Senate Organizational Meeting

I, I figured that was. I like it. I'm So, uh, but they had you in. Why? You can see the. All right. 5 Do the rules first. OK, how do you turn this off now? The Senate organizational meeting for the 95th General Assembly will be called to order. Are there any requests for leave at this time. See none. I would ask that you all please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by a prayer led by Senator Clark Tucker. I to America and to the stands. individual. Members joined me in the prayer of Saint Francis. Lord, make us an instrument of your peace, where there is hatred, let us so love, where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith, where there's despair, hope, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy. Audubon Master grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. Thank you, Senator Tucker. Madam Secretary, please call the roll. So Right Going. Boy, Bryant, Caldwell, Clark, Crowe, Davis, Des, Desma, Dotson, English, Flippo. Flowers, Gilmore, Hammer, Hester. Hicke Hill, Irvin, Blake Johnson, Mark Johnson, King, Lain, Love, McKee, Murdoch, Peyton, Penzo, Petty, rice, scot. Stone Stubberfield, Sullivan, Tucker, Wallace. Thank you, Madam Secretary. And before you all begin your the full agenda of your organizational meeting. I have asked Senator Hester for a few moments to address you as Lieutenant Governor and president of the Senate and just congratulations to all of you who won your election or re-elected and congratulations to Senator like Scott for being here. glad to have you in the Senate with us after this upcoming session. I know as many of us look back on uh this past week. Many in the room are thrilled with national results and state results and local results, and some are disappointed in national results, local results and state results. However, I believe it's imperative that we as a body and we as a state set a great example for the rest of the country. I just as we did in the last legislative session by continuing to work together to push an agenda that is reflective of Arkansas and doing so with a, a spirit of fun camaraderie, professionalism, and having civil discourse. And so as we prepare for January and have important items whether it's more tax cuts, advances in education, economic opportunities, uh protecting individual rights. I encourage you all to not just speak with one another but to consider me and my team and asset, uh Drew Evans, my chief of staff, is in the back here and he, and please reach out to us if we can be an asset, uh, as Philip and Anne and Sabrina and the entire staff, no, we have such a great staff in the Senate. I don't like surprises. And so as we prepare for any heated discussions come January, February, March, please. Visit with me beforehand, visit with Phillip so that way we can avoid any surprises, but we look forward to very exciting session. I know that you all have much to attend to in terms of organizing and preparing for committee work to be done, but congratulations to each of you. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve as your lieutenant governor and President Senate with that, I will ask. Ms. Anne Cornwell, director and secretary of the Senate, to be recognized to introduce our staff and Senator Hester will preside over the rest of the organizational meeting. Thank you, senators. That Right there. I'd like to introduce the staff, all of you know them, but as I call their name, please stand. Sabrina Llewellyn. She's my deputy director and assistant secretary of the Senate. Philip Tre, he's our Senate chief counsel. Leslie Rogers, she's director of the Constituent Services Office, John Reid, he's our public information officer. Leeann Golden Smith is constituent advisor, Eva McKinney, constituent advisor, Cindy Herring, Assistant Public Information Officer, Rob Hatfield, production and videographer and he's probably upstairs. Tamara Lewis, she's our fiscal officer and human resources. And a pride more. She's administrative assistant receptionist for the constituent office. Rebecca Barfield. She's legislative assistant and Lee Pippins, he's our properties officer. They work really hard every, every day for all of y'all to make things run good. At this time, Sabrina Llewellyn, the deputy director and assistant secretary of the Senate is recognized to provide comments and some instructions on our new sound system. Sabrina, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. President, who did not introduce herself is our Apex leader. Internationally renowned, nationally known, often imitated, never replicated, and Cornwell. It Just some brief context before we get some instruction on how we're gonna test this new microphone system today, and that is 56. 56 months is how long it's been since March of 2020, and most of you in this room have been serving in a legislative body or joined during that time period and across this 56 months, most of you have gone through not 1234 or 5, even 6789 or 10, but 11 separate legislative sessions. Same time period, you should have only been through 5. It has been quite a marathon for all of you as my bosses. And as I have had an opportunity to serve as the NCSL staff chair over the last year. I have reminded the world, and I mean that, that I would put our Senate and our Arkansas General Assembly up against anyone because 11 sessions is no joke, and the staff that you just met has been working with and for you through all of it. And for you is about 385 legislative staff up to about 425 that work directly for each of you. every single day. And so when it comes to legislative staff, we do our best to be the indispensable facilitators of democracy because our states and our commonwealths and our territories are the engines of our democracy. So thank you for the opportunity to work with and for you, but I just wanted to give you that context just in case you forgot because all of those legislative sessions don't include Senate meetings and the specific proceedings that our body had to go through. So thank you for your service and your sacrifice. All the time, but the last 56 months has been a lot. Today, we're gonna organize for the ninety-fifth General Assembly and we're gonna play a loop video. We're going to show you how to turn these microphones on. So we really want to give it a good test today to see how it sounds. Does it work? It may not be perfect, but Cindy Herron is the actress in this video. Unlike your last microphones where you really depressed the button like a piano key. This is more like a, a serious press. It's not gonna push down. So you can all test it because unlike the the other system, your mics can come on at the same time. So give that button just a good press. It's not going to push down. There's a slight delay before the button turns red. And the collar of your microphone should also turn red. Slight delay, you'll see the red button and then the collar of your microphone should turn red. The delay is just in the illumination, not the sound, so start talking when you're ready. It should pick you up instantly, but don't let the delay make you think it's not on. So don't keep pressing it, but I wanted you to practice pushing it on and pushing it off. For my aisle senators, Senator-elect Scott, Senator dismaying you inside your mics can move, so if you're gonna stand and lean, you can lean it towards you, left or right, it should move all around comfortably. Same thing for the outside senator, Senator Clark, Senator Hickey around, middle senators, just be mindful. You can stand behind your chairs, should be fine. Lastly, to our taller members, we do have some mics that are a little taller than what we've got, but we wanted to start with them all at the same height because when you're sitting, imagine if that were taller and in your, you know, face. So just keep that in mind, you're all the same size mics today, but if you really want to try or interview a taller Mike, we can do that for you. So let's give it a good run. I encourage you when you are answering today and respond. to the secretary and the director, please push it. Let's practice talking in the mic, see how it sounds. They've been calibrated. We think that they work pretty well, but we got to test it and see what happens. Anyone have any issues, questions, remember it's not going to push down all the way like the last one did. Think of it like a swipe, start talking, it's going to delay, the relay goes upstairs, but it should turn red. Let us know immediately if your microphones are not illuminating. No questions. They Sugar flops. I have a question. So we pushed the mic before we recognize. Can I answer? Yes. Thank you, Senator Flowers. Certainly in the past you've pushed so that the presiding officer can see the red collar. I would encourage that to be the same, just know this does have a bit more of a magnification, so be really mindful about talking, hitting it, moving it because our other mics had a lower profile and would pick you up standing up. This one is gonna be taller, so you just don't want to hit it. So if you want to be recognized, stand, get her attention, or certainly turn on your microphone because I can also control them down here as well. So are you saying Push the button, the microphone to get recognized or stand up and wait to be recognized and then push the button. Once you are recognized, you're able to speak to get the attention and make sure that the presiding officer knows you want to speak over the years you all have done both. You've turned on your mic so they saw the red and you've also stood and it's just been a mix, so that's up to you as a body as to what you want to do, but I can see many times you turn on their mic and that can let her know that you want to talk and also stand up. Maybe we'll have a rule change that will Let us know exactly how to do that, and I can understand that because these mics are taller. That's why we wanted to give it a test run today to see what works, what doesn't work, what's distracting, all of that. Yeah, there will be no change in how members recognized. We'll do it as we always have. So we just stand up and raise our hand or something, get the attention of the of the President of the Senate at that time and then turned the mic on. You turn the mic on when you're ready to speak. So you can turn it on early, you can turn it on when you're recognized at any point. So will you be recognizing the mic in the rear. Or are standing position. Yeah, so the position is as, as we always have, Senator Flowers, if your mic is on, I will probably recognize you if you, if you get my attention in some other way, I will recognize you. