Senate Convenes

said it will be called to order at this time. Are there any Request for leave. Madam Secretary, please call the roll. Poet, Brant Caldwell, Clark, Kroll, Davis, Des, Desma Dotson, English Flippo flowers, Gilmore Hammer, Hester, Hickey, Hill, Irvin, Blake Johnson, Mark Johnson, King Lating, Love, McKee, Murdoch, Hayden, Penzo, Petty, rice, Scott, Stone, Stubberfield, Sullivan, Tucker, Wallace. Thank you, Madam Secretary. If everyone in the chamber and in the galleries would please rise. And remained standing for the Pledge of allegiance prior to that, we will have a prayer and Senator Blake Johnson will introduce our pastor of the day, Senator Johnson, you're recognized. Remember, if you would allow leave for pastor Derek Collins and his wife Elizabeth uh Derek is pastured Gethsemane Baptist Church in Walnut Ridge for 24 years. Uh, and uh he's here to say our prayer and then we I appreciate him coming and John and I, uh, Senator Peyton and I share his membership and and and He is a great guy, so. Please come. All right. Thank you for having me today. It's an honor to be with you and let's bow together for a word of prayer. Fathers, we come to you today, I'd like to thank you for the many blessings you've given us and we wanna thank you for this opportunity to come to the Capitol in the great state of Arkansas and have a word of prayer and speak to you in heaven. Lord, I thank you for each one that's here today, and I pray that you might watch over this meeting as they get ready for and prepare for it. Lord, I want to thank you for Senator Johnson and his family and You give them a special blessing and a great invitation of uh he's given me today, and Senator Payton, who shares our district, Lord, please bless him and his family as well. And Lord, we are thankful for every senator that's in this building, and we do pray that your blessings be upon them and that you might take care of them, meet their needs. Lord, we pray for the house that's also meeting today as well, and may you watch over them. And Lord, I just want to thank you for our governor, and I pray that you'd give uh Governor Sanders' wisdom and In our state and give her protection. Watch over her family and everyone else, Father, and Lord, we just pray today that you might bless the Senate and all the decisions they make in our state. Lord, we realize we have a mandate from heaven. It's given to us in the word of God, and we must follow it. And Lord, I thank you, Father, for the provision that this Senate has made for the unborn. And Lord, what a blessing it is to know that, that a baby is a baby even before birth is given. I thank you today for the sanctity of marriage that you've established in the Garden of Eden when you made male and female. And Father, we thank you Father for the uh women that make up our great state and the protection that our uh Senate and House have given them, Lord, and keeping men out of women's sports and things such as that. Lord, it's so important. Lord, we love people, but most of all, we love you. And Lord, I realize that each and every one of us that's assembled here today and every person that's ever walked on the face of the earth will one day stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account of everything they've done in their body, whether it be good or bad. And Father, I pray that you might bless this congregation and these folks that are assembled today and may we remember that you are the Almighty God, and we thank you for sending your Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins to give us the free gift of salvation to anyone that calls upon your name. And Father, today I just pray these things. in the name of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you. I United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all. Thank you pastor for those words. Appreciate you being here today. Ladies and gentlemen in the galleries, welcome to the Arkansas State Senate. It is our expectation that each of you will exercise proper decorum and govern yourselves accordingly during today's proceedings. With that objection, the rules will be suspended and the Senate will dispense with the reading of the journal. The morning hour has now begun. Are there any announcements or introductions at this time? Madam Secretary, are there items at the desk? Yes. A letter from Senator Dan Sullivan. Dear Miss Cornwall, I am submitting this letter to close that my wife, Marie Sullivan is a member of the Arkansas Educational Television Commission. Please read this letter aloud and record it in the Senate Journal. Sincerely, Senator Dan Sullivan. Ballot. We are a committee on engrossed bills to whom was referred Senate bill 17 by Central Love compared the engrossed copy of the ritual and find the same correctly engrossed public health Committee on gross bills who his first Senate Bill 106 by joint budget compared the grossed copy with the original and find the same correctly engrossed joint budget. Notice of the withdrawal of Senate Bill 417 by Senator Boyd from further consideration. I mean 47. Pilot. For your Committee on Education who was foreign House Bill 1005 by representative Ray recommend do pass calendar. Committee on Judiciary to him was first Senate Bill 14 by Senator Wallace recommend do pass calendar Committee on Judiciary to whom was for House Bill 1006 by Representative painter. Recommend Du pass calendar Committee on Public Health to whom was referred Senate Bill 58 by Senator Dima recommend DuPascalendar as amended number one. Senate Bill 139 by Senator Boy to clarify that a covenant not to compete agreement is unenforceable for certain licensed medical professionals Senate Bill 139. Public health, Senate Bill 140 by Senator Bowet to mandate the use of biosimilar medicines under health benefit plans to require a healthcare provider to prescribe biosimilar medicines and to improve access to biosimilar medicine. and the 140. Insurance commercey the 141 by Senator King to eliminate funding to the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, 141. State agencies. Any further business to come before the body in the morning hour, if not the morning hour has expired. We will now begin the business agenda, beginning with Senate Resolution 6. Senate resolution 6 by Senator Irving to recognize and celebrate January 29, 2025 is mental health day at the state Capitol. And Urban, you're recognized. Thank you. Thank you, members. We have several providers with us in the gallery. If you could stand their mental health providers and we're happy to have you here today if you'll stand in your, if you're in the galleries, I think over on the side. So thank you for being here. So Today, um, today members in the rotunda, I think you had a, a very large presence of mental health providers and uh so I'm happy to be able to present this resolution today just to recognize and celebrate January 29, 2025 as Mental Health Day at the state Capitol. Um, you can read the resolution, just one of the few things that I just want to highlight is how critical mental health is, obviously, to our citizens across the state of Arkansas, particularly our children and youth, and I think that, you know, there's many examples of great legislation that we have passed that really have highlighted the need for policy work in this area as it relates to our children and youth and their mental health, and their ability just to have a good successful, happy health, uh, life. And so, um, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has highlighted the mental health crisis facing America's youth and called for action to address this critical issue, and I know that the Senate and the House has been in partnership with her, um, um, on really trying to craft the correct policy to do that, um, and so again, today is just advocating for Mental Health Day. We want to thank the providers that are here with us today, but all the providers across the state of Arkansas and, and honestly, any, any adult that comes in the pathway of a child or a youth particularly, or an adult when they're in a point of crisis, I think it's just so important that we recognize that this is an issue that's just as severe, just Just as detrimental as alcoholism or drug addiction. When you are suffering from a mental health crisis, it is critical and incumbent upon us to address it and to step in with good thoughtful policy, uh, to prevent that person that's in crisis from harming themselves or harming others. And that's really what we should be here about celebrating today. So with that, I would just ask you for a good vote for the resolution and to again thank them for the work they do. Thanks Sin to Irvin. All those in favor of Senate resolution 6 to recognize and celebrate January 29, 2025 as Mental Health Day at the state Capitol, please signify by saying I, I, and he opposed eye's habits, Senate Resolution 6 is adopted. We will now take up Senate Bill 3. to build 3 by Centra Sullivan to prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment by the state of Arkansas and other public entities. Thank you, Madam President. Senator Sullivan, you're recognized. Thank you. Remember if we talked about this bill last session 2 years ago, um, made it through this chamber and all the way to the, to the house chamber. It's pretty much the same, um, The legislation, I want to go through it in a minute, but I want to make a couple of opening statements. We had 2.5 hours of testimony yesterday, uh, but prefer preferential treatment and discrimination have always existed, and this bill is not trying to get rid of preferential treatment or um um it is getting rid of affirmative action. But to say that we're trying to get rid of that nationwide and statewide is just a straw man and not true. This bill only affects procurement, hiring, uh, and higher ed. That's all it affects. And there is no attempt in this bill to end it in the private sector. I want to walk through the bill real quickly with you and make a few points. If you've got the bill in front of you, if you don't, I'll