have uh co-sponsors of
all veterans in the Senate and the House. Um And there are no tax dollars being spent on this. It's completely through donations. And Secretary of State's office assisted us with the language and uh I have uh Jeff Pitchford here because this came up uh from Congressman Hill's office. Yes,
uh, Mr. Chair, members of the committee for May, Congressman Hill and some others were talking about the uh having
something that uh Mr. Britt didn't have anything in the Capitol, uh, and was like, like ribs in the car and I appreciate him and all the, all the sponsors that have signed on to the bill that there was nothing really here in the Capitol honoring him as as uh Representative Carr said, uh, the first American to be honored to the top 4 Army awards in the same battle. Same, uh, same war in the history of it and was considered an American hero and having something like this in the Capitol will not only help
visitors to the capital but also students who come to visit to, to understand, um, he got his Medal of Honor on the field at the University of Arkansas raised back field in 1944 was it gave the keynote speech to the dedication of War Memorial Stadium. Uh, his battle and that he uh got a lot of these honors besides also. getting honors from the United Kingdom and also Italy was in Rome in 1943, and it's one of those things that if you saw it on a movie screen, you wouldn't
believe it. Having a bullet wound to the side, uh, shrapnel wounds and yet still led a small band of Americans against 100 German soldiers outside of Rome and uh through um 32 grenades that day back. Towards the Germans, uh, in just one battle, just things that you think that's only in a movie and we had an Arkansan who, who did that here. So anyway, appreciate that and that's, that's our role
here and, and the congressman's met with the Secretary of State and, and uh we
appreciate joey taking this on, so. All right, thank you,
Mr. Pitchford. Any other? Uh, any questions by the committee? Representative
Representative Kendon Underwood
Unverified
2:05:34
Underwood, you're recognized. I don't know if this is really a question, but I just want to say uh register of car, I appreciate you bringing this, um, because I was reading about Lieutenant Britt this summer as well, and his story is pretty incredible,
obviously a razorback and play professional football, the first to win all the medals for valor and, you know, as I'm reading this book, uh, find out he's an Arkansan obviously, and that's incredible and it's a shame that we don't have something to honor him, so I appreciate that. Not a question, but
I just want to thank you for that. All right, and now I have a question. When we Talk about monument,
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
2:06:10
what type of monument are we talking about? It's it's similar to the other
one of the lieutenant Governor uh uh Rockefeller, I believe it's just a, uh,
shoulder and head bust and the wording in there, the Secretary of State's office, they assist us with and they made sure that it was, uh, it would correlate along with the capital Arts and Grounds commission, their guidelines and so as the bill as this bill is worded, it's to amend and all it does is add uh Captain Britt to the ones that are already here. I know we have uh we have Wilbur Mills right out here and so it's gonna follow the same guidelines and the way they've worded it, it
Speaker 259
2:06:51
will be in relation to the other existing one here in the Capitol.
Alright, it'll be inside the Capitol. It's indoor, sir. OK. All right. Any other questions by the committee? saying no further questions by the committee of Representative Carr, you're recognized we have no one signed to speak for against
Speaker 259
2:07:09
the bill, to be clear. Representative Carr, you're recognized to close for your bill and uh just to say
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
2:07:14
again that no tax dollars will be used for this that donations are will be accepted on this, and I appreciate uh your time and your
Speaker 259
2:07:23
flexibility, Mr. Chair, and I would appreciate a motion to pass and a good vote.
Thank you, Representative Cars closed for his bill. I see motion Representative Underwood. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. All those opposed, guys have it. Congratulations, you passed your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair and thank you, Mr. Pitcher. Good to see you. All right. Uh, I think Representative Underwood has
a quick uh sorry, Representative Wooldridge has a quick bill. I'm gonna let him run that, and then we're going to move to Representative McAlinden.
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
2:07:53
Representative Wooldridge Yeah Thank you, Mr. Chair. um, I have Senate Bill 353 that I'd like to run and I also have one additional Senate bill. I'm happy to run it now or later. It's up to you and the committee to run 353 now if that's OK. We'll start with 353. You're recognized. Thank you, sir. Jeremy Wooldridge State Representative District one.
Uh, Senate Bill 353 is a bill that I've been working on with Senator Hester and basically, uh, throughout my, uh, course of being an elected official when I served at the county level and now at the state level, I've been, uh, this is something that I've been wanting to work on for a while and basically it's just a lining the primary process and changing it to a consistent process. Now every other cycle, it goes from May to March, depending on the presidential cycle, this would obviously we don't have the ability to move the presidential side. So this is uh solving a problem
with what we have the ability to control, it moves the primary process across the board to march, which would then uh solidify the filing deadline. It would always be in November instead of flipping back between November and February and then it also sets a permanent date for fiscal session instead of alternating the date of the start date of fiscal session, uh, depending on the primary, and with that, I'm happy to
answer any questions. OK, so to be clear,
This sets a permanent primary for March.
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
2:09:32
There'll be no moving back and forth between May and March. That's correct, Mr. Chairman, that hopefully would take the ambiguity and confusion out of the process as we move forward and as folks decide to file and run for office. They won't have to try to remember whether it's a presidential year to make sure they make a filing deadline, vice versa. It's gonna set that as a standard as we move forward. This bill has no known opposition, uh, Governor's office supports it and Clarks support it, judges support it, sheriffs support it.
All elected officials support it. Well, be careful with that. No, I'm joke. So, um, The uh Give me just a second here. The fiscal session. So when, when
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
2:10:17
is that going to begin? If you look towards the end of the bill, it will, I believe it's the 2nd Tuesday in April now is when that would be,
and that doesn't require some type of constitutional amendment. No, sir. OK, I'll add this passed out of the Senate with no opposition. All right.
Any other questions by the committee? All right, seeing no questions by the committee. We have no one
signed up to speak for or against the bill. Representative Wooldridge, you recognized to close for your bill, Mr. Chairman, I'm closed and I make a motion to pass. Representative Wils closed for his bill. He's made a motion to
pass. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor
say aye. All those opposed, eyes have it. Congratulations,
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
2:11:05
you've passed your bill. Representatives, you got another one? Yes, sir. All right. Let me get it pulled up. Senate Bill 271 with your permission. You're recognized. I think Jeremy Wooldridge, State Representative District one, Senate Bill 271 is a technical correction bill basically that is brought to us by the county clerk's office and what it does is it removes the duplicate certification deadline for
school board candidates and even number school years in two sections of code, so you'll see a place where they strike some language and then at the bottom of page one and continued one word on the page two. It corrects that in two sections of code, and with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. All right.