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. I'm sorry, but I don't even remember. Uh, with the old Mike was like where he pushed it. I thought we stood up and And raised our hand or something and got the attention of the President and then Our mic. Yes, ma'am, you are correct. So just like we've been doing it, I mean that that's not how we've been doing it. Thank you anyway. Senator Gilmore, you recognized? Yes, thank you, Mr. President. Just for clarification purposes, we will still seek recognition by standing or raising a hand or whatever, I presume, right? And then our, our microphone will proceed that or or or fall after that's correct. You will, you will not speak until you've been recognized by the chair. Thank you. OK, we're going to uh move on with the election of the president pro tem of the ninety-fifth General Assembly. Senator Blake Johnson, you're recognized. Make a motion to nominate the honorable Senator Bart Hester for the Proteum of the 95th General Assembly. Are there any other nominations? Senator. Seeing no other nominations by acclamation, we will like Senator Hester as the prote for the 95th General Assembly. Yeah, well, so let me see, I'm I'm now recognizing myself for remarks. So, uh, hey members, we've all been here before, you know, with the, you know, with the exception of we're welcoming Senator Jamie Scott, which we're, we're very proud to have you here. You know, you know that you've got some big shoes to fill, um, but we're honored you're part of this body now, uh, members, we Yeah. So look, we, we all know each other, we know how things are running. We've got some important issues to take care of for the for the people of Arkansas. Um, I feel like that the state's been heading in the right direction for a while now, you know, the goal is that we're going to cheat, treat each other well, treat each other with respect, but you know, with this job comes very difficult decisions for its seats to make. Um, and, uh, none of us ran saying that we wanted to avoid difficult decisions or difficult votes, and that will happen from time the time, uh, when that happens, you just know that each one of us are here to represent our constituents, and we have respect for each other as, as that happens. So with that, I very much appreciate you guys giving me this, this opportunity again and we're going to, we're going to move right on. So we're going to start with a discussion and adoption of the Senate rules for the 95th General Assembly. And I'm going to ask Senator Dismaying, if he will take the chair for a moment. I remember at this point we're going to go through any potential rule changes that may have come up so far with that, I'm going to recognize Senator Hester to present his rule change number one. So it's rule change number one. We went over this last night and look, members, we, we know we've talked, we've been through a, uh, a significant process over the past year of trying to get our our rulebook up to date. One of those things from many years past was that the by rule, uh, the rules chair ruled, but that has not been the practice for quite some time. So proposed rule change number one is something I've been through with all of us. You've had some time to look at it, and really that's it. It is moving. Most of these um the authority of the rules chair and giving it to the pro tem to set um like when we meet, what time we meet, those types of things. I'm happy to answer any questions. All right, thank you, members, any questions? All right, seeing no questions. Would you like to, yeah. Senator Flowers, you're recognized for a question. Yes, I have a question, Senator Hester, um, I want to know what, why are we doing that and because since I've been down here since 2011, we've never really had a discussion about times for committees. So I'm just wondering why are we doing that other than just to I don't understand that. Why are we moving it from rules even if we wanted to change times for committees to giving just the president, um, The ability to do that. The chairman of the committee or the committees members to do that. I've never Why, why are we changing that? taking it from the rules committee. OK, we're, we are moving this rule into what is our current practice. And I agree we haven't dealt with it in 11 years, but at some point our rule should reflect our current practice, and that's, and that's what we're doing. So does this scheduled time, will it be determined at the beginning of the session or are we going to be subject to various time changes throughout the session. I suspect we'll be subject to various time changes throughout the session, so our practice usually at the end of each day, I am recognized or I have been the last two years as the president of the Senate, and I say we're going to be meeting at 1 o'clock tomorrow or 1:30 tomorrow. Uh, that's what we're talking about here is is one of the things that we're talking about, uh, that is the common practice that the Senate President says what time the body's going to meet, not the rules chair. So one day, Uh, a committee. Can meet Maybe on Monday and Wednesday. Uh 10 o'clock. And then the chairman Makes a decision to have the committee meet. At 5 o'clock In the afternoon, I mean, can we, is that something we're going to be looking forward to? for sure the rule, the committee chairman, chairwoman, will decide when their committee meets. That's been our common, that's been our practice, and that is the intention of moving forward. It is not that the president of the Senate does not decide when a standing committee meets. That that committee's chairperson will decide that. I've just never seen a need. Or had a issue With changing times. Now I come from less than 50 miles away. So if the chairperson would change the time of the meeting. I mean, I think, I think you're way off into something that is not even this is not what we're we're not discussing times. We are discussing who has the authority to do that, and I'm moving it into the current practice so if the answer to almost every question is how it's always been in practice since you've been in the Senate. We're not asking to change any process, any procedure, nothing that you're used to and accustomed to is is going to change with this. We're making our rule book catch up with our current practices. Well, it must have been by precedent that we've been meeting. Uh, at certain times that was at some point in the past set by the rules committee and I just don't understand why we should leave it to one person. I'm, I'm just trying to understand and be prepared for some uh change that would put me in a bad position coming. Less than 50 miles away. Sure, that's a good question. So the answer is we're going to do what we've always done, and the practice is since you've been in the Senate, how it's always been done is how we intend to continue moving forward. This is going to make our rules match to our current practices. Well, I hope you're correct about that and and and that there are no surprises. Uh, because that would not, thank you. Do we have any other questions to me. Thank you, Mr. President. All right, Senator Johnson, you recognize for a question. Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Hefster, is this not a, I know our codification, recodification rules that was done by our chief counsel. This was part of the determination of bringing it up to date and as you said, current practice, is it not true that this rule of giving this specific power to the rules committee chairman was done during, I will say, ancient times, even though I remember some of it when we had a very powerful person chairing rules, and he set the agenda and the calendar is this, is this not just a, a change to, as you use the term to encode the current practice into our rulebook. Is that what this is? That's absolutely what this is and you know that's what we discussed, you know, at length yesterday during during our um during our time together, I hope this None of this presents any anxiety to any members. And if we experience a change in session from something I've done here, like, oh we're operating different, then I'll be the first one to come to the well and say we need to reverse that back because that is not my intent. My intent is to get our rulebook caught up with our current practices. OK. Thank you, Senator Hester. Thank you, Mr. President. All right. Thank you. Do we have any other questions? All right, seeing none when anyone like to speak against the rule? For the rule. All right, seeing none, I need a motion to adopt proposed rule change 1 good motion by Senator Hester seconded by Senator Dodson. In discussion on that, no, sorry, all those in favor signified by saying aye. All those opposed aren't motion Kerry's rule change one has been adopted. Rule change too. So members, this is another bill we or another proposed rule change that we discussed and You know, rather than us actually printing off everything and putting it on our desk just as once it is uh scanned into the computer and electronically accessible to members, then we will consider that placed on our desk. Um, and so that's it. So if, if, if a member files a bill, And it's uh and and the Senate files it and it's put on BLR system that's electronically accessible by the members, we are going to consider that for a bill purposes placed on our desk. This will not was a great question last night. This will not include that on the as far as the balanced budget, but this is, this is as far as bills are concerned. Do we have any questions on proposed rule change 2. All right, seeing 914 against seeing none. We've got a motion for Senator Hester to adopt. We've got a second Senator Gilmore. All those in favor signified by saying aye. All those opposed. Motion carries proposed rule change 3. Yeah OK, so, rule change number 3, and I, and I think there might be a little discussion on, on this one, so role change number 3 is we've learned recently that, well not learned, but our, our rules say that if the rules committee does not advance a name for um for confirmation to the Senate that we cannot take them up as a full body. Uh, how I believe is, and I think most of us will see in a minute, believe that the majority of this body, 18 of us can do whatever we want to do. Uh, and so the request is that if 18 members, if, if, if 4 members want to stop something in the rules committee, a confirmation, and 18 team members want that person to be conformed to be confirmed, then we can pull that uh to the floor and we can vote on it on the floor with 18 members. Now there's, there's a difference here. Uh, I'm gonna say there's a distinct difference between a bill which we require 2/3 to pull it to the floor and a confirmation vote. And here's the difference. One changes law, the other, it could be Senator Bryant, somebody from his district, and that person means a lot to him to be confirmed. And he knows he's got 2 votes on the floor to confirm them. We're not gonna allow 4 members of rules to control the governor's appointment. And so that's what this is. So the distinct difference is we know that by 2/3 rule we can currently suspend the rules and and pull somebody from the rules committee. We can do that by 2/3 already. We've done it. Uh, this is gonna make it by a majority vote, we can confirm somebody on the floor. So I'm happy to answer any questions. All right, thank you, members. If we have any questions. All right, Senator Love, you recognize the question. Is this are and so it's on. Um, so Senator Hester, why, why not take the approach of, of, you know, we can sign a bill out of committee with 5 members, right? Why not take that same approach? Well, I mean, I know you tried to make a distinction between a bill and an appointment, but why not take the same approach and why we not adopt the same rules for everything. Uh, again, because 4. 