Senate Education Committee
February 5, 2025
Senator Jane English Good morning. I'm calling the meeting of the Senate Education Committee to order. And we have-- where did Senator Dotson go? Oh, okay. All right. Okay. And Senator Sullivan is ill, so he won't be here today. So first thing I'd like to do is to introduce we have two pages here for the Senate, and I would like to introduce them, please. Turner Sanders from White Hall and Avery Cabella from Fayetteville. So glad to have you with us. Thank you very much. And let me see. I think the first on our agenda is Senator Dismang with Senate Bill 59. You are recognized.
Senator Jonathan Dismang All right. Thank you. Members, thank you for taking the time to hear this issue today. I think it's critical. I think you're all aware, roughly 25% of kids in Arkansas are food insecure. We require them to just go to school and I think rightfully [mic issue] But this bill will pay for a breakfast for every student in the state of Arkansas that attends a public school.
We're proud of that and look forward to the results that will be created from allowing this to occur. We will first make sure that we're utilizing the federal funds that are available. Anything leftover to make up that difference will be funded with this bill. It goes a little farther in the bill just as far as details so you're aware. This stipulates the priority for how we utilize the medical marijuana revenues that come in.
So first it's for the summer EBT program. Let pull up the amount on that. I apologize. I had it a minute ago. And the second would be the reduced lunch program, which we passed last session. And then third in priority would be this breakfast program, which has a cost of roughly $14 million. And we do believe that is most likely on the high side. But wanted to be conservative with the estimates. With that, I would be happy to take any questions. I want to make sure that we leave time for those that are here that want to speak on the bill.
Senator Jane English Senator Flowers.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Thank you, Senator Dismang, for bringing the bill. I support it. Just want some clarification on what you just said about the string EBT mentioned.
Senator Jonathan Dismang Yeah. So the summer EBT program has a cost of 2.9 million. That is a federal program that the state opted into. It was widely successful this summer. Second is last session we passed a bill that paid the remaining portion of the reduced lunch for those that qualified for a reduced lunch. That estimate was 6 million. It is not coming close to that at all. But again, just to be on the high side, we say 6 million and then roughly 14 million for this breakfast program.
Senator Stephanie Flowers So the EBT and the other program that you just mentioned, they will still be in place.
Senator Jonathan Dismang Yeah. First it would be the reduced lunch and then third would be the breakfast. Roughly there's $20 million that go into this fund annually. And again, that can go up and down.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Which fund?
Senator Jonathan Dismang Into the medical marijuana fund.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Okay. And so the.
Senator Jonathan Dismang Which is now the food insecurity fund.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Okay. So there will be money left over from the medical marijuana fund.
Senator Jonathan Dismang It is possible. And that would be just set aside for the future. [Mic issue]
Senator Stephanie Flowers What, if anything, is being funded by the medical marijuana fund now?
Senator Jonathan Dismang [Mic issue].
Senator Stephanie Flowers What's NCI?
Senator Jonathan Dismang National Cancer Institute program there. And so when those funds were no longer needed for that purpose, we developed this Food Insecurity and Health Need fund, which so far, it's been utilized just for the free and reduced lunch. In addition to that, there was a commitment to stand up our medical grad-- I'm missing on the words, but the medical graduate programs here in the state, pairing up with hospitals. That commitment, there's still about $20 million left over in the fund this year. [Mic issue]
Senator Stephanie Flowers Okay. So then any moneys that are remaining after utilizing it for this program from the medical marijuana fund, that just stay there in a trust or something?
Senator Jonathan Dismang It'll stay in this food insecurity fund until we come back into session [Mic issue]
Senator Stephanie Flowers Okay. Thank you.
Senator Jane English Any other questions from the committee? Senator King?
Senator Bryan King So I missed part of your testimony and all this money in the marijuana thing. But so is this going to be any new federal money that's going to have to be spent?
Senator Jonathan Dismang Federal money? No. We will be utilizing [mic issue]
Senator Bryan King Okay. Does this require two thirds vote to get the marijuana money? It does not. Okay.
Senator Joshua Bryant Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Dismang, we kind of discussed yesterday a little bit about my concerns, and I just want to maybe expand on that. So we're using some existing federal funds. Can you identify how those federal funds are allocated to the state?
