ALC Hospital: Dec. 18, 2025

Senator Jane English So glad to see everybody here this afternoon. We have a number of things on our agenda for today. So as we all know, one of the things I’d like to do is allow Representative Bentley a few words.

Representative Mary Bentley Just excited at what the subcommittee is doing. I think it’s going to be very substantial. And thank you everyone for giving some time to come out here this afternoon to see what we can get discussed today. So thank you very much. 

Workforce Development Report (Preview)

Senator Jane English So as we know with this subcommittee, what we’re charged with doing is looking at social service and workforce development reforms. So as we are all moving along here in the world that is changing quickly, one of the things that we hope to do is be able to look at all of the social services programs plus the workforce development programs here in this state. 

One of the things that is an impediment many times to our folks in this whole world and people trying to get jobs is the safety nets. So in your binder here is a report on how we kind of solve the safety net program or the problems that are there. So I would encourage you to go online to our documents. It’s in your folder or in your binder. 

But maybe take a chance to read, time to read that this weekend, or before the 12th of January, to kind of get an idea of what it is we’re talking about for these benefit cliffs. They are really important in today’s world in trying to help get people from one place to another, which is what we’re all trying to do. 

The other thing that we have in your folder, and it’s kind of hard to find, but go all the way back to about the half of the way through is another report on building America’s type of pipeline. And that’s a very informative piece. The federal government, as we have all heard, is looking at doing a lot of revamping and consolidating, and they’ve moved some programs from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor. 

And so this report kind of lays out a talent pipeline guide for states and for what some of the things that the federal government is looking at doing. It gives kind of a good idea of what we as the state could be looking at as building a talent pipeline. One of the things that’s in there that we’re already doing, I think, pretty well is thinking about starting at the early age in kindergarten through K through 12 and moving on up and aligning those programs to career pathways. 

That’s a very important part of this report in here as a suggestion for something to do, which is something we’re already doing. And you have to start someplace to build a talent pipeline. The other thing that probably we haven’t done a real good job of thinking about is we’re not really talking about only the people that are on SNAP and Medicaid that are required to go to work. 

It’s kind of looking at how do we build a system that allows us to keep people, those people to move to a better place and other people from having to go on to those programs long term. That there’s a short-term opportunity for them to get help and assistance.

Representative Mary Bentley Yes, thank you, Senator English. So Senator English and I went to Washington, DC, for a conference called Meant for More. And that was put on by the group that we had hired to get our report done. 

So on the 12th, when we come back on January 12th we’re going to hear the report from them, exactly what they studied in our workforce system across the state. What are the failures? What are good things that are going on? What can we do? And also give us recommendations on what we can do to make our workforce system better and to reach out to those. 

Because we’re spending a lot of money. We’re getting a lot of federal dollars. And as Senator English and I are always saying, is anybody better off at the end of the day? Are we really making improvements? Are people getting a job? And we know, I’ve been in the legislature now 11 years and our poverty rate is just what it was when we came in. So how can we actually do a better job of getting people to a better job? 

As Senator English said, not just those that are on SNAP and Medicaid, but those that are working but not having a good income. What can we do to get those people to better jobs. That’s what we’re going to hear from them. What’s our workforce doing now and how can it improve? So when we went to DC, we had people there from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Utah sharing what they’re doing, what their plans are to do what we are all calling the ‘one door policy.’ 

We’ve talked about someone, an individual goes to DHS or to the unemployment officer getting the same opportunities to get the help that they need. So it’s all the assistance we can at the same place so individuals don’t have to be left in the cracks and get slipped behind the side. So different things that we’ve learned right now with our SNAP work training and what we’re doing with the Medicaid, it’s really just giving people a piece of paper. 

And so here you can go and you can connect with workforce, but they’re not really getting the information they need to really make a difference and get connected with case workers and really make the difference happen. So, again, it was a great, great conference. We got to hear what other states are doing. And I think, Arkansas, at the end of the day, I think we’re going to be able to lead the pack as we have with so many things. I’m really excited. It’s going to take all of us working together, but I think that we can really come up with something transformative that will really help Arkansans out much better than we do it now. 