4 members could control the confirmation, you know, a confirmation is the is is the prerogative of the governor. If the governor makes this governor or the next governor makes an appointment, they feel strongly about that. We as a body have the right to determine if we, if we want to confirm them. I feel like that's a decision of the body, not just of four potential members. Thank you, Senator Dees, we're going to ask for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senator Hester, just for clarification on this, so if will there have to be an action by the Rules Committee before 18 members, so in other words, does there have to be a vote to not confirm and then this, this is an eligibility and then also a follow up to that is Would this mean that the 18, the majority, uh, it makes them confirmed or it allows them to come to the full body for confirmation. Just those two clarity. I may have to ask the parliamentarian to be to clarify that. So if the 18 votes just bring them to the body for everyone to vote or were the 18 votes confirmed them. Uh, they most you can come to the mic. And, and then also the timing, does that, does that action have to wait for a rules committee vote. In order to execute. So, so the, uh, the current rule 17.2, which is the preceding rule requires that before a name is submitted to the Senate for confirmation, it is first referred to the Rules Committee, so that action is still in place. It would at least go to the rules committee but the rule 17.3 as as proposed does not require the rules committee to make a recommendation. And so, and, and to answer your earlier question, it is a majority of the members voting to confirm and so uh that that I think is one and the same. The process is one and the same, um, but it is 18 votes to accomplish that. All right, so 18 votes to confirm, not pool, right, Senator Penzo, you're going to answer your question. I guess my question would be why even have a rules committee. If we pass this because. You know, it, it, it kind of degrades the integrity of the committee, um, every other committee has to have a 2/3 majority to pull something out of the committee. So why would we even have a rules committee if 18 members can just vote to confirm somebody, why don't we just bring them to the floor and abolish the committee. I mean, we've already, you know, proposed to reduce the authority of the rules committee and rule's chair. I mean, everybody in here knows what's going on, so why, why don't we just do a rule to abolish the rules? instead of Beating around the bush and just lowering the extraction to 18 members of the full body. Would you clarify with everybody who knows what's going on. Well, I mean, you know, it was made a comment previously about 4 members could hijack an appointment. There's 10 members of the rules committee, and so it takes 6 members to confirm to, you know, recommend a confirmation or not confirmation, so it would take 6. 6 of the 10 members to do that, so I mean, I, I mean. I don't understand why we just don't get you, So yeah, instead of 4, I would say then 5 members can hijack. And and we we make this case every time, every time a bill is extracted out of a committee, then then this argument comes, why do we even have the process? And I think that we have a rule that allows for extraction or a rule like this because this body has generally agreed that 18 members will do what they want. We have committee processes because that committee rules committee does a lot more than just confirmations, uh, but We understand that those members understand what's happening they understand the process, but every now and then there's an outlier. And when there's an outlier, this body ought to have the right to pick it. To, to, to bring that to the floor for a vote. But absolutely, we, we tend to, um, honor the process of the Rules Committee. I mean, I would say less than a handful of times out of thousands of bills, do we extract something out of a committee for a vote on the floor, but we do allow ourselves as the body that right. All right, Senator Walsh, you recognized her question. Members, I have Total faith. And 18 of us. Maybe not always doing the decisions that I like, but doing the right thing. My fear and we can look back in history. Of the rules committee, and I'm talking 40 years ago. Where A small group of senators. Controlled into our Senate. JPR many, many years ago, the same thing happened. I, I don't want any committee. to place the Senate in the position where 4 or 5 senators can control a portion or even all of the Senate. I am in favor of Total freedom for. here. And I'm against any rules that make 4 or 5 or 6 senators. Able to control the Senate. Power corrupts. We all know that. We're all here because we all have egos. So that's my thoughts. Wouldn't you agree? Would you agree Caldwell? You recognize her question. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, again, I agree with Senator Wallace that we don't want 4 people to control the Senate. I've been down here 12 years and not one time have we ever stopped an appointment in rules, not one of of the 12 years I've been down here. One time we did not approve a appointment by the governor, and we brought that appointment to the chamber. I agree. That we should be able to, I think we should treat the rules committee just as we do any other committee, and if we want to extract a person out of the committee, 2/3 vote in the Senate chamber would be required to pull that person out, and that's not 4 people controlling the Senate. That's the Senate controlling the Senate just like we do on any bill, uh, so again, you want a mechanism to pull them out, and we're talking about of all the tens of thousands of Appointments has taken place over 12 years. We here we go. This is what I want to do, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anybody, but I recognize for questions I want to stick on questions if we're going to do for and against, I'm going to give latitude for that. I'll come back. I won't take away from anyone's right to come down and speak. I apologize. That's what we were doing other senators were doing one other senator to do that. I tried to make light of it. Thank you. You're you're exactly right. Thank you for your time. All right, do we have any other questions? Now I'm going to recognize Senator Caldwell to speak against the motion. Thank you, Mr. President. Again, I agree with the rule. The intent to bring, have the chamber have the ability to bring someone out of the rules committee for a vote. I totally agree with that. I don't think we need to treat one committee any different than we treat any other committee. If we want to extract a bill out of committee, we can do that, and I think that that's what we should be able to do. I don't think that committee should be able to take their vote and make a decision for the entire chamber, but by the same token, uh, I, I, I don't think that it it should be 18, it should be up a supermajority. So, uh, I agree, some with Senator Penzo, some with Senator Hester, and I think they need to get together and write it so that it would treat the rules committee just like it would any other committee. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I wouldn't like to speak for the rule change 3 against Senator Penzo, you're recognized. Thank you. It was, it was mentioned that uh we don't want 4 or 5 people to hang up an appointment. Well, 4 or 5 people hang up bills all the time. And I'd like to remind everybody, the 2 years. There are certain things that happen in the house. That I, I hate to see trickling into the Senate. And I, I'll point out one thing on, on, um, I followed the two last years I was in the house, I filed a tax bill. It never saw the light of day because one person Can hold it up. Now, if, if, if we're giving that authority. To the chair of Reverend Tax. One person in this body, we're all supposed to be 35 equal members. For this point. And that can be held up by one individual, and we're going to say that in a bill can be held up. By a handful of members in a committee, but yet an appointment that's special. It's special today. And why is that? Why, why should we not scrutinize because we're sitting here saying that one member If that appointment's from your district. And that Senate member doesn't want that person. The other 34 members are going to get behind them. And reject the appointment. Out of courtesy But yet the rules committee, we want to treat it differently now and consolidate power to another part of the Senate. And I disagree with that. I mean, the title of uh Rule Change One was uh proposing to reduce the authority of the rules committee. And or the rules chair. And then here comes this one to degrade. The great that committee a little bit more, and I think we need to leave it the same today we can Extract somebody with 2/3. We don't need another rule change to do that. We can still do that today. 2/3 of these members, if it's that egregious. This body will correct it. We, we stopped, uh, we know the committee voted not to. Uh, recommend in this body, send it back to the rules committee. And it passed with a majority came to the floor and it passed. So The body did what the body did. And we don't need to water down a committee for the body to do its job, whether I agree with that or not. It all worked out. So I would just recommend voting against this, and like I said, why, why even have a rules committee if we're going to totally degrade its capacity. We'll just bring them all to the floor. We've got to come in here as a body anyway and just let everybody vote on it. I mean, leave, leave the committee alone if, if we came to any of your, think about it, the chairs of the committees in here. If somebody came and said we're gonna strip it down to 18 members. It's kind of a no no to extract a bill from committee. That's kind of you don't do it unless it's an emergency. situation. That's kind of the understanding in his body. You can do it with 2/3, but it's just let the let the let the committee do its function. Just like every other committee. Thank you. Alright, thank you, Senator Clark. You're speak against. approach rule change 3. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I very much respect the way this body works and I respect the committee process. It does not always work in my favor as it does not always work in your favor. Uh, you choose committees, you have a makeup of those committees, and they are what they are. It was an appointment of mine, not a mine, of the governors that I approved from my district that was most recently held up. I did what you do. I began to lobby members of that committee. I begin to blobby you. I went to leadership. And said we need to get this done and hope that the governor was doing their part and the governor who has lots of staff has lots of power to reach out to members to get their way, but I want to clear up one thing. It is not 6 votes that can hold it up in committee. It's 10 because With 2/3 being able to pull a bill out if 10 people say no. It is the only way it doesn't get pulled out and that's the same way that that a nomination, uh, an appointment doesn't get pulled out. It takes 10 of us to feel so strongly that no, we won't pull it out, we won't, you know, no matter how bad the governor wants it, no matter how much the person who did the senator who approved it wants it, uh, I think we should leave the rules committee like we leave every other committee. I appreciate what Senator Hessler's trying to do. He's made some good points, but I'm a no, and I hope You know. Thank, thank you Senator Caldwell for what purpose? uh substitute motion. All right. Yeah, you recognized for your substitute motion. If you would take the copy of Senator Hescher's rule, proposed Rule 3. Uh, uh, where it starts as a majority of the members of the Senate, uh, right after the letter A insert 2/3, a 2/3 majority of the members of the Senate may vote to confirm and the rest of the text is the same. OK. Alright, members, uh, you've heard the proposed. Do you want to speak for your proposal, Senator? Hm No appointment shall be. All right, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, again, it goes back to what we've been discussing. It would put the Rules Committee on an equal basis as any other committee is still allows the chamber to change anything we want. Senator Clark is correct that if 10 people, 10 members of this body did not want somebody appointed. They could stop it. So but again to extract something out of the committee's 2/3 vote, I would agree that The committee doesn't need to have a sole authority not to send someone to the chamber, but again, if the chamber wanted to pull them out, we treat that community just like we do any other committee, and that's my proposal. That's my motion. I thank you, and I failed to grab a second, Senator Clark. Who wants to, there we go. We've got a second. All right. All right, we're gonna go to against Senator Hester, you recognized? Thank you members. I, I want you to put this in your position. Think about if this is you. The reason this was brought to my attention is the rules committee voted to not confirm someone. Based on nothing that that person had done. That person was a upstanding person in the community, well respected, met all criteria and was confirmed by the was appointed by the governor. That person did nothing. And a few on the rules committee for something way outside the bounds of what this was, decided that they were going to not confirm an individual. Now if that individual was in your district? How would you feel about that? If that, if that was your friend, the person you go to church with, the person that you see at Walmart when you're shopping. The person that's, that goes, your kids go to school with, that that person had done nothing wrong. yet received a vote of non-confirmation from the committee. Here's what I say. We, as this body have the right to confirmation. Not a subcommittee. We have delegated authority of confirmation to a subcommittee rules. What I'm trying to tell this body is, we're asking them for a recommendation, not for full confirmation power. This body has full confirmation power. We absolutely send it to a subcommittee for a recommendation. And that's what I'm asking here. If you want, if you want it 2/3 vote, what if that person is in your district? What if that person is yours? What if they're your friend? And something, nothing that you've done, nothing that that person done has done 5 members want to say they're not coming out of that committee. 