Senator Jonathan Dismang That is the free or reduced lunch program. And I understand there are forms that are sent home to the parents to indicate whether or not they qualify based on their income levels. It's probably more complicated than that. [Mic issue] be more specific. And then so that's going to put you into the category if you qualify for a completely free lunch or reduced lunch or you don't qualify whatsoever.
Those forms obviously would still [mic issue] of the lunch program that we have. [mic issue] There's some elections that can be made on a district level that, again, is beyond my understanding. And you have multiple districts in the state that have elected to be a school wide free and reduced lunch program. Again, someone else can speak to-- I don't know where my Ed folks are, but they know a lot more about that than I would.
Senator Joshua Bryant Okay, so I think just to make sure, somewhat of my fear is those forms go out beginning of the school year and parents can elect to opt into the program. Schools typically have had to try to get to a ratio to make sure all kids that need covered are covered. And, obviously forms that get sent home sometimes don't get handed off to the parents, kind of get lost.
So those forms go out quite a bit to incentivize not only the reimbursement to the schools, but also to ensure the child gets fed. If we stand up a program like this where the option is fill out a cumbersome form that asks all the details about my family and my racial makeup and sign here that it's complete by penalty of perjury, all the excessiveness of the form that the federal government requires or Option B just made the request to my administration to use the state's program.
Do you feel like the numbers that we are projecting will slowly start to increase? Because the option A of, you know, kids want to go out to eat for lunch there or they want to take their lunch, but breakfast is now an option. We'll just sign up for the free breakfast and not worry about this form anymore. So the federal rates start to come down and the state rates start to go up.
Senator Jonathan Dismang On the way in I had a discussion with a superintendent. There's going to still be a need and a push to make sure that these forms are filled out because so much relies on those numbers as far as funding. And again, we're not covering lunches. And so for that student to still qualify, they would need to have filled out the form.
And one of the reasons this is important is because parents refuse to fill out the forms, especially for some of the students that need this help the most. And so it is a stopgap in some way for families that aren't taking the time to fill out forms or don't understand how to fill out the forms or whatever it may be, to be able to make sure that your child receives at least one meal a day at the school district level.
Senator Joshua Bryant And obviously we have a different group of schools, but the same parent that refuses to fill out the form, will they take them to the school at appropriate time to be fed that lunch, or is there programs that the school have that pulls those kids at the first hour to ensure they're fed and they're not asking for a meal, which their parents will not deliver them to the school at the appropriate hour.
Senator Jonathan Dismang The breakfast would have to be provided by request. So the student's gonna have to request that breakfast. I should have stated there's a cap on what could be paid to the district, which is the federal cap that's placed on a breakfast. Again, someone else can tell you what that dollar amount is. But as far as, our mandates only go so far. And parental rights do have a place. And sometimes that's negligent in places they shouldn't be that's not contrary to the law.
Again, we would hope that most parents would fill these forms out for the kids who qualify. We would hope that they're able to utilize and get the breakfast and lunch that they need to be successful in school. I mean, if you're going to start out your day, you went to bed with an empty stomach and you started your day with an empty stomach, and you're expected to make it through the entire day without a meal. I mean, none of us sitting around this table have to go through that or even have to contemplate it.
Again, I think that's why it's critical. I mean, I've heard the pushback from some folks that say that there are families, obviously, that could afford this breakfast. I agree there are, and I anticipate a lot of those families will continue to pay or they'll elect to have a more expensive lunch that maybe some other students would have otherwise. But again, we asked these kids to be in school. We actually mandate that they be in school. We want them to be successful. Let's give them the basic tools to be successful, and that is to start the day without an empty stomach.
When we buy laptops, we buy all these things for kids that have the means, some of them, to buy these same resources and tools. To me, this is no different. I mean, let's let them start out on the right foot. Let's let them have the option. And let's do something about the food insecurity problem we have here in the state.
Senator Joshua Bryant Alright. Thank you. Thank you.
Senator Jane English Senator Flowers.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Senator Dismang, one question that has come to me from constituents is the food itself. Are we going to have an effort to utilize and get produce and food provided from Arkansas producers, farmers. Or has anybody thought about that or any discussion about that?
Senator Jonathan Dismang I think there is a discussion about that. Again, that's not in this bill. Someone else, even at the table, may know a little bit more about that, but I think there is a push in the state to utilize food sources, produced here in the state. But again, that's not in this bill. But again, I think that it is a discussion.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Because they were concerned, it seemed to me, about the quality of the food that would be served. Would it be something less than these kids that are eligible for the federal program would have now.?
