House Rules Committee
January 15, 2025
Representative Jon Eubanks I'll introduce myself and then we'll go around the committee and hear from each of the members. My name is Jon Eubanks. I represent District 46 in West Central Arkansas. Whereas this is my sixth term on Rules, this is the first time that I've chaired this committee, unfortunately. But anyway, welcome. And I don't know if there's a sign out sheet out there for anybody that may wish to speak for or against the bills we're going to hear today. But we'll go ahead and hear from the rest of the members.
Representative Shad Pearce Shad Pearce, District 40, North central Arkansas. Second time to be sitting here and proud to be here.
Representative Jeff Wardlaw Jeff Wardlaw, District 94, South Arkansas.
Representative Steve Magie Steve McGee, District 56 Conway, Arkansas.
Representative Les Eaves Les Eaves, District 58. Searcy, Arkansas, area.
Representative Dwight Tosh Thank you all for your patience. I'm Dwight Tosh, State Representative, District 38, covers southern part of Craighead County, part of Poinsette, part of Jackson. It's an honor for me to serve on this committee. Thank you.
Representative Jeremiah Moore Representative Jeremiah Moore, serving District 61. I cover the southeast part of Jackson County, all of Woodruff County, the eastern third of Prairie County, little over half of Monroe County and most of Arkansas County. And this is my second term on Rules. Glad to be here. Glad to serve.
Representative RJ Hawk Representative RJ Hawk, District 81, Saline County, a portion of Benton, almost all of Bryant. And this will be my first time on Rules.
Representative Mindy McAlindon Representative Mindy McAlindon, House District 10. I have Bentonville, Bella Vista and a little portion of Centerton. Second term but first time on Rules. And I'm happy to be here.
Representative Matt Duffield Matt Duffield, District 53, Russellville. Second term on Rules. Honored to continue to work for the Arkansas taxpayers in this capacity. Thank you for coming.
Representative Brit McKenzie Hi, I'm Brit McKenzie. I represent the fine folks of Rogers, Gateway, Garfield, and Avoca in Northwest Arkansas. First time on Rules.
Representative Nicole Clowney Nicole Clowney, District 21, which is Fayetteville. Go Hogs.
Representative Carol Dalby Carrol Dalby. I'm District 100, which is Texarkana, Arkansas. And he I've been on Rules for four and a half terms. I took Representative Branscum's spot when he resigned. So it's been a while. Glad to be back.
Representative DeAnn Vaught Representative DeAnn Vaught, District 87, Sevier County, a portion of Howard County and all of Little River County. And this is my sixth time to be on this committee, and I'm glad to serve it.
Representative Kenneth Ferguson And I'm Ken Ferguson, District 64, parts of Jefferson, Lincoln and Desha County. And this is my third term on Rules.
Representative Jon Eubanks All right. Thank you, members. We're going to go ahead and get started. We have three bills we're going to hear today. We're going to begin with HR 1001. Representative Eaves, if you'll introduce yourself for the record, you're recognized. I believe you have an amendment.
Representative Les Eaves Representative Les Eaves, District 58.
Jill Thayer Jill Thayer, Bureau of Legislative Research.
Representative Jon Eubanks You're recognized.
Representative Les Eaves Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members ,these are rules changes that we're going to need to make that will allow the House Rules to match the Joint Rules. I've got Ms. Jill Thayer here that's going to explain some of them. But it's going to change, I believe--
Representative Jon Eubanks Representative Eaves, do you have an amendment to this?
Representative Les Eaves Yes.
Representative Jon Eubanks Would you like to present the amendment first?
Representative Les Eaves I don't even have an agenda, to be honest with you at this point. This is what I get for doing favors. Yeah. The amendment, page 27 deletes lines 17 through 22. That's the amendment.
Representative Jon Eubanks Okay. All right. We have a motion to adopt the amendment. All in favor say aye. Opposed nay. The amendment is adopted. You may present the bill as amended.
Representative Les Eaves Thank you. As I was saying, this would get the House Rules changed to match the Joint Rules. It changes section 38P and also 38R. Those have to do with health benefit plans. One of them changes the bill filing deadline. It changes who the bill filing deadline affects. The other one changes who the fiscal impact affects. And any questions I've got, like I said, Ms. Thayer here that can answer some questions or help give you more information.
Representative Jon Eubanks Any questions from the committee? Seeing none, what's the will of the committee? I have a motion do pass. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? You've passed your bill, Representative Eaves.
Representative Les Eaves Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Representative Shad Pearce Representative Eaves, I feel your pain now.
Representative Jon Eubanks Representative Jon Eubanks. I'm going to be presenting House Bill 1080.
Representative Shad Pearce You're recognized.
