Arkansas lawmakers on Wednesday, the unofficial final day of the 2019 regular session, passed legislation that supporters said was simple housekeeping, but some public-health advocates cautioned contained significant tobacco-policy changes.
House Bill 1980 by Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, "cleans up" the law outlining the Arkansas Tobacco Control agency's duties and powers, according to the bill's sponsors, removing obsolete language and streamlining some administrative processes.
American Cancer Society officials, though, raised concerns about the stripping of some of the agency's regulatory control over e-cigarettes and vaping products and retailers.
Michael Keck, a government relations director for the Arkansas chapter of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said during a Wednesday morning meeting of the Senate Committee on City, County and Local Affairs that one of his organization's chief issues with the bill was the repeal of a provision that gave Arkansas Tobacco Control the authority to regulate safety and hygiene standards when e-liquids or alternative nicotine products are mixed, including with child-resistant packaging standards and workplace safety and cleanliness rules.
Steve Goode, the director of the Arkansas Tobacco Control, said those responsibilities were out of place under a law enforcement agency such as Arkansas Tobacco Control, adding they'd fit better under the Arkansas Department of Health. He said his agency wasn't required under the law to implement those regulations and indeed hadn't.
[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]
Don Adams, the Health Department's director for local public health, said through a spokesman on Wednesday that the Health Department didn't have the authority to regulate e-cigarette companies and retailers.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, said the bill was drawing attention to the fact that those regulations have not been implemented, opening an opportunity for it to be addressed in a more effective way.
"That's a good thing except for the fact that the something that needs to be done is not addressed," Keck responded.
Hendren said it was too late in this session to make those changes. (The Legislature recessed Wednesday. The current plan is to reconvene April 24 to make bill corrections as needed and then adjourn for good.)
Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, said he would be willing to address those concerns in a future legislative session.
Davis told the committee that the 52-page bill was introduced late in the session because it was contingent upon several developments that could've affected how the bill should be structured.
The bill received unanimous support in the Senate committee Wednesday morning, and the full Senate suspended its rules to pass the bill 31-1 with two members not voting and one voting present. It had already passed in the House, and it now heads to Gov. Asa Hutchinson to be signed into law.
Rapert said he wished concerns about the bill had been brought sooner, and he said some were "red herrings." He assured senators that the legislation did indeed come from Arkansas Tobacco Control.
"We just want to put the agency in the best position possible to carry out their duties," Rapert said.
A Section on 04/11/2019