5. Now you've got to work to get 2/3 people. And this is not a bill. This is not a normal process. This is confirmation of an individual. Confirmation of an individual. That's what we're talking about. Think about this, because we know These rules don't matter until they do. And it's likely to be you next time. All right, thank you. Anyone like to speak for them. I like I need to be right. Senator Caldwell, you're recognized. Secretary, I want to, I made a mistake in the way the wording is, and I want to withdraw my substitute motion in in in correct my substitute motion. In the fact being that it was pointed out when I was sitting back there with Senator Hickey that my substitute motion is a 2/3 majority of the Senate would be required to confirm. He said of majority, and I do not want 2/3 of the Senate to be required to confirm. I only want a simple majority. I just want the 2/3 of the Senate be required to extract from committee. OK, so we've got a motion to withdraw the um Yeah, substitute motion and then now you're recognized to present your Substitute motion Good. OK, the correct wording should be a 2/3 majority of the members of the Senate may vote to withdraw a nomination of from the Rules Committee the name of any appointment submitted by the Senate to the Senate by the governor regardless of the rules committee recommendation or lack thereof. I thank you. Do we have a second? Senator Clark Seconds, OK? We're back into the way anyone to speak like to speak against the substitute motion. For All right, seeing none. We've got a motion to adopt the substitute motion to amendment, I'm sorry, it's only on 3? I've been cheating by looking at your sheet. Yeah, 3, all those in favor signify I'm saying aye. Others opposed. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed. It's pretty even. Let's go ahead and recall that. or for You recognize Senator Pinzo. I, I defer to Senator Pinto Pino. I would like to know the difference between uh the substitute motion and what would happen currently if if a recommendation was made not to confirm and this body wanted to pull it out with 2/3 today, how that would work differently than the substitute motion or if it would be the same thing. Is there any subtle differences because to me it sounds real similar. I may be with you Colwell. What? It, it's a completely different, I mean, you're you're required to make a completely different motion to bypass our rules to be able to then confirm that individual on the floor. This would just be an automatic thing that's already in place, right? I mean, there would be a then a motion to withdraw, I guess that individual, the floor or whatever it's going to look like. So in practice, the number of vote thresholds is the same. But it's a different motion. Yeah, I think, I think mostly where we've, where we've arrived is about where we were. Originally, if an appointment did not have a favorable recommendation from the rules committee, then it could not come to the Senate floor, but this is in the rule, except upon suspension of the rules, which is a 2/3 vote. Um, and it's new wording is a 2/3 majority of the members of the Senate. May withdraw a name from the Rules Committee. Regardless of the rules committee's recommendation or lack thereof, something along those lines, and so I think that's getting us effectively back to where we were as it relates to uh the, the disconnect between what the rules committee wants to do and maybe what the body wants to do. It's it's going to be a 2/3 vote to bring it out of the rules committee here. Yeah And yeah, I was just curious about the procedural differences and I think I'm good. It's gonna take 2/3. That's, that's a fair point, Senator Payton. Um, there, there is a distinction potentially between um well, let me think about that. Here's the one thing I want to do. I called it for a vote. Y'all voted, and then I called for a roll call, and now we're getting into a full blown discussion because we didn't know what we were voting on. And so maybe that educates your vote that you need to make, but I mean, I think that the process right now I'm not sure that we can just stop. In the middle of calling a vote and have another discussion on what we're about to vote on. So let's move forward with the roll call and then we'll see how that goes. And if it goes the way some of you want it to, then great, and if it doesn't, then maybe we'll have a whole another deal happen here in a second. I don't know. Let's, let's call the roll. Bo. Boyd. Bran. I Caldwell. Caldwell. Clark Crowl. Crawl. Davis days. This man I, I, no, sorry. Dotson Dotson English Flippo. Flowers? Gilmore. Hammer. Hester Hicky Hill. Irvin Blake Johnson. Mark Johnson. King Laing love. McKee. Murdoch Murdoch Hayden. Pena. Patty. Patty. Rice. Rice. Scott Stone Uh Saberfield. Sullivan. Tucker Wallace. All right. Would anyone like to change your vote? Still a filled I. And Dodson no, crow no. I dots and no pro no. Anyone else? All right, see you then. Catch up the ballot. Oh. Yeah, uh, motion for the substitute motion fails, 16 years 18 days, 1 non-voting. All right, now we're going to have uh we have a motion on the underlying Proposed rule change number 3. We've got a motion to adopt. We have a second. We have a second Senator Gilmore. Sending flowers, you recognized? My point of order is, are we gonna Just have a vote and, and there is no announcement to the Secretary of the Senate to cast up the ballot. I said cast up the ballot, and then you raised your hand. What? I said cast up the ballot and then you raised your hand. I didn't raise my hand. I said I just said present. Well, I had no idea that that's Your name was called. I'm not sure that you made a vote. I call, I mean, I called and paused for quite a long time. Then I said cast up the ballot and then your hand went up. I did not hear cast up the ballot and it's very difficult. I don't know whether the sound system has changed because of these microphones or not, but it's a lot of echoing, and I cannot hear clearly and I didn't hear you say cast up the ballot. She voted no, OK. All right, now we've got a motion to adopt, like I said, rule change 3, all those in favor and signified by saying aye, all those opposed. OK, it's Oh roll call, which is So OK, you turn it down. Bo. Right Caldwell. Clark Crawl Crawl Davis. Days, this man. Dotson, English. Flippo. flowers. Flowers, Gilmore. Hammer. Hester. Heke Hill Irvin Blake Johnson. Mark Johnson. King. Lighting. Love. McKee Murdoch Murdoch Hayden Hayton. Pennzo. Patty. Patty, rice. Scott Stone Stab afield. Sullivan attacker. Wallace. All right. Would anyone like to change the vote? Or boat. All right, seeing none, cast up the ballot by a vote of 15 yeah, 16 nays, the motion to adopt a proposed Rule 3 failed. You're recognized to present pros will change 4. Our members, hey, I'm sorry for that last one. I kind of, I must have misread the room a little bit last night. I thought it was, I knew there'd be a few nos, but did not intend to spend 20 minutes on something that I think is. Basic. Are you I, I can't hear you. OK, anyway, uh, all right, so pro pro proposed rule change for. So it's on paired voting. We talked about this again last night as well. Uh, if, if we do a paired voting, it's just for clarification, right, a pair boat can only be used on an actual bill or a constitutional amendment. It cannot be used for a motion of any kind. It's just a point of clarification. Happy to answer any questions. In urban, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, just a clarification, does it require a separate pair, for instance, for a bill and an emergency clause, or can one signed pair work for a bill and an emergency clause. Do we know the answer to that? In other words, if a bill If the emergency clause fails on a bill and somebody has a paired vote for that bill and the bill, the bill passes, but the emergency clause fails. Does that require a second pair. I think that's a very good question. I'm going to ask the parliamentarian to assist. That would be my recommendation. I think that's the cleanest practice. That being said, I don't know if the Senate has a different practice that that it but OK. I just want to make sure that we're real clear on that so that you can sign to Sheets of pears if there's an emergency clause on a bill. OK, thank you. I think that's the point here of, of some of these things that I'm doing. When we go into session, we all know the score, right? And however we decide this, I, I really don't care on this issue, right? Just as long as we all agree, that's, that's gonna be our practice. Senator Hammer, you are going to ask for a question. Thank you. So take this scenario for example. Somebody wants to pair, they want the bill to pass, but they don't want the emergency clause passed. Could they, could they have a pair for the bill but have a separate pair for the emergency clause, so it's not confusing as to what, because I think we've gotten into that before, so it would clear up the confusion, or are we going to take the position based on what Philip just said, that you do you're doing the other. I think, I think that um I think the parliamentarians said his recommendation is our practices, you're doing one, you're doing the other, uh, but I know that we record them as two separate votes. So if this body wants to clarify that, that they are two separate boats, you need two pairs, um, I may be my memory may not be exactly right. It seemed like we've gotten in legal problems before because of that emergency vote, do you feel that it'd be Beneficial to clarify that in the rule that that you have to have a pair for the rule, but you also have to have a pair for the emergency vote, or do we need to specifically state that I'm just trying to be proactive that we don't get ourselves in trouble later on if we should have to be sued over legislation. No, I think the point is well taken. My intent here is so that we don't have confusion and Senator I brought up a great question again. You maybe it is appropriate. I'm gonna, I'm gonna look for a head nod that maybe we can have a, can we have one pair, uh, that names the bill and the emergency clause. Um, something like that. And if you don't sign the emergency clause part, then you're not voting for that part. OK, so we're just going to have, I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just want to be clear. You're just going to have a gentleman's agreement then, or how is that if somebody wanted to challenge us, how is that going to be based on the rule clearly stated, or do you feel that is clearly stated the way the rule is written now. Well, I think that there's always comes at some point you just work off what your practices are. I'm, I'm happy to, uh, um. And acknowledge about 20 yeah, I don't think it's necessary to change what we're saying because we said cast a vote on a bill, on an emergency clause, or a proposed amendment. I think if the bill has an emergency clause, then, then that is 2 votes, but the, the pairing is for both votes. I think that that would be our practice. Uh, again, we will have the opportunity to revisit this in January, but if, if a bill that we're voting on has an emergency clause attached, that pair would, would, would count for both. Unless she didn't want it. Mhm. Mr. President, Senator Johnson. Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Hester, as you know, it was litigation last year or year before about something we had passed, but didn't have an emergency. It did have an emergency clause, and they claimed that because there was not a separate vote or we say there was a separate vote, but there was not a separate oral roll call would you consider recommending that this be clarified very Succinctly between now and January that we could vote on it to make sure that it would be, would stand up to that type of scrutiny if if we're faced with future litigation. Well, I, I, I think I, I, I default to that uh it is not the judiciary's role, nor do they have any business with how we operate ourselves, but that's what I don't care what they think. We can operate ourselves however we want within our own rules. That was their ruling, but I just want to make sure that we get it right when we do make that decision in your heart. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Mr. President. All right, Senator Clark, you recognized question. My question is very similar to Senator Hammers, but it may be the same, but I think it's different. I would certainly to clarify. When we make up, if we paired, if I wasn't gonna be here and I paired maybe with uh Center Scott and assuming we disagreed and it will had an emergency clause. Obviously if you vote for a bill with an emergency clause, when you vote for it, you're voting for the emergency clause, and then we have a revote if there's not enough votes to pass the emergency clause, so I could then, according to the way I read the rules, I could pair with Senator Scott to vote for the and in case the emergency clause came up separate after the bill. I could also pair with Senator Scott to vote no on the emergency costs. Is that not correct? That is correct. And I will make a commitment that Senator Mark Johnson, I will, I will work on possibly it will clean up with this before we get back in January because again we've gone down another, another question, and the whole goal is when we get into session, we don't have these questions because we all know what's going to come up. But I I will, um, uh, I will, I will pass on this for now. Uh, I will clean that up and then we'll vote on it again in January. So if I'm gonna pull that down for now, proposed rule number 5, that was proposed rule number 4. I'm done. OK, passing over proposed Rule 4, and now we're to 5. Nope, Senator Blake Jones. I'll come. All right, Senator Johnson, I believe you have a rule change. Senator Blake Johnson, you are recognized. Thank you, sir, uh, proposed rule change number one has changed since orientation meeting last night uh. We, uh, this is just for the standing committees. Chair and vice chair for the majority party. Are there any questions? Senator Flowers, you're recognized for question. So exactly what does it do? The majority party will chair and vice chair the standing committees. What? I'm having trouble hearing the majority party will share and vice chair the standing committees. So the Minority party members can no longer serve as vice chairs of standing committees. Is that what you're saying? Yes, ma'am. Thank you for answering. Seeing no further questions, would anyone like to speak against the proposed rule. Senator letting, you are recognized to speak against the proposed rule. Thank you, Mr. President, colleagues, I appreciate the rules that either put into writing what we're already doing or that streamline the governing process. This one doesn't feel like it does either. It feels unnecessary, impunitive. There are only at this time 6 members of the minority. Only one of us has the seniority to actually pick a vice chair slot of the standing committees. There are more than enough members of the majority that y'all could organize yourselves to pick those slots and keep us from picking them if that was truly the goal. It just really doesn't feel like this is necessary. appreciate that this is scaled back from last night. I appreciate those that have said since last night that they are not wild about this idea. I know it's not personal, but I am opposed to this rule change. Thank you. Would anyone like to speak for the proposed rule change. Senator Ricky Hill, you're recognized to speak for the proposed rule change. Colleagues, y'all all heard the uh the rule last night that was brought forward. Which was pretty much stripping The minority party of any chairmanship whatsoever or vice chair of all select and all those committees. This was talked about last night. It's obvious we cannot satisfy. The minority party, whatever we do, so I encourage you to vote for this or if someone wants to make a substitute motion later to put it back like we had it last night since we satisfied that way. Would anyone like to speak against the proposal Senator Murdoch, you are recognized to speak against the rule. Thank you. Again reiterating um what um my colleague Laing said about the necessity of this and even the spirit. Many times the spirit is more than the rule itself and as many of you have spoken to me, um, individually, that's what we're talking about here. But then with my colleague, uh, Senator Hill comes with that spirit of forget them. Just take it back like it was, but that's because the spirit is not right and when the spirit is not right, we will not grow right, we would not be right for one another when is that way you have the numbers, you can do that, but if you're really trying to make a point, that ain't the point for this state, this nation. Somebody said earlier, let's set an example. That's not it. Thank you. Would anyone like to speak for the proposed rule change against the proposed rule change. Seeing on Senator Blake Senator Scott, you're recognized to speak against the proposed rule change. Thank you, Mr. President. I know many of you have already made up your mind about this rule, but I'm still going to speak against it on my first day. So there's no reason for this rule, in my opinion, it lowest, it lowers us as an institution. Senator Hammer shared a slide this morning that talked about our core values as a state senate. It's honor, integrity, trustworthiness, respect, service, transparency, and steward of taxpayers' dollars. If these are Our core values in the Arkansas State Senate, the passage of this very rule today makes us as a body fall short of those very principles and core values that we're supposed to be holding ourselves to. It lacks respect and decency for all members and appears to be very mean spirited on the surface, and that's just my opinion, it might not have been the intentions. So just because you have the numbers to do something doesn't mean you should do it. Hold the the majority should never be seen as a free pass to at times abuse power. Decisions made for personal gain and partisanship advantage undermines the trust and hurts to any efforts to build a consensus which you will one day need in the future. You might not need it today, but I tell you my grandmother always told me just keep living. Just keep living and one day you're going to need the people that you least expect. Would any member like to speak for the proposed rules. Senator Kim Hammer, you're recognized to speak for the proposed rule change. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, I'm here to make sure that as somebody may be up in the in the balcony church term using using this that my name was invoked as far as comments I made this morning. I want to put it in proper context. The words that I spoke this morning were regarding our ethics. We can do what we're about to do today and it not cast the shadow of any of those words that were cited from what I said this morning with regards to the presentation of how we govern ourselves as far as ethics is concerned, so I want to make sure that for the benefit of the public that is listening in the balcony up there that the comments I made were along the lines of ethics, and we can do whatever anybody decides to do today and still have those words present no matter how you vote on this. Thank you. Would anyone like to speak against the proposal change. Senator Murdoch, you are recognized. Oh, you want a question. I had a question. Senator, will you take a question? You're, you're comments were about ethics, ethics are attached to conduct. What we do, how we do in our character. So what she mentioned what she was attaching to with your comments. It do apply it applies across the board. It's not just for a single subject, ethics and character is throughout. Do you agree with that? What I agree with is also in the list of words that was used as transparency and we're doing everything in transparent manner here. Thank you. And of course the transparency. Would anyone like to speak against Senator Clark Tucker. You're recognized to speak against the proposed rule change. Thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues, I just want to pose a couple of questions for us. The first is, why are you here? Are you here to fight? Are you here to serve the people of Arkansas. Now, in the course of serving, we're going to have disagreements and that's part of a healthy democracy, but that's a different thing than being here to fight for fighting's sake. The second question is, what is the purpose of this rule? Now there are some rules that y'all have passed earlier that I wasn't wild about, but I at least understood. I don't understand what even the purpose of preventing a Democrat from vice chairing a standing committee is. The only conceivable motivations that I can come up with are pettiness. Putting Democrats in their place. Which is really a different way of saying the same thing. And I asked the question last night if any other chamber in the country has done this and the answer I got was that he didn't know. I'll put that diplomatically. I don't know either, but I think this rule change will put us as a contender for the single pettiest legislative chamber in the United States of America. I know for certain it puts us on lower footing than Washington DC for for years and decades, for as long as I've been around, we've been down here saying, at least we're not like they are in DC. We're better than they are in DC. Well, in DC, the minority party vice chairs every single committee in the House and the Senate, no matter who the majority minority are. And if we pass this rule, then we are saying we are pettier than they are in Washington DC by rule. Now what I teach my children, and what I hope for people in society is be the bigger person. Be the bigger person. That's what I hope for everyone. I expect it for someone who holds the office of senator. We should be held to a higher standard. This is being small-minded on purpose. Let's be bigger, be worthy of the office that we hold. Don't demean it. Honor it, grow it. This, this bill lowers our institution and let's, let's elevate it and vote against this bill today. Would any member like to speak for the proposed rule, Senator Stone, you are recognized to speak for. I would respectfully disagree with our colleagues saying that this is done in a punitive