explain it, but on, on page one, it talks about it's only basis for race, sex, color, ethnicity and national origin. Those are the only areas of discrimination. On page 2, it talks about it's more effective, it scratches out civil rights and replaces that with desegregation and nondiscrimination. And you know that does not reference case law or the law in civil rights. So it's just talking about civil rights and generic terms. And actually the desegregation and nondiscrimination are actually more descriptive of what the bill does than just a generic term of civil rights. And you're going to see civil rights scratched through several times. So know that when it mentioned civil rights, it's not canceling any law. It's only talking in generic terms. And you'll notice in section 5 on page 3, we cross out a lot of language. Those were all requirements for affirmative action. And you know that the president has made an executive order ending affirmative action and DEI, and while that's effective at the state level, at the federal level, it is filtering down to the state level and anyone who receives funding from the feds. We've also had our governor say several. that the state of Arkansas will be in compliance with federal law, and this is federal law. So whether you agree or disagree with ending affirmative action. It is now and going to be federal law. And the next few pages uh cross out language that we're all compliance issues with affirmative action. That we no longer have to do that reporting. In Section 9, it talks about the subchapter on page 7, the Arkansas Geographical Critical needs minority teacher scholarship. Folks, and we changed that to the critical needs scholarship and strike out minority. Um Critical needs is a more inclusive word than minority. So if you have a minority population, and let's say you have a population like an Arkansas State University. I don't know how many students they have. We're going to say 10,000. If they have a minority population of 8000 and we're going to change the word, the wording to critical needs, we're going to cover all 10,000 people. So the actual population of people that are covered with critical need is higher than a minority population. We're actually including more people, not fewer, and in testimony yesterday, you heard many people say we are removing opportunity. We're taking away opportunity. hopes that couldn't be further from the truth. We're actually allowing more people, people who are not necessarily a member of a minority community. We're actually allowing them access to. I don't know if you, I've talked with the Chancellor at Arkansas State several times. Talked with Chancellor Robinson again today at UFA and several years ago, I think about 2.5 years ago, he eliminated DEI at University of Arkansas. Now, is it perfect? No. Are they still working? Yes, it's going to take a while, but, uh, Chancellor Shields at ASU and I, we have talked several times and Chancellor Shields. has a marketing philosophy. I'm going to term it, belonging, and they are pushing belonging. And if you read the paper recently, the same term came out with Walmart, belonging, and if you ask Chancellor Shields what that means, he'll tell you that every student is important. They don't want to lose anybody. And if you are a young pregnant teenage mother in at Arkansas State University. They want to help you. It doesn't make any difference if you're a minority, if you're a majority, what you are, they want to help. If you're a student struggling in class, um, they want to help. Everybody is important. They don't want anybody to leave. We're struggling to recruit engineering students at ASU for the, the burgeoning steel industry there. Folks, we don't care what you are. Everybody is important and every engineer is important, and we're not going to discriminate or give preferential treatment to any group. And with the people that are opposed to this bill are saying is we want to roll that back. We no longer want to give everybody preferential treatment. We only want to give certain people preferential treatment. I'll go on through the bill, but you'll see a scratch that minority word several times. And again, it refers to critical need, whatever that is, and if you have a need, then our universities, our private businesses, they want to help meet that need. Uh, this subchapter does not affect any preferences given to veterans, and I'll touch that veterans issue in a minute. Again, on page 9, it talks about critical need. Um, on page 10, the state of Arkansas does not discriminate in access to employment opportunities or employ employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or generic information, folks, that's what our state agencies and if we have a state agency that struggles with that. They have a responsibility to go to their boss, which would be the governor, expressed that. problem they're having and then come to me and talk about the bill. We had an agency called about 20 minutes ago, and they are misreading the bill, I think. Critically, uh, they need to come and talk to us about what their issues are. I'll leave that to the side right now. Again, on page 11, it talks about veterans. Uh, on section 21 prohibition of discrimination or preferential treatment by a state entities. And folks, it's really important we understand what preferential treatment means. That means some people are treated better than others. And this bill says no more preferential treatment. Everybody belongs. Everybody is equally important. It says at the bottom of page 11 and going on to page 12 that people that violate this law could be guilty of a misdemeanor. Now there's been some um concern about what that entails. Folks, in order to be guilty of a misdemeanor, you have to, by the law, you have to knowingly violate that law. Let me read the section for a person to knowingly violate the law. He must both know that he is discriminating and must take action to effect that outcome. This knowledge is not imputed up the chain of command, nor are the actions. Each person must be assessed individually as to whether he knows of the discrimination and has done something to bring it about. If you were the head of an agency and you have someone beneath you violate uh discrimination law. It doesn't impute guilt all the way up the chain to the secretary of that division. It just doesn't do that. Everyone's judged on their own merits. It talks about remedies, uh, later on there and it talks about a civil opportunity. For civil action if you think you've been violated and whether or not one has the state has sovereign immunity is a valid point. However, the judge is capable of making that determination at that point. I want to tell you what the bill does in general. It's equality for all individuals. This legislation firmly rejects discrimination based on race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin. It's merit-based systems by ensuring that discrimination and preferential treatment are not the norm. It preserves veterans' benefits. Now this, this is an important part cause we, it came up yesterday, why, why are veterans special. I'll tell you why they're special, why they're different. This legislation maintains preferences for veterans acknowledging the sacrifices made by specific individuals. It doesn't impute a whole group of people based upon their race, their sex, their religion. It doesn't impute special preferential treatment to veterans other than their individual sacrifice. This bill strengthens competition and innovation by removing unnecessary or enforced diversity over merit within the commercial frameworks. It adds transparency and accountability. It rejects divisive. situations it empowers institutions to focus on excellence. You know, some are confusing this bill with the DEI bill. This is not a DEI bill, although the two are very similar in their um in their impact. Near the city of Little Rock has a DEI division. I have their budget $433,000. One city. The purpose of this bill is for us to focus on helping people directly. It adheres to common American values. This act closely to the ethos laid out by Ronald Reagan emphasizing dignity and opportunity for all. Never condescending for any. It's time our systems reflect the shared vision of unity and fairness. It has firm consequence and a legal framework and it promotes a society where the rule of law correctly acknowledges contributions based on free will capabilities, and this legislation stands firmly to protect freedom and common sense values. You may have seen the president several days ago, issued an executive order and that executive order says to end illegal discriminatory actions and restore a merit-based opportunity, folks, that's SB 3. Ending Illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based. I'm not going to read all the executive orders, but there are a number of executive orders that this canceled, you know, I didn't, I knew, I thought I knew what affirmative action was. Affirmative action was just an executive order and there were a couple of executive orders that were implemented and everybody said that's the law. And if you violated them, you got in trouble with the courts. And now all of a sudden, President Trump eliminates those executive orders, and you may hear today, some say that that's not law. It's just as much law as it was when other presidents issued executive orders, but there are a number of executive orders that are ended here. I want to wrap it up, uh, and leave time for um comments and questions. You know, if someone asks why religion wasn't in the bill. You can't discriminate based on one's religion, but as far as affirmative action goes, affirmative action is not, it's based on those race, color, immutable characteristics, religion is not an immutable characteristic, so it's not included in that bill. Um, that's all I have for now. I'll be glad to answer any questions. Questions for Senator Sullivan, Senator Flowers, you'll recognize for a question. Thank you. Senator Sullivan what, what do you mean by