Senator Jonathan Dismang There are a lot of newer type options coming along. So I know in Searcy, and we have our superintendent here who can speak to it a little bit. There was a partnership to offer smoothies. So a quick, efficient, very healthy option providing protein and some of the essential vitamins to children through a smoothie, a very easy thing. It's manageable and actually could be-- if someone wants to speak to it, they can. So there are a ton of opportunities maybe we haven't thought about in the past, but I know that these folks, that work for us at the schools are thinking through to make sure that they get the most nutritious thing that they can.
Senator Stephanie Flowers And they do have dietitians.
Senator Jonathan Dismang That's what I'm saying. Yes, that's absolutely right.
Senator Stephanie Flowers At the schools. I don't know if it's in state rules that it has to be of a certain nutrients. But that's something that I think needs to be expressed to the public for parents. But, you know, smoothies. I like smoothies, but sometimes when you put milk in there for a lactose resistant person, that's not a good option. So, I mean, you know, allergies that kids might have to certain kinds of foods, but I'm sure a dietitian at a school district would want to develop all those kinds of issues and bring them to a conclusion.
Senator Jonathan Dismang Yeah. And it's up to the chair and the committee, we're well outside my wheelhouse. So my wife is much more healthy than I am. She could probably go toe to toe with anybody on what to utilize and what to do. That is not me. But like I said, I think there's a host of people back here that could answer those questions.
Senator Jane English Senator Murdock, takes a minute for it to come on.
Senator Reginald Murdock Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Chair. Thank you, Senator, for bringing this. Just a question. I fully support what we're doing here. But so are we trying to encompass the people that we're missing? I know in many of the districts that I represent, some of the poor from a wealth standpoint have already had this for many, many years.
Senator Jonathan Dismang That's right. Yeah.
Senator Reginald Murdock Who are we trying to pick up that we're missing here? And then those who can afford it are probably doing it maybe in some other way. Maybe we're trying to help them. Who are you trying to--
Senator Jonathan Dismang Well, even inside a district that offers universal free breakfast right now, it's done 100% covered by the feds. It's a commitment that they make through their funds. Again, someone else can speak to that a lot more than I can. But I had a call from a friend of mine that's a superintendent that was walking me through what they do in their particular district. And that's the way that I understand it. There's some magic number thresholds, 60 something, 65%. I can't remember what they are. Again, that's not my deal. But it would cover the remaining part that is not currently covered or that is the intent. And then there's other districts that don't have that qualification in place. And so their free and reduced number, at least of those that have submitted a form, don't let them hit those thresholds.
Senator Reginald Murdock I get it. This is taking the cost away. They're providing it, but it's at their own cost.
Senator Jonathan Dismang Yeah. There are some districts that have elected to do that. Some have not. It's all based on the funds available that they have. But yeah.
Senator Jane English Senator Davis.
Senator Breanne Davis Thank you, Madam Chair. That was the point I was going to hit on a little bit that Senator Murdock brought up. Having four kids in public school right now, you imagine the forms that get sent home with us at the beginning of the year that we fill out. And I think schools, several of our elementary schools in particular, the entire school has free breakfast because of the thresholds.
And so I think the schools have done a very good job over the years of helping take away some of that stigma of filling out a form and saying, we need everyone. This is a group effort. No matter what you make, no matter your financial status, we need everyone to turn these forms in. And so I was just going to make mention that I think schools have done a really good job over the years trying to take that stigma away and make it more of a group effort. And then breakfast is wheeled to the classroom. The kids all get to eat. It's not pulling certain kids out or saying you get breakfast because you qualify and you don't, and that kind of thing. So would you agree?
Senator Jonathan Dismang Yeah. Representative Davis passed a bill right before he termed or didn't term out, left office. I don't remember what the choice was there. And essentially it prevented schools from discriminating against kids that couldn't afford their breakfast. And you may have had some have a stamp on their hand that would designate them to be different than the other students. And to remove that stigma, we did that.
