House Transportation Committee
January 16, 2025
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:00:00] Portion of Jefferson, Lincoln, Cleveland and rDew County. I'm going to turn it over to my vice chair, Jon Milligan, to introduce himself. And then Representative Womack, we'll start with you. Go around the table, come back this way, and everyone just tell the district kind of where you're at. Just briefly. Vice Chair.
Representative Jon Milligan [00:00:22] Thank you, sir. I'm Representative Jon Milligan. I'm from District 33, which is part of Craighead County, Mississippi County, up in northeast Arkansas. I'm starting my third term. But this is my first time on Transportation. I look forward to working with the Chairman and the committee and everybody that we will be working with to move Arkansas forward and move in a better direction, a better place. Thank you.
Representative Richard Womack [00:00:58] Hi, I'm Richard Womack. I currently reside in Arkadelphia, which is in District 90, which includes parts of Clark, Hot Spring and Garland County. I'm starting my sixth term. And I look forward to getting the session underway.
Representative David Whitaker [00:01:18] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm Representative David Whitaker from District 22. This is my seventh term in the House, and I was away for a short while a ways back, but a long time ago decided I needed to be here, mostly because my district straddles Interstate 49 from mile marker 60 up almost 67. So you can imagine all the joy I get in a day's work. But I can also tell you that I have had an incredibly good relationship with ARDOT, and the work we're seeing done on those exits and interchanges is incredible. And I just want to be here to make sure we continue to have great roads and safe bridges.
Representative Marcus Richmond [00:02:05] I'm Marcus Richmond, District 52. That's all of Scott County, most of Yell County and a little bit of southern Sebastian County. This is my third time to be on here. The first two terms that I was here, I even served as vice chair one term with Mike and decided I wanted to circle back to it. I just think there's too much money being spent in David Whitaker's district and it needs to be spent in mine. [laughter] So here I am.
Representative Stan Berry [00:02:46] Representative Stan Berry. I live in Dover and my district is District 44. And it basically runs from Interstate 40 at Russellville and goes north into a little bit of Van Buren County. Never served on this committee. I look forward to it. We have got a good chairman and it's good to be here.
Representative Harlan Breaux [00:03:18] I'm Harlan Breaux. I live in Holiday Island. I'm in my fourth term right now. And I'm glad to be on this committee. My district, I could say a sixth of northwest Arkansas and have just about all of Carroll County and a portion of northern Boone County. Look forward to working with you.
Representative Mark McElroy [00:03:50] I'm Mark McElroy. I'm District 62, which is one of the largest of the representative districts. He goes from Arkansas City to past Brickey. So I'm very interested in the road because I put 18,000 miles on my truck trying to campaign. But my district takes in part of Desha county, part Arkansas County, part of Monroe County, part of St Francis County, all of Lee County, all the Phillips County and half of Bolivar County, Mississippi, I think. Do not vote against the governor's budget during redistricting. I found that out. And I'm glad to work with a former county judge and our chair. He will do a great job. The vice chair, just so-so. [laughter]
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:04:41] Representative Hall.
Representative Brad Hall [00:04:45] Good morning. My name is Brad Hall and I'm from Crawford County, Rudy. I'm a freshman. This is my first term. I'm where 49 will eventually meet 40. So our growth there is expected to grow tremendously. So I'm looking forward to serving on this committee. And thank you for having me.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:05:04] Thank you.
Representative Nick Burkes [00:05:10] Good morning. My name is Nick Burkes. I represent District 14, which is Southwest Bentonville and Centerton. I'm also a freshman, so I'm excited to learn about public transportation. So thank you.
Representative Randy Torres [00:05:24] Good morning, Randy Torres. If you see me here with Kleenex, it's because I'm pretty emotional being on this committee here. No, I'm actually fighting some allergies, so I apologize for that. I am District 17, which encompasses Siloam Springs, Gentry and Springtown. So southwestern Benton County. We've got a lot of traffic there. So looking forward to being on this committee and learning and helping. Thank you.