So again, Senator English and I just got these two reports that you’ll be able to pull up online when you’re home in the next couple of weeks just to be prepared for our meeting on the 12th. We’ll have a Zoom conference at 10:00 and another one at 1:00 to really share that report and hear from Nick Moore, the one that wrote this article here. 

So just trying to get everybody, again, on the same page and inform us going across the nation that we can make Arkansas the head of the pack. We’ve done so much with LEARNS and with ACCESS. And it’s all going to link together from kindergarten to getting– anyway, at the end of the day, after we’re all gone and not even here any longer, good things are moving in a much better direction. 

Senator Jane English So I think our goal really, I think it started off very small, but I think our goal really is to figure out how do we really set a pathway for the future and so that the folks that we have here in the state had the opportunity for a better life. Now, what does that mean? Self-sufficiency, what does that really mean? 

But we bring in all the resources that we have, and we’ve got a lot of them. They’re all kind of in silos or off in other areas, try and figure out how we bring all those things together and kind of set a vision for where we want to be down the road. Where do we hope our citizens will be, and how can we make those effective changes? 

So as Mary mentioned, on the 12th of January, we’ve invited Nick Moore, who recently was the chief workforce officer for the state of Alabama. He is now the undersecretary or assistant secretary for career education with the Department of Education/Labor, because they’re moving a lot of their programs from education to the Department Of Labor. 

So we are going to have a Zoom call with him on the 12th of January at 10:00 to kind of talk about this vision that they have for building a talent pipeline and how we all can fit into that. So, and then at 1:00 in the afternoon, as Mary said, we will have the report from our audit. And that will be right here in this room. The other one will be a Zoom call in room 171 in the Capitol. So, do we have some questions here? I don’t see anything. Yes. Representative Dalby. 

Representative Carol Dalby Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not on the committee, but it’s been really interesting to hear this. The question that I have– and I’ve been quickly reading the report and some of the blueprint that you’ve got. Are they going to address, I hope they’re going to address, how are community colleges are going to fit in? Like in Texarkana, we have UA Hope, Texarkanna. And how that’s going to fit in with those secondary two-year institutions into this plan. Is that part of it, I guess, is my question? 

Senator Jane English That’s a critical part. I mean, if you just look at all the different organizations that are doing something in workforce, but a lot of it is not aligned. Sometimes people don’t have in some of these SNAP or Medicaid programs where they’re not working or sometimes they are working. They really don’t have access to so many of the things that are out there. We have to figure out how we do a better job of making sure they have access because there’s lots of really good programs. 

And we have now the short-term training Pell grants coming online. We’ve got to figure out how we make sure people have the opportunity to access those things. But sometimes they operate in a smaller world and that information is not available to them. But in order for people to get somewhere ahead, they have to know what all is out there and they have to have help sometimes and handholding to help them get there. 

Representative Carol Dalby For the record, Madam Chair, that was our director of BLR’s phone and not mine that just went off. Madam Chair, thank you. I think that’s such a critical thing and I know each one of us in our areas have a lot of those workforce services so this is really great news. Thank you for allowing me to ask that question.

Senator Jane English And there’s some great stuff going on in the state. We’ve got to figure out what it is and how we  make sure everybody has access to that. 

Representative Carol Dalby Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. 

Representative Mary Bentley Representative Beck. 

Representative Rick Beck Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is, and I’ve participated in a lot of the discussions, but how do we look at approaching this more or less consolidation of programs? It seems like we have, in many cases, we have a program that, at least one of the components of that program is trying to do the exact same thing as six other programs are trying to. 

And is there any, or do you see, any effort or any advantage, I should say, in consolidating those programs and kind of making maybe, instead of six individual programs, maybe there would be two programs that would be larger programs? 

Senator Jane English Are you talking about at the federal level? 

Representative Rick Beck No, I’m talking about the state level. 

Senator Jane English Well, I think that will probably happen. I think one of the things that’s happening at the federal level is I think there are 80 different social service programs. They all do something different. They’re housing or energy or transportation or something, something different. And they all have a different set of rules. 

