Public Transportation- House
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Bills discussed (11)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1745
Act 604
· 7 mentions in agenda, transcript, chapter
Matched: “…S LAW CONCERNING THE USE OF A DEALER'S EXTRA LICENSE PLATE. HB1745 Hawk TO REQUIRE CERTAIN COMMERCIAL DRIVER LICENSE HOLDERS T…”
|
TO REQUIRE CERTAIN COMMERCIAL DRIVER LICENSE HOLDERS TO POSSESS A UNITED STATES WORK AUTHORIZATION; TO … | Hawk | Notification that HB1745 is now Act 604 |
|
HB1569
· 2 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “we've, we've lobbied for House Bill 1569, which is being sponsored by Representative Long. OK, so th…”
|
TO CREATE THE SECURE ROADS AND SAFE TRUCKING ACT OF 2025; TO AMEND THE LAW … | Long | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1688
Act 710
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ux Rep. Trey Steimel REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1688 Cavenaugh TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE USE OF A DEA…”
|
TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE USE OF A DEALER'S EXTRA LICENSE PLATE. | Cavenaugh | Notification that HB1688 is now Act 710 |
|
HB1757
Act 528
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1757 Joey Carr TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING RAILROADS; AND TO CRE…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING RAILROADS; AND TO CREATE THE OFFENSE OF TAMPERING WITH RAIL … | Joey Carr | Notification that HB1757 is now Act 528 |
|
HB1770
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…O CREATE THE OFFENSE OF TAMPERING WITH RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE. HB1770 Pilkington TO ESTABLISH THE PREGNANCY PARKING ACT; TO AMEND…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE PREGNANCY PARKING ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PARKING FOR A PERSON … | Pilkington | Died on House Calendar at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB261
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…MOTOR VEHICLE IN THE STATE; AND TO CREATE RELATED OFFENSES. SB261 A. Clark TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF AN AL…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF AN ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLE ON CERTAIN ROADS; AND … | A. Clark | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1284
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…E TO PREGNANT WOMEN. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1284 Unger TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE SUSPENSION OR REVOCAT…”
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TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF A PERSON'S DRIVER'S LICENSE FOR … | Unger | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1371
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…D TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A RESTRICTED DRIVER'S PERMIT. HB1371 Wardlaw TO REPEAL THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE COMPLETION OF A H…”
|
TO REPEAL THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE COMPLETION OF A HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTION COURSE FOR THE … | Wardlaw | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1550
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ROM THE SKILLS PORTION OF THE DRIVER'S LICENSE EXAMINATION. HB1550 Andrews CONCERNING EXPEDITED SECURITY SCREENINGS AT AN AIRP…”
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CONCERNING EXPEDITED SECURITY SCREENINGS AT AN AIRPORT. | Andrews | Recommended for study in the Interim by the … |
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HB1623
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ION COURSE FOR THE ISSUANCE OF A COMMERCIAL DRIVER LICENSE. HB1623 J. Moore TO EXEMPT H-2A VISA PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE…”
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TO EXEMPT H-2A VISA PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE A VALID INTERNATIONAL DRIVER'S LICENSE OR PERMIT … | J. Moore | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB174
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…drivers. I believe that HB 1745, and that's why I'm against HB 174 is reducing the standards for these drivers. In fact, the l…”
|
Pre-2017 bill |
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1633 Representative Kavanaugh, excuse me, 66. 1688. I'm sorry. Well, I get some better glasses. You may introduce yourself and proceed.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
0:27
Thank you, Mr. Chair, uh, Frank Kavanaugh, uh, state rep District 30, um, 1688 is just an amendment to the dealer's extra license plates. This is just to clarify. What qualifies for someone to use a dealer license plates and to make sure it's more clear and
more simple on who actually can legally use those plates. Um, the other thing it does is it also takes out and lets us understand that when a plate is used on a vehicle, it's not a taxable transaction that it's not taking it out of stock for sale. And that's really basically what the bill does. Any questions from committee? Anyone here to speak for or
Speaker 7
1:07
against the bill. Seeing none, that's Kevin, are you gonna close? Uh thank yous. I really appreciate you
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:17
listening to this. This has been an issue and just for the record, I want to say, everybody understands I'm a car dealer. um, I don't use dealer plates in our industry. I don't use them in my business, but this has to be something that has to be cleared up, and I appreciate y'all listening to this. Um, also, there will be another companion bill that will be filed that will deal with the penalties for those that misuse the license, so that should be coming off so I just wanted to say that. with that. I'd appreciate a good vote. OK, what's the will of the
committee have a due pass from Representative Richmond in the discussion. All in favor say aye. Any opposes same like I hearing none. Congratulations your bill passes. Thank you, members. I appreciate it. Next on the agenda we have House Bill 1745 Representative Hawk. Uh, we also have an amendment, Representative
Hall, uh, we have Several looks like about 12 people signed up to to speak so. Uh Movement
May take Representative Hawke, introduce yourself. Start with the amendment, we'll go
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
2:30
there. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative RJ Hawk, District 81 on this amendment, all we are doing is, uh, adding Representative Henley as a co-sponsor to the bill, and on page 3, we're deleting lines 15 and 16 that says commercial driver's license issued by
Speaker 21
2:50
Canada, Mexico, or any other jurisdiction, uh, meaning the learner's permit portion of
the, the bill. Hang on just a minute. OK, thank you. Uh, uh, can I get a motion from the committee to adopt the amendment motion to
pass. Motion to pass from You, OK, in discussion, all in favor say aye polls seem like ain't none, you may proceed.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
3:21
Thank you, Mr. Chair, Committee. House Bill 1745 is to require certain CDL holders to possess a US work authorization form to operate a commercial motor vehicle in the state, uh, and it also creates, creates offenses. So for many that don't know, back in the 90s when NAFTA was created by the federal government, um, it allowed for truck drivers in Mexico and Canada to drive through the United States. And deliver goods and services in doing that, they can use their CDL from the country that
they come from. So it's a Mexican CDL or Canadian CDL. Since that time, President Trump has come in and he's, it's now called the USMCA, uh, and that still is allowed, so a Mexican CDL is still allowed, but what we've seen over the course of the last 10 years are a bunch of fraudulent CDLs out of Mexico, uh, allowing for immigrants to come in illegally, uh, this. it's just a route, another route that they've gone. So last session, uh, the Texas legislature, they passed this
exact bill that says in order to come into and drive on the roads in the state of Texas, you have to get a work authorization form from the federal government. All this form is, you can go online or you can call and get this work authorization form and you can carry your uh Mexican CDL or your Canadian CDL, but you have to have that authorization form with you when you're driving on. roads and taxes. We're wanting to do that here in Arkansas. If this bill were to pass and somebody is caught without that
work authorization form. It is a class D felony. Uh, we do have the offenses in here. Uh, we worked with the highway uh police as well as state police, the attorney general on this bill to make sure that we
comply not only with federal law, but also with state law in this. We are not expanding any type of licensure whatsoever. I know there's been things said, you've gotten some emails. We're not expanding.
Any type of licensing. All we're doing is helping cut down on fraudulent CDLs in other countries. And with that, I'll
take any questions. Thank you, Representative
questions from committee. All right. We have uh. Several people Signed up to
speak. Uh, representing Whittaker, did you have a motion? You, you, you're excuse me, you recognize, excuse me, you're not
Representative David Whitaker
Unverified
5:56
on yet. Wait just a minute. hold on, hold on. Uh-huh, there we are. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Due to the heightened interest in this particular bill and the potential for, uh, Thorough. Testimony, I would move that we limit debate on each side to 3 minutes per speaker. OK, have a motion to limit debate 3 minutes, uh.
From uh representing Whittaker in discussion from the committee, all in favor say aye. And you pose
some likes I'm hearing none, madam, clerk, you'll keep the timer. OK. We'll start with, uh, uh, we got, we'll start with the against we'll kind of. uh, Shannon Everett.
Speaker 48
7:32
Now have two ecosystems in the trucking industry. We've got one group that is the American truck driver, the legacy American carrier who has been regulated to death. We've got all kinds of regulations that have been placed on us. We've got all kinds of new technologies that we're using to make our, our roads safer, our highways safer to make our, our, our community safer and then we've got this other ecosystem out here with non-citizen foreign truck drivers that are coming in on these non-domiciled CDLs and foreign CDLs. And a lot of this has been taking place and has been
growing without the public being aware of exactly, uh, what's going on on our highways and so they're, there really hasn't been any vote on any of this. I know, uh, the representative talked about the NAFTA agreement that was done in 1992. That agreement was done at a time when there was a, an, an understanding that a commercial driver's license that was being issued by a jurisdiction was being issued to someone from that jurisdiction. So in other words, if, if the state of Florida was to issue a driver's license. It was going to a
Floridian and so when we, when we signed that compact, when we had that reciprocity agreement, we understood that we would be sending drivers to them and they would be sending drivers to us. I don't believe any of our representatives or senators ever thought. That we would be signing a reciprocity agreement that would allow people from other countries to come on that. And so that's, that's the first thing and the second thing would be, The English proficiency, um. None, all these drivers in this new ecosystem, a lot of them don't speak English and we have a current law that says that
these drivers are required to speak English and they should be put out of service, but there's been a memorandum issued that has kept these drivers from being put out of service. And so, uh, these, neither one of these two issues are being addressed. And so we've got this, this whole new eco ecosystem of these drivers and. HB 1745 is not doing anything to solve those problems for us. That ecosystem is causing an increase in the number of fatalities and injuries on
Arkansas highways and across the United States, and I believe that this committee should be working on legislation to increase the standards for our commercial driver's licensing system for this new ecosystem of drivers. I believe that HB 1745, and that's why I'm against HB 174 is reducing the standards for these drivers. In fact, the language allowing these non-domicil learner's permits is actually Putting, codifying into law the process to kind of legalize what these guys are already doing where there's no law in place for it.