Well, in doing that, that required every kid that requested a lunch to be fed, which is a wonderful thing, but also increased the cost potentially to the school district for the kids that did not qualify. And then it made it more difficult for the kids they were trying to collect on through the parents. And you can hear testimony and they can come and do it. It may seem like a little amount to us, but it is a big amount to a large number of families in this state. In the bottom of the thing that you have here, when we're talking about those districts that have requested to qualify as a free and reduced lunch district, and that's probably not the term, but fewer than 30% of Arkansas kids are in those districts. I assume I'm reading that correctly.
Senator Jane English Any other questions? Oh, I'm sorry, Senator Flowers.
Senator Stephanie Flowers One other thing that just came across my mind. In terms of appropriating the money, how will it get to the schools or school districts? Will it be a part of the per pupil funding or what?
Senator Jonathan Dismang The ADE will set up a program. The districts will then be allowed to submit their information request for essentially what would be a reimbursement.
Senator Stephanie Flowers So that would happen at the beginning of the school year?
Senator Jonathan Dismang They can speak to how they want to term it. I don't think we got real specific about that. It would work just like it's working now for the reduced portion of the school lunches. But like I said, if you all have a question for ADE about how they would probably implement, I think it would be on the back end. I don't think we would front load and pay for breakfast before they would occur. I don't think that would make sense, especially since the legislation is based on a request for breakfast.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Okay, so, ADE, we can expect will come up with some rules.
Senator Jonathan Dismang That's correct.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator Jane English Senator Bryant.
Senator Joshua Bryant Thank you, Madam Chair. Just kind of echoing on some thoughts. Really one question, and I'll go to the second question. As far as moving fund balances from the food insecure and health needs set aside of the restricted reserve into the food insecurity, what are we taking away from that program? Or are we just adding to that program and allowing?
Senator Jonathan Dismang We're actually just setting guardrails for that fund that didn't exist previous to this legislation. That was a request from the governor's office, I think a good one. You know, it would prevent someone else from getting ahead, for instance, of funding these programs. So all this bill does beginning I think it is 25, 26 is to outline the priorities of how we are going to utilize those funds. Again, there's a current balance that's sitting right now. GME was the word I was looking for just a minute ago.
But it will help fund that graduate medical program that we're looking at that is still not off the ground but needs to be off the ground. That was a commitment. And after we fund that with one time money, then moving forward, this is priority. And we'll reassess each session. We come in and kind of better understand the balances and the need at the district level.
Senator Joshua Bryant Okay. And because we're using medical marijuana revenues to fund these types of programs, is it of a concern that if a member of the General Assembly wants to restrict or further pull back on the ability of medical marijuana to expand that, we will be met with the argument, you'll be taking the food out of the kids mouths if you do that?
Senator Jonathan Dismang I don't think so. I mean, it's a constitutional amendment. Unless we're going to pass a constitutional amendment doing away with what's there, or someone else comes up with another one and we would have to reassess. I think future taxation, depending on how we move forward, whether it's legalization or whatever, this would probably become a part of the conversation, I would imagine, because that same argument would exist. I don't know how we can do any more than has been done on limiting utilization of medical marijuana in the state. Just constitutionally bound.
Senator Jane English Any further comment from the committee? Senator Dismang, are you closed for your bill? Oh, we've got some people to speak for it. I'm sorry. Let me see. Okay.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Senator Dismang, so now we're talking about public schools. Are we talking about charter schools too? Public charter schools?
Senator Jonathan Dismang Someone else will to have to answer that. I don't know if they qualify for free and reduced lunch or not. They do.
Senator Stephanie Flowers They do?
Senator Jonathan Dismang Yes.
Senator Stephanie Flowers So these numbers in this fiscal impact, that encompasses and includes children that are enrolled in charter schools as well?
Senator Jonathan Dismang I'm getting a head nod. Yes.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Not private. I'm not talking about private. I'm talking about public charter schools and public schools. That's what I just wanted clarification on charter schools.
Senator Jonathan Dismang If y'all want to expand it to private, I'm perfectly happy feeding any kid that needs to be fed.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Okay. And are charter school students now eligible or can they apply for eligibility for the EBT?
Senator Jonathan Dismang I don't know the answer to that.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Scott Smith's in the room. And he's such an expert on stuff. If he has an answer, Madam Chair.
Senator Jonathan Dismang I think the question would be, has any school elected to participate in the summer EPD program that's a charter school. And I don't know the answer to that. [Off mic answer]
Senator Stephanie Flowers Okay. Thank you. Okay.