Representative Alyssa Brown [00:05:53] Good morning. I'm Alyssa Brown. I'm from beautiful Heber Springs, Greers Ferry Lake. But my district is District 41, so it's Cleveland and Stone County. And it's my first time and excited to be on Public Transportation and learn how to serve my district and serve Arkansas.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:06:12] Well, you're in transportation in this committee. You said public education.
Representative Alyssa Brown [00:06:19] Public Transportation, if I said Education.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:06:22] We're going to mess with you. You know, we have to go through the initiation process. So we're glad you're here.
Representative Alyssa Brown [00:06:29] We may have to roll the tape on that because I think I said Transportation.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:06:34] Thank you. Paul.
Representative Paul Childress [00:06:36] Paul Childress, District 83, freshman, which is Benton and Saline County. And I have the newest interstate in the state of Arkansas running through my district. So I'm glad that's finished. And it's excellent. If you've not been through, it is great. So thank you.
Representative RJ Hawk [00:06:52] Representative RJ Hawk, District 81, also from Saline County. I've got portions of Benton Bryant, Alexander, Mabelvale. And I think it needs to be said, while Paul didn't mention it, we also have the newest director of ARDOT that lives in Saline County, Jared Wiley, which we're very proud of. So anyways, this is my second term on Transportation, second term in the House, so looking forward to getting some more good work done for our roads, for our trains, our airports. And it's a great committee to be on.
Representative Joey Carr [00:07:32] Joey Carr, District 34, which is the eastern portion of Mississippi County. This is my second term and second run here with the Transportation Committee. My location, we have all four modes. We have water, rail, the Arkansas Aeroplex, which it's the largest landing strip in North America. It's over two miles long. And then I-55. And so interested in that infrastructure. And want to say thanks to ARDOT for having us out yesterday. They went over their new electronic equipment. And they have a lot of great, great things going on out there. And I look forward to working with Mr. Wiley.
Representative Chad Puryear [00:08:24] Chad Puryear, House District 25. That's eastern Washington County, Crawford County, and a little bit of Franklin County. If you driven through the tunnel heading to Fayetteville, you have been in District 25.
Representative Matt Duffield [00:08:41] Representative Matt Duffield. I represent Russellville and a handful of homes in Pottsville. Fourth generation sand, gravel, asphalt. I look forward to working with this committee. And if I can ever be of service to any of you or you need to reach me, you can call me at---
Representative Tara Shephard [00:09:06] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm Representative Tara Shephard, and I represent parts of Little Rock, Mabelvale and Alexander. I'm excited to be here. This is my second term and this is my second time on this committee. And I also have the luxury of having ARDOT in my district. And just for the record, I think that Jesse Jones is absolutely amazing.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:09:40] All right. Thank you. First, let me introduce the staff for you. We are glad Jessica Whitaker is here with us. This is her second session to be with us. So I'm going to give you her phone number and you're probably going to need it. So when you come to me and say, I've got a bill I want to run and I'm going to say, call Jessica and get it on the agenda. So her number is-- . We also have Marissa White. Did I say that right? Tell me again. Marissa. I knew I would do it wrong. Marissa White as our committee secretary and Zach Campbell who will do the drafting for the committee. He's not here with us today.
So just a few quick announcements during the session. We will always meet in Mac B in this room and we will usually meet on Tuesday or Thursday at 10 a.m. We're scheduled where we can meet twice a week if we need to. However, I won't call you over here if we only have one bill unless you come to me and say, Hey, I really need to get this through. I've got something going. Got people going to be here. So if not, we will meet one day a week if we can get by with it. There may be occasions where we have to meet Tuesday and Thursday.