I guess I I haven't haven't fully understood this. So on the day of the certification deadlines under 77304B and even numbered years for school board elections held concurrently with a preferential primary election. So tell me how that works. Well, the ambiguity
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
2:12:21
is in odd number years versus even number of years. This is what this is clarified in statute, and I'm happy to ask Lindsay French to come to the table and help
answer your question if you have some. So an
even numbered years, it's at the same time as the primary. Yes, that's what we're
clarifying in two separate codes. And then on the day of certification under 75203. And even numbered years for school elections held concurrently with a
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
2:12:54
general election. We're clarified in the primary process and the general
process. The school board elections are
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
2:13:08
held in at the primary or at the general. I think that it depends on the, the school board election. I'm gonna ask Lindsey French if if with your indulgence come to the end the table and
Speaker 290
2:13:32
help me clarify that. Grab your head is on me. Uh, Lindsey French Association of Arkansas Counties. You're recognized
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
2:13:40
so this bill is just dealing with the date on which the county clerk certifies the list of candidates. Um, there's not a problem in the odd numbered years and the even numbered years, there's a certification date that the county clerk certifies the list of all other candidates and then there was this one that is being stricken on the day after the deadline for school board election candidates. So this is just striking that duplicate certification deadline that when the board is held in conjunction with all the other elections,
they will be certified on the same date. Oh, so this has to do with the certification deadline and the certification is
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
2:14:21
the certification of all candidates that will be running. Correct. It's, it's essentially striking a second duplicative deadline that exists in the
code right now. OK, all right. You guys support this. Representative Mayberry, you're recognized. Thank
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:14:36
you, thank you, chair. I, there's so many different bills out there and it gets kind of
confusing and, and I know that there was a bill in education, and I think Representative Hawk. Was that your bill? Does
this interfere with that? I, I, I'm just, I, I, there's
Speaker 294
2:14:54
a lot to process. I don't believe it does.
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:14:57
This does not. It doesn't cross over. I haven't had time to analyze what his did and what yours is doing, and I'm just making sure it's
all they both came to excuse me, Mr. Chair, I apologize for speaking out of turn. You're good with me.
Yeah, I, I believe that both were association of County
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:15:16
bills, and they do two separate things and so I think this just kind of falls in
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:15:21
line with what we were doing. I just want to make sure because sometimes something comes through one committee and it interferes with what was just passed in another committee, and I'm just making sure we're all on board and it's all working towards the same thing, so thank you.
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
2:15:34
I appreciate that they are both county clerk association bills and there's no conflict. Representative Beck. So
Um, if, if these are gonna
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
2:15:46
be moved to like the primary or, or Is there
anything in here? I'm just worried about the dates as far as making sure that
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
2:15:56
those can get on the perspective ballots for the general election or the primary, you know, we, we passed some legislation or not really to school
boards, but requiring that uh The clerks being notified in certain levels so that they can
make sure that the the the uh persons on the ballots correctly for the position they're going for and all of that
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
2:16:21
is, is that taking in account here it is, it is not doing away with the certification deadline. It's getting rid of a duplicate. So right now they're They're certifying those school board members the day after and then they're doing it again with all the other candidates. So it's redundant. So school board members will still be certified with all of the other candidates. OK. Thank you.
OK, and so that's why we're striking that initial language on the day after the deadline for candidates to file for a position on the board of directors about. that's being stricken and that, and then we're just aligning part that's being struck. I get it. OK. Makes
sense. All right, any other questions by the committee? Seeing no further questions by the committee, we have
no one signed up to speak for or against the bill. Representative Waldridge recognized to close for the bill, Mr. Chairman, I'm closed to make a motion to pass is closed for the bill. He's made a
motion to pass. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing no discussion on the motion. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed, guys have
it. Congratulations, you passed your bill. All
right, next we have Representative McAlinden. Is this House bill 1800? All right. Representative McAlinon,
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:17:51
you're recognized. Thank you, Mindy McAlinden, House District 10. So this is a bill that is basically a transparency for anyone who's working with a foreign principal and the purpose of the bill is just to make sure that people in Arkansas know who's coming in and possibly impacting policymakers or um any type of activity that's going on and the meat of the bill starts on. page 4, the 1st 4 pages are just adding it into other code, but
basically, it sets up a registration. Um, it requires registration with the ethics commission. It is currently what the lobbyists are doing. It just gives them a little bit more detail that they need to add for their relationship with their foreign funder, and then it also adds a requirement for organizations, political organizations that work with a foreign government to also come in and do that registration, um, and then all of the responsibility for it lines up underneath the ethics commission, so they're responsible for enforcing that. We've worked with this language on with the governor's office
and they are comfortable with it as well. And with that, I'll take any questions. Representative Hawk, you're recognized. Thank you, Representative
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:19:01
McAlin. Now this, they would file this on the Secretary of State's website,
Speaker 310
2:19:05
correct to the portal. That's all I had. Thank you. Representative
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:19:11
Mayberry, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. How does this affect me or you or any legislator, is there anything we have to do differently. Now, only if you
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:19:22
are working with a foreign nation in terms of if you're with an organization that does that, then yes, you would have to file, but you
as a private citizen, a business, a legislator, you don't have to do that. Thank you. You're welcome. So Representative McAlin and
I appreciate this, uh, the transparency is good if. Someone is working with. Uh, foreign principle. So my understanding this one deals with.
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:19:54
Before, uh, persons who make donations to political campaigns, is that right? No, this is um if you were getting paid to come to be here in Arkansas and to lobby um a legislator if you're being paid to go to college campus and be pro-Hass demonstrator. If you're being paid by a foreign company to be here and impact political activity in Arkansas. That's what it is. This is
not a Donations bill, for some reason
I had this confused with. There's several of them out there, another one. All right, very good. All right, any other
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
2:20:31
questions by the committee, Representative Bennet, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative, what mechanisms will be in place to monitor and and ensure compliance with the quarterly update requirement. So that's all gonna fall on the uh
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:20:42
ethics commission. So whatever policies they have in place or procedures they have in place now to monitor and make sure that we are getting our donations in, that is the same way you also, I believe on the
last page, it talks about you being able to, someone can make a complaint just
like you can now with the ethics commission. All right, Representative Bennett, was your question answered? All right,
any other questions about the committee? All right, seeing no further questions about the committee. We have no one signed up to speak for or against
the bill, Representative Representative Hawk. All right. We do have someone sign up to speak. No, I, I
Speaker 54
2:21:20
would like to speak to. All right, well, you'll be
recognized. Mr. Graham Sloane. You would
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:21:30
just introduce yourself for the record and you're recognized Graham, director of the ethics Commission in response to Representative Hawke's question, they're not gonna file on Secretary of State's website, the, the, it's, it's a filing with us and so, um, You know, this has, you know, if you look at the Page 6. Blinds, you know, 1314, it's their father registration and
and supplemental registrations with the ethics commission and so, you know, the we're not the filing office for very many things and in fact, the only thing we are the filing office for his ballot and legislative question committee statements of organizations and reports. So lobbyists make their filings with the Secretary of State's office and So this, this you're gonna have. These people filing with us and then we don't have an electronic filing system, uh, nor the resources to develop one, but I
just wanted to clarify that. Looks like we do
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:22:36
have some questions. Representative Mayberry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So why can't we file? Why
And, and I guess really this is a question for the sponsor, which I don't know if she can answer the, the way that this is set up. I don't, is she allowed to answer, um, why, why can't we send this to
the Secretary of State's office for it instead of the Arkansas Ethics Commission
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:22:59
if they're more set up, just explain to me the decision making. I actually think that's a great option to do. I'd prefer to pull it down and make that amendment and bring it back. If everyone's comfortable with that. No, I
appreciate it. It'll be simpler and easier for everybody, I
Chair
Unverified
2:23:16
think. Alright, bro, hang on one second. Representative Hawk, you're recognized. Yeah, I, I, so I guess this would be for rep uh for Mr. Sloan. So currently lobbyists don't put their stuff on the portal. That is only for
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:23:30
elected people lobbyists register and make their filings with the Secretary of State on the electronic filing system and, and they don't file anything with us, with the ethics commission. And so, you know,
so this bill though. What we're saying is that this one, how does
Speaker 59
2:23:47
this differ from like what lobbyists do then? Well, you've got agents of foreign
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:23:52
principles, and this is going to require an agent of a foreign principal to file a statement and and and and you
know, I'm not sure about the reporting requirements, but the, but they're, you're going to subject them to filings and, and then this so they're just like one-offs essentially, right? Or no? You know, we, we we weren't involved in the in this legislation. I mean, Reverend McLynnon to her credit, gave me a copy of it and let me look at it and then, you know, advise me of it, but as far as just the, um, you know, the part of it that jumped out at me
initially, you know, so that we would uh be the filing office and then we would, you know, it gives us authority to promulgate rules and and and in which we would do. like we have campaign finance rules, but it's just, you know, the the part of it that Um, that you'd asked about and that I was clarifying was just that you know this in its current form makes the ethics commission the filing office, and then that's a that's not how campaign finance works. That's not how statement's financial interests work. I mean, we're
just, we're with a limited exception of ballot and legislative question committees, we're just not the
Speaker 269
2:25:09
filing office. So, so if somebody in, in Arkansas goes, I want to see who's
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:25:15
getting paid to, to go and. Protest the Hamas stuff like represented Macklin and said they would do an FOI request
Speaker 322
2:25:21
to you to get that information because it's not online. I'd be public well, I mean, we
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:25:29
would. I'd anticipate if we were the filing office, we would put PDFs
of the filings on our website, but um, you know, we just, we don't have an electronic filing system we don't have the, you know, resources to develop an electronic filing system and so, you know, they would, uh, you know, my I'm not sure they'd have to FOI if they just ask for it, you know, if, if your records are on file with us, you know, somebody can call up and say I want a copy of this or that. Got you. OK, thank you.