And so I'm against. HB
1745. Thank you, Mr. Ever. Any questions from committee Representative Richmond, you're
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
10:19
recognized for your question. Uh Thank you, Mr. Chair. So have you or your association or anybody, have they provided? Uh, suggested legislation to address these issues that you're discussing so that we can, can
start a process of, of possibly, you know, minimizing this, this negative impact that you just described. Have, have you provided any member or anything, or do you have somewhere out there in your associations, you know. Sample legislation that would address these issues. Yes,
Speaker 48
10:51
we've, we've lobbied for House Bill 1569, which is being sponsored by Representative Long. OK, so that, that's
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
10:57
it, you know, forgive me for not knowing all different bills, but that's one that's coming up now as far as sometime in this session, yeah,
Speaker 48
11:04
the safe, uh, secure and Safe Roads Act. Yes, sir. It's on the deferred agenda.
Speaker 58
11:10
It's on deferred. It's, it's currently on
the deferred agenda. OK, thank you. Any other questions for me? OK. Thank you, Mr. Char for your testimony. Uh, next we'll have uh. Shannon Newton from the Arkansas Trucking Association speaking for the bill. And
Speaker 62
11:41
Shannon, um, Arkansas Trucking Association. Thank you, Chairman and members of the committee. I'll be brief. Um, I just want to, I guess, highlight or maybe even lean into some of the issues that Mr. Everett, uh, brought up, um. Unfortunately there are a lot of non-domestic individuals in the workforce today, uh, labor conditions, immigration policy have brought on a lot of challenges, um, in the trucking industry, the regulations with regard to who can obtain a CDL and what the qualifications for
that are medical cards, background history, drug and alcohol testing, all of that is managed and set forth at the federal level. So that there is uniformity among states engaged in interstate commerce, so that the same standard applies to all individuals on the road. So it's our position that many of the issues that we've brought up today need a federal solution. I, in the last year and a half since this issue was brought up, I personally have met with Border Patrol agents, the Texas Department of Safety,
Homeland Security, FMCSA, State Police, Highway police, Congressman Crawford on this issue. There simply is not a state solution to those challenges. We need a federal solution. So that's why we brought forward 1745 to put an additional filter at At the state level to allow those who are federally permitted to drive on the roads to have this additional, um, layer of protection to validate that their licenses are legitimate. Thank
you, Mr. Newton. Any questions from committee? Representative Steele, you recognize?
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
13:16
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Shannon, how many members are in your
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
13:30
association currently? We have about 350 members. out. The state. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Any other questions? Representative Richmond? Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in your opinion, does this particular bill, does
Speaker 65
13:39
it help? At all as far as addressing some of these issues
Speaker 62
13:42
that we've brought forward is to identify those who have circumvented the process and accessed the license fraudulently, i.e., they have
Speaker 72
13:47
purchased it online from the cartel. All right, thank you. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker 62
13:53
Chair. Thank you. Any other questions from the committee? May I add one more thing that I forgot to mention. I just, it was brought up, um, Mr. Everett mentioned the Learner's permit and I just want to affirm that the amendment that was made by Representative Hawke when we started eliminated those four words, so the commercial learner's
permit is no longer in the bill. Thank you. Any other questions
committee? Thank you, Mr. Newton. for your testimony. Uh, next on the.
Uh, against list Tanya Bryant. Please introduce yourself and uh you may proceed. You'll have
Ladonna Bryant
Unverified
14:39
3 minutes. My name is LaDonna Bryant. And back May 13th. Uh, Martin Bryant was killed by
an illegal who had been in the country for 12 days. He did not possess a driver's license, a CDL. He, uh, Didn't you have a residence. He had a suitcase in his truck. The company he worked for is just full of shell companies you can't find who you work for. He didn't speak any English. He can't tell you how he was getting paid. You don't know where he lived because he had the suitcase, but because of the negligence of government, of him, my kids are now do not have a dad.
He missed graduation, he's missed the 18th birthday. And it's horrific and there needs to be more done. You should not be able to drive a commercial vehicle in the state of Arkansas if you can't speak English. How are you reading the road signs? How do you know what you're doing? If you can't read the road signs, you're not operating legally. We have to know how to read the road signs. So at 16 to get your license. So how are we making this fair for them to come here. And not only are they
killing innocent people, but my parents owned a trucking company for years. So I know that side of the business too. So they're undercutting wages, and they're making it harder for legal businesses to survive in Arkansas. And that's not fair to the working class. And I do not see how anyone could sit here. and vote for anything that would let an illegal drive in our country and kill innocent people. It's not fair that we have children growing up without their parents. It's not fair for anyone's life to get taken. It's not fair for someone to sit there and bleed to death because they were hit
head-on, because the gentleman swerved. He couldn't even speak English. He couldn't tell what went on. We had to get an interpreter. Arkansas State Police worked the accident. It's not fair. And so if you can sit here and you can vote for an illegal to have a license or to work. I just don't understand. You need to be in my shoes, but I've been on both sides. I know what it's like to have a trucking company. I know what it's like to meet the federal and the state guidelines for your drivers to pass drug tests and all of that. These people aren't doing that.
They're buying their license somewhere. And not only that, my dad had a towing company. You might, they might break down and you go out to help them. They can't tell you anything. But it is ridiculous that anyone could ever vote for them to be able to drive here. You should be against it. You should be against it so you can protect Arkansans and their businesses and their families. This is devastated my kids. My son turned 18 and his dad was there. He graduated high school.
My daughter's getting married. He won't be there. We had our first Christmas without him. And he was the brain. I feel so bad because he remembered everything. I should have listened and learned more, but I always knew I could call him and say, hey, what went on here? I don't have that now. We had been divorced almost 2 years, but we talked almost every day. And I cannot tell you the times that I've needed to know something since May 13th of 2024 that I picked up the phone to call him.
And I couldn't, I'll never call him, I'll never be able to ask him
those questions. And some of that stuff, he was the only one. Mr. Bryant, we appreciate your testimony. Are you wanna take questions? Any anyone anyone have
a question, Mr. Bryan? Thank you for your testimony. Next we have
speaking against Wayne Beach. Wayne, if you will, introduce yourself. And you may proceed.
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
18:29
Hi, I'm Wayne Beach. I'm here just representing myself. You know, I've looked at, I've looked at both this bill as well as the uh the other opposing bill that'll be that's deferred right now. Um I can tell you, I, I love RJ to death and I, and I just think the world of you too, Mr. Holt. I, uh, And y'all been doing a great job all the way up to now. Whenever I look at this bill and especially since uh our governor
has basically tried to make our stage as safe as you can. By, by basically. Reiterating the sanctuary policies that we have in this state. I think that this would almost fall in line with that. Let me tell you something I have a problem with. I have a problem with. Being able to, the validity of the credentials of some of these drivers. Especially if it comes from another country. How can we trust that other country to run there. Credentialing. Like we do.
And I just, and I, and then I'd look, these guys, some of these guys can't even fill out their logbooks. How do we, do we have to have an interpreter? With our state highway police, the highway troll that that that run for the DOT here in this state. We already have federal laws that basically cover a lot of this. Fact is it covers, it says in there that you will be fishing. Speaking, reading, and writing the English language.
So unless, unless you can convince me. That the validity of that And I had a problem. Let me tell you something, I talked to farmers over in Eastern Arkansas, and there's a lot of them that have drivers. That drive their grain trucks and that sort of thing, and they don't have CDLs. But that doesn't make it legal. Does it? So, you know, whenever we, we, we need to, basically, we're gonna have a law here, we need to make sure that we That we follow that law.
We're a nation of laws. For a nation of rules. And when we don't do that, we end up with chaos. We ended with dead. People. And you're talking about an 80,000 pound rig. Why do we even have laws for the for for truckers. You have somebody that comes from another country. And they don't, they, they may never have experienced icy roads. They may have never experienced.
A dust storm. Which we don't have and you saw what happened with the death storm over there. And I know there was a, there was an accident
Speaker 83
21:18
down in Texas where you had a You know, the significant amount of people that were injured in a truck involved. Rick One of these tractor trail rigs killed some folks and injured a whole bunch more. It's not like you're driving a car and you have to ask yourself, am I going to love my children?
My grandchildren, my wife run. That's one I wanna leave you with run on a, on somebody that run on the same road that somebody that's not, not properly conventialed or may not, that slips through the cracks. Mr.
Bee, thank you for your testimony. I thank you for any
questions from committee. Seeing none You You may step down. OK. Uh, next to speak against the bill, Ashton Bryant.
Is that correct? OK, excuse me. Uh Greg Cochrane. Mr. Cochran, introduce
yourself, and you may begin. Thank you,
Speaker 92
22:30
Chair, members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to speak today. I'm Greg Cochran from ALMA on Arkansas Truck Center, uh, record company and parts for heavy duty Class 7 and 8 trucks.
I'm almost embarrassed to speak today after listening to the lady who lost life. All I've lost is money. We lose 27% of our invoices go unpaid every year out of that 27%, 21% is to foreign nationals, I'll call them. Uh, they either have no insurance, no tags, uh, no driver's license. And this is a common problem. we impound for Arkansas Highway Police, probably one a month on the average.