merit-based? Merit-based merit would be, you know, many businesses, colleges, higher by what your quality of work. So merit-based would be your quality of work. We judge our students all the time on their merit to enter medical school to enter college. We, many businesses hire based on merit attorneys hire based on the merit when you go, there are other factors, but merit is certainly one. So, but you would limit hiring based on merit. So is merit Do you consider that your experience, your work experience. Are your education. Or both. Or if one person has more experience, lacks uh education credentials, college degrees or whatever, but has an outstanding work record and experience. How do you do that? Well we do it now. I mean, we have tests that do that. You have credentialing, people have at different education levels. It's done right now and it's based on all of those, not just any one single, but we we base Things on merit all the time. Well, if we do it already, why are you doing this bill? What we're just repeating what's already the case. Well, the other question I have. As this relates to State of Arkansas Public. Entities, your state agencies, your your colleges, public colleges. I'm just trying to figure out what exactly are you Intending here because when I look around at Many state agencies and I'd say most state agencies. You don't see much diversity. I don't. Maybe you do. Yes, I do. I mean, Arkansas State has the minority population in Arkansas State is very high. Matter of fact, I think Arkansas, and I don't know exactly what you mean by diversity, but Arkansas State's primarily women. And the black population, I don't know what the black population is, but it's, it's very large, and that's true of U of A too. So you you mentioned in your comments that you made earlier, you said race and color. I didn't hear you say women. It's. A woman and women, are they a target of your Senate bill 3 to prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment toward women. Is that part of it? The law says you, you cannot give preferential treatment to women. So if there are 2 people bidding on a contract. Uh, you can't give priority preference to a woman. It has to be based on their merit. Who's the best one for the job. So Have you taken into account any history of the state of Arkansas in terms of hiring practices, lawsuits that have been filed alleging discrimination, uh, Fouled by a minority, whether it be a woman or a person of color, a black person or Hispanic person. At have you even Look back at the history. of Arkansas hiring practice. Yes, ma'am, that point was made yesterday talked about 300 years of I asked you, have you looked back? Have I? Yes, yes, and, and you don't see the need for having our laws as they're written on the books now. I think there is an arc of history, and I think we are at a critical time in our nation. You know, I went to a a uh a good example. I went to a six year old's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. There were about 20 kids there, all from different nationalities, all from different heritage, mixed marriages, and they were six year old kids playing together. So do you ask me a question. I'll try to answer your question I'm I'm trying to answer your question to your I'm not talking about a 60 year old birthday party. I'm talking about people that are applying for jobs are already our own jobs that are of a particular race or color or gender. I'm not talking about little kids, send her flowers. I would respectfully request that send flowers. I'm gonna allow and encourage Senator Sullivan to continue on with his analogy and perhaps it will answer your question or address the question, one of the questions that you asked, Senator Sullivan. Yeah, thank you. Yes, you asked if I was aware. Yes, I'm aware. The other day in the Big Mac, we had a group of students from UFA, uh, who were the student government, and there was about a group as mixed race as you would want to be, uh, and they were, and I asked them, I said, do you, are you all aware of what affirmative action laws were. Very few of them even knew what affirmative action was. They thought they knew. But when I described it or they described it, it was an affirmative action at all. Um, they reached their Positions from merit. I talked to the sponsor. These were all top students, and they were from multicultural different cultures, different backgrounds, different races, different genders all across the board. That's the, that's the group that we're making this law for. You know, I hear a lot of talk about what happened in 1970 and 1980, and it's true. I understand that I grew up in those years. I know it's true. But I know what we need to do moving forward. And I know what students, whether they're 6 years old or 26 years old or 16 years old. That's what this law is trying to have a nondiscriminatory policy that's basically what happens in the state of Arkansas on merit. And we've had our governor say, as recently as today, I think, that the state will comply with federal law and that we are concerned that we do not have a state where we have discrimin practices, discriminatory practices work both ways. You either discriminate against someone or you get preferential treatment to someone. And we're saying that both of those are wrong. Last question, flowers you're recognized for a question. Where in state government, have you seen this, the law that's presently on the books abused. Tell me something about why you brought this bill. Are there people that are black or female uh Hispanic, Asian, that you think lack merit for their job. Tell me where you see it. Yes. I mean, I ran on this bill, ran for election on this bill. My people in my district knew that I ran this bill. I was going to run it again, and I won by about 60-40. The governor ran on ending discrimination. The president ran on discrimination. So if the question is, did the people of Arkansas want to see us in discrimination and treat people equally and fairly, I'd say yes. Of course, I think people disagree and they're certainly welcome to and you'll hear. from him today, but if you ask the people of the state of Arkansas, if they're ready to end discrimination, I think the people of Arkansas overwhelmingly say yes, and we saw a great example again, you had the Chancellor at the University of Arkansas in the DEI on its own, no pressure. And the reason he did that in my conversation with him, he said every student needed our help. We had students of every gender, every race, every color, every ethnic background that needed help and we're going to help them. The same thing at university, Arkansas State, and I couldn't be more proud. Todd Shields been recognized statewide as one of the best leaders in the state, and he says every student needs help, and everyone that needs help, we're going to give them. We're not giving preferential treatment to anybody. You heard private businesses say that yesterday the other day when they said all of our employees are important. All of our consumers are are important, and you heard people say, well, we're going to boycott you because we want our population to be have preferential treatment. That's wrong. Any other questions for Senator Sullivan. Anyone wish to speak against? Sen her flowers recognized to speak against. Thank you. I'd just like to say this, I'm voting against this bill. I don't think it's necessary. I think it's mean-spirited. I think it ignores the history of Arkansas. The History, my people have been Dealt with Discriminatorily. And I'd like to say you do a heck of a job of being non-responsive to questions. You're in a courtroom. All of that would have been stricken. Because it didn't respond to the question. You don't have the same skin color that I have. Send her flowers. You may speak against the bill. You may not attack personally another senator. I don't think I'm attacking him. I'm just saying I mean he gave examples of things, but you know, OK. No attack intended. But I've been feeling attacked most of my life. And it's because of my color. Sometimes it's because of my gender. I've had 8 brothers and sisters. Three of my brothers were in wars. Vietnam War. My brother would go overseas to Vietnam. Because he was a black man, he couldn't go to the club that the white soldiers went to. Talk about preferential treatment. Teachers. In the history of Arkansas that were black. weren't paid the same wages as white teachers. So many things, and those things haven't disappeared. That discrimination is still present. I know people, black people that have trained individuals to take positions in state government and on different types of jobs. Only to be asked to train a white person that comes in with less qualifications. To take their position. You know, it's something to be said about walking in somebody else's shoes. And when I'm down here and you, you say we don't discriminate. You to discriminate against me because I'm a Democrat, I guess, or because I'm black or because I'm a woman, I don't know. But I know that I've been down here longer than any one of you all sitting in here. But yet, the rules were changed. To restrict my ability. To be involved and to give my perspective On different issues. If you don't want to do better. Don't do better. But I hope the people of Arkansas. We'll do better, be better. I hope you understand the preacher that came down here today talking about God, all this and nobody knows what God wants, but I know he's fair. In the scripture I read this morning. From Luke 18 says always cry continually for justice. I'm voting against it would ask that you vote against it. Anyone wish to speak for? Anyone else wish to speak against? Senator Murdoch, you're recognized to speak against. Thank you, Governor. Colleagues. I come before you. Today was much Really chagrin. And care for you. I'm sorry. That many of you that I respect and know. I'm sorry that you've been put in this position again. I understand the politics of the day. I understand human relations. I understand so much of what this puts you. So the challenge for me. Is that I'm able to. articulate to you. things that you already know by living in the same America that I live in. The same Arkansas that I live in, it's absolutely not a question to any member of this body. The unnecessary need for this piece of legislation. When my colleague says the words preferential treatment and discrimination. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, the only thing that we're talking about and the practices that the the the policies that have been put in place over the years, have dealt with opportunity and access. Not at all preferential. Or discriminatory. You can't. We can't as minorities in this country. We're not in a position to discriminate at all. If we keep it. 100 with one other, with one another. You know, when you walk in the building. And there's a choice to be made. And the numbers look as though they look in this room. And there's a minority. With a degree in engineering. Has not had a chance to work, have no experience on the job as of yet. They just walking in the room and they apply whether it is at the bank, whether it's on the farm, whether whatever it is, whatever industry it is. We are, we both know that though we may strides. Listen, I applaud us for the strides we've made. But now this mess take us back. But we may stride, so you walk in and we see a degreed individual. More times than not. The individual is going to be chosen. It has been chosen. Has not been the minority before these things were necessary. These policies were put in place years ago to try to level the playing field because this is what you must know. The Constitution was not enough. It said that we shall be created equal. The Bible, the scripture was not enough good Christians because the, the, the Bible says to seek first those that are the most lowly and underserved among us and treat them the best. That didn't happen. We know about slavery. I don't have to go through all of that. It's an insult to even have to have this conversation. Let's continue to go forward, ladies and gentlemen. Unless like you did last time this came up. SB 71. Let's move forward. There's no way you can help relationships and people love each other like we should when you get behind something that says take away, stop, prevent, and we're not being, we're not promoting. Discrimination. We're not promoting anything that says give someone an unfair advantage. What we're saying is let's continue to work to get all an opportunity. You don't need no help. They help white folks in America have an opportunity. You don't. That's fact. ain't mad. But when something someone brings something like this as though we have gotten equal. As though the playing field is level now. And now let's just go forward on a level playing field. We know it's not there. How do we know? Look in the mirror. Look around this. In every community. Racism is still real, everywhere, not just white folks. It's everywhere. Some people say, can't nobody be racist, but I, I, my point is there are people that have biases. I'm acknowledging that. Right now what this bill does is take away a lot of good work. a lot of good work that has been done by people that have acknowledged. What has happened in the past. And has tried to help us grow forward to a new tomorrow and it only takes people to stand up. Like myself and you, like you did as a as a general assembly last session and say no, we're not going to do this. There's no reason for this. Who is hurting because of the opportunity and access I got to go to the University of Arkansas on the transition retention minority engineering program. I would have never gotten an engineering degree, ladies and gentlemen, if I couldn't, I couldn't afford it. But there's a program at the University of Arkansas that Lonnie Williams came get me. And others have said, we have a program for minorities. For poor people that needs help. And then I, I took advantage of that. I graduated, got some merit, and then was able to Thrive. Without that, I don't know what would have happened. So my, my point to my friends, my late to my colleagues, why do this? Why is it necessary? He says words to create something, the argument he creates the argument with discrimination, preferential treatment. We're not asking for that, senators. We're not asking for nothing preferential. Well I can asking for opportunity. And we're asking for chance. There's so much more. I got all kinds of notes. But what I'm gonna do, because there's others coming behind me. I just want you To please Consider What you would do If you were me, I just want you to flip this. Flip it. And you're me. And I'm you. This would not be necessary. You would not vote for this if you was in my shoes, you would not say this is OK. If you were in my shoes. Please consider the words that I say to you. It can make us better. We can grow you guys. We can grow, but if this passes, This, this is not helping any of us. you. Any questions? Thank you. Thanks, Senator. Anyone wish to speak for? Anyone wish to speak against. Senator Clark. You're recognized. I appreciate Senator Sullivan bringing this bill in private I've complimented him on this bill. Uh, let me tell you the things that I like about it. I locked that this nation's based on. Senator Murdoch mentioned the Constitution. The preamble All men are created equal. A lot of us want to, if we're not in a post-racial America, we want to be. I don't think you ever get to the point that people don't see color, that people of all kinds do not have prejudices. But I can tell Senator Murdoch, and I think that he'll know this is true. That when I hire It does not matter your gender, and it does not matter your color. It matters whether I can depend on you and you will do the job or not. I'm not alone. I'm not living in a place that I see everything that Senator Murdoch sees. So I appreciate his point of view. The other thing is, I agree with Senator Murdoch. I'm glad that not just he but many like him. Received opportunities that they would not have received otherwise. I'm not against affirmative action of the past. But many of us ask how long? And unfortunately the answer we get to how long is we don't see an end. And many believe, I believe the majority believe there's got to be an end. There's got to be a time where we're just all equal, where we're just where we're treated the same and yeah, there's gonna be bad actors, there's going to be people, you know, when I was in high school, top student in my class and and but when they chose Boise State, I wasn't chosen and some the ones that were chosen came to me and said this isn't fair. I said, right, you're obviously the one that should go. And I said, don't worry about it. If it's something that I achieve, I will get it. If it's something that other people have to choose and especially my teachers, I won't. Uh, y'all know my personality, so you might be able to see what that might be true. So, I think I get more of a balance with the bill because I don't think any, in fact, I know no one has bad intentions, and I know Senator Sullivan does, and I think that something like this has to be done in broad strokes. And when you do things in broad strokes, it's hard to get it all right. But the problem I have is Uh, Section 5. And it's not all of Section 5, it's actually the first paragraphs of section 5. And you know, Congressman Westerman before me, but then myself and Senator Elliott worked very hard early on on K through 3 reading that that was the primary thing we needed to solve, and I am so glad to have a governor and a legislature that have got behind this 100% and we're going after it because if we can teach kids to read, if we can teach poor kids to read whatever their color. They can be they have many exponentially more opportunities to be successful not only in education but in life. I'm glad we're tackling that problem, but that's not our only problem. And let me tell you one of our major problems. I realized this before I was a senator. I was participating in school choice and I was checking the school scores in my county. As to where I wanted to send my children. And what I discovered to my dismay. Was that even the what we call the best schools were failing with black males. Probably true in all 50 states. But we're failing with black males. Everybody is. And There are many reasons for that. And if I got into all the reasons I have a lot of people against me. A lot of times truth is hard to speak. But we're, we have black male teachers. There are only 2% nationally. They're hard to find. It's getting them into the teaching profession. But where we have black male teachers with the black males have lower dropout rates. They have fewer disciplinary issues. There are more positive about schooling. They have better test scores and increased college aspirations, but I asked Senator Sullivan, and I asked Uh, my good friend respect Professor Rob Steinbeck, both until I got a clear answer. Would this stop me? Would this bill stop me? If I was a superintendent. In the Delta from actively recruiting black male teachers and they said yes. I see both again, that's one thing overall. I'm not like most of the opponents because I'm not an opponent. I'll really like the bill. But I can't get past that point. And I think it's an extremely important point. I wish I should be able, one of our problems is is special ed, trying to get special ed teachers, we ought to be able to do whatever we have to do to get special ed teachers. On merit. We are to be able to do whatever we have to do to get science teachers, including paying them more in recognition that we're competing with industry for science teachers, but we also are to be able to get black male teachers where we get black male teachers without apologizing for it and especially without breaking the law. Uh, so for that reason, as much as I want to vote for this bill, I can. Thanks Cinder. Anyone wish to speak for, against, I'd seen Senator Scott and Senator Tucker. Senator Tucker, you want to speak 4 Senator Payton. Senator