Also, I run a pretty consistent committee. I try to be consistent and do it the same way every time. If you have questions, we're going to allow you to ask a couple of questions and if you need to lead up to a third to that, we're not going to press you too much and I'm not going to ask you to turn around and say 'follow up' every time. However, if we've got a lot of people lit up that need to talk, I might say, can we move on and come back to you? But I'll try to let you finish your line of questioning. We don't argue in this committee. We debate. If you disagree, that's fine. We'll give you that time to talk. But we try to respect each other and we always want to remember that when we're doing committee.
Also, the agendas are prepared two days in advance. A sponsor notification will be sent by email. I want you to remember that after a bill has appeared on the committee agenda and it's been called for consideration, the sponsor is not present, the item will be placed on the bottom of the active agenda. If a bill has been called up for consideration three times, it will automatically be dropped to the deferred list. If the sponsor wants to move the bill from the deferred list back to the active agenda, that request must be made to the staff by 2:30 two days prior to the scheduled committee meeting.
Amendments should always be in writing and please let staff know before the meeting that you have an amendment so they can have that prepared. We're going to try to have our committee photograph next Thursday at 10:00. So if you can, we thought we would go ahead and do it early before everyone gets busy. Because once we start meeting, there'll be some of you that will be in other committees, running committees or testify and trying to do that. So let's try to go ahead, get the committee photo next Thursday at 10:00, get that out of the way.
We have several agencies that meet with us and they sometimes have changes they want to make within their department that requires our approval. Sometimes it's new laws. Sometimes it's a variety of different aspects. But today we've got several of those those organizations with us.
And we've got, today, first of all, we're going to recognize the Department of Transportation. So we're going to ask director Jared Wiley if he'll come to the table, introduce himself and any of your people you want to come to the table or stand up and introduce, go right ahead. And Jared, it's good to have you. You've got some big shoes to fill, but I know that you're well respected and people have a lot of confidence in you. We're excited about seeing you here. You're not as good looking as the last director, but I'm sure you'll be just as efficient.
Jared Whiley [00:14:27] You're right about that. Yes, sir. I've got some big shoes to fill. Lori, we miss her already. I'm in my first week on the job as director. Been with the agency almost 20 years now, and I've had the pleasure of working with many of you. And I look forward to working with the rest of you on the committee. Today, besides me, I want to introduce Mr. Gill Rogers and I'll let you talk about yourself in a minute. Mr. Gill and Ms. Hannah Wright. They will be down here at the Capitol during the session in room 7 in the basement on the House side. So they'll be here. Gill, You want to tell them about your experience with the department?
Gill Rogers [00:15:02] I've been with the Department of Transportation for 11 years. I continue to learn something every year. There's a lot that goes on, as many of you who showed up yesterday know, from having archeologists to divers to engineers on site. So if you have any questions or you need anything, you can find me. I'll be wandering. Around. I'm petite, so I'm difficult to see. But if you let me know, you can text me or call or come by 07 and I'll be able to help you out.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:15:36] Gill, can we have your phone number? Because you're the guy we usually call if the director is busy. He's kind of our liaison, y'all. So if you would give it. I have it. But some of our freshman might not. So if you would do that, it would make it a lot easier when they need to connect with ARDOT.
Gill Rogers [00:15:56] Sure. It's ---. And if I don't answer, I'll get back with you as quick as I can. And a text always works as well.
Jared Whiley [00:16:09] Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have some contact cards, too, that have all of our key staff members on there. I'll make sure the group has those soon.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:16:16] Appreciate that. Thank you.
Hannah Wright [00:16:20] My name is Hannah Wright. I'm ARDOT's external information coordinator and have been given the opportunity to serve in this role for the session. So I'll be working with Gill. I've been with ARDOT for a year and a half and I'm looking forward to working with you all.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:16:35] Okay. Thank you. All right. We appreciate your coming and showing up today and taking time out to be here. Trey, I will give you a chance. You came in a few minutes late. I'm going to let you introduce yourself where you're from, your district.