No tags, no insurance. There's a run up down our highways. So, I urge you to think of the non-intended consequences that this bill does. In my opinion, it's just another piece of paper that they'll forge they'll always figure out ways to get here and they do, uh. We've had some serious open border policies through our last administration. And we see the problems that's caused. I think Ms. Newton is right, a lot of this is a federal level, but do what you can to protect Arkansas and its
citizens because not only when I don't get paid and I lose money because they have no insurance, motor in public that they're involved in an incident that their car got hit, they don't receive anything. The property owner with property damage, they don't receive anything, so I urge you to think of the unintended consequences here
and uh. Thank you for letting me speak. Mr. Cochran. Any, any questions from committee? Thank you for your testimony. Uh,
next I have, I think it's Jeff Kasper, is that correct? Jeff, if you will introduce yourself.
Speaker 96
24:17
You may proceed after you do that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Committee, Jeff Kasper, I want BND Towing in West Memphis. Um, I'm Probably one of the lush starts state's largest towing companies in a kind of Give you a little perspective on what we see. Some of it sounds a lot like what Greg just said, but, um, so I started in 2003 and going back 20 years.
Most of the non-US citizen trucking companies were from the Soviet Union bloc. You had Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia. Oh, they probably counted for almost 10% or less than all commercial vehicle accidents, major accidents. In lost revenue was real, real small at that time in the towing industry. Let's fast forward in what you have today.
Majority of that trucker is from Africa. African countries, Middle Eastern countries. Pakistan, India. Certain Asian countries. And all kidding aside, they probably are responsible for about 80%. Of all commercial vehicle actions we work nowadays out there. Where the truck's laying on the side, whether it's right off in the woods in the ditch. Seriously, about 8 out of 10. It's from that individual right there. And lost revenue is extreme, like Greg said. Extreme
Way, way, way underinsured. Maybe the solution is at a federal level for all that. I know they carry, you know, a general liability policy from FMCSA. They carry some cargo insurance. To protect the shipper and, and the broker till it hits the dock. Most of the time, that's all they cover. No, no physical damage, you know, it's like liability only in a big truck. And it's become a huge, huge problem in the industry. Makes it tougher on them guys to make a living because the rate
is junk. 20 years, everything is increased 120% plus in transportation equipment, tires, fuel, insurance, everything. The only thing that hasn't increased. It's a trucking rate. Some of these rates are the same as it was 20 years ago. These companies can probably make it OK because what they're net in a week, probably more than they made in a month or two where they come from. How them boys stay in business nowadays is beyond me. Beyond me.
The owner operator, the trucking company that owns his own good trucks, pays good drivers. Has his own freight, doesn't third party out, brokered out. I don't see how they're staying in business. Really don't. But I don't know what the solution is. But Hope you guys can get somewhere and turn transportation around because it's not headed down a good road. appreciate y'all's time.
Chair
Unverified
27:25
Have a question. Representative Childers, you recognize for
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
27:27
a question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Casper, I'm, I'm afraid I won't get to ask this question. I don't know who I was on the list, so you're the closest thing to a police officer that, that I'm looking at. So my question is currently, is there, and you probably don't know, it's not your wheelhouse, but is there a law prohibiting these drivers we're talking
Speaker 96
27:45
about from driving currently. I don't think there is. I think
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
27:48
it's at a federal level. So currently, they're able to drive. Freewheeling, just do whatever
they want to. OK, and then from me reading this bill, it kind of looks like they're, it's, this
Speaker 96
28:01
is kind of tightening it up a little bit with penalties. It seems to me that way too, and, you know, I put down against and after hearing Miss Newton speak and uh. Uh, Representative Hawkins speak. I get where they're coming from on that, and it makes sense. I don't think it's enough. I think if there's something else that could be entertained at a state level. The English language might be, I don't know, you know, it's so
federally regulated. I don't know what the state could be capable of on its own. But I think if there's anything more they could do, I think
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
28:33
they need to try to do it. And I hope there's the highway police or state police is speaking so I can ask the same
question I can't speak for them, but I hope they're speaking so I can ask that same question, but you were the I'm afraid I wasn't.
Speaker 109
28:45
I, I'll, I'll bring them up. I'll bring one of them up to answer your question, I'll generate my question to that. Thank you, thank you for your testimony.
OK, let's move on Harvey Beach. Mr.
Speaker 114
29:01
Beach, if you will introduce yourself, you may proceed, Mr. Chairman
Speaker 116
29:05
and thank you for the committee. Um, my name's Harvey Beach. I'm one of the co-founders of American Truckers United and uh my family has also been in the trucking business in Arkansas for 43 years. I'm, uh, here today. To speak against House Bill 1745, um, because it, it
In essence, it does nothing to improve the current problem, and I want to explain that to you all. Um, the bill, uh, requires a certain group of drivers to possess an employment authorization form or what is referred to an EAD or an employment authorization document. That document is the very seed and door. Where non-citizens are able to go into certain states, um, we'll call them sanctuary states
claim asylum, and they are given an EAD form or an EAD card. That very document that is required in Bill, uh, 1745 is what is used by those folks to go obtain what is called a non-domicil CDL. And they're able to get it whether they can read or speak English or not. So the majority uh of the unvetted and and you know the lack of vetting.
A non-domiciled CDL cannot be used to board an airplane in our country. And I think that speaks very loudly to the amount or lack thereof of vetting, uh, that these folks, uh, are getting. Uh, to go get these licenses. Um, my current vice president of safety, Chuck Remmer, who is here today and is prepared to testify. Has served in the Arkansas trucking community, uh, since 1988, uh, and was actually our
Arkansas Trucking Association, uh, safety director of the year back in '91 when I was still just a little boy in school. Uh, he has worked for a carrier based in the United States, uh, that was employing a lot of drivers from south of our border on B1 tourist visas, and he has processed thousands of B1 driver applications, thousands. And he will testify to you all
today that he never saw a single moving violation, not one, not a stop sign, not a speeding ticket, not a DWI, nothing. How can that be? How can we trust the countries of origin where these people come from. When one of our most well respected safety professionals in the industry in this state is going to tell us all today that he has never seen a single moving violation on any of the records obtained from the country of origin of those drivers.
And I would humbly submit to everyone today before we have a wreck in Arkansas, like what happened in Austin, Texas just last week where, uh, non-citizen with a visa. More than likely it's not confirmed, but more than likely a non-domiciled CDL. Mr. Beach, you need to wrap it up plowed into stall traffic going 80 miles an hour, killing 5 people. I can only wonder how many warning signs that he blew by.
Before he made impact. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Any questions from from committee. Saying no, thank you
for your testimony. Thank you, sir. Uh, next I have Chuck and I'm not sure whether it's Kimmer or Rimmer, but you can. If you will, introduce yourself, Chuck, when
Speaker 122
32:55
you get here and then you might proceed. Chairman and the committee, uh, Chuck Rymer, Excuse me.
Speaker 123
32:59
That's the reason I had you do it again. Yeah
Speaker 125
33:07
As Mr. Beach said, I've been in the trucking industry since 1988. I've been in the safety and compliance since 1990. Um, Our industry has made great strides in safety prevention. Uh, we have added cameras, we've added collision mitigation equipment. We have done more and more vetting, uh, of the driver's background screenings, medical checks, everything that we can do to make our industry safer.
Everybody has spoke today about federal regulations. These are the regulations. That a trucking company, transportation carrier has to go by. Federal motor carrier safety regulations. There is a regulation. 391 11. Paragraph 2. That a driver must read and speak the English language sufficiently.
To converse with the general we see a lot of drivers that cannot speak the English language, not just be ones, but some from other countries as well. This used to be an out of service violation. There was a memorandum issued in 2016. From the Federal Highway Administration. That no longer placed them out of service. So now when one of our Arkansas Highway patrolmen.
Find somebody and writes him a violation. He can't put him out of service. We just let him go, even though we know he can't speak English. He can't read the road. He can't follow the directions. So we, we're, we're in this regard, we're not making our roads any safer. And in House Bill 1745, I don't see any language in this bill that says That we must comply with the federal regulations.
In section 2, paragraph 2. No driver shall operate suspend, operate a commercial motor vehicle if it's license is suspended, revoked, canceled, or disqualified. How are we going to know that? From a foreign jurisdiction. They're not gonna send an employer. A cancellation of a CDL. Not today. We have MVR monitoring systems.
If you hold a license in North Carolina or Arkansas or Texas. Florida, we monitor those states. We know if there's been a change to that driver's license. If it has been suspended or canceled or if he got a violation. We don't know that from a foreign jurisdiction. With this bill, I do not believe we are making our roads safer and Arkansas is a leading. Industry for transportation.
We ought to be doing everything we can. We appreciate your testimony. Thank you. Any questions from committee seeing none, thank you. Uh, for your testimony next we have Cliff Bates. Cliff,
Speaker 129
36:37
if you will, introduce yourself, you may proceed. Mr. Chair, thank
Speaker 131
36:42
you. Um, Cliff Bates. I'm, uh, I'm actually a trucking company owner out of Mississippi. So I drove up this morning to, um,
you know, to be honest, to speak out for Arkansas drivers. We have a terminal in Mississippi. We also have a terminal here in Little Rock. So we employ today roughly 40 drivers based in Arkansas. So I'm gonna piggyback a little bit off of what Harvey talked about, and I really want to talk about the economics of what's going on right now. So we have 22 ecosystems like Shannon disgust. So we've got the American company that does it the right way, that follows
American laws and hires American drivers. And they're dying. And then we've got this other ecosystem of non-citizen drivers run by Questionable companies that are thriving. We're 3 years into the greatest recession in trucking history and rates are worse today than ever. So let's run through a hypothetical. Let's say Harvey does everything the right way. And he's running, he's got, let's just say he's got 100 trucks. He's running those 100 trucks
with Arkansas drivers, and let's say I'm, I'm not in Arkansas. I'm in one of these other states, and I'm running an operation with 100 non-citizen drivers. He's got to hire Arkansas drivers that want to come home, right? They want to be home on the weekend. They, they're out 10 days, whatever they want to come home. He's got to manage that. What do I have with a non-citizen driver. I have a guy that lives in his truck. I don't have to bring him home. He lives in another country. What does Harvey have to do?