Senator Jane English Okay. We have a couple of folks to speak for the bill here. First one is Jason Black. All right. Okay. Let me see then. How about Megan Brown? Okay. Go ahead. If you would identify yourselves and who you're with, you will be recognized.
Jeff Collum Dr. Jeff Collum. I'm superintendent of schools for Conway Public Schools. And this is with me today, Megan Brown. She's our food service director.
Senator Jane English Go ahead.
Jeff Collum If you want to ask superintendents an easy question, if you want to keep kids safe and you want to feed them, the answer is a very easy yes. So we're here obviously, to speak in favor of this bill. And just thinking about the importance scientifically, breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. And if you have a kid that is sitting in class and their stomach is growling louder than the teacher is talking, you have a problem.
And so we're about 53% free and reduced lunch. And so the other 47%, you can see the math on. We've got 10,000 students. And I think our food service department does an excellent job. But if you want to meet Maslow's hierarchy basic needs, we just dropped about $100 million on school safety, and I think that is to be applauded tremendously. And I think districts are using those funds for really good causes.
But if you were to pair that with making sure that our students are eating breakfast, then you're meeting the human basic needs of feeling safe, warm and dry and you're feeding our children. And so I think it's more than a worthy cause. And we can tell you story after story about our students that come from a lot of different backgrounds and need this to be met in order to get through the day. And so we'll be happy to answer any questions as far as our district data. This is my data guru. She can tell you anything you want to know about Conway Public Schools and our food service program. But I just want to praise the efforts to even have a bill like this on the table. So thank you for giving us time today to speak.
Senator Jane English Questions from the committee? Senator Flowers.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Sorry, I forgot your name already.
Megan Brown Megan Brown.
Senator Stephanie Flowers Miss Brown. So can you speak to the nutritional value that's required of breakfast and meals at school?
Megan Brown Yes, absolutely. And I am a registered dietitian. I've been with the district for eight years, and we follow USDA meal pattern guidelines. So we have very strict regulations with meeting meal pattern for breakfast and for lunch. And that includes dietary specifications. So we have to offer a certain amount of grains and meats, fruit and milk every day at breakfast. And then we also have to meet certain calorie, sodium and saturated fat guidelines.
And then if it stays in place, USDA is also going to add in a few other regulations starting next school year, which will include added sugar, restrictions on added sugar for breakfast. And I want to kind of piggyback on a question you asked about the nutrition benefits. I think of anything, if you were to pass this for all kids to eat free breakfast, that's going to be more money that we can put back into our program. And instead of focusing on student charges, which right now we have $317,000 in student charges at Conway right now. And instead of having to focus on that, we can use the money for the free breakfast to increase the quality of our food.
Senator Stephanie Flowers What did you say? Charges? What is that?
Megan Brown Okay, so back in 2019, I've got the act. Act 428 was passed in the state of Arkansas. It was the anti lunch shaming bill. So we weren't allowed to, in Conway, what we did is our charge policy was students were allowed to charge the equivalent of three breakfast and three lunches. And then after that they got what was considered an alternate meal. And in Conway, it was a cereal and a milk at breakfast. And at lunch it was an entree and a milk.
But after that bill got passed in 2019, we weren't allowed to have a charge policy anymore. Any kid that came through our line ate breakfast and lunch and we weren't allowed to say, no, you need money or anything like that. And so what has happened? It's been good, I'll say, for our ladies in the cafeteria, my food service workers, because they haven't had to worry about, oh, I got to give you an alternate meal because you don't have enough money. So that has been a positive.
But the negative effects of that bill is we have students that owe thousands of dollars in charges, and we have 10,000 students. And as of today, we have $317,000 in charges. Food service, we get federal money, federal reimbursement, and there are very strict rules and regulations on how we can spend that money. And we cannot spend that money on student charges. So what's happening is we can carry what's called delinquent debt.
So we have students that stay in our district K through 12 so they could charge year after year after year. And we carry that money. When it's considered bad debt, food service can't pay for that. So we actually have to bill the district. So when we have students that drop or graduate and they still have charges, we bill the district for that. So that's money that's coming out of our district that could be used for safety, for teachers, for other things, and they're actually having to pay food service for those charges. I know just last month we billed the district $7,000. Yes we did. They're very good.
Jeff Collum She's ruthless. She makes sure. Yes, ma'am.
