Judiciary Committee- House

Members, if you'll begin taking your seat, we're going to get started. Good morning. House Judiciary will come to order, um, chair Cu. Uh, representing Betty before you get your seat, good and warm. Are you ready to Go with Senate bill. 15, are you going to present that this morning, Senator? Uh, Boyd's Bill, I thought you were. If you're ready, we're ready to hear you. Members, if you'll turn to Senate Bill 15. You'll just identify self-representing Betty, you'll be recognized to present your bill. Thank you, Madam Chair. Representative Howard Beatty, District 95, Ashley Shico County. Uh, today I'm here to present a Senate Bill 15 is an act to amend the law concerning negligent discharge of firearms while hunting deer. And to repeal 1543205. Basically what I would direct your attention to is the first paragraph of the bill. That states a general assembly and the intent is the General Assembly has become aware of the fact that many persons hunting deer in this state negligently allow their firearm to be discharged without exercising proper care to ascertain the object at which they shoot, thereby endangering the life, limb, and property of other persons. It's the intent of this section to deter the negligent use of firearm. By deer hunters by imposing penalties thereof. If you look back at the history of this bill, the original uh bill was 1947. And it was amended in 1965 to add the teeth and the penalties. So you've got an outdated, you've got a law that was put on the books in '65 before there were any safety, um, training, hunter education programs, even burn orange in in the field. You didn't have to wear that. I think that kind of came to prevalent back in 1960 in outdoor Life article that was written, uh, that was stressing some of that to deter and, and have a little safety concerns there. Also during this time, we didn't have the law. en f or ce ment that we have in, in game and fish and other areas. So it was a problem at the time for folks deer hunting, uh, so the legislature to try to protect the constituents passed this bill. It's also a bill that going back and looking historically, no one could find that this bill had ever this law had ever been used through the fine imposed. So with that, uh, I agree to to run this bill with Senator Boyd to repeal this because it's It's another law that's on our books that's not utilized, it's just taking up space. So with that, I'll entertain any questions. Representing anger, you're recognized for a question. Or do we have the same get your microphone down to where we can. OK. Do we have similar laws for hunting ducks and squirrels. And as far as we could tell, this is the only law that specifies a specific type of hunting, and it was deer hunting. And again, that first paragraph, uh, communicates the reason and, and the intent of the legislature with passing of this bill, um. was to take care of a problem with deer hunting. I think there's, there's nothing else in, in any other line of hunting that's out there, plus we have other laws that would take care of the negligent discharge. We're not removing anything that would provide law enforcement an opportunity or an avenue, uh, for enforcement of someone that's operating recklessly and endangering life. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members, any other questions? Seeing no further questions, we have no one who has signed up to speak for or against the bill. Representative Beatty, you recognize the close for your bill, Madam Chair, I'm closed to the bill and I offer a motion to pass. Members, we have a motion to pass on the table. Is there any discussion of the motion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor of the motion, please say aye. Any pose say no. Ty's habit, congratulations, you have passed your bill, you know, Madam Chair, just a comment. Being a part of this committee, it's a whole lot friendlier room than the last times that I've sat at this end of the table. Thank you and thank you committee. We like our reputation of warm and fuzzy in here. Yeah, all it guarantee Representative Eubanks did point out correctly that all this guarantees is you get a motion in here if you're on the committee. Other than that, there are no guarantees. That's the hard part. Members, uh, uh, Senator Wallace had to step out for a minute. He's gonna come back and take up his bills. So with that we're going to skip down to House Bill 1317 and recognizes representative Shepherd. Oh, and we're still waiting on an amendment on that one. With that, House Judiciary will go into recess until we get everybody back in here. All right, House Judiciary will come back to order. Senator Wallace, before you get seated, we're going to recognize you, to come to the end of the table, members were going to be hearing Senate Bill 13. Senator Wallace, once you get to the end of the table, if you'll identify yourself, you're. On go to proceed. Madam Chair, members. Censor Dave Wallace, District 19. You recognize, glad to have you on our end of the. capital and you recognize to proceed with your bill. Thank you, ma'am. It's good to be back in the house. I y'all don't know, I, I was in the house for the 1st 2 years. I sit with Captain Tosh over there and a few others. Um This bill, Senate Bill 13, is a nearly tailored bill. It's designed to protect awards of money that's already been awarded to the state of Arkansas. There's no new money involved in any of this. And this is money obtained by the Arkansas victims. Of scouting In the Boy Scout bankruptcy trust. So that's money set aside for people in Arkansas. Uh, this bill protects that. There's a lawsuit going up through the chain. That is arguing that the initial bill that I wrote 4 years ago is unconstitutional homosexual predators. Uh, if they win that case without this bill, that money Will leave the state of Arkansas and go to Texas or Michigan or California. So all this does is protect money that is already there. There's over 500 Arkansas victims who have made claims in the Boy Scout bankruptcy trust. And again this money has been awarded. Will be awarded to those who have claims that have already been committed. Uh, with that, I will stand by and answer any questions that you've got. Members are any questions in regard to this particular bill. Seeing their questions, we have no one who signed up to speak for or against. Members, are there any questions on any other matters, uh, to Senator Wallace in this, uh, while we have him at the end of the table. Senator Wallace, the chair, oh, Representative Brown, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Wallace, as you can imagine, crime is at all time highs, and we