manner. The voters of Arkansas overwhelmingly have elected supermajorities. Of Republicans That means they want our leadership. These are leadership positions, and they should be filled by the supermajority. Thank you. Would anyone like to speak against? I'd like to speak for Senator Sullivan. You're recognized to speak for the proposed rule change. I appreciate the vote and appreciate the things both of our my Democrat colleagues have said, folks, I've been called mean spirited about as much as I can take. And if you're going to to ascribe to me my motivation. I think that's wrong. And then you're gonna say that on the other side, we want people to have the ethical and good and know what those are, and then people, several, I think, have seen if I vote this way, I'm mean-spirited. It's just not true whether I vote for it or against it has nothing to do with my spirit. Thank you. Would anyone like to speak against the rule change for the rule change, seeing none, Senator Blake Johnson, you are recognized. To close for your rule change. So, uh My pettiness. Is our. power that the citizens of the of the state of Arkansas and given the Republican Party. Uh, it's not an abuse of power. That you that that is that is the power that the citizens have given us. You don't get to get a moral high ground and call people petty. And an abuse of power. The citizens of Arkansas have placed us here. And we're, we are going to uh Use the power that the citizens have given us. I would appreciate a good vote. All those in favor of the proposed rule change signified by saying ah. Opposed say no. Motion carries. Senator Johnson, you are recognized. Seeing enough hands Madam Secretary, please call the roll. Bo. Brant. Caldwell. Caldwell. Clark Crow. Davis, Davis Days. This man. This man. Dodson Dodson, English? Flippo. Flowers. Gilmore. Hammer. Hester, Hickey. Hill Irvin Mm Arvin Yeah She said no. Like Johnson, Oh Mark Johnson. King Laing, love, McKee. Murdoch Peyton. Pennzo Penza. Patty. Rice Scott Stan Steerfield. Stab afield Sullivan. Tacker Wallace. Would you remember like to vote that has not or change their vote? Any member See, Madam Secretary, cast up the ballot by a vote of 20s and 9 nays, 6 non-voting. The motion carries. Senator Blake Johnson, you are recognized to propose your next rule change. This is for those extraordinary sessions uh where we first thing we do is order business. I suspend the rules. This is uh this is having a rule that automatically suspends the rules for those extraordinary sessions and uh And this will be subject to the rule change and number 2 on 4.9 because we changed that. But you're here today. Senator Irving, you're recognized for question? Yes, thank you, Mr. President. I just visited with Senator Johnson and should have talked about this last night, but 14.9 passed. We made a motion to pass that language of 14.9 based on Senator Hester's motion, so 14.9 in this motion should be changed to be reflective of what we just passed in 14.9 motion will be subject to the rule change number 2. Thank you. Any other questions, seeing them? Would anyone like to speak against this rule change for this rule change. Senator Blake Johnson is closed. On this, all those in favor of this rule signified by saying aye. Pos say no. Motion carries. Let me see here. All right. Oh, Senator Hammer, you're recognized? Thank you, Mr. President. Just point of public information that there was discussion last night regarding ethics and some of the rules proposed and in conferring with co-chair Senator Tucker, we are going to have a Senate ethics Committee between now and the time we come back for the December business meeting and it will be open for individuals to come and present their ideas, and we will discuss as a committee, including those that Senator Tucker and myself brought together and so we will set that date Monday so you can get it on your calendar. plenty of time and it'll be after Thanksgiving just so make sure everybody's got time between now and then just want to share that with you. Thank you. OK, and I actually, Senator Hammer, would you take the chair for just a second? Senator has to be recognized. So members, we uh I just want to clarify that we, we walked through a lot last night of our uh uh realignment of the rulebook, and do we need do we need to make a motion on this? Yeah, we walked through all that just the, just the realignment, nothing that that changes, but, you know, corrected punctuations and fonts and things like that. I just want to make a motion, uh, that, that we approve what I'm going to call phase 1 and 2 of, you know, reorganizing our rulebook. Have a motion to have a second. Anybody who wish to speak against the motion. And they would speak in favor of the motion. So no one all in favor of the motion, say aye, and he opposed? Motion carries. Recognize me one more time, Senator Hester, you recognized? Hey, well, we recognize the staff earlier and I neglected, I neglected to someone who is a very important to me, uh, Senator or uh Zachary, Zachary Rogers over here, assists me and all of us in the Senate want to recognize you, Zach. Thank you for your service. Yeah All right, thank you. OK, I think we are moving on to seniority draw of new members. All right, well, randomly, congratulations number 35. Senator Jamie Scott. OK, I'm going to make the announcement of our of our the the majority leader for the ninety-fifth General Assembly is Senator Blake Johnson, the majority whip for this ninety-fifth General Assembly is Senator Brian Davis, uh, the majority leader. For the minority party is I know who the two are Senator Greg Letting and the minority whip for the uh for the minority party is Senator Fred Love. Those announcements Uh, now, we will move on to the fun stuff. We will start with standing committee selections, and I will now hand it over to And, do you run that? All right. I stand down there so I can see the phone. AC. That OK, yep, Senator, dismaying strikes again with telling us how we should be doing it, and he is correct. It turns out, uh, hey, so we're gonna break out into our congressional districts right now to pick the, uh, you know, budget ALC and audit. So District one. Correct, I understand. I understand. Thank you. District one will, will meet in conference room 205. District 2. Uh, we'll meet on the 3rd floor conference room. Yeah, right outside here, District 3 will meet in the Protem's office, District 4 meet in the quiet room. District 1, room 205, District 2, 3rd floor conference room right over here, District 3 in the prote office in District 4 in the quiet room. for Point of order I have a question. OK, uh, you defer to Senator Dismay for his institutional knowledge and I appreciate that. Now you have us going to the caucuses. Congressional caucuses, I understood at the last um beginning of the session. Joint budget. was already decided in terms of ranking membership is not that the case this year coming up. I think you can make those decisions in your individual caucus, so it's not. As we did it in the night before. Thank you. I think you'll make those decisions in your individual caucus and flowers. Thank you. I know that who's in there. I was asking. I think she's not waiting for the light to come on. This woman You. Madam Secretary, will you please read the uh members of the audit committee for the ninety-fifth General Assembly. and members, when your name is read as a member of the 95th General Assembly, please go to the quiet room for election of audit. Chair and vice-chair. Not Audit. Not coming up. OK. Members of joint audit, First District, Central Sullivan, Senator Murdoch, Center Caldwell, Center Flippo. 2nd District Center Mark Johnson, Center Scott, Center English, Center Hammer. 3rd district. Center Petty, Senator Dodson, Senator Bryant, Senator Days. 4th District, Senator McKee, Cen Crowe, Center Stone, and Senator for Love. All right, audit, please go to the quiet room. And Oh, sorry. All right. That was, that was. Yeah OK, congratulations, Senator Petty will be the uh audit chair for the 95th General Assembly and Senator Dotson will be the audit vice chair for the General Assembly. Uh, Madam Secretary, will you please read the members of joint budget, and if you are a member of Joint Budget, please go to the quiet room. First District, Center Irving, Senator Caldwell. Central Flippo Center Blake Johnson, Center Hill. Centra Sullivan. Second District, Central Disma Center English, Senator Mark Johnson, Senator Hammer, Senator Tucker, Senator Payton. 3rd district. Senator Hester, Center Lading. Send for King, Senator Penzo, Senator Bryant, Senator Des. 4th District, Center flip. Sent her flowers, entra Clark, Senator Stubberfield, Senator Hickey, Senator Rice, Senator Davis. A. On joint budget? Oh. Uh Who you call from First District? We weren't listening. Here's the first district in Irvings on it. Your Honor, this is Butcher. You're asking too many questions. Congratulations, Senator Jonathan dismaying, the 95th General Assembly's joint budget chair. Congratulations, Senator Bryant, the 95th General Assembly vice chair of Budget, Madam Secretary, please read the members of ALC and if you're a member of ALC, please go to the quiet room. District 1, Central Irving. Senator Caldwell, Sen Flippo. Senator Hill. 2nd district, Central English, Central hammer. Senator Tucker, Senator Payton. 3rd district, Senator Boyd, Senator Penzo, Center Bryant, Senator Dees. 4th District, Center Clark, Centra Stubberfield, Senator. Hickey Center Gilmore. Congratulations, Senator Ben Gilmore will be the ALC chair. For the 95th General Assembly for the Senate. Congratulations, Senator Justin Boyd will be the ALC vice chair for the ninety-fifth General Assembly. Now we're going to move on to the selection of standing committees. OK. Yes. encouragement. Hey, members, if, if, if possible in here just for use of the mics and let's let them work and make sure members can hear those things when you, when you're, when it's your choice, um, if you're not down here because you're having a hard time seeing, uh, please try to use your mic so they can hear what's going on. Uh, that's it, Madam Secretary, you are recognized. You You are recognized to start the Standing Committee selection parks over there. All of this will be on your tab 4 will be the list of all the standing committees if you want to write in as we go. No, that's alphabetical yeah. I've got a seniority here. You got. OK, we're gonna start by seniority. Starting with standing committees, Senator Flowers. Senator Flowers picks. Education. Central flowers, chooses education. Senator Irving, chair of Public Health. Irving, chair of Public Health. This man. that Desma, member of Revenue and Tax. Caldwell, Chair of Agriculture. Caldwell, chair of AGRA, English. Education. Chair of Education English chair of Education. Clark Oh, OK. Sa Clark. Senator Clark, chair of judiciary. Stub afield. Sabbathil chair of City County Local. Hickey Cheer renex. Hickey, chair of revenue and tax. Hester Hester, member of state agencies. Flip out Flip a chair of state agencies. Rice. Rice, chair. The City county, no vice chair of City County, I'm sorry. Hm. Blake Johnson. Like Johnson chair of Insurance and commerce. Wallace. Last year Wallace, vice chair of Public Health. Davis. Davis, vice chair of education. Hill Hell, chair of Transportation. Mark Johnson. pair of joint energy. We're not on those yet. We're not we're on standing committees over here on this board, OK. Now if I take a vice chair that would preclude a joint committee chairmanship or not. No, no, you could still chair. I'm sorry. Can't you do a chair and a vice chair? OK. Um, I, I couldn't hear Philip. I'm sorry, Anne. OK. It's If you take a chairmanship of a select committee or a vice chairmanship of a select committee, you cannot then be a chair or a vice chair of a joint committee or my apologies, a standing committee, then you cannot