Senator Joshua Bryant Thank you, Madam Chair, I guess. How would you handle it if you consistently see, you said you're about 53% of students that turn in the federal forms and get reduced lunch. And what is the threshold for the whole school? If you hit like 70%, does the whole school then qualify or is it higher than that?
Megan Brown It depends. I'm assuming you mean community eligibility, CEP. The threshold has changed in recent years. I think it needs to be about 60% of your ISP population, which is your direct certified students that are in a household that has food stamps. We get lists from the state periodically throughout the year, and those kids automatically qualify for free meals or students that are designated homeless, migrant, runaway or foster. That threshold really needs to be about 60% in order for all of our meals to be covered 100%.
Senator Joshua Bryant Okay. Do you have a intuition, not asking look in the future that you'll have families less likely to participate in the federal program if they can at least have the state pay for one meal?
Megan Brown I really don't think so, only because they're still going to have to pay for lunch. So that still is a huge incentive to fill out those forms.
Senator Joshua Bryant Or opt out and just charge it and never have to pay that debt.
Megan Brown Yes. I mean, that is a possibility. I just know that on our end, we do all that we can to make sure those parents fill out a form. We send texts and emails three times a week if they have a negative balance. We have an online application that parents can fill out. We can email that to them. We can text it to them so they can fill it on their phone. So we don't just have that paper application anymore in Conway.
Senator Joshua Bryant What would you say is the percentage of parents that will pay that debt on a either yearly basis or prior to graduation?
Jeff Collum It's very low.
Senator Joshua Bryant So really I see it as a risk that they may fill out these forms less, and they tell their child just to either forgo lunch because they're tired of getting those statements. But then the child has the option, or the parents have the option to tell their child, just, you know, I've gotten these notices for the last two years. There's no ability for the school to collect. So continue to charge it because I pay my taxes to the school.
Jeff Collum And to your point, that's kind of where we're stuck is there's not much more we can do to collect on that bad debt. And I think it's a good phase approach. If you're going to start this program, start with breakfast and get a litmus test on can we do this and evaluate that cost. And then if it works well, see if you want to expand it to lunch. Analyze the cost after that and see if you want to expand to lunch. You've got a valid point. It may be hard to collect on that.
Senator Joshua Bryant And so how would Conway schools respond if next school year this goes into effect assuming we get it through to the governor, it goes into effect. You see a decline in enrollment federal forms because it hits the news and you're offering because you want to feed these children. You see the form enrollment go down quite a bit, and then you see your debt ratios of lunches go up. Obviously the school district is going to comply with the law. They're going to feed the child. How would you all recover those expenses?
Jeff Collum You could answer, too. I think we're stuck in a mode where we're going to end up paying for this no matter what. So we're going to continue to have to pay on bad debt no matter what. And if we're going to err, let's err on the side of trying to feed the kids as much as we can. It may hurt us. It may hurt us before it gets better. But if we were to err, it would be, let's feed the babies as much as we can and we'll figure it out. The way we're trying to figure it out now. But it is a risk.
Megan Brown And unfortunately, USDA has a regulation that we can't require families to fill out the form. We can strongly encourage. We send home a paper form at the beginning of every school year, and it may be that we send those forms home more frequently. We send out emails to parents with the direct link to the online form to encourage them to fill it out, but unfortunately, we can't require a family to fill it out.
Jeff Collum And I think we're pretty aggressive, as aggressive as we can be within the law. They do an excellent job. I mean, they're on top of trying to collect on this. But honestly until there's some teeth in that, we've gone as far as we can go. Probably like most districts, we've gone as far as we can go to collect on that.
Senator Joshua Bryant All right. Thank you.
Senator Jane English Any other questions? Thank you very much.
Jeff Collum Thank you all.
Megan Brown Thank you.
Senator Jane English Is there anybody else in the audience who would like to speak for or against the bill? Seeing none, what is the will of the committee? Do you need to close for your bill?
Senator Jonathan Dismang Yeah. I'd love a motion. But also if there's any questions that you had earlier, obviously, that I couldn't answer, I want you to have the answers before you take your vote. So, I mean, with that, if there's nothing else, then I am closed.
Senator Jane English What's the will of the committee? Senator Murdock. Senator Davis. All in favor? All opposed. Thank you. You've passed your.
Senator Jonathan Dismang Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Senator Jane English I think that is all we have on the agenda for the day. And so this meeting is adjourned.
