Sen. Jonathan Dismang (center), R-Searcy, presents a bill to the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. To the left of Dismang is James Welborn, Assistant Vice President of Pharmacy Services at St. Bernards Healthcare in Jonesboro. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
Arkansas lawmakers continued to ease into their work during the second week of the 2025 legislative session.
State offices were closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Some of Arkansas’ elected officials took advantage of the break to travel to Washington for inauguration festivities, including Rep. Mindy McAlindon, R-Centerton, Attorney General Tim Griffin and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Sanders, who served as President Donald Trump’s press secretary from 2017 to 2019, delivered a speech at an event following the inauguration Monday.
“The wait is over, we now have a fighter back at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and I could not be more excited,” she said.
1) Bill revisions
On Tuesday, Arkansas lawmakers returned to the state Capitol in Little Rock where some committees continued hosting organizational meetings while others began considering bills. This early in the session, lawmakers are more likely to receive lots of questions from colleagues and pull a bill for revisions.
This was the case in the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday where Rep. Chad Puryer, R-Hindsville, pulled his bill to regulate liability for youth shooting events after committee members raised concerns about the bill’s necessity, a lack of recourse for possible victims, vagueness regarding for-profit or nonprofit shooting ranges and “youth” being omitted from the proposal.
Other bills that were pulled for edits include a bill to provide a free lifetime hunting and fishing license to a commercial truck driver who provides information related to human trafficking, a bill to create a joint committee on military and veterans affairs and a bill that would require public schools to teach the “perils of communism and autocratic governments” and reinforce the United States’ successful model as a constitutional republic.
2) Hospital pharmacies
Among the handful of bills that received a vote by a committee this week, the only one to fail was Senate Bill 58, which the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee narrowly defeated Wednesday. Sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, the proposed law would have allowed nonprofit hospitals to hold a retail pharmacy permit.
Arkansas is the only state that prohibits nonprofit, tax-exempt or government-funded hospitals from holding or acquiring interest in retail pharmacies.
Supporters of the legislation said it would improve patients’ access to medication because hospital pharmacies, which can be open 24/7, have access to specialized drugs that might be too expensive for independent pharmacies to stock. Opponents argued rural pharmacies struggling financially could be forced to shutter due to competition from hospitals’ in-house pharmacies.
Bills in eight-member committees need five affirmative votes to pass. Four senators voted for the bill and three voted against it. Sen. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, did not vote. Failed bills can be reworked and brought back to committee, but Dismang said he did not intend to amend his bill.
3) Child abuse
Shortly after an appeals court heard arguments Wednesday morning in a case challenging the legislature’s authority to revive old child sexual abuse cases, Sen. Dave Wallace, R-Leachville, introduced a bill to protect funds allocated to victims.
Senate Bill 13, which received approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, would protect nationally allocated funds for more than 500 victims of child abuse in Arkansas.
Wallace was the sponsor of a 2021 bill that allowed adult survivors of child sexual abuse to take action against a perpetrator until they were 55 years old. It also removed the statute of limitations for those cases and allowed adult survivors to take civil action during a two-year window.
The law was amended in 2023 to remove the age limit and move the deadline to file claims through February 2026. Whether state lawmakers have the authority to remove that statute of limitations is being considered by the Arkansas Court of Appeals.
The full Senate approved SB 13 on Thursday, and it now heads to a House committee.
4) New bills
Arkansas lawmakers continued filing dozens of new bills this week including:
House Bill 1180 by Rep. Mary Bentley would require public schools to incorporate “a human growth and development discussion” into an existing health and safety course beginning no later than fifth grade. The discussion must include a high-definition ultrasound and a video from Live Action, an anti-abortion nonprofit, that depicts fertilization and stages of in-utero development. Sex education is not required in Arkansas.
House Bill 1190 by Rep. DeAnn Vaught, R-Horatio, would create an income tax credit for public school teachers on the first $50,000 of their wages. Lawmakers increased the state’s minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000 in 2023.
Senate Bill 84 by Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, would prohibit a moratorium on the issuance of permits in watersheds and other bodies of water. The bill notes that a moratorium that exists in the Buffalo River Watershed would not be enforceable after the effective date of the act.
Senate Bill 91 by Sen. Clint Penzo, R-Springdale, would prevent local governments from regulating the amount charged for a rental application fee or rental deposit for a private residential or commercial property.
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