Harvey has to pay his driver a wage of $75,000 or $80,000 so he can live in the United States. I can pay my guy minimum wage. Because he didn't, he lives in his truck. So who has an advantage? Economically, me or Harvey, and when we go bid on freight. Who do you think's gonna win that bid? I'm gonna win it every single time. So, the Harveys of the world are going out of business, and I'm going out of business, and I'll
speak to what somebody said the only reason Harvey and I are still here. It's because we had enough money to keep this thing alive for the last 3 years, and others weren't so lucky. And they've gone bankrupt. And so my question is, the non-domicil drivers are already on the Arkansas interstates and highways. They're coming through, through other states. If I'm in your shoes and I'm voting on this, I would make sure that what you're passing doesn't allow for non-domiciled citizens to operate in the state
Speaker 133
39:25
of Arkansas. Cause right now they cannot. They have reciprocity that can drive through the state, but Harvey can't hire them and I can't either. Excuse me. Represent
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
39:46
Steele, are you recognized for questions? Thank you, Madam Chairman. Um, uh, Mr. Bates, what? What did I do?
Speaker 138
39:57
Did I say Mr. Chairman? Well, you're looking good today. Thank you I just wanna make sure
Speaker 139
40:04
we get that corrected before we went any further for the, for the record, represent Steele, you recognize. Thank you.
Speaker 134
40:12
Uh, Mr. Mr. Bates, um, Um, but what is, it's hard for me to understand
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
40:17
what you're actual problem is with this particular bill. And you kind of Quickly, I'm concerned it could
Speaker 131
40:29
potentially open the doors for licensing for non-domicil CDO drivers. In the state of Arkansas and
Speaker 142
40:33
do you, can you tell me where you see that in the bill. They just admitted it, it sounds
Speaker 131
40:39
like, so I'm not sure I'm just suggesting that that doesn't go on in Arkansas today and it doesn't need to go
Speaker 143
40:44
on in Arkansas. Arkansas does not need to become one of those states. Thank you. Yes.
OK, thank you Cliff for your testimony. You got another one, Represent Childers.
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
40:59
Mr. Bates, you talked about the ecosystems changing, and I know nothing about trucking, so I'm trying to learn from testimony today when you know what year that changed and when that changed and I mean, I'm assuming you're talking about it
Speaker 131
41:14
changed on a federal level, not a state level. Yes, it's a federal level, yeah, the, the, uh, the memo that he referenced that was the
Speaker 151
41:21
door that opened, but it really happened in 2nd quarter of
2020. Seeing no other question thank for your testimony, uh, committee, uh,
we've got 2 more to uh to testify against. And then I'm gonna bring uh uh excuse me, got, got one more to testify and then I'm gonna bring, uh, uh, Jeff Holmes up, chief of Highway police department if you have questions it's, and I'm also gonna bring Captain Bran up from the state police because I know he had a couple of questions. We have one more testing at Dean Miller.
Speaker 154
42:02
Miss Miller, if you would introduce yourself, then you may proceed with your testimony. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you committee for hearing me today. Get, get close to the mic, please, ma'am. Thank you for hearing me today, um, I'm here today because my husband, Scott Randall Miller was killed by a rogue truck driver and a rogue trucking company. I'm also here today to say that this bill just doesn't do enough. Um, we, and me and my husband, we used to own a trucking company, so, and my
husband was one of the safest truck drivers on the road. So I know firsthand what it's like to own a trucking company and what it's like to drive a truck. I used to go with my husband on a lot of the runs and, um, it's a skilled profession. You need to know what you're doing. This bill does not do enough because it doesn't. that this driver that's coming from another country is skilled, that they know how to drive. My husband is dead today because the driver who killed my husband did not know how to drive. He
didn't have a CDL. He didn't know how to speak English and he did not know how to shift the truck properly in a mountain situation. My husband was killed in Colorado in the mountains, um, it's a certain skill level that you have to do to be able to drive a truck. I think everybody should be. in a truck and see what it's like to drive one. It's not like driving a car. Um, and once you lose control of the truck when you're in a mountain situation. There's no gaining it back. And this driver was in a 45 mile an hour zone
doing 80 miles an hour, creamed into 5 cars. He had a load on his truck, the truck, first of all, had not been inspected in 2 years. The load was not properly secured. The driver couldn't speak English and didn't even know how to drive the truck properly. He creamed into 5 cars, killed my husband instantly because the, uh, pipes that were on his truck came off and totally crushed my husband's truck, crushed my husband, killing him. Another woman has a severe brain injury, she'll never be the same, and
several other people had other injuries, but they're all alive today. Um, we need skilled drivers. This is a skilled profession where people need to know how to and NAFTA has changed all this, and on top of it all, the trucking company that hired the driver had 17 federal violations, but the federal government still did not shut them down until they killed my husband. Where is the federal government? They're not doing their job. It's a shame to think that we have to do state
legislation in order to protect our people, but that's what it's come down to, and it's not discrimination because we're asking for them to not be able to speak English. I'm not discriminating against people, but it's just common sense and and in Colorado there was another huge horrific accident in the mountains, you have what they call certain bypasses for trucks that lose control and can't, uh, because of they may lose their brakes, so they have these off ramps that they can go onto. This one truck driver couldn't speak
English. He passed 3, not 1 but 3, off-road ramps for trucks, he had lost control while in the mountains. He came into I-70 into Denver creamed into a bunch of cars similar to the accident that happened in Texas, killed 5 people, all because he couldn't read the road signs. He couldn't see that he had opportunities to get off the road. It's important that they know how to read and speak our language. It's not discrimination. It's safety. And
I am so tired of profit, uh, that people want profit over lives. What the hell? lives are more important than profit, but that's all we seem to care about anymore is profit. Let's make a buck. We don't care about who we put in this truck. We just want to make a buck. Well, I'm sorry, but that's not the right way to go. And this bill does not do enough, but the bill that Shannon has produced for testimony that we need to pass today. Thank you for
your testimony. Any questions from committee? Seeing none, thank you, ma'am.
Appreciate it. I know this has been a, uh, been a difficult and a lot of emotional testimony. We appreciate you, you come in your testimony, uh, if we could at this time, uh, Chief Holmes, could you and Captain Lamb come up? I'm not asking you to come up and testify for and against. I'm just come up and asking, uh, I think committee members have a couple questions they want to ask you, uh, if you would introduce yourselves
and then if the committee has questions, we'll let you try to answer those procedural questions.
Speaker 158
46:45
Uh, I'm Jeff Holmes. I'm the chief of the Highway Police division of the
Department of Transportation. Brad land captain Arkansas State Police, Highway patrol division. Any, any questions from committee now,
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
46:58
uh, representative Carr, you recognize for a question? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just, just a question here on this with enforcing some of the, the things on the federal issue. How do you guys, is it a challenge for you dealing with it with if, if there were stricter, uh, ramifications here of going different between state to
state. Would that, would that be a challenge for law enforcement
Speaker 163
47:23
on, on the highways and interstate. If I understand your question correctly, like if, if. There were different regulations in every state, yes, obviously that would be a challenge, uh. Specifically on, on this bill, uh, having the requirement to have that additional US document. President at roadside so an officer could verify identity. Of the operator if they had a
Speaker 158
47:48
Mexican CDL for say, uh, it would, it would be tremendously helpful. Thank, thank you.
Any other questions? Representative Richmond, you're recognized for question. Thank you, Mr. Chair,
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
47:57
on, uh, You know, we've heard a lot said about the other bill that's on the deferred list right now and and I've gone around, I've asked some questions and things while I'm sitting here. It seems like they're, there's some issues possibly with that particular bill, but have you guys, either one of you had a chance to look at that bill or or. And is there parts in that bill that would
But Probably should be considered or maybe we should consider at some point. Maybe with amendments or something else that would actually be helpful or is the real problem at the federal level. Where You know, basically what we get to do is lobby our, you know, our congressman and stuff to say please fix this mess,
your opinion on that? It was in Richmond.
I can, I can answer your question for you. We had a meeting with Representative
Long. I had both of these representatives have the AG's office, also had DOT attorney there and there were several issues in the bill. A matter of fact, we gave him a long list of the concerns that we could not comply by because of federal mandates. So that's, that's. Kind of
where where we're at with that so but if you wanna speak to that gentlemen, you're welcome to. You know, it's like sufficient. Does that answer your question, Representative Richmond,
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
49:14
yeah, if they've got something a, I'd like to hear that, uh. Mr. Chair
Speaker 170
49:22
Thank you, that's OK. Thank you for that. No, sir, I, I think you summed it up pretty well. Uh, there's some things in that field that, that did, uh, contradict what FMCSA says and it could cause some problems
Speaker 172
49:37
uh with law enforcement. I just let go what Captain said it's uh the same thing and you summed it up pretty,
pretty well. Thank you, thank you, Jim. Any other questions from the committee, uh. Represent Childers.
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
49:50
You recognize Chief Arms, I'm gonna start with
you cause you deal, y'all, your division deals with trucks more than probably state police does. And I asked Mr. Casper this question, is there anything in the current law that prevents these drivers we're talking about from driving through our state. No, sir. OK. Follow up. So we, we heard a little bit of testimony about memorandums about non-speaking. Drivers I know there's a current law. I'm pretty sure there's a current law that says they have to be able to speak English fluently to be able to operate a vehicle. Do you know anything about a
memorandum? Is it, I mean, are y'all have y'all been told anything different? Are you enforcing that or is it hard
Speaker 172
50:31
to enforce or kind of We're, what's the stance on that?
