Advanced Communications and Information Technology - House
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Bills discussed (3)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1647
Act 412
· 5 mentions in transcript, chapter, agenda
Matched: “…the request of the sponsor, so we're gonna move straight to House Bill 1647,”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE DIVISION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS; TO CHANGE THE NAME OF … | S. Meeks | Notification that HB1647 is now Act 412 |
|
HB1557
Act 480
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…p. Jeremy Wooldridge REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1557 R. Scott TO AMEND THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE DIVISION OF…”
|
TO AMEND THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE DIVISION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCERNING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. | R. Scott Richardson | Notification that HB1557 is now Act 480 |
|
HB1666
Act 656
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 3/5/25 @ 7:29 AM) Added HB1666 to the Regular Agenda House Committee on Advanced Communica…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS SELF-FUNDED CYBER RESPONSE PROGRAM. | S. Meeks | Notification that HB1666 is now Act 656 |
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- October 2, 2026
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
0:16
to hear these important bills later this afternoon. So without objection, we are going to go into recess until 15 minutes upon adjournment of the house. OK.
Speaker 13
3:08:56
All right. OK. Well, according to our uh
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
3:09:00
analysts, the whole committee is here, which is highly unusual during committee, so, uh, or during sessions. So I appreciate everyone coming over. We've got just 2 bills, so. All right, we are back from recess. We're gonna jump right into this, uh, colleagues, the first bill on the agenda of 1557, we are going to pass over that at the request of the sponsor, so we're gonna move straight to House Bill 1647,
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
3:09:40
which is mine, so I'm gonna hand the chair over to Representative McCollum. Oh, it looks like we have HP 1647. Let's see. Mr. Chair, you're recognized, present your bill and let us know if you have anyone else with
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
3:10:02
you. All right, thank you. Um, uh, colleagues, uh, this is House Bill 1647. Uh, but we're basically doing here is we are changing the uh name of the division of Information Systems
to the office of State Technology. Uh, reason why we're doing that is pretty straightforward, is a lot of people, instead of thinking of them as the information systems office. They think of them as the Information office and for the state, and so they get a lot, a lot of unnecessary FOIA requests that, uh, their staff has to process, uh, because everybody thinks they're just the Office of information for the state. And so by changing the, uh, the names, it will hopefully
eliminate some of that confusion and uh the reason why uh Office of State Technology, uh, is just because it matches we got the Office of State procurement, Office of Personnel Management. And so it kind of falls. Along that vein. Uh, so with that, uh, we'll be happy to take any questions if anybody has any, and I'll probably any questions by the committee looks like
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
3:11:06
Representative Collins has a question. You're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to put you through that process. Uh,
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
3:11:13
thank you very much for doing that. Um, no,
I actually wanted to know if you're gonna synchronize the titles are you gonna change any titles or are you gonna leave the titles alone and just change the
Speaker 24
3:11:25
name of the, um, office. Uh, Jay Harton, director of DIS, um, no, well, so with the current pay plan, um, there's nothing that refers to DIS in the name. OK, thanks. And, and something I should have said as well,
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
3:11:38
that really won't be any cost related to this cause any letterhead, they'll just, you
know, through attrition, get that taken care of, our website change name, they can handle that. So I think the only direct cost associated with this will just be to change the sign on the outside of the door, and
they assure me they have the uh funds to, to get that taken care of. Seeing no other questions. Is
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
3:12:02
there anyone in the audience today who would like to speak for or against this bill?
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
3:12:15
Are you close for your bill? We, we are closing, I'll
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
3:12:22
make a motion to pass. You're recognized for that motion, uh, yeah, we've got a motion of do pass on HB 1647. All those in favor say aye. Again. Your bill is passed. Congratulations. Thank
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
3:12:36
1666. Yeah, I, I, I almost asked him for a different bill number, so hopefully that's
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
3:12:47
not, uh yeah. Uh, you recognize to present your bill and,
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
3:12:51
uh. If you have anyone else, they could just go ahead and introduce themselves. I'll I'll let my guests introduce
Speaker 36
3:12:59
themselves. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Chrisal lines with the Association of Arkansas Counties. OK.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
3:13:06
So, um, colleagues, this is basically a, uh, update to
a, um, uh, cyber response program that we created last session, um, what we found
was, is that the state had invested like $10 million in cybersecurity, uh, insurance, and had only gotten $1.5 million worth of claims. So we spent $10 million to save $1.5 million. And so what that ended up Doing is it led to the creation of a surety bond program, essentially, that, um, would allow, uh, basically us to be self-insured for the majority of cyber claims. Uh, so instead of institutions, you know, having these unnecessarily high payments, uh, we're, we're
saving millions of dollars over the years. Uh, and so what this bill does is it, um, updates that, uh, we had a, had a cyber response team included in that. We're eliminating that. cyber response team, uh, DIS is actually working on a more comprehensive version of that. So this is not gonna be any needed any longer, uh, and I don't know if Mr. Vlis wants to, uh, expand on that, uh, any, but that's an assess an essence what the bill does. I'm happy to
Speaker 38
3:14:20
answer any questions and just tell you that this committee 2 years ago put together, uh, with a better bill number we put together the, uh, cyber response program. which basically copied and pasted what had been working in the Fidelity bond program, took that same language, brought it over to create a cyber response task force. This group includes K-12 education cities and counties and has been an
unbelievable exchange of technology wisdom between those three groups and has also already proved beneficial in that we've had a far quicker response to several. incidents around the state that we'll report to this committee after session, uh, about, uh, what all we've seen happen across the state, what our response has been, but basically this bill cleans up some language, some of which was brought over from the Fidelity bond program and truly doesn't make any sense in, in this
particular program, uh, and some of it is we knew that we would learn some things along the way and as we have, we've eliminated some facets of the. program that that weren't the best practices that we were using, so I can get into the details with any of you and answer any questions that you've got. I have a question. Do you expect or foresee in the future getting
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
3:15:43
any questions about any type of fiscal impact do we need to get in front of anything?
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
3:15:51
As far as related to this one in particular, or, um, this one is funded outside of general revenue. So this is the, um, the, the members of the, the, the surety or the fidelity keep sure, the Fidelity bond, they pay, uh, premiums in based upon the, you know, the cost of the fund and, and all that that's determined by the board, uh, and so that's, that's how the funding is, is determined
through this. So, yeah, no, no, no GR.
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
3:16:21
Any questions by committee? Alright, See none? Anyone in the audience today wishing to speak for or against the bill. All right. Any
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
3:16:37
motion from the committee close for the bill and make a
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
3:16:41
motion to pass. All right, Mr. Chair, we have a motion to pass. On Bill 1666. All those in favor say aye? Against
Congratulations, your bill has passed. All right, uh thank you committee with no further business before us, we are adjourned.
Agenda
REGULAR AGENDAR
Return from Recess
HB1557 R. Scott Richardson TO AMEND THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE DIVISION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCERNING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.
HB1647 S. Meeks TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE DIVISION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS; TO CHANGE THE NAME OF THE DIVISION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
HB1666 S. Meeks TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS SELF-FUNDED CYBER RESPONSE PROGRAM.
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - HOUSE, Mar 6, 2025 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Speaker 13
Representative Austin McCollum
Unverified
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
Speaker 24
Speaker 29
Speaker 36
Speaker 38