A state representative will bring back his previously failed bill to consider separating observance of Martin Luther King Day and Robert E. Lee's birthday before a House committee next week.
Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, asked the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday to move House Bill 1113 back to the active list and consider it at a special meeting at 10 a.m. Feb. 11 in room 151 of the state Capitol.
Rep. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, was scheduled to run House Bill 1119, a bill to eliminate the celebration of Robert E. Lee's birthday, before the committee Wednesday but did not.
Bell said he didn't want to "presume anything" about why Love chose not to present his bill, but did say that the two representatives are "working together to achieve our goal" to separate the holiday into two.
Bell also said he didn't want to make any assumptions about if his bill would pass the committee next week.
"We had the count last time to pass [HB1113]," Bell said. "Things change on a dime down here."
Love presented Bell's bill last week to the committee, where several people spoke against the bill and it failed to pass the committee.
HB1113 would remove the Lee observance from the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on the third Monday of January. It would create a Southern Heritage Day that would celebrate Lee and Patrick Cleburne, a Confederate general who lived in Helena-West Helena.
