Senate
January 23, 2025
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:00:17] The Senate will be called to order. Are there any requests for leave at this time? Senator Leding, you're recognized. Thank you. Madam Secretary, please call the roll. I'm sorry. Senator Hester, you are recognized.
Senator Bart Hester [00:00:35] Leave for Senator Bryant.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:00:40] Thank you. Any others? Seeing no others, Madam Secretary, please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Secretary. If everyone in the chamber and in the galleries would please rise for a prayer led by Senator Petty, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Senator, you're recognized. [Prayer and Pledge]
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:02:32] Thank you, Senator Petty, for those words. Ladies and gentlemen in the galleries, welcome to your Arkansas Senate. It is our expectation that each of you will exercise proper decorum and govern yourselves accordingly during today's proceedings. Without objection, the rules will be suspended and the Senate will dispense with the reading of the journal. The morning hour has now begun. Are there any announcements or introductions at this time? Senator Gilmore, you are recognized.
Senator Ben Gilmore [00:03:19] Thank you, Madam President. Members, Just some updates on the upcoming bill deadlines for certain health care legislation set out in Joint Rule 15. This is mostly dealing with scope of practice bills. That deadline is January 27th, 2025. Retirement legislation is January 31st, 2025. And bills affecting EBD health plans, January 31st of 2025. I just want to make sure everyone, this comes from BLR, want to make sure everyone's aware of that. If you have any questions, you can either get with me or you can contact BLR. And I think we can probably email these out to all the members as well just to make sure they're all aware. Thank you.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:03:59] Thank you, Senator Gilmore. Any other announcements at this time? Seeing no others, madam Secretary, are there items at the desk?
Secretary [00:04:08] Yes. [Insurance and Commerce, SB 70, Recommend do pass].
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:04:15] Calendar.
Secretary [00:04:16] [Insurance and Commerce, SB 76, Recommend do pass]
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:04:16] Calendar. There's no further business to come before the body in the morning hour. The morning hour has expired. We will now begin the business agenda. We will begin with Senate Bill 13.
Secretary [00:04:39] Senate Bill 13 by Senator Wallace to amend the law concerning civil actions brought by certain victims of sexual abuse and to allow a claim to be brought for injury caused by child sexual abuse at any time in certain circumstances.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:04:56] Senator Wallace you're recognized.
Senator Dave Wallace [00:04:57] Thank you, Governor. Members, this is an amendment to a bill, a good bill that we wrote two years ago. It regards the money that was set aside nationwide as a result of the Boy Scouts and the sexual abuse issues that occurred there. There's money set aside for every state. We have about 500 individuals that were children that were affected by this. There's an ongoing lawsuit in the state of Arkansas that is trying to turn over our law that established the right of the victims to sue the sexual predators. All this bill does is it protects money already awarded to the state of Arkansas for those victims. As the law is written now, if it's overturned, that money will go to Texas or Michigan or California. What this does is assure that this money stays in Arkansas for our victims. And with that, I'll stand by and answer your questions.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:06:30] Thank you, Senator Wallace. Any questions for the senator? Seeing no questions, does anyone wish to speak against or for? Seeing no one, senator, you are free to close. The senator has closed. Senator Hickey, you're recognized even though the senator has closed. But I will recognize you with the Senator's blessing.
Senator Jimmy Hickey [00:07:03] Okay. Can you hear me? Just one thing right here. And again, this may not be something that you can answer. I see that we've got in here that is-- I'm for this legislation, so I don't want that to be. But I do see that it says it applies to everything retroactively. So in the event that, let's just say that some court decides that it couldn't be applied retroactively, do we need a clause within this that then says that the rest of this statute would remain in place, or will that be automatic? Do we have a severability clause? Do we need a severability clause? So that's my only thing is if somebody was to say that something couldn't be declared retroactive, I think that we would want the rest of the language to stay in place. And I'm just not knowledgeable enough on that if it would or wouldn't.
Senator Dave Wallace [00:08:00] Senator Hickey, that's a great question. I run this through probably a dozen lawyers and BLR and I'm convinced that this applies just to that money currently sitting in that pot for the former children of Arkansas.
Senator Jimmy Hickey [00:08:12] Right. Since it's a Senate bill, if that was to be the case, I know they could amend it on the House end. So I'm fine with going ahead. I would just as a further protection if we were to need that, maybe they could amend it on the House and then we could bring it back.
Senator Dave Wallace [00:08:27] I would agree with that.
Senator Jimmy Hickey [00:08:28] Okay. Thank you, sir.
Senator Dave Wallace [00:08:29] Yes, sir.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:08:31] Thanks, Senator. Senator has closed. Any objection to rolling the vote? Hearing and seeing none, Madam Secretary, please roll the vote. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Any senator who wishes to change his or her vote or vote who did not vote? Seeing no one, please cast up the ballot. By a vote of 33 yea and 0 nay, Senate Bill 13 passes. Please transmit to the House. We will now take up House Bill 1001.