I, and I do have a question. Is there some First Amendment issue here. I mean, we are talking
about people engaging in political speech. And, but it sounds like you're trying to regulate the fact that they're being paid to engage in certain political speech by a foreign agent, so I just, has there been
any discussion about how the the First Amendment might be implicated here. There
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:26:22
has not in all I'm saying, all I'm asking you to do is just show the transparency that in the same way we show transparency of who donates to us. We're just saying if you were employed
by a foreign company or foreign country or
foreign company, then we should know who those people are. All right, so I understand that you would like to pull the bill down to make
Speaker 313
2:26:59
an amendment with regard to where the reports are filed. I think, I think that probably makes the most sense. We'll keep it clean and pull it down and
then that'll, I think work best. Well, certainly that's your prerogative. I don't believe there'd be any objection by the
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:27:11
committee to that Representative Haw forward we do that, can we get the Secretary of State's office up because I, I wanna ask because the reason I ask this is because whenever I was dealing with the bill that we talked about earlier, I know there was some cost involved with doing that. I just want to make sure
that before Representative McAlinden does this that Secretary of State's not going to have added cost for something like this as well, yeah. Good point. All right. If
Speaker 34
2:27:37
you would just identify yourself for the record. Josh Bridges, Assistant Director of elections, Secretary of State,
uh, there, there could be added costs. I don't know, um, I wasn't expecting that to, to come our way. We're totally open to that idea and we can, we're happy to visit with Representative Mac Lindon and and Graham Sloane on this. I don't know that I can answer that question today, uh, but we can, you know, we can visit, and we can kind of circle the wagons.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:28:00
That's great. I just, like I said, I, I wanna make sure that we have because I think it's a good bill. I really do. I just want to make sure that I know when we talked about what we did earlier, that there was cost and and depending on the number of
filings, things like that. I, I just don't want there to be
Speaker 34
2:28:16
added costs that you guys don't know about. Yeah, and this is the first I've actually read this bill, um, just that's, that's my fault, but um I'm assuming that this would be a brand new form, a brand new disclosure form, so just rattling off the top of my head just knowing our and how they operate, that would be uh some sort of an enhancement because that would have to be built in the system and coded and everything else, so um is there cost possibly? Is it a whole lot? I don't know. Thank you.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:28:45
Representative Rose, you're recognized. Thank you Mr. Chair. started belabor the point. I missed what. The
concern was that it was to be amended. Could you mention what that was?
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:28:59
I'm pulling it down, yes, so, so that they would file with the Secretary of State's office and not
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:29:05
with the ethics commission to have done is for
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:29:08
it to be easy for people to do the form so that there's better compliance with the form, and I
think since we already have lobbyists filing with Secretary of State's office for them to simply just amend what they're already doing to
give the additional information, probably makes the most sense. And if you do that for the lobbyists, then
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:29:27
it makes sense to do that for the political. agencies as well. Well, I don't want to tell you how to run your bill. Um, did I hear that there are, was it the the BQCs that file with ethics.
Speaker 328
2:29:39
And Others, is that correct? Only BQCs only the filings and we scan them and display. Hang
on, we're going to have a conversation,
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:29:52
let's put it on the record, Mr. Sloane, you come to the table.
Was it, was it correct that it is the BQC paper filings that are filed with you and then you guys
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:30:04
put PDFs online, is that what you said? Yes, and I apologize for speaking out of turn. The uh the, you know, we enforce a variety of public disclosure laws, uh, candidates don't file with us. PACs don't
file with us can or elected officials don't file their statements, financial interests with us, the, the only filings that are made with our office or the statements of organization and financial reports by ballot question committees and legislative question
Speaker 50
2:30:34
committees and uh You know, and we don't have an electronic filing systems or paper filings that we um scan and
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:30:41
PDF on the website. I saw that
and so representative McAlinden, um. clearly gonna defer to you, but
I, I I wouldn't necessarily have an issue with that. The ethics might, but it sounds like they are taking filings in a unique scenario which is like with the BQCs and this would seem like it is also a unique scenario and um I know there was discussion, but I just didn't wanna run you off if, if
filing with ethics was the better case scenario for what you're trying
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:31:12
to do. Well, I would suggest this then, What if can we run this bill
today, um, and then let's get together and amend it just in the interest of time because we are running short of session time, um, work
with both these gentlemen to come up with the optimal solution and we can amend it on the Senate side and bring
it back to the House side. I mean The Well, I, I'm
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:31:37
not sure. And Representative Rose, did you have more? Well, uh, I was just gonna respond with, you know, I'd be open to that,
but I'm only one member, so. Yeah. Representative McAlin and I'm not sure that that saves you any time, uh, where, where the amendments made and how it's
made. I mean, if you make it, you could. Um, you can do it in this committee. Um, you can have one engrossed. You can bring it to the committee, but regardless, it's going to delay you
a day and you know the same thing's gonna happen to you in the Senate, but Representative Rose. Um I think
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:32:09
as they discussed they may decide they don't have to
make an amendment. So if they run it through here and they continue to agree and then move forward with it on the Senate end. In the interest of time. Well,
it's her. I'm going to let her do with her what she wants, as you've noted. I'm going to run the bill right. So We were in the we were in the question phase, I believe, is that right? Correct. All right. Are there any other questions by the committee? No, we were in the, we were in
the uh and and and uh Mr. Sloane. Came
up To speak on the bill. So seeing no one else signed up
to speak for or against the bill. Representative McAlinden you
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
2:32:56
recognized a close for your bill. So, um, this bill, the purpose of this bill is really to just increase transparency of who is coming in and impacting the political process within Arkansas, um, it requires lobbyists
and political organizations to register, and with that I would ask for a good vote. All right, Representative McAlin, it's closed
for a bill. What are the wishes of the committee? I see a motion to pass Representative Rose, is
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:33:23
there any discussion on the motion, Representative Hawk? I'm going to vote for for this
bill, but I do want to say that like, Represent Macklin, I, I want to know those answers and, and hopefully if we can get it amended, you know, either on the floor or in the Senate. I would like to see that because at the end of the day it's transparency
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:33:41
for all. So I will vote for this bill. Representative Rose, I'll be voting for as well. I think the substance of the bill is strong, and I think what it's trying to do is good, and I think the transparency and the accountability is good and and if they leave it as it is, I
think that's good and if they amend it, I'd be supportive as well. So thank you. I'll
be voting for it. All right, any other discussion on the motion. Seeing no further discussion on the motion, all those in favor say aye. All those opposed. How's have
it. Congratulations, Pastor Bill. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you. Next, we're gonna take up Senate Bill 409. Representative Torres.