Payton's recognized to speak for Senator Tucker, you'll be recognized to speak against. Thank you, Madam President, colleagues, I'll be real brief. The way I look at this bill, our society had a horrible disease. Discrimination, racism and laws were put in place to cure that disease, and the argument we're having today is, are we over the disease and addicted to the cure? Or is this a disease that we need uh forever ongoing treatment. I'd like to think that we're over the disease. And if we're going to have to break the addiction to the cure, so I'm voting for this bill. Thank you. Senator Tucker, you're recognized to speak against. Thank you, Madam President, and thank you, colleagues. I can tell or some thoughtful listening going on today, and I, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate that. I wanna talk for a moment about preferential treatment because that's, that's what the bill is about. And what does that mean? Well, there's actually no definition of preferential treatment in the bill. It's kind of important because if this bill becomes law and you engage in preferential treatment, then you're charged with a crime. But we don't actually know by definition what that language means in the bill. The best guess we can take from what that means in the bill are the programs that the bill has explicitly either changed or eliminated. I'll just give you a few examples and to me what preferential treatment means and Senator Murrock went over this, and I'm not going to repeat what he said. It means opportunity. Let's talk about a few of these programs. the one Senator Clark was just talking about minority teacher recruitment program. This is to recruit minority teachers up. To the racial and ethnic makeup of your district. This came up in committee yesterday, Senator Peyton, it's not above that. It's up to the, the racial and ethnic makeup of your school district. This helps teachers. This also helps minority students. Who does that program hurt? Who does that program hurt? Not a soul. OK. Another one listed specifically in the bill. Higher education, minority retention program. This doesn't actually help anyone get hired at a higher ed institution or admitted. All it means is that once you get to campus, we're going to do our best to keep you here. Who does that program hurt? Not a soul. Another example, minority teacher scholarship program. Who does that hurt? Not a soul. And the list goes on. Let's take another, take a look at it, another piece of code that's changed today and the awarding of state contracts, it requires agencies to encourage the participation of minority owned businesses or women owned businesses. As Senator Murdoch said, this is not mandating any outcomes. This is really about opportunity, and that's it. Now all of these programs were carefully crafted over a period of decades, very thoughtfully. These programs were created surgically to where they can have the most impact. This bill is not surgical. This bill to Senator Clark's point is a blunt instrument, and the truth is we have no idea how broad the impact of this bill will be. I believe it'll impact every public employee in the state of Arkansas. I don't care if you're a teacher, if you work at DFNA, or if you're a police officer. If you engage in preferential treatment, which is undefined, then you're going to be guilty of a crime. But there's a few agencies in particular I would be worried about working at if it were me. The minority Health Commission, for example. Now Senator Sullivan can give you his opinion that this won't apply to the Minority Health Commission, and the Attorney General can do the same. I can give you another opinion, but no one, not me or anybody else, can tell you for certain how a judge is going to rule about that. Uh, the mosaic Templars Cultural Center. I can tell you I'd be real worried about working there if this bill passes. It's a museum to celebrate African American history in Arkansas. I don't see how you can celebrate African American history and have items in your gift shop created by African Americans in Arkansas without giving preferential treatment. If I'm working there, I think I've got criminal liability coming up. What about the portion of AEDC that helps women and minority owned businesses. Now, again, no one knows for sure whether this bill will impact those, but if I were a hungry lawyer after this bill becomes law, and I wanted to get some attorneys' fees, which this bill allows for. I know what I would be doing next. And Senator Sullivan said, this doesn't end preferential treatment, period. Just on the basis of race and sex. It does say that we have preference for veterans, which, by the way, I support, I'm not against that. And as he mentioned, religion is not included in the bill, so there still can be preferential treatment to the extent it exists now under Arkansas based on religion or veterans. We're just saying we're ending preferential treatment based on race and sex. Now, about 20 years ago, I mentioned this in committee yesterday. I heard a presentation by Doctor Terrence Roberts. And what he said was, uh, the end of the Civil War did not create equality under the law for race in America. It was not until the Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act was signed in 1965, and it started well before the United States itself existed in the mid 1600s when black people started being brought to this land. So there was over 300 years of oppression, enslavement, imprisonment, lynching. And at that point there had been about 40 years on the other side of that, 60 years today. And women have endured their own forms of oppression and abuse during that time frame. The point he was making was, is that enough time? And that's the question that we're asking here today. When Terrence Roberts speaks, I listen. Now I don't know if y'all know who Terrence Roberts is, but there's a bronze statue of him on the north lawn of the Capitol. Him and 8 of his classmates. Before we vote on this, I would just ask you all to consider two questions. One is to consider life experiences and life circumstances outside of your own. Consider Senator Murdock's circumstances, or Senator Flowers. Now, I'm far from perfect. But I endeavor to think outside of my own experiences with every day that God has given me on this earth. And the second question is the question that that Dr. Roberts raised. Have we done enough? Is that Ledger balanced out. The irony with that question to me is for 300 years, racism and sexism were not only allowed, they were in law. And it's only after we're trying to make up for that, after the fact that we say no sorry. Racism is wrong. Sex sexism is wrong when we're trying to balance out on the other side with opportunity. And the question for y'all is, do you believe that a black child born in Arkansas? Or a little girl born in Arkansas has the same opportunities that I do. Or that most of us in this room do? All you have to do is look around the room to get the answer to that question. A yes vote on this bill does not put The painful histories of America at your feet. But a yes vote on this bill does say that as a state we stand for ending economic and education opportunities for women and racial minorities in this state. For that reason, I'll be voting no. Senator Stubblefield, do you have a question for Senator Tucker? You're recognized Senator Tucker, uh, if I were arrested for preferential treatment. What would the charge be? I think that's a question for Senator Sullivan. I don't, it's in the bill. I don't believe the law as proposed carefully answers that question, and that's why if I were a public employee in Arkansas, I would be real nervous because I don't, I don't think there's a clear answer to that question. So you think, you think this, this bill will bring on an onslaught of of a legal cases? Well, it creates, it creates both civil liability and criminal liability. On the civil side, if I were a lawyer, I'm not going to, I don't currently plan on, I am a lawyer, but if I were, I don't plan on bringing any of these cases, but there are lawyers out there who like to sue the state, as you know, and get attorney's fees, which this bill explicitly calls for. I'm not sure if they can get them against the state because of sovereign immunity, which the bill also doesn't deal with address properly. But yes, if I were, if I were inclined to bring these sorts of cases, I would be bringing all sorts of lawsuits if this bill becomes law, and I would be asking for fees if I win. I thank you. Yes, sir. Any senator wish to speak for the bill. Any other senator wished to speak against, Senator Scott, you're recognized. Good afternoon, colleagues. I rise today as someone whose family fought to integrate NorthfoRock High School. The beloved institution that shaped me and who I am today. Their fight. About dismantling the the systemic barriers that excluded people based on race, gender, and background. Senate Bill 3 threatens to undo the progress they fought for and the progress we've made collectively, in my opinion. This bill does this bill doesn't just impact minorities. It impacts women and it impacts people from diverse backgrounds. It threatens Arkansas as a whole. And it endangers first generation college students striving to lift their families out of poverty. I was the first generation college student. It impacts minority and rural students who already face limited access to resources and scholarships and opportunities. I benefited from minority scholarships at Arkansas State University. It will impact small businesses and entrepreneurs who rely on the state's support to foster innovation and create jobs. It will impact our economy because diversity. Thrives, growth, innovation and competitiveness in the global market. Considering someone's sex, race, and background when providing them an opportunity, it's not a handout on an or an unfair advantage. It's about a chance to break down barriers. It's about breaking down barriers in a system that has historically excluded far too many people. For