And the same thing goes for the workforce development programs at the federal level. There are probably 45. And they all go after a certain group of people. But they all have different income guidelines and different ways that people can access it. I think that one of the things that we’re going to find is that at the federal level, they are really looking at combining or doing away with a lot of these programs. 

And in some cases, those may end up being block grant funds to the state. So we would figure out what we want to do with those dollars, rather than– I mean, there’s some guidelines, obviously, but I think they’re looking at consolidating a lot of those workforce programs. I haven’t heard that about the social services programs, but that’s something that Nick Moore can talk about when we have him on Zoom call. 

Representative Rick Beck I look forward to that discussion, but one of the things is, I mean, probably the first thing that happened when we got together was looking at the chart that’s in the back of the manual that shows how different efforts flow, and if that chart doesn’t confuse you–.

Senator Jane English But I think that that chart that you looked at was what are the federal dollars that come into the state now. And pretty much all of that was federal dollars coming into the state. There are a few little things in there that are state funded, but not many.

Representative Mary Bentley I’ll just quickly add to that. When we get that report back from the Center for Opportunity, that’s really going to direct a lot and their recommendations of what we can do to combine workforce. 

Senator Jane English But some of these things are things that have to happen at the federal level. We hopefully will have some voice in that. Let me see, Representative Ennett.

Representative Denise Ennett Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question. I’m not on this committee, so thank you for entertaining it. I’m trying to frame it correctly. I’ve been to several of your meetings and it’s been very informative, but I do notice that in the title it has developmental disabilities. So how much is that taken into place of this study, this report that you have in front of us? 

Senator Jane English I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. What was the group? 

Representative Mary Bentley I can answer that real quick. So Representative Ennett, that is a subtitle of this committee. But this committee right now is working on specific legislation that was passed. And that legislation delegated this specific subcommittee to come up with a report on how we can combine social services with the workforce to do a better job in our state. 

And definitely part of workforce is working with those that are developmentally disabled. So that will definitely be a part of the report that we get back from the Georgia Center of Opportunity. On how they are addressing the needs of those individuals as well. So I encourage you to come to our meeting on the 12th and hear what the report has to say. And I appreciate your input on that. Thank you. 

Senator Jane English What did we have? Oh, do we have another person on here? 

Representative Mary Bentley Representative Ladyman. 

Representative Jack Ladyman Thank you, madam chair. Well, I want to add, Representative Ennett, what she just said, I think we need to have a couple meetings to talk about disability rights. I know y’all haven’t got to that yet, but I think need to look at some subjects there. But this is a great thing to look at. But it’s a pretty big elephant. You know you eat an elephant one bite at a time. 

It’s pretty hard to grasp how big this is, but it seems to me, and I don’t think we have this– if someone knows of this, I’d be interested in knowing what it is. But we have all these different agencies, state agencies, different programs, and there’s not one central place that I’m aware of that an individual out in the community can go to and get routed to the right benefit. 

And I think that’s something that we need like a clearinghouse or a gatekeeper, people that are educated on what services are available, what they are, where the public can have one point of contact and then be routed into these other agencies. I think that’s something that we really, really, really need. And we need to look at individual things. I think one of the best things that’s happened when President Trump put forth, and I think it was in the big bill to not charge income tax on overtime. 

Because that limited the income of a lot of people because they would not work overtime because it put them in a different tax bracket. And that’s just a small example of what’s going on in SNAP and other things. And we need to somehow gradually drop people from these programs rather than just go from 0 from 100 percent to 0. So that’s just my comment. Anybody else want to comment? 

Senator Jane English I think one of our goals really is to find a way to have a central clearinghouse type of thing. Right now, even for social programs, people have to go from one agency to another, sometimes in different locations, and fill out the same paperwork they filled out at the last place. 

But I think we’re working on trying to consolidate all that so that we have one door, and that people can have one place they have to go, whether it’s online or in person, to be able to go and fill out one application and then hopefully have a case manager who is helping them to figure out where they need to be going for the future. 

And hopefully that starts off with, We want to be employed, and what do they have to do to get there. And what are those social services needs that they have? And a lot of people need transportation. 