OK. Representative Torres, if you would identify yourself, you'll be recognized to present Senate bill.
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified
2:34:41
409. You bet. Representative Randy Torres, District 17, um, Senate Bill 409 is called the Farmer Protection Act, and it aims to prevent banks and financial institutions from refusing services to farmers and agricultural businesses based on
environmental or social controls. There's 4 points to it. Uh, number one, it prevents discrimination against farmers. And 2, it limits environmental, social, and governance policies. 3, it creates a public list of financial institutions that discriminate. And for it allows farmers to report discrimination. Now many of you here may already recognized this bill, uh, because the legislation in it
was passed 2 years ago and the only thing that we're doing is we're adding agricultural producers to the bill. So this would create the same protections that we already offer to the uh energy fossil fuel, firearms and ammunition industries in our state. And with that I'll take any questions. All right, are there any
questions by the committee? Seeing no questions by the
committee. Do we have anyone senate to speak for or against the bill.
No one sign and speak for against the bill.
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified
2:36:08
Representative Torres recognized a close for your bill. I'm closed for the bill, and I consider it an honor to be here running this bill to protect the
agricultural community of our state. Very good. All right. What are the wishes of the committee? I have a motion to pass Representative Rose. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing
no discussion on the motion, all those in favor say aye. All those opposed, the habit, congratulations, you've passed your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members.
All right. Do we have anyone else uh here in the committee room this morning who would like to run a bill. Representative Hawk, you're recognized.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:37:06
Mr. Chair, if I could have the association
of counties join me at the table in case there's any questions. I don't think we will. It
would be a quick bill. All right, Representative Hawk. Miss Pre is certainly welcome to join you at the table. I think she
Speaker 292
2:37:26
knows how this process works, uh, so you're recognized. Lindsey
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:37:29
French Association of Arkansas Counties. RJ Hawk District 81, so colleagues, Senate Bill 14 is to
amend the law concerning notice related to the election process, so really all we're doing in this bill is uh we're changing registered mail, uh, to certified mail, so registered male is currently outdated and it, it just slows down the process. Plus this is a cost saving and efficiency bill, um, and in addition to the commissioners or anybody on notice can
agree to be notified via email. So that's all the bill does. We're just amending the, the current law.
Senate Bill 414. All right, give us just a minute here.
Notices related to election processes. And you mentioned that they can be provided by email. They can agree to, to have it done by
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:38:31
email, but really all we're changing in this as well is um registered mail or um registered male
Speaker 14
2:38:37
to certified mail. If you look in the bill.
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
2:38:44
To clarify, if I may, on section 2, currently the county clerk has to notify the county parties by registered mail that they need to turn in their list of certified candidates. This is just changing that to certified mail or if the county party agrees to receive it by email. We're not talking about sending something far away. It's just to the county party, um, and then in section one, it's a notification by the county clerk to the county election commissioners. So there's really no reason for that to be done by
registered mail either since they're working together daily on this process, um, just asking that that can be done in writing rather than by registered
mail. I see. All right. Uh, any questions by the
Speaker 346
2:39:34
committee? Representative Barry, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is there, would there be an send it by email would there be an issue of
Speaker 347
2:39:46
Tracking it, I mean, you know, versus uh
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
2:39:51
certified mail. How would you? I know you can put read receipts on your emails. Um, again, it's just a notice to the parties if they're late and getting their certification to the um to the county clerk, but email would only be by agreement of the party, agreeing to receive it that way, otherwise they would receive it certified
Speaker 347
2:40:12
mail with a return receipt signed, but still there wouldn't be an issue of he
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
2:40:17
said you said, she said. That I sent it. I didn't,
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
2:40:22
I mean. I, I think that it's pretty easy to track when an email was sent and when an email was was received so I
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
2:40:30
don't see that coming up as an issue, just, just,
just asking. Thank you. Went to my spam folder. Went to my junk email. You have
any concerns about something like that happening?
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
2:40:49
And the way that works in counties, as you all know, the, the county clerks know the county parties. They're, they're dealing with them all the time. They're gonna pick up the phone and say, did
Speaker 283
2:40:58
you get my email that you agreed to receive.
Yeah. I agree. I, I know what you're doing. I know, I know how it works. All right, um, Any other questions by the committee? Seeing no further questions by the committee. We have no
one signed up to speak for or against the bill. Representative Hawkey recognized the close of the bill. I am closed for the bill, and I make
a motion to pass. Representative Hagg's closed for his bill. What are the wishes? Oh, he's made a motion to pass. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye, aye all those opposed, I have it, congratulations, you passed your bill. Next, we're going to move to Senate Bill 344.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:41:31
Representative Clowney. Mr. Chair, I did just want to say the agency was gonna present with me and they had
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:41:37
to leave for a meeting with the governor. So if I present and somebody has a question for them, is it alright if I pull it
down and bring it back for a vote, or would you like me just to hold off. You also have another one,
I believe. I have 2. What is the
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:41:57
other one? 343. Does that also require the agency? It
may if there are questions, but I may be able to just explain it myself. OK, well, I'll give you a shot if you wanna just go ahead, uh, Senate Bill 344 is what I have to transfer the healthy employee lifestyle program from the Department of Health to the Department of Transformation and Shared Services. And to amend the law concerning the healthy lifestyle program. So Representative Cloudy, you're
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:42:21
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair and thank you committee. I did all of that and it turns out I was wrong. There is
a representative from the agency here who is happy to answer questions if there are any. So this first bill, Senate Bill 344, is actually Representative Johnson's bill, but I'm presenting it for him today. It's pretty simple, so back in 2005, Governor Huckabee established the Healthy Employee lifestyle program, which is a certain incentive program for employees. used to do things like eat healthy and exercise, and by doing that, they can earn credits that gets them things
like days off at the end of the year. Um, that program when it was created was created under the Department of Health, but it really makes more sense to be under TSS because it really is an employee benefit program. So this bill just moves it from under the Department of Health to the Department of Transformation and Shared Services. That's what it does in a nutshell, but happy to answer any questions
for committee members. Thank you, Representative Clowney. Are there any questions? by the committee. Seeing no questions by the committee, we have no one signed up to speak for or against the
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:43:22
bill. Representative Clowney, you're recognized a close for your bill. Close for
my bill. Appreciate a good vote and make a motion to pass. Representative Clowney's closed her bill. She's made a motion to pass. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing no discussion on the motion. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed? The eyes have it. Congratulations, you passed your bill. Thank you. And then I
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:43:39
believe you have another one. I do, and I think there should be an amendment on this one,
Speaker 360
2:43:47
maybe, Carly, no. Is it engrossed? It's engrossed, yeah, the fleet is this? Sorry, Senate Bill 343. Senate
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:43:55
Bill 343. All right, Representative Clowney, you're recognized. OK, so Senate Bill 343 deals with the fleet. So currently there are a number of state-owned vehicles, and those are all sort of handled individually by the respective agencies. This bill centralizes control under the Department of Transformation and Shared Services implement some monitoring GPS, that kind of thing. Um, that's what it does in short, there are importantly some exceptions for agencies
that have law enforcement arms. those, those vehicles are not covered under this TSS kind of monitoring system, but the rest are the goal is to just improve government efficiency and knowledge of where our vehicles are and what they're being used to do as a state. All right, Representative
Clowney's explained the bill. Are there any questions by the committee? All right, so hang on just a minute.
