Senate State Agencies Committee
January 16, 2025
Senator Scott Flippo [00:00:04] All right. Everybody take a seat. We're going to call this meeting to order. I want to welcome everybody to the Senate State Agencies Committee. Introduce our committee vice chair, Senator John Payton. And, John, you got anything you want to say?
Senator John Payton [00:00:16] Glad to be here and look forward to working with you.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:00:20] A man of few words. One of the many things I like about Senator Payton. All right. So have the committee members introduce. So I'm going to start with Senator Dotson. Everybody knows who the members are. There's no returning members. So good.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:00:31] Morning. Happy to be here.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:00:35] Clarke, keep it brief.
Senator Clarke Tucker [00:00:36] I've just got a few minutes. Clarke Tucker. Happy to be here.
Senator John Payton [00:00:43] Ready for business. Here we go.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:00:46] Hammer time.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:00:50] Good morning. Thank you.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:00:51] Most members don't know Senator Hammer. He doesn't run a lot of bills, so. But he is a member of the Senate. Been there for many years now. All right. We got Miss Carly Cooper. Christie Hutchison. And where's Liz? I'll have to demote her for that. All right.
So review and adopt Senate rules. I was thinking about a potential new rule. Want to keep these committees kind of streamlined. So if it runs over an hour, we're going to kind of set the precedent for what we're going to be asking our students in the public school to do, which is to put your cell phones in a pouch. So without objection, I'm going to put that to the rules to be adopted. Yeah, Jim, I figured you would. All right, so if I can get a motion, I think these are the same rules, same rules that we've had the previous two years. Okay. So with that, you got them in the packet. I'll give you all a second to look over them. Senator Payton, you're recognized.
Senator John Payton [00:02:17] If you look at your draft, there are the rules. Number four, all bills referred to State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee will automatically be placed on the committee agenda. In Public Health, we struck that because if a bill sponsor asked for it to be on the agenda and we know it's going to be heard and presented, then that keeps our agenda a lot cleaner than if you just have all the bills showing up on the agenda.
So it allows the general public to have a better idea of what's going be heard at any given time. And the other language in the rules says once it's on the agenda and nobody shows up to sponsor it, after two meetings, I think it goes off of the agenda until they say they want to present it. So I would just suggest that we follow suit and strike number four there.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:03:05] Chair is supportive of that. I've got a second by Senator Dotson. Question -- I'm sorry.
Senator Clarke Tucker [00:03:10] So just in order to be on the agenda, the bill sponsor has to tell the chair or staff that they want it on the agenda that day? Yes, sir. All right. Second.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:03:20] Second, Senator Clarke. Senator Hammer, you're recognized for a question.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:03:23] Yeah, sorry, it may not be relevant, but I'm dropping to, you said number four, right?
Senator Scott Flippo [00:03:26] Yeah.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:03:29] So down on number five, and maybe this has no relevancy. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to think through it out loud. But a bill that has appeared on the committee agenda and the sponsor of the bill senate does not attend the meeting to present a bill, the bill be placed on the agenda two additional times. So the way this would play out by doing what we're going to do to number four would be it's not going to be placed on the agenda until the sponsor wants it to be put on there.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:03:56] Right.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:03:58] But then if they don't show up for two times because we have seen bills that get put on agendas and then they don't show up, then five is going to kick in. Is that correct?
Senator John Payton [00:04:06] That's correct. So if we leave four in there, everything goes on the agenda, whether they're ready to present it or not. And so then after two consecutive meetings of not appearing to present, it is going to get dropped off that agenda anyway until they tell us that they want it on there.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:04:23] But then they would be able to reintroduce it if they wanted to after.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:04:29] They could, yes. They could move if off the deferred, back onto the agenda. Senator Dotson.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:04:37] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know last time we changed rule number five to where it was only one additional time on the agenda versus two. The only thing I have a concern with striking this is oftentimes you're thinking it's going to be on the agenda, it's the day that it's scheduled to be on the agenda, but you didn't know what the committee rule was, and so you didn't notify the chair or you didn't automatically think to put that on there.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:05:12] We could always vote to suspend the rules and to hear that if there was an issue, just take those case by case.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:05:17] Well, but it takes six members to suspend the rules. And sometimes with people running in and out, we don't always even have six members in the room. So I don't know.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:05:30] That's the importance of being in the committee.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:05:31] I'm in favor of leaving that in there and then maybe considering just reducing it to one additional time on the agenda. So we keep the agenda clean. But if a bill comes out of committee late and the bill sponsor forgot to, or say it came over from the House late in the day, it's automatically on the calendar versus having to try to remember to instigate that or waiting another week for it to be placed on the agenda. So I don't think I'm in favor of striking four, but maybe modifying five.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:06:05] Okay. Senator Payton.
