Senate Transportation, Technology and Public Affairs

January 21, 2025

 

Senator Ricky Hill [00:00:02] Let's call the meeting to order. Glad to see everyone here today. We look forward to working on transportation and technology needs for the state of Arkansas. We've got a few rules and procedures that we need to cover. And I'll start out by introducing our vice chair Senator Dismang. It was good for him to join us today. And so, as you can tell, he will always look better than I do when he's up here. So there won't be any questions on that. 

We'll cover our rules. As you see inside your green folder, these are our rules. Last year there was a technical and a verbal amendment that was put on for the committee. It's going to be up to us to decide to do that again this year or not. And so I'll leave that up to y'all. This is not in the rules, so someone will have to make a motion if we want to do that. So moved by Senator Dismang. Second by Senator Dees. All those in favor say aye. Opposed same sign. So we will add that to the rule, Miss Whittaker. 

And as we always say, please remember to leave your green folder in here. Do not take it with you. As you see, there is a sheet that has a lot of phone numbers and information on here. This will be emailed to us and we have to leave this in our file. And so Miss Jessica will will email that to us. 

Let's go around the room letting everyone introduce themselves and where they're from. I'll start myself. I'm Senator Ricky Hill from Cabot. I look forward to working with everyone and this will be my third-- I think I've served on every year since I've been here-- third or fourth term on Transportation, so I look forward to working with everyone. It's going to be the first year chairing, but we're going to have fun no matter what. Senator Dismang. [Introductions off mic]

 

Senator Ricky Hill [00:03:45] And now we'll let the staff introduce themselves.

 

Jessica Whittaker [00:03:49] Hi, I'm Jessica Whittaker. I'm the assistant director of the Research Division, and I'm also the committee analyst for this committee.

 

Marissa White [00:03:58] Marissa White. I'm her assistant.

 

Senator Ricky Hill [00:04:02] And Zach Cumbie will be our drafting attorney for this committee. So if you need anything drafted, please give it to Zach. One of the main reasons we're here today is we've got to decide when we want to meet. Typically it's 9:30 a.m. on Mondays. I know Senator Dees drives a long way. So does Senator Bryant. Yeah, I'm open for whenever you all would like to try to meet. If you want to meet at 3:00 on a Friday, that's fine too. So let's just kind of decide amongst us when y'all want to meet. Do you want to meet after Monday's session, or when would you like to try to-- let's just open this up for discussion. [Discussion off mic]

 

Senator Ricky Hill [00:05:45] Senator Dismang, do you have any input? Let's just temporarily say right now for the beginning of session we will meet Monday afternoons after session, 15 minutes upon adjournment after session. And as we get going later on in the year, at that point, we may have to change it around if session gets to lasting longer to a time before or maybe a different day or something. We will kind of leave that at discretion. I know that does make it difficult for people, but we'll work through it. They have every year.

 

Senator Mark Johnson [00:06:15] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I should have turned my mic on earlier. Since we're talking about Mondays, I want to extend an invitation to all the members of the committee. Next Monday, a week from today, at 3:30, we will be having a groundbreaking for the new UCA Aviation Academy at the Conway Airport. Obviously a transportation issue. I wanted to invite all the committee members and the public to attend that. But this will be for the new hangar for the Aviation Academy at UCA. And it's at 3:30. The Governor will be there. Next Monday.

 

Senator Ricky Hill [00:06:49] Next Monday.

 

Senator Mark Johnson [00:06:50] The 27th. Yes. Thank you.

 

Senator Ricky Hill [00:06:51] Thank you. Ms. Jessica, would you mind sending an email out sometime in the week to remind all the committee of that plus those who are not here? Thank you for that. So we'll plan on meeting on Mondays, and at some point if we get a bunch of bills coming in, we can pick up a Wednesday or whatever we need to on that. Part of it would just be at the call of the chair. 

The other thing is, and I know, Senator Dismang and Senator Dees, this will be high priority on their list, pictures cannot be scheduled until after 27th. And so that's the secretary of state's office. So we will get that scheduled sooner or later. We'll get that taken care of. So we will not miss that, try to get everyone in here. So I like to go around now and have the those in the audience to introduce themselves, who they're with, what they're working on or if you're lobbying or if you're Department of Transportation. So we'll start over here. So you're the important one?

 

Unidentified [00:08:01] [Off mic introduction]

 

Senator Ricky Hill [00:08:10] Appreciate you, sir. Congratulations on the new position. [Off mic introductions]

 

Senator Ricky Hill [00:10:44] We appreciate everyone being here today. We appreciate and look forward to working with everyone to try to take care of the issues for the Transportation and Technology division. Senator Dismang, is there anything you'd like to add?

 

Senator Jonathan Dismang [00:10:58] Are we going to be dealing with crypto? [laughter]

 

Senator Ricky Hill [00:11:02] I've heard it may be coming this way. Jessica is there anything else we need to cover? That being said, we're organized, and we are adjourned.