So this is going to allow state agencies to put GPS trackers on state vehicles to track the whereabouts, is that right? Well, I will
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:45:04
say that under current laws aid agencies are allowed to do that already. This will require the the Department of Transformation
and Shared Services to do that. So this will require every state, every, every car under the state fleet to have a GPS tracking device where currently it is not required, it's only allowed, and so a number of them do already have it, but it varies agency by
Speaker 360
2:45:27
agency. This will centralize it under TSS. So I'm guessing there are some exceptions. There are
exceptions, that's right, guessing the governor's. Motorcade doesn't have GPS trackers on them. Or state police
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:45:39
anything that has a law enforcement sort of capacity is accepted under this bill. Yes.
Speaker 8
2:45:44
All right, Representative Beck, you're recognized. So
if an existing car doesn't have it
on there. Um, so with that car just be replaced. The car isn't
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:45:59
replaced, they will just update it with um with the software necessary. So they're still working on a hard fiscal impact last I heard, but they were, they were in the discussions with some companies and they're looking at about $20 per month per vehicle to get it up to um to where we need to be and the idea is that that will be cost saving over time because we'll be able to keep better track of not only location of but really like maintenance of our vehicles and all of those things will be reported back to TSS in real time.
So it's my A new vehicle would already have this. Is that correct? That's
right. Yeah, so it, it would just be getting rid of the older vehicles in the fleet. There, it's my
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:46:42
understanding and if there's more questions on this, but it's my understanding no vehicles will be replaced as a result of this law, but they will just be updated with technology and then as they are replaced, they will be, this will be taken into account. Moving forward. In other words, a perfectly good vehicle. We will not be
Speaker 94
2:47:03
purchasing a whole new vehicle right now to meet the
requirements of this law. I, I, I, I, I have some concerns over upgrading. I, I don't know because I don't know how many of the vehicles in the fleet is have this on there or not, but at $20 a month and a lot of these vehicles aren't. You know, that active, to be honest with you, I think, I don't, I don't know that, but maybe, maybe
the agency could help us out with that is the the some numbers uh without, without a study on this, this could be expensive.
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:47:36
OK, I think maybe the appropriate person to answer those questions is not here, so if you want, I will pull it down now and maybe bring it back um next time we're all together
to get you some answers before we vote this out. It's your choice as
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:47:50
to whether or not you want to do that, but I, I, I, I have the concerns always want questions answered before we vote anything out, so I'm more than happy to do that. I will do that, um, if there are other questions for me, I'm happy
to take them now or I can just pull this and bring it back this afternoon or whenever we meet next.
OK, thank you. Looks like there are some
Speaker 38
2:48:15
other questions. I saw Representative Barry. Mr. Chair Um Ms. Clanney does this bill Point
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:48:22
to Misuse of state vehicles. This bill, so I know the original legislation,
and this was Senator Ervin's legislation back in 2013 maybe and that legislation came about as a result of some state vehicles on state time that were
photographed in a casino parking lot in Mississippi. Um, and so this was, this was a, an attempt to kind of keep better track of where
our states. funds are going, especially during state working hours.
Yeah. Thank you. Sure they had perfectly valid reasons to be there. I will say I, I want to note the irony. That Representative Clowney had a bill that made electronic tracking. qualifies as a criminal offense
of harassment and at at the same time we have a bill that will mandate require the electronic tracking of all
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:49:17
vehicles by the state. Now, of course,
I understand the distinction with consent, we're all OK. I, I do understand the distinction, however, I do think it is uh you know, it is. Something to note that, you know, we live in what some would describe as a surveillance state already. We're putting trackers now on every vehicle. Apparent, I guess apparently owned by the state and I.
You know, at some point you just have to trust that your employees are going to use things appropriately and if you have reason to believe they're not, then put a tracker
or if, you know, there's some evidence that um. You know, some that they may not be using their vehicle properly, then, you know, then you
can take the appropriate steps, but to constantly track every state employee and every vehicle, uh, 24 hours a day at some point seems to be a little bit um
aggressive. Some would say, and I'm not making that argument necessarily one way or the other. I'm just pointing it out that uh these are, these are things to
think about. I understand it's taxpayer funds. I understand it's taxpayer paid for vehicles and you know, in, in terms of Uh, transparency and um. appropriate use of taxpayer money. I, I see the justification, but at the same time there are other considerations countervailing points
and so I just point that out. Clay, you want to respond to that?
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:50:45
Yeah, I mean, you know, I, I can't speak uh to specific instances other
than the one I just noted, because I know that was the impetus for the bill in the first place, way back when, um, I, I can't speak for the agency on this in terms of when they will use it, how often they will monitor location, all of that kind of thing, um, but I certainly, um, Understand that it's a balance and I and I do think that we need to think seriously about being good stewards of our taxpayer money, and this will help us do that. So to be clear, does this
Does this require that the tracking be placed on every vehicle or Is it only if there's good cause, uh,
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:51:23
on or before January 1st, 2028. So there is a good bit of lead time and global
positioning device. This bill changes made to shall be installed on all state-owned vehicles. Interesting. OK. Any other questions by
the committee also mention, I'm sorry, just not to
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:51:39
interrupt you, but um I guess I did interrupt you. I should mention that I I neglected to mention this is part of a package of bills that came out
of the McKenzie study on, on efficiency um for the state, so this is not just kind of dreamt up out of thin air. There was a lot of research that went in on the front end to things that could improve
Speaker 375
2:52:00
our state spending, and this was one of the solutions that they
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
2:52:07
proposed Doge, OK, Representative Long, you're, I know. Um, you mentioned about bringing it back and I would appreciate that because I, I would like to know the cost involved and having been a state employee in the past, I, I really, you know,
if the cost is not too bad, I would support it because I've seen a need for keeping up with some folks because um some folks are just um Not doing what
they're supposed to be doing during the work day while the taxpayers are paying for their salary, so I appreciate it. Thank you. Representative
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:52:37
Rose, you're recognized. Thank you. You mentioned it and it was something that I was interested in, but I hadn't seen it just yet and maybe I hadn't looked at it in the text of the bill, but you mentioned the word consent.