Representative Jon Eubanks Okay. This bill is an act to repeal a requirement for a fiscal impact statement for any proposed legislation imposing a new or increased cost obligation for health benefit plans or on an entity of the state. Now, this bill came about, it was recommended by Segal, our consultant, who we had hired to deal with the EBD plans. And it was sort of the unintended consequence that it included the higher ed institutions of the state. So it required 8 different fiscal impacts, breach bill and each amendment to that bill.
So what the bureau has decided is since one legislature can't bind another legislature, this was something that actually needed to be in our Joint Rules. And so we're going to repeal this statute. And I believe the Senate passed the Joint Rules in committee today, and they're going to have it on their floor tomorrow after we adopt those Joint Rules. This requirement for the fiscal impact dealing with the program will be in our Joint Rules. And so that will be something that would be adopted with each new legislature. And I'd be glad to take any questions.
Representative Shad Pearce Any question by the committee?
Representative Jon Eubanks I have a motion do pass.
Representative Shad Pearce Anybody in the audience signed up to speak? Okay. He's closed for his bill. We have a motion. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye? Those opposed likewise. Congratulations. Your bill passed.
Representative Jon Eubanks All right, members, we're going on to House Bill 1056. Speaker Evans, are you ready to present that bill? If you'll identify yourself for the record, you'll be recognized.
Representative Brian Evans Representative Brian Evans, District 68. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. I trust you've had some time, as I filed this bill early, to go through it and hopefully have a good understanding of what the goal and aim of this is. Over the last, at least the last three years, I've just had a growing burden and heart for what we are trying to do as a state in regards to our relations with our military, most especially also with our veterans across the state.
With the booming growth in the operation and the mission at the base in Fort Smith, with the continued growth and population that we have at Little Rock Air Force Base, Camp Robinson, with a lot of the work that's going on behind the scenes with the former base in Blytheville, with the booming economy up there, our population across this state of active duty military and those that choose once they leave here, they come back here. And I believe that we have a duty to continue to serve them just as they serve us while they are wearing that uniform. And so for some time,
I've just felt like that we as a body, no offense to any previous legislature, but that we on our end of the House have just kind of stuck military affairs on the back end of Aging Children and Youth and not really given these individuals the attention and the courtesy that I think they deserve. And I don't think that we've ever not taken up any type of bill that has come before this committee, but I think it's time that we make this a priority. And I'm grateful to Senator Hester that he has joined me in this. The Senate is also kind of in the same position that we've been in. There's just not been a committee of focus. And I think it's time that we do that.
And so I propose that we form the Joint Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, a committee that will meet at any time at the call of those chairs. I put a lot of focus on the appointments to those committee of folks that have a direct interest, direct family ties to the military, and so that we can take up this focus. I applaud the governor for her recent appointment of a new secretary of Veterans Affairs, who we have worked with on this initiative, have worked with the wing commanders at Little Rock Air Force Base on this and the excitement that they have to know that we are here for them and that we're going to dedicate a specific amount of time to working on their behalf. And so that's what this bill does is it adds this committee to House Rules. I'll be happy to try to take any questions.
Representative Jon Eubanks Speaker Evans, I have one question. I've had some people ask me when is this going to go in effect. I see there's an emergency clause. So is the committee going to be formed and be active in this session?
Representative Brian Evans So if I understand the process, this is the first step of that process, is to adopt this and add this into our House Rules. And I would certainly yield to the parliamentarian to correct me if I say something wrong on this. Once this is adopted into the House Rules, once it passes off the floor tomorrow, we have the full support already I know within the Senate. Then that will add it into Rules.
Then we will have to come back and we will actually have to amend the Rules to put it into the actual rule book and then follow that up with a resolution to amend and take the military affairs name out of the Aging Children and Youth Committee. And so it's really just some procedural issues where this really just starts with the approval of this committee. I would think that a typical timeframe of moving a piece of legislation within two weeks, we can have this all completed, have that committee appointed.
The Senate has their appointments already made to it, and we would be ready to start taking up bills. We actually have 2 or 3 bills right now that we know that have been filed that would go to this committee. And so we are holding those bills until that time. And the bill sponsors are aware of that.
Representative Jon Eubanks Seeing no questions, is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak for or against this bill? Seeing none, you're closed for the bill?
Representative Brian Evans I'm closed for the bill. I would appreciate a good vote.
Representative Jon Eubanks I have a motion do pass. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, say aye. Opposed nay. Congratulations, Speaker. You passed the bill. As a point of clarification, we need to go back and I failed to state that HR 1001 passed as amended. So seeing no other business, I'm sure the future meetings may get a little more exciting. So stay tuned. We're adjourned.