Speaker 163
50:35
We do enforce it, our officers every day enforce that regulation, uh, the, the, the issue and it's a federal issue is it's not an out of service condition. So if they come across it, they cited or note the violation or however they do it, and then, um, the driver's not out of service and then the
only entity that can add that to the to the out of service criteria is the commercial vehicle safety Alliance and the automotor car Safety Administration. They're the ones that decide what's an out of service condition, whether, you know, your
Speaker 158
51:09
brakes or or hours of service or whatever
Speaker 176
51:12
it's uh so that's the issue with that.
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
51:15
Thank you, Representative Steel, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Mr. Holmes, on this in your professional opinion, does this make, uh, the trucking industry safer with this piece of legislation potentially, or
Speaker 163
51:27
is it more detrimental if this were to pass out of committee today. The requirement of having the US government document with the Mexican or Canada CDL will help tremendously at roadside, the officer verify who they have stopped. is who it is, uh, currently, we can, we can run them through Sidli or through Inlets and get a return, but having that, that US government document with them will help tremendously on the side of the road. So this would
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
51:58
just be another form of verification, uh, as to the identity of the truck driver. Yes, sir.
All right, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
52:11
Any other questions for the committee? Excuse me. Me some
stele. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, Yeah, if you can't answer this, I completely understand, but what are the basic requirements for our drivers when they go into other countries, particularly Canada and Mexico.
I don't know. I'm sorry. No, I won't hold
that against you, but I know that do we do our drivers have to speak their language to our drivers have to be able to recognize their, their signs on the highway. I just wanted to know if we have any inter intra. Uh, type of agreements with the
Speaker 163
52:47
other countries in North America. No, sir. I don't, I don't know
that off the top of my head. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank
you gentlemen. I don't see any other questions. I appreciate you you coming up testimony. Uh, Representative Hall.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
53:01
Are you ready to close? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you committee. Um, look, I, I want to be the first
to say that there's nobody in this room that wants to have illegal immigrants driving with CDLs and and trucks in our country. There's nobody in this room that wants that. We want our, we want our, our citizens to be safe, as, as somebody that is
originally from the state of Texas that lost a friend to an illegal immigrant. I, I take, I take anything that is said about losing a loved one very, very serious. But everything that was said. Is a is a federal issue. The committee that was that the committee that needs to be heard to hear those issues is the US House and Transportation
Committee. That's who needs to hear that, and I would be willing to go with these folks to, to help, you know, find ways to get our roads safer.
But in Arkansas, we have to comply with our laws and what we can do at the state level. This bill has been looked at by the Attorney General. We've worked with RAT, we've worked with the high highway police, we've worked with the state police on writing this bill so that it can comply with Arkansas and state laws. That's all we're doing. I, I want to enforce, I, I want our, our roads to be safer. I want federal laws to be stronger, but we as legislators can't do that. And so with that being said, I would just ask for a good vote
Speaker 15
54:33
and I make a motion to pass. Would you make motion as amended as amended do pass, yes sir. I have
a motion that do pass as amended. Any discussion from committee. Representative Richmond, you recognize?
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
54:49
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm gonna vote for this bill. Not because it solves the problem or anything, uh, like you said, this problem is at a higher level than we have, it has to be addressed at some
point. All I can say is we, we really need to talk to our congressman and our senators. To do something about this. On this and, and again there has to be some kind of solution as as far as the, as the Individuals that don't have any, you know, one of, one of the testimonies was that that you couldn't find any type of, of infraction on anybody coming in here, that all of them were clean coming from these third world countries. Uh, that may seem hard to believe, but if you go driving in those countries, you realize
they have no freaking laws and so that's the problem right there. They, they come over here and they're trying to drive here like they do over there. Unfortunately, as you said, We can't solve that here. The why I'm voting for this particular bill is it does something. Does it do enough? No. No, it doesn't. And is there other things that we might be able to do here at the state level. You know, whether it's 1569 picking, cherry picking that thing and, and possibly making it something that would help a little bit. I think that's worth looking into. But
We need to try to do something. And, and this is a start, but it's certainly not the finish. Thank
you, Mr. Chair. I can remember any other comments from
committee members. In discussion on, on motion. We have a motion do pass as amended. All those in favor say aye. ah Any opposed? He no, congratulations. Your bill passes. Thank you committee, thank you for your testimony today.
Next on the agenda. I can find it. We have, uh, SB 261 representing Womack, are you gonna run that for Senator Clark.
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
57:13
You introduce yourself, please, and you may proceed. Yes, sir, Richard Womack District, uh. 90. Um. Uh, what's before you right now to the best of my knowledge, has no opposition. I think all the issues were worked out via amendment on the Senate end which have all been engrossed in this bill that's in front of you very simply what it does is, uh, it allows for uh. Under a couple conditions for ATV to operate on a gravel or dirt road.
Uh, one of those conditions is they have to have a driver's license and the other is they must maintain liability insurance. And there is a provision that was added, uh, on the very last page, section 4, I see that a quorum court of any county may adopt an ordinance to prohibit the operation of an ATV, uh, under the subdivision of this section on unpaved roads located in the county. Basically, this quum quarter of 2/3 of it votes not to allow this in any county
they can do so, uh, I may find out differently here in just a second, but like I said, to my knowledge, there's no. Any more opposition to this bill, so I'd be happy to
Speaker 193
58:27
take a question. Questions from committee, Representative. Represented Richmond, you're up on first,
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
58:30
so you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So what your testimony is that we're actually pushing this back to the local level. To make these decisions about what can operate on their dirt roads and things. Uh, to a great extent, yes, sir. All right, thank you.
Epste pure, you recognize, yes, sir. Thank you, chair. Excuse me lost you for a minute. Hold on, we're gonna get you straightened out here. No, say
Representative Chad Puryear
Unverified
58:58
it again. Thank you. Uh, we passed a bill out of here. I, I was running another bill in another
committee, so I didn't get to hear the testimony on the previous ATV bill. Will this work together with that and not create any issues on one we had on the, OK. Represent Hall.
Representative Brad Hall
Unverified
59:18
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, does this affect like farmers and ranchers in any way to, uh,
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
59:23
drive between their farms or, uh, it's already established law and, and it, there's even one section that deals with that, but, but to answer
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
59:33
your question, no, thank you. Represent Steiner. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've uh had some police chiefs reach out to me. I don't think the police Chiefs Association is in favor of this bill, uh, Representative Womack, I mean, Um, that's, that's my feelings on this and what I've, what I've
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
59:48
heard. So I just wanted to kind of share that in uh for the record. OK, thank you for that. Like I said to, to my knowledge, all that was worked out, but we, we may hear from them and, and
I was just wrong, but thank you for bringing that out. Any other questions
from committee? OK, we have one person signed up to speak against the bill. OK.
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:00:15
Go ahead, representative. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hey, I was somewhat confused a little bit,
so you're what was, go back to the quorum Court part as to is it a 2/3 that they can allow it, or is this going to be a state law to where all counties will, this will be enforced and a court it takes 2/3 of a quote unquote vote to not allow it. So this is. Kind of almost reverse of the local control bill? Because I would think it would, a local control bill would allow the, um, counties to potentially, or the
municipalities to vote it in as an ordinance. So, you know what I mean I
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:00:52
would just say that's two sides of the same coin. I mean they have, they have an option here to. To not do it opt out, but it would be a state law, you know, and I,
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:01:00
I guess I'm just looking at it at a
Speaker 212
1:01:02
different angle there. Yeah, like I said, I think that's just, you could
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:01:05
either. It's, it's two sides of the same coin you they
can vote it in or vote it out, you know, just depending on how it was written. This one just happens to be written to where they can vote it out. Right. Thank you.
Representative David Whitaker
Unverified
1:01:19
Any other questions me? Whittaker. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Representative, my question is in the same. Sentence, but I'm, I'm curious if the uh Senate sponsor shared with you the rationale for making it a 2/3 vote of the court rather than a simple majority.
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:01:42
No, sir. I, I cannot answer that question. If it's a big deal. To find that answer, I would be
Representative David Whitaker
Unverified
1:01:50
happy to pull this down and get that answer. I mean, I, I honestly just don't know. Follow up um, it can be and, you know, just warm quarts like any other, uh. Deliberative bodies, 2/3 of votes and can sometimes be a very high hill to get over. And that would be my biggest concern here was, you know, I think you're, I, I think the comments that Opt in or opt out is two sides of the same coin. I, I agree completely, but if it were a simple majority vote, it would
be an opportunity to be able to say, hey, the majority of people in this county don't want this. Shouldn't have to be 2/3 of the people in the county be against it.
Speaker 28
1:02:32
That's what my, my concern. Thank you. Any other
Speaker 177
1:02:36
questions from the committee? Representative Stammel. Yeah, I, I think you're on the right pathway there,
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:02:39
uh, Re Womack, potentially maybe let's pull this down and discuss, you know, a little bit more on the, on the corm Court and the local control aspect of this. I don't want, uh, to me, I wouldn't want a state law, and then we have to
kind of go about it, uh, in almost in the opposite direction. I think true local control should start from the county to enact an ordinance or, um, you know, we're an executive order, in
my opinion, but that's just my thoughts. Representing Womack and excuse me, go ahead,
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:03:09
Representative Richmond. Mr. Chair, be, be Before we pull this down, would it be all right to hear the, the testimony against in case there is also something that, that may need to be addressed as well. Sure. All right, thank you.