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:52:52
Yes, that was in response to Representative Gazaway's point, because the bill that I had on the same issue, um. Made it a crime of harassment to track a vehicle without the owner's consent. Any employee of the state agency would obviously be consenting to
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:53:09
this tracking by virtue of their employment. So the question I had is what if somebody who
is not an employee. is in the employee's vehicle. Is there something that will be in place to make them aware,
more or less that their whereabouts are
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:53:25
being tracked while they're in that vehicle.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:53:27
Yeah, that's a great question, probably better for the agency and that's why I'm giving this to you now so you can think about it beforehand because then it also, I wanna fall fall along with that is what about uh an elected official or a foreign dignitary who may be traveling in a state vehicle while in Arkansas. Would they be made aware? And if they weren't made aware, does that put us at some kind of
risk or inadvertent hostile act. Um, and then there was the exclusion of vehicles that are being used to transport inmates or offenders that
are under the Department of Corrections and so for the department then also my question would be, please tell me we're tracking those vehicles in some other way. We are, so they were excluded because
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:54:15
they already are operating on their own GPS tracking system, and so don't need to be under TSS for that reason. OK, good. So I
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:54:25
would want to know if there's a mechanism, you know, a me. mechanism in place for an individual. And it Representative Clowney, it's fine if you want to hold off. I mean, I don't need it now. I was trying to give it to you if you're bringing it back this afternoon.
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:54:41
The to move forward with this. I mean, I think so if you wouldn't mind maybe just repeating your questions and then if we need to take a
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:54:50
beat and come back, we can absolutely do that, but there was a reference made to consent. to a prior bill that was for
non-state employees, you know, not being able to just stick a tracker on somebody's vehicle with them being unaware. So
with this, uh, Representative Clowney had said that, you know, there'd be an understanding that employees would know after a certain date that their vehicles would have a tracking device on them. So with that in mind, my question was, what if a state employee Using a state vehicle that has a tracking device, has somebody in that vehicle with them that is not a state employee, whether it be a resident of Arkansas,
foreign dignitary, uh, an elected official of some type from some other
state. Is there a mechanism in place that's going to let that person know that that their whereabouts while
in that vehicle will be tracked. Ma'am,
Speaker 385
2:55:42
if you would identify yourself for the record, Jennifer Davis. I'm a staff attorney with TSS and I just ran back over here from Mac, so you'll have to excuse my huffing and puffing. Um, Because it only applies to executive level departments. Um, there should not be anyone else
that is not a state employee in those vehicles. If there is a VIP or a dignitary, they are gonna probably be or an elected official from some somewhere else. They're gonna be in probably the governors or lieutenant governors or someone else's detail that we are not tracking. Like we're not tracking any of those vehicles or they might be in what we are considering the law enforcement. Um, you know, it's not under Capitol Police, uh, law enforcement is exempt from having trackers in their vehicles for a number of
reasons. Um, so they won't be in any of those. So like if I'm driving a
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:56:36
state vehicle, there should not be anyone else
Speaker 385
2:56:38
in that vehicle that it's not the same employee. Is there something in this that states that there is not in the bill, however, the bill does allow TFF to promulgate rules and policies, and so those will be, we can address that in a policy that says if you are Traveling with a non-state, perhaps, you know, uh, municipal county or some other non-executive level employee that there needs to be some
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:57:01
notification. We can address that in a policy and rule. I know the chairman may have a question at this point now
as well, but you're saying this is only executive level that this is applying to. I believe it is I'm gonna back up because I don't know, uh, one of the chairman may have left already, but I didn't know
Speaker 388
2:57:25
that that was our understanding. I don't know, I think it's just all state owned.
Speaker 385
2:57:32
OK, it is state employee, OK, it is state agencies, except for we are not including like the National Guard fishing game. And constitutional offices. Well then,
Speaker 391
2:57:44
so, OK, hang on that's not just executive level, correct?
Speaker 385
2:57:47
I can't read that far. Hang on one second. Every state agency, including Yeah, so it is Allstate. It is Allstate vehicles. Um, so
Speaker 168
2:57:57
is it at the position of TSS that All
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:58:06
All vehicles that are owned or used whatever in in in the possession and use of state employees that none of those
Speaker 385
2:58:14
vehicles at any point in time allow people in them that are not state employees, OK, so let me back up to add more to this confusion. So the beginning of the fleet management does say it applies to all agencies and constitutional offices. However, there is a definition that's particularly when it comes to the GPS that a state-owned vehicles mean those owned by cabinet-level departments at the Executive branch. So that would only be the 15 cabinets.
And that's where the GPS applies to because that definition is being added to the bill. So it does limit that, like we're not going to GPS the fishing game constitutional offices and things like that, it applies to state owned vehicles which says Cabinet level departments of the executive branch. And that's on page.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:59:01
2 maybe? Is that page 2 so you're saying that none of those, none of those individuals have an allowance. To admit people who are not
Speaker 385
2:59:10
state employees to their vehicles. It is my understanding that non-state employees
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:59:14
should not be in those vehicles. Um, I just wanna Clarify It's your understanding or are you saying in your official capacity that that's a fact.
Speaker 385
2:59:22
Well, I don't manage the fleet, so I would not say it was in my official capacity, but it is my understanding that they're not, but we can address that in roles for notification of GPS and things of that nature, um, in, in a, in a rule or policy on
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:59:36
using fleet management. I defer to Representative Clowney on the
answer to that question. I don't know, I mean, if, if I'm just gonna leave it there and I'm,
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
2:59:46
I'm sure you may have some thoughts. Sorry, Representative Rose, I understand your concern, but
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
2:59:50
will you just repeat the question one more time? Just and I think kind of based on our back and forth it's just whether or not individuals who are not state employees are gonna be in and out of these vehicles and whether they'll be notified that they're being tracked while they're in
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
3:00:03
those automobiles, right, OK, yes, and I, I mean, I'm, I'm happy to defer to the, to the agency if they want to promulgate that through their
rules, um, if that's not sufficient for you, I understand, but I certainly trust
that they will do that if they say they will do that, but I see
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
3:00:17
the, I, I see the need for notice. What I would say I would be, I think, less concerned than you. So if you feel comfortable with it based on the legislation mentioned, then I'd
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
3:00:30
feel comfortable with too. I will say, members, I am going to pull this down because there was supposed to be an amendment, as I'm looking at this, it's not engrossed. There was supposed to be an amendment, um, so I just do need to bring this back this
afternoon or at least whenever we can do that, um, next, if it's next week, that's fine too, um, but happy to take other questions
while we are here. OK, we'll go ahead and pull it down and if that's OK with the chair, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Give me just one moment. Oh Representative Brown, did you want to, uh Quickly, uh, deal with the SB.