Representative Trey Steimel [00:16:51] Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Trey Steimel, District 2, northeast Arkansas, parts of Randolph, Sharp, and Fulton County. Second session being on Transportation. Looking forward to working with everyone here. And thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:17:06] All right. Thank you. Okay. Jeff Holmes. Is Jeff here? Jeff, if you would, step up for just a minute or you can do it from where you want to. Jeff is the chief of police for the Arkansas Highway Police. We've had several conversations over the year. Some of them good, some of them bad. But we always got it worked out, haven't we, Jeff, thus far?
Jeff Holmes [00:17:33] I'm Jeff Holmes. I'm the chief--- [sound issue]
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:17:46] Thank you. Okay, now we have the Arkansas State Police. And I don't know who Colonel Hagar sent today, but come on up, introduce yourself.
Lt. Alan Johnson [00:18:01] Good morning, sir. I'm Lieutenant Alan Johnson, currently tasked with being over all fleet operations within our department. If you all watch the YouTube videos, that's a pretty tough job sometimes. But I was asked to come by Colonel Hagar, wanted each one of the members here to just get a better understanding of what our department is. We're not just the blue car or the white car with the blue stripe that you have to slow down for. Our agency has a lot of different aspects to it. We're composed of five different divisions. The Highway Patrol is obviously our most visible division. That's the guys out there on the roads working our crashes, trying to stop our speeding, trying to lower our fatality rates within the state. Our Criminal Investigations Division is a large--
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:18:45] Pull that mic down just a little bit.
Lt. Alan Johnson [00:18:46] I'm sorry.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:18:47] There you go. Thank you.
Lt. Alan Johnson [00:18:48] Our Criminal Investigations Division is one of our unseen divisions, but they're very busy. It consists of 101 commissioned troopers that conduct investigations for both the state and assist other agencies within the state. If a department calls and asks for our assistance, we will assist them in any major case that they don't have the resources, the manpower to make a proper investigation. We also consist of a regulatory division that oversees our licensing, such as our security officers.
They also handle concealed carry permits and then crimes against children. This is a hotline that we have within the agency. This allows for somebody to make a report of any crime that could be committed against a child or a child that's in danger. They'll take that initial investigation to determine whether there is the potential for a crime to have been committed and whether a further investigation needs to happen. And if so, that would be passed on to our criminal investigations division. And that's something a lot of people don't know that we do. We're trying to combat crimes against our children in the state.
And then our administrative division, again, often unseen, but it consists of approximately 400 full time and part time civilian employees that help support our agency and our overall mission. In addition to those divisions, we also have K-9, we have a bomb squad, emergency response team, Swat teams, etc. We feel like we play a significant role in not only traffic investigations, criminal investigations, but also an emergency disaster response both within our state and outside of our state. We help with evacuations during natural disasters, ensuring public safety in a large scale event.
Our organization currently as of yesterday, could change, but as of yesterday, we have 479 commissioned officers, again, 101 of those being in criminal investigations, the rest being within highway patrol. You know, our mission and it's been set by Colonel Hagar, honor, integrity and loyalty. That truly embodies what we are, what we strive for in our agency. We strive to be a sense of pride for our state. Obviously, we're seeing a lot on YouTube. That's what I keep hearing about. But there's a lot that we do outside of that that needs to be recognized. And again, if there's anything that you need from us or have any question for us, we're always here for you.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:20:57] Okay. Thank you, Alan. Appreciate it. Chief Holmes, just for a little clarity, would you tell everyone what the responsibility of the highway policy is, what their main duty is. I forgot to ask you that when you were up here. So they get confused with the State Police sometimes.
Jeff Holmes [00:21:24] Absolutely. We're tasked with enforcing the size and weight regulations of state law in routing oversize permits throughout the state, and also enforcing federal motor carrier regulations on trucks and trucking equipment.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:21:37] All right. Thank you. Just wanted them to know what actually was. All right. Next, we have the Department of Finance & Administration, so if someone from there would come up. Mr. Collins, you may proceed.
