Research closer on youth offenders
A pair of bills meant to allow the release of privileged data on youth offenders to researchers passed both chambers Friday.
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House Bill 1013 and Senate Bill 8 would allow the Department of Human Services' Youth Services Division the discretion to share juvenile records with people or groups performing juvenile justice-related work if the division officials feel comfortable with the researchers.
Current state law prohibits the disclosure of such information.
The House version, sponsored by Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, passed 86-2. The Senate version, sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, passed 32-0.
Votes back '21 end of Arkansas Works
Lawmakers approved parallel bills that will clarify the end date for the state's Medicaid expansion program.
Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 1003 would reassert that the state's recently approved and funded program, Arkansas Works, will expire at the end of 2021.
To secure votes for funding the expanded Medicaid program -- which uses Medicaid funds to buy insurance coverage for poorer Arkansans on a federally run exchange -- legislators amended its funding with a measure setting the program's expiration date at the end of this year.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson then used a line-item veto to strike the section that would have effectively ended the program. The 2021 "sunset" was on the original bill.
The purpose of putting it the 2021 date back in, supporters said, was to protect Arkansas Works even if Hutchinson's line-item veto is invalidated in a court challenge.
The Senate version passed 24-10, and the House version passed 68-25.
Legislators OK hold on schools' A's, F's
Moves to halt giving assessment grades to schools because of changes in state testing were approved in both chambers Friday.
State public schools switched over to the new ACT Aspire tests for the 2015-16 school year. The tests are used in assessing schools' A-F letter grades as well as qualifying them for being certified as "academically distressed."
The Senate version passed 33-1, and the bill in the House passed 86-7.
Bills on filling slots on levee boards fly
Bills that would give local government the ability to fill vacancies on local levee boards and require they ultimately report to state officials moved through both chambers Friday.
Prompted by the poor conditions of many levees across the state, lawmakers set down a process by which county judges can reconstitute levee boards that have gone defunct over the years.
The legislation -- pushed by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, and backed by Arkansas counties as well as the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission -- would allow the commission to gather information on local levees.
Currently, state officials are barred from having any oversight on the locally controlled levees.
Rapert and state officials call the legislation a "first step" in what could be a long-term, expensive effort to stabilize the state's levee system.
Both versions passed unanimously.
Sexual-indecency law's fix passes
The fix to the statute on felony sexual indecency with a child moved through the Legislature on Friday with no opposition.
The bills were crafted after a recent Arkansas Supreme Court decision led to charges being dropped against a man accused of forcing a teenage girl to undress and pose in front of him. The court ruled that the statute, as written, could not be applied to a parent or guardian and could only be enforced if the teen or child was exposed to a third party.
Senate Bill 4, sponsored by Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, passed 35-0. Its counterpart in the House, House Bill 1011, from Rep. Matt Shepherd, R-El Dorado, passed 96-0.
State disability fund nears its abolition
The end of the state's Death and Total Disability Fund is closer after two versions of a bill aimed at shifting the onus of paying claims to businesses and insurers passed easily Friday.
Right now, claimants for work-related deaths or total disabilities get their first $204,000 in claims directly from businesses or their insurers. The rest is then paid out through the state's fund, which is supported by taxes paid by businesses on their insurance plans.
After June 2019, the state will no longer fund new claims.
The Senate measure, Senate Bill 13, passed unanimously. House Bill 1010 passed with a 95-1 vote.
Security licensing's easing sails through
The Legislature approved bills that would ease restrictions on licenses for security guards or security professionals, some of whom lost licenses over decades-old misdemeanor crimes.
The Senate passed Senate Bill 6 on a 35-0 vote. The House passed House Bill 1004 on a 96-0 vote.
The bill gives applicants a chance to get a license if past misdemeanor convictions occurred 10 or more years before the date of their application.
A Section on 05/21/2016