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
3:01:41
293. Thank you, Mr. Chair
Representative Alissa Brown, also gonna have Chris come to the table too. Um, just to remind the committee, SV 293 was the very simple bill that had no new posting requirements uh for poll sites. It was just moving those requirements to the same section. It just got referred back to the committee because uh the amendment timing didn't line up, but I'll let Chris explain that amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My
Chris Madison
Unverified
3:02:08
name is Chris Madison. I'm the director for the State Board of Election commissioners, and this is a
state board uh proposed bill and what happened was on the Senate side, there was a request for a pin citation on page 3. Line 23 previously it said 71103. There was a request that there be a pen citation to include the specific provision relates to crossover voting and so that's what the amendment was to include the pen citation for that and uh just basically takes all of the required postings in a poll and puts it in one statutory provision rather than having it in 4 or 5 different ones.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
3:02:50
Are there any questions from the committee? This one Saying none To have
a I can send an emotion. Oh, there anything? There's no one to speak for or against this. Representative Brown, you'll recognize the
clause for your bill. Appreciate a good vote. I'm closed.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
3:03:20
I have a motion to pass. I have a motion to pass. As a discussion on the motion, see no discussion. All those in
Speaker 401
3:03:33
favor say aye. Any oppose? Congratulations. Thank you and Mr. Chair, I also had Senate Bill 299 that
was on the agenda. It's also very quick. OK, we'll hear next up is Centerville 299. OK, so, uh,
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
3:03:51
Senate Bill 299 is a short bill that says in a long term care facility when an administrator assists a voter, a staff member, just has to be there to witness it. This will help protect all individuals involved and that's on page one and page 2 and that's it, but if anyone has any questions. can help answer them. Are there any questions by
the committee? Seeing no questions by the
committee, we have no one signed up to speak for or against
the bill. Representative Brown, you're breaking to close for your bill. We'd appreciate a good vote. I'm closed. Representative Brown is closed for a bill. What are the wishes of the committee? See a motion to pass. Representative Hawk, is there any discussion on the motion, seeing no discussion, all those in favor say aye. All those opposed, yeah I have it, congratulations, you passed your bill. Thank you. Thank you. Brown, did you have another bill? I already just one, right.
All right, if we're going to have any time to have lunch. Before the session begins, we're gonna have to break, uh, Representative Underwood had a bill that he wanted to present, I believe. I don't know what the wishes of the committee are about coming back
Representative Kendon Underwood
Unverified
3:05:06
this afternoon. Representative Underwood. I thought you were gonna ask me to run it now and not let let anybody eat lunch, so I was gonna say no,
I'm good that's the case um. it I know we have some.
Things going on tonight, but uh if everybody's good with coming back to hear a
bill or two, this afternoon that I think that would
probably be good, so does that work for you, Representative Underwood? OK, all right. Any other business before the committee. All right, seeing no business before the committee at this time. Committee
will stand in recess until 15 minutes after adjournment of the house.
Agenda
CONCUR IN SENATE AMENDMENT
HB1614 Lundstrum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DESIGNATIONS RELATED TO CERTAIN CRIMINAL JUSTICE GRANT PROGRAMS.
RE-REFERRED TO COMMITTEE
SB293 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE REQUIRED POSTINGS AT A POLLING SITE; AND TO AMEND THE LIST CONCERNING REQUIRED POSTING OF NOTICES, INFORMATION, AND MATERIAL AT A POLLING SITE ON ELECTION DAY.
REGULAR AGENDA
HB1621 Wardlaw TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO EXEMPT PERSONAL INFORMATION OF ELECTED CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS, JUDICIAL OFFICIALS, ELECTED COUNTY OFFICIALS, ELECTED MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS, AND THEIR IMMEDIATE FAMILY.
HB1631 Wardlaw TO ADDRESS THE ISSUANCE OF HUNTING AND FISHING LICENSES TO FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENTS.
HB1632 Wardlaw TO REQUIRE REIMBURSEMENT TO THE ARKANSAS STATE GAME AND FISH COMMISSION FOR FREE OR DISCOUNTED HUNTING AND FISHING LICENSES.
HB1706 McCollum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ELECTIONS; AND TO PROHIBIT RANKED CHOICE VOTING.
HB1707 Hawk TO REQUIRE CERTAIN CANDIDATES TO FILE REPORTS WITH THE SECRETARY OF STATE; TO AMEND PORTIONS OF INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1996; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
HB1422 Long TO CREATE THE ONLY CITIZENS VOTE ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE DRIVER'S LICENSES AND IDENTIFICATION CARDS OF CERTAIN NONCITIZENS; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51, SECTION 13.
HB1549 R. Scott Richardson TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS CYBERSECURITY ACT OF 2025.
HB1720 Vaught TO CREATE THE BABIES AT WORK ACT; TO ALLOW STATE AGENCIES TO PERMIT PUBLIC EMPLOYEES WHO ARE PARENTS OR LEGAL GUARDIANS TO BRING THEIR INFANTS SIX MONTHS OR YOUNGER TO WORK.
HB1069 S. Meeks TO OBSERVE STANDARD TIME YEAR ROUND IN ARKANSAS; AND TO ELIMINATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ARKANSAS.
HB1739 M. Brown TO ADOPT THE UNIFORM ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIALS ACT.
HB1740 K. Moore TO EXEMPT CERTAIN AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION FROM THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967.
HB1187 Vaught TO AUTHORIZE A LICENSURE BY ENDORSEMENT FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS.
HJR1004 Ladyman APPLYING TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS FOR AN ARTICLE V CONVENTION OF THE STATES FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION TO IMPOSE TERM LIMITS OF MEMBERS FOR THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS.
HB1753 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING VOTER REGISTRATION; TO OPT-OUT OF THE NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 1993; AND TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51, § 5.
HB1773 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CONTRIBUTION LIMITS FOR BALLOT QUESTION COMMITTEES AND LEGISLATIVE QUESTION COMMITTEES.
HB1774 Beaty Jr. TO AMEND THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE ARKANSAS FAIR HOUSING COMMISSION.
HB1243 Underwood TO INCREASE TRANSPARENCY REGARDING CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS AND EXPENDITURES; TO AMEND CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTING AND PROTECT ELECTION INTEGRITY; AND TO AMEND PORTIONS OF INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1996.
HB1037 A. Collins TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING PERSONS WHO MAY REGISTER TO VOTE; AND AMENDING PROVISIONS OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51, UNDER THE AUTHORITY GRANTED BY ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 51, § 19.
HB1041 A. Collins TO PROHIBIT DECEPTIVE AND FRAUDULENT DEEPFAKES IN ELECTION COMMUNICATIONS.
HB1797 Beaty Jr. TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS DEVELOPMENT FINANCE AUTHORITY; TO AMEND A PORTION OF THE ARKANSAS CODE THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 1 OF 2000; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
HB1800 McAlindon TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE; TO REQUIRE DISCLOSURE BY AGENTS OF A FOREIGN PRINCIPAL; AND TO AMEND PORTIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE THAT RESULTED FROM INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1990.
HB1803 Joey Carr TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE PLACEMENT OF A MONUMENT ON THE STATE CAPITOL GROUNDS IN RECOGNITION AND HONOR OF MAURICE LEE “FOOTSIE” BRITT.