Charlie Collins [00:21:59] Thank you very much.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:22:00] You know the ropes around here pretty good.
Charlie Collins [00:22:02] Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's amazing how quickly the faces are changing. So, obviously, I had a chance to serve with many of you, but some others not yet. Although, Representative Duffield, we get to work on the AI committee together, so that's been a real pleasure. My name is Charlie Collins and I'm the Commissioner of Revenue for the State of Arkansas under Secretary Jim Hudson, who is the head of DFA.
And the easiest way to think about my role is I manage the folks that touch all of your constituents every day. And there's a couple of big buckets. One big bucket is taxes. So you've got businesses and taxes. You've got individuals and taxes. You've got corporations and taxes. You've got lots of miscellaneous taxes. Another big bucket is the DMVs, as people will call them. In Arkansas, we call them SRO's, state revenue offices. That's where the folks go to renew registrations and register vehicles, etc.
And then we've also got the Office of Child Support Enforcement, so if people are not having their child support payments. And then we've also got a group called the Assessment Coordination Division, which works with your counties with regard to values for things like personal property and real property. Obviously, the counties are responsible for administering the property taxes, but we provide training and other things. All told, there are about 2,000 people between Little Rock and 200 offices out in all your districts that serve people.
So I'll give you my cell phone number. And if it's any of what I'm going to call the normal daily things that you have a constituent issue with, you can feel free to send me a text, if we're kind of new, please put your name just so I kind of understand that. And then what I'll do is have one of my administrators, that's our word for the leader or the head manager of one of these areas, contact your constituent And then after they've resolved or work through whatever the issue is, then we'll let you know. So it can be pretty efficient for you. So here's my cell phone number--.
Next, what I'd like to do is talk about the part that's most germane to this committee. We have a group that is responsible for managing the driver services and motor vehicle registration, boats, many different types of things, implementing the laws that you're passing and getting those to operate inside the state of Arkansas. And we basically have that broken into two main groups that process those things, the driver services side, the motor vehicle side. And the leader of that business, we call it DSMV, Driver Services Motor Vehicles, is Wayne Hamrick. Wayne, if you'd stand up. I think my boss would say there's no public servant anywhere in America that is more responsive from a customer service standpoint than than Wayne Hamrick.
So I'll put that on the table and you guys can beat me later if we don't deliver on that front. If you get in touch with Wayne, you won't have a better customer service experience. Wayne has managers under him, one for driver services, and that's Christie Earnhardt. Christie's been with the state for 30 years, so she knows things inside and out. And then we have another manager over motor vehicles. That's Marla McHughs. Marla, too, has been with us for many, many decades. So she knows things in and out. So when it comes to driver services, motor vehicles, those are the three managers that we have. There are no others, just those three.
I've also brought Autumn Hemphill here today. Autumn, do you want to wave? Autumn is our leader, our administrator over sales taxes, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, all of the miscellaneous taxes. One of the things she does is what we call tax credits. So if one of your constituents purchases a vehicle and then sells a vehicle, they're entitled, if they follow all the rules and do it within a certain time period, etc., etc., to get a sales tax credit for the vehicle they sold against the sales tax due on the vehicle they purchase. So one of Autumn's teams responsibility is processing those and working through those.
A lot of times those are simple. If you go to a dealer, purchase a car and trade it in, it's a simple process. But if you're selling one car individually and you're buying it somewhere else, there are lots of rules to follow. And sometimes people will do things that don't comport with the rules. I've done this myself. For example, I purchased a car, registered it, did all those things, and then my daughter said, Dad, I'd like to buy that car. And so I said, okay. And I sold it to her a week later before I even drew it. Well, I didn't know. We have a law that the legislature passed that says nobody is allowed to get a used tax credit on a vehicle on the same vehicle. So I found out that, yes, I paid the sales tax. And then a week later, my daughter paid it again.