were a victim of a crime even in the house last week. I didn't know if you might have any comments or any insight on that crime that we were all victimized by. I have been advised by my counsel, Captain Dwight Tosh to uh played the 5th. However, if the House has a confidential informant clause that provides complete immunity. I sound like a canary. Sarah Wallace will get back with you as to we'd like to hear you sing like a canary, um, members, we do not have anybody who signed up to speak for or against the bill, uh, what is Sarah Wallace, I'm assuming, are you closed for your bill? What's the will of the committee? We have a motion to do pass on the table. Is there any discussion of the motion to do pass, seeing no discussion all in favor of the motion, please say aye. Any opposed say no. I have it. Congratulations, you have passed your bill and we'll get with you. We'd like to hear you sing. Thank you, ma'am. Captain Tosh once said that justice should always be swift, but not necessarily fair. We. Members were going to go into recess for just another few minutes. We're still waiting on the amendment for a House bill 1317. So with that, we're gonna go into recess for just a moment. 11:36 to deferred. And that cleans up our docket for, I mean our calendar for a little bit, we have a good number of um technical correction bills, but we'll probably take those up next Tuesday for anybody that's here in the audience. House Judiciary will come back to order. The amendment to House Bill 1317 has arrived and is being passed out, also members you have on your desk. The impact assessment from the Arkansas Sentencing Commission that was previously passed out to you on this bill. So if you will take a few moments just to look at that. Repented Shepherd is at the end of the table, and he will is recognized once he identifies himself to explain his amendment. Thank you, Madam Chair. Representative Matthew Shepherd. Uh, committee, this amendment simply adds material to the term false statements, this was pointed out to me when I just a little while ago and just for consistency and the fact that this is elevating the penalty to a felony, um. feel like it should be added to the bill, so I would move for the adoption of the amendment. Members, we have a motion to adopt all in favor, please say aye. And he opposed the amendment has been adopted. You're recognized to present your bill as amended. Thank you, Madam Chair. So House Bill 1317 is a bill that Kind of addresses something that's been brought to the attention of our retirement systems, particularly through audit and Amy Fetcher, the executive director of APRs, is here and she could answer specific questions if need be, but as you can see, uh, this bill, uh, merely uh elevates the penalty for making a material false statement related to retirement, uh, related to retirement system from a misdemeanor to a felony, you can see that. Previously it was, it, it has historically been a misdemeanor offense, but you can also see in the bill that um that previously uh current law provides for a felony should you make a material false statement or representation to the State Department for Social Security Administration disability determination and so this is just bringing some consistency between the two since they're somewhat similar in terms of the um the nature of the work that they perform, and as I was saying, this was brought to my attention Apers and the retirement systems brought this to my attention. I asked that if I would consider running this, uh, sometimes an audit, the retirement systems get asked, well, why, why is it that no one's prosecuted for this offense. What are you doing to recover this? Well, in part, when it's a misdemeanor offense, uh, it probably doesn't give it the level of priority, uh, just as a matter of fact, within the, the prosecutors, the various prosecutors' offices, and when you elevate it to a felony offense, Obviously that's going to be a more that's going to draw some attention. It's going to probably uh take on greater importance, but it also will provide some additional tools available to law enforcement and the various prosecuting attorneys to be able to seek to address that. Again, it's it's based on the amendment that we've now added, it only concerns a material false statement. It has to be a you have to knowingly make a material false statement or representation, and I would point out that uh Mr. Rosenwag was the one that brought this to my attention as far as making it material, and so I think we now have a bill that's that's very fair and seeks to address, you know, I think a concern that many legislators have have uh raised in the past. Members, you've heard an explanation of the bill. Any questions representing Springer, you're recognized for a question. I'll put your, turn your microphone on. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to hear from the department regarding what causes this to have to happen. Thank you. This etcher, if you'll identify yourself, you're recognized to answer the question. Thank you. Good morning, Amy Fetcher, director of APERS. Uh, so to answer your question, um, a few years ago we had an overpayment where, um, a member had died and we were not informed of the death because she died out of state, um, and sometimes it's just very difficult to get those and a daughter was on the account and and kept receiving the retirement payments for quite a while. So it was an overpayment for us and an audit finding and when we went. Through, um, audit, one of the things they said is, why do you not try to to prosecute this? Why do you not go further with it? And as Representative Shepherd said, we just have not had any luck with that in the past. Members, any other questions? Seeing no further questions, we have no one who has signed up to speak for or against the bill. Representing Shepherd, you recognized a close for your bill. And I would move, uh, DuP pass as amended. Members, we have a motion to do pass as amended on the table. Is there any discussion of the motion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor, please say aye. Any opposed say no. The ayes have it. Congratulations, you have passed your bill. Members, that concludes what we're going to hear this morning, uh, once again on Thursday, make a note you're going, we're going to take up house Bill 1049 House Bill 1263 and House Bill 1282. So those will be the 3, and at this time I'm anticipating we'll meet at the regular time at 10 o'clock on Thursday. Several of you have asked about when we're going to have our picture remade. We're still waiting for a date on that, so I'll let you know when we know that. With that, we adjourned.