SENATE BILLS
SB344 Irvin TO TRANSFER THE HEALTHY EMPLOYEE LIFESTYLE PROGRAM FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSFORMATION AND SHARED SERVICES; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE HEALTHY LIFESTYLE PROGRAM.
SB351 J. Dismang TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ETHICS AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE; TO AMEND PORTIONS OF INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1990; AND TO AMEND PORTIONS OF INITIATED ACT 1 OF 1996.
SB370 Irvin TO TRANSFER THE ARKANSAS WINE PRODUCERS COUNCIL FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS, HERITAGE, AND TOURISM; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
SB299 K. Hammer TO REQUIRE A STAFF MEMBER TO WITNESS AN ADMINISTRATOR ASSISTING A RESIDENT OF A LONG-TERM RESIDENTIAL CARE FACILITY WITH ABSENTEE VOTING.
SB343 Irvin TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING STATE-OWNED MOTOR VEHICLES; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC PROPERTY; AND TO AMEND THE AUTOMOBILE AND PICKUP TRUCK ACQUISITION ACT FOR THE STATE OF ARKANSAS.
SB227 C. Tucker TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND THE PROVISIONS OF THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967 CONCERNING PUBLIC MEETINGS.
SB12 B. King TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING COMMUNICATIONS REGARDING REDISTRICTING BY THE BOARD OF APPORTIONMENT.
SB271 Crowell TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A COUNTY CLERK'S CERTIFICATION OF SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES TO THE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS.
SB353 Hester TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE DATES FOR ELECTIONS; TO AMEND THE DATES OF PRIMARY ELECTIONS, SCHOOL ELECTIONS, AND CERTAIN SPECIAL ELECTIONS; AND TO CHANGE THE DATE OF THE FISCAL SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
SB403 C. Tucker TO CREATE THE THE 2030 ARKANSAS COMPLETE COUNT COMMITTEE; AND TO PLAN AND CONDUCT STATEWIDE EDUCATIONAL AND OUTREACH INITIATIVES TO INCREASE COMMUNITY AWARENESS AND PARTICIPATION IN THE 2030 FEDERAL DECENNIAL CENSUS.
SB409 B. Johnson TO PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS BY FINANCIAL SERVICES PROVIDERS; AND TO ESTABLISH THE FARMER PROTECTION ACT.
SB414 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE ELECTION LAWS OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING NOTICES RELATED TO THE ELECTION PROCESS.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
HJR1001 A. Collins A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO CREATE THE CITIZENS' REDISTRICTING COMMISSION AND TO REPEAL THE BOARD OF APPORTIONMENT.
HJR1002 J. Richardson AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO REPEAL THE EXCEPTION TO THE PROHIBITION OF SLAVERY AND INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE.
HJR1003 A. Collins THE ARKANSAS GOVERNMENT DISCLOSURE AMENDMENT.
HJR1005 Long AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS TAXPAYER BILL OF RIGHTS.
HJR1006 B. McKenzie AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION PROVIDING THAT A GOVERNMENTAL BODY SHALL NOT USE STATE OR LOCAL FUNDS TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH A LOBBYIST FOR LOBBYING PURPOSES.
HJR1007 Cavenaugh A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO CREATE A PROCEDURE FOR THE RECALL OF CERTAIN ELECTED OFFICIALS.
HJR1008 S. Meeks AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION CONCERNING THE TAXATION OF PERSONAL PROPERTY AND REAL PROPERTY IN THE STATE OF ARKANSAS.
HJR1009 K. Brown AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO BE KNOWN AS THE ARKANSAS VICTIMS' BILL OF RIGHTS; AND TO PROVIDE RIGHTS FOR VICTIMS OF MISDEMEANOR AND FELONY OFFENSES, INCLUDING VICTIMS IN THE ADULT AND JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEMS.
HJR1010 Unger A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO PROVIDE THAT BY A TWO-THIRDS VOTE, THE SENATE MAY REMOVE MEMBERS OF CERTAIN BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS FOR CAUSE ONLY, AFTER NOTICE AND HEARING.
HJR1011 S. Meeks A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT CONCERNING THE CONSIDERATION OF BILLS OTHER THAN APPROPRIATION BILLS DURING A FISCAL SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
HJR1012 R. Scott Richardson AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO REPEAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING THE REAPPRAISAL AND REASSESSMENT OF REAL PROPERTY; AND TO AMEND ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 79, CONCERNING REAL PROPERTY TAXES.
HJR1013 Pilkington A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO PROVIDE THAT CERTAIN VACANCIES SHALL BE FILLED BY APPOINTMENT BY THE GOVERNOR.
HJR1014 Beaty Jr. A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT CONCERNING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE STATE OF ARKANSAS; AND AUTHORIZING THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO PROVIDE FOR THE CREATION OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DISTRICTS TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
HJR1015 Lundstrum A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ENSURE TRANSPARENCY BY REQUIRING A JUDICIAL CANDIDATE TO DECLARE HIS OR HER POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION OR INDEPENDENT STATUS WHEN RUNNING FOR OFFICE.
HJR1016 Ray A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO REPEAL THE PROVISION OF ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 5, § 1, ALLOWING THE SPONSOR OF AN INITIATIVE OR REFERENDUM PETITION TO CORRECT OR AMEND A PETITION.
HJR1017 Ray A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROVIDING THAT A PROPOSED STATE-WIDE INITIATED ACT OR CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT SHALL BECOME A LAW WHEN APPROVED BY A MAJORITY OF THE VOTES CAST IN THE ELECTION AND A MAJORITY OF THE COUNTIES OF THE STATE.
HJR1018 Ray THE CITIZENS ONLY VOTING AMENDMENT.
HJR1019 S. Meeks AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO REMOVE REFERENCES TO GREYHOUND RACING FROM ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 100.
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — STATE AGENCIES & GOVT'L AFFAIRS- HOUSE, Mar 19, 2025 | Agenda | 6 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Jimmy Gazaway Chair
Unverified
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
Speaker 11
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 21
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
Speaker 34
Speaker 40
Representative Kendon Underwood
Unverified
Speaker 53
Representative Rick Beck Chair
Unverified
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
Speaker 100
Speaker 102
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
Speaker 118
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
Speaker 131
Speaker 137
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
Speaker 146
Speaker 148
Speaker 152
Speaker 158
Speaker 159
Marisa Garcia
Unverified
Speaker 196
Speaker 198
Speaker 202
Speaker 211
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
Speaker 225
Speaker 229
Speaker 240
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
Speaker 228
Joey Mccutcheon
Unverified
Andrew Bagley
Unverified
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
Speaker 254
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Speaker 259
Gary Vance
Unverified
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
Speaker 290
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
Speaker 294
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
Speaker 310
Speaker 54
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 59
Speaker 269
Speaker 322
Speaker 313
Speaker 328
Speaker 50
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified
Speaker 292
Speaker 14
Speaker 346
Speaker 347
Speaker 283
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
Speaker 360
Speaker 8
Speaker 94
Speaker 38
Speaker 375
Speaker 385
Speaker 388
Speaker 391
Speaker 168
Chris Madison
Unverified
Speaker 401