So following the laws and the rules is something that we're pretty rigorous about because that's what you've charged us to do. And if you talk to us first, if you're doing something complicated, we can sometimes help. I'll give you one example. There are some states that will collect sales tax if you purchase a car there and will not give you a refund when you register it in Arkansas. So Florida is an example where we have a lot of people who go to Florida because cars are cheaper there. They'll buy them. They'll pay the state sales tax there. But that's not how it's done in Arkansas. We're going to collect the sales tax when you register the vehicle with us. So don't pay the sales tax to another state when you purchase a vehicle because you're going to pay it when you come to Arkansas. And we have no ability or agreements or anything like that where other states are mailing us sales taxes paid by Arkansans in those states. So that's just one type of an example.
Next, what I'd like to do is turn it over to Paul Gehring, who is the chief legal counsel for the revenue division of the Department of Finance and Administration. Thank you very much.
Paul Gehring [00:28:41] Thank you, Commissioner Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee. Paul Gehring. I'm the assistant revenue commissioner for the Department of Finance & Administration. I've been with DFA since 2007. It's a pleasure to be working with the Transportation Committee. I've been coming to these meetings, I think, since 2011 possibly, to talk about legislation that we review that is going to be heard in this committee. If the legislation affects the administration of driver's licenses or motor vehicle titling and registration, we will prepare a fiscal impact statement.
Usually that takes time for us to review the bill and then assign the bill to our administrators that Commissioner Collins introduced to do their analysis. We try to work on those bills in the order that they are filed over at the General Assembly. As soon as the fiscal impact statement is prepared, it is transmitted electronically in the Bureau of Legislative Research, and their staff are on that distribution list. If you receive a fiscal impact statement for your bill and if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly.
My email address, as well as my direct contact information, will be on the email that's generated. But if anybody would like my cell phone number-- . In addition to all the members of Commissioner Collins' team that works on the fiscal impact statements, we also have in the meeting room today our members of revenue legal counsel. So on the first row on the right is Keith Linder. He is one of our attorneys in revenue legal counsel. And to his right is Alicia Austin Smith. She is the revenue chief legal counsel. And then also Joel De Pippa, one of our attorneys. He's also been with DFA for the same amount of time as I have. I think he joined our office in 2008.
So it's a pleasure to work with this committee. And if you have any questions about DFA or any of our work that we do in conjunction with the committee, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Thank you.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:30:46] Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate you being here.
Charlie Collins [00:30:49] Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And I'll leave some business cards with the email address with your staff before I go. So if anybody does want that, feel free to grab one.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:30:56] Thank you, sir. All right. Is anyone here from Division of Aeronautics? Okay. No flying this year. Motor Vehicle Commission. Daniel, punch the tab there. Push it again. Okay. You're automatic. Go ahead.
Daniel Pace [00:31:39] My name is Daniel Pace. And there we go. I am the director of the Motor Vehicle Commission. I have two investigators on staff as well. They're both out in the field today doing an investigation. And I have a license supervisor on staff. I've been with the Motor Vehicle Commission for four years, my second year as director. And before that I was with the attorney general's office for about eight and a half years in consumer protection. For a bit of background, what the Motor Vehicle Commission does, if you don't know, we license and regulate the new motor vehicle industry in Arkansas. So that would include all new franchise dealers that sell automobiles, commercial trucks, RVs, motorcycles.
And then we have our off-road products, ATVs, UTVs, any other off-road products. And that also means that we license and regulate the manufacturers and distributors that manufacture and distribute those products as well. So for an example, Polaris, Kawasaki in your off-road products, Ford, GMC, any of those type manufacturers and distributors. And we also license and regulate lessors in the state. So Enterprise, Budget, Avis, all of those folks.