example, eliminating programs for minorities, women and girls reinforces those barriers. It hinders progress while denying Arkansas the full potential of its talent as a state. Diversity isn't just a moral imperative. It's a practical necessity. It strengthens our schools, our workplaces, and our economy by ensuring that everyone, no matter their background, has a chance to succeed. It creates a state where the best ideas rise to the top and where every Arkansan has a seat at the table. Now I have the utmost respect as the newest member in this chamber for my colleagues. And you will know that if you get a chance to know me. The majority of the men in this chamber are white men. I cannot walk in your shoes. I do not have your shared life experiences, nor do you have mine. But I struggle to really understand the notion that white men have faced systemic discrimination simply because of the color of your screen or that affirmative action has hurt you as a white man. I don't understand that. Discrimination is not about an individual hardship. It's about a long history of systemic barriers of violence and exclusion. If you cannot look back in your family history or find a relative who was lynched in the state of Arkansas because of their race, then your experiences simply don't compare to my ancestors or me as a black woman in this chamber. That is real and undeniable discrimination that my people have faced in this state. The struggles you may have faced though are valid and I won't discredit those, but they are not the same as a generation of people who have been denied opportunities who have been brutalized and even simply killed because of the color of our skin. I can't change that. I'm a black woman when I walk in this chamber. And when you say you don't see color, that's offensive. I'm black every day, every day that I wake up. So affirmative action was never about an unfair advantage. It was about breaking down barriers that were intentional about keeping people like me and minorities and women out of opportunities and being called out for taking an advantage of a system that benefits you and keeps marginalized people from advancing, it's not discrimination, it's accountability. The passage of Senate Bill 3 will represent a step backwards. A retreat from fairness. And opportunity. I urge you to reject the harmful legislation and choose a future where Arkansas thrives because it longs to be strong and inclusive and just and let us stand on the right side of history. Even when it's hard and uphold the values to move our state forward. Thank you. Any senator wish to speak for the bill? Any senator wish to speak against? Senator Love, you're recognized. Send her love, you're still recognized. OK, all right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Colleagues. I pledge allegiance. To the flag. Of a country who has yet to truly love me. Colleagues Some of you have may have been offended by what I just said. And while I don't mean to offend you. I want you to consider my perspective. You know, I was old enough to have known and lived with my grandparents, who were both born in 1910. I also had a grandfather who was alive in 1897 and who lived to be in his 90s. And we had multiple conversations of their, of their lives as young children. And as I stand here today. I consider my grandparents and the history that they had passed down to me for generations. And all I can say is. Here we go again. We can continue to pass laws like these. We can continue to relive the past. But it doesn't make for a stronger America. To consider the experiences of every American and provide people with a chance to enjoy the promises. Of the Constitution is at least we should all strive to do. We are operating under a false. We are operating under a false narrative. The policies that ask you to consider. A person's race, sex, or nationality are wrong. Look around the room. And consider Who was missing. What voices have we not heard from? Not, not having the voices in the room. How does that impact us? Just consider. This is what we are asking for, and this is just the least. We can ask for as children of the Most High. To consider our brothers and sisters. Until we do this, We will not deliver on the promises that are in our preamble of the Constitution. We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, established. Justice for our African American brother. Ensure domestic tranquility for our undocumented children. Provide for the common defense. Of our LGBTQ community. Promote the general welfare of women. In cure the blessings of liberty for all God's children. Colleagues, this is not the foundation of SB 3. The bill actively works against these things. And I ask you to consider. Voting no on SB 3. Thank you. Any senator wished to speak for the bill. And other senator wish to speak against, Senator letting, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam President, colleagues, I know I walked through the world with privilege. I haven't always seen it. I still don't always see it, but I do know that it's there. It doesn't mean my life is easy. Doesn't mean I don't have to work hard. Doesn't mean I have things handed to me, but I know that in almost any situation I walk into, whether I recognize it or not, I carry an advantage. And it doesn't mean people are always knowingly giving me that advantage, but that's why protections are so important. They serve as a check against our worst impulses, because has been pointed out by my colleagues today, for most of our country's history, discrimination was policy, and so it is important that no matter how far we think we've come, we're always going to have further to go, and so it is important to have protections in place to guard against some of our worst tendencies. Thank you. Any senator wished to speak for? Any senator wished to speak against. Senator Sullivan, you're recognized clothes. Thank you, Madam President, folks, a couple of things I just need to correct. One, you've been told that programs will end the program that the senator said he took advantage of when he was in college. They got him through in the scholarships that he, uh, received. Those don't end. They'll still continue. More people will be able to affect those scholarships than fewer. But they want to convince you that those opportunities no longer exist. Yesterday a woman God has been mentioned several times, and I appreciate that. You know, uh, I was asked yesterday what God I serve. Folks, I only know of one. And that God says he's no respecter of persons. And it's been phrased in another way that will be known by the, by the, by the character, but the, the heart of our character, not by the color of our skin. That's where we're headed. It was said that 300 years passed and now only 40 or 50 have passed. You know, I've got a friend that had uh a heart valve problems for probably 30 years, 40 years. And the doctor kept saying, someday you gotta go in and fix it. Someday you gotta go in and fix it. Then he said, today is the day. And in 2 hours, a big valve was there and he's all better. So just because 300 years have passed, doesn't necessarily affect the arc of history. You have a chance to change it. The other thing you need to understand many of the arguments today said we're arguing against affirmative action. The senator, the last speaker said we need to continue to give preferential treatment and discriminatory treatment to women and minorities by their race. That's a good thing, folks, it's over. That's it. The president said it's over and we're done with it. Think about this, racism. Will never cure racism. If racism is the problem, continuing racist discrimination and preferential treatment will never solve that. Courage was mentioned a few times today. It's gonna take courage to vote yes on this bill because I can guarantee you the pushback is going to be vicious and hard. I could play a couple of voicemails I have. But it's the time in history to change that because it's time for us to treat everybody equally. That's what this does. The point was made about preferential treatment, folks, that's the job of the court. We need to define preferential treatment better. That's what the court does. Someone in this bill allows you to seek civil action, and if you seek civil action, you file a claim and you go to court. The judge says, yes, you were discriminated against, or no, you weren't. That's their job. We're not gonna have 1000 page bill doing that. I don't think it was mentioned today if, if we have preferential treatment for black teachers in black areas, and the point was made yesterday that black kids learn better from people who look and talk like them and see them, they said, and there's many studies to prove that, yeah, that's probably, that's true, but that's only true for a certain set of circumstances. Folks, we need teachers in southeast Arkansas, and Arkansas, we don't care what color they are. We don't care if they're men or women. We need good quality teachers. And we don't need to be picky about who those folks are as long as they have the merit to teach. And if you're gonna say black teachers teach better to black kids, you got to say white teachers teach better to white kids. Now we're gonna start having white teachers in white schools. Nobody would advocate for that. will advocate the other. It's inconsistent. The Attorney General helped draft this bill, looked over the bill, and the Attorney General is very comfortable in defending it. And let me ask you, folks, there are at least 10 or 11 other states that have a very, very similar bill. The same bill that allows civil penalties, same bill that says no discriminatory practices. I wonder if you can name who they are because they haven't fallen off the world. And to hear my fellow senators talk, you would think if we pass this bill, Arkansas is gonna fall to the bottom of the heap. Folks, we're gonna be at the top of the heap. We are ending discriminatory practices as our president said we would as our governor is leading that way, and it's time