Senate State Agencies
January 30, 2025
Senator Scott Flippo [00:00:02] All right. The chair sees a quorum, so we're going to call this meeting to order. First up, we're going to have Senator Hester running HB 1056. And I believe we're going to do a verbal amendment on that, Senator. We're going to recess for a couple of minutes. I don't think there's anybody else here to run any other bills.
Senator Bart Hester [00:00:34] We need the Senate parliamentarian down here just to verify something.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:00:38] Well, tell you what, members, if you've got any questions for Senator Hester on this? Senator Tucker.
Senator Clarke Tucker [00:00:43] Could we take a moment to recognize the pages that we have in the room? How about that?
Senator Scott Flippo [00:00:49] Who you got? Welcome, Isabella. Jamie Scott, A great senator. Better person. You got a good one there. Great. Well, we're happy to have you in here today. Yeah. Welcome.
Senator Bart Hester [00:01:27] I'll tell you the dilemma. House Bill 1056, after the last meeting, this group put forth a very reasonable amendment that needed to happen. It's on page three. Top line one. Changing shall to may. So it was engrossed this morning on member's own then. And so that's why. We're making sure that we didn't skip a step because it happened on member's own this morning. If the chairman will allow me just a second.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:03:14] All right, members, we've got a little procedural hurdle that we're going to have to wait on until we go into session and gavel in this afternoon. So what I would like to do is-- senator, could I have your attention, please? Thank you, sir. What we'd like to do is if it's agreeable to the members of the committee that we meet for a few minutes immediately upon adjournment so we can get this bill out today. I know we've had some veterans here earlier this week and that are here today. Welcome, Mark. Good to see you. But if we can get this done today, I think that would be preferable. But we do need to wait until the desk is open in the Senate and we gavel into session. Senator Hester, that's agreeable to you?
Senator Bart Hester [00:03:54] It would be. I would just say give members time if we could work through any questions and concerns, to speak for or against. Then we just wait for the vote after session today.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:04:07] So I tell you what, members, you've got a chance to-- we've gone over the bill already. Senator, the only amendment was the 'shall' to the 'may'?
Senator Bart Hester [00:04:14] That's correct.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:04:15] Okay.
Senator Bart Hester [00:04:16] And it has been engrossed, but we can't take action until after it's been reported to the Senate body that it has been engrossed. And that will not happen till we go into session.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:04:27] Correct. All right, members, are there any questions from the committee? All right. Seeing no questions. Senator Hammer, you're recognized.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:04:36] Senator Hester, mo issues with bill. Just could you explain to me what the rationale is behind going from shall to may? Because as I read it, it was going to go either General Assembly pertaining would have gone to the Joint Committee on Military and Veteran. Just a background in case I get asked if you don't mind.
Senator Bart Hester [00:04:54] Sure. So the concern would be if there was a bill to do with giving veterans a tax exemption that was a $20 million a year annual hit. We would want that bill to go to Revenue and Tax. So that's why if there's a very specific one that should go to another committee, we want our parliamentarian to be able to send it to the most appropriate committee.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:05:14] Okay, good. Thanks for the explanation.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:05:16] Senator Clark.
Senator Alan Clark [00:05:21] Senator Hester, we've already discussed this. I told you I'd vote for the bill, but Joint Committee, since we're going to be meeting in session to hear bills is going to be a continual problem. I want to put that on the record. Do you disagree?
Senator Bart Hester [00:05:39] I do believe that it is difficult to meet with Joint Committees, but I know that Joint Energy has already met this cycle. You know, we can find times when it's important to members to work it out.
Senator Alan Clark [00:05:50] But there's 28 members that have lots of other important things going on and we don't want to miss these bills. So I just want to be on the record that I know why we're doing it, and it's for a good reason. But it will be a problem.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:06:09] Thank you, Senator Clark. Senator Payton.
Senator John Payton [00:06:11] Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Senator Hester, as you know, I appreciate the amendment. I think it definitely helps. I have concerns over the efficiency of having this extra committee and it being a Joint Committee. I think changing the shall to a may definitely allows either chamber to send a bill to a different committee like Revenue and Tax or Budget or something like that when that's warranted.
But being a Joint Committee, if either chamber assigns a bill to the Joint Committee and the other chamber disagrees with that being appropriate, what recourse does the other chamber have to pull it out of the Veterans Committee? Or if it passed the Veterans Committee, could it be assigned then to a relative committee and be heard again in another committee?