Secretary [00:09:38] House Bill 1001 by House Management an Act for the Arkansas House of Representatives at the 95th General Assembly appropriation for the 2024 2025 fiscal year.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:09:50] Senator Hammer, you're recognized.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:09:52] Thank you, Madam President. The companion bill that allows the House to operate, pay their expenses like our Senate bill. Be glad to answer any questions.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:10:01] Any questions for Senator Hammer? Seeing no questions, anyone wish to speak against? For? Senator, you are free to close. The Senator has closed. Any objection to rolling the vote? Was that an objection? Roll it. All right. Madam Secretary, please roll the vote. [Vote] Thank you, Madam Secretary. Any senator wish to change his or her vote or to vote who did not vote previously? Seeing no one, please cast up the ballot. By a vote of 33 yeas, 0 nays, House Bill 1001 passes and the corresponding emergency clause is adopted. Please return to the House. We will now take up the budget calendar. Senator Dismang. Whenever you're comfortable.
Senator Jonathan Dismang [00:11:34] Yeah, we'll do it. We'll just run through and ask. Alright, members, we're going to run through these. We're going to ask you if you have any questions and if there's any that you want to pull out of the batch. And we kind of got into mode. These are all items that we were able to go ahead and get out. So first we have House Bill 1102. That's the turn back for counties and cities. 1108, that's going to be refund to local taxes. 1109 is Amendment 74 property tax appropriation. And then we have 1110, animal rescue shelter. That's $25,000 appropriation. Typically, there's about $2,000 that actually gets funded in that account. 1111 is local law enforcement for grants, ambulance services. And then 1113 is general obligation bonds appropriation. With that, do we have any questions on 1102, 1108, 1109, 1110, 1111? I had a question on that. 1110, I did. That gets funded from license plates. So that's what 1110 does. 1111, that's animal rescue shelter. 1111 or 1113. All right. Seeing none--
Secretary [00:13:04] House Bill 1102 by Joint Budget an act to make an appropriation for state turn back for counties and municipalities by the Office of the Treasurer of State for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2026, and other purposes. House Bill 1108 by Joint Budget an act for the Office of the Treasurer of State Refund of Local Taxes Appropriation for the 2025 2026 Fiscal year. House Bill 1109 by Joint Budget an act for the Office of the Treasurer of State amendment 74 Property Tax appropriation for the 2025 2026 Fiscal year. House Bill 1110 by Joint Budget an act for the Office of the Treasurer of State Animal Rescue Shelters Appropriation for the 2025 2026 Fiscal year. House Bill 1111 by Joint Budget an act for the Office of Treasurer of State Assistance to Local Law Enforcement and Emergency Medical Appropriation for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. House Bill 1113 by Joint Budget an act for the Office of the Treasurer of State general Obligation Bonds appropriation for the 2025 2026 Fiscal year.
Senator Jonathan Dismang [00:14:13] I appreciate a good vote.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:14:16] Thank you, Senator. No questions. Anyone wish to speak against or for? Senator has closed. Any objection to rolling the vote on the batch? Madam Secretary, please roll the vote. [Vote] Any Senator wish to vote who did not vote or wish to change his or her vote? Seeing no one, please cast up the ballot. By a vote of 33 yea and 0 nay, HB 1102, HB 1108, HB 1109, HB 1110, HB 1111 and HB 1113 all pass and their corresponding emergency clauses are adopted. Thank you. Senator Tucker you're recognized for an announcement.
Senator Clarke Tucker [00:15:28] Thank you, Madam President. If you will all please join me in welcoming our nurse and doctor of the day today. Of course, we have Leigh Fazio back with us as our nurse of the day. And then we have Dr. Kate Stambaugh, who's an obstetrician and gynecologist, helping deliver those babies here in Little Rock.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:15:48] Thank you, Senator Tucker. Madam Secretary, are there items at the desk?
Secretary [00:15:52] Yes. Senate Bill 91 by Senator Penzo and Bryant, To provide that local government units shall have no authority to regulate or control the amount charged for a rental application fee or rental deposit for private residential or commercial property. Senate Bill 91.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:16:10] City County Local.
Secretary [00:16:12] Senate Bill 92 by Joint Budget an act for the Department of Transformation and Shared Services appropriation for the 2025 2026 Fiscal Year. Senate Bill 92.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:16:21] Joint Budget.
Secretary [00:16:23] Senate Bill 93 by Joint Budget an act for the Department of Education Appropriation for the 2025 2026 Fiscal Year. Senate Bill 93.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:16:31] Joint Budget.
Secretary [00:16:32] Senate Concurrent Resolution 3 by Senator Scott to urge the Arkansas Congressional Delegation to propose an amendment to the Federal Unemployment Tax Act to waive the reasonable assurance clause. Senate Concurrent Resolution 3.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:16:48] Education.
Secretary [00:16:48] Senate Resolution 4 by Senator Tucker to welcome Lieutenant General retired Jay Silveira as president of the University of Arkansas Systems. Senate Resolution 4.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:17:00] Calendar. Are there any other announcements or introductions at this time? Senator Hester, you're recognized.
Senator Bart Hester [00:17:11] Thank you, members. As I told you, this will be the last time in session that Zachary Rogers will be with us. If we'll just give him-- he's speaking to Senator Curl right now. Zachary, this is his last day he'll be with us in session. Just want to give him an applause and say, well done. And 1:30 Monday, 1:30 Monday. And that's the plan moving forward, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays at 1:30. Thursday, we will play by ear depending on committee workload and that. But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we can expect 1:30. Thank you.
Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge [00:17:54] Thank you. And with that, the Senate will stand in adjournment subject to the clearing of the desk until Monday, January 27th, 2025, at 1:30 p.m.