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:03:26
Mr. Chair, just may I ask, just for clarity, for my clarity, the We're at this moment, the only
question is why it's a 2/3 instead of a simple
Speaker 180
1:03:37
majority. Is that What style yes, and, and no. I mean, and, and
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:03:41
I see your thoughts on the, uh, the local control and saying it's just kind of going in in the opposite direction, but to me, the true beauty of local control is, is, it would be enacted if this were, you know, by the county, they wouldn't have to opt out, if that makes
sense. You know, it seems like a county if they're gonna want to, uh, opt in, then they can opt in. Other than that, you know, I, I don't think it should be forced on all counties, uh. across the state of Arkansas, in my opinion. I mean, we're talking about, you know, gravel roads in Pulassi County. I mean, I, I, you know, there may be some folks out here in in here speaking against it about me other than the, uh, the police chiefs association, from my understanding, you know, is, is a little bit, uh, spoken against this, uh, but to me, I, I just think it's kind of reversed from
where it should be, and this is going to be a state law that's going to hit these urban communities and, and, uh, I, I, I applaud the rural communities, and I, I wish that we could, you know, reverse that potentially to where it would opt in. Um, instead of having to opt
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:04:42
out. Yeah, I, I would just counter that with that's what state laws do. I mean, that's what we do with every single one of these, and I. Seemed appropriate to me to, to give a little more flexibility to the.
You know, to the counties, that's, that's just what we're doing here is passing state law so.
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:04:59
That just goes with the territory. Yeah, I'll just add one thing, you know, as far as to the quorum Court, you know, the 2/3. I do think that's kind of a hot chin bar, and if we could, you know, potentially just make that a simple majority, uh, to, to opt out, you know, I'm still not, uh, really a big fan of it, but at the same time, you know, I think the simple majority should, um, you know, be able to opt out and
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:05:23
not 2/3 of a majority. Yeah. My, my guest committee is that was just an agreed to negotiation since it was an
amendment added. Any other Committee members, I'm on, I'm gonna ask, uh, Christine Jeffries, I believe that's right, signed up to speak against the
bill. Christine, if you will give your name, who you're with, and then
Kristen Jeffries
Unverified
1:05:44
you may proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, my name is Doctor Kristen Jeffries. I'm a pediatrician who specializes in injury prevention for children. And so pediatricians um are in the business of keeping kids safe and healthy, and this includes checkups and doctor visits, but
it also means that we um help keep kids safe in their daily activities, like when they're on the road. And so we know that it's dangerous to allow young adults to drive ATVs on unpaved roads and highways. ATVs are not designed to be driven on roads, whether paved or unpaved and manufacturers like the Polaris and Yamaha agree. In fact, writing on public roads, whether paved or unpaved, is among the most dangerous of writing behaviors. Over half of all ATV and UTV related injuries occur on roads
and over 2/3 of them don't involve any other vehicle. In Iowa, after local communities were given the green light to pass ordinances allowing ATVs on roads, crashes involving ATVs and UTVs increased by 58%. These are more kids getting injured by ATVs. Unfortunately, unintentional injuries, including deaths from riding on ATVs and UTVs are the leading cause of death for kids over the age of one in Arkansas. Drilling down to kids impacted by this bill, ATVs and UTVs are
the 5th leading cause of unintentional injury death for kids 15 to 19 years old in Arkansas. From 2000 to 2020, 84 Arkansas kids died from ATV related injuries. That's on average 4 a year, 4 kids who are dying per year on ATVs. I've seen these kids in the, in my training and in the hospital who have been have serious injuries to their head and spinal cord, and their future is much different than what they would have anticipated. ATVs and
UTVs are big drivers of healthcare costs additionally. Nationally, they account for over 900 deaths and more than 100,000 emergency department visits annually. And this is happening right here in Arkansas. Just a quick Google search in the last 6 months, there's at least 4, Our Arkansas, Arkansas, um, residents who have died on ATVs. And so respectfully, we ask that you vote no to this bill or amend it to only allow fully licensed drivers age 18 and older to operate ATVs on roads
and highways, whether paved or unpaved, and
we think this will help kids reach adulthood. more safely. Thank you, ma'am. Any questions
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified
1:08:14
from the committee for Doctor Jeffrey, OK, Representative Torres, you recognize Jeff. Thank you for being here. A
question, uh, in your mind, what, well, what's the facts? What constitutes a
Kristen Jeffries
Unverified
1:08:24
child? What age? I mean, what, what are we talking about here, pediatric care for kids upwards of 21, but, um, 18 years
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified
1:08:32
old. Um, typically, because I mean
one of the requirements is for them to have a driver's license. So when I hear you say children I, I think, you know,
Kristen Jeffries
Unverified
1:08:42
9, 10 year olds or something, you know, so I just yeah, like I said that it's the 5th leading cause for kids in that teenage group that would be impacted by this, um, leading cause of death for kids in Arkansas, um, but But also, we have a graduated driver's license for road driving for our cars that's been successful. And so we think that, um, 16 year olds still are not capable fully mature enough
to be able to drive on the roads as well. Thank you. Any other questions for committee? Saying no, thank
you, ma'am, for your testimony. Represent. Excuse me, Representative Richmond, do
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:09:19
you have a question for me? I was just gonna ask, we heard the, uh, what? Police officer or police chief association, do they have anybody here? I mean, I mean, if it's no one signed
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:09:36
up. Such a big deal to them. Where are they? You may proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um,
I do, I do have answers from, from Senate sponsor as to why it was 2/3 and, uh, and, and it was negotiated thing so that CD JPs would not have a big majority, uh. And be able to affect the rural communities where the gravel and dirt roads are, you
know, we have undue influence. So That was the That was the answer I was given. To the question
Any other questions from committee? So you could close uh
if I've sufficiently answered everybody's questions, I think I'm, uh, I'm closed and I would like to make a
motion to pass. We have a motion to pass. We're open to discussion. He won't have a discussion withsentative
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:10:29
Stein, will you recommend that? Yeah, well I, I love the intent of this bill to allow some free range of, uh, you know, ATVs on, on these dirt roads, and you can really uh understand that being from rural Arkansas, I think, uh, us implementing this, uh,
statewide, uh, is probably an undue burden upon these, uh, municipalities and these counties, uh, especially with the 2/3, especially with the 2/3 vote on the municipality. So I really, I have heartburn with this in that aspect, um, you know, I am for personal responsibility, no doubt. I mean, if, uh, if there's a someone with a valid driver's license wants to ride their ATV orTV down the roadway, then, then get after it. But, uh, I wish that we would have
the ability to uh, opt in and not have to opt out with 2/3 of a majority, and that's my
Representative David Whitaker
Unverified
1:11:23
thoughts. Thank you, Representative Whittaker. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, um, just to Follow up on Representative Steinel's remarks. I, I, I, I agree with him on that, but, uh, the sticking point is the 2/3 margin, uh, the justification given by the senator, uh, simply doesn't satisfy me and I have, I'll have to be a no vote at this time.
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:11:44
Representative Richmond. Just simply say that what I think we're doing here is probably legalizing what's already going on anyway, at least not in my particular area, uh. I mean, they're already on the dirt roads, already driving around and, and I don't see that being sufficient to, uh, Basically make criminals out of these folks, so I'll be a yes vote.
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:12:15
Any other comment or questions from committee I'm on the committee, uh, I got another text as I was sitting here from the, uh, Senate sponsor that said that that, uh. Houm court The amendment that was added in the Senate was uh, was there for only one county judge, and he did it just to, to be nice to. To that guy, so, so apparently there's only one
county judge that had a hang up there. I was just adding what information I got to discussion.
Representative David Whitaker
Unverified
1:12:49
You reckon that? Um I would just like to respond. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, well, if it's just one guy, why would we have to like die on the hill. Can't he just
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:13:03
change it and make it a simple majority.
Speaker 247
1:13:05
Uh, maybe so. His offer was he would happily just take that. That off. Thank you, I think. Any other questions?
I, seeing none, we have a motion from Representative Womack DuP pass, all in favor say
aye. All the polls say no. No. I think the nose have it, the bill fails. Thank
you, Mr. Chair and committee. All right. Next on the agenda we have uh. House Bill 1757 represented Carr, you have an amendment. That we need to run first.
Unknown speaker
1:13:54
If you give us just a minute we're gonna hand the amendment out to
All right, Representative Carr, you can introduce yourself and proceed
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
1:14:41
with your amendment. Joey Carr District 34, uh, that was, uh, suggested language as we met with other stakeholders and they requested for that to be added and, uh, so, uh, we went ahead and added that last couple of words there to the, uh, to the, uh, last part of the bill just
to, to, uh, suffice their, their size. Anybody have any questions on the amendment?
Uh, with that, I would ask for a motion to pass on
the amendment, please pass on the amendment in discussion. All in favor say aye. Any opposed say no, hearing none. Congratulations
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
1:15:23
you amendment passed, you may proceed with the bill. All right, with, uh, House Bill 1757, uh, this, uh, initiated with uh an incident that occurred in Nebraska. Uh, with someone tampering with some of the rail cars caused
some damage and had the potential to, uh, to cause injury or, uh, worse for, for, uh, for, for people. Uh, and this deals with tampering with rail infrastructure with rail property, rail equipment, and what it is, is this bill just ask that for anyone that attempts, threatens, or conspires that, uh, This would be uh punishable under uh a class D felony, which would, uh, give them up to 6
years or up to a $10,000 fine depending on how the judge ruled on that, but, uh, uh, the stakeholders, uh, that this affects they are all good with this, the, uh, and the, and that involves the Association of American Railroads, the American Short Line Railroad Association and the rail Labor Organization, so the entire rail industry. Is, uh, good with this. With that I would, uh, entertain any questions.
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
1:16:40
Thank you, Representative Carr. If you have any questions? Not seeing any questions we have. Every mind. There's no one
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
1:16:52
to speak for against the bill. What's the will of the committee? Uh, I'm, I'm with no questions, I'm, I'm ready to go ahead and I'm ready to close, and with that, I would, uh, uh, give the motion to pass as amended, as amended. Have a motion on the floor, uh.