Senator Bart Hester [00:07:12] I think that's a great point. I think we have two options there. Number one, our chairman on our side has to agree to a joint time to meet. If our chairman does not believe that's been assigned to the appropriate committee, our chairman would say we wouldn't meet. Number two, if we do meet, eight members of ours when we go on our floor could require it to be sent to another committee that's also appropriate. It is not unheard of that we've had bills go through two separate committees. It would be unique, but it's not unheard of.
Senator John Payton [00:07:42] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:07:44] Thank you, Senator. Senator Hammer.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:07:47] And I'm just sitting here thinking about real life examples that have happened in the past. I can think of times that Joint Committees, the House may call their members on that Joint Committee into a meeting and the Senate members, it wouldn't even be on the website as the Senate. It would be a House meeting. Any difference in that? Like sometimes Education or Youth and Aging has done that historically in the past. What's the difference between those examples and what would happen here by this?
Senator Bart Hester [00:08:14] I think at those times, those groups meet more for the purposes of education or just hearing. They can't take action on behalf of the Joint Committee.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:08:26] And then you've got Joint Retirement that meets, is an example of a Joint Committee that meets during session to take up matters as well. You said joint energy, but joint Retirement would be the same way, right?
Senator Bart Hester [00:08:36] They do. And typically they meet early on Monday morning. I think they recently moved that time a few times. We certainly can be flexible and we can always find time to meet if it's important.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:08:49] Thank you.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:08:50] Yeah. Senator Clark, I'm going to just jump in here real quickly, I think what I would like to do, and I was just telling Senator Payton this is, Senator Hester, if you get the opportunity to visit with Speaker Evans, and that way you can get together with members of your respective chambers and that any bills that would likely be getting referred to this Joint Committee, that we try to make sure that we meet maybe twice during the session to just save those and then just do a special order where we meet jointly.
And we're not meeting on any kind of a continual regular basis because, to Senator Clark's point, because as the session gets further along, gets busier. So I think it would be convenient if we could just kind of get the speaker and pro tem and our respective chambers on the same page, which is if we are going to do this, that members before they file a bill dealing with veterans, that goes up to the pro-tem and the speaker and that we can just make sure that it's understood that we're going to a special order. We're going to take these up on a certain week, certain month, and that we're just not going to be meeting because we've got one bill that's going to get referred to this committee.
Senator Bart Hester [00:09:51] I think that's a great point. And that was a reason after our orientation, I went back to the speaker and said, look, I feel like the Senate would prefer it to be a Joint Committee that is not expected to meet often. And look, I think we've got our veterans groups and we don't want to ask them to be coming down here twice a week or weekly that they're going to be interested in whatever is on that agenda. And I'd be shocked if it meets more than twice this session.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:10:13] Okay. Thank you for that. Senator Clark, you're recognized.
Senator Alan Clark [00:10:16] I have a couple of procedural questions. And I don't know, Senator Hester, if you've ever been on Retirement.
Senator Bart Hester [00:10:23] I have.
Senator Alan Clark [00:10:24] Okay. It's been a long time since I've been there. Other members may be on there currently. But we've said that Energy will or may meet on bills this session, but that'll be a first. As far as I know, the only committee that we've had, Joint Committee that we've had bills coming out of is Retirement. Like I said, it's been a long time since I've been there, so how does that work? It goes to Retirement? Does it have to pass both houses to come out of both chambers to come out of Retirement? And then it goes to both chambers on the floor at the same time.
Senator Bart Hester [00:11:04] No, it depends if it was a House or a Senate bill. It would come out of committee and then it would go to the House and then from the House over to the Senate. But joint energy actually has met this session.
Senator Alan Clark [00:11:17] I'm on Energy. But, it was just an organizational meeting.
Senator Bart Hester [00:11:20] It didn't take any action. But you did meet.
Senator Alan Clark [00:11:24] But my question is procedurally, because obviously we're not forming this committee and it's not going to meet. Just for those of you that are on Retirement, if anybody can answer. It goes to Retirement, it's going to go to this committee and then does it have to pass both chambers?
Senator Bart Hester [00:11:54] It's the same as a Budget bill. It goes to Budget committee. And if it's a House or Senate bill that goes to the House or Senate first and then to the other chamber, So it would absolutely have to go to both chambers after committee.
Senator Alan Clark [00:12:07] Let me rephrase the question, because I'm not-- it's in committee. Is it an overall vote or does it have to pass both the Senate side and the House side to pass?