be a vice chair or a chair of a joint committee or a select committee. The only exception is joint budget, and so if if you were a vice chair of a standing committee, that would be the end of your chairmanships. OK, uh, then I'll be I will take a member of Insurance and commerce, Mark Johnson, member of Insurance and Commerce. Question. I don't know who you'd like the question to, but That was not stated and that has not been passed policy, has it? Is that new policy? And OK, can I, can I pull my vice chair then? Go go to member. Yeah. City County rights to member. Hang on. We moved we moved into so I can take over in just a second. So we may have had many people, um, I, I think Terry Rice may be right. It may have been a past practice that we allowed a vice chair in one and a chair in the other. I don't know if there's any, if we can go back and look at that, but I think right now we can make a decision as this body how we want to proceed. Because if we want to say we're gonna follow the rule. And the rule says you can't do both, uh, then we're gonna have to allow each member. Uh, that picked a vice chair, an opportunity, uh, so I know Senator Davis possibly would like to move. I, I just don't want to keep moving if uh do we, do we want, do we want to follow the rules what I'm, what I'm asking. I think we want to follow the rule, that being the case, if you wouldn't mind just let's just start back at the top. Make sure each member is good with where they're at, understanding that rule, OK? I think hopefully we'll move pretty quick. That's right. You're either a chair or a vice chair, but you can't, but not both and that's on both. Both screens here, both boards. If you pick Bass chair over here, then you cannot pick chair over here. You get one. You get one Yeah That's right. You, you get to be chair or vice chair one time. On one board. That's right. On one board. OK. Alright, sorry, go ahead. OK, I'm showing Irving, chair of Public Health, and you want to keep that. I'm showing Wallace, vice chair of Public Health. Well, OK. Or we hadn't even gotten all the way down there OK, OK, we'll start with, let's start by senor central flowers. Do you want to remain education member? OK. Senator Irving, you wanted to stay. Mhm. Go ahead and call my name. Senator Desma, you want to stay. I'm chair of public health, then Disney. Center Desma. Uh, flower flowers is good. Hm Mhm She's, she's just a member flowers, flowers is just a member. Yeah OK. introduce mine, did you want to remain a member of Revenue and tax. Central justine do you want, you want to remain a member of revenue and tax. Senator Caldwell. You say chair of Agra. OK. English? OK, English stays as chair of education. Clark. Clark stays as chair of judiciary, Stubblefield. Somerville stays as chair of City County Local. Hickey. Hickey stays chair of Revenue and tax. Hester. Do you want to, you gonna continue to remember, OK? Central Flippo. OK, flippo stays as sheriff, state agencies, rice. Rice is a member of City County Local. Blake Johnson. Blake Johnson. You're gonna like since Johnson stays as chair of insurance and commerce. Wallace. Wallace stays vice chair of Public Health, Davis. Never. Davis is a member of Education. Hell Hm. Chair of Transportation Center Hill. Mark Johnson. You're gonna say a member of insurance commerce. You can stay there. So Mark Johnson stays member of Insurance and commerce. Laing. Letting No, he can't be. Member of education. He's a member of letting. Hammer E. Hammer, member of education. Sullivan, Sullivan, Bass chair of Education. Tucker Judiciary. Where is it? OK, member of judi Senator Tucker. Gilmore. Search Gilmore, member of the judiciary. King. King, member of state agencies. Murdoch Murdoch, member of Education. Hm. right You already have 2 mem members. Oh yeah, we do. Education already has to minority members, so you'll have to choose another standing committee. Murdoch, member of Insurance and Commerce. McKee, McKee, a member of Insurance and commerce. Penzo. and drums. And so, a member of the Insurance and commerce. Board. Bo, vice chair of Insurance and commerce. Patty. Petty, member of Revenue and tax. Brant Brandt member of City County Local. Crow Crow, vice chair of revenue and tax. down? Centers stone, vice chair of Agra. Days Vice chair judiciary. Days fast share of judiciary. Payton A. Payton, vice chair of state agencies. Yes, sir, absolutely. Members, I should have done all this before we started, but so the Senate has a rule that says we are allowed to trade committees once this is over for a short period of time. You can't trade chairs or vice chairs, but just before we get down to some of this, I just wanted to make sure that we were all all aware of that. I think we were just feels better to have said it before we continue on. OK, thanks. Um OK. We just finished with Peyton. We'll go to love. call Love member of public health. Dotson. Sira Dodson, a member of state agencies. Cents Scott. Member state agencies, Centra Scott. Flowers. Flowers picks insurance and commerce. Flowers, insurance, and commerce. Irving. Serving member of the Insurance and commerce. Insurance and commerce is filled. This mine. question. And So to this member of Agra. Caldwell. Caldwell, member of Revenue Tax. English. OK English member of City County Local. Clark? Clark, member of state agencies. Saberfield. Stubberfield, member of the judiciary. Hickey. And Hickie, member of Agra. Hester. this year Senator Hester, member of judiciary. Flipper Flippo, member of Public Health, rice. Soon to rise, member of judiciary. Blake Johnson. Like Johnson, member of the Judiciary, and that feels judiciary. Wallace Central Wallace, member of City County Local. Davis Davis, member of City County Local. Hill Hill, member of Public Health. Mark Johnson. of transportation Center Mark Johnson, member of transportation. Lighting. Letting member of AR. So for hammer, member of City County Local. City County Local is field. Oh, you took vice chair. Oh, I'm sorry, vice chair is still open on City County Local. Sullivan Sullivan, member of state agencies. And that feels state agencies. attacker. Tucker. Sentra Tucker, member of AGRA. Gilmore Gilmore, member of AGRA. King King, member of Public Health. Murdoch Murdoch, member of public health. McKee. McKee, member of Public Health. And that closes public health. Penza. To What you wanna. After these to Greg's sooner or later. Oh Thank you. What did you pick on the AR? You, you gotta pick something on the A now. anymore. Do you want? It's failed. Oh, OK. Centro Penas. There. Uh. Yeah. right. Yeah. Yeah is I. Mhm No. Where are you going? Where are you going? We Why you What do you think? Oh I my. Probably takes a person. so I No. There It's like. Where else Marian Santo Penza. That. Mhm. Education Centrienzo takes education. Central Boyd Senator Boyd takes reverend tax. Center Patty. uh Last year. So Patty bath chair City County Local. City County locals filled. Brant. Sent Bryant goes to education. And education is full. rowel. Karl goes to Agra and it is full. Stone Re. No, no, no. Carl went to Agra. So it's full. Who's the other one you're wondering? Is that the only one, Leslie, you were wondering about? OK. OK. Stone. Stone as transportation. Days that. Senator days where Education, transportation center these member of transportation. Peyton Payton, member of Revenue and Tax. Love. Love member of transportation. I love one transport Yeah. trains. Senator Dodson goes to revenue and tax and that closes that. Scott The only thing left is transportation. So Scott is a member of transportation. And in the last two will be pro tem appointments, and he will appoint the vice chair of transportation and the member of transportation. OK. Everybody look at the board and make sure you, where you think you're supposed to be. OK. It was so awesome. Teenage one. Well, here I've got more copies, yeah, if not I can go print some. Yeah P Hey. OK Yeah I Yeah. Hm. What to do today. No telling how long we're gonna be here. Do you want me to come back. You can just text or something, probably not. What do you need? Oh, OK. I'm making some more copies. Well, Penzo has one too. We're making more copies, so. Yeah. and select committees, and they'll be this bored if people can. Maybe hopefully take your seat so everybody can see the board while we're choosing. Well, I know, but well, we'll do that when we get through with everything we don't have to do before we, before we leave this afternoon, I need to have you have one for each, right? Yeah, yeah. I guess you're working with them. That What? OK. OK. Senator Hester, are you ready to start the Mm respect. waiting for that so we can call, you know. He said he was ready and then, you know, turn off. He's over there working on a train. a I. OK. I. Mo probably Yeah I. makeup, if, if members would, if members would please take your seats. Would members please take your seats so we can get a little bit of A Little bit of control again, and we're gonna start picking um joint select committees. All right. Flowers. Mm OK. Flowers, member of efficiency. Irving, member of Energy. This thing. This man member of JPR. Caldwell. Caldwell. Member of rules. English. Which. English member of JPR. Clark Clark, member of Energy. Stab a fail. Stuberfield member of energy. Hickey Hickey, member of rules. Hester Hester, member of rules. Flippo. Flippo, member of JPR. Rice. Rice member of JPR chair. Oh, you said chair. OK, sorry. Ricece chair of JPR. Like Johnson? Like Johnson, member of Energy. Wallace. Wallace, member of rules. Oh. Rules Davis. Davis, chair of rules. Hell Hell, member of JPR. Mark Johnson. Mark Johnson, chair of Energy. Lighting. last year, OK, lighting. Fast share of rules. Hammer Hammer, chair of efficiency. Sullivan. Sullivan. Just a member, a member of JPR. attacker. Tacker, fast chair of efficiency. Gilmore. Uh, or. Gilmore chair, Children and youth. King. OK. Your energy. King, member of Joint Energy. Murdoch. Murdoch vice chair of. children you. Hm OK. Murdoch, vice chair Children and Youth. McKee. McKee, vice chair of energy. The key vice chair of energy, Penzo. They were Penzo member of energy. Bo Bo, member of rules. Patty Patty, member of Children and Youth. Right. Brandt, member of JPR. Crowl I like which one? Cruel efficiency member. Stone. Stone, member of rules. Days. These member of JPR. Payton Hayden, member of JPR. Love Love vas share of retirement. OK Dotson. You Yeah Oh. Dodson. Chair of retirement? I don't think he was chair on anything else Was he a vice chair on anything? He's not. No, he's fine. Scott. Scott vice chair, JPR. Flowers. She passed. She passes Irvin. Irving, member of rules. This man member of rules. Rules is closed. Caldwell. Caldwell, member of Energy. English. For. Efficiency. Senator English, member of efficiency. Clark. Clark, member of Children and Youth Stubber fail. Stuberfield member uh Stuberfield member's Yeah, he's already on it. Senator Stubenfield is own energy already. Stubberfield, member of efficiency. Hickey That's Well that's that's how I'm reading it I can't tell you. That. people. uh. Hickie member of efficiency. Oh, you're already on rules I thought I don't think you can be on two slack, yeah, you can't be on too selects OK, I, I don't know where that is, but. Yeah, that's what we haven't ever done it, but. I mean, if you can't have a rule, but that was the. I assumed it was based in the rule you had to choose one of those two. she's a joint in the. I. I. the rules say that you shall pick, uh. or one select and then we keep you in one joint. that's like I don't see anything that says no, except if that's been the practice. away. Mhm Some people are gonna be on multiple, you know, more than 2. the rules that I'm good. Oh Hm OK. Hay, member of efficiency let me have a quick second. So our rules allow for someone to pick multiple selects or multiple joints. OK. The the practice has not been