that we had there. You know, if some would have you Kill this bill. And keep affirmative action in place. And Arkansas would be a sanctuary city, sanctuary state for affirmative action. Think about that. Are we gonna continue affirmative action and have the federal government coming down here and trying to enforce and getting rid of affirmative action. That's not where we want to be. Sandra Day O'Connor, very liberal judge in 2003 said in 25 years, there'll be no more need for affirmative action. Folks, that's just a year or two from now. It's time to take decisive action and for the state of Arkansas to lead the way. There, there are probably 12 or 15 states working right now on similar legislation to this trying to end affirmative action and preferential treatments. Our colleges, University of Arkansas, and Arkansas State have been doing this for several years. They've been treating everybody equally, that you don't hear of all the lawsuits and problems and things going on. You just don't hear of it. Why don't you hear of it? It works. Treating everybody equally works. And with that, Madam President, I'm closed. Senator has closed. Madam Secretary, please call the roll. Brant Caldwell Clark. Crow. Carl Davis. Days this. Dotson. English. English. Alpo flowers. Gilmore hammer, Hester, Hickey. Hill Irvin Blake Johnson. Mark Johnson. King letting love, McKee Murdoch. Payton, Penzo Patty. Rice Rice Scott stone steel. Sullivan Tucker Wallace. I'll start on this side. Any senator who did not vote, who wishes to vote or wishes to change his or her vote, seeing no one on this side, anyone on this side, Senator English not voting. Present Senator English present, any others, please check the board see no others, please cast up the ballot by a vote of 24, 7, nay to not voting and to present Senate Bill 3 passes transmit to the house. We will take up Senate Bill 63, but before we take up Senate Bill 63, I'd like to recognize Senator Love to introduce our doctor of the day. Colleagues are Doctor of the day is, Doctor Donald Golden. He's an ophthalmologist from Little Rock, and we also have our nurse of the day. Is she still here? Uh, Lee Fazio. Can you, can you all welcome him? Thank you, Senator Love. We'll now take up Senate bill 63 Senate Bill 63 by Senator Hickey to amend Arkansas law concerning reports by the Secretary, Secretaries of cabinet level departments of the state of their departments. Senator Hickey, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam President. Members, uh, I believe it was 4 years ago, we had passed a bill that requires the secretaries to come before ALC. It says shall to give a macro report of On their agencies, uh, good intentions whenever this bill is done, but after we watched this in practice, again, it says shall and we know that those AOC meetings sometime are very, very lengthy, and these are given at the end of the uh of that ALC meeting, uh, interest has went away. We have the ability to do this anyway, uh, on more of a micro level, which is a lot of what you all are interested in if there's a certain issue before you or before before us all that we want to find out, we can direct the agency to either come before a subcommittee of AOC or possibly even a standing committee. So what this does, it will take this out and we'll just proceed as we as we had before before this was. first Any questions for Senator Hickey? Anyone wants to speak against or for. Senator has closed any objection to rolling the vote, Madam Secretary, please roll the boat. Boyd Br Caldwell, Clark, Kroll, Davis, Des, Desma, Dotson, English, Flippo, flowers, Gilmore, Hammer, Hester, Hickey, Hill, Irvin, Blake Johnson, Mark Johnson, King Luding, Love, McKee, Murdoch, Peyton, Penza. Patty, rice, scot, stone, Stubber Phil Sullivan, Tucker Wallace. Any senator who wishes to vote or change his or her vote. I see send her flowers present, any others? Seeing no others, please cast up the ballot by a vote of 34 ya, zero, nay. One present Senate Bill 63 passes, please transmit to the house. Senate Bill 97. Senate Bill 97 by Senator Hester to authorize the issuance of additional retail liquor permits to certain existing holders of retail liquor permits. Senator Hester, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam President. Members, you may have heard a lot about this with a good discussion yesterday in committee, the first thing I want to make clear about this bill, in no way increases the amount of licensors overall that are in the state of Arkansas. If what we're going to do is say that if you currently hold a license or one day hold a license, you are able to purchase other licenses from someone else. You can have up to 31 per county in counties of 200,000 or more. Now there are currently 3 counties in Arkansas that would qualify for that. Benton, Washington, and Pulaski. Maybe one day others will will qualify. But you can go from one license, ownership to 3 license if you buy another store out. Um, and that's, that's really about as simple as it gets. I'm happy to answer any questions. Questions for Senator Hester. Senator Clark, you're recognized for a question. Senator Hester, who wants to have up to 3 licenses. Well, anybody that currently holds a license would be eligible to have up to 3 licenses. I know who will be eligible who wants to do it. Well, currently retailers are asking. retailers, as in, well, OK, you want Walmart is one of the Walmart from my district is asking. Thank you. Sure. Any other questions, Senator Hammer, Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Madam President. Senator Hester, but that only applies to counties of 200,000 and more. It's not like they're all in all the counties are going to be able to exercise this. Is that correct? That's absolutely correct. Only 3 counties that this would currently apply to, and this would in no way, shape or form interfere with the petition process as far as a wet, dry issue in a county. This wouldn't, this doesn't have anything to do at all with that, is that correct? It does not. That's why So it's, it's a very short bill. It's about a half a page. Thank you. Any other questions for Senator Hester. Anyone wish to speak against or for? Senator has closed. Any objection to rolling the boat. Objections noted, Madam Secretary, please call the roll. Boyd. About it. Front Caldwell. Caldwell. Clark Cra Davis, Des. Days This man Dotson. English Flippo. Flowers? Flowers? Gilmore. Hammer. Hester Hickey Hill Irvin. Blake Johnson. Like Johnson, Mark Johnson. King letting love, McKee, Murdoch. Murdoch Peyton, Penza Eddie. Rice, Scott Stone, Stapail Sullivan, Tucker Wallace. Any senator who wishes to vote, who did not vote, Senator Dees, no. Any other senator on this side or we change your vote, Senator Murdoch, yes. Any other sender on this side, Senator Blake Johnson, yes. Senator Hammer, no. Any other sender on this side, Senator Hill, yes, Senator Flowers present. Any other sender on this side, please check the board. Seeing no their hands. Please cast up the ballot by a vote of 23, 10 nay, 1 not voting, and one present. Senate Bill 97 passes, please transmit to the house. We will now take up House Bill 1050. House Bill 1050 by Representative Tosh to separate the offices of sheriff and tax collector in Poinsett County. Senator Wallace, you're recognized. Thank you, ma'am. Members, very simple bill. Poinsett County would like to separate the office of sheriff and tax collector and a separate office of sheriff in a separate office of a collector. 51 counties already do that. You're gonna see other counties come forth and do that, probably 150 years ago, we probably needed the sheriff to collect taxes and some places, probably where my ancestors were, but this is just another case of local control by local government. The local county would like to separate those offices. Everybody at the county level is in agreement with that. And I will stand by for your questions. Any questions for Sandra Wallace? Anyone wish to speak against or for Senator has closed. Any objection to rolling the boat. Seeing no one, Madam Secretary, please roll the boat. Boyd, Bryant Caldwell, Clark, Crowell, Davis, Des, Desma, Datsun, English, Flippo flowers, Gilmore, Hammer, Hester, Hickey, Hill, Irvin, Blake Johnson, Mark Johnson, King letting love, McKee, Murdoch, Peyton, Penzo, Petty, Rice, Scott, Stone, Stubberfield. Sullivan Tucker Wallace. Any senator wish to change his or her vote. Seeing no one, please cast up the ballot. By votes of 350 nay House Bill 1050 passes, please return to the house. House Bill 1075. Council of 1075 by Representative Ray and Senator Bryant to prohibit a local government from regulating the sale or use of a lawn care device or imposing a tax or fee on the use of a lawn care device on cer in certain circumstances. Senator Bryant, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues, this bill just to get right to the meat of it prevents the local government from restricting the personal purchase and use of lawn care equipment that's powered by a specific source. So if you want to go down to Home Depot or Lowe's or Walmart and get a gas-powered, get electric battery operated, that should be your choice to operate on your personal property and in your business. This is not prohibit a city or a county from implementing their own policies for, say, their own maintenance department from purchasing a specific power source, but it prevents them from prohibiting you as a user and a purchaser from doing that. Questions for Senator Bryant, Senator Martin Johnson, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Madam President. Senator Brian, I think I know what this bill is about, and I support that and of course Representative Bray is one of my representatives and my friend, and I support what he's trying to do. I do have a question concerning. Language in uh section in the the next to last paragraph and you mentioned this about not prohibiting local government from levying a sales and use tax. I Concerned about that language because while Local government can levy a tax rate. They don't set forth in their ordinance, what items are taxable or not, though it's a uniform across the state, except for of course the A&P taxes and stuff which are also collected locally and not by DFMA. I'm the fact that this is a House bill, and we're about to send it to the governor. I just want to call that to your attention. Do you, do you share my concern that Perhaps we're authorizing a local government to tax law care devices in addition to their general sales tax. I do not. I shared that concern with Representative Ray and his concern was above not to tax it beyond what is naturally occurring inside the sales tax, you understand my question. And I will talk to him and see if maybe we need to clean this up later because I certainly don't want to some communities say, well, we don't want people out there using gas lawn mowers or diesel lawn mowers, so we'll just put a 20% local tax on them, and I think question whether we might be inadvertently doing that, and as you know, if it weren't for the law of unintended consequences, we could get through a recession in about 30 days. We we'll both work. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Madam President. Any other questions for Senator, Senator Love, you're recognized. Thank you, Governor. Um, Senator Brown, I'm not as enlightened as, as, uh, our colleague, uh, Senator Johnson, what's the backstory to this bill? What is the backstory to this bill? I'm not as enlightened as him. Like, why are we Well, what makes it a necessity. So, so if you, if you look broadly at the states as a whole and cities as a whole, there's a little over 100 cities nationally that have implemented these policies. Some would say they've just naturally done it on their own accord. Others might contribute it to EPA incentives. I know certain regions of Arkansas got several nearly $100 million of EPA funding to implement policies and procedures, and this is one of those incentives that might be utilized. So this is preemption to make sure that we as individuals can purchase and use our own. No, uh, you know, gas-powered equipment or electric powered equipment, let the market dictate this, not, not the government. OK, thank you. Cinder hammer, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Senator. I'll think of a situation in another state where like a POA limited, uh, the use of power equipment for like leaf blown because they were doing it on the basis that it was noise and they were trying to do it as far as like a POA or some other form, Does this capture all of those to where it would not affect what a POA does on civil terms with their residents. This is just for cities and county governments to not impose those restrictions. OK, so, so, um, I'm Entities that are not cities but maybe, you know, our POA outside of the city or they have a PO arrangement, they could still operate within the bounds of their property owners association, yes, OK. Is there any reason you wouldn't have included them in this bill. We try to just let those be civil matters within the POA, and Representative Ray didn't approach me about that concern. His more concern was just broadly underneath local government. OK, all right, thank you. Senator Hickey, you're recognized for a question. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Senator Bryant, Couple of them mine the same way as Senator Johnson right there, you know, from my standpoint I think it would have been a whole lot better if we put, you know, that they would be consistent or something if they were to do it. I I think we've got a little bit of an issue with that, the way that's written as your intent. I'm, I'm, I'm in favor of what you're trying to do. The only other thing that I, I've kind of read through here and I know it's not your intent, but we say on page 2, line 6. Restrict the use or sale of lawn care to buy. So what we're doing is, is we're saying that That they cannot do that. And we say use, there could be a certain circumstance, and I believe Senator Hammer was trying to touch on it with POA. By doing that, we're not having an unintended consequence. So if there's something that exceeds the decibel level, uh, you know, that's allowed within that city. If somebody has, you know, some piece of large equipment or something like that that exceeds that, you know, I'd hate for somebody to say, nope, you can't restrict my use at all, so I understand what you're doing with PowerSource, but the power so there could possibly be a combustion combustible engine, so I'm a, I don't know if we need some. Traditional language is the way I'm, I'm looking at this, not only for what was brought up by Senator Johnson, but, you know, just to kind of clarify that a little, a little more in my personal interpretation, a noise ordinance is a noise ordinance, regardless of its source, um, but I I, I understand you're, you're in, in, you're in uh Concerns Um if I make it to you, I mean, we're early in the session and as somebody pointed out, this is the this is the final step of this bill. I mean, you know, it's not like we can, it's gonna go back to the house and get them mended or whatever, so personally I would love, I would like for us to pull it down and on those two questions, just to make, make 100% sure that we're not having some unintended consequences. I'll, I'll get with you offline, uh, Madam President, I'd like to pull this down and and address these concerns, just make sure we A good product for Arkansas. Thanks, sender. Thanks, I just. Next, we will take up House Bill 1137. Senator Ervin. Has 11:37 by Representative Walker and Senator Irvin. An act to separate the offices of sheriff and tax collector in Cercy County. Senator Irvin, you're recognized. Thank you, members. Simple Bill, the title describes the bill. I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Senator Urban? Anyone wish to speak against or for. Appreciate a good vote for the people of Cercy County. The senator has closed any objection to rolling the boat? Madam Secretary, please roll the boat. Boyd, Bryant Caldwell, Clark, Crowell, Davis, Des, dismay, Dotson English flippo flowers, Gilmore Hammer, Hester, Hickey, Hill, Irvin, Blake Johnson, Mark Johnson, King, letting, love, McKee, Murdoch, Peyton, Pennzo, Petty, rice, Scott, Stone, Stubberfield, Sullivan, Tucker, Wallace. Any senator wish to change his or her boat. Seeing no one, please cast up the ballot. Bad vote of 35 yeah, zero nay, House Bill 1137 passes. Please return to the house. Senator Davis, you're recognized. Senators. Senator Davis is recognized for emotion. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I'd like to make a motion that we suspend the rules and withdraw Senate Bill 98 from City County Local for the purpose of amendment. Thanks send her all those in favor. suspending the rules. To withdraw Senate Bill 98 from City County Local for purpose of amendment, please signify to say aye. And he opposed, I have it. Motion passes. Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 98. I She she should have had a ring to the committee. Yeah No. Right, my bill, my amendment. on that. The questions, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Well we've And he opposed. This is to send it to engrossing in order to bring it back up it should have been. Sorry, members, I make a motion that we adopt Amendment 1 and send it to engrossing. Here referred back to City County Local. Thank you. That is the motion on the floor. We will now vote that motion. All those in favor please signify by saying I, and he opposed. I, I just have it motion passes. Sent to engrossing. Amendment is adopted sent to engrossing. Senator Hill is recognized for a similar motion. Yes. I think I'd like to suspend the rules and withdrawal Senate Bill 60 from City County Local for the purpose of an amendment. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. And he opposed I have it. Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 60. Colleagues, I'd like to uh Take the, send the amendment over for engrossing. And refer it back to the committee. You've heard the motion, all those in favor for adopting Amendment 1. And he opposed as habit amendment is adopted police to engrossing. That Mm, I don't have anything. Any announcements in history are recognized. Hey, members, uh, we'll go to 11 o'clock tomorrow and, and it will be uh my intent that we do 11 o'clock on Thursdays, uh, until we can't, right? At some point, things are too busy and we'll talk about that, but the, the current expectation is Thursdays will be 11 o'clock as tomorrow. Thank you. Any other announcements? Senator Irvin, you're recognized. Yeah. I mean, point of clarification, I'm sorry, point of clarification, you don't have to suspend the rules to withdraw a bill from the committee. You have to suspend the rules to place it on today's calendar for purpose of amendment. Is that correct? OK. OK. All right, ethics committee is meeting upon adjournment. Senator Stubblefield, you're recognized. Yeah, yeah, C, City County Local will meet in the morning at 1010 o'clock. I don't think it'll take very long, but anyway, we'll meet at 10, so. cinder. Are there items at the desk? I Yes, house 1046. By Representative Pilkington and Senator Davis to establish a blue envelope uh program. House Bill 1046 transportation, Houseville 1074 by Representative Ryan and Senator Crow to amend the property tax relief Trust Fund and require a higher vote threshold for using monies in the property tax relief Trust Fund for purposes other than property tax relief, house 1074 revenue and tax 1204 by representative Eubanks and Senator. starving to establish recovery of damages for necessary medical care. Treatment or services rendered House Bill 1204. Judiciary. 1214 by Representative Bentley and Senator Irving. To amend the definition of primary instructor within the long-term care aid training uh act House Bill 12 of 1214 public health. No other announcements. The Senate will stand an adjournment until 11 o'clock tomorrow, January 30th, subject to the clearing of the desk.