Senator Bart Hester [00:12:24] Well, I would say this, that every committee meets and creates their own rules. How that committee operates, we have some joint rules that we consider. But I would say when this committee, with the House, when you all meet the first time, you will agree to your rules.
Senator Alan Clark [00:12:43] How does it work in Retirement, though, currently?
Senator Scott Flippo [00:12:50] Senator Payton, you wanna jump in here?
Senator John Payton [00:12:51] Thank you. And I was co-chair of Retirement last go-round. Under the Joint Committee rules of the House and Senate, the membership of that committee can request a separation, just like they do in ALC or in Joint Budget or when you have a voice vote, if somebody wants to challenge it, then they can ask that it be separated and it would have to pass both chambers, my opinion under the rules as they stood two years ago.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:13:22] Thank you, Senator. All right. Any more questions from members of the committee? All right. Seeing none, we'll plan on coming back 10 minutes upon adjournment this afternoon. Appreciate your time. I don't see any further business to come before this committee. Oh, are you going to run your bill? I thought you said you weren't. Shocking to us all. Senator King. Thank you, Senator. You got an amendment, Senator? Members, he's running SB 12. All right. I'll give you all a minute to get this amendment. Senator King, If you just want to go ahead and just give an explanation of the amendment.
Senator Bryan King [00:14:17] Yeah. So I need to a motion or discussion motion to adopt the amendment. I think once I explain the amendment, we won't have to go back through the bill and repeat and ramble again.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:14:35] Senator, can you make a motion to adopt? Second by Senator Tucker. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. It's been adopted. We're going to proceed.
Senator Bryan King [00:14:45] Okay. So we had some things, discussion about tightening the language up to make sure there wasn't a body cam. So wouldn't mean that if I was the governor and came home and my wife asked me, How did your day go, I wouldn't have to put on a body cam and discuss anything. So it did tighten the language up to just make it more restrictive to redistricting, which we know only comes ten years. We did add some language.
I met with the FOIA task force which endorses this bill, the overall direction of this bill. And they should solidify that after the amendment they worked on. The amendment kind of narrows it more down with FOIA language, talks about the possibility if one of the Board of Apportionment members are out and there's some discussion that we talked about as I equated to like a jury situation, if the judge recuses you for the weekend, you're not supposed to talk about the case. Well, what if something comes up?
And it gives some language in there about the responsibility is on the Board of Apportionment members to let them know that any discussion they can give would need to be in written electronic at a recorded public meeting. It would not restrict free speech that that person could still say something. They would just have to inform them that the Board of Apportionment, much like a jury in evidence presented at trial, would make their decisions based on the evidence put into trial so they could still say something.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:16:12] All right, members. You've heard an explanation of the amendment and the bill.
Senator Bryan King [00:16:20] Now adopt the amendment? We need to adopt the amendment.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:16:26] Motion from Senator Clark. We've already adopted it.
Senator Bryan King [00:16:30] And we had a discussion on the amendment.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:16:32] No, You made a motion. Senator Tucker seconded.
Senator Bryan King [00:16:35] Okay. So this bill.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:16:38] Would please quit trying to abuse the chair, Senator King.
Senator Bryan King [00:16:39] It's Thursday, Senator Flippo. Can you give me a break? Okay. I'd like to make a motion do pass as amended on this bill. If there's no more questions.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:16:48] All right. Any discussion on the motion? All right. So we got a motion from Senator King. Second from Senator Clark. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Congratulations. Your bill has been passed as amended. All right. Now, seeing no further business to come before this committee, we are adjourned.
[RECESS]
Senator Scott Flippo The chair sees a quorum. We're going to call this meeting to order. I have a motion from Senator Tucker. So Senator Hester has laid out his bill, HB 1056 as amended.
Senator Alan Clark Has the Senator closed?
Senator Bart Hester Okay, I'm closed.
Senator Alan Clark Couple of questions have come up, Mr. Chair.
Senator Scott Flippo Well, I've got the time. Senator Clark, you're recognized for questions.
Senator Alan Clark Senator Hester on page three, lines 19 and 20, can you tell me what that means? Never mind. Never mine.
Senator Bart Hester Okay. Thank you, Senator Clerk. I will get back to the member on that question.
Senator Scott Flippo All right. Are there any other questions from members of the committee? All right. Seeing no other questions, Senator, are you closed your bill? All right. Got a motion from Senator Tucker. Second from Senator Dotson. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed? Congratulations, Senator, your bill finally passes. Seeing no further business to come before this committee, we are adjourned.