Speaker 265
1:17:11
All in favor, say ah, all the poses. Motion passes. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker 264
1:17:18
Chair. Thank you, committee. OK. With no other. With
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
1:18:09
A committee y'all, we, uh, representative Pilkington is in, he's in public health. And he, he's running the bill there, he's waiting. Oh, here it is, here he is, there we go. Representative Pilin just walked in. you Uh Is it
Speaker 276
1:18:28
Pilking thing, go ahead and recognize yourself and
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:18:31
you can go ahead with your bill, sir. Thank you. um, thank you committee, uh, Representative Aaron Pilkington, District 45, Johnson and Pope County.
Uh, today I, uh, introduced a bill, uh, to me, that's just uh it's reading
compassion, common sense and committed to supporting mothers here in Arkansas. Um, I've got a big speech written out, but I know y'all have been going a lot longer than transportation usually goes. So I'm just gonna make it quick. Essentially what we're doing here is allowing uh pregnant women to with a doctor's note from a visit showing that they're pregnant, go into uh, go into the revenue office and get a handicap parking. placard, so they could park in
handicapped parking while they're pregnant and for one year postpartum. Um, One of the things we found, uh, and I wanted to add this in the Healthy Mom's Healthy babies, but obviously it's a transportation issue and we didn't want to get it too mixed up, but one of the things we found with a lot of women are not actually going to get prenatal care. They're foregoing that even though it's made available to them. And so, looking around at some, some other things. One of the things we found was uh non-healthcare related incentives is a great way to get people who maybe don't value their healthcare as much as they should, to go to
the doctor. So, uh, and then, of course, speaking with a lot of pregnant women, uh, they said one of the worst things. was having a park fall back and to use the term my wife uses, but I would probably not use, but I'm gonna use it anyways. Waddle, uh to the grocery store and back, or even after having a C-section, the extra walk is sometimes excruciating for them. So we just wanted to show the way to incentivize these women to go and get prenatal care to get seen so that they could go and park closer and maybe make life a little easier for them.
And so, um, this also was not inspired by those stories, but by Secretary of State Col Jester, who gave up his parking spot for pregnant parking uh here at the Capitol. I think it just shows that that we have a commitment here to to mothers in Arkansas and, and I just think this is a good bill to follow suit, uh, and with that, I, I'll take any questions and
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
1:20:31
ask for a good vote. Thank you, committee. Thank you, Representative Pilkington.
Speaker 264
1:20:36
Is there any questions from the committee? Childers. You reckon? Well, hang on a minute. Yeah
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:20:43
Hang on a minute. You. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to comment, Mr. Representative Pilton, I think that's a great deal. And as a father of three, I can remember those days of dropping my wife off at the front door when she had to go in and trying to find a parking spot in the back of the store, you know, parking lot. So
Speaker 283
1:21:04
I think it's a great deal. Appreciate it. Thank you for those comments. Representative Perrier. I guess I'll be the only
Representative Chad Puryear
Unverified
1:21:09
non-compassionate person, make a comment on this, but I do really
fear, you know, when you look at some of, like in rural areas where we don't have, you know, like the whole front of the deal, the front of the business full of those spots. Um, I am kind of concerned that we'll have an influx of those placards that'll that'll be out and then it may actually, you know, hurt some of the folks that are disabled and um. I'm getting hung up on that. I'm not saying pregnancy is dis disability, but, you know, folks that are have been using them and are used to using them, I feel like maybe we might feel some of them spots up, so that's the only.
That's the only concern I got, and I apologize for looking like an incompassionate person who does not like pregnant women, but, uh, I'm also trying to thank for those
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:21:53
disabled folks that are using them currently as well. Well, I don't, I would say that's not. Incompassionate at all. I, I think concern for those with disabilities is, uh, It's a valid concern and, and I, I think from uh the lack of utilization of these spots even in a rural town, uh, like I represent a a lot of rural Arkansas. I think there's, there's plenty of spots, man, I
think this is a good deal and, you know, not every woman's gonna necessarily do it. Uh, there's some who probably wouldn't, uh, wouldn't actually take advantage of this because they feel that they Don't need it, but I think for those who do, uh, I think this is a good, good,
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
1:22:31
good piece of legislation. Any further questions? Representative McIlroy. his son. You got to sign in, sir.
Speaker 265
1:23:02
There was Have you, oh, hang on, Reverend
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
1:23:13
McElroy, let me get you on. Well, it won't go on without her. Hang on, hang on just a
Representative Mark D. McElroy
Unverified
1:23:23
second. Punch. There you go. There you go. I'm gonna miss lunch trying to ask a question here. uh, you
know, I'm 69, I can say 70
from my house now, and I got a friend out there, Wayne, looks like he's older than me. And he's, he's been in a, in a terrible accident. Uh, there's only so many parking spaces for Disabled people and and I'm kind of concerned about, you know, uh, I'd say a 25 year old lady that's just 3 months pregnant and she takes that parking space, and then Wayne or my, you know, or
my mother, uh, which really was disabled just before she passed away, would have to, uh, park further away. So, with that, uh, have you talked to the people with, uh, that like Julie Mayberry and folks like that. Um, I have not
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:24:20
discussed this bill with Julie Mayberry, um, but it's, this bill's been filed for quite some time, um, so, and I haven't had any known opposition to this bill. I, I think to also worrying about the spots, you know, we actually have a declining fertility rate
here in Arkansas. We've been below replacement rate for a while. We're having less and less children, uh, in Arkansas. So, uh, we actually look at the birth rate, it's actually going down. So I'm not really worried about there not being enough spots, uh, so, um, we actually, that's actually a whole other issue. issue we can get to that's not related to this bill is the falling birth rate, uh, uh, in Arkansas, um, but you know, that's, that's a different topic for a different day. I, I appreciate you thanks to you representative McIlroy. You're keeping it up. I do appreciate you and I know you, you're
Representative Mark D. McElroy
Unverified
1:25:08
thinking, uh, trying to help the, the ladies, but that's, that's one problem that I think is probably gonna crop up. But thank you for your answer anyway, and
Representative Chad Puryear
Unverified
1:25:22
thank you for bringing this bill. Representative Perrier. And I, and this may be in the bill, um, following up with uh another representative to come
by. We're, we're not adding any spots, correct? We're just, they're gonna, they're not gonna have, so I may have misspoke earlier. It's gonna be the ones that the handicap spots. It's
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:25:39
not a, yeah, we're not adding new spots or like. There's not gonna be like a row of pregnancy
Representative Chad Puryear
Unverified
1:25:44
parking spots like in the front of Walmart now, the reason I bring it up, I think if you see the ones for the, uh, Purple Heart veterans, you see that kind of stuff. I was just kind of following up, making sure I wasn't, you know, if it's something like that, I would have less issue with it
Speaker 264
1:26:01
than if it's actually taking them away from our
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified
1:26:04
existing ones. So thank you for that, uh, Representative Torres, he recognizedentative Pilkington, um, question, so basically a.
Pregnant lady could have a permit or hang tag placard for up to 21, maybe 24 months during pregnancy and postpartum correct? OK, good. And then, um, so there's, I asked my, my wife and my pregnant daughter, uh, you know, what they thought of this bill, and I, I think one of the conflicting things that my daughter said is that her doctor really actually prescribes her to do a lot of walking so that. was a little confusing for her.
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:26:43
Yeah, well, I would say everyone's different. I'm sure your daughter is, she's young, healthy, probably needs a walk, um, there are some, you know, as we see with a lot of our birth complications. A lot of times these women are, um, That mobility issues, number one, if you're older, that's another aspect of it as well. And then of course the postpartum is a big part of it too. I mean, our C-section rate in Arkansas is astronomically high. I mean, that's one of the reasons why we're increasing the the reimbursement for C-sections because they're, they're so
expensive, um, and. I don't know if you've ever witnessed or seen a C-section when they slice you open and yeah, it's hor terrific. I had to watch it with my first son, um, you don't bounce back from that. I mean, that is, that is abdominal surgery. And so, you know, I think giving and I remember my wife struggling to walk after that procedure. So, uh, it's more to me the postpartum part is the, is the better part of it, this bill then the um Then just when being pregnant,
uh, but I do know for a lot of those in months, you know, as your hips move to get ready for the baby. I mean, that walk suddenly becomes a waddle and becomes a larger struggle. So, um, But I take your point, but I think not all pregnancies are the same, and so, um, I think with a lot of the ones that we have here in Arkansas, especially through the post, postpartum aspect of pregnancy. Uh, I think this is very helpful, especially for that area. So thank you representorpresentative Hawk, you recognize.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:28:16
He's a hawk. Hang on hawk. Representative Hawk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, I, I, I think the intent on this is really good. I know that
last session we had one for Disabled veterans that became very controversial on this. I guess my question on this is, it says it expires one year following the date. You may have addressed this. I was just coming back from another committee, but it says expires one year following the date, the pregnant woman gives birth. Was there a reasoning for the one
year rather than like 6 months because I, I mean, I mean, I, I just know that anytime we talk about handicapped parking spaces and everything. It It shouldn't be, but it's very divisive in this legislature over handicapped parking spots. And so I, I think some heartburn may go away for people if we, if it wasn't for the full year, but maybe you can explain why it was for the full year.