Senator John Payton [00:06:08] I was just making a suggestion. I'm not married to it. I just think it helps the general public to have a more reasonable view of what may or may not be heard on a given day.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:06:23] All right. So, Senator Peyton, you want to restate your motion again and we'll just take a vote on that.
Senator John Payton [00:06:27] My motion is that we strike rule number four in this draft and adopt the rest of it as is.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:06:33] All right. Got a motion from Senator Payton. Questions or discussion?
Senator Clarke Tucker [00:06:38] If we do this, if I may be so bold, Mr. Chair, I would just recommend that you make an announcement on the floor to let everybody know that that's going to be the policy for State Agencies. And then if we get into the middle of session, it gets to be where it's a problem to delay a week for House bills or whatever, we can make an adjustment at that time. But that would be my thought.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:06:56] Your boldness is appreciated, Senator Clarke. Senator Tucker. I'm sorry.
Senator Clarke Tucker [00:07:00] That's all right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:07:03] Senator Clark.
Senator Alan Clark [00:07:05] Excuse me for being late. I got caught in the hallway. But could you state again? You stated the motion, but could you state again the reason for the motion?
Senator John Payton [00:07:13] Yes. So the way it is now, when a bill is filed, it automatically goes on the agenda. So we end up with an agenda with a lot of bills that people are not prepared to present at the next meeting. And so instead of putting them automatically on the agenda, when you file a bill and you're ready to present it, you would need to let the chair or the staff know that you want it on the agenda. And it would go on.
And then number five in the rules says it sits there for two consecutive meetings and then gets kicked off if you don't present it. So the bills that automatically go on the agenda many times are going to be removed from the agenda before they're presented anyway because of number five. In Public Health yesterday, we eliminated rule number four. So this would not be the only committee that did it.
And this is the reasoning is so that our agenda, the view on the website to the general public is a little more accurate and a little more concise about what may be heard in a meeting.
Senator Alan Clark [00:08:14] Okay. So in this committee, in order for me to get a bill on the agenda, I've got to get this chair to place it on the agenda?
Senator John Payton [00:08:23] Well, I think the chair could instruct staff if they're notified. There's no restriction on getting it on the agenda.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:08:31] I'd like your chances most of the time, Senator Clark. I like it. We're getting a pretty good precursor for how I expect this committee to be going and we've only gotten to the adoption of the rules. So looking forward to some vigorous discussions in here. Senator Dotson, you're recognized.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:08:47] Question. Just as far as what is the lead time to allow, like do we notify staff 24 hours in advance?
Senator Scott Flippo [00:08:56] 24 hours will suffice.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:08:58] 24 hours. So the day before.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:09:00] So 48 hours. I stand corrected.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:09:08] So if we file a bill on, what is today, Wednesday. If we file a bill on Monday, it's too late to get it on that week's agenda, where if it was filed on Monday but didn't get read across the desk or assigned to committee until late in the day on Monday it would pass that 48 hour mark. And so it would be the next week before it could ever go on.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:09:32] Thursdays if we meet on Thursday. Tuesdays and Thursdays. We haven't gotten to that, Senator Tucker. That's next on the hit list.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:09:43] If we file it on Tuesday, it could be too late in the day. You'd have to wait until the following Tuesday to actually get it on the agenda, where if you filed it on Tuesday, as is, with the rules before they're changed, it would automatically go on Thursday's agenda for you to be able to present it Thursday.
Carley Cooper [00:10:10] Sorry. Carley Cooper, Bureau of Legislative Research. So if you filed it on Tuesday and it's referred to committee by Tuesday, then it could, as the rules currently stand, could go on Thursday's agenda. If the rules are changed, then it would be next week.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:10:28] But you have to file it and notify staff in order for it to get to Thursday's agenda if it was filed on Tuesday.
Carley Cooper [00:10:36] If the rules are changed.