We assume that everybody has a car and daycare and some other things like that that are really important to help people, not forever, but to keep get them going so that they can be into the world of making a substantial wage, enough to take care of themselves and their families and that they don’t need it anymore. It’s the same way with SNAP and Medicaid. We ought to be able to help people move for a short term on those programs but then move on to something else. 

Representative Jack Ladyman Yeah, one other comment. You know, when I look through this, there’ll be one thing for a federal program and right next to it is a state program. And then you flip back and forth. So what mechanism do we have– I don’t think we communicate from state to federal groups. 

How do we communicate with our federal representatives and senators with this, the state representatives and senators to know what’s going on at each level so that we can work together? I don’t think we have a really good mechanism for that. That’s just my opinion. But if they’re working on something in SNAP, we need to know the workings of that, not just what is published in the paper, what comes out of that. I think we need to try to develop communication that way. 

Senator Jane English Hopefully we’ll be able to do that. 

Representative Mary Bentley And Senator English and I did go to see Senator Boozman’s office and visit with his staff while we were there in DC to make sure they knew what we were doing and asked what they were doing on that front. But if we get this legislation ready and we need a waiver or something, they’re going to be essential to help us get that waiver through so we can move things forward for Arkansas. 

But I agree with you 100% on that. But when we’re looking at benefit cliffs as you were talking about, we don’t need people just to get dropped automatically. There’s definitely work on, What can we do to make it a gradual slope so that people are encouraged to stay working and to get a raise if they’re open for a raise? 

But also when we look at things, it’s so convoluted in so many forms and so much happening. We’re trying to see what we can do to consolidate some of these, like for daycare. So if a mom is late on a form, and all of the sudden that she’s lost her daycare. And so she’s got to get to the bottom of the waiver thing and then she can’t get the daycare that she had. 

So there’s a lot that we can work on to make things simpler and easier and to do it online where they can, to have a case manager to help them. So that’s really the main focus of this committee as we move forward. And it’s a big, big project, yes. But I think if we get steady and get working on it, we can have it ready for the 2027 session. 

Senator Jane English Representative Rye. 

Representative Johnny Rye Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Chairman. Ms. Chairman, this is something for the last couple of weeks has really buried on my mind, and it’s about this benefit cliff. And this is what I wonder about this. 

Let’s just say that you’ve got an average family that’s making $30,000 a year, and they’re getting all the benefits. And then they come up, and they make maybe $2,000 or $3,000 more a year. Well, they cut back on some of the programs. I just wonder if there’s some way that we could move up the minimum so that these folks actually could live better, but at the same time, they would have money that they’re making extra money by working that they could spend in their community. And it would make their community thrive better. It’s just something I want to throw out there. 

Senator Jane English I think that’s something that we’re all looking at and concerned with. That’s pretty much the heart of our whole system is with the benefit cliffs. And there’s some things that the state can do. There’s something that the federal government can do. And some of these programs have these very strict rules about who can and who cannot access these services. So, I think that’s something that we will probably have a group of folks sitting together and meeting on what can we do, what options do we have as a state, and that will be part of our recommendations for legislation. 

Representative Johnny Rye You know, let me do a little follow up with you, please, ma’am. You know, Miss English, this could be something that would actually produce a better outcome inside of an area. And I really, like I say, I hope we look at that. Because I believe that there’s a chance that we could help our folks at the same time we could help our communities and make better people out of the people that’s having to use SNAP. 

Senator Jane English We agree. 

Representative Johnny Rye Yes ma’am. Thank you, ma’am. 

Senator Jane English Further questions? Do you have anything further?

Representative Mary Bentley  I appreciate everybody coming today. And again, we just really wanted to get you prepared for our meeting on the 12th. I think it will be very effective if you can take some time to read through these two reports. 

Again, you can pull them up online from today’s reports, easily pull them and read them and be ready for our questions. And we’ll have ample opportunity to ask questions on the 12th with folks that come here and give our report on workforce. So I appreciate everybody coming today. And I hope you all have a great Christmas. 

Senator Jane English Thank you very much. Have a Merry Christmas.