Correction: State Sen. Bart Hester is a Cave Springs Republican. His hometown was incorrect in this story about his bill to prevent local governments from passing anti-discrimination laws.
A House bill to let professors carry guns on campus was defeated in committee Thursday while a Senate bill that would prevent cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination laws sailed through its committee hearing.
The House also approved several bills, including one that would require computer-science courses in all public high schools and another that would prevent a state board from regulating yoga instruction.
The Senate also passed legislation Thursday.
In the House Education Committee, Democrats shot down a bill that would have allowed public college faculty and staff members with concealed-carry permits to carry weapons on campus.
Current law lets officials at each school set their own gun policy. All of the state's public colleges and universities bar them.
The sponsor of House Bill 1077, Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, invoked the massacres at Columbine High School in Colorado, Santa Monica College in California, and Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., arguing that his legislation might help prevent a similar tragedy in Arkansas.
Collins said that the types of attackers who engage in mass shootings look for target-rich environments that are gun-free so they know they will not encounter another person with a gun.
HB1077, he said, might "deter some of these individuals from coming to our college campuses and murdering our loved ones," Collins asked.
On Thursday, several legislators questioned whether more guns would mean less violence.
Rep. Mark McElroy, D-Tillar, is a conceal-and-carry permit holder and a self-professed gun lover, but he questioned whether the state ought to decree that the autonomous campuses be required to let faculty and staff members take weapons on campus against their wishes. He also mused that the legislation could be just one step closer to having weapons everywhere, including the state Capitol.
"When do we start overreaching our authority and start dictating rather than having a democracy?" he said.
Additional resistance came from a group of college students.
Ezra Smith, a junior at the University of Arkansas, told lawmakers the bill was "unworkable."
"A six-hour weekend [conceal and carry] course does not train you to properly defend students or people," Smith said. "You are more likely to hit me than the active shooter."
Joel Anderson, the chancellor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said he wouldn't feel comfortable having a confrontational meeting with an employee if he knew that employee could be armed.
The vote was split 10-10, the committee's Republicans supporting Collins while the 10 Democrats voted against the legislation.
In other business, the Senate City, County and Local Affairs Committee voted 4-2 to pass legislation that would prevent local governments from passing anti-discrimination laws.
Senate Bill 202, sponsored by Bart Hester, R-Cave City, is expected to make it to the Senate floor next week. Hester said it ensures that "businesses, organizations and employers in the state are subject to uniform nondiscrimination laws."
Under the bill, a county, municipality or other political subdivision "shall not adopt or enforce an ordinance, resolution, rule or policy that creates a protected classification or prohibits discrimination on a basis not contained in state law."
The bill comes just a few months after Fayetteville's City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identification or sexual orientation. Fayetteville voters repealed the measure Dec. 9.
Hester argued that the Fayetteville measure was a burden on businesses.
"The bill I think we're talking about that ran in Fayetteville, seeks to take rights away from people and we have a responsibility as a state to protect everyone's rights."
Mark Hayes, chief legal counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League, said the league has not taken an official stance on the legislation yet. But as a lawyer, he said he had some issues with the language.
If Hester's legislation passes, the state would be inviting a legal challenge.
"Regardless of your feelings on the Fayetteville circumstance, the law is dramatically broader than just dealing with that issue... and it will inhibit -- absolutely inhibit -- just daily work," he said.
Asked by other members to delay the vote, Hester said no.
"I'm not here to represent the municipalities or the counties, I'm here to represent the people," he said.
Also Thursday, the Senate voted 31-0 to approve SB4 which calls for giving terminally-ill patients access to experimental drugs.
"This will be a living-savings measure. Some people could access things that they haven't accessed to previously," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. John Cooper, R-Jonesboro.
In other action, the Senate voted to hold the election for the next Senate president pro tempore in 2017 and 2018 at the end of next year's fiscal session instead of doing it at the end of this year's regular session. For most of Arkansas history, lawmakers were scheduled to meet only every other year in regular sessions. Now that there are yearly sessions, lawmakers wanted the election to be closer to the end of the General Assembly's two-year term.
On the House floor Thursday, members approved three measures that will make their way to Senate committees next week. House Bill 1132, sponsored by Rep. Monte Hodges, D-Blytheville, gives additional recycling tax credits for owners of a company if an Arkansas public retirement system is an owner.
Several members raised concerns about whether the bill was favoritism, but it cleared the House by a vote of 84-8.
The House also passed a revised House Bill 1072, sponsored by Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, which repeals the state's current treatment assessment for companies that provide children's behavioral health services.
Providers, including Sullivan, who is the chief executive officer of Ascent Children's Health Services, have complained that the current assessment is expensive and reveals little about overall treatment. Under the amended bill, the Department of Human Services will have until Sept. 30 to approve a suitable replacement measure.
Members also backed a bill that starts the ball rolling on the governor's plan to require high schools to provide at least one computer-science course starting in the 2015-16 school year.
Under House Bill 1183, sponsored by Rep. Bill Gossage, R-Ozark, the computer-science course would have to meet the state Board of Education curriculum standards and requirements, and be made available in "a traditional classroom setting, blended learning environment, online-based format that is tailored to meet the needs of each participating school." The bill would also create the computer-science and technology task force.
Members also approved several Senate bills headed to the governor's desk, including SB30, sponsored by Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, to decrease the number of professional development days required for teachers and SB94, sponsored by Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, which would bar the state Board of Private Career Education from regulating yoga and other instructor-training programs.
The House also passed more than a dozen appropriation bills to fund various commissions and agencies including the state Ethics Commission and the Governor's Mansion Commission.
A section on 02/06/2015