that. OK, the practice has been you picked from this side and then you pick from this side or vice versa. So because the rules allow it. Senator Hickey has now chosen to do 2 selects. Everybody understands that and that's that's our No. I don't know about that. No 2. All the way to the end right before you get to 7.05. See what we need to clean up our roll it's awful it's completely out of place of anything in the world and that could work so I was, I was wrong, uh, that's, that's on me. I just, I don't want anybody to think I can do it. No, that's right, I thank you and uh, so you're So you're coming off, off of efficiency so what your joint. Yes, one place. Hickey, member of energy and that closes energy. Hester, children and you Senator Hester member of Children and Youth. Flip out there It. Flippo, member of efficiency. Rice. Rice member of efficiency. Blake Johnson. Like Johnson, member of efficiency. Wallace. Efficiency. Well, you're already on rules. You'll have to do a joint. Children can you. OK. Wallace, member of Children and Youth. Davis. children Davis, member of Children and Youth. Hi. Hill, member of efficiency. Mark Johnson. All of it's closed all the all the select committees are closed, so now you can only select from the joint. Now is that regardless of what the rules say. Because there's not a a open it only says you can't do 2 on select. It doesn't say you OK OK. Mark Johnson. Trades only apply and they have to. I And joint committees are the only thing open now. Mhm. Yeah. Or you can pass if you don't want to take something. telling you, yeah. She. Center Mark Johnson, member of Children and Youth Laing. Letting member of retirement. Hammer. retired. Hammer, member of retirement. Sullivan. Sullivan member Children and Youth. Tucker. attacker, member of retirement only says standing. Tacker, member of retirement. Gilmore. on children and 00, I'm sorry. Gilmore, member of retirement. King. I. Oh. If you're not here. Oh, you ain't got retire two choices. I just don't get cut with the rules to change. You don't messed up part of the Oh He only authorized I didn't hear On who? Which one? OK, well, he needs to, he's handling this? No, I think. Center rice, yeah, they're calling me. We think children in you is. the last session. Yeah, that would be. I. King, member of Children and Youth. Murdoch. only thing left is retirement. You want on retirement? Well, you can pass. OK, Murdoch member of retirement. May it's failed. The only thing left is retirement. There are 3 slots left. I couldn't see the board. I know I. Do you want to go on it or pass? OK, McKee, a member of retirement. And so. You can pass. Mhm. What are you doing on Monday mornings. What What are you doing at 7 a.m. on Monday morning. What are you doing at 7 a.m. on Monday mornings. time not It's not, it's not. car. I think uh it's OK, Penzo member of retirement. Boyd Boy, member of retirement and that feels All the committees. not. OK. Hey, members. And members, it, it may move relatively quickly, but, but we're gonna, we're gonna have to go through uh our, our seat, office, parking spot selections. stay the same, can we leave, we're not changing anything. We really need to. Well, it helps, yeah, for sure, if you'll stay for the seat selection, it will help as we move things around and then if you don't mind, you can't kick anyone out of a seat. All you can do is move to an open one, and the only one open is Senator Chesterfield's right now. Yeah I guess if you want to do one of those sheets. I. Hm. OK. Central flowers, do you stay or move? Sent her flowers, ma'am. OK, OK. Central flowers stays. Senator Irving, Senator Irving stays. Senator Desma Senator Desmata. Senator Caldwell, Senator Caldwell stays. Center English Central English stays. Senator Clark. He picked her up. Whoa Oh Senator Clark moves to the open seat. Now Centra Clark's is open. Center Stubberfield stays. Senator Hickey. Am I You stay Senator Hickey stays. You want to get in the middleen Hester, stay. Senator Hester stays. Center Flippo. He stays center ice. Senator Rice stays. Senator Blake Johnson. He stays. Center Wallace. Senator Wallace stays. Senator Davis. Senator Davis stays. Center Hill. Senator Hill stays. Senator Mark Johnson. Senator Mark Johnson stays, Central Laing. Central letting stays. Central Hammer, hammer stays, Senator Sullivan. Sullivan stays, Senator Tucker. S Senator Tucker stays, Senator Gilmore, Senator Gilmore stays, Senator King stays. Senator Murdock. Senator Murdoch stays. Senator McKee, Senator McKee stays, Central Pennzo. Centrienzo stays. Senator Boyd, Senator Boyd stays Senator Patty. Central Patty stays. Center Bryant. Center Bryant stays. Center Crowe. Siroel stays. Center stone. Center stone size Central Ds. Senator days So today's stays sent Payton Crus patent stays, Central love Central love staysent Dotson. Senator Dotson moves to the open seat that Clark had. And Senator Scott, you get senator's seat. That will be your seat. OK. Members Uh Hey, we've just got uh a couple of things left. We're going to do office location, then our session parking. So if you are a member and you're not interested in trading, moving. You're going to keep both of those, I would say you are welcome to go unless anybody wants to re-entertain a little rule change on confirmations. Anyone? No, OK, we're going to move on to uh Office. Office select Central flowers, she staysen Irving. This. The only one that's open is Senator Chesterfield's on the 2nd floor. Senator Irving stays. So this will you describe where Senator Chesterfield's office is? They have them in the book where is Senator Chesterfield's office. Senator Chashfield is the large office in 274. And right now that's the only one open. You want to move? 27274. OK. It's, it's smaller than what you have, but uh It's on the 2nd floor, you know. Yeah OK, Central Irving stays. Senator Dima, he stays. Senator Caldwell. He stays central English. She stays Central Clark. OK, Clark is going to move into Central Chesterfield's office. So that leaves his open. On 2nd floor, 274G. Stabil stays hicky. Uh, he stays, Hester, of course he'll stay. Flip out post days. Rice. Rice, he stays. Blake Johnson stays Wallace Stas Davis. She stays Central Hill. Stays, Mark Johnson, Mark Johnson. He stays letting. Lighting stays, hammer, hammer stays Sullivan Sullivan stays. Tucker, Tucker Stays Gilmore, he stays. Senator King stays Center Murdock says. Centra McKee, Senator McKee stays. Center Penzo. He states, Senator Boyd. Senator Boyd stays. Senator Patty, Patty stays Center Bright. Bright stays Center Crowe Senator Krol stays, Senator Stone. Stays. The only thing open is Clark's old office in 274G. You moving? OK, OK, stone is moving to 274. G It's on the 2nd floor, so that opens his office. 40408. But Who's it for me. OK. Center D's. The only office open is if you move would be 408. So Center D stays. Senator Payton. Peyton stays central alive. You're gonna move to 408. OK, Central Love's gonna move to 408. So now that opens up. 401. Uh-huh Centra Dotson. Senator Dodson stays, so Senator Scott, you get 401. I'm a change sheets. Oh. There's a couple of them. OK. OK, that completes the offices. And members, we're gonna, we're gonna start parking, but I want to let you know the the trades are over at kind of the close of business here. No, I'm not saying they're not over right now. When we close business, there'll be over. So if you're working on one, work on it. I got a stack up and when we're done with, when we are done with parking, I will start announcing the trades. So OK. You've got the parking map in your book is tab 10. We need to know if you want to move or stay and the only one open is Central Chesterfield. Right now, And that's just past the tunnel. Hm. OK. Y'all ready for parking? Central flowers and she stays. Santa Irving. Irving stays dismay. Central dismaying states. Center Caldwell, Senator Caldwell stays. Central English Center English stays San Clark. Senator Clark moves to Center Chesterfield. Clark takes Chesterfields. So now Clark's is open. He's 35 and it's Center Stubbervill stays. Senator Hickey Santraheki stays Center Hester stays Hester stays send her flip out. Central Flippo parking, do you move or stay? He stays. Center Rice, I stay center Blake Johnson. Senator Blake Johnson wants to move. Oh, he's good, OK. Central Wallace. OK, Clark, uh, Wallace is going to move to Clark's Old parking space. And that opens up Central Wallace. doing this. I'm going where is he on here. You're a good friend, that's why I'm gonna dread. And we. It's very little around a little better huh? Oh, no. OK. So Wallace is moving to the open. parking spot, uh, that was uh Clark's, so that opens Wallace's which is 13. OK, Senator Davis. You want to stay or you want to move into Wallace's old one which is the. This one over right now right now. I I sometimes I can't get in, you know, you can move that's right by the tunnel. hard Uh, yeah. Yeah, that's why he moved. Karen, Karen can't all park yeah I know I was about to. was so good. right OK. OK. Sandra Davis stays. Sentra Hill. Sandra Hill. Do you stay or move? He stays. Senator Mark Johnson. So Mark Johnson stays, Central letting. Central lighting, he stays. Centra hammer. Sandra Hammer. Only thing I 13 right by the tunnel. hammer is moving into Wallace's old one now 18 years old. Now hammer's old one is old, is open and where was his 18? OK. So now hammers is open. Centra Sullivan stays, Senator Tucker. Senator Tucker, he stays Center Gilmore. Do you stay or move? He's staying. Sandra King stays Senator Murdoch Senator Murdoch stays. Senator McKee. McKee, you're amazing. He sang. McKee's staying. Central pins out. Central Penzo staysent Boyd. Senator Bowen, he stays. Senator Petty. He stays center bright. So the bright stays center a roll. So Kro stays sent for stone.one stays center Ds. This Senator D's stays, Senator Payton. Senator Payton stays Central Love Central love moves to 18. The hammer's old one. So that opens up. 3533 lows. OK, Senator Dodson, you're right here in this parallel here. This is the torch open. It's on that curve. I Dots and stays so send for Scott. You move into what was 33 was love's. OK, so the parking's finished. No. I, do you want me to check this down and get to see the warrant for trades. OK, members, members of your take your seat, I'm gonna walk through the trades that we currently have. Hey, there is a bunch of them. And the trade will be over here on the other board. Uh, yeah. We have 7 trades if you'll take your seats. Can you hear me now? All right. Members, we've got 7. We've got 7 trades. Are you ready? Alright, Trade one. Hester is going to public health and McKee is going to Judiciary. Hester to public health, McKee to Judiciary. I I A trade number 2. Hammer to revenue and tax. Dotson to education. Hammer revenue and tax, Dotson to education. Next trade Hammer to state agencies, Hester, City County Local. Hammer to agencies, Hester to City County Local. I'm sorry. Are we caught up? Next one, Murdoch to education, leading to public health. Next one, Penzo to public health. King to education. Yeah Got it. Next one, Hester to revenue and tax. Payton to public health. Hestered a revenue and tax, patent to public health. And I didn't have. He traded and got on public health. Yeah. Now you're taking that. That's right. That's right. No, yeah. That's right. Now I'm leaving public health. That's right. OK, the last Last trade, Scott. To ag Tucker to state agencies. Hey members, unless someone objects, I'm gonna say we're closed for business on trades. Is there any objection to that, no, but OK. OK. Hey, members, I, And we see, are there any announcements? OK, hey, if you have not ordered your Senate coins, please see Anne. Today is a great day to order your Senate coins. OK, how many you want. I've got samples in there. Are there any announcements at this time? Anything, anything we are adjourned.