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:29:06
Sure, so typically, um, especially when it comes to maternal health, we take the last 12 months as we kind of say the, the, what is it, the, the 4th trimester, even
though it's a year long, and that's typically how when we're gauging postpartum care and, and, and recovery that is 12 months after birth. And so, you know, for instance, even on like maternal death, if you're at month 13 and you die, it actually doesn't go towards that maternal death rate that we have, uh, and so that's why I made it one year just to make it consistent with kind of other healthcare measures we do when it comes to post birth. We always measure up to one year and then that's the cutoff. So I just, from my medical background, I was using that as a consistent marker, so follow up.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:29:48
Yes sir, go ahead. Um, now, there are some places like, I, I know Walmart and Bryant has a, a pregnant parking spot that they have already made on the front row. Would this be in addition to that because this would be in statute, uh, or would that qualify as one of the spots. Well, I'm not, I'm not making
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:30:04
any new spots. You're just allowing for them to, to go
into the placard like they would with any other like, like they had knee surgery and they had a, you know, or temporarily disabled. It's kind of the same deal. They get a placard, they can park in
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:30:19
the spot. OK, sounds good. Thank you. Resent this time will you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Representative Pilgrim, for bringing this, and I, I was out for the, uh, presentation of the bill. I do apologize for that. Um, and, and maybe this was discussed, so please stop me. And you alluded to, you know, all pregnancies are, are different, and I can, I can totally understand that. I've seen that. I got 5 kids myself, and each one of them, yeah, yeah, each one of them is different in, in nature, but
what keeps a, um, a pregnant woman from going to her, um, her practitioner and saying, hey, I need, I, I have a high-risk pregnancy and I need a, a, a, a handicap tag that is like temporary. What keeps this from happening to where she can go ahead and apply for that. and get a, I'm sure no one would deny that person, right? The ability to, that's in high-risk pregnancy, uh, handicap, a temporary handicap tag to use for those spots.
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:31:21
You know, I, I, I don't think this would prevent that. If anything, it would make it easier for that woman with a high risk pregnancy to to get that because we're just making it to where they come in, they have a doctor's note, there's a form that DFNA will have that they fill out and then they, they can get this, so I, I don't think it would make it harder on them
Speaker 317
1:31:42
if anything it would actually make them easier, uh, and would standardize it a
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:31:45
little better. I understand it went off, didn't it? Yeah, that was my fault. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just, uh, accidentally, or not accidentally, just turned
it off without thinking. But, so that's what I'm thinking is, is there really a need for this if, if those high-risk pregnancies can go to, uh, to their, to their doctor and ask for that in. I mean, I, I just, to me, I'm, I'm struggling to get past this while we would need this bill when they that uh that pathway is already there and we don't want to just throw a blanket down that allows every, you know, woman,
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:32:18
so, and, and you weren't here for my testimony,
so this might be helpful to you, um, and I should have, I should have answered this in when my first response. So one of the things I mentioned was, and we figured this out through a lot of the studies we did on maternal health, that a lot of women are not accessing prenatal care. And so, if you're having someone who's not actively taking concern with their prenatal health. How do you get them into? Go see the doctor. And one of the things is, you know, you can throw wellness programs at, you can throw all this healthcare related stuff, but honestly, there aren't already motivated by that. What's another way to motivate them. And if they're having issues walking or
struggling to walk when they're pregnant. This is a good incentive to get them into the doctor to get that prenatal visit that they're typically foregoing because they're going to get make it easier for them to get the placard to, to, to. To park in these, in these spots. So it's kind of a dual dual purpose. The one purpose is we're wanting to get more women to access prenatal care is the first part, which is an issue we have in the state with not drinking. Then the other one too is to help them in those months of pregnancy when it is, it's difficult and they struggle and
like I said, they're, their hips move, they start to waddle, and then of course the postpartum aspect as well. And so, um, that's, that's really it. Uh, those are the, I mean, that's, that's kind of why we're we're doing this just to get more women to, to see those visits, but also than the women who need it to help them because, and someone might say, you might say it's a high-risk pregnancy, but after you've had your C-section, they would say, well, you no longer have a high risk pregnancy. It's like, well, yeah, I had abdominal surgery though, and I, you know, it'd be nice to not have to walk all the way across if I can get a little help here. So, so that's part of it as well
because, you know, you can ask any woman, um, I would think they would say that just after you give birth, it's not like the pains of pregnancy just automatically go away. They still are there
Speaker 180
1:34:05
and linger and there's a long period of recovery. Yeah, I
Chair
Unverified
1:34:09
can totally. I understand and thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you for the question Representative Hall, you recognized. Hey, thank you.
Representative Brad Hall
Unverified
1:34:15
Uh, I'm not trying to be insensitive here or anything, but uh maybe you know like the numbers of pregnant women a year
that would qualify for this? Like how many, how many thousands
Speaker 304
1:34:28
of people would add to this permit. Uh, you know,
Representative Brad Hall
Unverified
1:34:31
I'd have to get, I'd have to get back with you on that would be like. 10s
of thousands of permits, wouldn't it? I mean, over a 16, wouldn't it be over like say by the time
she finds out she's pregnant, would it not be for like, uh, what, 1617 months, 1616 months, yeah you're talking about thousands and thousands and 10s of thousands, you know, the
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:34:54
permits. So, uh, I'm just afraid it would overload the. The system there a little bit, um, well, like I said, I mean, obviously with falling birth rates, I think that's to me is not as, as big a concern. I don't, I don't think you're gonna have a 100% complacency that they're going to get it, they're gonna have some women who like represented Torres's daughter, who's young and healthy, who probably won't need it and it's probably not gonna go hassle with going and, and, and sitting there at the DMV to get that, um, or the, you know, revenue office. So, um, but we can get to that number. Obviously, I think we have, you know, several 1000 but think
about it. That that's also spread over a state of 3 million people. And so, um, you know, obviously I, I would just say in your own life, think about how many pregnant women you see on a daily basis and, and think about if that person had a handicap spot, do you think the system would be overload? And me who's in that stage of life where uh I'm around a lot of people who are pregnant. I would say I don't see that many women in and out that, uh, would qualify that they
Representative Brad Hall
Unverified
1:35:50
would overload the system, so, but that's anecdotal, so yes, sir. uh, what about like the automatic grocery pickups, could they not
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:35:57
utilize those already, some, some do, but, um, you know, there's other things besides picking up groceries, um, you know, there's going to pay the water bill. There's um all sorts of uh commerce activities you would take that where you're not able to, you know, pop the trunk and get your groceries loaded in, but that is a great, I mean, my wife is 3 boys. I mean, I don't think she stepped in a Walmart a long time. She popped the trunk and she's not getting those 3 boys in and out of a car seat, so, so that's a great thing, but um, but that's not everywhere, you know.
Chair
Unverified
1:36:27
So, well, thank you. No problem. Thank you. Thank you for the questions. Representative Shepherd. You recognize pass yeah, hang, hang on, just, just
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
1:36:42
hold that motion, please. Uh, is there anybody? No one signed up to speak for or against the bill. Any more questions? Is anybody in the audience here to speak for against the bill? OK, Reverend Torres, you
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified
1:36:58
recognize I did it. Hang on, man, I did it again. That's the corner. Yeah, OK, yes, sir.
Sorry, just one last question has the Office of motor Vehicles have a certain take on this bill
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:37:10
by chance? Have you heard that I'm aware of. I do not have an opinion on this bill that
Speaker 327
1:37:18
I'm aware of, so. Any more questions? Uh, representative you wanna close for your
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:37:23
bill. Uh, I'm losing my bill, appreciate the questions today. I think it was
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
1:37:29
a good discussion and um that, that's for a favorable vote. Thank you. OK, thank you. Representative
Shepherd, you recognized. OK, a motion on the floor and discussion on the motion. All in favor, say ah. All opposed? The eyes have it, your bills passed. Thank you. Well, we have no more business
to attend to. Right. We have no more business to attend to, we are adjourned.
Agenda
REGULAR AGENDA
HB1688 Cavenaugh TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING THE USE OF A DEALER'S EXTRA LICENSE PLATE.
Cavenaugh
HB1745 Hawk TO REQUIRE CERTAIN COMMERCIAL DRIVER LICENSE HOLDERS TO POSSESS A UNITED STATES WORK AUTHORIZATION TO OPERATE A COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE IN THE STATE; AND TO CREATE RELATED OFFENSES.
Hawk
SB261 A. Clark TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF AN ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLE ON CERTAIN ROADS; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ACCESS OF ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLES TO UNPAVED ROADS.
Womack
HB1757 Joey Carr TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING RAILROADS; AND TO CREATE THE OFFENSE OF TAMPERING WITH RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE.
Carr
HB1770 Pilkington TO ESTABLISH THE PREGNANCY PARKING ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PARKING FOR A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY; AND TO AUTHORIZE THE ISSUANCE OF A TEMPORARY SPECIAL CERTIFICATE TO PREGNANT WOMEN.
Pilkington
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION- HOUSE, Mar 18, 2025 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Mike Holcomb Chair
Unverified
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
Speaker 7
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
Speaker 21
Representative David Whitaker
Unverified
Speaker 48
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
Speaker 58
Speaker 62
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
Speaker 65
Speaker 72
Ladonna Bryant
Unverified
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 83
Speaker 92
Speaker 96
Chair
Unverified
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
Speaker 109
Speaker 114
Speaker 116
Speaker 122
Speaker 123
Speaker 125
Speaker 129
Speaker 131
Speaker 133
Speaker 138
Speaker 139
Speaker 134
Speaker 142
Speaker 143
Speaker 151
Speaker 154
Speaker 158
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
Speaker 163
Speaker 170
Speaker 172
Speaker 176
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
Speaker 15
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
Speaker 193
Representative Chad Puryear
Unverified
Representative Brad Hall
Unverified
Speaker 212
Speaker 28
Speaker 177
Speaker 180
Kristen Jeffries
Unverified
Representative Randy Torres
Unverified
Speaker 247
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
Speaker 265
Speaker 264
Speaker 276
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
Speaker 283
Representative Mark D. McElroy
Unverified
Speaker 317
Speaker 304
Speaker 327