Arkansas Legislative Council
Occupational Licensing Committee
February 19, 2026
Senator Dave Wallace Folks, welcome to the Occupational License Review Committee today. Appreciate you all being here. We have called to order. The chairs have no comments. Moving on, without objection, the Fire Protection Licensing Board. The licensing protection board will be moved to the March meeting. Do you have any objections? Seeing none, that has been approved.
Moving on to next is a review of reports from occupational authorization entities. And I know we have DHS in the room, if you all will come forward. Thank you all for being here. Lori, it’s good to see you here today. And ma’am, if you’ll state your name.
Martina Smith Good afternoon, Martina Smith, Director for the Division of Provider Services and Quality Assurance.
Senator Dave Wallace Thank you, ma’am, and you are welcome to start.
Martina Smith Provider Services and Quality Assurance has three occupational licenses. We have the certified nurse aide license. We have a nursing home administrator license. And we have the psychiatric residential treatment facility license. All of these licenses are necessary to protect the health and safety of our individuals that live in residential facilities. And I’ll be happy to take any questions.
Senator Dave Wallace Members, do we have any questions? My co-chair.
Representative Stephen Meeks Thank you, ma’am. So I look through this. The only question that I have is on the NHA one. It shows that you currently have about an $800,000 fund balance. And looking at your expenses, it looks like there’s a $2,000 to the national board. And then you did $26,000 for the training classes.
And so your fund balance is way, way, way over what your expenses are. And so I’m just kind of curious about any plans either to reduce licensing fees or how can we use that money so it’s just not sitting there unnecessarily or growing unnecessarily.
Martina Smith Sure, we can definitely take a look at some alternative methods to use those fees. The statute that is in place says we can only use those fees for training. So that’s why we have that contract with the Arkansas Health Care Association to provide training classes.
Representative Stephen Meeks Like I said, everything else looks good and just kind of, or if we can reduce fees for our people or just so we don’t have this big, big old pot of money just sitting there not doing anybody any good.
Martina Smith I understand.
Representative Stephen Meeks If it stays there too long, the people at this table will find it and find something.
Senator Dave Wallace Members, are there any other questions? Seeing none, ma’am, thank you. You’re dismissed. Members, moving on to other business. Does the committee members, do you have any other business to talk about? Okay. And I see none. Members, with that I apologize for the length of the meeting, but we are adjourned. Thank you.