Senator Jim Dotson [00:10:40] All right.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:10:43] Senator Hammer.
Senator Kim Hammer [00:10:44] Okay. Based on the explanation it now puts an additional responsibility on the sponsor of the bill to not only get it filed upstairs, but now with the change of the rule.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:10:58] Yeah. I'll tell you what, I'm going to recognize Senator Payton, if you don't mind, real quickly.
Senator John Payton [00:11:02] I didn't intend for it to be controversial. It was a suggestion. I'll withdraw the motion. Whatever we do in the way of rules, I'd prefer it to be unanimous.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:11:10] Yeah. Let's not make this overly complicated. These are the same rules that this committee has been going by for a number of years now. So I think we're all familiar with the committee rules. So just for the art of simplicity and consistency, I'll just accept the motion to adopt the current rules. Senator Clark, I'll allow you to--
Senator Alan Clark [00:11:30] I'd like to discuss three.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:11:37] You're recognized.
Senator Alan Clark [00:11:38] Thank you, Mr. Chair. In other committees for some time we have amended this rule. We have taken out 'All amendments to bills must be in writing.' We leave 'Verbal amendments are not permitted.' And then we add, 'Short technical verbal amendments are allowed,' because we don't like to hold bills up that have 2 or 3 words that are generally technical that can--
Senator Scott Flippo [00:12:02] It's a lot of discretion you'll be leaving to the Chair.
Senator Alan Clark [00:12:05] Well, the committee can always overrule the chair.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:12:08] [laughter] Huh. I don't see that in the rules.
Senator Alan Clark [00:12:08] [laughter] Those of us who have chaired for a while are very aware that the committee can tell us to go stick it.
Senator Scott Flippo [00:12:19] All right. Members, if you're fine with technical corrections for verbal amendments, I think we know what Senator Clark is doing right there. Senator Clark, do you want to put that in a motion?
Senator Alan Clark [00:12:31] I would move that we strike, 'All amendments to bills must be in writing,' and add-- and there could be cleaner language than this-- 'Short verbal short technical verbal amendments are allowed.'
Senator Scott Flippo [00:12:51] All right. Any discussion on the motion? I got a second from Senator Sullivan. So, members, so just to be clear, we're adopting the current rules. We are amending rule number three to allow for verbal amendments or short technical corrections. All right. Motion, Senator Clark. Second, Senator Sullivan. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed. All right. Rules have been adopted. Take long. All right.
So please leave all the bills in the folder on the desk. You all know. Our current agenda times and meeting times are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. right here in this room, which is consistent where State Agencies has always met. I would like to starting off, and I'll just ask members, if you do have a bill that you plan on running, let's just try to actually do some work in January and early February and not leave everything to the back end. So I'm not looking to have two meetings a week for 15 minutes. So unless there is an agenda that deems for us to have a meeting on Thursdays, I'm going to try to keep it to Tuesdays. If we need to come in on Thursday, I'll leave that open to the discretion of the chair.
But, you know, if we're going to be in here, let's try to be in here for more than five minutes. If the bill can be run on Tuesday, let's not hold it to Thursday. With that, Wednesday, February 12th, is the deadline for constitutional amendments. And with the committee's exception, I would recommend that we make Thursday, February 13th, the deadline for running constitutional amendments. Senator Clark, would you be good with that? The deadline for filing constitution amendments is Wednesday, February 12th. We would make the deadline for running them Thursday, February 13th.
Senator Alan Clark [00:14:36] I'd like to see the deadline for running them earlier and [laughter] the deadline for submitting them later. But...
Senator Scott Flippo [00:14:45] Senator Clark, I'm looking forward to serving with you. All right. But that is an important date. Members, just to make sure everybody knows the deadline is Wednesday, February 12th. And then with that, I'm going to recognize Secretary Hudson over here. Jim, get off the phone and let's put it in the pouch. So I'm going to move around the room and ask everybody from the State Agencies to stand up, introduce yourselves. Of course, Jim, we know who you are, but.
[00:15:06] [Audience introductions]
Senator Scott Flippo [00:17:25] Anybody else I'm missing? Jenna. She's Andy Davis's boss, for those of you who don't know. All right. Okay. I don't think we've missed anybody. All right. Members, anything else from the committee? All right. No further comments. Seeing nothing else, we are adjourned.