And my investigators work complaints, we take complaints from the public. We investigate fraud. We investigate warranty claims, reimbursement claims for consumers. We investigate title issues and work with dealers to resolve those. But we also take complaints from dealers when they have an issue with manufacturers and distributors to do with their franchise agreement. We get a lot of warranty reimbursement, in parts reimbursement issues we help them with. We also have some termination issues we help them with, and we oftentimes have disputes that we have to try to help them resolve with manufacturers and distributors, sometimes over inventory.
And sometimes it's just a matter of trying to help them help one of their customers, too. So that gives you a pretty good overview. And my direct number, if anyone here on the committee ever needs to contact me, is-- . Always happy to talk to any of you and help you out. Representative Holcomb has always been helpful to us in the past. And Jessica, you have as well. I appreciate you.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:34:02] Thank you, Daniel. Appreciate it. Appreciate your time. Anyone here from Towing and Recovery?
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:34:18] Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to introduce myself. My name is Paul Burnett. I'm the director of the Arkansas Towing & Recovery Board. I was given this opportunity April of 22 and I've been with the Department of Labor and Licensing. A little bit about our agency is we issue license and permits to tow companies. We also regulate any consumer complaints that come in on excessive pricing or overcharges and for predatory towing. I have one permit and licensing specialist, and then I have one investigator right now. And we do a pretty good job of taking care of when stuff comes in. I retired from law enforcement with 28 years of service in 21, and I'm here now. I'm also new to the process and I'm eager to learn and work with everybody. Thank you.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:35:07] Okay. Thank you, Paul. Appreciate it. Anyone here from Waterways Commission? Okay. Shannon, Trucking Association.
Shannon Newton [00:35:28] Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Shannon Newton. I'm the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association. And I've heard others from this table talk about their decades of experience. And unfortunately, I also have decades of experience. I've been with the Trucking Association 21 years. So if you have issues, most of our members are over the road, long haul interstate commerce. That's the industry that I primarily represent. And so issues that are pertinent to us obviously include road safety and infrastructure investment. And so those are the primary things that will be before you hopefully talking about making the road safer and making sure that they're adequate to deliver the commerce for our state. Thank you.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:36:07] Thanks, Shannon. Arkansas Railway Association. James, I guess James is here. Yeah.
James Miller [00:36:24] Thank you, Chairman and committee. My name's James Miller and I represent the Arkansas Railroad Association, so I handle everything class one railroads. So if you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
James Miller [00:36:40] Thank you, James. Arkansas Transit Association. Anyone here?
Ann Gilbert [00:36:59] Good morning. My name is Ann Gilbert. I'm the director of the Transit Association. We represent the 16 urban and rural transit agencies in the state and all of your nonprofit senior centers and developmental disabilities schools that get vans or vehicles from ARDOT.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:37:20] Thank you. And the governor's office. They had to look really hard to get someone to come over. Go ahead.
Unidentified [00:37:37] Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Holcomb. It is a pleasure to be here and represent the governor's office. And to put your mind at ease, Miss Rachel Smith will normally be here doing this, and I am her backup. I think I'm everybody's backup. And it's good to hear everybody's longevity. I have been on the job four days and it is an extreme pleasure to be here. Did Representative Collins leave? Brian and I were seat mates for years and years, and we determined because of our vast Navy knowledge, that we were the two smartest guys in the House.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:38:25] I believe y'all did that.
Unidentified [00:38:27] And I will leave it to you to decide which was the smartest, because one of us can say it in less words. But the Governor is looking forward to working with you, and Miss Rachel will be here.
Representative Mike Holcomb [00:38:37] Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to say thank you to all of you for being here today. I know you have very busy schedules, but we appreciate it. I want to remind the committee that Thursday will be our photo. Next Thursday we will do a photo. Also, any bills that are on the agenda, we'll try to get those out of the way. So if there's no other business to come before the committee today, thank you for being here. We stand adjourned.
